beta reader job still open. anyone want it or should I stop trying?

about half of this was done at 3 in the morning so keep that in mind

I would have had this out a long time ago but I became addicted to LAKnights Once Upon A Time and have been staying up late for a couple of days reading it. It's so freaking amazingO.O


Chapter 8

Such a pretty sight.

A field full of beautiful wildflowers stretching for a far as I can see. High mountains to my left the sea to my right and behind me the forest where birds chirped happily to each other. The sky is cloudless and blue with the sun high in the air. I step out from the edge of the forest into the field and almost immediately three flower faeries came to greet me tinkling in their bell like language. I smiled at them and allowed them to nest in my hair and on my shoulder. My fingers brushed the tips of the grass at my waist. I inhaled the sweet smell of grass, begonias and crocuses. I picked one and gave it to the faerie in my hair. I smiled as she thanked me for it.

I walked further and found a small pond. The water was so still and untouched that dust had began to gather on its surface. I dipped a foot in to test the temperature and found it pleasantly warm. I waded in till I was knee deep. I could feel small fish swimming around me and I giggled as they tickled my feet. I felt so calm and peaceful this was truly a perfect day. I was pulled out of my bliss by a slight shaking in the ground. Startled I looked at the pond and noticed the surface began to warp with each dull thud. This wasn't an earthquake. It stopped suddenly.

The birds in the forest had grown silent. My heart pounded in my chest as the silence stretched on. I was afraid to breath and the faeries retreated to hide in the folds of my dress. The birds began their music after what felt like hours and I let out a sigh of relief and mentally mocked myself for my baseless fear. The faeries came out and chattered about how afraid they were and I comforted them with soft words in their language.

The shaking started again with renewed strength and I fell in the water. The ground in front of the pond began to split open and it glowed with the fire of the center of the Earth. Something black began to rise from the crack and I ran as fast as I could to the forest. I was flying fast my feet barely touching the ground. Branches whipped past me scratching any uncovered skin. I sent the faeries to find my mother and tell her what was happening. I heard the sound of a galloping horse and turned my head back to see a skeletal horse blazing hot on my trail breathing fire as it exhaled. The rider was a black mass covered by the flickering flames. I ran faster. No matter which twist or turns I took the horse was always a few trots behind me and gaining.

Mother! Mother help!I cried out in a link hoping beyond hope that she would find me. And still the horse and black rider came closer. I turned around once more to find the riders hand close to grabbing the back of my dress. I tripped on a root before he could snatch me and all the wind was knocked from my lungs. The horse galloped out of sight but I heard it turning around. I dragged myself off the ground as fast as I could but it was too late. Ice cold fingers dug into my arm in a painful vice hold and I was lifted off the ground kicking and screaming. I was pressed against a cold hard body that smelled of death and dust. The hand was back to grab at my chin and yank my head painfully to met cold unfeeling eyes of gray slate. My breath came in short gasps as I panicked and thrashed to get away. He opened his mouth and I smelt the metallic tang of old blood.

"Such a pretty sight."

Mother! Mother! Mommy!

I jerked awake from my dream in a cold sweat my breath coming in quick bursts. Every shadow was a monster and every sound was them coming closer. I turned on the bedside lamp and unwound the covers from my legs. I went to the bathroom to splash my face with water and calm down. Drying my face and walking back to my bed I laid there for a while before I realized there was no way I'd be able to fall asleep again. Maybe a snack or something would help me. After the day at the lake yesterday the guards were taken away and we were given free reign of the manor and we'd taken full advantage of it. I popped my head into Arties' room and found her fast asleep. I really didn't have the heart to wake her up so I went by myself to the kitchen.

The hallway was dark and I sensed no one around me was awake. I made it to the kitchen without any incident and looked around for something to eat. A bowl of fruit caught my eye and I took out an apple. I let my thoughts wander to my dream. Even after all these years it haunts and chills me to bone. How I try to let it go but when you're in the situation that I'm in its hard to let things fade from your mind. I threw the core in the trash and reached for another apple when I felt a shudder in the air. I looked around and saw no one in the room. The shudder happened again and I realized someone else must be up too. I grabbed the apple and walked out in search of this other sleepless person.

I made my way across the manor following my senses. Eventually I came to the hall with the floor to ceiling windows that gave a view of the forest when I heard the slight singing sound of metal slicing through air. The light in the training room was on it seemed my fellow night walker was doing some exercise while I indulged in snacks. I came closer and stood in the doorway to meet an interesting sight.

Prince Nuada was up at the most ungodly hour of the night training...shirtless. I fought back the slight blush. I could practically hear Artie in my head 'Come on pull yourself together. Are you honestly going to get all hot and bothered over Him. He's one of the ones that got us stuck here.'...Is it sad that I think that's what she would say? The whizzing of his spear broke me from my thoughts and I continued to watch him from my place at the door way. His skill was rather impressive he was better than some of my cousins and they've had a lot more time than him to work on their skills. He completed a complicated sequence of flips and strikes and landed in a crouch in the middle of the room. A little too late I realized he was facing me and I schooled my features into a blank look as he rose and caught sight of me with his feral gold eyes. He seemed surprised to see me there and not at all pleased.

"What do you want." The sentence seemed more of a rhetorical statement than a question,"Well?"

Wonderful I could tell this was going to be an unpleasant conversation.


Penelope continued to stare at me without answering my question."Well?" I said hoping to pull something out of her.

"I didn't come to speak with you if that's what you're implying." She said with a lair of annoyance in her voice.

"Then why are you here?"

"I couldn't sleep." She tossed something at my head and I caught it, an apple,"What are you doing up?" I inspected the apple and found nothing wrong with it.

"I'm training." She sighed as I took out a knife to slice up the fruit.

"That much is clear but why so late?"

"No humans about." I took an experimental bite and couldn't find any tell-tale traces of poison. She went to sit on one of the humans work out machines in the corner. I scowled at her. "Leave."

"In a minute."Difficult wench. Couldn't she see I didn't want to be anywhere near her. She made herself comfortable and I could tell she was going to be here for a while. Sighing I realized I might as well leave.

"She doesn't have to test me."I said assuming Artie had sent her to make sure I would hold to my end of the deal and not harm Penelope. I looked up at her and saw her confused expression.

"What are you talking about?"

"You can tell Artie I won't harm you or her. Our deal is still in tact."

"You did not make a deal with her!" Her shout cause me to cut my hand on my knife. I hissed at the pain and started when I was met face to face with her. How did she get over here so fast?"Are you and idiot you never make a deal with our kind." Confirmation of my suspicions.

"Why not." I grabbed her arm with my good hand,"She'll break it won't she?" She grew very silent and stared into my eyes.

"No she will not but you will." I growled at her and she quickly continued,"Not that I question your integrity but our kind treat our deals and promises very seriously. We are bond to them. They hold power over us. We can not break them without serious consequences." This was certainly news to me and I was interested in any clues that may lead me to the discovery of their species.

"You need not worry I will not break my part of the deal." She shook her head at me.

"It doesn't matter if you do her terms of the deal are much stricter than you think. She will see you do something you would usually think innocent and see it as a threat and act accordingly as such. My people are very vengeful when it comes to things like this." Her words didn't trouble me much but I decided I would humor her.

"And what do you suppose I do exactly?"

"Depends what it was. Can I assume it has something to do with not harming us." I nodded an affirmative,"Break it off or go out of your way to avoid both of us until we're gone. But I doubt that will help. She'll be on you like a vulture over rotten meat waiting for you to fail." I let go of her arm and returned to gathering my things.

"You have nothing to worry about." I said.

"You should really take me more seriously Your Highness." She said,"Give me your injured hand." I was confused at her request but did as she said. She grabbed my hand with her left and place her right over the wound. I jerked away when her hand glowed green.

"You won't control me again Witch." She just gave me an exasperated look.

"It is not control first off and the bracelet has weakened it considerably you have nothing to fear from me I only wish to heal the cut like I did your arm." Ahh yes when she quote unquote saved my life according to Kraus. What is she playing at? I supposed there was only one way to find out so I gave her my hand again. She began her healing again and my skin began to warm and tingle around the cut.

"Our kind fought in the great war between humans and fey." She said suddenly.

"You did?" I'd never had anyone like her or her sister fighting under me.

"Well not really fought so much as placed bets on who would win and then threw the odds in that groups direction." I stayed silent for a moment.

"Why tell me this?" I asked finally.

"I assumed you'd want a little honesty and I will give it to you. I know you may not believe me about my kind being bound by our promises but long ago I made one to never lie unless ordered to." She looked me in the eye,"What would you like to know and keep in mind I may not be able to answer everything." She made a vague jester at the silencing mark.

"What did you mean about bets and odds?"

"My people have few weaknesses and one of them is gambling. I've been know to do it myself but most of the women in my family and I don't make bets on things like war and fights that's more of a man thing. One of my uncles actually placed a bet on your squadron do you remember a freak wave that took out half the ships in a human army coming to the beaches near the capital of Bethmoora." I actually did remember. It was a wonder our ships had escaped at all. In fact the wave only hit the humans and put them in places where we could easily defeat them.

"His realm is the sea and that stunt he pulled royally pissed off my aunt who was betting on the humans." She smiled,"Never did like that woman."

"Why would your family not join together and help us." I was angry. With the kind of power she's talking about we could have won the war and the humans would be no more.

"We were going to actually join our power together and drive out the humans that were hurting our realms but the Golden Army was created and we had to abandon both sides to fight among yourselves."

"Why?"She was about to say something when the mark glowed slightly. She stopped and contemplated for a moment before taking a small intake of breath.

"We discovered we couldn't live without the humans." I was about to say something but she cut me off,"Let me finish. We were excited at first about the Army it would rid the of the land the humans and things could begin to heal. But the day you let it out things took a turn for the worst. The less powerful of my family felt the effects first. When the humans died we felt great pain. Burning, aching, stabbing. Some coughed up blood and others bones shattered in their skin and only when your father stopped the Army did the pain stop. My mother and I suffered several broken ribs and Artie bleed from every cut she had ever gotten, even ones that had healed and left no scar. We drew back and allowed the peace negotiations to commence." I was silent for a moment.

"Why would the humans deaths have such and effect on you?" I asked. She had long since healed the cut in my hand and know nearly held it comparing her small and thin fingers with mine.

"They gave us names." She said and let my hand go,"I say deals and promises hold power over us but it's really the names." She paused,"A name can hold great power over anyone. We are bound to them and if they are gone then so are we."

"What would you have done if the Golden Army had been resurrected?" She looked me in the eye.

"My father said that if you had succeeded he would have had to kill you for the safety of our family."S he must have seen something in my eyes because she added,"I tell nothing but the truth and will not sugar coat it Your Highness. Many of my kind would regret having to kill you but if the Army was walking the Earth again it would have had to be done. You want your people to survive at any cost my father simply wants the same for our family."

"I can respect that I suppose." And I did, if I had seen my people bleed and break like that I would wish to get rid of it too. I had a respect for this man who did what he could for his people,"What about the damage to your realms?"

"We live with it, adapt." She walked over to a dying plant in the room. She ran her hands through it and it burst back to life. The flowers blooming in seconds."I'm very lucky the realm of nature is very sturdy. It can take a lot and still stand tall but for other realms its not the same we must help those who rule over them sometimes but it's better than the alternative." She picked a flower and tossed it to me. The scent of it was strong and sweet. Much more so than any of the plants in this new world. I thought for a second about this strange girl and wondered if I trusted her.

"Where have you been all these year?" I asked her. The mark flashed again harder this time and I knew she would have to pick her words carefully.

"My mother, who I love very much, is very...protective of me. For the longest time I was not allowed out for her fear of someone taking me away from her." She paused for a second,"One day however she couldn't protect me and now I am bound by a sort of...obligation to go somewhere for short amounts of time. And when I'm with my mother she never lets me go into the mortal world and in that place where she keeps me I'm not allowed to do much of anything. And its been like this for a very long time obviously and I just now got my mother to agree to a little outing before the time to fulfill my obligation came this year." She gave a short laugh.

"She always said she never wanted me to come here because it was too dangerous and on my very first night here she turned out to be very right. I owe her an apology the next time I see her." She looked very sad when she said that. A pang of guilt hit me for making her think of a mother that if the humans here had their way she wouldn't see again. Memories of my own mother from when I was very young surfaced. She died not a decade after Nuala and I were born. I always remember her as being frail and beautiful very much like Nuala. Penelope's voice drew my attention.

"I'm sorry for mentioning mothers." She said,"I know about yours, my condolences."

"It was a long time ago." I said.

"The wounds never grow old." I couldn't disagree with her,"I could take the edge off of it if you want." I glanced at her confused. She must have seen it in my face because she elaborated.

"I have powers close to what you and your sister share, my family calls it Mind-walking. I can take memories and coat over any bad feelings. It doesn't last forever but its helped many of my friend when they've lost someone." She held out her hand to me,"If you agree I'd also like to make a deal with you."

"What would you want?" I asked.

"I would promise that I would protect you and the other members of the BPRD from Artie. I want nothing in exchange except perhaps help with the changes in the world that have happened in my absence. What do you say?" She didn't ask anything extremely impossible to do and she offered protection from someone who truly wanted me dead. From what she told me I'd need her on my side.

"We have a deal." I said and took her hand.

"Good then I'll start with the deal first." She let go of my hand and placed hers over mt heart,"Close your eyes."She closed hers. With a small amount of reservation I did the same. Almost immediately I felt a slight pull in my subconscious it was similar to what Nuala would do when she touched my mind and I found that her mind was similar to hers too. Both had an innocent tint to their thoughts. Penelope timidly entered mind. She sent me vague feelings that I had to interpret on my own. This one was 'is this ok?' I sent something back that said yes.

There was a pause and then a few feelings were let through. I almost drew back in shock. Devotion, honesty, and commitment were some of the strongest feelings I got. Was this what I agreed to with Artie? She sent out a vague thought which said 'I said we take deals very seriously'. Clearly. I could see why she felt the need to warn me. I think I have been seeing them as humans in my mind despite what they have done. I obviously needed to fix that. Her amusement hit me and I realized she could gather a pretty good idea of what I was thinking. I accepted her terms and our deal was made. Hopefully this would be enough to protect my sister. She sent me reassurance and honesty to calm my worries.

I felt her concentrate more and bring out calm from her mind and I remember that thing she said about my memories. I felt old memories shift in my head and panicked a slight bit. She drew back and sent me the calm feeling again attached to something that felt like 'I won't hurt you'. She made me feel like a skittish horse as she continued. She called up the memory of the last time I saw my mother.

Nuala and I stood in the hall outside our mothers chambers. The healers had been in there for a long time and father hadn't come out yet. Mother had been unwell lately and we'd all worried about her but we never thought she would faint and fall down the stairs. The Chamberlain was watching us and trying to reassure us everything would be completely fine. If I were older than my 10 years I would have knocked him out hours ago.

The doors opened and we stood up slightly. It was one of the healers and she beckoned Nuala and me in shutting the doors after us. Father was talking to the head healer and several healers were by the bed where my mother laid. We ran to her side. Her eyes were closed but they open when we came up. She looked so frail. Her face seemed thin and hallow, her breathing harsh sounding, her skin held an unhealthy parlor but when she saw us her eyes lite up.

"My little darlings come here." I smiled maybe she was getting better.

"Hello mommy how are you." Nuala said.

"A little tired my dear but I'm glad to see you. Why would you leave your poor mother waiting?"

"They wouldn't let us in." Mother smiled and stroked Nualas hair.

"Well I'll have to talk to them about that won't I? Keeping my sweet ones away from me the nerve of some people." Nuala giggled a little and mother kissed her on the cheek."And you." She fixed a stare at me,"You're not to old for your mother to love you now are you?"

I climbed on the bed and crawled to her right side while Nuala took her left. She pulled us close to her side."Much better."

Father finished talking to the healers and came to stand by mothers bed. He took her hand and kissed it making her smile.

"How are feeling my love." He said returning her smile.

"Fine. I feel absolutely fine." The healers were mixing something in the corner and talking in hushed tones.

"They say you need rest dear."

"Really now I think you are all making a big deal over nothing. It was just a broken leg." He was about to reply when the head healer addressed him again.

"Your Majesty we have to administer the medicine now." Father nodded at him.

"Come children let your mother rest." Nuala jumped down and followed father. I went to join them but mother held me back.

"Wait Nuada."

"Yes mother?" She looked at me for a second and ran a loving hand through my hair.

"You know I love you and your sister right?" I nodded and she smiled,"Good. I need you to do something for me." I said I'd do anything.

"I need you to look after your sister. Make sure she is happy and protected. Can you do that for me?" I nodded eagerly and she laughed a bit,"Of course you can now come here." She pulled me closer and planted a kiss on my cheek.

"I love you mother." I said hugging her.

"I love you too my little warrior."

She died that night. It was some kind of infection coupled with her previous ailments. Looking back I guess I never really lived up to the promise I made to her. I preferred not to remember this it always brought a dull ache to my chest. Some nights I ask myself if she would have been ashamed of the things I've done and tried to do. I try not to think of that either.

I felt just the subtlest shift in my thoughts, I suppose Penelope was starting. The memory seemed to split apart for a second. Different pieces had different feelings attached to them and she picked out a couple and strengthened them while wrapping them around more painful feelings which were weakening. It was a interesting sensation. She continued this process for a while picking out the good and the bad in my mind. Altering old pains and banishing despair, hiding both in happier memories from my childhood. She then sent waves of calm to settle my worries. I almost felt sad when I felt her retreat after she finished.

I came back to reality, the harsh fluorescent lights stinging my eyes. The world seemed just the slightest bit blurred and I blinked to bring it back into focus. I glanced down and saw Penelope looking at me. She raised her hand and I fought not to flinch. She covered her hand with her shirt sleeve and wiped at my cheek.

"You're crying." She said,"It's nothing to be ashamed of. It's a normal reaction." I didn't say anything.

"You're going to want to get some sleep." She said when she was finished. I moved to collect my things and do just that but my legs gave out under me. I caught myself on one knee. She was at my side with her inhuman speed trying to help me up.

"I'm sorry I might have overdone it."

"I'm fine." I growled at her as I pulled myself off the floor.

"Hmm suit yourself then." She said and took the apple I'd managed to hold onto. She turned and began to leave at the door she glanced over her shoulder. She opened her mouth to say something then closed it. I waited for her to say something.

"She may not have agreed but she wouldn't think you were a monster. A mother gives unconditional love."

She left without waiting for a reply. I almost went after her but thought better of it. I took a seat on the machine she had recently left. I ran through some memories testing out what she had done. There was still the slightest bit of sadness in some but not the gut retching sorrow I usually experience. I felt better than I had in years a lot of the tension and anxiety had disappeared leaving me spent. I hadn't known I was so tired. I got up to gather my things but the plant she had brought back caught my attention as I made my way to the door. On a whim I picked a flower off it and examined it. It was rather pretty I think the humans called it a hibiscus. I wondered again if I could trust her. I sighed and decided I was too tired to figure it out.

I walked out of the training area and made my way to my room still carrying the flower.


Ok copying a little flower meaning

Begonia-beware

Crocus-cheerfulness

hibiscus-delicate beauty

(at least according to the website i got it from)