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[howandwhy99]

Chapter 2: The Journey South

[Session 12]

[DAY 90 – Sunday, Azer 22th, CY 81]

The team awoke to find a steamy, rainy morning. The once dusty roads were now drenched and sodden. Thick mud ran in furrows along the ground. The long night had passed unbroken, but the thoughts of their would be pursuers still weighed heavily on the travelers’ minds. Father Ben rubbed at his chest praying the quiet was an omen for their journey south. Beyond Holmfaust the land smoothed to empty fields of grass and upon Darius’s orders the team arranged itself into a circular formation for better protection.

After the morning mist had cleared Rose saw several birds flying quickly north in the sky. Larger predators soared above and behind. Whistling softly she managed to coax a small yellow bird to her hand. They tweeted to each other in some common understanding. “She says she and her friends are being hunted. Those that follow are vultures uncommon to the area.” Rose sighed. “Mother will have her will”.
“What do you mean? Mother?” asked Father Ben intrigued.
“You pray to the sun. I pray to Mother.” Rose explained. “I am Mother’s, but Father commands other Faerie. Sometimes they even work together.” To Ben it sounded as if Mother and Father were the King and Queen of the Faeries. He had heard Faery stories before as a child, but none had creatures like Rose in them. Few tales ended well too. Queen Titania and King Oberon were just mythical figures and not rightly worshipped by goodly men or women. Ben had spent no time studying such nonsense.

“Perhaps it would be wise to pray to a higher power? A divine source which could surely guide your path?” suggested Ben. “You see, I do not actually pray to the sun, but to the Goodly Gods above to let the sun shine on our travels.”
Rose took this in. “I don’t think Mother would like that. She is very protective of her sons and daughters. She sees and knows all they do.”
“Only the Gods see and know all,” declared Ben. “But do you mean you are actually a daughter of the Fairy Queen?”
“Hey, yeah! It sounds a bit like… well, a fairy tale” said Dalin. “Not really true, right?”
Rose leaned back in her saddle. Taking her time she began to tell the group the story of her life.

A Summary of Rose’s Story

Her early memories were foggy, the earliest memories she had were of waking up on a cold stone floor to the words "Awaken princess, breakfast is here". She was told the story of her birth once. She was never sure how true it was given the nature of the tellers. But it was simple enough. One of the Queen's dalliances was with a merchant from Elven lands. That supposedly made her a princess. In the same way all of the Queen's children were princesses at least the ones that she ever knew of. Much like the King’s princes supposedly, though for some reason the two were never allowed to intermingle. She never saw her mother. The only caretakers she ever knew were the ladies who brought food and clothes everyday and set up the rules. The rules, such as they were, were simple. The eldest sister would be allowed to be heir to the throne. All others would be cast out. Of course SHE would never be allowed to ascend to the throne, her blood was impure. She and those like her were mixed with those who mixed with the low races. She was kept alive as a toy for her sisters to play with. Perhaps the gods grant mercy to the bastard children of the world though. While she was beaten regularly for the slightest transgression, she was never considered important enough to spend effort killing. And so she grew up. In a room that was more a battle arena than a dormitory, with all the siblings of the queen's children. She was rarely unhappy for how does one mourn the lack of light if they have only ever lived in utter darkness. She simply was. Eventually though the call of her Fae blood became too strong. She grew bored with the beatings and wanted something different. So she left. No one stopped her, why would they, she simply left at a time when they had again lost interest in her. Had she any way to keep time, or been cared about by anyone who could, she might have noticed that approximately 50 or so years had passed since her birth. She wondered what to do with herself and decided to track down her father it seemed simple enough after all; surely someone outside the bedroom would know the way.

But no one was there. So she simply started walking until she found something interesting. The new walls were nothing interesting. Fabrics and stone the same inside the room. She wandered for a while. The universe outside the bedroom, as far as she knew it, was fairly empty and there didn't appear to be anyone except her brothers and sisters. She might have wondered where the caretakers were. So she walked on, for whatever reason. Eventually she came across something entirely new to her. It was different. There is no other way to describe it and no words can adequately express what her first view of light was like. For fifty years she had grown up in a world of utter darkness. Neither her sisters, nor nannies, nor anyone else of note had need for it, so what was the point. One could go on about what was behind the door. How strange the feel of straw is on one who has only ever felt stone, fabric, flesh, and blood. But those experiences are best left to the imagination of the reader.