Astrid is an artist who creates incredible masterpieces inspired by her dreams and visions from her vivid imagination. But lacking memories of her life before one ominous day in a forest, has caused her to live a disconnected life.
Only when she en...
Natanstrelle was unrecognisable to anyone who dwelled there before the darkness came. The streets were emptied. Tall, dark shadows lurked at all corners and family symbols were dimmed to blackness. Natanstrelleans didn't dare to leave their homes. Some even took the measure of remaining in only one room of their house, as they were too afraid to let their loved ones out of their sight; even if only a thin wall would be dividing them.
Vicora and Celeste had to go into hiding. Pugnum knowing their connection to Astrid meant they were high up on Noir-Astra's puppets' hit-list. They fled to a cave within the Aurora Valley beyond the outskirts of Natanstrelle.
The three Slànacus sisters would camp out there with their grandmother when they were young. They stayed in a small cave, its entrance surrounded by twisting vines, green, soft leaves and beautiful orange and yellow blooms of the Aurora flower - that only grew upon that specific land. Nobody knew whether the valley was named after the flower or vice versa.
The two sisters protected that cave and a bit of land surrounding it. This was so that they could live off the various plants and the creatures in the river, during their time there. Vicora also managed to take her enchanted mirror, so that they could keep updated by others hiding in the city and also with Naomi at Strelle Forest.
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Plucking white and pink daisies from the grass. Amber handed tiny flowers to her mother, who wove them together masterfully to create a daisy chain. Amber's eyes lit up at the skill that she witnessed and cheered and giggled as the chain was lifted over her red, bouncing curls and placed around her little neck.
"Do you like it?" Astrid asked with a loving smile.
"I love it!" her three year old daughter answered her with a small voice that rang like a little bell.
Astrid laughed and held her arms out for a hug. Amber leapt into her embrace. She then saw her father leaving the cottage over her mother's shoulder.
"Daddy! Look! Look what Mum made me!" she squealed whilst tearing herself away from Astrid and galloping up to True. She posed with her hands behind her back and her chest pushed out.
"Oh, that's a beautiful necklace, my love," he responded, crouching down to get a better look. He then scooped her into his arms and got back to his feet.
"Is Naomi still speaking to her sisters?" Astrid asked from her seat on the grass, in the small front garden of the cottage.
"No, just finished. Things are still very much the same. Everyone is still in hiding, nobody new has been taken. Vicora and Celeste are still doing alright."
Astrid nodded once and looked down at her bent knees that she brought slowly to her chest.
"We're doing all we can, Astrid, there's nothing else we can do," True tried to reassure his wife as he became aware of her guilty demeanour.
