Equinox

~Chapter Two~

"Equinox, time for food!"

The soothing sound of my mother's voice rang throughout the house, tearing me away from the story I was reading. With a sigh, I reluctantly sat the thick book down on my bed.

"Coming, Mother!" I called back. With one last, fleeting glance, I checked my page number and closed the book, making it give out a soft whump. I sprang from my bed and pulled my soft, tan slippers onto my feet. My mother hated it when I walked around barefoot in the house. She said that I would get splinters from the wooden floor.

I heard a giant clatter of dishes and utensils from downstairs.

A deep voice sighed, repeating the same line I heard at least twice a day. My father always spoke patiently, like he was teaching us to ride a horse instead of scolding our stubbornness for the fifth time of the day. "Summer! Be careful with the plates, darling."

Great, my sisters are already in the house. So much for whatever Mom cooked.

Between my father and my four other sisters, they could eat the house down. My mother and I had hefty appetites, but it seemed as though we were always outmatched by the rest of my family. Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter would ladle food onto their plates as fast as a lightning bolt and eat quickly. Within five minutes of having sat down, they would escape from the table and go back to whatever they were doing, leaving my father, mother, and me to empty off their dishes and wash them.

"Equinox, last warning!" my mother shouted. Last warning meant the food would be gone if I didn't come get some soon.

I quickly ran over to my small window and pulled the midnight black drapes together, extinguishing the sun's rays that had kissed my face moments before. I ran across the room and grabbed my door handle, flinging open the door. I opened it so hard, it rebounded off the wall and closed behind me with a slam, seemingly pushing me as I flew down the stairs that were directly in front of the door. I could see the round table my family sat at, with all of them gathered around it, piling food onto their plates hungrily.

"I'm here!" I smiled as I pulled out my chair.

Summer scoffed. "As if we hadn't figured that out already, Ox."

I grimaced as she said my nickname too low for my parents to hear. When they first started calling me Ox, I had repeatedly told my sisters not to use it for me, but the inventor of the nickname, Winter, disagreed. With the sass only she could have, she had spat out that the name was only fitting. The oxen that I must have been related to were proud to call me brethren.

That day hurt. It was the day that I found out how mean my sisters really were. It was also the day they found out that while I worked in the garden plowing the ground like an ox that they loved to call me, I was actually gathering food. Meaning that if I happened to not gather enough food, they would go hungry. Somehow, I'd only gathered enough for father, mother, and I to be full. I'm not sure how that may have happened.

I absentmindedly began scooping food onto my plate and eating, ignoring the comment Summer had made. I knew I looked different than my sisters. While their rosy complexions and beautifully colored hair made them look like little glass dolls, my pale skin and pitch black hair did the opposite for me. I stood out whenever I was around my sisters, and not in a good way. One blunt woman once said my sisters were like princesses in a tower, and I was the dragon guarding them. The comparison was music to my ears when I heard it, but once I learned what a dragon was, it made more sense. My sisters were beauties. I was... intimidating, to say the least.

"Father, may we go to town?" I looked away from my food and saw Spring widening her green eyes in a plea. I almost laughed. It looked like she was constipated.

Father turned his head toward me and raised his eyebrows in question. "Equinox, would you like to go?"

"Sure," I mumbled. There really was no choice for me. If one went to the market, the other four were required to follow. If one denied, she would be ridiculed the rest of the day. At least I could at least buy a few new books with a trip to the marketplace, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.