Chapter 2: Poisonous Flowers
~Aellin PoV~
The forest was sparkling in colors I had never seen before. In the bright moonlight, my once white Hair now shined silver, and even flowers which had looked quite dull in the daylight now tried to lure me with blossoms that seemed to be woven using sparkling fire.
Wherever I looked, more of these treasures were waiting for me, all of them dancing in the same breeze that gently caressed my bruised skin.
I could not resist, I had to examine these delicate works of art. Without spending it much of a thought, I let herself sink to my knees, reached out for one of the glowing Blossoms and let it roll over my fingers.
«They are real! I can touch them!»
Suddenly, as if the plant had tried to fend me off using a lethal poison, a new wave of overwhelming nausea came over me. It felt as if all of my blood had rushed out of my head and I could only watch myself stumbling and falling to the ground within a breath's time.
The colors and shapes that had fascinated me just a moment ago slowly turned blurry. I tried to stand up but was yet again forced to the ground, as the entire forest exploded into a sea of tiny fires.
I felt those flames on my skin, not as heat or pain, but as a heavy pressure and a tingling, as a feeling of closeness and strength. It seemed as if thousands of fireflies were swarming around my quivering body, trying to win me over as if I were a precious female, as if I were their queen even.
It was too much for me, I couldn't handle it any longer. Not only that the countless lights were overwhelming me, there was also the threatening pressure in my body, by far the most threatening, however, was the burning pain I felt in my abdomen.
I was feeling sick and weakened. When my body suddenly cramped, I couldn't even hope to fight back. I started vomiting, over and over again, without the nausea getting even slightly better.
It was only when my stomach was empty, that I finally could let myself sink to the ground, using the last bit of my power to push my body away from all the filth it had spread onto the wet moss and leaves. I was utterly exhausted, not even able to lift as much as an arm.
It took me a moment to realize the situation the last few minutes had thrown me in, then a flood of panic had already taken hold of me.
I felt the fur on my tail stand up and my ears becoming restless. They were looking for the danger, for the attackers who lurked in the underwood, only waiting for this opportunity.
«I can't just lie here waiting for help!»
My mother had warned me hundreds of times not to leave the hiding place without her or one of my sisters accompanying me. Out there, in the underwood of the supposedly safe forest, murderers and mercenaries were hiding, men more dangerous than wolves or even bears.
These strangers could discover me, capture me, defile and even kill me, no one could have stopped them, especially not I by myself.
The fear my family had expressed was real. It wasn't just them trying to scare me from entering the forest alone, as I had unmistakably seen it revealed in the faces of my sisters, and, especially vivid, in the eyes of my mother, back then when she had told me about the danger.
Remembering all of their vivid expressions, I could no longer even think about calming myself down.
The groups and gangs which roamed the woods had been threatening enough for my mother to emphatically forbid us to leave the hideout alone. Although Avela was allowed to hunt sometimes, I was too young and way too inexperienced to accompany her.
Now there wasn't even my sister at my side. In this virtually endless ocean of sparkling fires, it would more than just easy for the men to track me down.
They might think of the lights as campfires and come here believing they would find villagers who had fled into the woods trying to avoid the war and the riots. Maybe they were after their money, or they searched for women to force their urges on - which was a far more frightening thought.
My whole body was shaking in fear. «How can I escape the men? I have no strength left! I can't bribe them! We have nothing! We hadn't even had a good meal in a while!»
I had nothing, nothing but the clothes I wore and my body itself, which, according to my mother's accounts, was far more attractive to them than anything else I could have offered them in the first place.
«Will they violate me?»
It was just a thought, nothing more than a confused idea of what could happen to me, but I immediately burst into a flood of tears. Before my inner eye, I already saw herself in the midst of strangers, defiled and pleading for salvation, or burning alive as a demon or witch.
The mere thought of having to endure such a fate made me feel even more helpless than I already was. In my mind, all of those tortures were already waiting for me and each rustle, each call of a bird, now was a sign of the men approaching.
I could no longer hold it in. It didn't matter whether the men could hear me or not, I just had to scream for help.
Again and again, I cried for my sisters and my mother, for anybody who would save me from the cruel fate awaiting me, but all that slipped from my lips were pathetic whimpers. They were too quiet, too weak, and no one would ever hear them - I could only hope.
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