A Lost Princess
Chapter 2
Disclaimer: I don't own anything about Sailor Moon
Authors Comments: comments are always greatly appreciated.
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Serena awoke from the usual morning call of her mother, gently
melting up to her from somewhere down bellow. The usual call of,
'it's time to get up honey, the cows won't wait forever.' Serena
smiled at the call as her eyes slowly fluttered open.
She quietly rolled out of bed and stood to walk over to her
window, throwing the drapes away to see the brightness of the morning.
The sun shone down on her warmly, but there was something wrong with
the whole picture. She looked around her.
Where were the cows? It hit her hard, and she quickly
turned to dress herself. She feared again that they had all be
stolen, something that had happened to her neighbours in the past.
But her feelings told her of something worse. She pulled on her last
boot and hurried down the stairs.
"Is father up?" She called to her mother in the kitchen.
"No dear, he's just dressing now," she appeared. "Why
Serena, what is the matter?"
Serena didn't have time to explain, she was pulling on her
shawl and threw open the door to the back. But there she stopped dead
in her tracks.
There they all were, every single cow accounted for, but none
of them lived. She breathed out in fear, it was a site she had never
dreamed. They all lay in the nearest field, lying down as if asleep,
but not asleep at all.
"OH!?" Her mothers pained call came from right behind her.
Serena took a step out, then another closer to them. There
was no blood, no bullet wounds, nothing that suggested foul play.
There was only one answer, and it scared her even more than what she
saw. The disease had wiped its evil hand over their land, and had
killed everything they had to live.
Her father's heavy boots were heard behind her, and they
stopped dead as she had stopped at the top of the three stairs that
lead up to the first floor of the house. It was up a little to
prevent damage from flooding.
"Mother of god," he whispered out. He placed a hand on
Serena's arm, and together they walked out towards the heard. Not one
of them moved to greet them, not one called out for milking or water.
It was a site to be seen, and it sent chills down its viewers. The
morning mist hung heavily down on the valley, and the icy cold wind
wandered through the trees, whistling its haunting tune over the
death.
It was hours later that they sat down together, not saying a
word or even looking at one another. There was nothing they could
say. All the lads had been called from the nearby village, and all
the cows had been carried away and disposed of. There was nothing
left on the little farm, even mothers small vegetable garden had been
killed by the disease.
The disease was something that had washed over distant lands
and they had both heard and worried about it. But it had been so long
ago, that they had nearly forgotten about it. Even at this moment,
the neighbouring farmers were herding up their cattle and putting them
away safely in the barns so that the devil might miss them in his
journey.
Serena looked up at her father, his wrinkled face showing grey
and sickly in the pale light. It was nearly dusk, and not one scrap
of food had been prepared. They needed to save everything they could
for the coming winter, or they would certainly not survive. Serena
knew that survival wasn't looking like an aspect as it was.
An idea came into her head, forming slowly at first, then
building upon itself until a full course of action presented itself to
Serena. She turned to face her family, who had lost to much for the
effort they had put into securing their lives. It was to much to see
what had happened to so good a family.
"Father, I have an idea," she said softly. Her father didn't
make any acknowledgement that he had heard her, but she knew he had.
"I should go to the palace, perhaps try and speak to the Queen and beg
for help."
Her father leaned back. "She will not see it fit to help us,"
he said in defeat.
"No father, I have read about her. She is a kind and gentle
lady, and she looks to those who have nothing left. She will help, if
only I can reach her to ask," Serena insisted.
"Serena, the palace is nearly a two week journey from here,
and you are a young woman of eighteen. Heaven knows what might lay on
that road. You know that your father and I have not the means to
travel with you, which means you would set out alone. That could not
be the right thing to do," her mother said.
"But mother, think of our other possibilities. You know as
well as I that we do not have the means to last through this coming
winter, and there is nobody nearby with enough food to share. They
are all good people, but they are not wealthy neighbours."
"Serena, your mother is right, it is to risky," her father
started.
"I would rather risk the filthy minds of men then sit here and
see my family die having known I might have done something about it."
Serena overtook the presence of her known stubborn self. She was not
to be fought with at this state.
Her father looked towards the roof, not saying anything for
almost ten minutes, then he looked at his daughter again. "If you
must go, and there is a chance that you might not come back, I feel
that it is the time your mother and I had a talk with you," he said
seriously.
Serena watched an expression of dread come over her mothers'
face, and then realisation that it had to be done overtook that. At
that moment, Serena feared them.
"What is it?" She nearly whispered.
"Serena, I would have you know that your mother and I love you
very dearly, and we should never want to ever hurt you," he started,
taking his daughters hands and holding them within his rough ones.
"We have deceived you in one fact, and in it hold something that you
might resent. The truth of the matter is . . . . . I have no other
way to tell you but straightly. . . . . in point ot fact . . . .we are
not you parents," he finished hastily.
It took moments for this information to sink into Serena's
mind, then she lay back slightly in her chair. For some reason, this
fact did not scare her as much as some other one might.
"It was not our intention to hide it from you, but we could
never bring ourselves to tell you lest you get angry with us and
leave," her mother said to her, almost desperately.
Serena nodded. "Who's daughter am I then?" She asked after a
moment.
Her father looked ather mother, then back at her. "We do not
know the answer to that," he said, and then took a breath. "We found
you, and that is the truth of it. We were on our way here in fact,
when we came across a broken carriage on the side of the road. IT was
a grand enough looking carriage and it was well hidden from the road.
If you hadn't of been crying, we might never have found you at all."
"You could not have been five years old, so that day we found
you we made your fifth birthday. You were a beautiful little girl,
with the bluest eyes I swear I have ever seen, and you have grown into
a more beautiful woman than I could ever imagine. You were near
starved when we found you, and at once were taken with your innocence.
You could not have been dangerous, and we decided right then and
there that we would protect you for our whole lives," her mother said
almost crying.
"You see Serena, your mother and I were never able to have
children," her father said turning away slightly. "We figured you as
a gift from god, to finally let us fulfil a dream that we had always
had, to have a family.
When you started talking again, it was clear that you did not
remember even who you were, but when we asked you your name, you said
it was Serena. We did not believe that to be true, but it is what we
named you anyway, because it was your wish."
Serena sat quietly, listening to every word they said.
"Please do not tell me anymore?" She asked, and then stood up slowly.
"I am glad that you have told me, and I say seriously that it in no
way affects that were are still a family."
Her parents both smiled at her, and were relieved because of
it.
"But I still have to go, and I still have to do everything I
can to save the ones that I love form this evil that has overtaken
us," she said. "Will you then help me pack for my journey, and I
will set off at once."
Her parents at once started packing for her, her mother
packing food and her father helping to saddle her horse with
everything that she might need in case anything unwelcome should come
along. He had made sure in her childhood that she be taught to use
a sword. He had been a soldier in his younger days, and
he had taught her to be a skilled fighter, even more skilled than he
had been. He need not worry about her.
Her mother came out to them with a few bags. "I packed you
some extra clothes, just what you might need not any more. You have
enough food here to last you a week if you watch it, and then I have
given you the little money that we have left for the second week. You
will also need something for the journey home, but I have nothing else
to give."
"Mother, I shall find something, never you worry about me,"
Serena said courageously. She swung herself up onto her faithful
horse. He was a beautiful black stallion, one of pure bread and
champion speed that had been given her by a very noble gypsy, whom had
crossed through the land and had been charmed by the beauty and grace
of an eleven year old girl with the brightest blue eyes he had ever
come across in all his years of wondering. Serena had named her horse
Sterling, for reasons unknown to everyone but her, and she might never
tell.
She made sure that her sword, presented to her buy her father
at a time when money was of no object, was buy her side and ready for
the slightest need. She then smiled down at the two people she had
all her life called mother and father, and knew that she might save
them.
"Expect me home one month from now," she said to them,
kicking the sides of her horse lightly, starting him into the darkness
that had engulfed the lane by which they lived. And so her journey
began, and what a journey it would be.
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End of Chapter 2
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