okay, first things first, I LOVE ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN READING AND REVIEWING THIS STORY IN MY TWO MONTH LAPSE! i mean, seriously, i had about 2300 hits before the last chapter...and now, as i post this chapter, i have almost 3100. thats a lot of hits, people. lol! the fact that people have been reading this as i struggled to find time to write between band camp(which was brutal), sleepovers like everyweek with my best friend, guard practices, reading my seven books, kidnapping my best friend, going down the shore like 3 weeks this summer, and going to canada on a fishing trip and taking pics of a hot guy's underwear while drinking flat sprite with my favorite cousin. so, here is my much longer chapter. its new and improved...and i hope ya like it. BTW, i might not posta new chapter for a long time again. With football season and football games and MB shows, competitions and championships ahead of me, plus my senior year of high school and loads of hw(i started school not this past thursday, but the thursday before that) i havent been online since last sunday and i only watched tv for the first time in a week last night. so, have faith in my, im already a fair amount of a way into the next chapter...i just haveta keep writing.
READ THIS: this chapter, ive set in the past...note the date on top of the page...its 1500 years before christ... so, its gonna be a bit different...but, if you've ben following the rest of the story. it should be okay...this chapter is just the icing on the cake. the next one will have more stuff in it...this is just to get it started. if ur confuzzled, tell me. im glad that i unconfuzzled you guys with the last chapter.
Disclaimer: i don't own them...by me saying them, you know who they are.
1500BC
With a basket in one hand, and an eye on a certain chicken, the blonde haired girl walked through the market in old time Rome. Her dress was in tatters due to the fact that her father was becoming steadily older and didn't have nor make enough money to support his three daughters and two sons and buy them the clothes they needed to survive. It was hard enough buying food, and the chicken that the girl was planning on cooking for the family was a delicacy for them after so long. It was winter, Christmas time, there was hardly any snow this year, and they had the money to buy a nice dinner for themselves. She had bought cloth, cheap, but still a treat, and planned to hem the dresses of the two oldest girls and the two boys.
She walked up to the vendor and pointed at the chicken. The sign read, 'one silver' for an already dead chicken. The vendor though, without looking up said, "two silvers and a copper."
She raised her eyes away from the poultry to the vendor himself. "It says one silver."
"Gotta feed my family, woman. Two silvers and a copper for the dead chicken, or no chicken at all."
Disheartened and disgruntled, the girl started bargaining, " Two silvers."
"Two silvers and a copper."
"Two silvers. I have four children and a father to feed. Please, two silvers."
The vendor raised his black beady eyes to her. He stared at her from under bushy eyebrows and ragged wisps of black hair. His sickly face, and pale complexion was one seen in every poor peddler on the streets. It was the look of a man stuck in poverty in winter, trying to raise a family on nothing. Finally, he lowered his black beady eye, "I'm going to hate myself for this," he said and with a flourish of his hand, he continued, "Take the damn thing. No pay."
She hurriedly lowered the poultry into her basket before he could change his mind, said thank you, and rushed off back to the farm where her family was waiting for her. Ever since their mother died three years ago, the family had been struggling to survive. The youngest child was six years old with she herself being the oldest at almost eighteen. Her father would probably marry her off to someone soon so that she could have a strong husband to work and help with raising the family.
She hurried down the cobbled street, past vendors, and people just going for a casual stroll around the area. Turning down a dirt road, she headed for a farm house, small and dilapidated, off in the distance. Turning into the area of the farm house, she was quickly over run by her two sisters and two younger brothers who crowded around her.
"Now now, you must let me through or I'll never get dinner started. Come on, don't you all want your dinner. Tonight, we are going to have something special. I saved up the money, all on my own so that we could have a nice dinner tonight." she said, parading the children inside where her father stood watching her from the doorway. "Good afternoon, father, how was your day?"
"My day was fine. Anarhria, come with me. I must speak to you in private for just a few minutes before you begin to cook dinner." Her father, a graying old man, shorter then she was since she'd gained the gene from her mother to be tall, with a tanned complexion from being out in the sun for hours on end, led her outside and towards the barn. " Anarhria," he said, "My first born, my eldest, my beautiful Anarhria, I have found you a husband. He is rich, my dear. Far beyond our wildest dreams. He owns a villa on the other side of Rome. Hes watched you from the markets he says. He says you're a beautiful young woman and he wishes to wed you as soon as possible. This is a once in a lifetime offer. A rich man, son of one of the wealthiest people in Rome, has asked for a farmer's daughter's hand in marriage." he paused for a second, "My dear, why do you pale so?"
"How old is he, papa? How old is he?" she asked, clutching at the wrap she had around her shoulders.
"Not old at all. Maybe only a few years older then you. But that is beside the point, Anarhria, he is to be your husband. He plans to wed you in the next few months. When he names the date, you shall be married."
"What is his name?"
"His name is Claudius. You'll be meeting him tomorrow. He'll be having dinner with us."
"Does he have any idea that we're poor and have no money? No dowry? No anything?"
"He has chosen you. He's said that he doesn't need a dowry. The only thing he could ever want, he told me, was your hand in marriage."
Anarhria stood looking shocked at her father. "I have to go make dinner." She mumbled before walking back into the house to prepare the chicken for dinner. She made a stew and a chicken broth. She had bought some day old bread to eat with the stew and so the family had a rather plentiful meal despite the hardships they endured. After dinner, she paraded the children to the stream a little ways into the woods and allowed them to splash around and wash up before bed time. When they returned back to the field where the farmhouse resided, the sun had set and the moon had risen with the stars spread out above them. Ahead of her, the children ran, chasing after each other, laughing loudly as they dodged ditches and patches of dust. Upon walking into the farm house, her father immediately told the children to go to bed because they had an early start tomorrow before motioning for Anarhria to follow him once again.
"Anarhria, you are to be married in as many days, months, or years as your betrothed-to-be chooses. I believe its time to tell you of your origins and who your mother really was." He paused, for just a second, took a deep breathe, and continued,
"You mother wasn't the same mother as your brothers and sisters. When I was a young man, she came down from that mountain-" he pointed to the mountain behind Anarhria, "- and I became smitten with her. She was beautiful. Long blonde hair, tall, thin, dressed in dark clothes, with just an air of mysteriousness, but….she wasn't human. She was the dark moon goddess. She was darkness in itself. I remember when I saw her first when she was walking through the market, wearing the mantle you wear. Her eyes were an emerald green. She was my first and only true love. To this day, I still turn towards the mountain, expecting to see her come down from the heavens, as beautiful as she was when she left."
"So, I'm half goddess?" Anarhria asked, shocked by this news. " And my mother was a goddess? My mother was different then my other brothers and sisters and they're not my full brothers and sisters?"
As her father opened his mouth to answer, a loud female voice broke through the silence, laughing at something. " Dear child," A long haired female came walking around from the other side of the building. She wore a dark dress, wispy, but constricting. She had the deepest emerald colored eyes set in a thin but profound face, high cheekbones accenting her eyes. "My dear, dear child, there is no such thing as a half goddess. Either you are one or your not." The moonlight seemed to center around her, but never touch her, forming an edge of darkness around her.
"And who may I ask are you?" Anarhria narrowed her eyes. Women like this woman never showed up around here unless they were sincerely desperate to get something from her father. This woman just reeked of aristocracy.
"Child, do you not know my name? Manias, have you not told her about me? My child, Anarhria, I am your mother Desdeluna."
By now, Manias was open mouthed, jaw on the floor, shocked. His true love, if even it could be called that, or just an overextended infatuation with a creature of darkness, stood in front of him after almost two decades. She was even more perfect then he remembered and she stood just as proud, straight, and tall as before.
"Manias, dear," Desdeluna walked over to the much older man and pushed her finger under his jaw, closing his mouth, "You're drooling, my love. That is so unbecoming of you."
Manias seemed to come out of his shock when she touched him and quickly wrapped his arms around her even as she returned the embrace. "Desi, I've missed you so much. It's been so painstakingly long since I last saw you. Shortly after Anarhria was born you left and you didn't return until now. Why, Desi? I thought you loved me?"
The two had completely forgotten Anarhria standing not four feet away from them. The two were gazing into each others eyes with their emotions playing across their faces like the lovers reunited that they were. They stood there, silently talking to each other, until Desdeluna turned towards the house. "Manias dear, are your children supposed to be up still? I thought you put them to bed already?"
Manias looked at the house. "If I have to come in there and tell anybody to go to bed, there wil be punishments. Do you understand me?" And immediately the four faces disappeared into the gloom of the house and back to bed. "Anarhria, you shall marry Claudius when he comes for you. Don't fight me on this. Now, go to bed and we'll talk more in the morning."
As Anarhria started to walk back to the house, Desdeluna stopped her, calling the blonde haired girl back. "Wait! Anarhia, I did not come here to not follow through with what I came to do. I heard that you were going to be married and I decided to come and congratulate you. I even thought that I would stay and help you to understand life. Possibly even to grant you a dowry that you need. Of course, your childen might grow up to be little gods and goddesses if you start to show any traits of being a goddess, but that that stands to be determined on whether or not you actually show any traits of a deity whether they be good or bad." She wrapped her mantle more tightly around her as a chill sent the three of them into shivers. "I shall be here when your husband-to-be shows up tomorrow night. Now you can go to bed. I shall be here when you wake up." Desdeluna turned from Anarhria, dismissing her and beginning to speak with Manias. When the girl had safely gone to bed, she began to speak louder.
"Manias, I don't like the look of the man that you have chosen for our daughter. He has another reason why he has chosen Anarhria to be his bride. I've seen the way he handles his sisters, tossing them about like they're dolls. He even dresses them like dolls, spoiling them. Then, when they don't do what he says of them because they are spoiled brats, he screams at them and hits them. He's flogged his three sisters and he has scared his mother to near death. I know that, because I hear the death deities talking amongst themselves that his mother will be next to go if one of his sisters doesn't go before her."
Manias took all this in stride, watching his former lover as she stood trying to convince him of something that he'd already made a deal about. "Her marriage to this man will help our family. I have five children, not just one.If he follows through with what he says he'll do, then our family will once again be able to afford new clothes for every child. Our family will be able to have a decent meal every holiday. No longer will we be looked down upon as the farming family. My children might even be able to gather at least a small education before they become adults. Anarhria must do this. If not for us, then for herself. This is her life, and with him maybe she'll be able to live a prosperous life instead of a poverty stricken one."
Desdeluna stood regarding her human lover in the half moonlight. She was trying to make him see the sense in breaking off the betrothal before their daughter was killed by this tyrant she was to marry. "Manias, You're her father. You have the right to break off the marriage. You have the means."
"I don't have the money. I don't have the will. He has money and a large house. She can live peacefully with him, if not all together happily. I love my daughter, but all I can do for the moment is hope for the best and the best right now is her marriage to this man."
As the argument between man and goddess came to a close, a dark cloud came and overshadowed the moon, plunging the countryside into darkness. Desdeluna looked up at the sky, staring at the place where the moon should have been. As she was accented by the moonlight, she immediately became aware of a few things. One of them being that she could never take part in anything that had to do with earth and she could only hope that her daughter showed signs of being a heavenly being. She could only hope for something to happen where her daughter wouldn't have to marry such a man as Claudius. That was the only way that her daugher would truly be happy.
Manias stood, defiant in his answer, not able to be budged on any account. He watched as his immortal love went through the though processes of taking in the information he had given her. Finally, he watched as she turned and started walking up the mountain, towards where she lived, he supposed. Calling out to her, he said, "You gave your daughter your word. It wouldn't seem right to go back on your word."
The goddess stopped in her path, not even turning around as she answered him. "I haven't been much of a mother to her in the sixteen years that she's been alive. If you think you truly are going to be happy with your daughter going to live with such a brute, be forced to, if not love, then manage, such a brute, then by all means, let her marry him. If I see something that needs tending to, in her life, then I'll be back. Other then that, I'm going back to my perch on the mountain top." And with that said, the goddess of the new moon vanished into thin air, as a mist, rising far above the ground.
With the morning, the came new problems. The first being the fact that the youngest child had caught a cold during the night and was now bedridden and not able to help with any work. The other being the fact that the only dress Anarhria had to wear when her husband to be came to dinner was the dress that she had on now. Another problem was that her "mother" had mysteriously disappeared and her father was in a particularly bad mood at the moment.
She went about her daily routine of going out to milk the cows, gathering water and feeding the chickens as well as preparing a meager breakfast for the family of six. During that time, she thought about what her betrothed would be like. Would he be tall or short? Dark haired or fair haired? Would he be nasty or sweet?
Despite all of the signs telling her to walk away from this, she knew she had to do it. So, when the evening came and a horse came galloping up the dirt road in front of their house she was waiting in a dress that she wore everyday in the doorway of the small house, mixing dough in a bowl held on her hip with narrowed eyes.
The man had mud-colored shoulder length hair. He rode a beige horse, with a silver bridle and three multicolored jewels in the bolt holding the bit into the horse's mouth. When the horse came up to the front of the small house, the man dismounted and made his way over to where Anarhria stood mixing. He outstood her by about three inches at least, she being tall for her height at 5'9". There was nothing she could do except motion for the man to walk into the house, his mud stained boots making a sort of splonk on the floor with each step. Manias came in from the field, wiping his hands dry of mud and the three children came in from harvesting the crops and checking the traps for food.. Each helped to finish serving dinner as they cleaned themselves up and as dinner pushed along, Claudius told everyone that after dinner, he wished to bring his wife-to-be back to his vineyard so that she could become accustomed to the area. The family was naturally shocked, seemingly thinking that they would at least have the love and care of the eldest daughter for just a little while longer. Anarhria though, began to choke on her food and could be seen turning a bright shade of red as she tried to breathe around the liquid broth settled at the back of her throat. As she righted her breathe and began to breathe again, Claudius asked if she would grace him with her company on the ride back to his vineyard. Since she said nothing, he assumed that she was agreeing with him and told her to pack her bags and be ready to go by midnight that night.
Manias, having heard enough, stood and spoke his disagreement to the plan. "I don't believe that my daughter should be leaving now. I've only just told her she was getting married yesterday evening."
"That's plenty of time for a young woman to understand her marriage and the fact that she's getting married. That gives me all the more reason to take her home with me tonight." Claudius responded, ducking his dark head and challenging the much older man to protest his word.
"As her father, I have a right to say when and where she goes, and I say she stays here until she is ready and able to leave. I need her help here and she needs to be here to care for the younger children."
Claudius sighed, lowered his head, tipped back his chair, and put his feet, crossed at the ankles, on top of the table. "You have given your word that whenever I chose to take your daughter as my bride, I could. That I chose the date, and how the wedding went since you didn't have a dowry for the poor girl. All I have to say is, I'll sustain the family for one year, and then I shall stop sustaining this family. You will have to get someone to either watch your children, sell them off, or leave them alone and to themselves as you work because my wife will not be aloud out of the vineyard unless she is going to look for silk or clothing. She will be a lady of class and will be under my rule meaning whatever I say, goes, and as of right now, you forfeit your right as her father as she is coming to live with me tonight and I shall marry her by the end of the fall during the Christmas months." Claudius turned towards Anarhria, "Anarhria, my love, be ready to leave when dinner is done."
The family was silent as they stared of into space, dinner all but forgotten with the heated discussion going on. Anarhria's dinner lay half touched and cold already in front of her, her eyes staring off into space. In the space of one dinner arrangement with her husband-to-be, her life had changed in the blink of an eye with one command. She looked past her betrothals shoulder at the darkened sky outside, and formed a plan. She would not marry this man. She would stay with her family, even if it meant hiding away in the woods. She refused to marry a man who promised her father to sustain their family and then, on the night of his first meeting with her, decide to deceive both her father and herself take her that night, and not help her family.
So, obediently, she got up and walked out of the room to her room where all of her belongings, a meager two bundles of clothing in all, was distributed around her room waiting to be packed. But nothing was being packed tonight. Putting the bags on her bed, she grabbed a small bag with a few things, her black hooded cloak, opened her window and climbed out.
She walked on silent feet, her foot coverings sinking into the mud slightly. When she was in the stable, she silently placed the saddle on her horse, Nightingale, hopped up and placed herself in the saddle, and galloped out of the yard making Claudius' Beige colored mare jump and whinny as she sped past and into the field next to her house. By the time the people in the house had gotten over their shock and gotten out of the house, she was already a speck in the distance, and when Claudius was finally on his horse, Manias walked over to him, grabbed the beige's bridal and told him not to even try since Nightingale was possibly the fastest horse he had ever seen. So, with Claudius fuming and Manias relieved that his daughter had found a way out, they stood and watched as the black horse and the blonde haired girl disappeared into the horizon.
-end 4 now-
make me happy, peeze. bring the amount of reviews three higher then the amount of chapters. :) thank you!