"Mommy!" A small girl, around 7 years old, yelled out. Her mother looked up from the stuffed toy she was sewing and saw her youngest daughter running towards her. The woman let a huge smile take over her features at the site. Her daughter was running towards her from the forest, carrying a sack filled with miscellaneous objects. This was something that happened every week.
"Mommy!" The little girl huffed out once she reached her mother. She was panting and wheezing from the run but nothing less, squealed as she opened her bag, "I found so many different little things outside today!"
The girl's mother watched as the girl pull out random objects from her sack. She watched as she pulled out a small silver necklace and her eyes widen with shock," Where did you find that Lissandra?"
"I found it in the woods," The little girl started to explain," It was lying in the middle of the ground, under some dirt. I grabbed it for Cora!"
Her mother's heart melted at the love Lissandra had for her sister," I'm sure she's going to love it dear!"
The child handed her mother the necklace and she examined it. The chain was made out of gold and the charm hanging off of the chain was a ruby red heart. It was surely beautiful.
"It's quite bea-" The mother started but was cut off by coughs. The woman was sick and was getting worse every day. The family was poor so there was nothing to do to help her. Her husband and eldest daughter, who was 13, helped transfer wheat to different kingdoms, so it was usually just her and Lissandra at the house. Her coughing didn't seem to clear fast and she held a piece of fabric to her mouth. She suddenly felt hot liquid enter her mouth and tasted iron. She pulled the cloth away and saw dark red staining the cloth.
The little child's eye widen in shock at the site and asked, "Mama, are you okay?!"
The mother put the cloth down and placed her daughter in her lap, holding her tight," Yes, I'm okay sweetie."
The little girl grabbed her mother tightly, "Don't worry, we are going to make sure you get better."
The woman smiled and then changed the subject, "Would you like to hear a story?"
The girl pulled away from her mother and widen her eyes," Oh yes! Please mama!"
The woman laughed and she began to tell a tale. The little girl's eyes were wide the whole time as she listened to the story. This was her reaction to every story her mother told her. Her mother always told her stories. It filled the girls head with a lot of imagination and it's what inspires her to go into the woods and explore. Her mother wanted to make sure Lissandra was able to enjoy her life at a young age and not worry that her mother was dying and there was nothing they could do.
After her mother was done telling the sorry, she saw that the little girl feel asleep in her arms. Smiling sadly, she ran her long, thin fingers down the child's long brown hair and watched the girl sleep. She felt tears in her eyes as she realized how much she hated that she was going to have to leave them.
"Lissandra, please know I will always love you."
(Lissandra's P.O.V ) 8 years later…
I walked out of the forest after a long morning of exploring, and towards my home when I heard angry yelling. I quickened my pace towards my house and I saw my older sister screaming at our father, who was almost passed out from drinking. I gulped slightly, scared she will see me not doing work, and slowly tipped toed towards our little house near our mill. Her anger quickly got worse and she threw fathers beer jug towards my way. Out of fear that it was going to hit me, I screamed out a little. My sister quickly shut up and turned towards me, glaring as she did. My hands started to shake a little, frightened of what she will do to me once she gets to me. Every time she took a step, I took one backwards until my back hit the house. She finally approached me and got in my face, anger radiating off her body.
"Cora, I-"I started, but she forced my mouth shut with her hand.
"Don't make up excuses Lissandra," She spat at me, letting go of my mouth, "I told you, if we don't get any work done, we don't eat, and I would love to eat this week."
"I know, I-"But she cut me off again.
"No, you don't know!" She screamed in my face, making me shake even more," You need to grow up and get those stupid little tales out of your head and work. Not that exploring you do. Do you understand me?"
I just stared at her, refusing to answer her. There was no way she would make me stop adventuring. My silence seemed to make her even angrier because all the sudden she smacked me, hard. I let out a whimper and a few tears trickled down my face.
"Do you hear me Lissandra?" She yelled at me, and started shaking me. When I refused to answer once more, she threw me to the ground and screamed," You're useless, just like father! If you can't do your fair share of work, then just leave!"
Cora then walked away from me and grabbed the handles of the wheel barrel, leaving father and I behind. I stayed on the floor, glaring at her back as she walked away. My sister changed so much since our mother died, and somehow blamed father and I, taking her sadness and anger out on us. I looked over at my father and I saw he was watching me with drunken eyes before turning around and going to sleep. My mouth fell open a little just knowing my father watched my abuse and didn't care enough to help.
I pushed myself off the ground and made my way over to him. His snores were quiet but they made me angry. I nudged his foot a little with him, trying to wake him up.
"Father, please," I begged, but he ignored me. I tried again and again, but each time he just shrugged me off, muttering words like "leave me alone" or "get away."
"Please," I whispered one last time and shook him hard. He then sat up, making me yelp in surprise and he pushed me on the ground with full force.
"I said stop it!" He yelled towards me before passing out. I stared at him with wide eyes, not believing how my father turned out. Anger swept through my body and I forced myself off the ground, marching towards my house.
Once I was inside our little house, I walked into Cora and I's bedroom, and grabbed my sack. I was leaving, there was nothing left for me here at this Mill. Cora hated me and father was too drunk to even bother to care. Struggling to keep the tears in my eyes as they crept up, I started throwing some pieces of clothes and other little things, like a brush, a perfume bottle, and my dagger, into my bag. The bag was only so big, so I was pretty limited on things to pack. My eyes wondered over to my bed and I saw the stuffed toy my mom made me when I was younger just sitting there. A few tears managed to escape my eyes and run down my face, and I quickly grabbed the stuffed dog. I squeezed the dog closer to my body as I exhaled quietly.
"Mother…" I whispered, "Why did you have to die?"
After a few more minutes of composing my emotions, I grabbed my sack, running out the door and into the wildness surrounding my house. With nowhere to go, I just started running, hoping I would find a place that I would be able to call home. With the wind hitting my face and the leaves crunching under my boots, I never felt so relieved before in my life.
I've been walking around the woods for several hours and the Sun was starting to set by this point. After walking around for a few hours, I didn't find any inn, not even a little village. The temperature started to drop making my body shiver. I didn't have any food with me, so my stomach was growling loudly and I didn't have any water, making my throat parched. My throat hurt from dehydration and my feet hurt from walking. I felt miserable. Ironic considering how I felt when I left.
After a few more minutes of walking around, I decided to stop and take a break. I gathered dry wood and leaves from the area around me and began to start a fire. It was a little troubling at first, but I remembered how my mother taught me and was proud when I got it to light. There was a small log that looked good enough to be a seat and I dragged it over to the fire. I sat on the log and placed my hands in front of the flames, hoping to warm up some time soon. There was no way I could sleep in this weather without freezing to death, so I sat next to the fire and stared at it.
I felt my mood starting to fall again as I sat there and sighed. Was father and Cora wondering where I went? Did they even care? Why do I care what they even think? They hurt me, badly. Bringing my knees to my chest, I pressed my face into them, trying to hold the tears in. God, would they stop? I didn't want to be sad, I didn't want to be hurting. What did I even do to make this happen? Was it my fault that mother die-
"No," I told myself out loud, furiously wiping the few stray drops of water from my eyes and cheeks," There was nothing you could do to help Mother, she was sick Lindy. Don't hurt yourself over it."
But I knew I was never going to convince myself otherwise. I did blame myself. I should've been there for mother. I shouldn't have gone out to play in the woods. Everything that happened today was my fault.
"Cora was right…" I grumbled bitterly as I ran my hand through my hair, "I am useless."
All the sudden, I heard the bush behind me rustle, causing me to fly up off the log. My eyes observed all around the bush, but I didn't see anything. I slowly stuck my hand into my sack and pulled out my dagger. Out of sheer curiosity, I slowly unsheathed my dagger and walked towards the bush. My hands and legs started to shake as I got closer to the bush, but I closed my eyes and forced myself to jump into the bush and swing my dagger around. When I realized I didn't hit anything, I slowly opened one eye and saw nothing in front of me.
I let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat that managed to form off my forehead, and whisper, "It must have been an animal."
My heart was pumping and my body from shaking from the adrenalin and panic that went through my body as I placed my dagger in my boot and walked back to my small campsite. But, as soon as I walked back into the small clearing, I saw an old man going through my sack.
"Hey!" I yelled at him, putting my empty hands in front of me," Let go of my sack!"
My shouting must have startled the man, because his head shot up in freight and he took off running into the forest with my sack in his hands. My mouth fell open as shock and anger immediately filled my body and I ran after him.
"Come back here!" I screamed at him. He was a good 20 feet ahead of me, and he was pretty fast as well, like he did this all the time, "Please stop!"
I continued chasing after this man for a good 10 minutes or so before my body started to slow down from exhaustion and the darkness forcing the man out of my sight. No. No. No. This can't happen. I try to push myself even harder, running past a whole bunch of trees or bushes before I felt my foot get catch something.
My whole body went flying forward and I slammed into the forest ground. The impact caused a sharp pain to shoot up my abdomen and I let out a scream of pain. Tears prickled my eyes, this time out of real pain, and clouded my vision ever more. I placed a hand onto my side and moved my head up to look in front of me. There was nothing but darkness. That jerk was long gone by now which made even more tears fall from my eyes. He took everything I had left. He even took the last thing I had of my mother.
I slowly sat up, gasping from the pain in my side and sobbed, not bothering to hold it back. There was no way I could hold it in. All the sadness I felt, the loneliness, the uselessness, the pain of the fall, just all those negative feelings were finally being released as I sobbed my heart out. I used my spare hand to angrily wipe my face of tears, but they kept coming. I pushed myself off the ground, ignoring the sharp pain in my side and started yelling and kicking and punching the closest tree near me. My hands and feet felt as if they were on fire, but it felt good to release my feelings, even if it was involuntary.
Unfortunately, my release was cut short by a loud grunt that shook the ground around me. I instantly felt stupid and smacked my forehead. How the hell could I forget about the Ogres?! Panic attacked my body as I felt the shakes get more and more violent. Like my feet had a mind of its own, I started fleeing the scene and running for my life. I already knew the only option was to run and hope to God I didn't get murder tonight, but I had a feeling that wasn't going to happen.
I ran as long as my body allowed me before I jumped into the closest bush. I didn't hear nor feel the ogre's stomping anymore, but that didn't stop me from being absolutely terrified. I stayed in place for a few minutes, and hope started to fill my body when I released I managed to get away from the beast…or so I thought. I felt the ground start to shake again, and huffs and rumbles from the monster. I let my head drop and started to silently cry. I should've just stayed put. I placed a hand over my mouth as the tears got worse. It was all my fault, I was a coward. Weak. Nothing.
I slowly reached into my boot, the pain in my side totally numb and grabbed my dragger. I pulled it out of the sheath and did the only thing I thought I could do. I pressed the sharp blade against my wrist and slide it across. I covered my mouth to keep myself from shouting out in pain. Blood was oozing out my wrist at a fast pace and all I could do was stare at it numbly. Was that normal? Feeling nothing? What happened to me?
My mind started to go cloudy and I swayed back and forth slowly as I started to feel lightheaded. My body felt tired. I guess it was from all the running and crying, but I collapsed onto the ground. The blood was dripping out of arm as I laid there. I wonder how long it will take to bleed out. Will I even bleed out?
The air around me instantly got colder, to the point where I started shaking uncontrollably and the wind started to pick up. Trees were being thrown around and leaves were flying off, landing around me. Then it just stopped. Like none of that happened at all. It seemed to scare off the ogre, whatever that was.
"What…" I mumbled in confusion. My head started to go all fuzzy again, and I had to force my eyes open. Something didn't feel right. It felt as if something was watching me. I slowly moved my head to side more and in the distance, I saw two bright white eyes. Strangely, I didn't feel scared, as one probably would've been. I felt compelled to it instead, almost like a trance. My arm started to lift itself off the ground, reaching out towards the strange lights. The eyes started to hover over to me and the closer it got, I realized it was a shadow. It reached out its hand and took a hold of mine. The touched made goose bumps run down my neck, and before I could even move my hand, the shadow shot up into the air taking me with it. The force of the pull causing the pain in my wrist and side to hurt so bad that I let out a loud scream before blacking out.
The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that the air around me felt warm and humid. It threw me off a bit considering it was freezing before I blacked out. I opened my eyes and instantly noticed the difference in the trees. They weren't the same stubby, thick, short leaf trees that scattered across the Enchanted Forest. Most of these trees were tall and had long leaves with vines hanging around them. I closed my eyes again and rolled over onto my side, but yelp with a pain went through my side. That's when all the memories from last night race through my mind and instantly shot up off the jungle floor, ignoring the pain.
Once I managed to hold up my balance, I looked up from the ground and silently jumped backwards in surprise. In front of me was a small group of teenaged boys, maybe 12 to 18, standing in front of me with weapons of different sorts pointing straight at me. My eyes went wide when the eldest of the group walked up to me and pointed his club towards my face.
"Who are you?" He demanded. This boy had to be around 17 years old. He had shaggy blonde hair that was covered in dirt, and a long gruesome scar that went from one side of his face to the other.
He didn't seem too happy when I didn't reply because he snarled and pushed the club into my shoulder hard. I pouted and rubbed my shoulder as he yelled at me, "Are you deaf? Who are you?!"
"Uh…" Was the only thing I managed to say, highly confused by the situation I was currently in. The blonde stared intensely into my eyes so I dropped my focus down to my wrist, noticing that it was bandaged up. My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. That was odd, none of these boys looked like they would've been willing to help me out.
I glanced back up to the boy in front of me and asked him, "Did you do this?" And pointed to my wrist.
He sighed in annoyance before snapping in my face," Are you stupid or something? Just tell me your name!"
My mouth dropped slightly from his bluntness, but I quickly recovered and answered, "Lissandra! My name is Lissandra Mills."
The group of boys started to snicker once I said my name. Did they think my name was funny or something? I glanced back at the boy in front of me and raised an eyebrow. He looked as if he was trying not to burst into laughter, "Lissandra? What a stupid name."
My jaw fully dropped from shocked at this boy in front of me, "Excuse me?!"
He ignored me and looked at the boys behind me, "Grab her and let's take her back to camp. "
I started to panic at his order, "Wha-"
But I was cut off by two boys grabbing my arms in full force and pushing me forward. My body contorted in a weird way which made me scream out from pain. There was a shooting pain coming from my side and the way I was standing wasn't helping. The boys around me looked at me in surprise and one of my capturers asked, "Are you alright?"
I squeezed my eyes shut and breath out, trying to ease the pain and answered his question," No, I think I broke something earlier. My side is killing me."
"Ignore her Harry," The tall blonde told the boy helping me, "Just get her to the camp."
"But-"The boy, Harry, started but the blonde boy snapped at him, "Just do it!"
Harry immediately shut up and sent a sorry smile my way. I sent him a small smile in return but continued to look in front of me. The boys and I walked through small paths in the jungle to get to the camp. Harry helped my balance a few times and made sure I didn't trip over any lose roots or rocks. He honestly was making me feel comfortable, unlike the rude blonde ahead of us.
After a few minutes of silence, Harry quietly asked me, "Are you doing okay?"
I sent him a knowing glare, and he quietly chuckled. He couldn't have been more than 14 years old. The top of his head reached the height of my nose, and his baby face screamed pre-puberty. I managed to smile a little and replied, "I'll be okay. Thank you."
He returned the smile but stayed quiet for the rest of the walk to their camp.
After the longish walk through the jungle with the boys talking, giggling, and teasing each other, we finally arrived to what I guess was their home. There was a fire pit in the middle of the clearing, with log benches surrounding it. In the trees above us, there were tree-houses varying in sizes and colors mostly between light and dark shades of brown. They were all connected by balconies and wooden bridges that went from tree to tree. I stared up at the little houses with my mouth a little opened, it was truly an amazing site to see. Still a little dazed by the area, Harry chuckled at me gently pushed me down onto one of the log benches.
The mean blonde walked over to me and I quickly shut my mouth and looked at him, "Lift up your shirt."
I blinked at him, slightly repulsed and shocked that he would even tell me to do that. He just stared down at me, waiting for me to comply. Harry seemed to notice my discomfort and he smacked the blonde on the arm, hard.
"Felix, you idiot. You can't just ask a girl that."
The blonde, whose name was Felix, glared at him and then glared at me, "You stupid girl, we need to see your side!"
I scoffed at his tone and his insult," I'm not stupid, you jerk."
He sighed in annoyance and took a hold of my shirt, "Hey! Le-"
"Shut up!" Felix snapped at me. I flinched at his tone, but I tried to pry his hands off me.
"Uh, Felix," Harry said, looking concerned by my discomfort," You should probably stop."
I managed to get his grip to release, and said," I agree with Harry."
Felix glared down at me, grabbed wrist hard and said in a quiet, but dark tone," You listen here girl. You listen to us, not the other way around, you-"
"Is there a problem Felix?" An accented voice questioned. Felix instantly dropped his hand off my non-banged wrist and turned around to look at the person who owned the voice. I rubbed my now sore wrist and peer my head from behind Felix to see the boy. My eyes went slightly wide with the boy now in my view. He was gorgeous. He was quite tall, and the moonlight made his skin look ghostly pale. He had light brown hair that was slightly wavy that was ruffled slightly. He looked a couple years older than me, maybe around 17 or 18. His face still had slight baby chub, but only around his cheeks and his nose was button like and small which made for some cute features.
He pushed off the tree he was leaning against and walked towards Felix and I. The scarred boy just sighed and grabbed my banged wrist this time and pulled me up onto my feet. I hissed a little from the stinging pain on my wrist and the searing pain from my ribs. He pulled me to stand in front of him and the boy walked in front of me.
"I'm glad to see you got the girl here safely," The boy told Felix. The blonde just rolled his eyes," Hey, ease up on her."
Felix released his grip on me and said," She won't let us see her injury on her side."
The boy, who put a good 6 inches to my 5'3 height, glanced down at me and looked into my eyes. I felt a small blush creep up to my cheeks and my stomach do a weird flip. His eyes were a beautiful color. They were light green with specks off blue, and the moonlight made them glow.
"Now, why won't you show us your injury?" The boy asked, smiling down at me," We are just trying to help."
I scoffed and replied," Well maybe if someone of us were nice," I shot Felix a small glare, which he gladly returned, and looked back at the boy," Maybe I wouldn't feel so uncomfortable about this."
The boy gave me a boyish smirk and let out a low chuckle," Haha! You have fire, I like fire."
I probably would've returned the smile if it wasn't for the look that flashed into his eyes. The look made a feeling of panic settle in the pit of my stomach.
He waited for my reply and when I just stared at him, he said, while pointing to my side," Well, I suggest showing us darling."
"No," My answered must have amused him, because he let out a laugh. But that didn't last long because his face instantly got serious.
"I suggest you listen to me," He told me, darkly. The look was back in his eyes. It was malicious and fucking scared me." I hate when people don't listen to me."
Regardless of his tone, I simply smirked at him and said," Well I suggest you give me your name. I'm not doing anything till you do."
He eyes light up with amusement and darkness," Well, if you insist. My name is Peter. Peter Pan."
