C1 - The Lady's Eye of the Eternal Light
In a poorer part of the south of the kingdom Lylic, a small, flimsy house stood on its edge. But the people were quite content with where they lived. In that house, the sound of fire crackling and water boiling could be heard coming from the fabric that has been hung to replace the door. A delicious scent of a mix of pepper and other spices filled the tiny kitchen and flowed out to the open.
A tall, thin framed girl hung over the black metal pot, her boney fingers wrapped around a wooden spoon. She was gripping it so tightly her knuckles turned white as she continued to stir.
There was barely any food to rationalize, and feeding four stomachs couldn’t be easier.
She continued to hum quietly an old townsfolk song while pouring the soup she cooked into one of the two only chipped wooden bowls she had.
“Mother!” She called out, carrying the bowl with the palm of her hands. Her bare, dirty feet slid across the uneven wood to the room next to the kitchen. That other room was their bedroom, containing only one bed. It isn’t even considered a bed perhaps, seeing that their only source of rest is a worn out mattress and a rug to keep warm.
A pale woman rose from the mattress. She is weak; her cheekbones were visible and her lips cracked, but despite that, she was noticeably beautiful. If she wasn’t sickly ill and had taken better care of herself, she would’ve been such a beauty that her status as a commoner wouldn’t remain as it is.
Still, she smiled softly at the girl and took the bowl from her hands. “Lilianna, darling, thank you,” she reached out for her daughter’s cheeks, wiping excess dirt off. Lilianna smiled back at her mother, as if she was her only light. Maybe she was.
“Vermina went to look for vegetables,” Lilianna crouched down on the floor, hugging her knees.
“Tell Vermina every time she goes out to be careful,” her mother said.
“I do, mother,” Lilianna pushed the soup towards her mother’s chest. “Hurry and drink it up before it goes cold.”
~
Lilianna had been sent off to fetch water for tonight’s dinner. The sun started to fall, giving the sky a dawn rose pink and ocean blue. The streets had thinned throughout the day, and right now, stands were finally closing.
When she made her way to the well, her reflection appeared in the mist of the waters. Her hair was barely visible in the reflection, due to its ink crow colors that reached past her waist. Lilianna’s dull gray-green eyes followed the bucket as she hitched it up top with water. If only she had more to eat, she would be strong enough to carry more water, but what could she do? The only other person strong enough would be her father, but he’s never at home.
Throwing the bucket over her shoulder, she made her way back, staring at her feet as the dirt continued to grow on them. That was the way to also not injure them.
The water sloshed around in the metal tin, but she couldn’t care less because of the heaviness it loaded on her back. Lilianna flung the bucket over to her other shoulder to ease the pain of the unevenness.
She made her way back into her shabby so called home, pushing the fabric aside in front of the doorway. Standing in front of the stone stove, pushing in logs bigger then her own size was a girl who looked about similar to Lilianna. The girl got up from her crouching position and dusted the ashes from her hands to her clothes before wiping the remaining soot off her face. She looked no more than ten. Her black hair was pulled back into two loosely flared messy braids. The girl's brows curved up as she turned towards Lilianna.
“Sister!” Vermina ran over to her and lifted the bucket of water off Lilianna’s aching shoulder. It continued to slosh in a sour manner.
Lilianna’s pose softened upon the bucket disappearing from her thin back. “How’s mother doing?” Vermina looked up from her sister’s torso. “Ma’s still tired, she’s probably sleeping right now.”
Lilianna slipped out of Vermina’s wrapped arms and approached the stove. Opening the cupboard, she was met with almost bare emptiness except for a few potatoes and onions. Lilianna sighed, picking up the potatoes and onions, throwing them on the counter before looking for the oil. An old jar held the remaining oil, that was, like the cupboard, close to nothing. This will still do though, since her father won’t be returning tonight. He usually is gone for three or more nights for his work where he gets paid the minimum amount, which was most likely nothing to one Lylic currency. Lilianna truly knows her father’s love and desperation to care for his family, but despite his efforts, they were often starved living on the well water.
Lilianna took a flat sharpened stone and started slicing onions. The cutting stung her eyes though. She set the sliced onions in an piece of scrap metal that could almost hold all of it. She moved on to the potatoes, peeling them with the sharp rim of the stone with great skill before chopping them into smaller portions.
Lilianna sighed as she slid the rest of the potatoes in the scrap of metal, overflowing it to the top to form a little mountain. She then picked up a tray Vermina had made out of clay and set the metal with the food on it.
Vermina sat on the wooden floor playing with dust balls she collected somewhere while running off.
~
After dinner, Vermina offered her sister to sneak out with her to steal food, but Lilianna denyed, saying it was sinful to do such an act. Vermina had puffed her cheeks, making the tips of her ear bright pink, and stormed out of the house barefoot.
It’s been over an hour and she still hasn’t returned. Lilianna sat on the wood planks outside her house, staring uneasily into the forest next to it. On her left was the town, where all the lights had gone to sleep too. Vermina knew how to take care of herself especially when it came to stealing; in fact, her sister was too good at her job.
Lilianna quietly waited for Vermina’s return, picking up a fallen branch by her side and drawing on the sand like dirt.
Rustling came from the bushes to her right, which meant the sounds were from the forest. The only things that came out of the forest during this time was either going to be her sister, or the wolves. Or both, depending if their dinner was Vermina.
It was actually neither answers and Lilianna drew back in shock. A young boy who looked a bit shorter than her sister crawled out of a bush. His platinum hair was fizzled madly into twisting curls with leaves stuck in between them. Lilianna could tell that he would later easily pull ladies by his side when he becomes a bit older. For now, he looked like a starving little fox. The boy’s red eyes gazed over to Lilianna, who was holding the stick outward as defense.
He wrestled himself out of the branches tangled with his clothes and crawled over to Lilianna. “Miss, do you happen to know where a girl with black hair like yours is? Oh, and she often ties it in braids.”
Lilianna watches the boy wrap his arms around her ankle. She tried moving her foot but that would only drag him and dirty his clothes on the sand.
She sighed, exhausted. “Does she have green eyes?”
The boy looked longingly at Lilianna while his grip continued to harden around her feet. “Perhaps,” he muttered.
The moon has risen to its peak, so it was simple to assume that the resting hour has come. And Vermina still has not returned, but instead a boy on the verge of desperate tears clinging to her ankle, stuttering about someone with a similar appearance as her sister.
“Why are you looking for my sister?” This became the fourth time she asked him as he remained silent, staring at the floor and two hands busy by her ankle. Though, it’s safe to believe that he was referring to Vermina now, since the only other females in town with the same raven colored hair was her mother and herself. Plus for better proof, Vermina always wore braids when she went to commit a Robin Hood.
“I need to give her something,” he started crying now. Lilianna has given up trying to patiently understand him and started trying to fling his grip off her.
“Well she went out and I don’t know where she is,” Lilianna tried lifting her foot from him, only resulting in the boy pulling harder and crying louder.
She tilted her head down softly to face him.
“Shut up, you are going to wake up this entire town with your unnecessary whining,” she snapped. He instantly quieted down.
“Mean witch, you are like my brother,” he finally let go and got off the ground, standing at eye level with her. Lilianna now realized he was much taller than what she assumed him to be. His cloak had dirt crumbs here and there as he brushed away it. He has a youthful face; mid slender nose, baby chubby cheeks that turn pink following his ears, wide crimson eyes and thin eyebrows.
Back in her house, the light had fallen to its rest, meaning her mother had already woken and put out the candle. Outside, only the moon made their faces visible to each other.
After a while, the boy finally opened his thin lips to utter two words that would cause Lilianna to lose it.
“You’re short,” his face was met by the thin, frail palm of her hand, echoing out to the forest.
The boy clutched his cheek where she slapped him. “That hurts you witch,” his sneered.
Lilianna turned her head away from him furiously and walked down the path that led her to the village. Her sister had already been missing for a while, and some kid her size appeared claiming he needed her.
The town center was steady and dark during this time. No one was awake, and all sights of visible light had been hidden away by the blanket of blackness.
She made her way to the well, where she slid on the stone sides of it into a crouch. Lilianna stared off into the gap between the pastries and clothing store. The gap that revealed a clear river that reflected the stars in the night sky.
Until a shadowy block covered the middle of the river.
Her vision worked surprisingly well at night as she saw another tiny shadowed figure who was holding to be some sort of light come over, sitting next to them. That person must’ve said something, because the first figure got up and stormed off, leaving the second to charge after them. It looked like a lover’s quarrel.
The wind bellowed against Lilianna’s face, whipping her long, dark hair wildly.
Still sitting next to the well while waiting for Vermina if she ever would show up, she began to collect her thoughts slowly.
A sharp crack from a branch made her jolt up in the direction the noise came from. Pushing aside those cherry pink tree branches, was Vermina. In her right hand she clutched a finely woven basket full of vegetables and fruits. In her left hand held a small bouquet of assorted flowers. Her hair was let down and a rose flower was slashed through the top gap of her ear.
“Lilianna?” Vermina approached her sister, holding up the basket.
“Vermina, please,” Lilianna said, taking the basket from her hands. “Take care of yourself, don’t stay out this late, it isn’t safe.”
“But-“
“I know you have your ways to defend yourself, I do not want to bother with how, but please. Mother’s heart cannot stand seeing you hurt.”
Lilianna caressed her sister from her hair to her cheek, pulling out the rose along the way. “Looks like you’ve been having fun while stealing.”
“It’s not what you think,” Vermina started.
“You don’t have to tell me,” Lilianna handed her back the rose.
“It’s no biggie, a friend gave it to me when I was out stealing.”
“Really?” Lilianna shifted, a light uncomfortable feeling rising in her. She made herself aware that before heading to town there was a boy begging to see Vermina.
“Did he by chance have blonde looking hair? When you weren’t here, a random boy crawled out of the bushes and clung to my ankle, asking me where you were.”
Vermina shook her head disappointingly with a face of mild disgust. “That’s him alright. He cannot go one day without seeing me.”
“Is that also why you always seem to be gone? And whenever I do see you, you are either leaving or entering the forest?”
Vermina nodded, bending down to a crouch next to the well with Lilianna.
“He says he’s not well known as a noble. I think he would at least be an aristocrat, considering his gestures to me.”
“What kind of gestures?”
Vermina shrugged. “I don’t know, like kissing the back of a lady’s hand? Or maybe offering to hold her stuff? Or maybe…” she pointed at the basket and lifted her left hand with the flowers.
She sighed contently and leaned back on the round stone edge, smiling. “He does make me quite happy though, but I fear the day I lose him. No one seems to want to be close to us.”
Lilianna looked at her sister’s overcasted face from the moonlight. There is a glint of stars in Vermina’s oddly pale green eyes. “It also doesn’t make it any better for me to be so lowly compared to him,” she added quietly, hugging her knees as she rocked.
It was truly heartbreaking to see such a malnourished girl smiling and talking in such a way, knowing she wasn’t even over ten.
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