Wildfire [HotD]

1 - The start.

The day, to Raya, was like any other.

The sun rose above the abundance of hills and cliffs that surround her home. The ocean, still a stone's throw from her window and the gulls squawking their morning call just like they do every other morning.

Except, something seems to be stirring. The footfalls outside her bedroom door seemed rushed and the shouting coming through her window made her pause to rise. Not to mention Mirabet was nowhere in sight. Usually the older girl would be in and hurrying her to rise. Raya's days had been busy of late, lessons with the sept, training in secret with Cassian, meeting with her cousin about how to be the head of a house and so on.

All boring rubbish to a five year old.

Though not many listen to her when she complains. No one, that is, other than Alys. A distant cousin and her own lady in waiting- well, Mirabet could be considered that too, but the older woman was more of an older sister (or a mother in whispered dreams of wanting so much more).

Alys was only two name days older than Raya.

Yet she holds herself with the authority of someone that has been granted the opportunity of holding something precious, and to Alys, Raya is precious. A confident, a friend, a sister. Everything wrapped into one.

The two girls hold a close bond that no other in Runestone can replicate. Perhaps it is due to being the only girls in their age group, maybe it's because they both yearn for freedom and want for more than what is offered to them because of their sex... or maybe, just maybe, it is because both girls know what it's like to be tarnished with the brush known as Bastard.

The difference between them, however, is that Alys is a bastard, whereas Raya had only been declared one by her rogue prince of a father.

Alys Stone and Raya the Orphan.

Both parentless and alone in a world that was out for vengeance and cruelty.

Maybe that's why the girls so viciously cling to one another. A secret friendship to start with before being cultivated to more when the young Raya had declared to everyone and anyone that Alys was hers and no one, nor anything would change that.