Winter's Heart- vol 1&2 (When hope is found)

The storm was wild, hitting her skin like burning coals of fire, it seemed the sun became her enemy and the wind her tormentor. she knew she needed to get somewhere safe to take shelter, but the pain was to much for her to bear, she knew it was coming and at any hour she would give in. Although she was happy she had thrown off her back the people who were after her life and the life she was about to give. Never in her life had she felt so helpless before, but she had to find shelter and most of all safety. She entered the forest of Oreb to lose her hunters and now she she will be hunted for in this forest by shadows. Aryan felt weaker every passing minutes and would support herself with every tree she came across, she didn't know why the King's men where after her unborn child, of what importance was she?, as far as she knew she was nobody. She kept going, enduring the harsh weather and stopped abruptly when she heard noises like growls ahead of her, now these were not just only heard to be noises, they were ugly ones. She hid behind a wide tree as the noise got closer, she wasn't able to see clearly due to the storm. Aryan waited behind the tree and awaited what was coming or passing her way and also her soon to be fate if it saw her.
Aryan eyes grew wide open when the figure was visible due to the fact that it was closer now and the sight of it made her body tremble. She covered her mouth, if she made the slightest noise she would die for sure. One thing she learnt back home was, demons felt fear and they would feed on it at the slightest scent of it. But no she just couldn't calm down she feared just too much for the life she carried. The creature seemed to be aware of a presence and he smelled her fear and traced it, it advanced for the tree. Aryan felt it, and began running in the opposite direction, the creature not far behind, chased her into the darkness of the forest. She suddenly stumbled upon a stone and fell hard to the ground, she felt the Sharp pain that went down her thighs to her feets, tears rolling down her eyes, she managed to stand up but In grave pain. The creature halted, it's expression unreadable, Aryan was now face to face with it. It began to advance slowly.
" NO! " Aryan shouted at the top of her voice. The creature paused for a while and hollered back. " Noo " she screamed this time when it looked down to her swollen stomach.
" It's my child" She shouted understanding the creature was well pleased with what he was about have for dinner. This time the creature swept fast towards her and was suddenly frozen to a statue. Aryan froze on the spot, confused, unaware of what happened, she started running, whatever did that was near and she wouldn't want to come in contact with it, she ran as fast as her leg could carry her. She only slowed down when she had ran a good distance.
After she managed to walked for a while, she noticed ahead of her was a cave beneath the dark mountain, she was now at the mountain of Oreb, she didn't want to think twice of the dangers that lied in the cave, it was time to bring her child into the world, she knew it was time. Aryan got into the cave and fell down to the cave floors, she tore her dress and spread her legs wide open, her water had broken already. she summoned strength to push hard as her contractions came and bit her wrist so as not to shout due to the terrible pain. She took a deep breath again and pushed harder, she felt her baby's head gradually coming out already so she kept pushing, she put her hand beneath her legs to support her child's head and gave one final push and it came out.
Aryan began to sob, she stared at her daughter, she was beautiful. With tears running down her face, she kissed her daughter's forehead then rested her head on the cave wall, feeling the life drain from her body and gave up to the darkness.

*****
The dark figure lingered in the shadows of the cave aware of an intruding presence, It came to where Aryan's cold body lay with the child crying helplessly in her arms. Its eyes lit as fierce as fire in the dark . the figure reached down, used its claws to cut the cord binding mother and child. She picked the baby and disappeared deep into the cave with Aryan's daughter.

******



Winter played around in the snow happily she would lay on it, making snow angels and would laugh at it, while Poa would try hard to snap her out of it knowing full well, that if mother saw her, she would be scolded for it.
" Don't worry Poa mother won't catch us" she said dancing around trying to catch Poa who avoided her hands. Poa was a gift from her mother years back and she loved him. To her, it was cuter than how it would look in years to come. She loved him much and spent much time with it. Mother got furious most time seeing her playing like that with it. She gifted it to her for protection, and also for familiarity for when it got bigger in years to come, it was meant to be a protector and not a play beast , so Mother would lock him up when Winter misbehaved for days without food or water. Winter thought of it as unreasonable and would assure her mother most times that she wasn't weak, unaware of what was to come and the dangers that lied outside the borders of Oreb. Mother would Change that because there were darker days ahead and she would be hunted down when discovered.

***** ANTANA'S POV *****
I know she iss strong, but I wouldn't give her away to the brutality of those mortals who would seek for her life. The forest iss no longer getting safe by the passing year, they invade our land and kill my people finding different means to kill them. Winter doesn't know what lies ahead, she cannot let emotions cloud her judgement. she was born to rule and not to be hunted for. She's mine and I won't let her be snatched away by those useless mortal beings. I stare at her while she played, she looked so happy. It brought a smile to my lips, but I waved it the second later.
" Winter " I called out to her, she turned, shocked to see me. She knew what awaited Poa. I kept wondering if she learned from the punishment or she simply didn't want to listen. " Let's go home". I said calmly this time, she came to me and held my hands and we walked back to the cave not saying anything to each other, Poa following behind. I must prepare her for what's going to come.