Chapter Seven
Nia was locked in a battle of attrition, her eyelids quivering with strain. Her opponent stared back at her, a glint of apathy in its yellow eyes. It was as if it was mocking her, telling her to give up, that she would never win. Today, she would prove that stupid frog wrong.
Her legs were tucked beneath her, her chin resting on her overlapped hands, a rock beneath them. She held no concern for the mud staining her simple, rough-spun dress. Her mama might have held a different opinion, but this contest of will was much too important for any wayward thoughts on what others might think.
This would mark her fiftieth attempt to best this green and slimy foe, but she was confident it was the first of many victories to come. She only had to last a little bit longer…
Crunching footsteps caused her enemy to retreat hastily, hopping into the lazy waters of the river just on the other side of the large rock she was perched on. She let out a sigh of resignation; today just wasn’t her day.
“What are you doing here, freak?” A high and caustic voice came from behind her, letting her know that her day would only get worse from here.
“Please, just leave me alone,” Nia said tiredly . This was becoming an everyday occurrence, and no matter how much she cried to her mama and papa, Reylein and the others continued to torment her.
It was all because she looked different from them. All of the other girls, and even the boys, had long, flowing hair the color of gold and silver that glimmered in the sunlight filtering through the trees. Their eyes were every bit as stunning, with various shades of emerald, cerulean, and rarely sapphire; such pretty colors, she thought, that only worked to bring out the beauty in each of them. Their ears were long and slender, matching their lithe frames that moved gracefully wherever they went.
On the other hand, she was what many of the others would call “unsightly”. Her hair was a curly mess of dark brown, and her eyes the color of the mud her dress was now covered in. Her cheeks boasted a smattering of freckles, blemishes the others had no knowledge of, and her ears were short and rounded and they told her one was just slightly larger than the other.
Of course, her mama said she was beautiful, a gift from the spirit of the forest, but she knew better. She heard the other grown-ups talk when they thought she couldn’t hear. They spoke of her “filthy blood” and how they “Should just dispose of her”, whatever that meant. She knew it wasn’t a good thing, and as she grew, she realized she didn’t belong.
The other children worked very hard to remind her of that every day.
That was why she had started to play further and further into the forest. To get away from the mean kids that made it a game to find her. Her mama and papa would always tell her the forest was dangerous, full of monsters and other things that wouldn't think twice about eating her, but she had never seen anything like that. She suspected that they were just stories meant to frighten her into listening to them.
She was much too smart to fall for such a ploy.
A wet clod struck her in the back, the mud splattering in large, grainy droplets, letting Nia know that her simple request had been denied. “Get away from the river; we drink from there. Your filth might spoil the water!”
Nia’s eyes burned with unshed tears. Reyleain’s hurtful words stung more than any ball of mud ever could. “Why are you always so mean to me!?”
She shouted those words, anger and embarrassment and hatred all churning together deep in her chest. She wanted nothing more than to belong, to know that she had a home outside her mother and father’s arms. But for as long as she could remember, she had been made fun of, ridiculed, and belittled by everyone in their village. It was too much.
She just wanted it to stop.
Another ball of muck sailed through the air much faster than her small legs could avoid. Luckily, Reylein’s arm was not much stronger than her own, causing the mud to fall short of her head and striking the hem of her dress. Still, it hurt. Nia thought a rock might have found its way inside the dripping mess.
She fell, the riverbank rushing up to catch her as she did so. There was no hope of salvaging her dress now. Her mama was going to skin her hide. Reylein and the other girls clinging to her like leeches and, with every bit of charm as them, moved in to ensure that Nia knew precisely how they viewed her.
They had never been so aggressive. Usually, her torture would stop at a bit, or a lot, of teasing, some hurtful words directed at her or her parents, and maybe even some light shoving, but this was different. They meant to truly hurt her.
Nia’s eyes went wide, her little body freezing up in fear. Their faces were pulled back into vindictive sneers, expressions reserved for vermin and the most insidious of pests, not another little girl just wanting to belong. What had she ever done to them?
Just as she squeezed her eyes tight, unprepared for the pain that was sure to come, she heard a large splash coming from the river behind her. At first, she thought that maybe one of the girls had thrown a rock her way, wanting to be the one to start her unwarranted beating, but then she thought better of it. The noise was much too loud, and she could feel the cold droplets of water soak into the fabric of her ruined dress, even though she was still some distance from the river itself.
And, of course, there were the girls’ screams.
And the shaking of the ground beneath her.
Something was behind her, something big, something scary. Maybe her mama and papa hadn’t been fibbing; maybe there were monsters in the forest wanting to eat her, mud and all. Maybe she should have stayed closer to the village after all.
#x200e She kept her eyes shut, still awaiting the pain that was sure to come, not from the girls, though. She waited, then waited some more. Maybe the mud covering her and her dress was unappetizing to whatever had come from the river; maybe it had decided to chase after the more appetizing little girls that had come so close to hurting her.
She opened her eyes, slowly.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Nothing was in front of her, and the girls were long gone. She hadn’t heard them run away, but they had always had a penchant for sneaking up on her, so that wasn’t very surprising. Her soft brown eyes moved to her left, then her right. Nothing.
She was safe. Nia let out a shaky breath, her little heart beating rapidly in her panting chest, still uncertain if the danger had passed. She pulled herself out of the muck, her round face scrunching into a grimace as she tried to wipe the mud from her hair. She would probably have to take a dip in the river to get clean. She hated getting her hair wet.
Hello, little one.
The voice of groaning trees in the middle of a storm shook her little body. It was something so far removed from anything she understood that her mind failed to react. She stood frozen, like a rabbit catching the eye of a fox. Although that might have been a poor comparison, a rabbit would have the common sense to run.
Are you hurt, little one?
The voice came again, followed by heavy footsteps and creaking timber. Nia’s eyes shot to the ground, and her feet caked in mud. She didn’t dare look up at what had moved around before her.
A flower moved into her vision, the most beautiful one she had ever seen. It was white and orange and speckled with flecks of gold, so bright and shiny that she thought she was looking at the sun. Its petals were broad and looked very soft; there was more than she could count around a pink center that smelled sweeter than the candies her mama would sometimes let her have.
This is for you. A gift.
The voice sounded soft, even with its grating nature. She could tell that it meant no harm to her; she just had to calm down and actually listen.
She reached out and took the flower. Surprisingly, it was heavy and almost as big as her two hands . “T—thank you. Sir?” She looked up to see if her guess had been right, but what she saw failed to answer her question.
She thought it looked like a man, but the twisting vines and verdant leaves making up its body hinted at something else entirely. It was tall, much taller than ever her papa, and its shoulders were broad and sharp. Its chest was flat and undefined; only tightly woven vines provided any texture, reminding her of the rough bark of a tree. Its legs were much the same as the rest of its body, but instead of feet, its legs ended in thick roots that splayed out like a spider’s web.
Her eyes traveled up its body, slowly moving toward its face. There, she saw it looking down at her with a featureless mask . Its glowing, emerald eyes were soft and kind, reminding her of how her mother would look at her just before being tucked into bed.
You are welcome, little one, it said . I am happy to see you again and to see that you have grown.
Her mind worked to make sense of the grating words. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand them, but the way they were spoken, through rubbing wood and vibrating vines, made it difficult for her to work them out. “I don’t know you,” She admitted after a bit, her face scrunching up as she still fought to remember.
You were young, barely a month old. It would make sense for you not to remember.
Her face moved in on itself even further, her young mind churning furiously, and then it clicked. Her mama always told her she was a gift from the spirit of the forest, that she was an answered prayer. “Are you the spirit of the forest?” she asked bluntly, her eyes widening in anticipation of the answer.
Perhaps. I have never held a title, for it matters little to the world.
“So, you don’t have a name?” She asked, suddenly thinking that that was the strangest thing to happen thus far.
I do not.
“Mister Greeny!” She shouted out in exuberance like a small child only could. “That’s your name from now on, okay?”
He didn’t say anything, and for a moment, Nia thought she might have angered him. She really hoped she didn’t. She wasn’t afraid of him anymore; for some reason, that feeling had quickly faded, but she was afraid that if she made him mad, he wouldn’t want to be her friend.
It is time for us to part, little one.
She opened her mouth to ask why, but then she heard it. Far away, shouts bounced through the trees, both men and women approaching them hurriedly . Reylein and her lackeys must have made it back to the village, telling the others what had happened. She wished they hadn’t. They always found a way to ruin her fun.
“Will I see you again?” She asked, her big, brown eyes looking up into Mister Greeny’s featureless face. She could almost see him smiling.
I will see you again, when you are older. He stopped and looked off into the distance, until then, listen to your mother’s words.
Nia followed his eyes, looking off into the distance. Her mother was still some distance away, but even through the trees, she could see her colorful dress flittering like the wings of a beautiful bird. Mama always looked so beautiful in her dresses; she desperately wanted to be beautiful like her.
“Nia!” Her mama yelled, her voice frantic, something Nia wasn’t used to hearing. It made her heart clench up tight, like something had grabbed it. “Nia! Where are you!”
“Over here, mama!” She yelled back , hoping that her voice would ease her mother’s worries. “I’m here with Mister Greeny!”
She looked back to where Mister Greeny had been standing, but nothing was there. Disappointment pulled at her stomach. She wanted Mama to meet him. She wished that he could have stayed.
Her mama fell to her knees, soiling her flowery dress in the wet mud as she wrapped Nia in her shaking arms. She was breathing hard, her warm breath mussing her already frizzy hair. Even so, Nia didn’t mind.
“Are you okay? What happened?” Her mama asked, pulling back only slightly to check her over like a concerned mother hen. “The girls said there was a monster. I was so worried…”
“It wasn’t a monster, mama; it was Mister Greeny. But he’s gone now.” Her mother never took her eyes off her daughter as she spoke, even ignoring the others of the villagers as they passed them, searching the forest for the monster.
“No matter,” her mother said. “You’re safe now.”