Found You

Chapter One – Found You

I shuttered in the cold corner of the dark closet, fear bubbling up into my chest as my heart beat so fast that I was sure it would stop from pure exhaustion. I was attempting to keep as quiet as I could, and making myself as small as possible, as my hands shook and nausea rolled through me. The king’s men had finally come for me, and I listened helpless as they tore through the house brick by brick in their search. My Father had just barely managed to push me into the small pantry closet seconds before they burst through the door, and covered me quickly with a coat in a feeble attempt to keep his only child out of the hands of a ruthless King. I could hear him denying every question shot at him by the guards, attempting to distract them away from my hiding place.

I tried to keep my breathing even as I heard them slamming open doors, and crashing through my father’s workshop. No doubt destroying his pristine woodwork, and his entire living in the process. It was disgusting really. The men following orders blindly from a king who took what wasn’t his, in a war that had no meaning. At the hands of men though, more blood is spilled into the earth than the land can compensate for.

 “The Great Sorrow” as my people called it, the faerie people, started twenty years ago. A blood thirsty war had broken out across the four kingdoms, leaving nothing but bodies in its wake. Our kingdom, Deovaria, had been hit the hardest. A peaceful and beautiful place full of love, and laughter was set ablaze at the hands of our neighboring Kingdom Vura; the kingdom of the humans. Wretched, and vile creatures that pillaged their way throughout the Kingdom, demolishing everything in their path. They killed thousands of Faerie Folk; uncaring about women or children. We had been targeted for our magic, and after years of peace, we were not prepared when the humans began to march across our borders.

They left our population in ruins, few surviving the waves of attacks, and the magic we had not strong enough against the numbers the king carried. Our emperor, and best warriors fought valiantly against them, but were struck down quickly by hard steel. With our kingdom crumbling, and our leader dead; the few that were left fled into the forests to escape. A few survived, running far enough into other lands that they were able to disappear, but most were hunted down like animals and slaughtered in front of their families. Keeping alive only those who had something to offer the human king.

When the dust finally cleared, the human king had taken the throne, and had assumed power over our people. Crippled and beaten, the false king offered them a treaty of peace. Unable to fight anymore, they placed their pride away, and accepted whatever would keep more our people from an early grave.

The false king promised sanctuary to our people in what he called a “generous offering.” In repayment for his protection, and allowing our people to live, all faerie daughters were to be taken to the castle on their eighteenth birthday to bear a child to the higher-class humans. The women would not be harmed, and once a child was given, the women could return to the village and live her life as she saw fit for the rest of her life. It was a disgusting agreement, but our people were dying, and it was the only option for survival.

What the humans never had, and what they had always wanted, was a connection to magic they so envied of the faeries. The king decided he would solve this problem by creating human and faerie hybrids; magic that he could control as he saw fit. Children that would be raised as mercenaries, and trained to kill with the magic that we coveted as a gift from our goddess. Our people cried as our women were taken from their homes; their tears staining the ground as they prayed for the safety of their daughters.

 What happened to these daughters, though, was much worse than ever could have been imagined. The women became violent, and uncontrollable. As the pregnancy progressed, they turned more creature than faerie, and attacked anything that came near them. Most of the women had to be chained, forced through their pregnancy locked tightly in iron chains. Their screams echoing through the kingdom as they became a feral version of themselves. Then, the children were born. If you could call them children that is.

The creatures entered the world without a breath of soul in their horrendous body. Violent and evil beings who struck without cause, and killed anything in their path. The magic revolting against them to create something new, and terrifying. The stories say that they were monsters of white skin, and twisted limbs, knowing nothing but survival and brutality. No one had seen them though, and knew nothing except that they existed.

Most Faerie women did not survive the birth, as the creatures tore their way out of their wombs, killing them instantly. The few who did were thrown back into the village; all of them now too savage to survive with their own kind. Most of them died shortly after, but those who didn’t were taken into the woods by their families, and given the ultimate form of mercy to save them.

The King did not see this as a drawback, though, and instead embraced the creatures. Creating an army of beasts to destroy anything and anyone who crossed paths with him. He was able to control the beasts with iron and pain, and struck down any and all of his enemies. He had created the ultimate army, at the cost of our people.

In an attempt to fight back the faerie people stopped having children, refusing to be part of this disgusting ritual. The King lashed back though, taking what children there were, stealing them from their homes, and throwing them in with his new creatures. The king demanded the faeries to honor the treaty, or he would continue to destroy our kind.

In one last attempt to protect themselves, and stop the king, the last three elders of the faerie fled into the forest on the first blood moon. They reached for our goddess, and gave the ultimate sacrifice. Giving themselves to the forest in blood magic to curse their own kind. The king would have his children from the faerie, but not a single one to be born a female. The elders kept the curse a secret from all faerie and human kind, and in 18 years, no one had yet figured out how to break it. The last female being born on the evening of that blood moon.

I am the last female of the faerie. The daughter of the last blood moon, before the curse was placed upon our people. I am the King’s most prized possession, and today is my eighteenth birthday.

 A tear slid down my cheek as I heard my father cry out for me, a choked sob among the chaos. Hard footsteps sounded across the dirt floor, and the door to the closet was ripped open. A large man was standing over my small frame, a triumphant smile plastered across his greasy face. The soldier leaned down and pulled the coat from body, throwing away all the hope I had at surviving. His smile widening as I looked up at him with wide and fearful eyes. He leaned down so his face was level with mine. So close that I could smell his rancid breath as he move in to whisper in my ear.

                “Found You.”