"Take this sweetheart," Mom says, passing a bowl of warm stew to Elizabeth, and I sit on the stool beside the bed, silently waiting to see if Mom or Lizzy needs anything. The unknown disease that is spreading throughout the world has now reached Denver, and my sister was one of its hosts.
Hospitals are becoming overwhelmed with the number of patients that have flooded them, and Lizzy knew this, so as soon as she got sick, she said with a straight face: "Don't take me to the hospital, please. If it's the last thing I ask of you, please let it be this. I can't stand the thought of me taking a bed in the hospital that someone else might have needed more."
It broke my family's heart to not get her somewhere where we can be certain she will be cared for, and with businesses shutting down like dominoes, Mom and Dad are struggling to keep the electricity on.
Lizzy sits up from her bed, taking the bowl of soup, and the blankets fall onto her lap, letting me see the faint black vanes that stretch from her wrist and up her arm.
I see Mom from the corner of my eye stifle a cry. Instead, she bounces her leg up and down, sitting on the edge of the bed, brushing Lizzy's long, black hair with her hand.
"Please don't be sad Mom," Lizzy says with a smile, and my heart swells. She's only two years older than me and yet she acts like a warrior. A fragile body with a brave soul.
Mom leans down and places her forehead against Lizzy's, and they sit there for a few minutes. I take the time to memorize the moment, from the way Mom's hair falls to the way Lizzy's hand squeezes Mom's.
I wake with a jolt, and I notice my cheeks are wet, likely from crying.
My family.
The bed creaks as I move, slowly making my way to the edge of the bed, and I sit there, looking back on my dream.
That memory happened about a month ago, but now the disease that spread like wildfire has seeped into other countries. Luckily, Lizzy has since looked like she is improving, but I'm not sure how Lizzy and everyone else are going to get food and such, since I totaled the one vehicle we had. They trusted me to be safe and drive through the heavy weather while they deep cleaned the house, ridding it of all germs to make sure no one else got sick.
I'm a failure. I've only gone and caused my family more trouble.
The thought brings a few tears to my eyes, and in the privacy of my room, I don't bother stopping them, letting myself cry to sleep until my head is pounding.
~~~
A loud knock wakes me up, and I jump from my bed.
"Who is it?" I ask, gathering the courage to approach the door, and I do my best to make the quivering of my voice stop, putting my feelings in a small box deep inside me, making sure it's not to show itself again.
"It's Ally. I'm going to be your maid for as long as you stay here, or as long as you wish me to be," she says, her voice drowned from the door.
I open the dark, wooden door, and see a lady not older than thirty-five standing there, a smile on her face as she stands with a pair of clothes in hand.
Her hair is dark blonde, which is neatly braided into a Dutch braid on both sides, and her apron is white, but on the bottom left corner, there is a symbol. A crown.
I bring my attention back to her face and gasp, my hands flying to my mouth. Her ears are pointed, and they remind me of the fae pictures I have seen before. I stare, the sight leaving me in awe.
Right as I open my mouth, she starts speaking, and I halt, listening as she explains.
"I'm a faerie, summoned to aid you in whatever I can," she says, and my eyebrows raise.
"Summoned? Like with a spell?"
"How else would I be summoned?" she asks, and I think for an answer but am led to a dead end, unable to answer her question.
"Come darling," she says, walking into my room and to the bed, placing the set of clothes she brought onto the bed.
"You have thirty minutes to get ready. I suggest you take a quick shower, and I'll be waiting in here so I can get your hair braided," she smiles at me, and I shut the door.
Get some sleep; training starts tomorrow.
His words make their way back to me, and I grab the pile of clothes and rush to the shower, cleaning myself up, since I was too tired once I got to my room to do it last night.
Once I'm done, I walk out of the black and white tiled bathroom floor, and into my wooden floored bedroom.
Ally waits on my bed, and once she sees me, her hazel eyes glimmer with excitement.
"Sit," she pointedly looks to the floor, and I nod, making my way to the ground, my back pressing against the mattress.
She grabs a brush I didn't know she had and starts brushing my black hair. She's gentle when she starts grabbing sections of my hair, pulling them into a braid, and I decide now is a better time than ever to ask about where I am.
"Um, Ally, I was just wondering if you could explain to me about this... place," I stutter at the end, and my fingers automatically start picking at my fingernails. At this point, it's a habit I can't break.
"Don't tell me Prince Malaki or his father didn't explain this to you," she replies, and my silence is enough to answer her question.
"Well, don't worry then, dear. You have the right to know why you're here and where you are. Although I'm not sure I will be able to explain it to you all in one go since otherwise, you would be late for your training sessions. How about," she pauses, choosing her next words carefully, "How about every morning when I come to do your hair or whatever it is you need, I can further educate you on this topic."
I smile, her offer more than pleasing.
"That would be amazing Ally, thank you," I say, and I stop picking at my nails.
"Don't thank me, dear. It should have been done as soon as you got here, although apparently, not everyone can be relied on here," she sounds disappointed as she explains it to me.
"You said you were summoned, correct?" I ask, and I feel her fingers making their way to the bottom section of my head. "That would mean there was some type of magic involved, which was only around years and years ago, according to the myths. Although those myths are starting to prove true," I finish, my words going quieter as I talk, and it hits me.
"Are those myths true?" I ask, and she sighs before saying: "Yes."
I freeze, all the information that was once just silly stories to me, something people said to make others feel more certain of how they were created, is all true.
The rest of my time spent with Ally is in silence, which I'm thankful for. She does know when it's time to talk, and if so, what to say.
When she is done, I stand and approach my desk, which holds a handheld mirror. I grab the smooth metal, and lift it to my face, gasping when I see what she did.
The left side of my hair is braided into a Dutch braid which trails to the right side of my head and finishes in a low bun, and the same for the other side of my head. My black hair looks shiny and smooth, which probably has something to do with Ally because I have tried for years to make my hair look this silky and got nothing.
"Ally, it's beautiful," I say in awe. At home, my family never took the time to learn braids like this. In elementary school, Mom would just send me off with my hair in two pigtails every day.
"Thank you," I say, and I see her in the mirror, a smile plastered on her face.
"Go on now, you're going to be late," Ally says, and I put the mirror down, rushing to the door.
Right as I am opening the door, I realize I don't know where I am going. I'm such a fool.
"Ally?" I ask, turning back to the desk where she stands.
"Yes?"
"Where exactly am I supposed to go?"
She smiles and looks down to the floor. When she looks back at me, she is walking in my direction.
As she walks by, I hear her whisper, "I'll take you."
~~~
As we walk through the halls, another question boils inside me.
"If you were summoned here today, how do you know the layout of the whole castle?"
"I wasn't summoned here today. I've been here for decades, taking care of the castle. I was just assigned to take care of your needs today," she says happily, and I think of the joy I saw on her face when she was about to braid my hair.
"Do you enjoy this?" I ask, and she takes a right turn, so I follow.
"Of course, I enjoy this. It was what I was created for," she says, and I think for a moment before continuing.
"So does that mean all of the... fae are made solely to serve others?" I ask, patiently waiting for her response.
"Not at all. Fae are creatures that are created by magic, summoned for a variety of things. I believe you will face some fae in the Prince Trials," she approaches a door and opens it.
As I walk in, a gorgeous view lies before me, and I do my best to not gasp for the hundredth time today.
In front of me, a wall made purely out of windows faces a beautiful mountain landscape. Snow tops each mountain, and at the bottom of the mountains, villages cover the space.
The sky is a clear blue, no clouds in sight, and a flock of birds flies by in the distance.
I look to my right and see a wall filled with swords, daggers, bows and arrows, axes, and any other deadly thing you could think of.
Terror fills me, but it's broken by the sound of Ally clearing her throat.
"Hello Nyx, if you don't mind, please try to make sure," she pauses, looking at me, and I suddenly realize what she is silently asking.
"Catt. My name is Catt Lockwood."
"If you could make sure Catt does not come back limping and half dead like you've done with Maliki before, it would be greatly appreciated," she looks at who I'm assuming is Nyx, who looks a little younger than Ally.
Nyx smiles, showing a pair of dimples before he says: "I will do my best Ally."
She just smiles and walks out, shutting the door behind her.
I look to Nyx, who looks like he is about to say something, but a noise to my left interrupts him, and we both look over.
The prince- Malaki- walks out of the door, and he looks like he is about to go into battle. Daggers are strapped to each of his thighs, and two swords are crisscrossed along his back, the silver hilts just above his shoulders.
His outfit is all black, and it looks exactly like mine.
His green eyes meet mine before giving a friendly nod, and I return it. If I'm going to be working with this man for months to come, I might as well start trying to get along with him.
"Well, since I'm sure you're new to this Catt, I want to start with the basics. But before we can do that, I want to assess your skill level. Even if you think you can't do much, you would be surprised how many people have said that and it turned out they had a hidden talent for hand-to-hand combat. Sound good?" he asks, his blue eyes bright.
I nod, and he leads me to the dark blue mats that are right along the window. I walk over to the edge, looking down through the glass.
"The glass won't break if you fall," someone says, but I immediately recognize it as Malachi's voice.
"Take off all of your weapons Malaki," Nyx says, and I hear him walk over to the wall where all the weapons are hung.
I turn, looking back at the two of them, Malaki is unsheathing his daggers, but Nyx is bringing over a wooden stool from the corner of the room and to the mats, sitting down in it.
Why don't you just get a bag of popcorn and a drink to go bud?
I hold back a giggle from my joke as Malachi approaches and steps onto the mats.
"Malaki, don't hurt her. Just don't make it easy either. All we are trying to do today is assess her skill level. Then we can go from there," he says.
"Will do," Malaki says, a smile on his face.
"Start whenever you're ready," Nyx says, and I stifle a sigh. He looks happy and content on his stool, while I am probably about to get wrecked by Malaki.
I get in the appropriate fighting stance, and I only know what that is because of the action movies I watched when I was a kid.
Malaki does the same, and suddenly I realize what I am up against. I look at him, and just as I am about to strike, Malaki is one step ahead of me, sweeping one of his legs behind mine, and I fall onto my back.
The breath is knocked out of me, but I refuse to let that beat me, as I use our momentum to roll on top of him, but unfortunately, he rolls right back onto me.
It's all a blur as I try to figure out how to get out of this, but before I can make my next move, Nyx walks over to us.
"Now what do you think you can do here?" Nyx asks, and I pause, waiting for him to answer his question.
As if he hears my thought, he begins, "Well, you could grab right here, behind his leg, which would knock his balance off, and give you the chance to get on top."
I wait for Nyx to move his hand, and then I do as he said, grabbing behind Malaki's left leg and pulling it towards me, which makes him lose his balance and he falls onto his side, and I get on top of him, although I can tell Malaki only let me do that for my sake.
He could have easily prevented me from doing that, and when Nyx walks away, I lean down and whisper in his ear, "Don't go easy on me."
He smiles before leaning up and whispering back, "You won't learn if you can't even practice the movements."
"Just do what I said," I strike back, and a sigh slips from his mouth.
Right as I raise my fist to bring a punch to his face, he grabs my arm and flips me over him. Before I know it, he has me in a chokehold, and my back rests on his chest.
He breathes deeply, exhausted from the movement, and I rise and fall as his arm squeezes my throat, and his other arm is behind my neck, preventing me from getting out of the hold.
"Still going too easy?" he asks, and a surge of anger rushes through me. I know it was probably pathetic to ask him to not go easy on me, but I don't see the point of him going easy when I'm going to face harder competition in the Trials.
I try to swing my arm up and behind me to punch him in the face, although he catches it, and I grumble. I put my legs on both sides of his hips and push myself up, trying to flip over, but he quickly notices my attempt to escape, and he puts a leg on top of me, holding me down.
"Darn it," I whisper, and I feel Malaki chuckle beneath me. The way he finds humor in this angers me once again, although I see why he would think this is funny. I asked him to not go easy on me, and he did just that, making it more than difficult.
I reach up and try to pull his arm away from my throat, but he only squeezes harder, cutting off my supply of air.
What is Nyx doing? Watching us like we are a movie in a theater or something? Isn't he supposed to be helping me?
His absence sends a wave of wrath through me, and I feel my cheeks heat up.
"Woah!" Nyx shouts, and I hear his stool scrape the ground as he stands, rushing off somewhere.
Malaki's grip loosens and I jump away from him, rushing to get off of him and see what Nyx ran over to.
Malaki does the same and I find Nyx in the corner, and to my surprise, a jacket is caught on fire, still hanging on the coat rack.
Malaki runs to get his water bottle, and I search for something to put out the fire.
"Where is the fire extinguisher?" I shout, and Malaki pours the water over the fire, bringing the fire down, and unfortunately, the black leather jacket now has a hole in it.
Nyx looks at me with confusion when I say it, but Malaki continues to try to shake the remaining drops of water onto the jacket.
When the fire is completely out, Nyx asks: "What's a fire extinguisher?"
Are you kidding me?
Suddenly, I remember that I am in the past. Malaki took me here using the power of Valcor- the God of time. Last night and this morning, I started to think about it more and came to that conclusion.
"Sorry, I forgot where I was for a moment. A fire extinguisher is something people in my time used to put out a fire," I say, and I watch for their reaction.
Nyx just stares, but Malaki looks interested, almost intrigued.
"Interesting," he says, wiping his black hair away from his sweaty face.
"Yeah, quite intriguing, isn't it?" I whisper sarcastically, and Nyx cracks a smile, but Malaki still has that intrigued look on his face.
"How did that happen?" I ask Nyx as he examines the jacket, confusion showing on his face.
"I'm not sure, it's never happened before," he says, and he doesn't explain any other possibilities.
"Class is over for today, we will start working on technique and more skills to add to your backpack tomorrow," I nod, and approach the door to leave.
As I am opening the door, Nyx says, "There's a library on the top floor if you would like to educate yourself further on the Trials, or anything perhaps. You will need to know more than how to fight when you and Malaki enter the Trails."
I look over to where Malaki is but he has already disappeared into the locker room he appeared from this morning.
~~~
That evening, I changed out of my clothes and into something more fitting, which happened to be a blue summer dress, which didn't make sense since it was winter, but I didn't feel like wearing a gown, since those seemed to be the only other clothes people in this castle wear.
After I decided what to wear, I went off to find the library. It didn't take me long, since there was a grand archway for the entrance of the library. Once I stepped in, the smell of paper and dust overwhelmed me, but not in a bad way.
Now I sit on the floor, a few different piles of books surrounding me, and all of them I have skipped and skimmed through, only stopping to read the things I think I will need to know or the stuff that intrigues me.
I pick up another book off the shelf and flip to a random page, reading what it says.
Your partner is your biggest weapon. Protect each other, guard each other, and never let the other out of your sight, and if you were to do so, you might as well start praying to any God that will listen, because otherwise, you are dead.
The words shock me, although I know they shouldn't. I set the book down, bending over and rubbing my face with my hands.
Vanilla suddenly fills my senses, and I look up and behind me.
Malaki is bending down and grabbing a book, sitting down next to me. I watch as he opens the same book I was just reading and skims through it, his eyes tracking the words from left to right.
"Do you need something?" I ask after a moment of silence, my voice tired and groggy, likely from sitting here for hours.
"Yes," he says calmly, "I was wondering if you could explain to me more about what it's like in your world."
"Really?" I ask, doubt crossing my features.
"I know, pretty crazy. I mean, why would a prince want to know more about the future when he should be focusing on the present," he says with a smile, his eyes glimmering with happiness.
"No, no, that wasn't what I was thinking at all. I'm just curious as to why you want me to explain when I'm sure there is a book somewhere in this large library that says something about that.
"I've already checked princess. Nothing was found," he says, setting down the book and standing, grabbing another pile of books, and putting it back on the shelf.
"Well, let's start with the simple stuff, like a car. You likely already saw it when you came and stole me away from my home," I say, trying to make it sound funny, but I think he catches the hurt in my voice.
He looks at me as I stand, and his vanilla scent wafts through my nose. Sorrow fills his eyes, and it takes everything in me to not break down, thinking about my sick sister and my family who I'm sure are scared about where I might be.
Last night wasn't fun, and I desperately hope to not deal with something like that for a while, although I'm sure my brain will remind me.
"Listen, I'm sorry. I am. I know how badly you probably hurt right now, and I wish with every bone in my body that I could have picked someone else. But, my father is, well... controlling, and there's not much I can do to make him change his mind. Me acting the way I did to you yesterday was very uncalled for, and I apologize. I was just angry with my father and I took it out on you. I know my mother would have never wanted this, especially someone like you who never volunteered for such things," he says, and I sigh, relief and comfort swarming inside me.
And then, shockingly, he closes the space between us and wraps his arms around me, giving me a soothing hug, a hug I have so desperately needed.
I refuse to cry as I bring my arms up, and hug him back.
We stay like that for a while, my face buried in his shoulder, vanilla, and lavender surrounding me.
Maybe we can get along.
📖📖📖
Happy Easter everyone! I really wanted to get this posted on Easter and it's currently 10:29 pm, and I should probably be getting ready for bed but that's a problem for future me. Anyway, I wanted to let y'all know that you are loved and I hope your Easter was amazing. Peace and love dudes✌️