Eclipse On Luna

Chapter-4

[Irene Miles’ POV]

“Don’t tell me you forgot your name from the shock!” Alana looked genuinely worried.

“Actually, yeah. I remember nothing before I came here. I only remember the Nyxia fountain and how they dragged me from there.” I said after drinking water that Niya had brought and placed in front of me on the table.

I heard a few ladies gasp and cover their mouths with their hands. All of them seemed to have gone through a lot. As I carefully examined them, I found all of them were hurt. Some had bandages around their arms, legs, neck and some had unbearable bruises on their bodies. Except for their faces, they were all injured almost everywhere. 

“Oh, good lord. Are you ok?” Alana asked, and I nodded.

“D-did they hurt you? All of you?” I asked, skimming my eyes across the room.

“They hurt us when we tried to run away a few days ago. So everyone here is terrified. That is why I attacked you, too. Please forgive me.” Alana said, apologetically.

“I understand. They are the ones who should pay for their crimes and beg for mercy. Those animals should be slaughtered. They treat women as if they are some non-living thing!” I almost yelled. 

“In their eyes, we have been nothing but a thing. I was born here and trust me, my life has been hell ever since I took my first breath. First, my father tried to kill me because I was a girl. My mother ran from the pack with me to save me. Ever since I lived in the Liberta corridors with my mother. She died a few years ago, and I had to survive on my own. That was when I reached the Nyxia fountain and was captured and brought here.” Alana banged the table with her fist. “They brought everyone else here from villages, the Nyxia fountain or the other packs.”

That reminded me of the three shadows I saw with my reflection in the fountain water before the scums dragged me here. “Why did you visit the Nyxia fountain?” I asked Alana.

“It’s said that one can see a vague figure of their mates during twilight when they offer a gold coin to the fountain. So many maidens go there to see it for themselves. I went there for the same reason,” Alana said.

“So, did you see?” I asked impatiently.

“It was a vague shadow. I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman,” she smiled nervously.

“How many did you see? I mean — the vague shadow?” I asked her.

“One. Everyone has one mate,” she shrugged. “Did you try it too? What did you see?” she asked.

“N-nothing. I saw nothing. I offered the coin in the afternoon, so I don’t think it worked.” I tried to hide the nervousness this whole thing had caused me. Alana nodded with pursed lips.

“I don’t care about my mate or whatever. He will be a man too, and I abhor them. I would rather die than be fated to a kind like them,” Niya snapped. The hatred in her voice was chilling. At such a young age, she had to go through all that. I didn’t blame her.

“Why are we treated like that?” I had known the answer ever since I was born. There used to be a time when females were considered the gender of all power. They worshipped her like God. But gradually, things became worse. So worse that women were prohibited from even leaving their houses without a man’s permission. She was suppressed to the point where she started thinking and accepting that she was weak and needed a man to survive in the cruel world.

Whose fault was it? Men who became overprotective or women who started thinking that they needed a man’s protection and lost their worth? History has had great female rulers, lunas, warriors, so why is this society like this? Women have forgotten who they really are and what they can actually do. They have been blinded. I felt that sense of protection from Theo, my male friends in the Carol pack and in the championship, and Zane, but all these men have always pushed me to become stronger. To stand on my two feet. If not for them, maybe I would also succumb to that poisonous thought process, accept I was weak when I wasn’t, and always rely on a man to save me and protect me.

It was easy for me to say and believe in a utopia where men and women stand side-by-side sharing equal honour, rights and respect. But that utopia was something I had to create, and it seemed nowhere near any time soon.

“I don’t know. Maybe because we are weak physically?” Alana shrugged. That utopia was definitely far away.

I had many questions arising in my mind, but I kept them in. “Do you know why we were brought here?” I asked.

“I heard the soldiers say that we will have to compete in some kind of game and the winner becomes the prize and needs to serve someone they addressed as lord,” Niya said. She had wavy black hair on her shoulders, her lips naturally pink and her eyes light brown. She was in a green cotton gown to her knees. It was stained with mud and blood in places.

“They say it’s a rumoured game that happens in Nodia every year. I never believed that they were real, but now it’s scary.” One maiden said.

“I can’t even imagine what they will do to us.”

“I’d rather kill myself than submit to them,” Alana got up, banging the table again. “And all of you stop complaining. We will have to get out of here. We should keep trying.”

All the other girls became silent. One of them timidly peeped from behind a girl, “try again? I don’t want to be beaten again. What if we listen to them and they spare us?”

“Shut up! That is completely insane. If they had to spare us, they wouldn’t have captivated us like cattle.” Alana said in a firm, enraged tone.

“We listened to you and just look at us! We are all covered in wounds!” Another lady snapped arrogantly at Alana.

“Please stop fighting!” Niya yelled, sobbing. “We are all scared. We need to work together to survive out of this. Moreover, what will be the use of living when our fate will have nothing more than harassment, abuse, and exploitation? She is at least trying to help all of us. If she wanted, she could have escaped alone, but she didn’t! So stop whining! If you don’t have anything helpful to say, say nothing at all…” Niya’s face turned red as tears streamed down her face.

“How dare you talk to your elders like that! None of us wanted this to happen, you little insolent fool.” A lady said, glaring at Niya. They were all irritated, scared, nervous, and completely clueless. Everyone wanted to live, but no one knew how. The ones who were trying were less, so their negative thoughts suppressed the positivity. The fact that they had tried to run once but failed was worse. It would’ve not only shattered their hope but also their confidence, which wasn’t a good sign.

The other lady was about to slap Niya when I held her hand. “Enough. Everyone needs to calm down here.” She glared at me and tried to wrench out her hand from my grip, but I seized it and yanked her close to me so that her ears were next to my lips. “Understand?” I whispered with clenched jaws. She tightened her jaws and neck and nodded. Her brows were still tense. I left her hand, and she immediately started massaging it. She had violet-black eyes, long braided hair. A few strands of hair fluttered before her fair skin as she panted, glaring at me. She was dressed in a full-length, high neck, full-fluttering-sleeved grey gown with minor work on the hem, neck and waist with black beads. If anything, she was gorgeous.

Everyone sat down. I went into the kitchen with Niya and Alana and prepared tea from whatever we had. We served it to everyone, and they quietly drank it and calmed down. No one said a word, but I was sure they had storms hidden in their heads. Thirty women. Thirty stories. Thirty personalities. Thirty ideologies. Bringing them all on the same plate would be an arduous task.

“First, let us introduce ourselves. I know you would be familiar with each other, but let’s do it, anyway.” I raised my brows, asking for their consent. They looked at one another and nodded. I smiled, “great! Let’s start with me. I am the one who forgot her name.” I said, and I heard a few giggles that faded in the silence.

“I am Alana. I am twenty-two years old. Told you my story before.” So she was my age.

“I am Niya. I am sixteen. I was brought here from a village in the eastern coastal region of Nodia. I belong to a farmer’s family…” so I was right about her age. Such a young girl. Those devils need to burn in hell.

One by one, all the other ladies introduced themselves. While they introduced themselves, some laughed, some talked and the thick tension in the air in the room became lighter and merrier than it was when I came. They were still wounded, but I was sure, for a second, they would hurt less. Almost everyone had a smile on their faces except the arrogant lady in a grey gown from earlier.

Finally, it was her turn to introduce herself, “and you are?”

She glared at me and then averted her eyes. “My name is Thalia Umbra.” She said, and everyone along with me was stupefied. She was from the royal family of the Umbra pack. Why was she there?

Wait! I had heard this name before. I stressed my mind and remembered previous memories I had of that name. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to steal ground beneath my feet. She was Virgil’s sister. I gulped. It had been two years since I had brought Virgil into my thoughts. She indeed resembled him in some aspects. “You are Alpha Kage’s daughter. Why are you here?”

She gritted her teeth, “I am not his daughter! He is my stepfather.”

“Who is your father?” I asked.

She gave me a sharp look. “I won’t tell you. It’s because of his blood running through my veins. I am here. If only I were his daughter, he would have at least thought of me as a living creature. It’s all his fault! It’s his and my brother’s fault that I am here. In this lowly death game!”

Of course, after what Virgil did, almost all the packs had turned hostile towards the Umbra pack. I closed my eyes, trying to comprehend everything. 

She was like Virgil. Beautiful and alluring from outside, but filled with complex emotions, bitter feelings, hidden motives, arrogance and a lot of fake pride within. I never expected to meet her there. 

Reality will always be scarier than plans we make to stay strong. So we need to be prepared for any kind of situation. I thought.

“I understand…” I said after a long pause.

She looked at me and then looked away. “Huh! You haven’t lived my life, you haven’t locked your screams when you were beaten just because you are a certain someone’s daughter and sister. You haven’t cried my tears, spent the nights with loneliness and suicidal thoughts. You think you understand me, think again!” Thalia was trying hard to hold back her tears as she spoke in a cracking voice. 

Pin drop silence embodied her heavy breaths, her whimpers. I got up from my chair and sat next to her chair. “You are right. I don’t understand you or anyone else here. We all have our own stories. I am sorry.”

I said, and she broke into tears. I looked at Alana, and she looked completely clueless. I cautiously placed my hands across her shoulders. I was expecting her to jerk off my hand, but maybe that was what she wanted the most. A touch that told her she wasn’t alone, that there was someone for her and she didn’t have to be scared anymore. I patted her back, and she cried her heart out. Alana brought her a glass of water when Thalia had calmed down. Seeing her cry, many ladies broke into tears as well. All of them had been through a lot mentally, physically, and emotionally.

“I am sorry for yelling at you before. You must be the one hurting the most right now. We were all strangers to Alpha Kage, but you… n-never mind.” Alana stepped back and sat looking at Thalia.

Thalia snuffled and covered her face, inhaling deeply. It wouldn’t be just painful for her, it would be suffocating. Sitting next to her, I noticed that her skin was almost covered with bruises everywhere. More than anyone else in the room.

Just when everything was going smoothly, there was a loud knock at the door. Three soldiers barged in, breaking the tattered door of the cottage. The stench of alcohol filled the room.