I Will Stand By You

My Hope

Yzma's Pov
(Past)
"Annuvin has fallen," a huntsman cries billow through the ashes and smoke of the collapsing city of Annuvin.

I cough, smoke filling my lungs. I search for my father as moments pass where the smoke doesn't fill my surroundings and I can see the battlefield.

"Dad!!" I scream, trying to warm him.

The man with a billowing black cloak and a head of bones covering his face stand in the midst of all the bloodshed. A young boy fights him at the front, sneaking behind him and slicing the sword through the Death Lord's garment. Blood splatters at the contact. Tears prick in my eyes as my father collapses to the ground. The rest of the land cheer as the king of evil dies, but I scream in agony.

"Daddy," I weep.

I was the one who was supposed to change the tide of the war, but instead my father grew to love me more than just a means to his victory. He hid me away from the darkness of the world. I didn't help in the war and now my father is dead. He was the man who taught me how to wield his power, but he is also the one who helped me walk, helped me string a bow and arrows. Now all that is gone. I only got eleven years with him. Now what will the rest of my life look like.

I huddle down into the crumble bits of the once great building that was the fear of all of Prydain. I pull my knees into my chest, praying for the light to reveal itself.

"Yzma," a voice calls through the smoke, "Yzma."

A woman appears, slowly becoming more detailed as the smoke around her becomes thinner. She is covered in black from head to toe. She crouches down besides me.

"Don't worry. I'm here to help you. It's going to be okay," she brushes her hand down the side of my dusty face.

"Who are you?" I ask.

"I'm your mother," she foundly looks at me.

"Mother?" I question.

"Yes and I'm going to save you. You can come to my realm with me. Far far away from here. A second chance. Would you like to go there?" The lady asks, holding out her hand.

I nod, placing my small hand in hers.

The world spins, swirling black, as we disappear from Prydain.

I shoot up straight in my bed, the silky sheets wrapping themselves around me, waking up from that nightmare. Well more of a memory. The memory of my father's death.

I hear voices across the hall from my mother study. The loud conversation, keeping me from laying back down and trying to find sleep. I slide out of my grey comforter, putting on my slippers.

I walk quietly down the long dark hallway. Light filters through the small crack in the door of the study, a drastic change from the dark floors and ceiling of the mines. I walk up to the door. Peaking through the slim space between the door and the frame, I glance at my mother and a boy dressed in green that I don't know.

"Malcom this is a surprise visit. I thought you were still stranded on that pitiful island you call neverland?" my mother waltzes around her desk.

"I heard a rumor that you had an affair with a man that resulted with a child. A child with the lord of Annuvin to be exact, well the now deceased Arawn, but I had to come see for myself," the boy replies, sitting on the top of the desk, not fearing my mother in the slightest which confuses me.

Most children in this realm work in the mines. They are terrified of my mother and yet this young boy seems much more mature than his age. I can tell he isn't from here. And affair? That doesn't make sense