Inheritance

Chapter 10: Alone With Her Thoughts

Pollyanna cursed when she made it to the top of the tower to find that Eory was gone from his old room. "Damn! He's gone!"

She supposed she should have guessed he had been moved when the tower seemed to be vacant of any and all guards, but she also figured it couldn't hurt to check the tower thoroughly.

She wondered where they might have moved him as she explored his room for any clues. She checked all the drawers--pulling them out and letting them clatter to the ground--and was shocked to find many pictures of herself in them. They were incredibly well drawn and she wondered how someone could make wrinkles look so alluring, but her charge had done it. Most of the pictures made her look very heroic and depicted her fighting many beasts and monsters-- some of which she had fought in real life, and some were merely from fanciful tales.

Pollyanna pocketed a drawing of herself. He made me look so pretty.

Pollyanna searched the room thoroughly until she found a drawing with writing on the back in the fairy language.

Leaving to the ball with Kori! I never have to see this room again! My good behavior has been rewarded.

She grinned. He had signed the date he had first been locked in the tower to the current date. "He can't be too far ahead! He only left yesterday!"

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Pollyanna set out from the tall tower, then, and wiped her wrinkled forehead once she had returned to the ground floor of the tall building and stepped outside.

She growled a little as she panted and watched snow gently fall from the sky. "That waif will pay for making me climb such a ridiculously tall tower."

After a moment of leaning on the door frame, she nimbly stepped down the short flight of stairs and ran like a woman possessed down the gravelly path ahead of her.

She was in a bad mood.

Leaves, snow, and gravel crunched under her feet as she went. She was not as fast as the average humanoid; she was blessed with the strength to run much faster.

She sped along the idyllic, forested path until night fell, and then she reluctantly made camp in the forest next to the path. She gathered twigs and wood for a fire and sat down next to it with a contented sigh.

An old man with a cane passing through asked her, "might I make use of your fire, my lady?"

She made a face as she warmed her hands. She replied, "piss off."

And she pointed her sword at the old man who hobbled away with a shriek of terror.

Pollyanna sat back down and planted her sword in the earth.

She had niggling desires of late. Her mind kept turning to Eory's ancestor, Fjorn.

She stretched her legs out in front of the fire with her mind going every direction that she wished it wouldn't go.

I got what I wanted in life, I need nothing else. There isn't a creature alive, whether it be humans like myself, fairies, waifs, gamayuns, elves, dwarves, or anyone else that haven't heard my name. She tried to convince herself.

But, as she curled up in front of the fire listlessly, her mind kept reminding her of an empty womb and the cold and empty space next to her.