Chapter 36: Elea
A shabby but homely cabin sat upon the dense foliage of a forest. Tall, large trees hid the house from most directions, but warm rays of sunlight shone through and found their way to brighten up the home. Separate from the cabin was a small wooden shack, roughly built by an amateur using the surrounding trees. And in that shack, was a boy, twelve years into his life.
Sharp eyes of determination and grit stared at the wooden floor. Sweat dripped from his chest and his eyebrows, hitting the wet surface. The boy was doing push-ups. Everytime he raised himself off the ground, he held onto the idea that he was not pushing himself off the floor, but pushing the Earth away from him.
“One hundred and eleven…!”
“One hundred and twe— Argh!”
Suddenly, the rickety door swung open and hit his face.
“Brother! Brother! I just found out my star sign brother! There was this woman in this village and she was so pretty and kind and smart and amazing and she was telling people all kinds of cool things about the stars and the moons and the planets. And then and then! She saw me and she was all like—”
“Awsh sweet, beautiful, amazing child who could do no wrong, how old are you? When were you born?”
“So I tell her and and she tells me that I was born under the Drageaegasurhra or whatever, something like that. But but! It’s so cool because I was born under the dragon constellations!!! Wait, do you even know what a constellation is brother? I bet you don’t! But I just learned it so I’ll tell you hehe. So a constellation is a—”
Zan held his sore head while staring irritatedly at the girl. The girl who just barged into his super secret training shack was of course, his sister. Like him she had red hair, but the color of her hair differed slightly. Whereas Zan’s hair was bright red and messy, her’s was scarlett, brushed, and straight. Actually, the siblings had many differences. Zan had light brown skin while his sister took upon her mother’s resemblance and had a fair tone. While both siblings were blessed with beauty, Zan had rogueish, wild but sleek looks while his sister looked like an elegant noble princess, even under her worn and torn tunics.
“Go play over there Elea, I’m busy.”
The boy interrupted her as she was talking and turned his head away from her, continuing his exercise. Looking at his back that was turned to her, the excited girl lost her liveliness and started to walk away, her bright smile disappearing from her pretty face.
Before she could step out the door however, a light voice called out to her.
“What happened to your ankle?”
The beautiful girl froze for a moment to look down. On her dainty feet was a large mark of purple. The bruise sat there out in the open, unconcealed. In her excitement and carefree demeanor she forgot all about it.
Turning her head to see her brother’s nonchalant eyes, Elea flashed a bright smile that could make all the worries of those who saw it go away. All the worries of everyone but herself.
“Oh! While I was walking down near the river, you know the one with all the rocks? Well get this, I tripped on one rock and hit my foot with another! Geez, can you believe it?”
Zan turned his head and blew air out of his nose.
“Yeah, you’re clumsy.”
“Am not! What!?”
The girl’s face turned red as Zan turned his head away again.
“Well, alright see ya.”
“Hmph!”
The girl harrumphed as she stomped her feet away from her brother.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The boy looked at the water buckets he used as makeshift weights on the floor but his focus was somewhere else. He waited until he heard her footsteps grew more and more distant until they faded away completely.
‘I have to finish my workout.’
The boy said to himself.
‘Yeah…’
BANG!
The rickey door that was about to fall off of its hinges slammed open, and the boy walked out.
…
“Mother, I’m home!”
Elea opened the door to see her mother reading a book. Her red hair draped down her face like curtains revealing a beautiful painting. Their mother was young, only turning twenty-eight this year but she gave all her youth and all her love to her family.
“Elly? Honey, were you playing by the river again?”
“Yeah, even got a sick bruise on my foot because I fell off one of the rocks.”
“What!? I told you to be careful, you know you’re clumsy right?”
“Excuse me!?”
“Come here child, let me make it all better.”
“I’m fine moooom. I’m a big kid now!”
“You’re 10.”
“So???”
“Fine, if you’re really okay can you grab our axe from your uncle? Your father’s been really wanting to build us something new.”
“...Umm…yeah…I…can.”
“Okay, good!”
The beautiful woman focused her eyes on her book again.
“Mother?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Umm…no it’s nothing!”
‘???’
“Alright, be safe then honey.”
Elea hesitated to take her steps out of the room. Putting her hand on the door knob she took one last look at her mother. A bitter smile crept up on her face before she braced herself and went outside.
The sunlight shined on her pretty face and she looked around to see if anybody was near, before lightly running to the dirt pathway. She stopped and turned around to look at her brother’s cabin, wondering if she should tell him…but in the end she shook her head and ran away.
…
A pretty young girl walked along a wide dirt road. The dirt pathway that she had to take was the only road that led to her uncle’s house. Dense forest surrounded the pathway and from time to time, large houses appeared, owned by merchants and traders who made more than a living selling their wares.
Elea nervously walked along the road with her head down. Looking up ever so often in anxious anticipation, and looking back down in relief when she saw no one. She hoped that she wouldn’t be as unfortunate to meet them while passing by. Too bad, fate was a fickle mistress.
A group of girl’s laughter resounded in her ears and she knew that the worst that could have happened did. Three girls and a boy around the age of 10-12 were speaking and laughing amongst each other. Their clothes made of silk were more than enough to tell others that
“Hey is that the poor girl you were talking about?”
“The traitor who hit on your crush even though she told you?”
“Yeah that’s her. Look at her. She’s the only one wearing tattered rags like that.”
“Hey peasant. Who said you can walk on our road?”
“Hah. You want me to do the same thing I did last time?”
The boy in the group said.
“Hahaha! Yeah do it.”
A blonde boy wearing a white silk shirt with frills picked up a rock.
Elea quickly ran past them, scared of having to tell another lie to her family. She did not want to be a burden to the people that loved her. Not once in her thoughts however, did she think about herself.
“You’re just letting her run like that?”
“Hah. It’s no fun when she’s so close.”
“Look she’s a good distance now. Come pick up some rocks and see if you can hit her.”
The girls proceeded to pick up some rocks from the dirt ground and just like the boy, they pelted her with the stones.
They threw their first volley but none of them hit the girl.
“You girls suck.”
“You missed too!”
“That was a warmup, watch this.”
The blonde boy cocked his arm and in one smooth motion beamed the rock right along a path towards Elea’s other, unbruised ankle.
The girls watched in amazement as they saw the rock heading right towards her.
The blonde boy however was watching Elea, wanting to see the pain on her face when it hit her.
“Hah. Dumb peasant.”
She was running as fast as she could, her eyes were closed the whole time but tiny stars still escaped her shut eyes. Long scarlet hair swung in the air and the looming rock was now only five feet away from her foot.
A smile crept on his face…only for it to disappear.
“What!?”
At the last second it was about to hit her, the rock suddenly lost a large part of its momentum, falling on the ground quicker than expected and never hitting its target.
The weeping girl, running so fast that she grew more and more distant before she disappeared.
Fuming, the blonde boy rushed to the rock to see what had just happened.
“What the hell? My father says I am the best at archery! This should have hit! Was it the wind!?”
“Hah, you just suck.”
“Whatever! I’ll get her on her way back. Her uncle lives near the end right?”
“Actually…we were going to go to Evelyn’s house to swim. She has her own pond and everything so…”
“Go then! Get outta here!”
The three girls walked away from the furious kid. Proceeding to laugh and talk all along the way.
The blonde boy looked down towards the ground, searching for anything that could have hindered the rock from its path. To his search, he found nothing. Only the single rock he threw.
“Was it really the wind!?”
The blonde boy continued to walk along the path, he figured he might as well meet her sooner than later. As he walked the road, the setting sun slowly began to disappear from sight. The red and orange skies burning the horizon faded into gloomy blue, then black.
Unbeknownst to him, a large pebble the size of a ladybug laid underneath the rock he just threw, and…a pair of cold eyes was stalking him inside the darkness of night.