Status: This is a revamped version of an older story I had here!
A Place of Promise
Spica
‘What did you see?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about…’
‘How old were you when you first saw it?’
‘I’ve never seen anything; I cannot remember my childhood after six.’
‘Think harder. You’ve always seen us.’
—
When I was younger I used to see lands in the sky and cities reflected in water. They were not clouds that were shaped as something and not paper bags that floated on the surface. It was a tangible place. I told Galen who was only four years older than me, and he told me I was stupid – as most kids did. I thought I was seeing Heaven for an instance, but then the nightmares started occurring almost every night.
I saw scary monsters clothed as people, and I would wake up screaming not wanting to return to the world in my dreams. My mother often fought with my father, blaming him for my wild imagination. I woke up one night outside under the tree that I seemingly walked myself out there. I sat outside looking up for the longest time.
I tried so hard to see what was beyond the floating country just above me. Why was it there? Why could no one else see this magical place? I rationalized my thoughts, and came to the conclusion that I was a savior of that world as any six year-old would come up with. In the following days my father told me of the legend of the girl who climbed to another world, and I thought that is how I must save the kingdom I had designed. That is surely how that I could reach the people of that world.
But I fell. Reality only exists. It woke me up, and granted me the security of never remembering those childish days. So, yes, I did see something. It wasn’t real – it wasn’t ethereal. Everything that I saw is considered inventiveness – imagination.
—
I could feel a pressure in my chest building up every second I laid there in a deep coldness surrounding me. I could feel my body involuntarily turning to the side and my mouth opening as salt water passed through my lips. I was disoriented when I opened my eyes. All I could see was a white blanket hovering against my view. My entire body was quaking from the sharp coldness that saturated my clothes and touched my bare skin.
My eyes attempted to focus, my mind racing, wondering if I had blinded myself during the fall. My head moved downwards where my fingers gripping at the light dust of snow. I could see my hands albeit drained from the color.
I was on my hands and knees in snow and I was freezing. Hyperawareness set in, and I stood up, my heart hammering in my chest. Barren trees surrounded me while crows croaked at one another in infuriating intervals. I circled around in the same spot, but all I saw was tree after tree and no sign of another living being. Snow blanketed the scenery and was continuing to pile up on the floor, flurries falling from the grizzled sky. My breath was visible in the cold, and my fingertips and knees were reddening the longer I remained in these badlands. I tugged my damp jacket closer to me and began walking through the woods.
In actuality, I should have been panicking more. I had just fallen into an ocean which was nowhere to be seen, and now I was practically in a frozen wasteland turning into an icicle myself. Yet, I found myself with an intrinsic drive to search for shelter and food.
My joints were stiffening the longer I began walking, and my stomach was cramping from hunger. Frost had built up on the sleeves of my jacket and the tips of my hair; hypothermic degrees causing me to tremor.
“HELP!” I began screaming. My voice cracked and echoed through the endless amount of trees. My coarse voice only attributed to the inhalation of the sea water I had spit up. “Someone please help me!” Tears puddled down my face, and began stiffening as they fell down my cheeks. I wiped them away hurriedly with numb fingers.
I stood there for some time planning my next steps. We never had big winters back in Altair; I did not know how to survive. How did I get to this place, and where exactly was I?
A noise to the side of me caught my attention, breaking me out of my unnerving revelations. I lifted my head slowly in the direction it came from. Twigs crunched beneath heavy footsteps, but I couldn’t see anyone nearing me. I took a step back, looking from side to side hearing it looming closer.
“H-Hello?” I stuttered out.
No answer—Nothing.
I began breathing heavier as the noises sounded a mere foot away from me. I turned on my heels and shot in the opposite direction…only I didn’t get far. Not before I ran headfirst into what felt like a metal pipe. I groaned in agony reaching up towards my head, and feeling a familiar warm wetness on my skull. My eyes focused on the snow which had now become discolored from my blood.
Large boots with dulled soles stood in my line of sight, and a tsk-ing noise came from the person above me. I did not have the energy to lift up my head.
“Hep…me…” I struggled to form words through my swollen bottom lip. My teeth had sunk in when I came in contact with whatever I ran into.
The person above me did not answer me, and I could hear them rustling around in what sounded like a bag. They laid a long cloth on the floor next to me and laced pieces of rope below the blanket. The person stood right above my head, and lifted me from my shoulders, while allowing my head to fall back limply. A white hood with browning edges and mask covered their head, mouth, and nose. Black bangs peeked out from the hood as their eyes, paling in comparison to the snow, focused intently on lifting my body over the sheet. I could not tell the gender of the stranger, but they laid me atop the blanket and used the ropes to fasten me tightly to it.
As if panic wasn’t already pricking the edges of my breath, it intensified at the thought that they would leave me tied up to be a feast for wildlife. But I began moving, the blanket serving as a makeshift sled. My eyes focused and unfocused at the branches of trees passing through my line of vision. I blacked out several times before startling awake at the feeling of small bumps beneath me. It seemed we had been traveling for hours, the person dragging me lightly grunting, as the traveling was getting too much, or I was far too heavy.
I noticed that tree branches had thinned significantly above me, and the warmth of the sun peeked out behind the clouds. In the distance I could hear what sounded like idle chatter, and horses neighing. The noises grew louder with each step, and the terrain reformed to a slushed surface.
“Faye, what ya got there?” A male’s voice called out just as we had entered what seemed like city limits.
The girl dragging me scoffed, “What does it look like ya moron? Does it look like your average caribou?” Caribou? Altair has never had any Caribou…
“I was just hoping!” The boy muttered. “’Sides, what’re you doing bringing more people to Spica? You know we can barely feed ourselves!”
I heard a small scuffle and the boy falling and crying out. “Bastard! Human lives are human lives! Why don’t you go up to Arcturus or Vega where all the nobles are? I’m positive they would be happy to have another poor soul to help them do their bidding.” The girl spit, assumingly at the young man, and dragged me far more aggressively than she had been.
“You’re damn lucky.” The girl named Faye dragged me along while she muttered. “You’re lucky it was me, and not one of these dumb asses saving you.” I wasn’t quite sure if she was aware that I was conscious now, but she kept spilling out profanities as she walked along a rough road. During this time I took a look at my surroundings, although my head was limited in movement as it was throbbing profusely at the front of my skull, unable to allow me to lift my head.
Everything seemed primordial. There were carriages, horses, and wooden shacks for homes. I had a deepening feeling in my gut that either something horrible happened. I just didn’t know what anymore.
Finally my sled came to a stop, and a door creaked open. She dragged me inside the shack which felt significantly warmer than it was out there. I could hear her removing her jackets and boots before she appeared in front of me again, this time fully revealing the face that saved me.
The woman was pale but had black soot marks dusting her skin. Her unruly hair was cut short at her prominent jaw line, strays of hair erratically sprung out from her head. It wasn’t that she was unladylike but she was nothing like the girl’s with floral dresses and bows back at home. She looked strong, her arms curving, as her skin pulled tight around the muscles that flexed beneath it. She seemed quite a bit older than I was, perhaps in her thirties. “Hm…you look pretty dreadful.” Faye undid the ties around my shoulders, waist, and legs, before grabbing a hold of my wrist. “This might hurt a little, try and hold your head up alone at least.” I tried my best to keep my head steady, as she roughly pulled me up against her shoulder, and threw me on a cot. “Oops, sorry about that.” She smirked.
‘That was definitely on purpose.’
She neared the fire, and placed a wrought iron pot to boil water. She brought a damp rag towards me and began cleaning off my blood caked face. “You look funny.” I glared at her. She snorted a little bit, trying to muffle a laugh. “What I meant was you’re dressed funny. Who wears dresses in Lyra anymore?”
“I thot we were in Spifca?” My lips were definitely more swollen. Faye pressed her lips together.
“Oh…” She grunted, attempting to maintain her composure. “You’re a weird one that’s for sure. You must have hit your head pretty hard on that tree branch, but let me refresh your memory. So…Lyra is the kingdom, and Spica is the town. I found you at the border of Vega. Don’t know why you would want to be there though; they have some nasty people over there. It’s full of murderers and politicians.”
Faye continued to clean my wounds in quiet, waiting for a response. She got up multiple times to rid the rag of my blood in the warm water above the fireplace. She also brought extra sets of clothes and helped me change out of my wet ones, setting them near the fireplace to dry. Faye was a kind woman.
“So, did any of the places I told you ring a bell? Are you from another kingdom like Vela?” she asked placing dressing around my head to clot the bleeding.
I shook my head helplessly. “I know where I’m from.” I spoke softly.
“Oh yeah? What’s the name?”
“Altair…I’m from a prefecture known as Altair.” Her jaw set in a rigid line, and her eyes glowered at me.
She picked up the trash from the cot I was laying on avoiding eye contact with me. “Once you’re healed please leave. I don’t want trouble. You can sleep here for tonight.” She put on her jacket and her boots and left the small cottage, leaving me alone.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about…’
‘How old were you when you first saw it?’
‘I’ve never seen anything; I cannot remember my childhood after six.’
‘Think harder. You’ve always seen us.’
—
When I was younger I used to see lands in the sky and cities reflected in water. They were not clouds that were shaped as something and not paper bags that floated on the surface. It was a tangible place. I told Galen who was only four years older than me, and he told me I was stupid – as most kids did. I thought I was seeing Heaven for an instance, but then the nightmares started occurring almost every night.
I saw scary monsters clothed as people, and I would wake up screaming not wanting to return to the world in my dreams. My mother often fought with my father, blaming him for my wild imagination. I woke up one night outside under the tree that I seemingly walked myself out there. I sat outside looking up for the longest time.
I tried so hard to see what was beyond the floating country just above me. Why was it there? Why could no one else see this magical place? I rationalized my thoughts, and came to the conclusion that I was a savior of that world as any six year-old would come up with. In the following days my father told me of the legend of the girl who climbed to another world, and I thought that is how I must save the kingdom I had designed. That is surely how that I could reach the people of that world.
But I fell. Reality only exists. It woke me up, and granted me the security of never remembering those childish days. So, yes, I did see something. It wasn’t real – it wasn’t ethereal. Everything that I saw is considered inventiveness – imagination.
—
I could feel a pressure in my chest building up every second I laid there in a deep coldness surrounding me. I could feel my body involuntarily turning to the side and my mouth opening as salt water passed through my lips. I was disoriented when I opened my eyes. All I could see was a white blanket hovering against my view. My entire body was quaking from the sharp coldness that saturated my clothes and touched my bare skin.
My eyes attempted to focus, my mind racing, wondering if I had blinded myself during the fall. My head moved downwards where my fingers gripping at the light dust of snow. I could see my hands albeit drained from the color.
I was on my hands and knees in snow and I was freezing. Hyperawareness set in, and I stood up, my heart hammering in my chest. Barren trees surrounded me while crows croaked at one another in infuriating intervals. I circled around in the same spot, but all I saw was tree after tree and no sign of another living being. Snow blanketed the scenery and was continuing to pile up on the floor, flurries falling from the grizzled sky. My breath was visible in the cold, and my fingertips and knees were reddening the longer I remained in these badlands. I tugged my damp jacket closer to me and began walking through the woods.
In actuality, I should have been panicking more. I had just fallen into an ocean which was nowhere to be seen, and now I was practically in a frozen wasteland turning into an icicle myself. Yet, I found myself with an intrinsic drive to search for shelter and food.
My joints were stiffening the longer I began walking, and my stomach was cramping from hunger. Frost had built up on the sleeves of my jacket and the tips of my hair; hypothermic degrees causing me to tremor.
“HELP!” I began screaming. My voice cracked and echoed through the endless amount of trees. My coarse voice only attributed to the inhalation of the sea water I had spit up. “Someone please help me!” Tears puddled down my face, and began stiffening as they fell down my cheeks. I wiped them away hurriedly with numb fingers.
I stood there for some time planning my next steps. We never had big winters back in Altair; I did not know how to survive. How did I get to this place, and where exactly was I?
A noise to the side of me caught my attention, breaking me out of my unnerving revelations. I lifted my head slowly in the direction it came from. Twigs crunched beneath heavy footsteps, but I couldn’t see anyone nearing me. I took a step back, looking from side to side hearing it looming closer.
“H-Hello?” I stuttered out.
No answer—Nothing.
I began breathing heavier as the noises sounded a mere foot away from me. I turned on my heels and shot in the opposite direction…only I didn’t get far. Not before I ran headfirst into what felt like a metal pipe. I groaned in agony reaching up towards my head, and feeling a familiar warm wetness on my skull. My eyes focused on the snow which had now become discolored from my blood.
Large boots with dulled soles stood in my line of sight, and a tsk-ing noise came from the person above me. I did not have the energy to lift up my head.
“Hep…me…” I struggled to form words through my swollen bottom lip. My teeth had sunk in when I came in contact with whatever I ran into.
The person above me did not answer me, and I could hear them rustling around in what sounded like a bag. They laid a long cloth on the floor next to me and laced pieces of rope below the blanket. The person stood right above my head, and lifted me from my shoulders, while allowing my head to fall back limply. A white hood with browning edges and mask covered their head, mouth, and nose. Black bangs peeked out from the hood as their eyes, paling in comparison to the snow, focused intently on lifting my body over the sheet. I could not tell the gender of the stranger, but they laid me atop the blanket and used the ropes to fasten me tightly to it.
As if panic wasn’t already pricking the edges of my breath, it intensified at the thought that they would leave me tied up to be a feast for wildlife. But I began moving, the blanket serving as a makeshift sled. My eyes focused and unfocused at the branches of trees passing through my line of vision. I blacked out several times before startling awake at the feeling of small bumps beneath me. It seemed we had been traveling for hours, the person dragging me lightly grunting, as the traveling was getting too much, or I was far too heavy.
I noticed that tree branches had thinned significantly above me, and the warmth of the sun peeked out behind the clouds. In the distance I could hear what sounded like idle chatter, and horses neighing. The noises grew louder with each step, and the terrain reformed to a slushed surface.
“Faye, what ya got there?” A male’s voice called out just as we had entered what seemed like city limits.
The girl dragging me scoffed, “What does it look like ya moron? Does it look like your average caribou?” Caribou? Altair has never had any Caribou…
“I was just hoping!” The boy muttered. “’Sides, what’re you doing bringing more people to Spica? You know we can barely feed ourselves!”
I heard a small scuffle and the boy falling and crying out. “Bastard! Human lives are human lives! Why don’t you go up to Arcturus or Vega where all the nobles are? I’m positive they would be happy to have another poor soul to help them do their bidding.” The girl spit, assumingly at the young man, and dragged me far more aggressively than she had been.
“You’re damn lucky.” The girl named Faye dragged me along while she muttered. “You’re lucky it was me, and not one of these dumb asses saving you.” I wasn’t quite sure if she was aware that I was conscious now, but she kept spilling out profanities as she walked along a rough road. During this time I took a look at my surroundings, although my head was limited in movement as it was throbbing profusely at the front of my skull, unable to allow me to lift my head.
Everything seemed primordial. There were carriages, horses, and wooden shacks for homes. I had a deepening feeling in my gut that either something horrible happened. I just didn’t know what anymore.
Finally my sled came to a stop, and a door creaked open. She dragged me inside the shack which felt significantly warmer than it was out there. I could hear her removing her jackets and boots before she appeared in front of me again, this time fully revealing the face that saved me.
The woman was pale but had black soot marks dusting her skin. Her unruly hair was cut short at her prominent jaw line, strays of hair erratically sprung out from her head. It wasn’t that she was unladylike but she was nothing like the girl’s with floral dresses and bows back at home. She looked strong, her arms curving, as her skin pulled tight around the muscles that flexed beneath it. She seemed quite a bit older than I was, perhaps in her thirties. “Hm…you look pretty dreadful.” Faye undid the ties around my shoulders, waist, and legs, before grabbing a hold of my wrist. “This might hurt a little, try and hold your head up alone at least.” I tried my best to keep my head steady, as she roughly pulled me up against her shoulder, and threw me on a cot. “Oops, sorry about that.” She smirked.
‘That was definitely on purpose.’
She neared the fire, and placed a wrought iron pot to boil water. She brought a damp rag towards me and began cleaning off my blood caked face. “You look funny.” I glared at her. She snorted a little bit, trying to muffle a laugh. “What I meant was you’re dressed funny. Who wears dresses in Lyra anymore?”
“I thot we were in Spifca?” My lips were definitely more swollen. Faye pressed her lips together.
“Oh…” She grunted, attempting to maintain her composure. “You’re a weird one that’s for sure. You must have hit your head pretty hard on that tree branch, but let me refresh your memory. So…Lyra is the kingdom, and Spica is the town. I found you at the border of Vega. Don’t know why you would want to be there though; they have some nasty people over there. It’s full of murderers and politicians.”
Faye continued to clean my wounds in quiet, waiting for a response. She got up multiple times to rid the rag of my blood in the warm water above the fireplace. She also brought extra sets of clothes and helped me change out of my wet ones, setting them near the fireplace to dry. Faye was a kind woman.
“So, did any of the places I told you ring a bell? Are you from another kingdom like Vela?” she asked placing dressing around my head to clot the bleeding.
I shook my head helplessly. “I know where I’m from.” I spoke softly.
“Oh yeah? What’s the name?”
“Altair…I’m from a prefecture known as Altair.” Her jaw set in a rigid line, and her eyes glowered at me.
She picked up the trash from the cot I was laying on avoiding eye contact with me. “Once you’re healed please leave. I don’t want trouble. You can sleep here for tonight.” She put on her jacket and her boots and left the small cottage, leaving me alone.