Hey there my beloved readers! From this chapter and for probably the next 2-3 ones we have Elga's past! I feel very excited to finally write about this adorable child and I hope you enjoy it too! Her past begins with the memory she firstly awoke after Volff's accident and on the next chapters I will explain what happened before and after the incident of today's update. If you get confused or have questions please feel free to share them with me!
I am looking forward for your comments as I really want to see your reactions hehe!
I don't own OP but I do own the oc and the extra characters.
I don't own the picture!
LOVE YA ALL!
Elga's POV
It is sure funny how the greatest of the human's organs and the most complex thing that have ever been discovered in the universe, the one that is consisted 60% of just fat and can make information run through the nerves with a speed of 268 miles per hour, the one that needs the 20% of total blood and oxygen of the body to function properly, can forget important pieces of your life so easily and at the same time remember with every lurid detail the worst innermost memories that anyone would feel blessed to just wipe from their head.
It was like yesterday, I recall running inside the familiar forest path with an excited smile curved on my lips, 6 years ago.
The weather was slightly chilly as Solkey island of North Blue reached almost the winter season, being currently on the last days of November. However, despite the clear drop of temperature in the atmosphere there are no other signs of winter yet.
As I passed by the giant trees that looked like brave knights who carried the forest's ancient history on their shoulders and praised their maker day and night, light and shadow danced on my features. My feet stepping on branches and dry leaves, created sounds similar to the tunes of the piano's ivories and even the bees that flew here and there filled the silence with their own buzzing music. The birds sang in a synchronized symphony, well hidden among the branches of the blooming oak trees, butterflies dancing in the air on their own rhythm and even the wind blew with its own tempo against my face as I continued running with the fastest speed my small legs could manage, careful not to drop the melting ice cream on my hand.
"Princess Valerie, please be careful you might fall or get injured like that!", a maid that looked no more than her 30s with neatly comped black hair and a uniform of high quality in total black and a white apron on her thin waist shouted at me a lot of steps away behind me while trying with great effort to catch up with my energetic figure.
"I can't be late! The ice cream is already turning into a soup on my hands Sophie! In the end there will be nothing left for Melody!", I replied screaming at the top of my lungs and continued running until I was out of breath.
I stopped for a moment and took a generous amount of oxygen through my burning nostrils, combined with a combination of smells such as damp moss, wet tree trunks as autumn's stigma was still apparent in the atmosphere, various flowers and... what could it be?
*Do I smell smoke?*, I thought and my eyes scanned the area in case there was a spreading fire nearby our position.
I lifted my head and could clearly distinguish black smoke coming from somewhere ahead of us, though the source was hidden further into the path I had to follow so as to reach the palace.
That was the moment it hit me and realized that the smoke was coming indeed from the palace's location and so I began running again with all of my remaining strength towards this destination, in fear for the worse. My heart was beating erratically against my ribcage and the breathing fast and shallow made my lungs hurt like there was a ball of fire that burned my insides. However, even though the stitch on my left side became unbearable, even though my view went blurry from the huge amount of wasted energy or when I stumbled my feet on a rock and fell on the ground hurting my knees and getting dirt on my dark violet long dress on the process, I didn't give up and once I was up again I continued running.
Once I walked out of the forest's path and the palace's gates came in sight, my eyes widened in shock and the ice cream I so preciously tried to maintain on its frozen state for my sister's pleasure, dropped from my hands and with a small 'plop' landed on the ground.
I didn't care much about the wasted dessert as my heart sunk at the idea of my beloved sister being dead.
Not even a sound could come out of my throat other than silent mumblings that didn't create any proper word. It was like I suddenly lost the ability to speak and my body froze like a statue on the spot.
There was a huge fire spreading right before my eyes, coming from the room my sick mother and sister were kept.
An image of my weak mother hugging protectively my sister's frail body while flames surrounded them, crossed my mind and I felt like a spell broke and I moved my body.
Maybe, I could rush and save them. Maybe they weren't dead yet and have escaped safely from the room.
I crossed with quick steps the royal main gate that was surprisingly unguarded as it seems everyone was alert and present inside the enormous building and approached the spot directly under the burning room of the first floor.
Now I had a better view of the situation, I felt like losing my hopes as the sense of emptiness overwhelmed my fragile heart. How stupid I was? What could a 6 year old girl probably do?
The royal quarter's windows broke and small crystals that reflected the sun's light, fell from the sky like a rain of fire drops and some of them reached my delicate skin cutting through my face on a few spots. The freshly made cuts burned as my salty tears combined with the blood but I swear, I thought I would have a heart attack then and there.
Well, I was prepared I would lose them one day.
The doctor had said that the sickness both mother and daughter carried was incurable but still I hoped that a medicine would have eventually been discovered and so they could have a normal life again. However, I who grew to be more pessimistic as life taught me her cruel and ungenerous face, stopped hoping when I saw my beloved sister one day, vomiting blood and her skin's color turning into a shade that was no different from the ground on a snowy day.
But that was definitely not the day and the way I expected them to die.
"Oh my Lord! This is her Majesty's chambers! Princess Valerie please come here! It is dangerous to stand there!", the maid yelled at me and tried to guide me on a safer spot but my gaze was stuck on the burning flames that danced here and there like mocking me.
"Princess Valerie! You have glasses on your face we have to treat those wounds or else they will leave scars!"
Huh that was funny.
She talks about scars on my face but what about the scars on my bleeding heart?
"Quickly! Call the royal doctor! Her Majesty and the princess are in a bad state!", a maid rushed out of the palace and called for the messenger who immediately rode his horse and run like a madman towards the town.
"Princess Valerie please come here! We need to have faith! Maybe her Majesty and princess Melody are not..."
"They are dead.", I blankly answered without focusing my gaze elsewhere other than the flames above me that seemed to grow bigger with every passing minute. Even I was surprised by the coldness of my voice.
"Princess Valerie, please don't think like that! They might..."
"They are dead.", I replied again and felt hot tears running down my pale cheeks uncontrollably.
They are dead.
~...~
I was forced to get out of my bed and join the funeral that day. I clearly remember how exhausted I felt due to the lack of sleep even though I spent almost the whole day on my bed, refusing to eat or even drink something.
Sophie had to put a great effort to drag me painfully out of bed that morning as I couldn't miss my mother's and sister's funeral. Moreover I would be the future heir of the throne one day for better or for worse and so I had to win the public by being present and showing the needed respect to the other two members of the royal family.
Who am I fooling? Me? The Queen of Solkey Island? The ungifted child who grew to be the society's black sheep and the total disgrace of the royal family? If you asked the citizens, the answer of every each one of them would be the same. I should have been in my sister's position.
My body felt heavy and my head ached like it was about to burst but I didn't complain and wore the simple black dress that the elder woman had prepare for me.
I remember I couldn't understand how life continued to roll around me from the time I exited my room after so many days. For me it felt like the day they made the official royal announcement of the Queen's and the youngest princess's deaths, the time had frozen. I had spent the past week closed inside my quarters, isolated from the outside world and hoping I could magically reset the time to see even just for a minute Melody's beautiful smile and feel my mother's comforting and warm touch. However, my expectations proved false when I witnessed the busy staff preparing the palace by decorating it with white flowers for the upcoming guests that were about to visit after the event to give their condolences to the King and myself. Someone brought a black cloth upon my mother's portrait and fixed it a bit so as to hang straight on the wall, while others were closing the windows as a sign that the palace was mourning their fallen Queen and soon the whole place was wrapped in dark shadows with the only light coming from some lightened candles on the main corridors here and there.
My brain was blank and I found it difficult to understand what was going on around me until suddenly the funeral rite was over and I found myself standing right in front of the royal graves of the Queen and the youngest princess.
I remember distinctly the cloudy grey sky that reflected perfectly my mental state as if the nature itself mourned the loss of my life's sunlight with me. Though, the next day a more beautiful sun would arise from the depths of the sea across the horizon we so loved to admire with my mother every dawn and the life would go on.
But there is no sun in my own life anymore and my gloomy grey days will continue for tomorrow and the day after and probably the rest of my life.
I teared my gaze away from the two gravestones for a moment and observed the people around me. My father stood beside me from my right side but he didn't even spare an empathetic glance to me. I didn't have the chance during my short life to get to know him better as he was often away on travels and adventures around the world, fulfilling the great dream of his while leaving my mother behind to fight with the beasts. Talking of which, the beasts were all gathered here today to 'honor' with their presence my mother's remembrance. They who defamed her behind her back for giving birth to an 'ungifted' child, cried their eyes out with crocodile tears above her grave.
But I knew one thing for sure and that was the love of my father for my mother so I guessed his reaction was understandable as I was the guilty one for their deaths. So I didn't seek his warm embrace or words of propitiation and left him sank to his grief hoping one day he will forgive me.
I could distinguish everyone's thoughts just by looking the way they glared at my way.
'She did it.'
'She is the murderer.'
'I knew nothing good would come out of an ungifted child.'
They asked me to say a few words about them after the King's speech but even though there were numerous things I wanted to share and speak my truth in regard to their shameful actions and how much they had disserved her, the words died on my lips and I kept being silent.
In the end I was the one who killed them so it didn't really matter.
I stood there wishing to grow roots and stay with my mother and Melody forever. I reached even the point of thinking to dig the ground and burry myself with them. My knees felt weak and I fell on the dirt while starting to shove my hands into the earth and removed handfuls of fresh soil beginning to create a dip.
I could hear the annoying buzz in my ears of sudden exclamations and murmurs coming from ladies of the high society behind their lacy fans and the disapproving groans from the men around me.
The King thinking his daughter finally went mad, couldn't tolerate the disgrace I brought upon him and so he walked off with his knights following his steps. He logically went back to the palace so as to lock himself again inside his office and drink until he doesn't remember his name, I guessed.
Soon Sophie who stood behind me and tried for a good amount of time to stop my foolish and embarrassing actions, she gave up on my stubbornness and decided to leave me alone and grief the way I felt like I should.
Everyone else one by one left the 'theatrical stage' once they felt entertainment time was over and started getting bored.
I was left alone but nothing changed inside me probably because I was always alone.
All of a sudden, rain started pouring down on the dry ground like the sky was indeed crying with me. My tears, I so desperately tried to hold back in front of everyone, now started running on my cheeks and mixed with the welcoming rain. I raised my head to the sky to feel better the soothing water on my face until a shadow covered my figure and I stopped getting wet.
I opened my eyes to see a black umbrella above my head and a woman holding it behind my back.
She kneeled down to reach my position and I looked at her more thoroughly even though I knew who she was.
My mother's and sister's deaths didn't seem to have a huge effect on her as she didn't lose this disgusting mischievous smile she always had curved on her lips when something went right on her life. And probably this day was one of her greatest moments.
That woman was my aunt, a young lady on her late 20s with straight, black raven colored hair that reached her shoulders, green eyes like emerald stones and thin lips. That was Aldonza Lorenzo for you aka 'witch' as my sister and I used to call her.
"Valerie, sweetie. You shouldn't sit in the rain, you might catch a cold! Fufufu," she commented sarcastically and brought a hand on my shoulder, leaning a bit forward.
"Well I am sure you wished to be on their position now, right? To think that you are the reason behind their deaths! How unfortunate to forget to put out the kerosene lamp when you left to go for ice cream! I wonder how an ungifted child is going to manage the Queen's throne!" Aldonza whispered on my ear, her poisonous voice sending goosebumps on my skin.
"The King is not dead yet." I replied on a broken but confident voice.
"I wonder about my stepbrother, Fufufu!"
This moment I knew my fate was doomed and she had a greater plan on her mind.
But now I am thinking about it, my fate was doomed from my birth.
Because I was the only newborn in Solkey island who didn't sing the cry song of their birth.
Next Monday we will have Elga's memories before this incident! I wish you to have a beautiful week, until then stay safe!