Maria

Chapter 3

He sped through the forest leaving only a blurred after image behind, dodging trees and branches along his way. He ran a winding path until he reached a sheer wall of rock where he seemingly disappeared into. At a small corner of the rock wall, hidden by overgrown vines and vegetation was a cave. It was where the golden haired man had disappeared into. The cave connected to a maze of tunnels heading in many directions. They were confusing enough to intimidate even highly trained magic users but they did not faze him. He sped through the tunnels going through many twists and turns before he finally reached his destination. The tunnel led to an open valley.

Standing in a sea of lilies right by the side of a clear blue lake was a small wooden cottage that barely held together. It looked to be rundown and old, as if it had been abandoned for decades. Along its walls grew moss and fungi, bugs could be seen crawling around with their nests in almost every corner of the house. It was to that very house that he brought her to.

The door almost fell off its hinges as he swung it open. Dust showered down on them as he entered the room, not minding the terrible situation of the house he carried her body into a room.

He looked down on the ground and made a sweeping gesture with his hand. A gust of wind swept all the dust and dirt on the floor into a pile in the corner of the room, leaving the floor spotless, as if it had just been washed. He walked towards a drawer, tilting the weight of her body onto one side of his hand he reached out with his other hand and grabbed the cleanest robe he could find from the drawer, which wasn’t much better than the clothes he was wearing. It was a worn out yellow robe but compared to the other robes there that were in tatters and riddled with holes, the one in his hands was much better. 

He spread the robe on the floor and gently placed the girl’s body on the robe covered floor. Not wasting time he grabbed different jars of medicine from another drawer in the room and immediately set out to treating the girl’s wounds.

First he fed her a red pill. It was a third grade pill, something only high ranked pill masters are able to refine. In the Kingdom of Austeria there were only few high ranked pill masters so a third grade pill was considered a treasure only used by noble and wealthy families.

After feeding her the pill he cut open the girl’s dress with a small dagger and began removing her clothes. He took out all sorts of high quality herbs and treated her wounds with them. It was only when the first light of dawn broke through the sky that he finished treating her wounds. He then gathered what was left of her bloody clothes and began cleaning up after himself.

The first thing Maria thought when she opened her eyes was, Am I finally in the afterlife. She quickly realized that she wasn’t when she felt pain when she tied to sit up. But then, if she was not in the afterlife then where was she and how was shr alive. She decided she would do things one at a time. She slowly took in her surroundings, she was in a room, however other than a few closed drawers there was nothing else in the room. It was fairly clean other than a pile of dirt in the corner of the room.

That was when she noticed her hands, they were covered in bandages, and it wasn’t just her hands, her whole body was covered in bandages, from her legs to her head, even her face was not spared. That was also when she realized that she was not wearing any clothes. This realization should have shocked her, scared her even, especially since she was an unmarried girl. What girl could handle being seen naked or the possibility of having been taken advantage of while she was unconscious. However Maria was not horrified in the least, she sat there, in a strange room, in a new environment and in an unknown situation, completely calm and unperturbed.

Although she had been betrayed by those she considered her family and left to die a gruesome and lonely death, she did not lose herself. Although her emerald eyes had lost their usual gleam she did not lose her will to live. When she was laying in the forest she had been sure of her death and accepted it but now that she was given a second chance at life she would not waste it. She would live her life in a fulfilling way. So what if someone saw her naked, she wasn’t planning to marry in this life. So what if her supposed family tried to kill her, she no longer considered them her family and she managed to survive. So what if she was the daughter of a mistress, she loved her mother and her mother was too good for her dad anyways. So what if people called her a bastard child, she was now dead to them and them to her. She would choose to live her life her way and for herself only.