Juliom

The night was cold, so cold that there was frost on many of the plants. She flew up higher and higher getting as close to the moon as possible. She’d always dreamed of someday flying so high she could touch the moon. She glided into the valley as she neared home flying low so that the villagers wouldn’t see her. Flying into the trees she intentionally crashed into a tree, she couldn’t land in a clearing for fear that someone might be watching. Her secret must be kept, no one other then her family could know about her abomination, her curse and her blessing. Picking up her long cloak she folded her wings and put the cloak on making sure it covered all her wings.



Standing in the moonlight fixing her wings she looked like an agent of what the ancients called Satan. She had raven hair that flowed in thick curls to her shoulders, and honey colored eyes that looked like a feline eyes. She had a willowy build and stood only five feet five inches. Her wings were a beautiful ebony, it contrasted drastically from her ivory skin. She had draconic wings not feathery ones, they gave her a serious appearance almost deadly they were angular and rather large. Her wingspan was about 12 feet, she was able to wrap the wings around herself and keep warm where ever she was, because of their size. She solemnly walks out of the moonlight that had been illuminating her giving her an almost ethereal look.



Walking home that night she realized how much she’d out grown out of place. Dagny was an orphan who was adopted by a married couple who owned a bakery in town. Kolfina and Devin had made sure she had everything she needed. They where everything anyone could ask of parents which made telling them she had to leave even harder. She simply could not remain here and keep her sanity she felt so confined , always looking over her shoulder. She just could not bare it any longer. She reached the door to their home a humble cottage that was large for Devin, Kolfina and herself to live in the back while still having room for the bakery up front.



She turned the knob and entered. The fire was still lit and a large figure could be seen in the corner sitting on a chair smoking a long pipe.

“Evenin’, papa” Dagny says to the sitting figure.

“Good evening love, how was your flight tonight?” Devin asks already knowing the answer.

“It was bitter father,” She says quietly putting down her things. “ Wretched feelings were consuming me during my flight. I have much to ponder on tonight”



Devin remains quiet for a few minutes smoking his pipe, he looks at the lady before him hardly the babe he’d found in a field. “ Your thinking of leaving?” He asks in a whisper.

Dagny remains quiet looking the man who had raised her and cherished her all these years when no one else would. Her surprise must have been showing, her emotions where easily read she was hard at hiding things from people especially Devin.



The silence beats at him, he feels the sadness in him begin to surface again. An old wound reopened. She was leaving them, Kolfina and him where going to be alone again and childless again. She was their life, their light now she would leave them in the darkness with only the cruel moon to light the nights for them. “ Your mother is going to take this very hard” he says fighting off his own anguish.



Kolfina recovers from his previous statement, her father knew her better than anyone. She could never keep anything from him. “I know” she says barely audible.

His own pain was increasing at a terrifying rate for him. He knew someday she’d leave but she was only nineteen summers old. “ Tell your mother tomorrow. The quicker you tell her the easier it will be on her.” Devin said in a gruff tone.

She began feeling his pain, those anguished eyes would haunt her. “I don’t know if I can” she says terrified of the on coming sun.

“You will tell her,”he says tersely.



Devin puts out his pipe and walks to his room leaving Dagny alone. She was used to it but tonight she would have given everything for some company. Walking to her room rigidly she tries to think of a way of telling her mother that she was leaving. She loved them but she needed to find out her past. Find those who ruthlessly abandoned her and get vengeance.



__________



Dawn arrived sooner then Dagny would have wanted. She knew her mother was up baking the loaves that would feed the town. She gingerly got out of bed and got dressed. Her knapsack was packed, she made her bed put on her sturdy boots and walked downstairs. Her mother looked up at her and smiled. “Morning honey,” she said sweetly.



“I’m leaving,” she says quickly. Heat floods her face.



“It would appear so,” she adds in a smug tone. “ How many days will you be camping?”





Pain fills Dagny immediately, she didn’t know what to do but she couldn’t stop now. Everything had been set in motion. The journey man that had come through the village had found out her secret and told her the truth of her past. She had to leave now, get her vengeance. She might be able to someday come back. Alazne was a big kingdom she still had to find her mother it could take years. Today she couldn’t let down the only woman who ever cared for her, she couldn’t cause her pain. “I’ll be gone two weeks”she says trying to keep her sadness out of her voice.



Kolfina being a trusting woman quickly accepted her daughter’s temporary departure. She wrapped up enough provisions for nearly four weeks and saw her out the door with hugs and kisses wishing her good hunting.



Dagny leaves her home and begins her long journey. She sees her father on her way out of town and waves not finding herself able to speak with him. She simply couldn’t, not once did she look back at any building or person. The townsfolk could care less they thought her some deformed hunchback atrocity from the odd shape her wings gave her when she had them covered. She quickly sauntered out of town taking everything in. “This was it,” she thought to herself.



_____________





For the first week she had terrible luck, Dagny wandered from town to town little more then a beggar. She finally reached a large city, in that city she met a woman at a market who told her about a banquet. A banquet in which many royals from LlamRei would attend. This was her chance to finally face them, the ones who cast her off as if she were nothing more then a sack of potatoes.



Everyone was invited to the banquet which meant that the guards would be too overwhelmed to take her on if she approached her real mother. Dagny wore a beautiful dress she had brought with her that was a light shade of yellow. She had to buy a matching cloak to hide her wings from everyone until she choose to show them. She had worked so hard for this moment she couldn’t believe it had finally arrived. She strapped several knives to herself and put on her shoes. She had to get a feel for the banquet.



Dagny walks to the splendor of the backyard. One of the few things that where planned for tonight required that she know where all exits and doors are. The men she hired where late, they where cheap assassins who probably weren’t all that good at their jobs but it didn’t matter anymore. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her. It had to be her birth mother, they shared the same facial structure and honey colored eyes, the single difference between the two was that Princess Hiordis had golden locks that trailed to her waist. The princess and a male friend sat on the thrones that had been made for them.

_______________





The assassins were late, they knew it she knew it if they were outside she’d hell his head off. The three men where here to pick off a woman who had done a relative wrong. They arrived looking like innocent fools, they covered themselves in black clothing and headgear. She signaled them to take their positions. She spent the largest part of the night trying to corner Hiordis alone and it was a nearly impossible feat. Three hours later the boys were getting restless they hated her much more then she did.



The boys took opportunity of what was taking place and launched themselves toward the thrones. They threw some machetes’s ,one caught the princess’s consort, Eldrid, and sent him to the floor. Everything was happening fast, people where screaming her vision was blurred, the noises where indistinguishable she was in the middle of all this unable to see. She cleared her eyes as best she could and saw one of the assassins named Ruan corner Hiordis about to kill her. Dagny couldn’t watch, she thought she’d hated her so strongly but in truth she just couldn’t allow them to be killed. She had to make a decision and quick. She could either save herself or help her enemies in need.



In the last second she jumped in front of the Princess and took a knife to the back. It didn’t hurt as much as she’d thought it would. She just stared at the woman she had saved and undid her cloak letting it fall. She unfurled her wings and stretched them out fully. Her mother’s eyes went wide.



“You!” The dumb princess just realized.

“Yes me,” she said curtly. “never thought you’d see me again right.”

“But , I made sure you were dead”

“Why thank you mommy dearest how nice of you,” She says sarcastically. “ Are you going to kill me now?”



“But of course I’ll attempt to kill you but I’ll do it the right way I promise.” Hiordis being the mean woman that she was pulled the knife from Dagny and aimed for her heart but instead got her shoulder. Hiordis pulled the knife out and tried to kill her again this time she wanted to be certain the girl was dead. She knocked herself out cold when the pained Dagny bangs her head with a plate. Bending over she quickly ties up Hiordis. She goes off in search of the assassins after she settled that she’d come back. She comes back twenty minutes later and already the human was screaming at that point in life. She wanted Dagny to let her go, she believed Dagny owed it to her to do her this favor.





She gives Hiordis a predator’s smile and keeps to her work. When everyone left she leaned down to the frightened Hiordis. “I saved your life but I didn’t do it out of the goodness of my heart oh no. I expect you to pay in physical pain what you did to me.” She brings out two jeweled knives. “Before I go mummy dearest a late mother’s day gift” Dagny throws the knives so that the blades sink into her palm pinning her hands to the wooden floor.

On her way out Dagny said one last thing to her mother. “Forgiving and not letting the past go by forgetting it, is not forgiving it breeds hate and animosity.” With a little wave Dagny sets out again this time for home. She might be able o make the deadline her mother gave her with no one being the wiser. Smiling to herself she walks down the path, the full moon illuminating her way home.