Falling Erother'hi (Moira Mercia) - ON HOLD

CHAPTER EIGHT ~ SHIFTING REALITY

Staring out of the window, I notice how the view has changed over the past few days.

When we left my house, our surroundings consisted of a vibrant green landscape, hills covered in trees and plants. There were only a few towns, with the occasional field coloured gold by the crops that would soon be harvested. As we neared the capital, the hills started turning into mountains, the green trees into grey sharp rocks, and the road we had been following becoming a thin trail, only wide enough for a carriage to pass through slowly, the edge of the path a steep fall to one's death. As we passed through the rocky mountains, I tried to sleep the whole way, my fear of heights unsettling me as I stared down into the dark valleys, panic arising every time the carriage made an unexpected movement. The thought of being so close to the edge, of being so near death, made my tummy churn. Once we had passed the mountains, hills appeared again, but this time mostly covered in fields, with a few trees here and there.

It looks beautiful, all the golden plants surrounding the carriageway, the villages becoming larger and larger as we near the capital. I have never seen so many houses or so much wheat. But they don't only grow wheat here. As I look out, I can see there is a field of roses ahead, with the thorny bushes nicely trimmed, the red and white petals vibrant against the dark leaves.

"Wow," I whisper in amazement as I notice a purple field, lavender growing in abundance. At home, lavender was a luxury, something that could only be bought at the local market when the Travelling Stores showed up. But here, they have enough to fill the carriage, and still be able to decorate the outside.

"It's the royal flower," Lady Cecille tells me, making me jump.

We haven't spoken since our argument about me wanting to leave. She has spent the whole ride reading, while I have spent it avoiding any contact with the men on either side of me, along with trying not to catch the woman's eye, spending my time either looking out of the window or sleeping in a sitting position.

Nodding, I say, "I know,"

She clears her throat, one of her black eyebrows raising as she stares at me. I debate whether to do what she expects me to, or ignore her, but taking into account I don't know what is waiting for me, I comply.

"Lady Cecille,"

"Good, you are learning," She acknowledges before turning back to her book, not giving me a second glance.

It has been six days since I was taken from my home, and in this time I have realised a few things.

For a start, I can't behave like I normally would. I need to make sure to act what is expected of me and follow Lady Cecille's instructions. From what I can gather, I am going to live in the castle, and after hearing how the king treats his staff when they forget to clean his shoes everyday, I don't think he'll have any second thoughts about dealing with a young girl from a faraway farm.

The second thing I have realised is that people expect me to know everything, and so I need to learn as much as I can so that I am able to keep up with everyone and not be looked down upon by them. The few people I have met during my overnight stays in the villages we passed through along the way have indicated that, although I have quite an uneducated childhood, being the Mother of the Future implies that I know about everything, past, present and based on what they were saying, the future, too. When they had realised my knowledge was that of a normal farmer's daughter, most of the people had looked at me as if I was stupid, some even claimed I was lying, that I just wanted to keep all the secrets of the future to myself.