Eskimo Kisses (Currently Under Reconstruction)

Chapter Four

Adeline POV

The story is told to everyone in most villages by age four. But even if no one told you by then, everyone knew the story of the Divide by age ten.

From what I remember, it was told to me and Xavier when we were around six and three by a distant Aunt who had stopped in our village to do business for a few days. It was one of the only stories I had ever heard up until that point, and it was dreadfully scary to me.

It was one of those old bedtime stories that taught children to stay out of the woods or such, and honestly should have become less scary over the years. But, like a book that says 'based on a true story' the paranoia stayed with most.

And that's because it was a true story. Now, I can t remember all the details like I could when I was a child, but the story is still relatively clear. It began something along the lines of this:

Once upon a time, long before the human race had been born, there were mighty gods that sat in the sky. They rested their heads on pillows made of clouds and drank liquid made from the sun itself. They were holy and grand and powerful.

But they were also very lonely.

To combat this loneliness, the two ruling gods, the sun god and moon goddess, created two new species capable of curing that loneliness.

The sun god created the human population. He created them with the best intentions, and in a shining image of himself.

The moon goddess created the slevies we now call werewolves, despite the fact that they prefer their original term of lycans. She created them to be proud and dominant, worthy of ruling all nations.

However, the sun god knew better. He knew that these 'lycans' weren't to be trusted, especially the first one.

You see, where the sun god created two humans in the begining, the moon goddess only created one lycan.

The first lycan's name was Darius, and he was ruthless. Bloodthirsty. Cruel. It's been said that the sun god had watched him slaughter village after village of humans all for the sake of fun. Watched him kill his own brethren. Watched him drain the life of the living so he could reign forever.

It wasn't long before the sun god had decided that things needed to change.

He confronted the moon goddess, attempting to create a sort of peace, but was met only with her cruel laugh. She told him that this would be the end of their shared reign over the earth, and the beginning of her road to total control.

Fearing the worse, the sun god set up a barrier, an uncrossable and unbreakable divide between the two races. This however, only made the moon goddess angrier. She threw herself into a massive rage and cursed the landscape of the human realm, forcing the climates to their extremes. Harsh winters, blazing summers. She turned the animals into creatures of darkness and scattered them across the land.

The sun god has done his best to drive those creatures out and calm the storms, but he can only do so much with the moon goddess right on his tail.

And thus, all we can do is remain in fear that one day the sun god will fall, and the bloodthirsty king of the lycans would overturn all the peace we have worked to create.

***

It was the morning of the twentieth, the say before I was to leave. And I would have to travel alone.

I had begged my father to let Xavier come with me, but had received nothing but a beating instead. If I wasn't mistaken, he had broken a rib that time. Every time I moved it seemed as though the broken shards would pierce through my chest and lungs.

However, despite that, it seemed as though my father was trying to fatten me up for the gathering. It didn't surprise me honestly. It was just another way to cover up what happened behind closed doors. He had bought me a new dress made of a dark blue material,  and had attempted to force me to eat twice a day.

Attempted.

My stomach was so small that most of what I had eaten came back up within two minutes, leaving me emptier than I started. Xavier had started to become worried of my small intake of food. He claimed I would get sick because of it.

Even if I did, we would have no medicine to fix it.

A loud noise came from my father's room indicating he was awake. That was all it took fir me to place the food on his plate and scamper off to the attic room that me and my brother shared. I must have just narrowly missed him, because ther was no shouting or thundering of chasing footsteps.

I couldn't help but breath a sigh of releif. Xavier had gone off to school which meant that father would be going to work today as well. Another day off for me.

I couldn't help but smile at that thought. That is until he called out for me from downstairs.

"Adeline! Get your fucking ass down here!" I could already feel my hands start to tremble as I caused down the stairs to him. The second my feet came to a hault, he grabbed my face between one of his hands, forcing me close to him. "You have you're fucking thing tomorrow, you better not fuck it up you hear?" Spit landed on my face as he spoke. "Or else you wont even want to live another day by the time I'm done with you."

And with that he dropped me on to the floor and left, slamming the door behind him and leaving me a trembling mess. I knew what he meant by that threat. He had never initiated, but he had used it before.

The threat to take my innocence always made me comply, so I knew there would be no failing him.

I couldn't let anyone know what went on here. No matter what it cost me.