First part after the break! (BTW I am 100% sure that I didn't win because I live in the EU, and those tickets would've cost too much! otherwise, surely I would've had first price...maybe...uhm...yeah, believe in yourself! right?)
Tasha looked down at the little bundle in her arms, tears were streaming down her face, clouding her sight. The night was dark and only the moon lit her way. She had used her own warm cloak to keep her newborn warm. She shivered, not from cold, but from the thoughts of what she was about to do, and what she had been through.
Earlier that evening she had made her excuses and had left for bed early. Her water had broken, and while she had managed to keep her pregnancy hidden well enough, she would not have been able to keep the birth a secret if she hadn't left. The child had been born without difficulty. It was a girl, beautiful and whole. Tasha had counted the fingers and toes; her daughter was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
And now she was on her way to secure her little girl's safety. She remembered only too well what happened to the last mother who had given birth to a half-blood. The woman had been shunned, exiled, forced to leave. And out there, out in the wilderness her child would not survive, not at this age. And neither would Tasha in the state she was in.
Slowly she made her way through the city of Darnassus, making sure to stay in the shades of buildings as much as possible. She would go to the temple and hope that her child would be safe there, and raised by the priestesses of Elune. And even though the girl's ears were slightly too short, and her skin slightly too pink, her daughter's eyes were glowing with a deep colour of amber, showing that she could become a strong druid one day. If Elune would allow her to live.
Tasha looked up at the nearly full moon, and pushed aside a few branches. The temple was right there. The new mother made sure that there was nobody in sight, and hurried towards the shadows of the building. She melded into the darkness and stood still for a moment, making sure that her movements had stayed unnoticed. Carefully she cradled the child in her arms and kissed the girl's face one last time, wetting the child's cheeks with her tears. The amber eyes looked brightly up at her. Tasha forced herself to move closer to the temple door, and then with brusque movements she put down the bundle and fled back into the shadows. It was done.
-- 16 years later - After Cataclysm --
“Circe, where are you? Circelyn!” Yejide had turned the corner and had found the girl sitting with her white dress on a moss-overgrown bench. A couple of small leaves had gotten stuck in her thick, black hair. She hurried over, and chased off some birds, for some reason the girl always had birds around her. Yejide plucked the leaves from Circe's hair.
“Circelyn, you have your first training soon, and now look at yourself!”
The girl looked up at her with her amber eyes, and giggled. She stretched a hand towards her caretaker, a raven was balancing on the palm. The bird held its head slightly at an angle and looked at Yejide as if it would snap her fingers off if she would even think of coming too close.
“Look, Yeye!” Circe moved the raven close to her face and the bird moved closer to her. It rubbed its head against her cheek, as if it was cuddling her. It crooned softly at Circe.
“Isn't she beautiful?” Circe said.
Yejide had not the faintest clue what her adopted daughter thought was so beautiful about these animals, but had given up any hopes of interesting her daughter in the ways of the priestesses long ago. Ever since she had found the baby girl at the door of the temple she had known that there was something special about this girl. And already at a very young age Circelyn had come to her adopted mother to tell her that the birds were speaking to her. Yejide shrugged it off as a very active imagination.
She remembered where the birds had told the little girl that she too would be able to fly one day, and Yejide had had quite a bit of trouble convincing the girl that she had to grow a little bit first, lest she would probably have seen her jump off the temple roof one day.
The girl had always been different, and Yejide was fairly certain that she was not a full-blood nightelf, but she had defended the little girl's life that day, sixteen years ago, and had never regretted it since. The girl was a delight, well most of the time, sometimes she was just trouble.
“Circelyn, you're going to put on clean clothes now, and then you will go for your first training. Remember, it was your idea to learn about the Druidic ways.”
Circe smiled, and sent the bird away. “Yes Yeye.” She kissed the woman who had raised her on the cheek and hurried inside. Fifteen minutes later she left again through the front door, shouting goodbye.
I liked the story. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to the girl ? Are you levelling a druid in Cataclysm ? Named Circelyn ?