Rumors
760 Words
Ria
The full moon lit up the night sky, the rain tumbled down in rapid succession. Sapience Kingdom or, Shall say, Sapience ruins, was in an uproar. It never rained here and for the past few weeks, the Dark Woods had been overflowing. The constant on-and-off sets of rain weren’t the only problem. The Night Wolves seemed to have been insane. The change was a natural inborn instinct for them, but it seemed as if they had no control over it.
My family and I had long lost count of the amount of wolves and other creatures that filtered in and out of Red Harbor Hospital. Of course, it was the Red Harbor Back Hospital where the elite wouldn’t come into contact with such filth. I scoffed at my family’s outrageous obsession with appearances and prestige. They had completely forgotten that we were the temporary stand-ins for the true rulers of this Kingdom.
The years that went by without any contest, went straight to my family’s head. They really thought they were the supreme rulers of the Dark Woods now. As if in tacit agreement, the citizens of the Dark Woods and its neighboring towns and cities just let them. In my opinion, they should have told my family to just kick bricks and become free of reign.
This definitely wasn’t a pandemic that much I knew, but what I sensed confirmed that it was magic-related. When wolves went rabid they couldn’t speak, but every Night Wolf that I attended to could. Were the rumors floating around the Dark Woods true? Had the Night Wolves been under a control spell all this time?
My heart ached for them at the thought. The Night Wolves weren’t bad people. The King of the Night Wolves, Daxon, had always been a fair and just person. It was said that his mate was just like he was. They planned to finally put a cease to the irrational feud between the Fairies and the wolves, but unseen events caused the Sapience Kingdom to fall overnight and into what it is now years later.
The Dark Woods was a completely different world compared to the Outskirts, Badlands and the Forbidden Forest according to the things I overheard from some of my colleagues during my shifts at the hospital. I was four years old when the Sapience Kingdom had fallen. It was also on this day that Queen Hannah had lost the only heirs to the Sapience Kingdom and the Dark Woods.
I remember I couldn’t stop crying on that day and for an entire week. I was sad, but for what I did not know. Every year that passed since that day I would be immensely sad. Maybe because on the day the heirs were born and then lost, it was also my birthday. My family had actually celebrated and partied that entire week. Even now, I find their actions suspicious back then. It was after that week that we became the royal stand-ins.
We never had any royal blood to speak of, let alone the right to rule, but somehow, here we were leading the royal food chain. It never sat right with me about my family’s new position. I haven't gotten along with my family since that day either and kind of stayed out of the limelight, so to speak. They only allow me to show myself during gatherings or banquets, but most of my time I spent in the Dark Woods and the Outskirt realms.
Many of the citizens here needed help and, surprisingly, I had a knack for doing just that. They said I reminded them of Redella Red. She was one of King Daxon's most trusted aides. Revered and respected throughout the kingdoms for her healing and foresight. She loved the Sapience Kingdom just as much as Daxon did. She would never let the kingdom fall the way that it did. A week before the Kingdom met its demise, Redella Red had mysteriously disappeared. Many rumors had spread about what they thought had happened.
For some reason, I couldn’t believe any of the speculations about Redella. It didn’t make sense for her to disappear or not know what would come, since she had the gift of foresight. Things obviously weren’t as they seemed, but I didn’t have anything to go by but the rumors that were going around. The whole situation was strange, it felt like people had plotted something. Shaking my head to rid of my ever-going thoughts, I quickly got back to work readying myself for another busy night.
- Writer
