Lika closed her eyes to listen to the waters in the river whisper their song of a long journey from the mountains to the ocean. The birds fluttered from to tree to tree while giving a few notes to another before they flew to the next branch to make their nest for the new hatchlings. The trees rustled in the wind as it blew the leaves into their mysterious whisper and the branches giving a gentle creak as they swayed. She slowly opened her eyes, wishing that this day would never come and leave without a trace that had ever happened. That will never happen, she thought. Of all the days she wished it could have been, it had to be her fifteenth birthday: the year of her marriage and her departure for a new home.
“Lady Lika?” whispered a voice from behind. That voice was only too familiar to Lika. Her warden and sentinel, Sieana, watched over her whenever she was outside the vast castle of White Fern Forest. Her face was remorseful as she gazed into Lika’s silver eyes. She knew why Lika had left the home early and understood her feelings towards the day. “My Lord Quain wishes to see you to his quarters for a word with you,” and before Lika could say anything, she lifted her emerald skirts and left without another word.
Lika moved leisurely to delay her from hearing the lecture on what would be expected of her, how to behave, and all the essentials on how to be a lady. She lifted her silky sky blue skirts to move faster to keep her father from getting too annoyed. As she walked passed pheasants and servants of the royal house, they bowed to their future queen of the forest. She wanted to scream at them to stop, but the thought of her new husband watching her from the shadows worried her to move faster.
She walked through the large doors, up the stairs, and down the main hall to her father’s quarters but stopped when she passed the large waterfall near the door of her father’s room. The fall fell from the top of the second floor to the pool. The pool on the main floor was crystal clear, enough to see the miniature pond-serpents swimming at the very bottom. Their aqua blue scales reflected the light back to the ceiling in the most impressive patterns even when they snaked through the waters. Lika would sit to watch them for hours while she spoke to them about her life and how she yearned to be free from a world where she didn’t have to listen to her parents tell her who to marry, what to wear, and what to learn. How the waterfall and the pool were put into the house was a mystery to Lika, but she was told that it was old magic of the Ancients.
Before she knocked on her father’s door, she flattened her skirts against her thighs and fixed her white hair to fall behind her shoulders; such was the correct appearance to speak to her father. “Come in,” her father called from the other side of the door in a monstrous voice. Lika opened the door to the room to find her mother, Lady Kona, by her three-sided mirror pinning her hair up in diamonds and white ribbons with her own servants assisting her. Her pale-milky skin and chestnut hair were perfectly matched together and her green eyes made her almost too perfect for any eye to dwell on.
Lika found her father, Lord Quain, by the window, almost waiting to find the land in front of him gone away from his grasp. He was muscular, as would any lord of any land would be, his eyes were a deep gray, almost like the ocean on a cloudy day, and his hair was as black as night. He turned around to face his daughter, now to be wedded and taken away from him.
Lika bowed towards her father, then to her mother as she shepherded her wardens away. When she straightened herself, she found that her parents were staring at her as though she was someone they had forgotten over the past year. She placed her hair behind her shoulders again and spoke, “You wished to see me, Father?”
“We asked to see you five minutes ago. Where you have been during that duration, my dear, I care not for it. When you are asked to be seen, you move as fast as you can in a lady-like manner, do you understand me girl?” her mother said with such a cold stare. Lika nodded placing her head to the ground. “In that case, you should know that your husband has arrived while you were away.”
Fear grabbed at Lika’s face as she turned her gaze from the floor to her mother. During the night, she had called upon to the Fates that he would come at a later time within the year to give her time to make ready for her departure from home; it seemed that even the Fates had denied her. Lika nodded her head without words to reply to her mother. Her true emotions would not matter to anyone because she was a woman to be wedded on her fifteenth birthday. No one would care to listen to how she felt about marriage. All her parents wanted were her to marry, just as they had before her, to a man who had wealth and power, luckily this man was young unlike many other marriages that had occurred before her time. “Forgive my absence, Mother and Father, I will see that I present myself perfectly at the banquet,” Lika said as submissively as she could manage.
“See to it that you do,” her father replied, “by the way, this man is from the Eastern Ridge, quite a bit of power. If you fail me you’ll find that a failed marriage is a hell. Now, go get ready for the banquet.”
His words were sharp enough to make any sensible man to leave before he became angry. Lika nodded and left without another word to her father. As she walked to her room, she realized that he was right; any life without a fixed wedding would be hell and her reputation would drop to the lowest level. She opened the door to her room as the tears began to fall down her face like the waterfall that held every one of her secrets.
|
Submission Name: Midnight's Twilight
