It began with a drop, then a few more, and finally a steady rain torrented down upon my parents' property. I looked at it with a smile. My power was finally in control of the elements of weather, and I could make it rain. I closed my eyes and opened my arms to it.
"Autumn, child, what are you doing out in this cold?"
Bann, the butler, chided me and ran out, picking me up and carrying me inside. It wasn't until I felt his touch that I realized that it was cold. The rain I created froze in sheets on the ground, and the fire roared in the parlor, where my mother entertained her guests with stories of my babyhood. But my obsession with sorcery never came up, in public nor private conversation. It was the only thing about me my family hated, and if it weren't for the magic, I would be the Golden Child in their minds, I would get what I wanted, I would be able to knowingly break the rules. But because of my involvement in magic, they all grew distant from me except at mealtimes, where out of courtesy I didn't mention the topic nor did I perform anything relevant to the topic. Other than that, Bann was my only ally. My father tried, but my mother did her best to keep him away from me. I was only eight, and my family was afraid of me. Chalice and Dawn, my sisters, and Geoffry and Alec, my brothers, all picked on me when they thought I couldn't hear and my name was like a curse to them. They blamed everything on me because I was the one wielding the sorcery, I could be the cause of anything and everything in their minds.
Bann brought me inside and dried me up.
"Now what were you doing out there in the cold and wet, pray tell?" He dabbed a washcloth against my face.
"I was making it rain," I said. "Bann I did it, I made it rain!"
"Are you sure that wasn't just the clouds we saw yesterday?"
"The clouds we saw yesterday aren't relevant to the weather today unless they're still there in the morning, and they weren't. I formed the clouds in the sky and I made it rain, Bann!"
He was skeptical, I could see, and a frown formed across my face.
"You don't believe me," I said.
"Of course I believe you, love, only you could make it rain on such short notice." He smiled at me, and I saw that he did believe me.
"What's this?" Chalice strode quickly into the room, tears in her eyes. "Am I hearing this correctly? You're telling me that you're to blame for this dreadful weather? You're the cause of my party being cancelled and the ruination of a perfectly good dress? I'll kill you!" She reached out to me, her fingers stiff, but Bann stepped between us.
"Chalice, darling, please calm down. If you're going to point fingers, you only have yourself to blame, because since you and your siblings refuse to confide in Autumn no matter the subject, how was she to know that you were intended to go to a party this afternoon? How was she to know you intended to wear that dress to it? If you don't tell her anything you can hardly expect her to yield to your wishes, which I can assure you she would do because you're her sister and despite the silent treatment you typically give her, she loves you as such."
Chalice was deathly silent, her gaze piercing.
"Bann, throughout the years I have politely respected your nature and disposition, even though they did encourage the development of that abomination, but now, if you're going to keep me from punishing her for her wrongdoings, Mother and Father will see you as fraudulent and you will be fired. Now step aside!"
"Chalice, you're in a rage, your judgment is blinded."
"No, I can assure you my judgment is just fine, now step aside."
"But you'll hurt Autumn if I do!"
"I'll hurt you if you don't and in any case, she deserves it! You took pleasure in carrying out Mother's punishments for the rest of us when we were her age, now you should at least give me the courtesy of allowing me to indulge in my own carrying out of punishments!"
"First of all, I'll have you know that I did not take pleasure in that, in fact I thought your mother's punishments for the small things you children did wrong were most outrageous. Secondly, Autumn has done nothing wrong and you have no reason to seek revenge. Thirdly, if I think that your judgment is impaired and stepping aside would cause unnecessary damage to an innocent little girl, then I'm not going to step aside." His voice grew louder. Chalice had been yelling the whole time, and certainly Mother's guests had heard and were questioning the argument, and as Bann's voice rose in my defense, they got both sides of the conversation. My mother strode into the room.
"Bann!"
They both stopped, Chalice turned around slowly. I reached for Bann's dangling hand, which had reached down to rest on my head and nudge me behind him as he tried to ward of my sister.
"Bann. We hired you seventeen years ago because we needed someone to help look after the twins and we also knew that as they grew up the house would become impossible to handle on our own. But the operative word there is 'hired'. We hired you. You work for us, and you are to work for us, not against us. If Chalice commands you to do something, then you will do it. From what I understand, the younger one hasn't commanded you to do anything, and even if she did, Chalice's command would take precedence because Chalice is older and she has no reason to be disobeyed."
"I understand this Madame, and I'm sorry for disobeying the noble Chalice, but Autumn has done nothing to deserve whatever punishment Chalice would have given her, and in such circumstances, until I am given a good reason to step aside and permit such cruelty, I shall not," Bann said firmly. Mother's eyes flashed.
"Respect and a paycheck ought to be reasons good enough. You are merely a butler, and Chalice is one of the people you serve. It is clear to me that this no longer means anything to you, as you are still standing before the abomination that is that child. Therefore, you may pack your bags and return to the streets. While I do hope that you will find another job, I hope also that it is one that suits your deserved credibility which, frankly, does not seem to amount to much these days since you started confiding in her."
I could only imagine Bann's face. He stuttered something and his hand instinctively reached down to me and squeezed my hands, then pulled me as close to him as possible.
"Well...Ma...Madame...It has certainly been a pleasure serving you...all these years...And I hope you will find another who can replace me and then some," he said, his voice shaking. Tears welled in my right eye, the eye that no one else saw due to a wave of lavenderish hair that I kept to hide it so that I could hide my emotions. The right side of my face was the side that cried, the side that smiled in happiness, the side that frowned in misery. The other side could do the same things, but my left eye never changed, my left brow never furrowed, the left side of my face was always bland. Bann turned around and looked down at me, his own eyes welling up.
"I'm sorry," he mouthed to me, for he knew Mother would scold him should he kneel down to speak to me himself. My lower lip began to quiver slightly, and I looked past him in fear of Chalice's smirk. Her eyes met mine, and the smirk became a snarl.
"I'll get you, you filthy little whore!" She shoved Bann aside and with a terrified cry I ran. I ran out into the rain, where she stopped to save the dress from more humiliation.
"Let her run," my Mother said. "Maybe she'll get lost and be eaten by the wolves. In that case, Bann, you are permitted to stay and maintain your respectable status among your fellow butlers, but I command you now. Don't mention her name ever again, don't go looking for her, and for godsakes, don't decline this offer because you care about her." There was little Bann could do but watch me disappear into the forest, his heart sinking deeper and deeper with every step I took that led me further and further away from them.
The path in the woods was muddy and slick, and I slipped and fell often, but I did not stop until my feet refused to take me any further. The bottoms of my shoes had worn off and the soles of my feet began to blister and bleed. I finally stopped running and collapsed in the field I was in, my tears finally squishing themselves from both of my eyes instead of just one. I pounded the ground, and the thunder resounded with each strike, the rain fell down harder with each tear I dropped, and I was soaked through. Finally I fell the rest of the way to the grass and my consciousness left me, but the rain continued.
Edit:
MANDATORY TIMELINE DISCLAIMER: This story has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with UnfortunateFateLand or any subsequent sequels or prequels of that story! DON'T TRY TO GROUP THEM TOGETHER! YOU WILL BE HOPELESSLY CONFUSED!
Original A/N:
I'm at something of a standstill in my other story. I know what's gonna happen, I just don't wanna write it yet XD. Poor Vato u.u\\\. So here ya go, another story of mine. Same game, same OC, different angle of approach. We're not even in Minishland right now, we're in some not-on-the-Minish-Cap-overworld place that's somewhere beyond West Hyrule Field.
It will become more of a fanfiction next chapter; right now it looks pretty original, I know. But we're in Zeldaland, I promise. ^-^
I hope you enjoy this intro; please review!