Dryads and Nymphs

Chapter 5-Markus

Ariana stood there, still shocked. And after some time she started walking back towards her home, still asking herself how she hadn't seen it coming. Of course, she hadn't. She had been too busy lying and trying not to give herself away. If her father knew that she had talked to the prince...Ariana shuddered, not wanting to think about it.

Ariana walked the rest of the way in a daze. When she got out of the woods, she saw her village spanned out in front of her, light spilling out of the windows of the houses. A few people were looking up at the sky. Ariana followed their gaze and saw that a cluster of dark, thunderstorm clouds had gathered at the horizon blotting out the sun's last light. Under the darkening sky, Ariana felt the people's hopes lifting collectively, for the long awaited rain.

Forgetting her shock, Ariana smiled and ran to her house, waving and smiling at the people she passed. She saw her house at the end of the lane. From the distance, it looked small, like a doll's house. Its slanting red-bricked roof and small chimney and the deep-set wide windows, made it look like a house out of a fairy tale. The rose garden surrounding the house added to the effect. Sitting in a corner was a shed where her father kept all his tools, but recently he had turned it into his den, and spent hours in there, planning no doubt. Sitting there its windows bright with the fire lit inside; silhouetted against the setting sun the house looked like it had jumped right out of a storybook. Ariana stepped towards it, happy to be home. As she opened the gate the fragrance of roses, planted by her mother, washed over her, and the first few drops of rain fell on her head.

Ariana stepped inside, and found Rose sitting in her mother's lap near the fire. She was singing her a lullaby; she used to sing to Ariana when she was little. Ariana remembered it well. She heard her mother singing it to Rose in a soft whisper:

In a beautiful village

Under the moonlight

The prince sat all night

Singing songs of love

Though he lived in a big house

With a golden fence

He left and sat all night

Singing songs of love

Ariana walked towards her mother and sat down beside her, stroking Rose's hair.

"Where is father?" Ariana whispered.

Her mother stopped singing, and looked at her for a few seconds before saying, "Another town meeting. And where have you been?"

Ariana hesitated, not sure what or more importantly how much to tell her. "I was at the lake," she finally said, resisting the urge to tell her about the prince.

"You should spend some time with us, instead of running off into the woods. What's so special about a bunch of trees and a puddle of water?"

Ariana's temper flared, she wanted to say that it was much more than that: it was a sanctuary to her. But, of course her mother wouldn't understand, she never did. So instead, Ariana got up and went upstairs to her room. She opened the window, a gust of fresh air scented heavily with roses, and damp dirt, with little drops of rain hit Ariana in the face. She sat down on her windowsill; her bandaged leg spread out on the windowsill, and looked at the sea of lights around her through the silvery sheet of rain. The woods around were velvety black and very alluring. Ariana felt exiled from it. Her mother's words were binding, and she would make sure that Ariana did not sneak out to the woods again. Exhausted, she fell upon her bed and sleep ambushed her.

* * *

The next morning Ariana woke early, roused by hunger. She came downstairs, and sat at the table where her father and Rose were already sitting. Her father's brown hair was tousled as if he had just woken up, and his brown eyes were serious as he studied a map with little black crosses at different points. Rose was sitting next to her father, her red hair aflame, and her green eyes shining brightly when she saw Ariana enter.

"Ari!" Rose exclaimed, hopping up and down in her seat and banging her spoon on the table.

Her father looked up from his maps, and said, "Ariana how is your horse riding lesson going?"

Ariana nodded, avoiding his eyes. Truth was that she hadn't gone to her riding lessons for more than two weeks. Her father had asked one of his workers to teach Ariana how to ride along with a few other children, but the worker being old, fell asleep as soon as he was done giving them instructions. So Ariana had stopped going.

Her father nodded absently at her response, and then said, out of nowhere, "You should take part in the rebellion."

Ariana stared at her father in surprise. He knew that she didn't know a thing about weaponry, and yet she could tell that he wasn't joking.

"But why?" Arianna asked.

"Because", her father explained, "people will think that it's strange that the rebellion's leader's family is not going to be part of it. They might think that I am trying to save my family from harm while risking others'."

"That's so unfair!" Ariana protested, "And you know I don't even like the idea of this rebellion of yours."

"But you should. What would people think if they know that you don't support our cause?"

"I don't like it because it's an excuse for people to let out their anger on possibly innocent people. Don't you know how many lives you are risking, the lives from both sides? How many people will become homeless just because of this uprising? How many will lose the ones they love?"

Her father set his jaw stubbornly, before hissing, "We have to do what we have to, to get what is rightfully ours."

"What is rightfully yours exactly, that the King has?" Ariana said, narrowing her eyes.

Her father opened his mouth to argue but just then the back door slammed shut and Ariana's mother came in, putting her apron on, before turning to face them.

Muttering something about not understanding, Ariana's father bent over his maps once again.

Author's note:

hey guys! so this chapter was just about Ariana's life at home and how she sees her father's plans for the uprising. hope you liked it! please comment to give your feedback.

Zed