Chapter 5 Kera
Kera absolutely loved her new clothes; they were so warm and comfortable! Not to mention they fit her amazingly! She just couldn’t stop admiring them in the mirror, she felt astounding in these fresh clothes. She even felt so good that it made it much easier for her to consider the prospect of telling Sharron that she was leaving tomorrow. In the end she decided that it was better to do this fast, like pulling out the splinter quickly, instead of going slowly and drawing out the pain. After she had told Sharron and explained everything, it would be done and she could go.
So, she walked slowly down the stairs, her footsteps muffled somewhat by the boots. She entered the kitchen cautiously, sitting down at the table and waiting for Sharron to join her. Sharron was always fast on picking up Kera’s emotions, therefore Kera wasn’t surprised when Sharron immediately asked, “What’s up kiddo, you’re down in the dumps about something, not even cheered up by your new clothes huh?”
Kera looked up at Sharron, she had always been so nice, and it was hard to take the final step in leaving. “Sharron…I have to tell you something….”
“That serious huh? I think I know what’s coming…but I’ll let you break it to me.” Sharron smiled, her eyes sparkling.
Kera found herself smiling despite everything; Sharron just made everything so simple with her easy-going attitude. “Sharron, tomorrow I’m leaving…”
Sharron’s smiled widened, “Where ya goin’ kiddo?”
Kera’s lip started trembling, she remembered everything in a rush now of all moments. Everything that Sharron had ever done for her came to the tip of her brain in a flood, images swirling in front of her eyes so fast she could barely decipher them all. Sharron had become closer to her than anyone else; she meant more to Kera than anyone of her own blood ever had. Sharron had fed her, taken her in when everything with her own family had crashed into nothing.
Kera’s childhood had been a very happy one; she grew up in a wealthy family. Sharron had been their maid, but Kera had never considered her that, to Kera Sharron was a friend. Kera’s two older brothers hadn’t felt the same way though, they had thought that talking to Sharron was beneath them, and they detested Kera and her younger sister, Anna for it. Eventually Kera’s mother got into things and in the end banned Sharron from talking to Kera and Anna.
This had really upset Kera, as she connected with Sharron strongly, but in due course and from other distractions she overcame this grievance. Four months after Kera had stopped talking to Sharron; Kera’s father lost his company and caused him to pick up drinking to fill his free time. This lead to many big fights in the house, making everyone ill-tempered, until as a final point a specific large fight caused Kera’s drunken father to light the house on fire. Luckily, everyone had managed to make it out of the house alright, but the family fortune was now destroyed and they had become very poor.
As a result, in desperation Kera’s father sold her younger sister to another family so that she could have food; and them too. Sharron had foreseen the same thing happening to Kera, and in the middle of the night stole away to the house that they now lived in. Ever since then, Kera had lived with Sharron and she no longer knew whether her own family still lived. Kera now knew that it was punishable by death to do what her father had done in selling her younger sister. But, there wasn’t anything she could do about that now, she just hoped for the best for her family.
The only thing she still wondered about was why her family hadn’t at least tried to use magic to help themselves, Kera had learned very early from Sharron how magic could save anyone in need at a desperate moment, you just had to believe in your ability to make things happen.
Kera knew she had to do this, “I’m going to leave, and travel…”
Sharron’s expression softened, “I’m going to lessen your burden here, and let you off the hook. I’ve known this was coming for a while, so I’ve been prepared. I’m so proud of how you’ve grown up! I couldn’t be happier, but now I just have to share some wisdom with you before I can let you leave.
“I know I’ve told you these legends and things before, but you’ve got to stick with me and promise me that you’ll remember this when you’re out there on your own okay?”
Kera nodded, “I promise.”
“That’s a girl. I want you to know that you’re destined to do great things, don’t settle for just being some rich person’s maid like me, go for it and be everything that you can be. And, once you’re gone, you have to promise me that you won’t worry about me one bit. I will be just fine, and I can take care of myself in any rain or weather.”
“Sharron, I don’t think it’s possible for me not to worry about you,” Kera grinned.
Sharron winked, “Trust me; I can take care of myself well enough.
“Now let’s eat and celebrate you journey alright? Let’s make our last night a good one.” With that Sharron snapped her fingers and the warm bread sailed over to the table accompanied by the cheese and cakes.
“Thanks Sharron, I’m starting to wonder what I’m going to do without you.”
“You’ll manage…” Sharron smiled and began cutting the bread.
***
The next morning Kera woke up early, she was full of energy and ready to go. She had packed and gotten everything ready last night, so the only thing she had left to do was to leave Sharron money and go. Kera knew that she had plenty and she wanted to make sure Sharron always had enough to eat.
Kera glanced at herself in the mirror and smiled. Last night she had attached her stone to the chain and it looked magnificent, although the stone wasn’t as brightly colored as it was when she held it, the ruby color it looked now went perfectly with the red blouse she had bought.
Still smiling she crept down the stairs, her old raggedy bag slung over her shoulders; after all she had to keep something that she had made herself. But, she also knew that she was probably going to trade the old bag for something new, it was just how it was going to be.
After much internal debate Kera decided to leave Sharron ten gold caravets, and she knew that much would last her a while. She left a note with it, telling Sharron how much she was going to miss her, and promising to come back some day. She knew that she was going to need some food too, since she was leaving now before town was going to be open, so she packed some bread and cheese into a small cloth wrapper. After she had set the note down on the table she noticed something different, sitting on the table was a book with a brightly colored note on top. Kera picked the note up and read it:
Oh my dear Kera,
You’re leaving without saying good bye to me aren’t you? Don’t worry though; I’m smiling as I write this, so I don’t mind too much. Please take good care of yourself on your travels and bring me something nice when you come back okay? Please take this spell book with you and use it to learn whatever you think might help you on your travels. I’ll still be here when you’re ready to come home, so just have fun on your adventure.
With Love, Sharron.
Kera smiled, folded the note carefully and tucked it into her pocket. She then grabbed the book and slipped out the door and ran down the path aimlessly, not caring where she went, just reveling in the fact of adventure. She knew that she had to focus on the good facts of the trip or else she would be overwhelmed by the sadness that was inside her about leaving.
After several hours of travel Kera realized that she really had no plans of travel, where was she going to go now? It wasn’t a very good feeling when she realized she had no clue what to do now and she had already left. It was about lunchtime, so she decided to take a lunch break and read some of the spells in Sharron’s book and then hopefully be struck by inspiration of someplace to go.
Kera looked around, there was no shade anywhere around, and the afternoon was starting to get hot, it suddenly didn’t seem like such a good idea to have bought a long sleeve blouse, it was too hot for long sleeves. Kera bit her lip, she hadn’t really prepared for this adventure at all, and it was much too late to start planning now wasn’t it? Kera wracked her brain for any spell that might help her out of this mess, a spell for travel maybe…? But she didn’t know any; she looked at the spell book, would it have any good travel spells? She shrugged, it was worth a try, and she was up for anything at this point.
So, she opened the book and muttered a quick spell for finding things quickly, using spells as a keyword. The pages blew about at bit, rustling in an invisible wind until they opened to the travel spells section. Once there Kera began scanning the spell names for something that could help her. The first few pages were all about multi-person traveling, and the next few were for helping other people to travel, but eventually Kera found the page. The only spell on that page that would work for her was a transportation spell, but it looked quite complicated. There were lots of intricate hand motions and heaps of complex new spell words that she had never heard before.
Just as she was beginning to freak out, she felt warmth flowing through her, and the warmth brought about self confidence and courage. She looked down at the stone hanging from her neck and it was glowing brightly, as if encouraging her. She felt new power inside her, power that helped convince her to try the spell. Kera took a deep breath and began reading, flourishing her hands at the parts indicated and sighing with relief that she didn’t need any special charms or ingredients to pull off this spell. After she had finished, she felt exhausted, and she felt the power draining slowly out of her. She glanced down at her stone, and its glow was immensely reduced. But, nothing seemed to have happened…
“Why didn’t anything happen?” She muttered angrily, after all of that nothing happened! She snapped the book closed angrily and the dust from the pages swirled into her face causing her to sneeze violently in succession several times. When she was finally over her sneezing frenzy she shook her head quickly to reorient herself.
When she finally opened her eyes she almost laughed, it was so predictable. She had done the spell mostly right, she had been transported completely, no limbs or possessions left behind, but she wasn’t where she had told the spell to bring her. Instead of traveling to the nearest town she had gone somewhere completely different. She was in the middle of a forest, and she knew that this was very, very far away from somewhere she wanted to be, because she had never seen more than two trees together within a three mile radius of each other in her life. Well, at least this was traveling right? She was seeing new things, but she knew now that she was going to be traveling until she figured out how to cast the spell the right way to get back. But that was okay, it just made the adventure that much better, no worry about chickening out and going back now.
Kera grinned and sat down in the grass, opening her pack and pulling out the bread and cheese. As she ate she looked around, everything here was so alive! There was green everywhere, and more animal sounds in one place than she had ever heard before! The birds sang happily and the wind played a harmonious concert through the tree leaves, the sun was a warm blanket instead of an overpowering oven, and the trees smelt beautifully of pine needles instead of dry sand. It was incredible and this journey had just begun!
Chapter 6 Sarila
Unfortunately, the fact that Sarila had to attend lunch today meant that she couldn’t sneak out for the afternoon. Also, the fact that she had to meet with guests meant that she was going to have to get dressed up for lunch and then again for dinner, it was going to be a terrible day she could tell already. The only fact that brought her solace was the knowledge that she had escaped for the night. She grinned; as long as she had that she knew that she could make it through one bad afternoon.
Sarila glanced out the window; she still had several hours before she was going to have to get ready for lunch, and nothing to do until then. She could read, but that just seemed like the stupid option and she didn’t even considerate for more than a few seconds. Sarila peeked over at her bookshelf, she had never really looked at it before, it had always been a bore to read, but now that she thought about it, she just hated the legends her mother made her read…what else was on her bookshelf? It was stuffed with lots of colorful books of all shapes and sizes, the thick leather covers soft to the touch, and they all smelt papery. She almost giggled, when had she ever smelled paper? It was just one of those smells you associate with things and then don’t notice it until you’re missing the object that you smell and have to identify it with something, and then you still know what it is almost right away.
Curious, Sarila walked over to the bookshelf and skimmed the gleaming gold titles looking for something interesting. She was astonished to see that in all the years this bookshelf had been here she had never noticed that there were tons of different languages in all of the books; it seemed that almost every book had a different style of lettering and word style. Finally she found one in a print that she could read, and she was surprised to see that it was a book of spells, she felt her pulse quicken, would it still be possible for her to teach herself magic? It seemed like something interesting to try, and even better, she knew her mother would disapprove.
So, she grabbed the book, pinching the binding carefully between her index finger and her thumb. Before she finished pulling it out she listened carefully for her mother, after several seconds of no sounds she pulled the book out. She then rushed over to her bed and opened the book to a random page, drinking in every word and understanding almost none of it.
After about an hour of reading Sarila was starting to get the hang of reading the book, she had decided to start at the beginning of the book because it made more sense to start at the easier songs. It turned out that this book was written for beginners so it was very easy to pick up the meanings of the words and symbols. The only disappointing thing was that even if she replicated everything the book said perfectly nothing happened.
But, that just meant that she was getting a head start and everything would be so much more rewarding when she finally could cast the spells and enchantments. It really made her think though; she was having a really easy time repeating the words and actions, but what if she wasn’t doing it right? Was there any way for her to tell? She chewed on her cheek and looked out the window, she really didn’t have any friends anymore, all of them had stopped talking to her years ago, and the only place she had found solace was in the forest, so she didn’t know of anyone she could go to. Her mother wasn’t going to be much help, not yet anyway, but there had to be some way…
As she was looking out the window thinking, she felt a small thought pushing at the back of her brain, she was missing something, but she couldn’t remember what. The feeling eventually traveled down to her stomach, and that really got her to pay attention to it. What was she missing…she really didn’t have any responsibilities today other than going to lunch and dinner, forced into it really. Suddenly, like the striking of a match she understood.
This wasn’t just any normal lunch, her mother had some plan…she had never been asked to attend lunch before, especially not with her family. For the past six months she had been eating in her room, and that was the one thing that her mother never complained about. So why now, suddenly was it important for her to eat lunch with everyone? She had a very bad feeling about her mother’s plans, and having to get dressed up wasn’t so inviting a prospect either, her mother took dressing up to the extremes.
Every time her mother had made her dress up she had to wear a fancy dress that Sarila knew cost a lot more money than it was worth, and she had to wear the worst thing of all…a corset…. She shivered those things hurt so much to wear; it was a struggle to take every breath. Even then, once she managed to take a breath it was only a half breath, so she almost suffocated every time she wore one, not to mention the fact that her mother glared at her if Sarila tried to take more breaths than was necessary.
Sarila groaned there had to be some way out of this some way out of her mother’s constraining grip. Could it really just be something people learned as they grew old? How to be a limiting, severe person that would only allow their children to do exactly what they didn’t want to do? How did parents learn these things, Sarila couldn’t imagine learning to be like her mother, was that how she was destined to be though? She didn’t want to be like her mother, it was a frightening thought.
Sarila shook her head, she wouldn’t become like her mother, she would do better than that, in fact once she got her powers she was going to dedicate herself to getting away from this place and never coming back.
Knowing that it was almost time for her mother’s servants to come in and help her get dressed she replaced the spell book back in it’s open space on the shelf and sat sullenly back on her bed waiting for the inevitable knock on her door. It was strange, now that she thought about it; she hadn’t seen her father for almost as long as she had started eating lunch in her room. That was probably the main reason for it as well; Sarila couldn’t bear eating with just her mother. Her father had always been quite busy with his work, as he said, “I’m working to make sure that you and your mother have everything you need.” But Sarila knew it was because he loved the perks of being rich and not having to deal with the social responsibilities of having a good home. Sarila knew that her mother took those responsibilities too seriously, and her father took those things as being unimportant. It was sad really, because since Sarila’s mother couldn’t convince her father to attend fancy parties Sarila was forced to.
At long last the knock came at the door and Sarila opened the door to let in the rush of servants all following her mother. Sarila bowed her head slightly in greeting to her mother, “Good afternoon mother…”
“Good afternoon to you dear, now let’s not dawdle we have an important lunch to attend to.” Her mother looked her up and down appraising her. “I think we’ll go with the dark blue dress today and the…sapphire earrings…” She turned to her maidservant, “Come and get me when you’re all done.” She then left the room, quietly snapping the door shut behind her. But no matter how silently she shut the door its echo still meant torture to Sarila.
After her mother left the room went into a flurry of activity, and Sarila wasn’t really a part of it at all. She wasn’t even allowed to undress herself on her own. Everyone around her had to be a part of unbuttoning and untying removing her simple dress, only then to replace it with a complicated, hot, silken dress. The only thing Sarila was allowed to do on her own was put in the earrings, because every other time someone had tried to do it for her, they had managed to cut her ear somewhere. Then, after her dress was on and she had been properly outfitted in jewelry the make-up process began. Luckily for Sarila she didn’t have to wear anything too extreme, at her age she still had to look mostly natural, but her mother insisted that a special enchanted cream for clear skin was applied lightly.
About forty-five minutes later Sarila was dressed to go, and the maidservant left to find her mother. Sarila stared at the stranger in the mirror, this wasn’t the real her, and she didn’t want it to be either. Sarila wondered if all the poor people she heard about would want her life, because this was terrible for her, not fun at all. You always want what you can’t have right? she thought ironically.
Her mother entered the room and inspected every inch of Sarila before she was finally satisfied. “All right, you’re ready to go, stand up and let’s head to the dining room.” Once all the servants had been dismissed and it was just Sarila and her mother, she continued, “You’ll make quite an entrance I’m sure, you look very beautiful Sarila.”
Sarila wondered if she could manage to squeeze some information out of her mother before having it all dumped on her lap at once in the eye of whoever else was joining them for dinner. “So who exactly is joining us today mother?”
Her mother chuckled softly, “You’ll see, I think you’ll be quite excited once you see who it is too. I think we did a very good job with you.” Her mother smiled and tapped Sarila’s earrings gently, “I’m proud of you Sarila.”
Sarila stopped walking and stared up at her mother, what was wrong with her all of a sudden? Suddenly she was being all sentimental? What was going on, her mother had never been proud of her before, her ill feelings increased. “What’s wrong Sarila? We can’t keep everyone waiting.” A frown was beginning to grow on her mother’s face.
Sarila shook her head quickly, “Nothing mother, let’s go…”
The reached the doors to the dining room and Sarila took as deep a breath as she could in the corset. Then she nodded carefully to her mother, pushed the door open. Merry sound burst through the door shocking Sarila, there was a huge party going on and the dining room had been transformed, elegant decorations placed all around the room. “Do you like it? Everyone is here to celebrate too!”
“Here to celebrate what mother?” Sarila asked bewildered.
“Your initiation of course, we’re all so excited!” Her mother smiled proudly, her voice full of pleasure.
Sarila felt her face go pale, this was something she hadn’t been informed of, and she still didn’t have any idea what her mother was talking about. “My initiation into what, and why do they care?” She asked apprehensively. This wasn’t helping the bad feeling in her stomach to go away.
“They care because they’ve been watching you grow just as much as I have! We’re all so thrilled that you’ve managed to save up your powers until so late, but don’t worry, you’ll have so much magic power after tonight.” Her mother beamed, “You’ve been saving your powers until tonight but now you’ll be able to take full advantage of them!”
“My magic…?” Sarila asked baffled, “What do you mean saving them? I’ve wanted to have powers since everyone else started getting them four years ago!”
“Sarila, please try to understand, this is a good thing, and you’ll be ecstatic later, just trust me and try to enjoy yourself until the ceremony tonight, alright?” Her mother patted Sarila’s cheek lightly before proclaiming loudly to the room, “And here’s our warrior that will win everything for us, the lady of honor, Sarila!”
Her announcement was met to loud applause and cheers, despite the usual manner that was required at these events. The weirdest thing was, everyone was cheering for her, and she didn’t even know why.
I'm hoping its starting to speef up action wise here in the next few chapters, so keep reading...? See you tomorrow! ^-^
Community Member
HOw did she attach the stone to the chain? Did you tell before and I forgot?
I love the part when she leaves and they write eachother notes. That part is really good. I ceould really see the enotion. Bittersweet. And as I read it the song Everybody Needs Somebody by Keith Urban I think is playing. Added to it. XD
"The birds sang happily and the wind played a harmonious concert through the tree leaves" Awesome!
I really like the 6th chapter. There is nothing I can think of to make it better.
Don't worry about the stuff everyone wrote on your paper. Content not grammar is important. WE just want to finish the story and get all the words. ^_^ And make it good. WHo cares if it is grammaticaly correct? XD