The banquet was to be started at twilight, the sacred time of day when the gods’ powers were beginning to become stronger as the day’s rays faded away. Lika replaced her sky blue dress with a silver dress made of the finest silk and satin making it reflect the light much like the pond-serpents in the waterfall’s pool. Her hair was braided close to her scalp on two different sides with a silver circlet around her head.
“You look extravagant, Lady Lika! You will make Lord Kuait feel like he’s the luckiest man on Earth!” her guardian said as though she were the one to choose the Lord Kuait.
Her cheeks glowed red in anger and hatred towards her parents for deciding on this marriage: to make her leave them and White Fern Forest for the rest of her life. “Thank you, Sieana, take me to the banquet, I do feel that everyone is awaiting my arrival.”
Sieana led her Lady to the Great Hall near the main entrance of the castle. She left before the large doors opened for Lika, for servants of the household were not allowed into the Great Hall unless they were needed. Every head in the Great Hall turned to her and their voices hushed enough to hear a pin drop to the ground. Lika kept her head high and pointed forward as she walked towards the dais. She didn’t notice that there was someone in the shadows watching as she passed by. Lord Kuait was sitting to the left of her father with a warm smile to his face. He had black hair and the darkest eyes she had ever seen in her life. Many a women would blush under his gaze, but Lika didn’t see anything special within him; he just didn’t fit her type of person according to his ‘high and pride’ smile. Lika realized that she was to become another piece of his property like his estate and his village that he presided over. I would rather die before becoming another extension of your property, Lika thought as she sat down next to Lord Kuait.
Everyone’s attention left from Lika to the meal that was brought out before him or her. Everything imaginable from almost every side of the Western territories was brought from the kitchens to the tables before Lika. She closed her eyes as she reviewed this year’s current events:
Humans had started to gain power over the Eastern Lands, driving the anything and everything from power. The Vampires and the Werewolves were the first to go, running to the Southern Lands, along with along with the Goblins, Black and White Witches, the Warlocks, the Wizards, and even the lesser creatures like the dragons. Though Lika and her kind were much like the humans, they had left the Eastern Lands many centuries ago when the Humans had begun to take power.
Lika was an Alicorn Shifter, much like the people that sat before her, much like Lord Kuait, and much like her parents. Alicorn Shifters dominated the Eastern Lands that had been left solely for them. They were the closest to ridding the humans of their powers.
A hefty loaf of bread was set in front of Lika, brining her back to from her thoughts and what was thought of her. She picked up a slice of bread when the glass window shattered to her right. Everyone’s head turned and the joyous talking subsided into a lethal silence. Just then, the Great Hall doors flew open and a raid of humans poured in from the outside hall.
Lika didn’t have much time to think when Lord Kuait grabbed her arm and raced away to the other side of the room. Before they had gone more than five steps, a dagger landed in the left side of his chest. He fell to the ground, nearly dragging Lika with him, dying without a sound. As she stood up, she found that her father was no longer a part of the living world, laying in a bloody mess of deep red around his body, and her mother was nowhere in sight. Someone grabbed her arm and led her away from the chaos and towards the left window, which overlooked the river Lika had been at earlier this morning.
“Who are you?” Lika asked, not sure whether or not to trust this person. In the dim light, she could make out his blonde but his was different from the normal color; his had blue tips. He was only a head taller than her, somewhere within her age, she guessed, and he was thin and lean.
“I’ll tell you later, we must escape this danger,” he said. Lika could tell from his accent that he was not human, mostly because humans’ accents were rather harder to understand. and she could trust him. He grabbed one of the human’s broadswords and flung it out the window. The shattering glass flew in a hundred different directions and both the boy and Lika leaped out the window and fell towards the river to land with a loud splash.
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Submission Name: Midnight's Twilight (Part II)
