The Death of Oberion

Chapter 1- Bela's POV

The color of the water isn't blue, in Bela's eyes it's red. The color of the water reflects her, and what's left of her life, what's left of her world. Death follows her everywhere. It follows her sisters, her parents, her friends, and it doesn't stop until there's no one left.

Bela squats down and stares at the water of Moira Lake, full of secrets that are hidden in its depths. In a way it's just like her, but she considers herself to be the coin people throw in to make a wish. As it drowns it knows that it will never see the light again, instead it will live all alone in a compound of water full of monsters and creatures that know no mercy, hoping someone's wish comes true out of its suffering.

Her sisters are at home, already inside, sleeping, dreaming to escape the reality of their cruel world. Every land has its fair share of cruelty, but in Oberion, wars and terror are a very typical thing.

Oberion; an empire ruled by a King, who is very mentally unstable according to the guards. A land that is suffering simply because of its wanting for vengeance. No one truly knows why, but for the past decade there has been nothing but ongoing conflicts with other lands. The army is gigantic and filled with the sons of artisans, fishermen, painters, and any family from villages all around the kingdom.

The water moves, she steps back and doesn't move, she focuses on the water. It doesn't move anymore. She thinks about it, It's late and he's not coming, so she goes home. She walks the same way she came from, a path of rocks towards the bloodfield gardens. The forbidden part of Torex is always the most beautiful and the most intriguing to her. The bloodfield flower is a striking red just like her hair, filled with sweet nectar, that seeps through the air of the field.

As she continues walking towards the cabin through the gardens she notices a light flickering in the distance running towards her. As soon as she can tell what it is her hand is hovering over her left thigh ready to take the secret dagger out, prepared to murder anyone who thinks about crossing her, late at night. The light keeps coming, it doesn't stop, until it yells out her name. Oh, it's just Dabria.

Dabria stops a few feet away from Bela, panting, with their rusted lantern in her hand. Her light brown skin highlighted by the light. She looks like she hasn't slept in days, or eaten in a while, which makes sense since the only dinner they had are two slices of bread each. Once she's finally done catching her breath, she stares at Bela, a stare that looks though it could slice through metal.

"Where were you? And please don't say you came to meet with Rike again." she practically yells out, with a very frustrated sigh. Bela can understand her frustration, it's past midnight and she is in the forbidden lands of Torex, but by now it's not forbidden to her; more like her secret escape room. She's come here so many times she can navigate herself even in the dark.

"I was nowhere, please do not worry." Dabria is a year younger than Bela with the same red hair and light brown skin, her eyes a deep red unlike Bela's black eyes. Her figure is almost the same height as Bela, and she's certainly smarter. She knows she's lying but also knows very well how Bela dislikes talking about Rike and where she goes during the night. Still the young sister will not let this go.

"Well what else am i to do? Sit around and wait until the Guard comes to tell me they have found your body? Someone could kill you out here." it is true, the King has allowed all members of the Guard to fire at anyone suspicious in the forbidden parts of Torex.

"Why would anyone come here? They're all scared little shits." She rolls her eyes, Bela and her sisters don't have much to do other than work all day long in order to at least buy some decent food.

"Well what if they did? What if they packed up their courage and decided to waltz in here with crossbows? They would kill you, what then?"

"They wouldn't even come near me, I would kill them first." She notices the tension from her sister's shoulders wear out as she walks towards her and pulls her into a hug.

"Let's go home Dab, I'm sure Eileen will be wondering who's yelling so loud." So they head home. The path following the bloodfield gardens is through a forest no one knows the name of, the trees are at least 10 feet high and dark green surrounds the trunks, while their leaves are a bright red. The forest is inhabited by all sorts of animals, not wild but not domestic either. The path is outlined with flowers Eileen says are poisonous. Insects fly around the flowers smell their scent, fall to the ground, and never move again.

They exit out of the forest, and there it is, the cabin the sisters call home. A small cabin right outside the border of Torex next to the entry point of the forbidden lands. With logs stacked on top of each other to make the exterior, you can never tell what goes on inside. A dark small space welcomes the home as they walk through the wooden door. A table is in front next to cement counters on the right side, to their left a half-wall hides the three beds that make the sisters' night less horrible.

As they step inside the wall they discover a small figure sitting up, staring dead at the wall behind them. "Eileen? Are you still awake?" Dabria walks toward the youngest of the sisters, taps her shoulder, and she moves.

"AH!" Bela quickly turns on the lantern in her hand. She stares at Eileen, who is wide eyed with tears coming in. Her youngest sister is the only one of them who isn't a redhead, instead Eileen has platinum blonde hair almost white, just like her eyes. Her yellow eyes flicker in the light as shock and surprise meets her face.

"Shhhh, it's ok, it's just us." Bela tries to calm her down but it's nearly impossible. The thought finally comes to her mind. Eileen is a sleep-walker, so it's most likely she was getting ready to walk around. "Dabria go get her water please." She nods and goes outside to fetch water on some wooden mug she won at the festival a few years back.

As Eileen finally begins to calm down and drift back to sleep, Dabria takes this time to also try to sleep. Bela stays up, finally having time to think of all the reasons Rike didn't come to meet with her tonight. Did I do something wrong? No, of course I didn't. So maybe it's him. She continues to consider why, and what she'll say to him in the morning only to realize it is morning.

And she's up, and she's changing into her boring yellow dress, and those boots she has to make sure no mud touches her feet. As soon as she's done she goes to wake her sisters. No surprise to her when Dabria is on her feet, she barely sleeps these days. Eileen is also getting ready, slower but she is awake.

As they finish getting ready, there's a knock on the door. One, two, three. Awesome, he's here. It's no surprise to either of them to see Rike standing at the door when Dabria opens it. Him and his family are the only other people that live in the border of Torex.

Bela stares, he stares back, until finally he clears his throat and says, "I apologize for last night, but um- Are you ready to go?"

Dabria glances at her and nods. Eileen apparently is ready, so they leave. To the village they work at, in order to make scraps of axia to feed them for a night. They leave walking at a coordinated speed, boots sinking in the leftover mud from yesterday's rain. They leave in order to get to hell.