“What do you mean?! I’m going to be stuck with this for the rest of my life?!” The girl motions down towards her abdomen and then she shoots a nasty look towards her mother.
“Sweiza, it’s not as bad as you think. It’s a right of passage for all women.” Her mother tries to calm her down. “You’re a woman now. Aren’t you proud? Perhaps you should try some tea, it will help with…”
“You know what?! FUCK YOU!” She turns around from the kitchen and storms towards the stairs.
“Sweiza!” Her father tries to call for her, but she ignores him.
She makes sure her parents feel her indignation as she stomps up the stairs; every step becomes an indication of her wrath.
They hear her voice in the distance, “FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!”
Her fury is felt throughout the house as she opens and slams the door to her room with every profane word.
Down in the kitchen her mother and father turn their attention to dishes on the table and on the counter. They vibrate and move slightly with each slam of their daughter’s door.
Her mother turns towards her father, “Tars, perhaps you should handle this. I doubt she’s going to listen to me at this point.”
Her father nods and hurries up the stairs.
Upstairs he sees his daughter inside her room, just shy of the doorway. She looks at him wide eyed, fear evident in her eyes it quickly turns to anger as he approaches the door. She slams it in his face and remains silent.
“Starla, you need to calm down.” He tries to say it in as calm a voice as he can.
She doesn’t listen, “I hate that name! You know I fucking hate that name! Don’t call me that!”
She opens the door again for good measure, looks him over once, and then slams it while letting out another, “FUCK!”
She starts screaming and cursing in her room. Her father thinks better of opening the door. He hears footsteps from the stairs behind him. He turns around to see his wife by his side.
“Maybe we should just leave her alone.” He tries to say it as if it’s a good thing.
His wife shakes her head.
“She has elven blood Tars, you know that.” She looks over from him to the door.
Tars lets out a sigh.
Melda jeads towards the door.
“Melda, is it me or has it gone silent suddenly?” Tars looks towards his wife, then rushes towards the door.
Melda already has him beat to the door and opens it; they both rush in. To their shock they see the window has been open and the curtains are fluttering slightly with the wind.
—
After her initial string of profanity, she has a feeling her parents will enter the room. A thought crosses her mind. She turns towards the window of her room and opens it and crawls through it. Once through, she jumps down to the roof and crosses it a short distance to a tree and makes her way down.
Once down she looks at her surroundings to decide which direction to move. Her thoughts tell her not to move anywhere too far from home; people might say something if she is seen swearing up a storm for reasons unknown to them. She thinks of a few of her favorite hiding locations, but she feels it. -That- pain was back; that annoying pain that wouldn’t go away. She reaches up towards her ears and feels the tips of them once while she curses her existence. She again cringes when she feels a sharp pain. She gives one look up at the moon Lokul and mouths a silent, “Fuck you.” At it.
She takes one more look around and decides on where she would go - one of the neighbor’s gardens. Not too far, but far enough to get some peace. It is a favorite hiding spot of hers from when she was really young. She can still remember many good moments of hide and seek there. She makes it a point to avoid the main dirt paths and instead takes the back areas behind houses to get there.
Several minutes pass and she finds herself in the garden. She thinks this place is perfect; angled with several hedges that hide the main path with an outlook of the forest at the back. She slowly lets her body down against one of the hedges until she is sitting and sits cross legged. She feels the sharp pain again and lets out an “Oh.” in pain as she winces. She lets out a groan as the pain slowly escapes her. She lets out a conscious and intentional shudder at her situation. She finally lets out a sigh and determines one thing - she’ll sleep it off. And that is what she does - she finds rest and some sanctity, if not for a short time.
How long she was asleep, she is not certain, but light had become dark and stars had come out. She looks up towards the sky, looking for that accursed moon. She can’t find it. Instead, her attention is caught towards something else moving in the garden. Barely visible, she can see something reflecting the moon. Her eyes dart up and she sees the moon Lokul had been hiding behind one of the clouds, but is now visible. Her eyes dart back down to the object in question. It isn’t very big, in fact it is quite small, possibly about half a foot in size. Her thoughts and curiosity get the better of her. Using every silent footstep she can muster, she stalks up to the object. As she gets closer, she sees it is light blue as opposed to the original silver from before. It isn’t reflective like she had thought. She thinks Lokul has been playing tricks on her again - as if to add insult to injury. She sets her sights to the task at hand. This one, will be hers.
As she stalks up to it, it shows no attention to her. Rather, it’s attention was solely focused on gorging itself with one of the garden’s tomatoes. Sweiza notes the evidence of other tomatoes which had been bitten into, but not eaten in full. As she gets closer to it, her eyes widen. It still hasn’t seen her yet. A grin can’t help but escape her face as she tries to stifle it. If she is lucky, this creature would make a good ‘pet’. Almost on top of it from behind, she stops. She pulls out her hands to her sides. It looks around at the last second as it sees a pair of hands cup around and grab it. It lets out several whistles and clicks as it struggles to break free, but she maintains a good grip on it.
She gets a good look at it, or the part of it that is visible at least. It stands about six inches high, has varying shades of light blue and dark blue fur, more noticeably it had pointed ears, a set of wings and a tail. Giddiness crosses her mind and a grin crosses her face. The creature continues to struggle to get away. Sweiza tightens her grip on it slightly; firm, but not super tight. She pulls it up to her face and lets out a big smile. She has it’s full attention as it stops struggling and lets out several chirps and clicks at her.
“You’re a sprite aren’t you?” Her smile gets bigger.
The creature starts to struggle again. She tightens her grip again.
“You can understand me can’t you?” She looks down at it with curiosity as she fills with enthusiasm.
It pays her no attention as it continues to struggle. She looks down, still with enthusiasm. She gets an idea and lets out several chirps and clicks at it. It looks up at this human making really bad noises. It lets out the first signs of communication as it says in a calm, but serious manner, “Please let me go.”
Her surprise at the young male voice almost gets the better of her as her grip slackens; the creature tries to move and her hands clasp shut again. “You can speak then.”
It says nothing as it looks up at her a blinks a few times.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” A smile creeps onto her face, but she quickly removes it and gets serious again. Her curiosity remains fully on the small creature.
“If you won’t hurt me, then let me go.” It says it with the same calm, but serious tone as before.
Several thoughts and emotions cross her mind. “If I let you go, please stay.”
It continues staring at her without moving, it gives no other communication.
Her depressed face says it all as she sighs and loosens her grip. It flies up six feet beyond her head and starts off in the other direction. It jolts to a stop and looks back when she yells, “Wait!”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“I said I wouldn’t hurt you!” Her right hand goes to her mouth to enhance her voice as she waves her hand at it to get her attention.
“For which you are very kind.” It says it in another calm voice.
“Please wait! Won’t you stay for awhile?” She tries to distract it.
“I really must be going.” It turns around and again stops when Sweiza shouts at him.
“Please wait!” She again manages to get its attention as it looks back at her.
“I just want to talk.” She tries to calm her voice down and stifle her dismay at the thought of the creature leaving.
“I don’t.” It looks down at her sternly.
An idea flashes across her mind.
“You want food don’t you?”
In only a brief second it is down at her eye level, but stays well beyond her reach. Its arms cross as it looks at her with anger.
“I want food. Something sweet. Something better than those red things.” He points at the half eaten tomatoes.
“They’re called tomatos” She gets serious as she says it.
“I can leave.” It shoots her as mean a look as it can.
“Wait. Do you like sugar?” She tries to remember where her family keeps it. In one of the cupboards she thinks.
“What is sugar?” It says it with some curiosity and intent, its attention clearly on her as it flies a little closer.
“It’s white and looks like sand, but it is very sweet… it’s almost like pure sweetness...” She doesn’t have time to finish or muse about it as the creature surprises her by darting a few feet from her face.
“Show me, and you had better not be lying.” Its left hand goes to its hip as it points a finger at her nose.
“If I show it to you, will you stay for awhile?” She looks at it, trying to sound as nice as she can.
“Maybe. But no promises. Where to?” It flies up a few feet above her and starts looking around.
“You’re a sprite aren’t you?” She says it while looking up.
“Food first, talk later.” It makes the demand and she nods at it.
She takes off back towards her house, making sure to take the backways behind houses again. The sprite follows her at a cautious pace, noting that she looks behind at it several times to see if it is following her or not.
—
The front door to the house opens and she heads towards the kitchen. Unexpectedly her parents are there. She ignores them and heads for one of the cupboards.
“Sweiza.” Her father tries to get her attention.
Her parents’ attention switches to the odd sight of her digging and rummaging through cupboards and pulling open drawers.
“Daughter, what are you doing?” Her mother says it with intent as if Sweiza has a purpose for her odd behavior.
“I need sugar.”
Her father is the first to answer, “Upper cupboards, second from the right, lower section.”
Sweiza inhales involuntarily at the thought as she rushes to the target location. She quickly opens it and sees the prize, several small bags of sugar. She grabs it and turns around.
“Where are you going with that young lady?” Her mother’s hands go down to her hips as she says it really sternly at her daughter.
“It’s a secret. I’ll pay for it. Take it out of my allowance.” She turns around and ignores anything else from her parents as she heads towards the door.
Her parents try to call out for her, but she doesn’t catch what they say.
Tars is the first to see the odd blue creature flying near the doorway.
“That daughter of ours.” Melda turns her attention to the open drawers and cupboards and shakes her head. She approaches them to close them.
“Melda, did you see that blue thing hovering at the doorway?” He says it with some curiosity towards her as he approaches to help close everything that was opened.
“I saw something, but it didn’t look important.” Melda pays little attention to it, continuing with the task at hand.
“It could clearly fly, but it hovered and didn’t move like a bird. I’m guessing she was also getting sugar for it.” He says it again with some thoughtful curiosity.
“Your point Tars?” She says it with unimpressed seriousness.
“We may have to contend with an animal in the house.” He finally wins in anchoring her attention.
Melda looks at him annoyed. “Tars, you made that rule. You clean up after it.” She doesn’t give him time to say anything, “Help me get this mess cleaned up. She’s knocked over everything.”
“Yes dear.” Tars knows he’d lost, but he still wonders about the creature, silently to himself.
—
Outside Sweiza holds up the bag of sugar at the sprite, but pulls it away and motions for the creature to follow her. She heads behind the house.
“I want to see it.” He says it in another calm voice. He dives for her hands as she holds the bag up.
The first thing he does is attempt to bite into it. He lets out several chirps and clicks in annoyance as he struggles to break the exterior of the bag. He flies a few feet away when he sees Sweiza’s other hand come up for him. His assumption is wrong as her hand rests on the bag.
“Like this. See?” She opens the top of it carefully.
The sprite dives for the bag and lands on the inside of it. His first instinct is to grab the powdered white sand and hold it up to his mouth and take it to his tongue. He flutters up instinctively as he lets out a moan of pleasure. He flies back down to the bag and in uncivilized fashion kneels down and takes his mouth to it. He lets out several shudders and clicks. To Sweiza, he is clearly enjoying it. She sets the bag down to the ground and hovers over him and watches his movements. He pays her little attention as he proceeds to gorge himself. After several minutes of scooping up sugar and eating it, he finally lets out a satisfied shudder. He turns around and looks up at her.
“If I show up tomorrow night, you will bring me more of this, right?” He says it, his interest and curiosity perked.
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe I won’t. Maybe you’ve eaten enough.” She says it with light sarcasm.
Her attempts to hide the thrill in her voice do not go unnoticed by the sprite.
“Wait. Do you have a name?” She asks it thoughtfully.
The sprite flies up into the air about twelve feet. It looks down at her. “I’ll be back tomorrow. We can talk then.”
“Wait!” She stammers as it leaves.
It stops as it looks back down at her.
“My name is Sweiza Serif. I’m pleased to meet your acquaintanceship.” She bows.
“Tomorrow.” It flies off.
Sweiza feels her dismay kick in at the realization her knew friend is gone. She curses her luck as she walks towards the main street.
She knows she came outside earlier for a reason, but she can’t remember what it was. She concludes it it must not have been that important. She takes one more step forward and feels the pain in her gut and lets out a groan. “Oh right. This.” She realizes she was simply distracted by the sprite-creature from before.
She heads towards some houses towards the edge of the village, determined to be by herself for awhile. She has one location in mind. A specific tree that is a tradition in her village. When people go there to think or be by themselves, they are left to their own devices.
It takes her some seven minutes for her to make her way there. The tree, a large oak, is in plain sight. She walks over to it, with only one intent in mind - sitting down next to it and thinking about miserable things.
At the tree she sets her hands on it and turns her back to rest on it and then lets her body slide down. Midway through the motion, she hears a voice. She hadn’t noticed the figure that had been in the vicinity.
“Very few come out to visit with this one.”
Sweiza’s attention snaps towards the female voice from the other side of the tree. She hadn’t seen the figure earlier and can barely make it out. As if donned by fate, the minute she sees the figure, moonlight from Lokul shines down and illuminates the figure’s armor. She gasps when she sees it is a woman.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” The woman asks her again, in a curious, but thoughtful voice.
“You’re a knight. I want to be one!” She says it to the ‘so cool’ figure in front of her.
“I am no knight. I am Valkyrie. It would be wise of you to treat me as such.”
“Do you have a name?” She says it with eager enthusiasm as she approaches the woman.
“I am known as Lady Strife. You may address me as such.”
“Lady Strife, please tell me how I can become like you. You look so cool.” She says it with earnest.
“Again, I am not a knight. You do not want to get caught up in my affairs; I suggest you head home and forget what you saw today. It is late as it is, and your parents are probably worried.” The Valkyrie says it with sharp seriousness at the girl before her.
Sweiza finally snaps and her angered chagrin comes out. “Why? So I can carry on tradition?!”
“Excuse me?” Lady Strife says it with some due interest as she makes a note of Sweiza’s distress.
“I grew up playing with the other boys.” Sweiza says it with sure confidence.
“And?” Lady Strife says it with intent.
“I suddenly get this…” Sweiza motions both hands down towards her stomach, “…and then my mother says I should be proud to be a woman… I’ll get to have children.”
Sweiza cringes and Lady Strife makes note of it.
“I don’t want to be stuck inside cleaning house. Why should I?” Her distress and upset ushers forth, “I want to help other people, I want to protect them. I want to go adventuring. Why should I have to change just because I bleed?”
Lady Strife raises her eyebrows slightly as it finally clicks and comes together.
“Oh, you mean… -that-.” Lady Strife says it as she approaches Sweiza and stops five feet shy of her.
“I can grant your wish young one. But understand, it is a very miserable affair and you will not enjoy it.” She says it weak and broken.
“Anything. I don’t want to be a woman.” Sweiza stammers as she says it and stamps her right foot on the ground. She tightens her fists as she does so. It comes out as a stammer at squawk at the Valkyrie.
“As you wish young one. But, do tell me, I am curious, what moon are you tied to?” She says it, now three feet from Sweiza. She looks into Sweiza’s eyes, dead serious.
“Lokul.”
Lady Strife closes her eyes as she nods once. “Do you have elven blood by chance?”
“Yes, I do. Why?” Sweiza says it, very distrusting.
“Most people tied to Lokul have elven blood. Their periods are quite painful, or so I’ve heard.” Strife backs up to the tree and she slowly lets her back rest against it.
“What is your period tied to?” Sweiza says it with curiosity; almost as if she has made a new friend.
“Miss Sweiza, I will thank you not to pry into my personal life.” Lady Strife says it sharply.
“Sorry.” Sweiza says it as she kicks the ground once.
“Child, I’ve heard your cry. I will make you a Valkyrie when you come of age. Understand that it is not a pleasant journey.” Lady Strife says it as she slowly slides down the tree to a sitting position. “Now if you would kindly leave me young one. The night is long and I have duties to perform.”
Sweiza flashes a forlorn and depressed face at the Valkyrie. Lady Strife ignores it.
“Also.” Lady Strife looks back towards the village, “If I can get your assurance that you will return home to tell your parents of what has happened, I would be grateful.”
Sweiza attempts to speak, but stammers when the Valkyrie interrupts her. “Child.” Lady Strife’s voice starts calm and patient, but she quickly changes it and booms it at Sweiza “Leave my presence and do not stir my patience further.”
Sweiza jolts and hurries away several feet. She stops and turns around. “Lady Strife?”
Lady Strife looks up again, “What?” Her voice clearly shows she is no longer impressed with the annoyance in front of her.
Sweiza bows, “Thank you.” She turns around and hurries away.
Lady Strife looks up at the moon of Lokul and mutters something about children to herself. The night would be long, far too long for her liking.