Spoiler! :
II
The grass felt soft and cool under my bare feet. The remnants of morning dew caught and held onto my skin as I ran. My family had just finished planting that year’s crop only an hour before. I was free to play until dinnertime. I was in one of my better dresses, a slightly yellowed white one that only passed my knees. I was turning eight, a number only remembered by the yearly sowing of seeds. This year I would receive a name from my grandfather. A law passed to amuse the royals: No child is to be given a name before he reaches the age of eight. They said it was to depersonalize stillbirths along with infants and older children who died of illness or malnutrition.
I heard my mother calling me. “Daughter! Son!” That meant Brother had gone into the barn to feed the livestock. He was only a year younger and very strong, filled with vitality. He would live to receive his name. He was very jealous of me, I knew. For the many days leading up to the planting he had given me dark looks. Running back, I could see out closest neighbours as tiny specks in the distance. They had a son, Mother had said, when I turned sixteen he was going to come get me. I was going to have his children. That’s what I had heard from the moment I got over a childhood illness. I had been the only survivor so far in the whole village, a desirable wife for strong and healthy offspring. My family would receive a cut of their farmlands in exchange.
I was just coming over a hill to reach the barn when the sounds of hooves pounded over the soft turf. Swords clanged together and chain mail made soft ringing noises. I stood on the top of the hill as the screaming started.
Mother’s voice reached me and I panicked. When the wails silenced abruptly I knew what was happening even though I didn’t want to believe it. The crow prince’s distinctive blue roan horse was in front of my home and the prince himself was spattered with red blood, my mother’s body in front of him.
Brother appeared from nowhere and was cut down by a guard before I could register what happened. The prince disappeared into the house for a moment and came back out, his boyish face covered in blood.
I fell to the ground, too astonished to scream. I couldn’t even breathe. My heart had stopped beating in my chest, forecasting my imminent death, until a movement caught my eye. A small boy with black hair and blue eyes, likely in training to become a knight, was waving me away vigorously. He glanced to the prince’s guards every second or so as though to keep his actions secret. I took some heart on his insistence, gained my feet, scrambled back over the hill, and back the way I had come.
I tripped the moment I was out of sight and rolled the rest of the way down the hill, into a section of dense forest Father was going to begin clearing soon with our neighbours. Not that it would happen now. I started crying silently. No words could escape, only the tears that traced paths down my cheeks.
The sound of hoof beats rose and fell in my ears. I barely paid any attention until it occurred to me it meant the soldiers had left. They didn’t know I was there. That boy saved me. That thought brought me to my feet with hope blossoming in my chest. I had to live now, if only to repay him. I raced towards the house while tripping over my own feet.
The sight that greeted me was a bloody mess. I had never known a single person had that much blood in their entire bodies, much less, that more could drain after you thought they should be empty. The bodies of dear Mother and Brother were so sickening I vomited at the sight.
Nothing seemed to fit into place.
Their faces, masks of terror and anger, faded from my view as fast as they appeared. It was as though I was blind to them. All I saw was bloody mangled flesh, black and red hair, scraps of cloth and sections of entrails hanging from the wounds. The only thing that stayed was their eyes. Those red eyes that no longer held the brilliance of life, those eyes that were now blank slates. Dull in lustre like cattle. How could those eyes belong to a human? I moved past them into the house tracking red footprints wherever I walked.
The single roomed house seemed surreal. Red smears decorated gray walls, more red on the floor, another head with cattle eyes. This one had black hair flecked with white at the temples. Grandfather. The body was not to be found anywhere I looked. The sound of a sudden, shallow and ragged breath drew my attention to the sleeping area, a part of the house sectioned off with animal hides nearby the kitchen to gather the stove’s heat. I padded over softly, keeping my footsteps completely silent.
Another ragged breath. Whoever it was had Death coming for them. I drew back the leather to find Father in the same state as Mother and Brother, only he had kept hold of life. It wasn’t to last. Father caught sight of me and beckoned me to his side. Tears sprang forth as I knelt at his side and took his hands in mine. The white dress soon sprouted growing red stains. As my father’s body began to grow cold, he pulled my ear down next to his mouth.
“Sh-sh-Shira. Y-your name is Shira, Daughter.” The words crackled like dead leaves as they left his lips. “I-I hit him once. With a hammer-r. On his forehead.” He took another shallow breath and stared at me with sad eyes. “You are one o-of the los-lost ones. Mayoi, a stray.” A child with no parents.
I returned his words. “I will live happily Father, even as a lost one.” As I pulled back, he gave me a smile filled with love. I returned his smile as his red eyes too became glassy and dead surrounded by black hair. My mind soon blotted out the image as well. I rose to my feet and staggered out of the house. The trail of bloody hand prints and multiple trails of footprints marked my progress. I had a name. With that, I could accomplish what now burned in my heart. The hope and safety I had felt while nurturing the idea of how I would pay back the boy dissipated. An inferno as large as the sun burned so deep it scorched my soul.
Revenge.
I would kill the crown prince.
Tear his heart out and eat it while it still beat.
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