Chapter 11 - ROSA
838 Words
The Sacred Woods, our gathering place, the centre of Dreamscape’s magic, glistens in the morning light. The air sparkles around me in the way only magic can make it. The grass is wet beneath my feet, the dew twinkling at the sun. Nature is at peace. As a Guardian, it ought to make me happy. The others certainly were.
The happiest looking I would say was Eric. His blond hair looked like strands of gold in the lovely weather, his smile exposed a perfect set of white teeth. Majestic in his gold armour and gold sword, pale yellow wings flap lazily, behind his back.
“Some of us do not look happy about a perfectly just decision. I wonder why.” He looks at me, his emerald eyes dancing with glee, still smiling, but the venom in him unmistakable.
“Maybe because I do not let petty grudges dictate my emotions.” I shift a little on my seat, an ancient moss-covered tree trump. There were seven of them, set in a perfect circle. And at the centre was Siren’s throne, which for the moment, was empty.
“Maybe some of us have the dignity to consider a rookie questioning how they treat their charges an insult.”
“Don’t you mean ego?”
“You miserable b***h!” He practically spits at me. “Just because you have Knight groveling at Siren’s feet for your-“
“Eric that is enough!” It is Autumn. Her dark brown hair hangs matted and unkept against her shoulders. She looks so young, with her gentle brown eyes and soft voice. “Whatever Rosa did wrong, she has been punished for it. More than that was required perhaps. You are not to do anything extra.”
Heat rises inside me at those words. Wrong…However much I think about it, I cannot comprehend a world where trying to stop the death of a child is wrong.
“A human was punished.” Diane, another one of the Guardians speaks up. Her thick deep blue hair runs down to her waist in elegant waves. Sunlight makes her midnight blue gown a sight to behold. It twinkles, it’s prettiness in all directions, inciting envy from every eye that falls upon it. Very much a picture of a fairy tale come to life. “I don’t see how that has anything to do with Rosa. Unless you count her performance garnered to rack up sympathy points.”
“It was not a performance!” The words erupt from me, angry and bitter. “Did you even look at the little girl before she…” My voice catches in my throat. “Did you see the bruises on her face and arms and legs? She was hurt. She ran away because the crazy dark, f*******n forest was better than the hell waiting for her at home. I promised her…I promised her that I wouldn’t let…”
Without even meaning to, I cry…My mind wanders to Lavender again. Her pleading voice…Her being lead away to be killed while I stood there, useless, helpless…
They should burn!
“Control yourself!” Silver raises her head from a large leather-bound book she is looking through. She runs her hand through her short silver hair, her small eyes fixed upon me. They remind me of a cold freezing lake, treacherous under thin ice. “Idiotic emotions like that will get you killed.”
And I could just turn away…Not say anything. But the anger inside me is boiling. I cannot bear this. To sit here and be treated like a child throwing a tantrum…
“Someone’s emotions got a child killed.”
The world stands still. I can feel the trees of the Sacred Wood leaning towards me, their branches swaying menacingly. All the Guardians’ hands are on their weapons, waiting…
For an excuse to get rid of me!
I knew that I had always been an outcast. The youngest Guardian…Only here because of her fire magic. It had always felt that more than anything, they had let me in so that they can keep their eye on me. To make sure I don’t…
Burn the whole damn thing down!
The voice sends a shiver down my spine and I look around frantically. Where is it! Where is the demon that visited me in my cottage?
“We understand you are upset.” Autumn’s calm voice sounds so far away. Everything around me blurs into vague shapes and colours. My body feels weak, ready to collapse.
“Something’s wrong.” I hear Pearl’s voice. I can imagine how she looks, her violet eyes filled with worry. I see a flash of her silver gown as she stands before me, trying to catch me before I hit the ground.
“NO!” I hear a booming voice. Siren…She has finally arrived. Just in time to see me completely lose it.
What would you do now, Siren? Would you proclaim that I am an incompetent emotional mess that deserved to be removed?
As I hit the ground with a thud, my question is answered.
“She has been cursed,” Siren says. “We need to take her to be cleansed.”
Even as my mind dissolves into darkness I can make out the malice in her voice. The cleansing ceremony will fail…I will become a tragic victim in the history of Dreamscape. Just like Celeste…
- Writer
