Après moi le déluge

Prologue

 "After my reign, the nation will be plunged into chaos, and destruction."

                                                                                                  -King Louis XV of France

As Madeline ran, the cold, thin mountain air felt like daggers with every breath. Every desperate pant drew a stinging pain to her chest. The altitude and chilled temperature were against her. But she kept pace--for she couldn't dare stop. Each reaching stride swelled her bare feet from the cold as they made a shunk in the ankle high snow. Her fast pace was only broken by the occasional misstep from pain. 

As she ran, her focused gaze eyed the moonlit forest floor in front of her. It was late at night. But the full moon provided a light bright enough to cast shadows. Madeline's favorite period in the cycle. It would have been beautiful, had she the time to appreciate it. Her attention was focused on the ground ahead--sparkling from the moonlight and thick snow befallen just hours before--and was shared with attention towards the child she clenched in her arms. The baby girl, wrapped in brown wool sheets lay miraculously sound asleep in her mother's careful arms, even with each rough side step. Her ashy blonde hair sat tucked in a bun above her head, Madeline did this so the child wouldn't get supper in her long tresses--this happened often. The pale chubby baby cheeks sat unmoved on her small undeveloped face as she lie curled up, protected from the elements. Madeline kept her own flour ashed hands tight and supported around her daughter. She had only moments to escape as she was interrupted while preparing a meal. 

Madeline's eyes darted frantically. Trees swept by as if she were on horseback. Avoiding rocks, slopes, trees, and brush, she kept her eyes on all factors along with far ahead, as if seeing a tangible path illuminated before her. Mayhaps she could do it. She could actually get away, she thought. Just a little further. Her heart rate quickened and she felt a shiver of happiness alongside the thought that her daughter would belong to her for longer than just the chilly night in which she ran. She listened back for her pursuers. Listened for their "shunks" in the snow. Listened for the quiet jingle of their chain-mail gloves and their thick winter armor waving in the wind as they gave chase. She looked back, only for a moment. The moonlight would allow her to see if they were close behind. She just need to check. 

In the fleeting second that she wandered her eyes away from the floor, a stray root, barely protruding from the snow, caught her foot. She gave a muffled yelp in pain as she fell to the ground, barely able to spin herself around to keep her daughter from harm before landing. Her thin blue nightgown did nothing to protect her back from the cluttered floor it landed on as she slid to a stop. She covered her mouth with her free hand and clenched her eyes shut to keep herself from letting out a painful shriek. Blood trickled down her back, staining through the nightwear. She placed her hand back on the bundle her child was laying in, she glanced down to find that she was still sleeping. Madeline sat up and took her first deep breath in 20 minutes and with it the forest quieted to nothingness. The utter silence made her uncomfortable--she felt alone. Her ears followed her eyes as they slowly panned the area that was previously behind her. Nothing. She panned again--nothing. Once more. Her eyes only made it half way before she heard a sizzling thunk in the tree just 2 feet from her head. A red hot stalactite-shaped rod of metal lay buried deep into the tree, smoke bellowed from it. She froze and her eyes widened, trembling as her world crumbled yet again. 

Stuck in her thoughts, another rod shot out from the distance and struck the floor feet from her left, this time. The baby girl in Madeline's arms struck her mind. She took another deep breath and her eyes shifted from fear, to determination. Rising up to her knees, Madeline held her daughter in one arm and glided her other hand through the snow surrounding her, everywhere she touched with her hand the fresh glittering snow evaporated into a thick cloud of steam, taller and wider than herself. She darted out of it, praying to herself that the diversion would cover her tracks long enough to reach a sanctuary. Not for her, but for the child.  

As she ran, Madeline's blood trickled down her back. 

"Vida!"

As she ran, Madeline clenched her daughter to her chest.

"Vida!!"

As she ran, Madeline coughed out her words in a desperate cry. 

"Vida!!!"

As she ran, Madeline approached a small, wood and brick lakeside house, a woman opened the door as her name was called. 

"Madeline?" She spoke. "Edeness?"