Prairie Flower

Chapter One

Chapter One: The chances of our luck

The smell of fresh pine trees, the chuckles of children on the side streets, my mother's hums in the kitchen while she made our favorite dishes. Those were music to my ears, the past, the best years of my life. The smell of scorched leaves, the mourns of young ones, my mothers weeps, I had lost my anchor, my belief that there was still a spark in our lives. Love turned to hatred, promises turned to hopelessness. The world as we knew it turned and changed into something we have always tried to avoid.

Our house is ancient and very small, the main living area is a small space with our living room in one corner, and where we eat in the other. Our kitchen is tiny as well, it resides beside our dining area. The other sections of our house, which there are two other rooms, serves as our rooms. I share with my sisters, while across from ours, is where my mother rests in, she likes to keep her door closed to avoid letting the little ones in, she kept the room as is the day our father passed away.

"Leo! Wake up, today is the day we travel." Exclaimed my mother.

My mother started having anxiety attacks ever since my father had died. I have always remembered her to be a very happy and loving lady, she has always found a way to support me and my siblings, no matter what the cause. My mother has an ashy brown tint to her hair, with curls here or there. Her eyes, those beautiful big hazel eyes are mesmerizing with admiring beauty. When I was younger I seemed to convinced myself to believe that she posses a magic that is able to change the color of her iris from green to a similar color of brown, complimenting her locks.

"Leo! Come on now, wake your sisters. We shall leave before sunrise." Mother called out.

I honestly have to admit I am not ready for this big change. I cannot seem to move an inch from my bed, like my mind is telling my body to paralyze itself into the depths of my sheets. After much struggles on trying to force myself out of the bed, I walk myself to the corner of the room where my sisters lay in bed.

I'm half asleep but I manage to slide my way towards my sisters bed. " Milla, rise and shine. Pack the bags now. There is no time to waste." I whispered.

Millaray was the second born, while I am the first. There are four of us, five if you include mother. I envy Millaray, she had the loveliest name out of four of us sisters. Father named her after grandmother's favorite flower from the prairie when she was a child. Millaray, has the spitting image of our mother while I have the spitting image of our father. Milla has the same hazel eyes and ashy brown hair, she has fair skin that glows under the sun. I have always envied of her face, she has that rosy tint to her cheeks and lips that compliments her eyes and hair. I, on the other hand, have dark brown, almost black hair; my eyes are of an icy blue color, a gem in our bloodline that only my father and myself have. When my father died, I hated the sight of my eyes. It brought back memories of my father, caused my mother pain whenever she looks at me.

Millaray sat up in bed and looked dead straight in my eye and shouted, "Leotie! What do you mean pack? This is our home! You don't mean to say you actually want to leave home now, do you?"

I hate it when she calls me by my full name.

"Milla, mother is waiting. Hurry now and wake up Yana and Leah."

Aiyana and Hialeah are twins, they were born one after the other. Aiyana meant forever blooming, or eternal blossom; while, Hialeah meant "pretty prairie". We were all born with nature emblems. Our father loved nature, he has always wished for a little boy, so he could teach him to ride the spirit horses and hunt like our ancestors did. But he got stuck with 4 girls.

My mother on the other hand is not of our kind, not my father's kind at least. She is from beyond the icy mountains, where the natives of our land have not dared to pass through. My mother's name is Kasa, she was named this by my grandfather because when my father had found her, she was dressed in furs. Little did they know, she has been dressed in furs because where she came from, it was cold. Once in a blue moon, my mother and father would argue in their room, I would always take my sisters outside to look at the stars to refrain my sisters from hearing them fight. Once, I heard mother said that it was my father's fault why this is happening to our family and she never wanted to be called Kasa ever again. She told father to call her by her real name, Marinna, I think is what she said; I remember thinking it was such a beautiful name.

My sisters continued to start packing up our room, my mother on the other hand is in the kitchen salvaging whatever she can for our travels, to where, I do not know. Mother is not fit to travel, she is with child and she is ready to give birth any day, but she insists for us to travel right away, I do not know why but she has that jittery sound to her voice whenever she talks about leaving. I continue to harness our mules and prepare the wagon.

"Mama, the wagon is ready, and the mules are well fed as well." I said.

"Call your sisters then, the sun is about to rise, we do not want the chieves to spot us." Mother exclaimed with a scared tone on her voice.

I hurriedly ran in the house to find the girls packing. I quickly had told them to wrap up in warm clothing for mother said where we're going will be cold. Milla and I will be walking beside the wagon while mother and the twins are in our wagon. We are lucky our wagon has a cover on it so when we get cold or if it starts raining we have somewhere to take shelter in.

We set off towards the mountains, mother is quiet and the only sound we hear are the clumping sounds of the mules' hooves. Leah breaks the silence, "I wonder if where we're going has beautiful mountains and a big blue lake as Great Spirit always have described paradise."

"Yes Leah, definitely. We will be residing in a place where we're far away from this God forbidden place." Mother replied.

"Mother, Chief Lesharo was looking for you yesterday" I blurted out. Isn't it kind of odd the day after he comes barging in our house, we leave.

My mother re-adjusted herself and stared off into distance like she didn't hear what I had said.