My soul awakes as the scorching glimmer of the sun flashes my eyes to see the way it sweeps through my windows melted with purple vines I once took at Marren Eve's garden. Smoothly, I stretch my arms out and release a heaven's calling yawn, eyes slightly carrying tears.
Another day to thank the Gods and Goddesses that I wake to breathe and well.
I seize a glance at my window to see the stunning eagles flying in the neat air to deliver letters. Oh, to be an eagle. Not that I want to become one though. I admire how they spread out their wings and fly freely, crashing their heads and beaks to the open-air thinking merely about to fly higher and nothing more. Composing my strange thoughts, I shake my head lightly. What a ludicrous way to initiate the day.
I rise from my bed and stride slowly to my wooden table. Before I could pull a chair and sit on it, in a quick beat, a sluggish object slams my back. I turn swiftly to see a collapsed little eagle on the floor. "Are you alright?" I murmured.
While forcing an attempt to lift the eagle, I notice a letter coated with the hue of gold and wrapped with a silver ribbon swinging on the little eagle's neck.
"This one is for you. I apologize for the horrible landing." There is a hint of humiliation in its voice. I reckon the little eagle may be new to flying and foreign to fulfilling duties considering its size. I try to ignore the trivial entities about it when I perceive its gleaming blue stares. Gorgeous colors. My heart begins to flutter when its feathers shift into soft, fringed plumes that cover its whole body. As smooth as the kingdom's most elegant and rare satin. As white as the snow. I am confused about the way it just changes yet I am still delighted that such a creature exists.
A dove.
"Who sent you?" I ask.
I pull the letter from the dove's delicate neck. Flipping it for the fifth time and searching the letter's very nooks, there is neither a name of the messenger nor his or her words of the character. I glance at the dove once again, only to realize there is no longer a dove to glance at. It faded like a cloud of smoke, unseen. It is nothing now but memory being fused in my mind.
The letter is heavily scented with roses despite how it breathes with masked pigments of dandelions. I trail my fingers on it; it may look soft but the texture is rough. How odd. I gently loosen the silver ribbon and urges to read the letter's content.
The moment I start to unfold the paper, an intense shrill scatters around the wide cabin, making my heartbeat pump in an unsteady rhythm. I pull one of my drawers queasily and drop the letter inside. My right and left feet are taking turns as I descend the ladder from my room to the kitchen.
Our cabin was created with oak and built around an enormous tree. There are four layers of the cabin. From the underside is our living room climbing up to the stairs from the living room is our mother's room. The upper left side of my mother's room is the not quite big kitchen which walls are made of birch trees. There is a long single ladder attached to the tree to give us access to the underground and the other parts of the cabin. Lastly, the most top portion of the tree is a big room split into two: my room and Analice's.
In the kitchen, I glimpse Analice accompanying our mother. Across them stands Mosa, our village's healer. Her eyes scream nothing but an ocean of concern.
"Mother! Are you okay?" My sister pulled our mother's shoulders and wiggle them off but she only answers with a nod. She can hardly speak as if she is out of breath.
I see our mother lying on the kitchen chair, her hands, mouth, and body shivers. There are sliced tomatoes on the chopping board and the stove, I presume was abruptly turned off. She was cooking breakfast.
"What are you looking at? Mother is behaving unusually. Go obtain some herbs to help her!" Analice sobs.
"How did this happen? Can you not heal her?" I mutter and take a glance at Mosa.
"She was poisoned, Rowerie. I can't identify the fluid that has poisoned her. Look," Mosa points at mother's throat. "Purple sparkling orbs are moving on her skin."
"What does it mean?" Analice asks as her tears fall on her cheeks. I turn to Mosa again, waiting for further explanation.
"It means that the poison is made out of ancient elements that only the most powerful can obtain. You must retrieve the herbs at Marren Eve's garden. Only she knows how poison functions. Ask her. That is the only way to save your mother."
I head back to my room, feeling vaguely uneasy. I prepare my things for a trip to Marren Eve's garden. I pick up the dagger that is placed on the top of my wooden table. Sharp and perfect.
I walk towards my closet and find nothing meticulous for the trip. Instead, I run to Analice's wardrobe and found a stomacher of leafy green, with outlines of grand curves and crossed-stitch patterns and pants of black velvet. I take off my sleeping gown, leaving it on the floor. I grab Analice's garments and wore them quickly. I also bring my saved silvers with me and put them inside my pocket.
I am all set to go.
"How did this happen?" Poor mother. Her eyebrows are wrinkled but she managed to fall asleep on my sister's lap. I pray to the heavens and galaxies that I will make it on time and heal her.
"I don't know, Rowerie. When I woke up, I heard a loud commotion below and the idea of mother collapsing like this never came into my mind. I tried everything to heal her but everything is pointless." Analice looks at the most beautiful angel sleeping on her lap and wipes our mother's forehead with the back of her hand and tucks a lock of her waist-length brown hazel hair behind her ear. "Mother, you will be all right. I promise." She mumbles.
"I shall take my leave, Analice. Let her rest in her room." I pat her head before I lean a little to kiss my mother's cheek. "I'll be back, mother."
"Rowerie, you must hurry. If you won't make it the day after tomorrow, the poison will spread out on her whole body and she will die." Mosa holds an object covered with white cloth and hands it to me. "Here, take this. I put some fruits, sweet butter, and cakes flavored with saffron. You must not starve, understand?"
I nod. Mosa is like our second mother. Ever since Analice and I were kids, she always heals us whenever we trip or wound our skins or when there are painful bruises on our bodies. She feeds us with pleasing foods. She looks after us whenever our mother goes out of the village and Mosa doesn't ask for a bribe.
"Thank you for everything, Mosa. I will be right back, I promise."
Stepping outside the kitchen room, I cast a spell to summon my holy hound to escort me on my voyage to Marren Eve's garden.
A white holy hound appears in front of me, howling for a minute. He tilts his head and plays with his tongue. Right, our mother will be all right as long as I am fine and obtain those herbs. Without my notice, the edges of my lips form a light curve. This holy hound never fails to make me smile in the middle of our family's catastrophe.
"Let's go, Hugo." I watch him lean his body down on the wooden floor to let me climb in his body. Hugo has been with me since I was a mere child who knows nothing about the world. He is my beloved best friend and my most favorite ride.
"Where are we heading?" He asks merrily.
I take a deep breath, trying not to look woeful about my mother's condition. I have to be strong for my mother. For Analice. For everyone.
"Marren Eve's."
The air hits my face heartily as if it had been missing me for a long time. It plays my subtle glossy and as dark as the night silky hair. I took few strands and tie them with a red ribbon.
People in the Kingdom of Faebeck's Pine live in a treehouse, like us. I see little children leaping on the lily pods with the green mossy frogs. Their giggles are perfect melodies that a great kingdom needs.
The butterflies flicker their wings when we pass by through the Yellowseed Alley. "Two more villages and we'll arrive at Marren Eve's garden," I whisper. Every cove of the Yellowseed is very magnificent. It exists in a high lying area unlike Humskit, our village. The sturdy and tranquil summer breeze is the tone and wondrous aura that most of our people desire.
In a brief, Hugo stops.
I quickly think there is a dead-end but I see a fae guardian below and raises his hands that serve as an indication for us to halt. "I fear you can no longer pass through, fair lady and holy hound." He speaks, full of authorization. The man is formally clothed in a rich burgundy coat with golden fringe and brown sleeves. His metal belt's luminosity scarcely blinded my sight. He is a bit old that his hair is alternately colored with light brown and whites.
"That is absurd. This is not the first time that I take a trip. We need to head to Marren Eve's garden and as far as I can recall, the king never formulated such ordinance to forbid us from passing through Yellowseed." At the sound of my voice, a tall man's silhouette clasps my attention across the protector's house making its way closer to us. I hear the fae guardian mumbles but I lock my sights into that eerie silhouette.
"Who could that be?" I murmur subconsciously.
"Folk of Humskit, are you listening to me?" His voice echoes my mount of thoughts and shatters my gaze from the silhouette. I try to look at the silhouette again but it's gone.
"Can you just let us pass through? I'm not going to waste my time here any further." Pleading is what I loathe vastly but I have to do what I have to do. To save mother.
"I can't let you. There is a huge festivity hosted by the royal family. I assume you already know the rules about festivals of the royal family." He tells and his eyes landed on Hugo. "You should take a different route instead."
Like I have another option. What a load of madness kinds of rules. How could I forget that they forbid anyone who's not a fellow of a certain village whenever they hold festivals? I release a heavy sigh.
The sun's beam already sprinkles the whole kingdom and everything seems bright and visible which means that it is about to rest hours later. I worried about my mother's painful circumstances at this moment. I have to get at Marren Eve's quickly.
"Can you just let us pass through? I'm not going to waste my time here any further." Pleading is what I loathe vastly but I have to do what I have to do. To save the mother.
"I can't let you. There is a huge festivity hosted by the royal family. I assume you already know the rules about festivals of the royal family." He tells and his eyes landed on Hugo. "You should take a different route instead."
Like I have another option. What a load of madness kinds of rules. How could I forget that they forbid anyone who's not a fellow of a certain village whenever they hold festivals? I release a heavy sigh.
The sun's beam already sprinkles the whole kingdom and everything seems bright and visible which means that it is about to rest hours later. I worried about my mother's painful circumstances at this moment. I have to get at Marren Eve's quickly.
"Hey, wait! Do you know other paths to Marren Eve's garden?" I ask, forcing my tone to sound naive but deep down, I have an ulterior motive. Of course, I have already made all the locales in the Kingdom of the Faebeck's Pine got by heart. I know all the routes and shortcuts and Yellowseed is the closest to Penshaw City. Next to Penshaw City is Lainfert, where Marren Eve inhabits.
"Go to Ubbin Falls as replacement of Yellowseed. Follow that route and you will arrive at your destination." But heading there will take days! I don't have much time.
"All right. We will go there." I lie. "Hugo, we'll barge inside on three." Without the fae guardian's knowledge, I whisper to my holy hound.
"One..."
"Two..."
The fae guardian frowns.
"Three!"
In a blink of an eye, we are already inside the village of Yellowseed. The fae guardian looks at his comrades and shouts, "Stop right there, Humskit!" I didn't take even single scrutiny about him and his orders. "Get her!"
He was telling the truth. There is a festival. A joyous and beautiful one. While my holy hound is moving swiftly not minding the villagers' stares of suspicion and attention, I see a large banquet at the town hall. Yellow, red, blue, green, purple. Various colors which I don't usually discern in Humskit are everywhere. Dwellers are dancing, wearing down luscious foods, playing different games. Some are in a tournament of archery. I sense a little envious nymph crawling in the depths of my heart as I see them pulling their bows and releasing arrows.
After I obtain the herbs and heal my mother, I make a vow to myself that I would spend the rest of the years in my life practicing archery. With such exceptional skills, I shall seek for our father.
"There you are, you little wench!" One of the fae guardian's warden yells. Death's head upon a deer, I thought I've lost them.