Children Of Myths, Act One: Scotland

Prologue

Heavy rain was a common occurrence in Scotland, but not someone banging loudly on the door at night during a storm. Said door belonged to a house in a small town in the Scottish countryside.

"Who could be at this hour?"

The owner of the house, a man with red hair and beard, came down the stairs with a candle in his hand, muttering in a voice still thick with sleep. As he opened the door, however, his expression immediately changed from annoyance to surprise: in front of him stood two figures, a man who looked a lot like him wrapped in a thick wool cloak and a taller woman with a white fur one that reached the floor, head wrapped in a shawl, and a shaking bundle in her arms.

"Albert? Glycen? Are you crazy?" The first man stepped aside to let the couple into the house and lit more candles to shed more light into the room.

"Sorry about the hour, Brendan." The second one took off his hood and the woman uncovered her face: pale, decorated with blue spots on her cheeks and neck, she had no ears but there were two soft antennae sticking out of her smooth raven hair. From the blanket she was holding in her arms popped out a little head belonging to a three-year-old girl with red hair from which two small, fluffy, white antennae stuck out, cheeks and nose covered in red and bluish freckles.

"It's all right, my dear" Glycen closed the door, so that the thunders would be muffled enough not scare the child "We're at uncle's house now"

Meanwhile, Brendan had rekindled the flames in the fireplace with new wood and brought some wool blankets.

"Sit down at the table, I'll warm you some milk" He filled a pot and placed it near the fire, then he put some honey in it as soon as the liquid was hot enough and distributed it into three bowls.
More footsteps could be heard coming from the stairs, they belonged to a rather stout woman with freckles on her face and lighter red hair.

"Good heavens!"

"Aunt Arianna!" The little girl lifted her head from the bowl and greeted the woman. She wiped the milk off the child's lips, gave her a kiss on the forehead and then glared at her parents.

"Are you trying to get her sick?!"

"We came here for her own good." Albert leaned against his wife.

"Could you take her upstairs?" Glycen placed the bowl on the table. "The four of us need to talk, and I don't want to scare her."

She turned to her daughter, "Artica, now mama will leave you with your aunt for a moment, okay?"

"Yes, mummy"

As soon as the little girl finished her milk, Arianna picked her up, "Come on, your cousin will be happy to see you"

The woman went up the stairs to the rooms and entered the smallest one, where another little girl, about five years old, had gotten up from her bed.

"Mum? What's going on?"

"Safie, look who's here" Arianna showed her smiling niece.

"Artica!" Safie hugged her little cousin and let her sit on the bed, Arianna bent down to caress their heads with a smile.

"Now, my little ones, I'm going down to talk to Albert and Glycen, you two go to bed and stay close, or Artica will catch a cold"

The little girls obeyed and fell asleep quite quickly, despite the rain beating on the window glass.

It wasn't long before Artica woke up to the creaking of the door, and she saw her parents approaching.

"Mama? Papa?" she asked, tilting her head with a sleepy, questioning look. They were smiling, but their eyes were red, as if they had been crying.