Guilt

3

Nora slowly opened her eyes and was immediately met with pain at the back of her neck. She slowly sat up and looked around the room she was currently in while lifting her left hand to feel where it was hurting, and massaged it a little. The room was nicely detailed with similar markings on the staff she saw before. On the left wall was a large painting of a flower, dicentra. It is a flower that you can find in the nearby forest of the village. It was more known to be called the 'bleeding heart' and nobody dared to ingest it because it was poisonous to do so. As Nora continued to scan the room, it didn't take long for her to realize she was in a bedroom. She slowly made her way out of the bed until the doors burst open.

"Nora, my Queen, you are awake," a young man said as he made his way over to Nora. "Where am I?" she asked him in a fearless voice. "In our room, Nora, are you all right?" a mysterious man asked her as he slowly kneeled in front of her and grabbed her hands into his, only to result in Nora pulling her hands away.

"Who are you!" She yelled out loud for everybody to hear, "I am your husband, Austin Whitlock, your King?" He slowly told her with his head hung low and looking down at the floor.

Nora looked around the room. It was now filled with guards, alien guards that her mother told her about in stories of the prophecy. She then looked at the man who was currently in front of her, Austin Whitlock, the King of these alien creatures. "Oh..." was all she said before standing up and leaving the room with a guard following behind her.

As she left the room, the king also followed. He ran up next to her and matched her pace before speaking. "Nora, let me take you on a tour of your new home," he said while taking her hand in his and walking towards the big doors that were down the hall. "This is the garden of the castle. It used to be my mother's favorite place," he told Nora as they walked around the beautiful place full of any type of plants.

"Why am I your Queen?" She asked Austin in a quiet voice, "You were the woman in the prophecy the human goddess gave us, she said that you were meant to be the queen by my side and for my people," he answered back with a small smile.

"She said that?" Nora said again in a much more comfortable tone, "I thought you knew, she even said that you will never turn your back on my people, and to be able to get you to be my queen, I needed to find you." He said as they walked out of the garden and stopped right outside the doors, "I still have some business to attend to. Please feel free to walk around, Nora," Austin said and walked in the opposite direction.

"Are you in charge of following me around?" Nora asked the young boy, "Yes, your majesty, the King has ordered me to follow you," the young boy replied in a low voice.

"Great, I would like to leave this place. What is your name?" Nora asked the young boy as they continued to walk around the castle-like ship. "Felix Carp," he replied to Nora and eventually led her the way off the ship after getting an old brown tote bag.

When they got off the ship, they were still in her village. She took this chance and ran back to where her home was. When she finally reached her house, there was nothing left, just broken wood and ash all over the place. This broke Nora's heart. With tears running down her face once again, she started rummaging through her burnt house for any sign of life, specifically, her older brother.

"Your majesty, there is nothing left. I checked it after you were taken away. I found nothing," he said while making his way to her sobbing figure. "No... no... it can't be," she whispers in a weak voice as she slowly holds onto Felix's arm.

She continued to cry in the arms of Felix until she suddenly stopped and slowly looked around as if looking for something in particular. Nora wiped her tears and made her way towards the near forest, down the path that her brother created when they went to go pick herbs.