Running Away From One Thing, and Into Another.

Chapter 15: Only Begun?

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Oh, my head.

That is all I can think. I open my eyes, and slowly sit up as I groan. The grass wasn't hard and scaly like it was earlier. I frown and rub my hand over it. It is soft... just like back at home.

My nails!

They are different too... am I home? In Jeroth?

Confused, I stand up. Pain runs all over my upper body, but I only ignore it. Something else grabs my attention. Well, she is actually a someone. A someone who I haven't seen in a long time, and never thought I would see again. She stands there, pinning wet clothes to the line.

“Mama?” I whisper more to myself than to her. “Mama!” I scream, and run over to her like a little girl. I am still angry at her, but I love her. I had needed her so many nights, and now she is here. Here. And she is healthy. I slow down some where I am fifteen feet away from her. “Mom?” She looks like she did before she got sick. Didn't even know I could remember that long, but I guess I do. Her clothes don't even need pins.

Her brown hair is pulled back in a long ponytail. Wow, she looks so... young. 'Course, when she died, she was twenty-two.

When she died... am I dreaming again?

That is the only logical explanation of my mother being alive. I hesitantly walk towards her and roll my shoulders back. My eagerness radiates off my face, no matter how hard I try to contain it. “Mom.” I say as I approach her.

She turns around from hanging an apron, apparently not hearing my former calls. Her brown eyes narrow in anger, and before I can back away, I am slapped to the ground. Heat throbs in my cheek, and I look up at her with teary eyes. Yes, I have been slapped a lot, but again by my own mother? Talk about unwanted memories.

“Mommy?” I say like a child. A tear falls down my cheek. So long, I have tried to remain strong. But how can you remain strong all the time? Isn't the arms of your mother where you don't have to be strong? Where someone can finally be strong for you? Apparently not with my mother.

She glares down and paces above me. “I sent you away to be protected, not so you can get yourself captured and killed! How could you be so stupid in that way!”

“I-I don't know.” Before she can reply, she fades away in smoke. I stare at where she was with an open mouth. “Mama?” I stand up, pushing the pain aside, and scream out. “Mama!?” Suddenly, everything starts disappearing into black. Everything is changing.

After everything has changed into nothing, it begins to form something again. Moments pass, and I am now huddled outside in the bushes of my old cabin where I slept with the other slaves. The bitter cold nibbles on my bare skin, but I oddly enough don't shiver. Footsteps alert me away from the cold, and I look up to find Catyn glaring down at me.

Just a dream, just a dream. I remind myself over and over again.

“Why do you think I sent that girl with you? So she would survive, you idiot! Not so she could die! How could you leave her in the hands of that witch!?”

I can't answer. The screams are too loud for me to even try to talk over. “Tacia!” I jump on my two feet and whirl around. Azjin is on her stomach trying to wiggle away. Above her was Massetta, pinning her down with her weight while menacingly holding a large knife.