"Aah!" She screamed as she shot up from the straw bed and grasped her chest. "Aa... mm... ah..." she cried and screamed as hot tears rolled down her cheeks. She pressed her chest and gasped without producing any single sound.
She held the wooden wall and drove her fingers into the wood tearing both her hands and the wood apart. She tensed as her face lit bright red with blood and cursed everything in her mind.
Her heart felt like it was being torn apart. Like something drove nails into it and was presently ripping it apart.
The wood tore at her finger and blood dripped out but she kept on tearing it apart without moving not even her feet.
She was stuck in place gaping like a fish in water shot in slow motion. But her eyes told of the immense pain she was in.
So did her swelling neck and veins. She took a shott look at herself and saw the judges sword right in her chest. Birning her to cinders and tearing her insides.
"Ellie!" Her sister rushed into the room, dropping her basket of vegetables to the ground and tended to her sixteen year old little sister. She hugged her but Ellie kept on hummering her chest like she wanted to rip open her chest and look at her heart. Or look at something inside.
She held her hands but her younger sister proved to be a bit more powerful than she was. She dragged her with every punch she hummered at her chest. But she at least prevented her sister from hammering her chest open.
She kept on doing so for what felt like hours.
Tired and exhausted, she left her younger sister cry as she ran outside to get the milk of Night from the flower of night she grew because of her and went back into the house.
When she came back, her sister was still in pain as if she was going through labour. But the way she was, she doubted her sister would ever have kids or even see men with love in her eyes.
Illyra threw the tears as raw as they were into her mouth as she gaped and held her hands. Until the tears dissolved and knocked her sister out. When her sister fell asleep, with tears still rolling out of her eyes like rivers out of a mountain, she put her in bed and wiped her tears.
She went to the kitchen to start her cooking. She cut the vegetables, started a fire and put soup to the boil. As she stired the soup, she heard her sister again, crying and telling someone sorry. Soory to someone she called her baby as she hugged her stomach.
Sorry that she couldn't protect her. Sorry that she couldn't protect her father and that she was going to grow up knowing neither her nor her dad. Sorry she promised her she was going to raise her away from the pain of the world, away from both the city and the fights. Just somewhere peaceful. Somewhere they would live happily and safely. She said sorry she didn't live up to that promise and someone took her.
As she watched her, the memory she long wanted to forget crossed her mind. Her mother, the queen of Irandum holding Ellie fifteen years ago and promising to leave with with and raise her away from this place. Away from their fathers grip.
She was young then and scared her mother would run away or their father would kill Ellie because she was different.
They always fought about her. Ellipse was different. Her skin tone was lighter than everyone in Irandum. Her hair was white. Completely white woth no trace of blackness in them and her eyes were different.
Black lime everyone here but no one had silver rings in their eyes here. But she did.
Her father used to say her mother slept with a monster but her mother refuted the idea and said that she had only known her husband no one else.
She wiped her tears once more and kissed her forehead. Like their mother always did everytime Ellie had a bad dream.
But now, their mother was gone. Ellie was the just the second child no one cared about and she was always crying. Kids didn't want to play with her because she wasn't like them.
They bullied and beat her everyday and she just kept quiet and never had she once cried when she was hurt, or bleeding, or bullied. She just smiled like a fool and said it was her fault for being born.
But it wasn't. Everybody knew that. But she didn't. That was why her mere existence broke her heart. She shared all of her things. Never lied, never acted up nor stole. Nor beat anyone. But she just took everything in and cried in her sleep.
Even when their mother was killed in battle. She just looked at her copse, smiled and promised to meet her in the afterlife.
That had scared her the most for the past three years that even when she was about to be married, she threw away her marriage and kept an eye on her sister.
But of course Ellipse was Ellipse. She said the odd things like she was not going to die until she completed the task she was given to. The things she had been saying since she was a child.
She went back to her pot and prepared the porridge as their father, Chief Quigley of Irandum walked in with the blacksmith Dalton and his righthand man, General Bristol talking about war that was brewing between Arga and the Elves of Randall. Accompanying them silently was Bristols twenty three year old son, Darrel.
"Lyra?" He called in as he sat down int the meeting room. "Bring us something to eat."
"I just put it on the fire." She responded wiping her hands dry with her apron.
"Dont you have it ready by this time?" He asked as she walked out of the huge kitchen.
"Something kept me from doing it chief, can we talk for a minite in the kitchen?"
"Can't it wait?" He asked. "I have to talk to Bristol about an emergency down the hill."
"No, it can't. Its about your daughter." She said standing firm at the door. "No food or drink until we can talk."
The chief as he heard this grew instantly afraid of his life. But ho's mates just laughed at him. Darrel smiled at her with stars in his eyes but she didn't flinch not even a bit.
"What is she still awake? Ellipse! Ellipse! Wake up it midday already!" She shouted her name but i stantly knew he was mistaken as his first born growled at him.
"Don't! She's resting! Get in here."
"She really is her mother's feisty!" Bristol commented and the chief growled, "yeah, but i loved it in her mothers, i just wish she wpuld be a bit more like me. Humble."
He hugged his ears and pressed his tail between his legs. The queen of this house was about to speak and he weren't going to speak. Who the heck said a woman was the master of the house and queen of the house?
Now his daughter here was goibg to talk to him like he's a child.