A/N:
Hello, guys! I really hope you like this.
Daughter of Honor
Chapter 1: Little Juni Bartleby.
Elissa Bartleby, a small-town American mother of three, has an early start this morning. Her husband will be returning home from a business trip, and she wants the house to be spotless. However, what was she to do with her little munchkins? Oh! It is Thursday, of course. She wakes up and prepares both breakfast and lunch for her children. Her eldest son, Edward Bartleby, is in the fifth grade, her middle child, Mary Bartleby, is in the third grade, and finally, her youngest, Juniper Bartleby, is just starting kindergarten.
Elissa walks in to wake her little boy up for the day, but as she walks in, she steps on quite a few legos. "Edward James Bartleby!" she yells at her half-awake son. Edward just smiles at her sheepishly, and looks at the floor, pondering whether or not he should clean them from the floor. Edward is a mischievious character. He is always running around, getting dirty in his Sunday clothes, pulling pranks on the next door neighbors, and the list continues to grow. He always has to be the best, and is everything a young boy should be. "Up you go, you little rascal. Be glad your father isn't home, yet. He would have his playful revenge."
The mother then wakes her second eldest Mary. Mary is sleeping peacefully with her pillow-pet underneath her head and her kitten at her feet. "Mary, sweetie, it is time for you to wake up. You have a big day today. We all do."
Mary rubs her eyes before opening them, but when she sees her mother smiling fondly at her, she smiles from ear to ear, "Papa comes home today!" Her mother nodded, and Mary jumps from her bed and begins preparing for school. She is completely a papa's girl. She is always shadowing him when he is home, or waiting by the window for his return (that is if she cannot go with him on his trips).
Elissa smiles at her child, and goes to wake the youngest, but she does not wake her immediately. She watches her from the doorway, the light of the hallway forming her shadow across the carpet. She watches as her baby girl, little Juniper, sleeps peacefully for the first time in what seems to be ages. Her peacefully sleeping is so rare in fact, that Elissa was almost tempted to let her skip the day of school.
Juniper has been having a rather difficult time sleeping recently, just as most children her age do, but they [her dreams] seem to be different than that of the other children. Her dreams are reoccurring, and rather terrifying for even her mother to hear about. Her older siblings both had dreams of robots kidnapping them, or giant ant-eaters taking over the world, simple things like that, but she- she has dreams of black creatures chasing after her. Dreams of war and death. Dreams of one whom she says is equivalent to Satan himself, and her mother can agree.
Elissa wipes away a tear from her eyes as she sees her daughter stir. Something in my gut tells me something just isn't right.
Juniper wakes up to see her mother standing in the doorway, crying. "Mama? Wha' w'ong? Papa home 'oday! You s'ood smiw!" Elissa runs to her baby and holds her tightly. "Mama?"
"Good morning, love," Elissa smiled sadly at her little red-headed girl. "Let's get you ready for Kindergarten. Today is show-n-tell. Have you picked your ten objects?" Elissa said as she helped the sleepy toddler dress.
"Yes, Mama. I pick d'ese!" Juniper said with pride in her decisions. Elissa looked at the stack on top of the child-sized table.
Juniper had picked out her favorite family photo album with pictures from even before she was born. She also picked out a few books, but a couple catch her mother's eye. "Sweetie, you can't even read these," Elissa gently speaks to her child, but Juni will have none of it.
"Mama! You an' Papa rea' em 'oo me! 'Member?" Juniper protests, bouncing her wavy red hair.
"Yes, yes," her mother stifled a laugh. A book she had picked out is one of Greek Mythology, tales her father would tell her as bedtime stories. The second book is a Disney storybook that consists all of her favorite stories. The final book is a history book that she has had her father and mother read to her.
After setting the books back onto the table, she notices that there are only nine things on the table. Juniper is supposed to have ten. "There are only nine things for show-n-tell. Where is the tenth?" Her mother asked. Juniper smiles as she pulls a stool out from under her bed, and on it, she attempts to reach a her white jewelry box. She takes out her custom locket that was made for her before she was born.
The locket is a silver heart that entwines itself around a white diamond. Around the edge of the locket, there are engravings that say: "Juniper Allison Bartleby. Our hope. Our song." Inside the locket is a picture of her grandparents, parents, and siblings.
Juniper wasn't supposed to live, so the locket is a resemblance of the support she had through her illness as a babe. "This is my las' it'm!" Juni held the chain high, silently asking her mother to put it around her neck. And after a moment of gazing in awe at her strong daughter, she hooked the necklace around the little girls neck, and proceeded to pull up her hair.
After only a few passing moments, Juniper now has braided pigtails and is almost ready for school. She and her mother pack her backpack, and are ready for breakfast.
Downstairs, the two elder siblings had already started their food, tired of waiting on their mother and sister. "You said grace, correct?" Elissa asked her children. They nodded a 'yes' with their cheeks puffed out, full of scrambled eggs.
After breakfast, the two elder children loaded the school bus, and the youngest was waiting to get into the locked car. Though, right when her mother opened the door, the little girl started to do the ever-so-famous potty dance. Elissa sighed, but unlocked the house once more, allowing the little girl, still carrying her backpack, to the downstairs bathroom.
The little girl shuts the door behind her and sits her backpack beside the door. After she cared for her business, she pulls her backpack on once more, but something was strange. The light grew brighter, and she walked toward the body mirror. Her emerald eyes evaluating herself, but what she is seeing is not herself. She sees plains with roaming horses, and without thinking, she touches the mirror, but her fingers did not feel the cold glass. Instead, her hand went right through and felt a breeze.
Curiosity took over her, and she stepped into the mirror, but once through, there is no return. She cries out in panic, searching for her mother, father, grandparents, or even Aunt Vickie (whom she hated so), anyone that she knew, but she was alone.
She wanders around the plains, trying to find help from a police officer she had hoped, but there are none. Why would there be? After all, this was inside her mirror, in the middle of nowhere. She sits down on the grass, says a little prayer, and cries herself to sleep for the night.
Prince Theodred is out riding today with his father, King Theoden, for the first time in a long time. Both have been looking forward to the father-son quality time they now share for roughly a week now. They spoke of politics and other matters, but really, they only jested amongst each other, but when both eye the little girl looking for something to eat, their jokes are set aside. Theoden calmly makes his way toward the little girl. "Hello, little one," he says, calmly, but his face showing little sign of emotion. The little girl snaps her head, eyes wide with shock and terror. "I apologize. I did not mean to startle you." The girl is not reassured, however.
"Mama say' not to tawk to stwangers," she mumbled as she backed away, tripping over her backpack.
"And who is your mama, little one?" Theoden asks as he helps the little girl up from the ground.
"Mama is Elissa Bartleby," she speaks with hesitation, "An' Papa is Keith Bartleby." Her tears begun to fall as she mentioned her parents. How the king wanted to help this little girl.
Theoden looks up to his son. "And what is your name?" Theodred asks.
The little girl with the messy red pigtails only looks at Theodred and stutters, "I am Juniper Bartleby." After silence over took the three, Juniper starts to cry once more. "I am los'. I was in our bathroom at home, an' now, I'm here. Its been 'wo [two] days since I h've eaten, too..."
"Well, little one," Theoden says to Juniper, "Why don't you stay with my son and I until we can find your family?"
The little girl, who was still afraid of the man, readily accepted the offer. Anything to help her find her mama and papa.
A/N- What do you guys think? Constructive criticism is welcome (Ridicule is not). ^^