Chapter 2
Leahcar was looking at a child kneeling on the leaf covered ground. Who is she? Where am I?
Leahcar scanned her surroundings. They were encircled by a dense forest but Leahcar and the girl were in a small grass area filled with white wild flowers swaying in the breeze. The night sky was mostly clear with only small patches of thin clouds and the full moon was just above them.
Leahcar thought it looked magical and yet frightening. It felt haunting but also pleasing. How strange, she thought.
Whatever this place was she did not think she had heard of it before in any of her lessons as a little girl.
If she had not heard of it then it must be an unknown place that no one had ever seen or heard of in Nevaeh…yet there was this girl here, wasn’t there, so then where was she from? Were they the only ones who knew of this place?
Leahcar turned her attention back to the small girl on the ground. She had long hair that poured down over her shoulders and to the muddy wet ground. Her hair was most likely normally a dark brown but it was soaking wet making it black, as black as the midnight sky. Her clothes, from what Leahcar could see, were ragged and torn; she must have a poor family. From her point of view Leahcar could see the child’s tanned arms cupping her face. She was crying, for what reason Leahcar did not know.
Just then the little girl stopped her crying and sat up, then slowly she stood up off the ground and turned to face Leahcar. Her damp green eyes pierced Leahcar like an arrow. For what felt like minutes but was only seconds Leahcar and the girl stood face to face in the pasture- staring at each other.
Then she spoke, her voice was soft and very quiet so Leahcar had to put all her efforts into listening.
“Save me.” The first time Leahcar barely heard her but the second time the child screamed at the top of her lungs with tears springing from her eyes, “Save me!”
Sweat beaded down Leahcar’s face and her blankets were scrunched up bellow her feet. She turned her head from side to side realizing that she was back in her bedroom still clothed in her nightgown and lying on her bed.
Her cheeks felt stiff from the dried tears and her head throbbed from her stressful sleep.
She must have dreamt about the girl in the pasture and the magical wood, it was magical wasn’t it? It felt magical so for now she would call it magical. But real life at the moment was the farthest thing from magical.
All of last night’s events came back to her like a gust of wind in an ice storm. That was the perfect description because that’s what Leahcar felt like: cold. All the warmth had left her body like a dead person’s, but she wasn’t dead, her mother was. Tears came to her eyes and slithered down her cheek, off her chin, and onto her pillow creating wet a dark spot on the red fabric.
Leahcar heard the door creek behind her but she did not budge because to this seemingly meaningless world, she was numb. Was it really meaningless? She still had her father and Gabriel, her dearest friend, and they both loved her so of course the world still had meaning, but at this very moment, that meaning had fallen to be a tiny speck of dirt on the ground. It had drifted away to be only an ant on the horizon, it was unreachable, or so it seemed.
Quiet footsteps came closer and closer to her bed until they stopped right at what sounded to be the opposite side of the bed that Leahcar lay upon. Then she heard that voice she heard every single morning starting five years ago when her other personal maid had died, “Good morning miss. General Gabriel is in the dining hall and he wishes to eat with you if you will come. Would you like me to help you get dressed?” Leahcar rolled over to her other side so she could see Mary who had an anxious look on her face. Mary was younger than Leahcar but she looked much older than her fifteen years. Her family was poor so Mary was looking desperately for a job to help feed their empty stomachs. Leahcar found her asking for a job in town from a jeweler who was in the middle of rejected her plea. She seemed very pleasant and sweet so Leahcar quickly snagged the girl and asked her to serve as her maid. Mary did not hesitate. She was no different now, still poor but also still very sweet and gentle. Leahcar loved having her as friend. Now she was standing before Leahcar waiting for a reply from her mistress, and now Leahcar wanted to be left alone.
“I am not hungry Mary; please tell Gabriel I will see him some other time.” Mary bowed and turned around to leave but then stopped and turned slowly back around, “Please, m’lady, Gabriel said to force you out of bed if you refused. You know I will not, but I do not believe you would want him coming himself, as he said he would.”
Her voice was hesitant and quiet. Obviously she was afraid of upsetting Leahcar more.
Leahcar sighed, maybe getting up would help her, though it would most definitely not take certain things off her mind. “Alright Mary, please pick out a dress for me and then tell Gabriel I will be down shortly.”
Mary nodded and quickly set off doing as Leahcar had asked. She placed a dress on a chair next to Leahcar’s bed then left the room without another word.
Once Mary was gone Leahcar got up and quickly undressed and put on the dress that Mary had picked. She always picked out the dresses that looked best on Leahcar. This one was a long blue dress with long sleeves dangling down to the floor and lined with gold silk. She put her hair partially up and tied it in a gold ribbon that she had received with many others for her sixteenth birthday. After some finishing touches and making sure she was presentable, as presentable as she could be anyways, Leahcar walked out of her room and down the hall to the right the same way that Mary had gone not too long ago. All the walls were decorated with tapestries and paintings. Some very old, others recently painted, a request made by her mother who was easily bored of the same things over and over again.
Leahcar stopped to look closer at one of her favorites. It was a picture of a small girl dancing in a field of daisies and little purple flowers. She had a short white dress that flared out as she was turning with her arms stretched out and hands open as if she were trying to catch invisible rain.
The sun was shining, the plants were flourishing, and the water flowing; drifting over rock and earth. It seemed to be as close to heaven as this world could get to Leahcar.
If only she could get there and away from here, maybe her troubles would be gone. Would there be tears? Would there be pain? Was there sorrow? How could there be in such a place so beautiful and quiet looking?
Her world was broken but this girl looked as if she had no fears; she had no doubt that her world would never fall apart.
Was that how I looked before…? Will I ever have peace again?
Leahcar’s wishful thinking was disturbed by a guard passing through the hall with his heavy footsteps and clunky armor. He nodded his head and murmured something under his breath.
Leahcar nodded in return out of habit but she was not really paying attention. He could have walked by without any acknowledgment at all and Leahcar would not have noticed or cared.
I hope you enjoyed chapter 2 of my book. Some things are still in progress even in this area but I will now be adding on to chap.2 or starting chap.3.
Please let me know what you think of it so far! Your input is important to me. :)
God Bless,
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