How do you begin a story? Once upon a time? It doesn't make sense how stories can span from a day to a millennium. What is the purpose of story telling in the first place? What is the point of anything? Is there really a reason to share this at all? Why is the population so fascinated by tales? Why do I want to tell it so badly?
My story...if that's what you can call it...lasts a bit of both. Part of it being my own hallucination of myself and the other being my current and real life. The blood between the two has mixed between the two...it's impossible to tell a difference.
It seems like time didn't exist back then but it did. The hands of a clock ticking menacingly. We were unable to see it in the land before time. Nothing used to exist: telephones, permanent lights, televisions, cars, and a plentiful of other things. We use to rely on each other trading with each other, able to see one another's faces. Now look at us, staring at plastic all damn day. The "great" human race has been demoted to prisoners of these time wasting devices. I don't think anyone fathoms how time slips away. How little there is and how short youth is.
My grandfather is right, I am an old soul. Who am I kidding? I don't know who I am anymore. It sounds so silly but it's the truth. I feel so lost here...like I was never meant to be here. It's almost like I come from such a distant time and such a distant location, it's hard to tell who I am. Rei Hino or Ex-Killer Queen of Mars?
But that's the question for everyone, "Who am I, anyway?" Most people end up following aimlessly behind charismatic leaders, straight into the depths of hell. It's hard to think I was one of them. Maybe not extremely hard to fathom but I thought myself to have better judgment. Sadly, that is not the case. I am no better than anyone. I may even be worse. But I'm not being fair, I was a child.
My earliest memory was when my parents told me while they were hallucinating. The story begins millenniums before now. I once was a warrior, a beautiful fearless warrior hailing from the Red Planet. My name was Princess Bellona the belligerent.
According to my parents, I didn't exactly have humble beginnings. I was born during the peak of my planet's civil war. They believed me to be the child that united the nations. I was not. I was an instigator. I yearned for the bloodshed and I stirred fear in men three times my size because I didn't have mercy. It was simply something I was born without.
Legends say that I grabbed a sword rather than a rattle. I licked my wounds rather than cry and that I hated sympathy. One legend comes to mind that my father said I was a tomboy and I killed him for that comment because I was not a boy nor would I have ever wanted to deal with someone or something like that. I would never want to think about some blustering boy with sticky red hands with blisters. I was a girl and my whole planet feared me. I wasn't anything like a boy. I was much better than a boy.
My story takes a turn when I hit puberty and my deadly powers became worse. I was plagued with visions constantly foretelling of a ghastly end to the reign of the dynasty and I would be at hand of it leading my men to a quick defeat of the kingdom's quiet yet dominant rule. The visions soon became more powerful shaking my entire body and putting me in bed for days, even weeks. I woke up sweating constantly and with no memory of the visions.
Puberty betrayed my body, I bled and ached. I could literally feel my hormones stretching me to this child-lady. The petite warrior became a gangly and weak warrior. If only I could have seen what was happening in those days of unconsciousness. The power of Mars was possessing my body turning me into what I needed to be. The thing that would betray my ideals. I didn't understand. I still don't understand why I was chosen.
The mutation of my powers burned through my veins. As a girl, my abilities were simply attentive and excellent in warfare but this was new. According to my chamber nurses, I screamed, hissed, barked, cursed, and everything in between.
I remember this horrible vision grabbing me and controlling my senses. All I could see was destruction and dead bodies, a sight that normally delighted me but I felt myself crying until a small, flaxen haired child was placing her hand on top of my head.
She smiled sadly and said, "I didn't mean for this to happen." I could feel myself filled with anger and rage at the thought of this little girl. Not at the girl but the thing-I'm still unsure what thing-inflicted it on her. I went to wrap my hands around her when I felt a sword silently slip through my back.
I woke up to a woman with pin straight hair in a strange style sitting at my bedside and all my nurses bowing. The woman's long white eyelashes covered the tips of her closed eyes as she whispered unintelligible words. Her pink lips moved quickly in an unnatural rhythm I had never seen before.
I placed a hand to my inflamed, perspired forehead. My fingers were now long and delicate; I looked under the blankets to see a new, swollen chest. I had woken up as a woman with the shadow of a haunting vision. I shrieked when I saw my body but the woman simply released my hand with a delicate smile which I wasn't aware she was holding.
She smiled softly to me and said softly. "The Guardian of Mars, it is a pleasure to finally meet you."
Like the belligerent child I was, I began to scream and cry and throw things. As if she was completely used to it, she simply swayed to miss the objects I threw which only made me angrier. The maids shielded the lady from my temper tantrum and dressed me. The head maid begged for her forgiveness on the behalf of the not-so-tiny Martian Queen. She simply nodded and walked in strides to the next room.
They wiped me with an ice rag that when it touched my skin, it hissed. They whispered something in informal Martian that I didn't understand. Worried of my temper they quickly explained in fragments of Formal Martian that I needed to respect this lady for she was the holder of my future.
I groaned but agreed to not act so childish. I heard one of the guards whisper about how I had sped through my growing process and that it met a change. I narrowed my eyes at his comment and he stiffened. Fortunate for him, I didn't have any weapons on me.
I sank into my throne when I arrived to the room. The cushions pressed firmly on my back but had just enough give where it wasn't painful to sit. The woman stood quietly, unwavering, unmoving, and smiled. Her thin frame confused me because of her swollen middle. I was simply amazed by her.
"Queen Bellona of Mars, my name is Queen Serenity of the Moon." My eyes opened quickly unsure of the words I had just heard. The name shot respect up my back and I sat straight up.
"Your Majesty-" Just because I wanted to overthrow her didn't mean that I didn't have the utmost respect for the light-haired queen. I heard that she ruled over her people with a quiet iron fist. She understood people's desires and kept the peace.
"Please. The formalities aren't necessary. We're going to see each other much more often." She smiled. "Oh I guess I should explain." She giggled and cleared her throat. "I am with child. A daughter. As you know your aunt was part of my guards and you soon shall be my daughter's." For the first time in my life, I was awe-struck. I could sense the power radiating off of her. "The past millennium the guards have gotten closer to the royal families and now you queen of Mars have a duty to fulfill. Strange isn't it?" She placed a finger to her lips. "Will you leave your planet to come to our kingdom? This job will give you more duties than you ever imagined for yourself, take you to places you've never dreamed of but you must step down from your throne until my daughter releases you as queen."
Queen Serenity's poise and presentation of the question simply shocked me but I was even more shocked by this offer. Me? Leave Mars? Who would take over? Queen Serenity long eyelashes batted with each blink as she anticipated my reaction.
"You were destined for this job, Bellona. Can't you feel it? Can't you see it?" She folded her hands over her belly and looked to it endearingly. "There is a place where you are needed more than your home planet."
I nodded. I could do both but the whole idea made me a bit anxious. She sighed a bit to her self and asked me if she wanted to feel the baby I was going to protect. I shook my head to say no. I hadn't realized before that she was speaking formal Martian without hesitation.
She nodded as if she understood. I wanted to be a queen like her but then it suddenly hit me. I wouldn't be able to. I had to give it up for her swollen abdomen.
"You must help her. You have to protect her for when I can't always be around." Her voice became anxious, her movements less fluid. "I can't lose her too. Please...please help me protect my baby." She said, her calm vise broken. I nodded and soon, my right-hand man and I created a coup to occupy them while I was gone including a girl that looked like me. Only a handful of people knew what happened during the past month.
I left Mars, quickly and silently leaving Bellona too.