Cursed

The soothsayer looked directly into my eyes. The fear that was spreading through her body was almost tangible. She took a deep raggedy breath and began to speak.

'a great evil Is coming, mistress Lula. Something even worse than before. You must run to the city of flames, only there can the chosen son be born'

'What evil? What's coming?' I shook the old lady but she was only able to utter one word before collapsing into my arms:

'Bianca...'

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Some two hundred years ago, our tribe's soothsayer told us that a prince was going to be born, and that he would save us from the evil sorceress Bianca. I'm that prince. except I'm not, because I'm a girl.  The prince that they were waiting for never arrived. And he is never going to because I am the only child of King Marcus and Queen Rachel. what's more, I am forever going to be an only child as my mother died soon after my birth. Because of this, I have grown up as a living, breathing curse and I don't think my father will ever forgive me.

            I live by myself in a room in the left wing of the castle; the servants wing. The only company I have are the animals, which are very nice, but they can't speak like humans can. I have three bats which hang upside down on my curtain rail, and snakes that often come in when the weather gets cold. The only human visitors that I ever have are the servants who come to bring me food. My father comes to see me  only very rarely, but when he does come, it always seems to be like a rather disappointing surprise. It does not help to see in his eyes that all help is lost, and it's worse to see that he blames me for it. One day I swear I will make it up to him.

             I spend my days decorating my room. I am an artist at heart, and love decorating the walls with whatever I can find in the palace. Old bits of netting from the ships coming in from sea, paints from exotic worlds, chunks of ancient wood that I can carve animals into, anything that I can make into my own. In fact, looking around the palace, you  probably wouldn't see the things I see as anything interesting, but I treat them as treasure. Old scraps of fabric from the needlework benches, brightly coloured beads from long ago necklaces and many more things that just make my room, mine.

            As I finish off my carving of a badger, my father storms in for the first time in weeks, looking somewhat unimpressed.

'Bekkah, I want you to do something useful! Not just sit around here all day, adding more things to your...' he looks around, his eyes bulging out of their sockets, reminding me of a rabid bull. 'nest'.

            I stared at him for a couple of seconds, before going back to my carving. I mean, would it kill him to say 'please' once in a while? The waves of anger I sensed coming off him intensified and I raised my head once more.

            'like what father? If you won't let me out, what's the point?' I raised my eyebrow and he just shook his head.

            Apparently, he had nothing to say as he just scowled at me. then, almost as a last ditch effort, he shouted 'Your grounded!', making several servants poke their heads out their doors further down the corridor.  

            He sharply turned around and strode powerfully through my door, cursing under his breath and telling the servants to get back to work.

            I snorted 'like that's going to make a difference.' I whispered. After checking the corridor to check that the servants had gone back to their rooms, I shut my door and turned to face my closet. Inside was an outfit that I had been working on for months. It was  a gorgeous gown made from scraps of the richest cloth money could buy, but sewn together in a way that just made it  look normal. I tried it on, it was a perfect fit. I took a deep breath and stood in front of my mirror, taking in the sight that appeared before me. After putting a dab of powder on, (a rare treat that I had got from one of my few visits to the market) and twisting my hair up into a bun, I looked completely different. Taking a long look around my bedroom, I stopped before my shelves of carved animals.