A Chance of Fate

Her silver hair glistened under the full-moonlight, as the queen-witch bent down to grace a kiss upon the infant’s forehead. Ragged breathing came from the bed nearby, as the infant’s mother choked on her own blood. “She will live?”, she hoarsely gurgled, as a nurse-witch tried to stop the profuse bleeding from her exposed ribs. “Yes.”, the queen replied, “But under my spell, until her fated mate turns seven years of age.” “Ah… thank you. I love… you… Sarah.”, the mother’s last words were whispered between gasps for breath. Then, the light faded from her eyes. “She is gone, queen.”, the nurse-witch cried, hiccupping on her own tears. “I did everything I could.” “I know. You are the best nurse-witch I have.”, the queen answered. With that, the nurse-witch closed the mother’s eyes, which still rested upon her infant daughter, and shrouded her under a white blanket. Tears continued to stain her cheeks as she quietly asked, “Why did this happen, my queen? What makes this child worth hunting and worth killing hundreds to capture?” The queen remained silent, her eyes fixed upon the sleeping infant swaddled tightly in her clans crested blanket and cradled inside the queen-witch’s spell. The nurse-witch took the queen’s silence as a form of dismissal and rose to leave. As she was reaching for the door, the queen broke the silence, “She is fated to kill us all.”, she murmured. The nurse-witch’s eyes widened and her grip on the doorknob tightened, “Then why have you saved her, my queen? Why have you cloaked her against time and the outside world?”, she cried even harder. “How could you allow the slaughter of her clan, her parents, your most trusted friends and allies, along with countless others, just to save a child who is destined to kill us?” She looked at the infant with seething hatred. “Vivian was not only your friend, but mine! I would rather see this abomination die that my dearest Vivian!”, her voice now shrieked. The queen-witch’s eyes burned blood-red, “You will not harm a hair on her head, nor lay a finger on this child!” she warned with ice in her voice. The nurse-witch bowed herself to the ground, in submission. She had never seen the Queen so enraged, and she shivered as the queen’s powerful aura filled the room with deathly silence. She groveled on the earth-packed floor as she awaited her queen’s fatal blow. How could she escape death after challenging her queen like that, but after what seemed to be endless last moments, she dared to cast her gaze back to her queen’s face. The queen-witch was visibly fighting with herself. She too was emotional and disturbed by the day’s events, but she controlled her anger. Her response was cold and hollow. “She may be fated to destroy us, but she is also fated to bring peace and order to our world.” “How, my queen?” the nurse-witch quietly begged. Shaking her head slightly, the queen sadly smiled, “I don’t know. The prophecy surrounding her birth and life is ancient and written in a language that even I cannot completely decipher. But no matter the danger, I made an oath with her mother, Vivian, that I would protect her, when the time came. We knew the moment of her birth that chaos and war would soon begin.” “My queen, how did you know that this was the child of the prophecy?’, the nurse-witch couldn’t control her curiosity. “Her eyes are silver.”, was the only reply she was given before being dismissed from the room. Once alone with her dead friend and the now enchanted infant, the queen thought to herself, “Oh, little child, we shall not meet again, but on the day you awaken what new dangers will you bring to the world of magic? Have I done what is right to chance fate?”, then she hung her head in defeat and wept.   376 years later...   Her eyes widened in terror, and her pupils dilated until her moon-silver eyes turned completely black. He was stalking towards her, his breathing heavy, his nostrils flaring, and lust filling his blood-shot eyes. She could smell the ale on his breath, and shrank under his unforgiving sneer.  "Papa?", she whispered into the darkness. "Papa, please...please, don't do this.", her voice trembled as he continued to approach her.  "My youngest daughter.", he breathed into her face as he steadied himself against her headboard. "You've eluded me, my girl, and now I need comfort that only you can give.", his voice was soaked with desire and lust. His knees where now upon her bed, as he reached to pull her underneath himself.  "No!", she screamed into his ale-reddened face. "You'll never have me, papa!" With that declaration, she used one of the quick defensive moves Conway, the captain of the guards, had recently taught her. She brought her knee swiftly upwards and into her father's groin. She didn't hold back, just like she'd been taught, and when her father doubled over in agony, she grabbed a handful of his oily mud-brown hair, twisting his head, and pulling his ear within reach of her waiting teeth. She sunk all her hate and fear into that bite and didn't stop biting until she felt her teeth tear through flesh and meet again. Her father howled, throwing her away from him and flinging his arms wildly around himself as he felt blood pouring from where the top half of his ear had been. "You f*****g b***h!", he screamed in a drunken madness. "You bit off my God-damn ear, you f*****g b***h!" His fist came crashing down, but only met with her mattress and pillow. She'd used his moment of fury and pain to leap from the bed and run from the room. He whipped around in a blind rage and came stumbling after her, but he tripped on a loose stone and fell - cracking his head against the hard, cold floor.  She didn't look back as she ran. She didn't slow down as her breath began to burn her lungs. She didn't see her father's blood pooling around him as he lay unconscious. She didn't hear her sister scream for help upon finding him lying there. She just kept running. Her only thought upon safety and her upcoming betrothal. She'd never met the man she'd been promised to at birth, she didn't even know his name, but she wished upon every falling star that the day of their arranged marriage would soon be upon her. She wished for her prince to come save her, to take her from this living Hell.  Unseen by everyone within and without the palace walls, a witch hovered by the kingdom's tree-line, watching the night's events unfold. She whispered words of an ancient language into the night's breeze, before slowly turning to disappear into the darkness of the forest with a small, sad smile upon her lips. The day of fate, she thought, was fast approaching.