CHAPTER TWO
The Beginning
April 7th, 480 H.E.
Swamp Bend, Tyra
Eleni rowed slowly, like she had a few days before. The crows circled overhead. Frowning, she was wearing a white shirt, tanned breeches, and an old pair of boots. The crows… she was reminded of her strange reaction to the comment about crows being dirty. Why did she dislike it?
She held out her hand up, and in front of her. If a crow lands on my hand, she thought, I've gone mad. Before long a crow landed on her index finger, and a few seconds later almost the whole flock had found places to perch on her. Eleni sighed. "Thanks guys, now I know I am mad." The crows cawed as if saying 'We know.'
She shook her hand to dislodge the clinging crows, but they did not let go. She shook her hand much more violently, but the crows would not let up. Sighing, she knew what she had to do. Sucking in a deep breath, she plunged into the depths of the swamp. The crows cawed in annoyance, and fled at the icy impact. The icy cold water quickly soaked her clothes, hair, and skin.
Hoping the crows were long gone, Eleni shoved herself though the surface of the water, gasping for air. The crows flew back to perch on the top of her head. The others were on the raft. She sighed; she'd have claw marks on her scalp soon. She hoisted herself up onto the raft without trouble, though a few crows squawked in protest to having their feathers soaked by the cold water.
As she wringed out her hair she added another thing to her growing list of differences between her, and her parents. Mithros, she thought looking over the list in her mind, there isn't one thing I have in common with either of them! "Do you know why I'm not anything like my parents?" She asked the crow on her hand. It squawked in reply. "Not very helpful, are you?" It squawked again.
Eleni sighed as she rowed to land just as the sun began to finish its daily route through the sky. When she had the land in perfect sight she stopped in mid-row. Why is she…? Eleni thought staring at the woman standing on the land.
"Good evening, Eleni." Pearl said with a false smile. Eleni raised an eyebrow as her raft reached land.
"Ma?" She said squinting to see if her vision was bad. Pearl stepped onto the raft, and grimaced as the crows squawked. She kneeled to be eye-to-eye with her daughter.
"I want to go to your favourite spot in this fil-… this swamp…" She said. Eleni shrugged, and rowed them out to the middle of the swamp, where crows that hadn't come down to perch flew overhead.
"What's wrong?" She said softly to her mother. Pearl sighed.
"Eleni, I have… I have something to tell you…" Pearl took in a deep breath. Eleni raised an eyebrow. Her mother overreacting was normal, but it was strange for her to come all the way out to the swamp to do it.
The swamp suddenly became silent; the trees were still, the wind quiet, the crows still as statues. Even Eleni found herself leaning forward to hear better, "Dear sweet, lovely Eleni…" her mother began. Thoughts raced through Eleni's head, but she had never, never even suspected what came out of her mother's mouth to be true… Pearl took Eleni's hand in hers, and patted it lightly. "I am not your mother, and Silas is not your father." She gulped, and her voice seemed to be failing her. She avoided Eleni's eyes.
"What?" Eleni asked quietly, unsure of what she had just heard. She didn't even realize the watering feeling in her eyes.
"I'm sorry Eleni." Pearl said softly, as her 'daughter' stared in shock at her. When her senses returned, Eleni ripped her hand from the woman she had thought to be her mother's hands, and scooted to the far end of the raft.
"I don't understand." Eleni choked as tears streamed down her face. Why was her mother saying this? Why didn't she want her?
Pearl looked at the darkening sky. "It's time for supper." She said ignoring Eleni's confusion. Eleni, thoughts whirling down a drain, didn't move. As the night came on, they sat in silence… Finally Pearl took up the oar, and rowed them to shore.
After Pearl had gone back to the house, and the sun was long gone, Eleni stood up, wobbling, and walked back to the house with the crows still following, and perching on her. Her mother's words had felt like a slap in the face. A painful slap, the kind done with the back of your hand.
§§†§§†§§†§§
Eleni was dreaming. The room had sunlight pouring in the windows although the sun had fallen below the mountains long past. It was a large pavilion house. Clouds seemed to be among the ceiling beams. Jewellery dangled along all of the walls. Pillows were strewn all over the room, upon gaudy rugs.
"Hello?" She called loudly as the crows that had been napping squawked in annoyance of being awoken. "Sorry." She muttered. A man laughed. She whipped around to face him. He had salt, and pepper hair, and a trimmed beard, a few rings were on his fingers, and necklaces on his throat. "Who are you?"
"Me? No one. The question is who are you?" He said in a crisp, and friendly voice. Eleni raised an eyebrow.
"This is my dream, you should already know who I am." She said folding her arms across her chest. As the man chuckled, she turned on her sight. She quickly turned it off with a wince; he had the white-hot blaze of a god. "Where am I?"
"You said this was your dream, you should know. This is my home, in the Divine Realms." He added when she frowned. "What do you think? Too flashy?"
"Not really." She answered though the room was quite flashy, but for some reason she had always liked flashy things.
"Good. Now it's time to wake up." He gave her a crooked smile.
Eleni opened her eyes. It was dawn. A crow was perched on her bedside table. She raised an eyebrow at it. The crow gave what she assumed to be a bird-shrug with its wings. "Fine, don't tell poor little me anything." She muttered throwing her covers off of herself to get up.