Olive

Chapter 2

Ten years later...

"I'm going out."

"Going out where?" Olea quickly stopped what she was doing and looked sharply at her daughter.

"I need to go practice. I've gotten better at archery, but not good enough." Olive tightened the string on her bow, already getting ready to leave.

"No Olive. Come here. You cannot do these things anymore. You're almost eighteen sweetie, you need to think about your future."

"Mom, what are you talking about?" Olive knew where this was going and did not like it one bit. It seemed that as she got older, her mother was getting more and more demanding.

"Olive you need to start thinking about marriage."

"No, I don't want that." She swung her bow on her shoulder, stopping in the doorway to look at her mother.

"Olive this is something that happens to all of the girls in our village."

"Not all girls lose their fathers as a kid. I'll be back before sunset." Olive strolled out the door, leaving her mother gazing after her with a pain in her heart.

A few hours later, Olive walked back toward her house after just doing some target practice on the rabbits that seemed to plague this part of the forest. The sun was close to setting. She knew it probably wasn't the best idea to go out hunting at the hour she did, and she certainly shouldn't have been so nonchalant about the whole marriage thing. It really wasn't fair to her mother who had done nothing but want a better life for her daughter.

"Mom? Are you home? I wanted to say sorry for how I was earlier."

I wonder where she went. Olive thought to herself. She's probably at dad's grave. Olea always got melancholy during the time her father had died nearly ten years ago. A fishing accident her mother had told her. He got caught up in the ravine when the water had gotten too high. Olive had cried for weeks when she found out. Her father had been her hero, her motivation, her role model. When he died, it was like all the life had gone out of the household. Her mother had tried to make up for the lost parent, spending more time with her, talking with and doing more things with Olive than she had ever done before.

As Olive approached the grave of her father she felt her heart tighten. She was not more than five feet away before she heard sobbing she recognized. It was her mother.

"I know...I know I shouldn't have done it, but I needed you to be gone. You would understand if you grew up like I did. I regret it more and more each day. I feel like I'm losing my mind!" cried the mother.

"Mom?" asked Olive as she emerged from the trees.

"Olive? Oh honey, what did you hear?" Olea stood up hastily, wiping the tears from her face.

"What do you regret.." Olive questioned. "What did you do?"

"Your father was trying to ruin your life. I.. I had to do something about it.."

"What? What are you talking about?" Olive was getting worried, her mother sounded different, a little lost as if she was saying this without realizing what she was saying.

"Even though you are not mine by blood, you are mine by heart," Olea continued. "I love you so much Olive. More than you will ever know. He was filling your head with lies, lies that would have made you a beaten woman. He wanted to give you his powers, something that was reserved for the men. Do you not remember how the others treated you? How they still treat you..I should have acted faster..I never wanted this life for you.." It sounded as if she was more mumbling to herself than having a conversation with her daughter. "I was trying to help you."