The Obsidian Pillar

Chapter Two

The dull sky was darkening into a slate canopy above us when I finally left the river. My dress clung tightly to my legs as I waded out, weighing down every step that I took in an attempt to seduce me back in. The wet tendrils of my loose hair were sticking to my back and shoulders, its light blonde now dimmed to a honey shade where the water had saturated it.

My wrinkled toes unwillingly slipped into the cold mud of the river bank, undoing the water's cleansing efforts in an instant, and I was Valla once more. Responsibility lowered itself down upon my shoulders while I started to wring the chilly water from my hair.

Rebecca was ignoring me, instead choosing to dive under the water as though she was born from the water itself. She was testing my patience on purpose. She knew that I would be the one to be punished and not her. I rarely lost my temper, but on the few occasions that I had, Rebecca had been so alarmed by my sharp rebukes that she had soon obeyed my instructions. That's why I held my tongue. I knew that she wasn't trying to upset me; she was trying to have fun with me. She was trying to show me that there was more to life than the pitiful existence that we were living.

She was fortunate that she never found her way into any trouble with her parents. They were blessed with Rebecca later in life, after they had resigned themselves to accepting that such a thing would never happen. Rather than reprimanding her, they chose to hold me accountable for all of Rebecca's ill-conceived plans.

'Your mother will be wondering where you are,' I called, cringing at the crisp edge to my voice. She would know that I was growing impatient.

As much as I loved her, I couldn't help growing exasperated with her childish behaviour. Perhaps it was because I was jealous. I didn't like to admit it but spending my life in her shadow wasn't my dream. I wasn't sure what my dream was yet, but this pathetic existence was not fulfilling me in the slightest. How did I know that there was more to life? How could I be hungry for something that I had never tasted before?

I watched Rebecca scream with delight in the water, floating on her back with her eyes closed and the last of the dim light upon her face. I knew that her eyelids, like stage curtains draped across a travelling troupe's carriage, hid Rebecca's greatest feature: two glassy spheres of dark, liquid brown that she often hooded and fluttered seductively at her father's farmhands while they ploughed the fields or brought water into the farmhouse. I had seen men of all ages turn their heads as soon as those brown eyes had alighted upon them; they were truly unforgettable.

Rebecca was strikingly beautiful, there was no argument there. Her chestnut hair revealed hues of red and brown in the sunlight; it was always brushed out and dressed by me, of course. I thought my own hair was nice enough. It was long, blonde and soft, however I rarely had the time to dress it out and therefore it was forever braided down my back in a hasty fashion.

'Come now, Rebecca, the sun will soon be setting.' I crossed my arms as a shudder ran through my slight frame, cloaked in the shade of the trees. The muscles of my arms groaned in protest at the involuntary movement. Rebecca dipped her head under the water to avoid hearing me.

I had moments where I could meet her on that plain of excitability and enjoyment, but I rarely felt unburdened enough to indulge it. Rebecca adored tempting it out of me. She didn't know what it was like to worry, to fear or to fret. It wasn't her fault that she was unable to understand, or that she had a happy life. I shouldn't have held it against her, but I did, sometimes.