17th of Spring 513 AV
The pitter-pattering sound of rain echoed loudly within the dark confinements of the Stormhold Citadel. Looming shadows crept from the edges of the halls and nothing was to be heard. Feet barely touching the ground, Rie quietly reached for the knob. Just as her hands connected with the golden knob, a thunderous sound flashed wildly and insanely beautifully outside the window. The young girl hesitated, looked around. The barest hint of a smile touched her pale face. Slipping out of the crack she had opened, she let her smile grow.
The growing excitement in her being was steadily building like a horde of rising bubbles just waiting to burst and release her happiness. She had never been allowed out in the storms when her mother and father were alive. They’d always stare sternly at her, frowns creasing their worn faces.
“It’s too dangerous,”
Their hushed whispers echoed throughout her head, clouding her emotions and pausing her rising excitement. For a second she stopped, her toes poised on the floor. She remembered their death all too clearly. It was so quick. Just one bright flash of light. And then they were gone. Burnt to a crisp. The only thing left hinting that they ever existed was the debris of falling ash, sinking gently to the moist ground.
The next month after that one was when she got her new guardian; a strict pompous woman who was probably snoring her head away in the next room over. She didn’t care if the woman didn’t want her to go out. She could go stuff her giant butt into a burning fire for all she cared. Mouth perked up cheekily at the thought, she pushed the apparently ‘horrid’ thought out of her mind and decided she would continue on. She was determined to experience the storm just like her parents. Only she wouldn’t be scared of it. Running lightly all the way out of the Stormhold Citadel, she laughed out loud, her face alight with happiness as the wind touched her face and howled all around her.
Feet halting suddenly on the stones, she stooped over and breathed hard as the rain splattered her face and wet her clothes all over. She wanted to go anywhere but ‘home’. The prospect of running away to be free with the world was glorious. Straightening her back out, she gave one last look back at the looming building she had begun to see as so confining. The word ‘fun’ didn’t even exist to her in that room where she was forced to practise her skills.
No, she wouldn’t go back, she would run free. Not comprehending where her feet took her, she let herself fly through the damned city of Syliras, rain pelting her all over her. As she ran, the sky crackled with lightning, sparking the air alight with its great flashes. Oh how she loved the thunderous booms. They sheltered everything she wanted to scream out into the world about how much she hated her life.
Constricted as she was and suffocated by the rules of her parents and then ‘guardian’, she always stared outside the window when it was storming, her eyes alight with curiosity. It seemed so free, free to blow and rage as it pleased. The god of storms was Zulrav, she knew that for a fact. She didn't particularly worship him but that was just her.
Maybe that was why they died and not she. She had never prayed to Zulrav for safe weather in any of their travels. Her mother and father did. Maybe he had gotten annoyed at them. Bella shrugged her shoulders. She would never know, not that she minded.
They had all been in the raging storm that had caused their demise. In fact, she had been standing virtually just a metre away from them when their screams pierced the air. She often wondered whether she should have been devastated or cursed the god up there for letting their death happen that day but no, she had merely gazed at their ashes, marvelling the way they had just… evaporated.
She guessed she couldn't deny the fact she had felt a pang of sadness after the realisation sunk in but in truth, she had been more mortified after that incident than sad.
That was the day when her ghostly 'friend' had appeared to her. Even a year later she couldn't help but feel rage that someone could have the brashness to just appear to someone after their parents had died and call them heartless. Heartless. It was the most insulting thing she had ever heard before and it never helped the ghost called Cain continued to call her heartless just because she appeared to be so to him.
Feet slowing down to a complete halt, she let herself get soaked to the bone. Stupid ghost. She really needed to rid herself of him. He was more heartless than she was. So she would focus on her current feeling of freedom.
Freedom was great. It swirled around her system like it was always meant to be there. She loved it and wanted to keep it. Her laughs of joy were drowned out by the storm when she remembered her horse.
And at that point a smile began to slide slyly on her face. Riding bareback. That would be fun, wouldn't it?
The growing excitement in her being was steadily building like a horde of rising bubbles just waiting to burst and release her happiness. She had never been allowed out in the storms when her mother and father were alive. They’d always stare sternly at her, frowns creasing their worn faces.
“It’s too dangerous,”
Their hushed whispers echoed throughout her head, clouding her emotions and pausing her rising excitement. For a second she stopped, her toes poised on the floor. She remembered their death all too clearly. It was so quick. Just one bright flash of light. And then they were gone. Burnt to a crisp. The only thing left hinting that they ever existed was the debris of falling ash, sinking gently to the moist ground.
The next month after that one was when she got her new guardian; a strict pompous woman who was probably snoring her head away in the next room over. She didn’t care if the woman didn’t want her to go out. She could go stuff her giant butt into a burning fire for all she cared. Mouth perked up cheekily at the thought, she pushed the apparently ‘horrid’ thought out of her mind and decided she would continue on. She was determined to experience the storm just like her parents. Only she wouldn’t be scared of it. Running lightly all the way out of the Stormhold Citadel, she laughed out loud, her face alight with happiness as the wind touched her face and howled all around her.
Feet halting suddenly on the stones, she stooped over and breathed hard as the rain splattered her face and wet her clothes all over. She wanted to go anywhere but ‘home’. The prospect of running away to be free with the world was glorious. Straightening her back out, she gave one last look back at the looming building she had begun to see as so confining. The word ‘fun’ didn’t even exist to her in that room where she was forced to practise her skills.
No, she wouldn’t go back, she would run free. Not comprehending where her feet took her, she let herself fly through the damned city of Syliras, rain pelting her all over her. As she ran, the sky crackled with lightning, sparking the air alight with its great flashes. Oh how she loved the thunderous booms. They sheltered everything she wanted to scream out into the world about how much she hated her life.
Constricted as she was and suffocated by the rules of her parents and then ‘guardian’, she always stared outside the window when it was storming, her eyes alight with curiosity. It seemed so free, free to blow and rage as it pleased. The god of storms was Zulrav, she knew that for a fact. She didn't particularly worship him but that was just her.
Maybe that was why they died and not she. She had never prayed to Zulrav for safe weather in any of their travels. Her mother and father did. Maybe he had gotten annoyed at them. Bella shrugged her shoulders. She would never know, not that she minded.
They had all been in the raging storm that had caused their demise. In fact, she had been standing virtually just a metre away from them when their screams pierced the air. She often wondered whether she should have been devastated or cursed the god up there for letting their death happen that day but no, she had merely gazed at their ashes, marvelling the way they had just… evaporated.
She guessed she couldn't deny the fact she had felt a pang of sadness after the realisation sunk in but in truth, she had been more mortified after that incident than sad.
That was the day when her ghostly 'friend' had appeared to her. Even a year later she couldn't help but feel rage that someone could have the brashness to just appear to someone after their parents had died and call them heartless. Heartless. It was the most insulting thing she had ever heard before and it never helped the ghost called Cain continued to call her heartless just because she appeared to be so to him.
Feet slowing down to a complete halt, she let herself get soaked to the bone. Stupid ghost. She really needed to rid herself of him. He was more heartless than she was. So she would focus on her current feeling of freedom.
Freedom was great. It swirled around her system like it was always meant to be there. She loved it and wanted to keep it. Her laughs of joy were drowned out by the storm when she remembered her horse.
And at that point a smile began to slide slyly on her face. Riding bareback. That would be fun, wouldn't it?
