MY EYES ARE ALWAYS ON YOU, MY INFINITE-EMPRESS.

Leoyshaah awoke from another horrid nightmare. 

“Black sky!” She screamed. “Black sky!”

She threw off her blanket and ran from her hut. 

She felt the air like knives down her back. 

She ran to her friend Zano's house and cried for him to let her in. The rain poured down on her bare shoulders. So her tears were practically drowned out by the crying of the world. 

Zano said nothing. This had been happening more and more often and he knew that she simply couldn't handle her own visions any longer, so he allowed her to stay with him. 

As if a miracle, the rain began to clear up. So Zano did what he always did to cheer her up and take her mind off of things: He took her out to see the stars.

"Look at that one!" She wailed. "It is a deep red!"

"It is red. Many lights in the sky are bright and calming for you."

"Calming for me?" 

"Calming for you." 

She beamed. 

“You know what we do when we can’t go to sleep?” 

"I am going to count them." 

"1... 2... 3... 4..."

She got to one thousand when she stopped. 

"What comes after? " She asked.

Zano smiled. "One-thousand-and one." Remember when I taught you?"

"Yes! I remember now!" She said, “See how far I can count!”

Zano listened to her count until she fell asleep in his arms, then he carried her to her home and laid her to bed.

Zayno would do this until she was fifteen, until he was also fifteen. But when boys turned fifteen, they were given jobs, and Zayno’s job was hunting. 

So when Zayno turned fifteen, Leoyshaah would have to deal with her nightmares on her own. 

The result was her crying and wailing throughout many nights. So she came to find that one day that her hut had been almost completely taken apart and only a few bricks remained. Men at the sight saw her and an unpleasant look washed over them. She did nothing to stop them. She watched them demolish the rest of the hut and have a new one built. 

Far, far away from everyone else. 

Felt horrid by it. But eventually she came to the realization that no one really loved her anyways, not like Zayno. She still had nightmares, but less often as she grew, and she became stronger in psyche. And in the will. 

Now she was twenty-four, about to turn twenty-five. 

The screeching of birds woke her up. She put on her clothes, carefully wrapping cloth around her waist and chest, then she went down to the river to bathe.

It was clean, and she didn’t have to wait for other women to get done, like the Chieftain's wives, who were entitled to the utmost privacy. 

The village she lived in was simply known as "Mountain Village." It was small and compact with a tightly knit community. The people around were little more than polite.

The chief of the village was an old man by the name of Quon. He had a long beard and was the wisest man in the village. Many even saw him as more than just wise, but also charismatic. 

Leoyshaah didn't think so.

But women were not allowed to speak their minds in the village, so she kept silent. Perhaps she could tell Zayno... But men of low status could not speak more than a woman either. 

The little use Leoyshaah got out of her mouth gave her more time to use her brain. In the scriptures of the stars, there was a saying that a rain bucket that was not emptied or tipped would be allowed to collect more water. That was Leoyshaah's brain. Whatever she thought, whether it be something she was sure about or something that she simply thought for whatever reason. 

Pointless things, like death.

She watched a butcher drive a knife into a rabbit, beheading it with one fluid motion. A motion that had been repeated hundreds, or probably thousands of times. Each becoming quicker and cleaner than the one before it. 

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The rabbit died immediately, but not all living things did. When Leoyshaah saw Zayno swatting beetles that had crawled into their food supply, he had beheaded one much like the rabbit, yet it continued to scurry around as if nothing happened. 

It is so weird... I do not understand why these things happen. But why does no one ask questions?

She asked questions. It was just that those questions stayed in her head. 

She had planned to ask Zayno. He always seemed to have an answer to her wonders. But alas, he was out hunting. That was his duty in this village, to hunt. That was one of the few things that still hurt her. Due to his late and long hours of hunting, sometimes camping out and only returning to the rising sun. And even then he would be too tired to talk to her. He would go to his house and shut the door. 

To sustain life by stealing it from others.

She wandered deeper into the village. Huts were aligned in a ring around a large one, the house of the chief. The rest of the mountain erupted behind the village, continuing far higher, as if to scrape the sky. 

Usually, the village was in a cheery mood, but not today. Today, they were confused. 

She had overheard some guards walking around. They spoke of another settlement, a settlement north of Mountain Village in a flat area. 

It was rumored that this was a much larger village, one that was very far away. So far, in fact, that they had not even noticed each other until a few weeks ago. 

Sure enough, there were people up and about, waiting for the chieftain to come out. 

Leoyshaah’s duty was simple. She was a washer, a person whose job was practically part of the description. She was to stand at the giant stone near the waterfall and take clothes to wash. 

Other women and some very young boys were there dunking clothes in the water. A full sack of clothes and other fabrics laid on the rocks. 

Leoyshaah sighed, taking a random shirt, and began to scrub. 

It was a butcher’s shirt, covered in blood. 

Like the one from earlier. She thought. At least, that was what she thought, until something fell out of one of the pockets. 

A severed rabbit's foot.

She shuddered for a moment. She was not one to be too squeamish, as she had seen some death in her life, thankfully none of her people, but of lesser creatures. And not first hand. 

But then again, she thought of dead animals as more of food than a living creature that had been robbed of its consciousness.  

So maybe it didn’t count if she didn’t watch them die. 

“What have you got?”

She froze. She recognized the voice. 

It was one of the chieftain's wives, Abeer.

“It is a charm! It is very pretty. May I see it?” she demanded. 

Leoyshaah handed her the foot. She didn’t have to give Abeer the foot. She could have told Abeer to go away, but she did anyway.

“Oooh… it is very pretty indeed.” She seemed to be in a trance. “My husband loves collecting charms… He gives all his love to my sister-wives… And they are all older! They cannot even bear children! Meanwhile I am young and beautiful, and yet he ignores me! Perhaps a present will convince him otherwise…” 

Leoyshaah felt a sick feeling come over her. Abeer was younger than her, and she was married.

Leoyshaah was not. 

Also, the chieftain was quite old. Almost eighty, and he already had four children: Two boys and two girls. And they were prominent throughout the village, with the older of the boys being the captain of the guards, and the younger one being a merchant. The older of the two girls was a priestess, and her younger sister had no profession, but was married to the second most wealthy man in the village.

Leoyshaah was twenty-five, and her heart ached for a mate, yet she found every man to be repulsed by her, seemingly even Zayno.

How did Leoyshaah know these things? Well, she used her ears more than she did her mouth. 

Zayno… He likes to hunt… The rabbit’s foot!

Abeer cradled the foot. 

Leoyshaah cleared her throat. “Can I have it back please?”

Abeer looked at her with pity. “No… but I will give you something you like.” 

She pulled a soft piece of bread. 

“I was going to eat this for a snack… But, It looks like you want it more.”

Leoyshaah felt the word hurt her. She had always been slightly fatter than the rest of the women, partially because of Zayno leaving her with his kills for her to eat, as he knew she would get hungry during the nights. 

She wasn’t necessarily fat in the sense of her entire body. But when she had no complete shirt on, like right at this very moment, her belly would show. 

“No. I don’t want your bread. I want my foot back.” 

The other women grew quiet, and some of the boys looked eager to see what would happen next.

Abeer glared at Leoyshaah. “What? For your husband? Oh, right, you do not have one.” 

“I just want it back.” Leoyshaah insisted.

Abeer looked disgusted. “Fine, take your dirty foot back.” 

Leoyshaah cupped her hands, awaiting the return of her charm.

Abeer looked at the foot, then at Leoyshaah, then at the foot again. 

She tossed it to her side and it landed in the pond. 

“No!”

Leoyshaah threw herself into the pond, casting water aside her path to find the foot.

She heard the muffled cackling laughter behind her from Abeer. 

The other women watched in morbid curiosity as she flailed her arms. 

Leoyshaah didn’t know how to swim. 

“Hahahaha! Stupid girl!” Abeer taunted, strolling away.

Some of the boys who were nice ran forward to rescue Leoyshaah from the waters, and the horrific downward drag of the waterfall’s displaced water. 

By the time she was out, she was soaking wet and cold. It was then that the other women had snapped out of their trance and ran forward to throw cloth on her. 

Leoyshaah’s heart and pride was hurt more than her body. She thanked them profusely and walked away to her hut. 

After she had changed into a new set of clothes, she heard the horn go off and immediately rushed to the center of the village, along with the others. 

A crowd of people had now gathered in a ring around the chieftain’s hut, waiting for him to exit his quarters.

The guard captain stood near. The wooden plates on his body clicked as he walked. He held a glinting obsidian spear and wore a defensive expression on his face. 

“Stay back! Your chief will be out soon!”