anything and everything

Scene: Before the Harem - Oriel

Yeah I'm gonna do a series about the four before they become who you know cause why not?
We'll start with the eldest. Lovely Oriel.
Before April, before coming to earth.
Oriel, the Queens Advisor.

MissAvarice

2180 words
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Birth

The Mother groaned lowly and clutched her stomach. This was her second child. She and her husband had lost their first Daughter her second winter. Mother knew what these pains were but they were wrong. The Child should not be arriving for another month or so.

The Father slipped into the tent with his wife and pressed a cool cloth to her forehead. They had been traveling to her family's residence as harsh winters and dry springs had led to a lack of food in their previous home.  They needed a safer place to start their family again.

The Father stayed in the tent to watch over his wife and protect her from anything that might come to her cries.  They had brought everything they would need for the child's birth but had not expected it while traveling.

It was soon that a new set of cries were the ones heard. The Child was laying on a blanket but neither the Mother nor the Father swaddled her and picked her up.

The Child's voice broke and cracked weakly. The Child was born too early. She was not ready for the world. She looked strange.

The Mother wept, knowing her pain was for nothing. They would lose their second child.  She reached for the child but the Father stopped her.

"Don't get attached." He said. His voice was cold. There was no way this Child would survive, it was not worth the pain of getting attached to her. "Just rest."

The man picked up the child with the same care one would handle a disobedient dog. He was going to remove the child from their life before fate could. The weak had no place in that world. He would not let his wife suffer the pain that they had gone through the winter before when they lost their first Daughter.

He stopped a distance from their camp and looked to the still sobbing Child. He had intended to end it's misery and it's life but was stopped by a scream from his camp.

He had checked for predators before leaving! They should avoid the fire! The Father dropped the Child and ran back to his wife.

Her screams had but cut off short. He saw the thick tail of a strange creature sticking out from his tent and a disturbing gurgling sound. He grabbed a thick branch and ran forward, smacking the creature in the back.

It gave a human sounding shout before spinning around and he came face to face with a not-human. It looked like a young girl, maybe ten winters of age. Blood covered her chin and ran down to her neck. It was not her own.

The Father had very little time to relax before the Girl launched herself at him the glint of blood covered claws and he was knocked on the ground, clutching his throat. He looked over and saw his wife's lifeless body within the tent, staring at him with a frozen expression of fear.

The Girl stood over him. She raised her thick tail, covered in body armour like scales, and brought it down on the mans head. The sound of a skull being crushed was the last thing heard before the silence of a still forest.

It was broken again by a pained wail. The Girl looked at the forest and noticed a blanket caught on a tree. She believed the Father had come from that direction.

She walked that way cautiously and heard the broken cries again. She came upon the abandoned Child. She carefully picked up the fragile infant who had been left face down on the forest floor. She gazed at the infant and wiped away a trail of blood on her forehead from a cut she must have gotten from the fall.