Heir of the Forgotten

~Learning~

When her eyes opened as her room lit with sunlight, she found herself still seated against the door. Her limbs felt too heavy to move, but if she did not get up, she feared her mother would be yelled at again.

Slowly, she slid to her closet, got the only other dress she owned, and slipped into it. She took the sheets from her bed and tossed them in a bin with her favorite dress.

She stepped into the hall and stacked the baskets, attempting to hold both. There is little weight, but she still struggles to carry them outside.

The sun warms the sand beneath her toes, it has always felt nice as it hits against her skin. The glimmer of the light's reflection on the waves is a nice touch to the morning.

With a small yawn that flashes her elongated canines, she runs a bucket of water and grabs the tools she needs. Slowly, she starts washing clothes. This was something her mother usually did, but her father was right. She needs to step out a bit. This shell she can't seem to escape may need to be forcibly torn open.

Selene sighs as she struggles to hang the clothes. It's looking as if it will be a nice day, so hanging things out shouldn't be an issue.

She slips back inside to see her mother making breakfast and her father lounging in the living room reading the papers. Perhaps she should start there. If she teaches herself to read, then maybe she can understand more of their words.

That's the true reason it took so long for her to talk, why she still doesn't talk much. She's afraid she misunderstands a word and that she'll use it in the wrong context. Here and there she still fails to understand things, though, after five years of listening and watching, she's begun to grasp their human dialect.

"And where have you been this early in the morning?" Mark raises a brow, noticing Selene's entry.

Selene looked from the floor, trying to find the words in her head. She felt her heart race a bit as she opened and closed her mouth.

"Well spit it out." Impatience dawns on his face as his eyes lift from the paper.

The words of her father had her mother turning from the stove to look at her husband, narrowing her eyes, ready to tell him off for cornering Selene.

"I was-" There is a pause as she forms her sentence, "washing the laundry, Dad." She speaks hushed, and her syllables hit with a thick slab of accent she'd tried to push down.

When there is no response, she looks around to see if she'd made a mistake, but instead, there is nothing but a proud gleam in her mother's eyes.

"Thank you for doing that for me this morning." Her mother says softly.

"Oh, don't praise her for something like that! That's a task any young girl should be able to do. She should be cooking by now, not doing such minor things." Jack huffs slamming the paper on the table.

"Can't you be proud of her? Even if it's a little? I haven't heard her speak without missing the between words before! That was a complete response to your question, and you still find the need to criticize her?" Beth narrows her eyes at her husband.

Selene stares, watching the two of them begin to argue again. It doesn't last long as her father merely huffs and storms off to his room.

"Didn't... I didn't mean to make him upset again." Sel mutters to her mother as she turns to face the water.

Turning off the stove as she finishes breakfast, only needing to let it cool, Beth approaches her daughter. She holds her close, tucking the child's head to her chest and putting her hand on Selene's head as she shushes her. "Don't mind your father Selene. He's just been having some troubles with work."