So at first I was a little hesitant to post this, but after seeing the movie I figured what the heck. I just have to do it, and if it sucks, then whatever.
My hopes for this is that the upcoming themes will slowly develop in a understanding way to my readers, and that which will be remembered. So let me know if my hopes turn out!
Just a heads up that this story starts just before, during, then after the movie in case questions do arise.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Maleficent I only own my OC
Chapter 1
I awoke with a heaving start upon my lumpy cot, my stomach growling and clenching in its usual, agonizing way.
I gripped my scratchy blanket hissing in pain as I hunched over my body, taking quick breaths and counting backwards from 10, just as mother had taught me.
"10, 9, 8, 7, 6..."
I slowly unclenched my muscles as I felt the tightening lesson and I felt a sigh of relief escape through my lips.
I'd been living with my stomach hollow for 17 years, and I still haven't gotten used to its daily pangs, but what is expected from a family of four that is so poor they can't even afford to live near other people. One could say that there were mental benefits in always feeling the starvation, and if they did, they'd be insane.
Living life without being allowed the natural necessities just made everything more valuable and at the same time, more difficult to obtain. It was maddening to say the least, to always want more to sustain myself, but to never be able do anything about it.
No matter how much I was able to sneak and steal, it was never enough.
"How stupid I was to think that yesterdays spoils would sustain me," I muttered under my breath as I slid out from under my one blanket, letting my feet skid against the cold, wooden floor.
"Today will have to be different," I stated before I heard the slight creak of my door, alerting me that there was someone behind it.
"It's about time you got up daughter! I need help making food for the men, you know this," my mother said, her wide but hollow brown eyes frantic, but not any more than they usually were.
Her comment caused me to inwardly roll my eyes. "Men" when addressing my father I could understand, but when concerning my little 8 year old brother? To that I scoff openly.
"I'm sorry mother," I murmured softly, knowing that it was banned in my household for my mother or I to ever disagree or raise our voices.
"Just come downstairs and help me," my mother sighed impatiently. I only nodded, a few choice words jumbling in my head, it being the only place where I could speak freely, and followed her through our rickety, chipped wooden house.
Our kitchen consisted of several broken cupboards, an old oven that was always coated in a layer of grime no matter how much my mother and I cleaned it, and, of course, a wooden table made to fit four people.
I then began my regular search through the many cupboards trying to find whatever was left, my stomach still growling, while my mother sifted through our large collection of herbs. Our herbs were the one thing we had a surplus of, but we couldn't live just off of sage and rosemary, nor do they sell for any more than pennies in our local market.
Today when gently searching, however, I felt my heart freeze in despair as I saw that yet another one of our cupboards was completely barren and empty.
"Mother?" I pointed out, a sinking feeling in my gut. I flinched as I felt her step beside me and tense. I heard her breath in heavily before forcing a smile onto her face.
"Don't fret my darling, our yearly supply will restock us ," my mother soothed, her soft hands brushing through my long brown hair. "But until then we'll have to spilt our two meals a day for each of us, to one meal a day."
"What?!" I yelped, my stomach clenching again as if proving a point. The scraps of bread and water I was allowed to eat each day was nowhere near enough to what I needed, even when I did find my food elsewhere, but now I'd be getting half that?! I most likely wouldn't survive until our yearly supply was restocked!
"Hush child!" Mother warned, even through she couldn't blame me for raising my voice in my surprise.
"Those fat pigs. They're taking all of our food while leaving us to starve!" I exclaimed angrily in my head referring more to the tax collectors who took their source of money in the payment of food since we barely had any coins left to spare, than the two boys in my family.
"I'm sorry," I muttered, even though it was most likely too easy to tell that I wasn't. I could feel my mother grip my shoulder, but I still refused to look at her.
"I know it's unfair," she tried. "We're women, of course it is, but that doesn't give us the right to lose track," she soothed, kissing my forehead as if it made everything better.
"We need to keep our men fed and healthy so that they can have enough energy to hunt," she added, which made me openly roll my eyes.
"As if there is any game left to hunt. The king's men have taken it all!" I thought angrily.
I love my mother, and I know she loves me, but at times she was just so naïve it was mind riveting.
"Clara?" I heard my father's light voice call from the doorway of the kitchen. Turning slightly I could see little William standing behind his legs looking completely miserable.
"Yes dear? Mom asked.
"I don't...eh see any food..." my father mumbled sheepishly. William nodded behind him, feigning starvation, which made my blood boil. I stepped forward in my anger, but mother caught me, just as she always did, and answered before I could.
"It's coming sweetheart we've just had a bit of a slow start this morning," Mother answered calmly. I gave my father a second of a cold stare before turning back to opening our last stocked cupboard which was hardly filled with the bread mom and I were forced to share.
"We'll just soak it in thyme to make the taste more bearable. Give them a good portion," Mother whispered in my ear as I passed. This time I didn't even nod.
As I carefully traced my fingers over our meal I heard my mother begin to open the windows and the front door, letting the cool air blow throughout our cottage (shack), blowing out the muggy summer air that had settled overnight.
I then put the bread onto our four cracked plates and brought it over to the table where my father and William were anxiously awaiting their food, even though they had had their 3 full meals yesterday.
As I sat at my usual spot at the table, opposite my mother while my father and brother took the heads of the table, and prepared to eagerly tear into my food as soon as my father gave the command; however, I was interrupted in my daydreaming of the hunger pangs subduing by my mother taking the hardly edible scrap of bread on my plate and placing it onto hers.
"He-!" I started, bewildered, but my mother shot down my shout with a furious glare. I instantly earned another from my father, a silent warning not to raise my voice again.
"One meal a day for the both of us. I'll take breakfast and you will take dinner," Mother said gently, all traces of her anger gone. I looked, shocked, to my father, but he was too busy eating his own large portion of bread to notice.
"Mother," I whimpered softly, my stomach clenching for the third time in the past hour as if on cue. I watched her sigh in defeat before reluctantly offering a portion of her plate to me.
I tore into the bread, and before I even realized what I was doing, I had consumed half of my mother's plate before she had even gotten a single bite.
"Slow down," William commanded with a childish smirk, as if mentally saying "You have to listen to meeee! Or else!"
"Brat," I spat in my head.
With my mouth still full of the seasoned bread, I took just a bit more from my mother's plate, glaring at William, until she took it back to finish whatever I had left her, a saddened expression on her frail face. I hardly noticed.
"Hello birdie!" I heard William cry with glee, his stomach now filled with food, no matter how pathetic of food it was. I turned my head to him to see that he was indeed addressing a bird, a black one to be exact, which was sitting on our open windowsill, cocking its head as if waiting for something.
"Are you hungry?" William continued, and before I could stop him, he threw a piece of whatever was left on his cracked plate to the floor where the bird immediately swooped down and snatched it up in its beak.
My mother and I both jumped, mortified, but this time, she was unable to control my anger.
"William! What are you thinking?! We NEED that food! What in the heavens makes you think that its ok to give THROW it away to some useless creature?!" I shouted at him in my rage, causing William's big blue eyes to fill with tears.
I jumped as the bird cawed in time with my yelling, and I tried to scare it away, but was interrupted by my father roughly grabbing ahold of my wrist making me wince.
I stared up into his rage filled blue eyes fearfully as I heard him growl something guttural deep in his chest.
"Get the hell out of this cottage. And stay out until you learn your place within it," he spat threateningly into my face. I felt a single tear filled with shock and fright fall down my cheek as I wrenched myself out of my father's grip and stumbled over my chair, trying to get away.
"Tarence-" my mother tried with a timid whisper while soothing William, who was still crying, but she was quickly interrupted.
"OUT!" I heard my father roar at me.
With a loud shriek I fled from the kitchen and out the front door, tears now freely falling from my hazel eyes down my cheeks as I ran.
I made it as far as our herb garden only a few hundred feet away from the cottage before I had to stop and catch my breath from my excessive crying and sprinting.
"That bastard! I hate him! I hate all of this! It's so unfair! I hate him!" I cried in my head as I continued to cry, pathetically leaning against the post of our scarecrow, now too weak to even hold myself up.
A loud caw startled me from my crying as I saw...the same bird from the kitchen just sitting on our scarecrow! The same bird that had come in begging for food and had caused this in the first place!
"You disgusting creature! This is your fault!" I shouted at it, blinded by my raging emotions as I turned and fled away from it, unbeknownst to me that it was following in pursuit.
So that's chapter 1! What do you guys think? Our OC's current lifestyle? Her unrealized greediness for food (and perhaps other things), *hint hint*
her wanting to freely express herself but getting punished? And what about poor Diaval getting blamed for the whole thing?
Tell me what you think! Reviews and criticisms are always welcome! Thanks!