Curse 🔮

0

"Sisters by choice, best friends by choice."

18 YEARS AGO

The forest burned to violet flames. An unusual colour of sort, considering flames should be orange. Not purple, not blue, not green. Plain orange. Sometimes with a tint of yellow. In the the palace, fires don't occur often. I am always safely bundled at home with no legitamate danger threatening me or my family in our castle. I am very fortunate.

But I know enough to be aware there is something strange happening in this forest. Not because there's a fire. The fire is the most humane thing here, not the colour though. This secluded woods right next to our kingdom holds secrets.

Nothing will be left of the fire. Nothing but ashes. Broken trees, burnt huts with no alive people remaining. Just corpses. Burnt bodies. But I spot a girl. A really small alive girl, surrounded by a strange green portal, like a barrier. It looks like its keeping her safe from the fire.

"Mama," I say and my mother turns her direction away from my father, who is negotiating something with a guard.

"Yes?" She says in a nonchalant manner. I direct my finger in the position of the girl. She looks just a little bit younger than me. My mother's eyebrows raise and her skin turns pale. She looks frightened by the sight. She looks afraid for the girl. I've never seen my mother afraid. Not like this.

She clears her throat which instantly gathers my father's attention. "Prum. Divert your attention to the forest. There is a child. We must rescue her."

"Stop the fire, first." My father, the King, instructs our loyal guard, Marley. Marley nods. At the snap of his fingers, the magnificent but dangerous purple fire is gone.

I can't help but gasp in awe. I can feel the coldness of my hands reaching my face when I instinctively pull them agape over my mouth. My mother takes initiative and enters the woods first. She firmly grips onto my arm and pulls me along.

We reach to where the girl sits against a tree. She is calm and settled, almost relaxed against the hard wood. She has short raven hair, but it is styled in an unusual way. Her eyes are purple, like the flames that errupted the forest earlier. She has pink cheeks but is very pale and fragile, and thin, too. I am afraid to step forward, because the mysterious border keeping the girl safe looks deadly.

"Marley, be a dear and sort out this barrier between us and the girl." My mother instructs the guard.

"I cannot, my Queen."

"And why is that?" My father utters threateningly at the frail soldier.

Marley defeatedly looks over to the girl, "It is black magic. Illegal witchery, if you may."

My father's eyes almost bulge out of their sockets, "Impossible. Witches are forbidden in this realm."

"I don't know what to tell you, my King."

Mother glances at the child lined up against the tree trunk and her eyebrows furrow, "There must be a way. I will not leave without this innocent soul."

"Loma. How can we know that she is innocent? She was born into a village where witchery existed, after all." My father says to my mother.