𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐍 // 𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐀

04 ✟ 𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖙𝖗𝖚𝖘𝖙 𝖙𝖔𝖔 𝖖𝖚𝖎𝖈𝖐, 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖉𝖎𝖊

Purple and pink lights flashed across the night sky. Smoke intertwined with the beautiful colors. Flushed the pretty view and filled the air with a heavy grey mist.

The trees started to crumble to small, insignificant stumbles of black. The grass burned to dirt and the buildings fell like fragile snow.

And between all that was a little girl. Between the yellow fire, red blood and grey fog. She was smothered in all the colors. In blood, in dirt, in pain. Smothered in pain.

"Valerie leave. Leave this place now!" a hand harshly pulled the girl from her trance, staring with blank eyes towards her home. What was left of the little cottage was nothing more than a brick wall and her bed. Her safe safe bed, nothing more than a hiding place for a civilian.

She stumbled towards the man. The shoemaker of her town. Like her, he had blood sprayed on his face, dirt smudged on his hands. "Where are your parents... oh no your dad" he asked in a frantic voice and fell to the ground by his last words.

"What about my dad?" Valerie was almost shouting, hot tears taking the ashes from her cheeks. The girl didn't know. If only she knew.

"Valerie. Your dad's of elven blood. He had to leave. He's a good place now okay? He's safe" the shoemaker pulled her to a silent alley. As silent as it got in the middle of war. Maybe it wasn't a war, but Valerie didn't know. She just knew her town no longer were how she knew it and her parents gone. The shoemaker didn't have time to explain and Valerie didn't have time to react.

"Listen girl, find your mother. If you can't, then leave. Leave Oxenfurt. Never come back." that was the last time she saw the shoemaker.

A quivering breath came from the girl, before she ripped her bow off her back. The one her dad made her. She gripped it tightly, her knuckles turning white as she stormed to the town center, her thick frizzy hair trying to keep up with her tiny legs. "Mom!" she screamed. Screamed in true fear. Her legs could no longer hold her, the strength she had left seeped from her mouth.

"Darling!" a familiar voice beamed behind Valerie, and she snapped her head to the voice. "There's no time" her mom hulked, pulling her daughters hand. Valerie's throat went dry as she saw her moms look- her eyes, the hope falling from them like water through a strain. Her mouth, open in a silent scream.

The girl could barely follow up, stumbling over her own feet as her mother dragged her to the towns edge. "What is it that there's no time for mommy?" the girl tugged at her mother's shirt, soaked in blood. The blood of her people. "There's no time to feel" her mom breathed, a sudden look of determination on her face. "Let's go" Valerie felt the skin of a horse, and before she knew it, the wind was grabbing her hair again, riding through the valley with her mom behind her. They rode and rode, until the horse broke down, until no tears were left in the girls eyes, and the mom looked pale as the moon.

☆

"Help us please" her mother's voice repeated, each time a little more worn down. No matter how desperate she looked, not many people in Novigrad wanted to help the poor woman and her daughter. "Mom?" Valerie tilted her head, her eyes shining their clear green. Her mother told her to hide her eyes in Novigrad. She didn't know why, lots of people complimented them, but apparently not anymore.

"Is dad of Elven blood? What does that mean?" Valerie swayed her hands down her sides, still looking at her mom with a searching look. "Valerie!" her mom hissed, pulling her close.

"Do not ever talk about that ever again. Promise me" her mom whispered, looking around the street to see if they had drawn any unwanted attention. Valerie silently nodded, furrowing her brows at her mom's harshness.