Sex: FemaleIt glistened off the surface of the ice and snow that covered the rolling, empty forest. Once in a while it would shine like a fleeting flash of sunlight on the crest of a wave, catching her listless, teardrop shaped eyes and holding them long after it had faded into the darkness. Moonlight had always been beautiful to her, but tonight the pale blue glow of it bathed her in cold. The wind that slipped though the trunks of ever-barren trees caused the freshest flurries of snow to whirl in powdery plumes across the frozen ground like ghosts dancing in the night. She felt as if she were one of them. One year. That's how old they would have nearly been. It felt to her as if it had all been a dream─the loss of her children, their departure from the kingdom beneath the towering sequoias, the journey to Relic Lore and the discovery of the family her king had once left far behind. Corinna's death. The air that filled her lungs with a shallow breath burned as she closed her eyes and leaned into the trunk at her back. Once, her life had been a fairy tale, but now all of her jewels and sashes had tarnished and worn and she was left only with dulling memories of a distant happiness. Winter had brought death and starvation, and had taken from her more than she had been willing to give. A dull, wrenching throb of sorrow washed over the pains of hunger that were a constant presence, and as she cast a weary glance into the night she wished that she could feel Vaeta's warmth against her body, or hear Nios' laughter, or see Mirren's smile. Her family wasn't meant to be broken and scattered to the ends of the earth, but they were─in this life and the next. With a heavy heart she watched the wind and the ice and listened to the empty sound of an empty night, in an empty home where despair was the mortar holding her walls up. |
