Alanna did not hear or see the person who called her name, the reason being she was looking down at the floor. When she heard her name, though, she instinctively tensed, thinking of the expected correction calls from the daughters. She tried quickly to think of what she did this morning, desperately searching for a flaw that was supposedly significant to the daughters. Whenever she did this, she would correct herself, saving her from hearing one of those voices that she had quickly tired of. Not being able to think of anything to say, she looked up.
She was puzzled at not seeing a slim body of a daughter's, but a lanky body of a certain squire. The squire's hair was flaming, quite like her own, but she did not fully recognize him. She did not know what to think when the redhead moved forward and pulled her into a strong hug. She did not move or hug back, still unsure of this person.
Only when the person pulled back did familiarity dawned upon her. "Thom".
Alanna attempted a smile. Because of the unused corners of her mouth, the smile was barley visible, and crooked. If the squire had noticed, he did not comment. Instead, he responded with a question.
"So, dear sister, how was the convent?", Thom asked, fully knowing it to be horrible. Well, maybe not fully, for the answer he had been expecting did not come. The answer that Alanna gave quickly wiped the smile pasted on his face.
"I've been well" was the reply that was given. A formal and polite reply, exactly what Thom would have expected from any lady other than his sister.
Alanna's years at the convent was horrible. Six years at the convent was torture, literally. The first two years, Alanna attempted many pranks, and occasionally, runaways. In Alanna's prospective, though, the pranks were suppose to teach the people they're not to mess with her, or there would be a backfire. Most of the times, she was caught, and no doubt punished.
Slowly, Alanna back downed, and finally stopped. She knew that skipping class wouldn't get her anywhere. She fell in between the state of hopeless, and...well, broken would not be the word. Her lack of energy, the feeling where the world is just an irksome thing that people would always have to bear, would not be the description of broken. The description more suits the word, perhaps used-up-for-the-time-being, drained of the abundant source of energy.
For the last two years, Alanna found comfort in silence, where no considerably bad comments were made, where no eyes can spy. She has become known as the troublemaker to quiet. (In truth, Alanna found that most of the time, she cannot trust herself to speak, for most of what she says the daughters found pert and forward). No comment wafted through Alanna's lips as the Daughters smirked smugly, thinking Alanna has been broken, like a wild stallion's spirit was. But how wrong they were, for what they don't know is that Alanna would never be so easy to shatter. This was one of the main reasons why she was the Goddess's chosen, the will to keep the spirit.
Of course, one would think that it would be almost just a morsel less than impossible to keep up the enthusiastic spirit of Alanna's, and so it is. But, repeated once more, Alanna is not broken, nor is her spirit. The almost exuberant spirit has simply and merely fallen into a dormant state, with nothing much to keep it active right now.
Fate has it, though, that one day, this dormancy will be no more. Or should we say, the Goddess has it, for isn't that what gods do?
I know that there isn't a big plot going on right now, or in the next chapter, I suppose. It is merely flashbacks of some sort, but they do have some morals that Alanna learns, which I think is important. I'll try to make the plot exciting, but I would have to change the genre. I'm not a good genre judger.
