Silver Cathedral Saga: Observer Chronicles, Book 1

Free as Fire

Eleanor's mother hummed a number of bars of a tune before breaking out into singing.

She lulled the song with ease and peace, crossing into a dream, like a sound that broke free within itself. Within herself; it sounding that way to any listeners as well as her. Luna placed two of her fingers on the wick of a candle before she even lulled the first word near her daughter's bed.

She sung a short song, then the wick lit itself up and moved her fingers away quickly not to get burned. "Eleanor, time for bed."

Her daughter came in and done as she was told.

Luna saw her child's long, black, thick hair racing behind like it always did. Although she now also noticed a slightly healthy glow beginning to colour her skin.

"What's the matter? You look upset." Her mother went to Eleanor and sat on the bed, enveloping a warm openness to her daughter.

"I don't understand why I always feel so cut off from everyone all the time. I try to talk to the children outside and they look at me funny, as if I don't belong here. I don't understand."

"Every child is as misunderstood as the next," she said to her daughter, brushing her hair briskly. "Growing up is about finding yourself."

"I don't think it's about that," said Eleanor, looking like she was in one of her usual trances. "They seem to see something in me I've been trying so hard to hide."

"Trying to hide. What would that be?" said her mother as she gestured her to get into bed. She got tucked in with a dull, brown fleece blanket wrapped around her; the night being too terribly cold to ignore.

"I seem to notice things around me more. Not just like an average person would glance around. Really notice them. I am distracted and fascinated by everything that moves, everything that's still. Everything that was. I can smell things better than others, hear stronger than them too, as well as see farther. And on top of that, everything they say to me I take to heart. Even when I think on it, and I figure out it was only a joke much later on. I don't know when they're even joking most of the time. I seem to feel more than the rest. But not just with my emotions—with my actual senses."

"Eleanor, you must be tired. Really tired, because this doesn't make sense." Yet the way her mother said it was not very assuring for her daughter to believe. Luna seemed to be subconsciously knowing what she was talking about, but at the same time was trying to hide it for some reason. And yet Eleanor knew this as quick and as easy as that. After all, her gift was finding things. Even if sometimes they came to her at different speeds or rates.

Her mother read a few pages from a book that reflected more truth than story called the 'Legends of Creation', then as soon as she was done, kissed her daughter on the forehead and blew out the candle on a small table beside the bed. "Goodnight dear." Her mother looked at Eleanor.

"Goodnight," she said, sounding tired, and yawned straight after.

Her mother walked out and closed the wooden door, blocking the little light that was coming into her room from her mother's, opposite.

Eleanor turned on her side to look out the window and exposed part of her foot to the numbing cold, thinking what it was her mother was keeping from her all this time. She saw small one tiered houses standing in front as she covered her full self up again; they all looked just as cold as in her room with no light or heat now.

Though the comfort and warmth of the blanket sent her off to sleep all too easy soon enough.