Madre Awakes

   I had been working with “Lady” Demton two months by the fateful morning I woke up to the red sky. Instantly I jumped out from under the thin blanket I slept under and ran for my wrapper.  Meg, the maid assigned to me, Had showed me how to wrap it so it seemed like a dress when I stood on the balcony, but I would need it for more than that today. This time I awoke terrified. I knew only one thing that could turn the sky that red in the morning and it did not bode well for this town or any other one on this island. She had awoken.
   Glancing out the open doors to the sky beyond, I knew time was running out. They were coming for me and the people would panic, even though they should already be worried. When she woke up without her guardians there, she must have been confused. That confusion obviously didn’t last long, I thought as I raced through the building heading up. I barely noticed anyone as I ran, I knew that what I was doing was improper but it had to be done. If they got here before I was visible, things would get bad, real bad. Up and up I ran, not thinking about the pain I’d be in while I tried to go faster up the spiral staircase. Finally I reached a window large enough to climb out of and jumped down to the roof below just as they reached the city and the outcry went up.They flew straight for the roof they saw me on before the foolish humans could prepare the weapons. Landing rough as we needed to travel fast, the two griffins rushed for the far edge of the roof as I sped towards them. I made it onto the larger one’s back moments before they jumped off the roof to resume flight. Wings outspread, they soared around the building the humans called a palace and headed back for the Great Forest. We flew for nearly an hour over the Forest before I saw her. The great dragon, one of the original Children of the Greatest, was soaring around a growing clearing, fire sprouting from her mouth on her whim.
   “Madre mios, madre mios,” I started to sing as we approached. Immediately she spun on us, her ears fine tuned to the well known song. “Madre mios, madre mios, why do you scare them so? They are not your food, they are not your foe. Madre mios, calm down, I am safe. Relax yourself, madre mios, relax. I am well, you are too. What need is there for anger?” By now the dragoness had quit her query, likely an unfortunate human caravan again, and was following us. No longer breathing fire, I knew she had calmed herself and was ready to talk. With a word to my griffin friends, we flew higher above the trees so I could be eye level with her, though necessarily far away as the griffins would only get so close to the ancient one. “Madre mios, why are you awake? You still have many years before your nap was to end.”
   “I am weary, my dear. I do not wish to be awake, surely you know that. I know not why I am awake, I feared you had woken me in need of assistance. Why else would I be awake?” she queried in her gravelly voice as she spoke the slurred speech of the ancient reptiles in the Great Forest.
   “Are you ready to go back to sleep, Madre dearest?” I asked, well aware what could happen if she chose not to.
   “I am weary, love, and you are well. Why should I stay awake? Let us return and I will sleep.”
   “Good, Madre, you need your sleep,” I said just before she dove under the griffins and I slid off the griffin’s back and onto her hard scales. That done, we flew deeper into the Forest, following her path of destruction, both brand new and centuries old. Finally we came to her cave and though the griffins refused to enter, Agalia flew me deep into the earth that sheltered her ancient den. Once there she lay down and I redid the sleeping spell that started her hibernation cycle. As I listened to her breathing, I searched for what had woken her but found nothing had changed since I had left with the herd so long ago.
   I had nearly left the den, shaking my head at the puzzle, when I stopped. There was one thing I had left here, one thing I didn’t bring to the herd. It had meant nothing while I had been with the herd, but now I was among humans. It may mean something there one day. One day I may wish I had that little bundle that he had wanted. He hadn’t known I had it, he thought they had left it when they brought me. Maybe there was some significance to it in the human world. With that thought in mind, I quietly crawled over the horde Agalia had accumulated to a small cave in back for her guests, or as the villagers had once called them, sacrifices. There in the back of a drawer under a pile of mold-free clothing was the little bundle, still wrapped in the blackened handkerchief I had saved from his fire. That in hand, I hurried up the wide passageway to the griffins and they flew me back so I landed soft enough not to break any bones on my balcony before heading back to their family.

Civilizing Begins

   I awoke to the frantic talking of a young female. I couldn’t understand her rushed accent but she seemed to be explaining something in panic and she was in the room I’d been given. Climbing out of the bed I’d made myself, I adjusted the clothes that had moved to cover less than they should over the night before entering the room through the curtained doorway. Inside I saw the girl I assumed was my maid frantically explaining something to my male visitor from the night before and an older lady. Since my maid had her back to the door I’d entered through, the male was the first to notice me.
   “Enough, she is fine,” he stated with a slight smile, his eyes still on me. “M’lady, lovely to see you this morning. I trust you slept well. I take it that you took the blankets and slept on the porch?  Unusual but it may be what you are used to. This is Lady Demton. She will be showing you how to survive in society. I wish you luck, good day.”
   “I can see I am just in time. Now girl, you must never NEVER again sleep outside! No civilized female would dare sleep outside..” the lady started as the man walked to the door.
   “Madam, loathe as I am to interrupt, I disagree. She is used to sleeping outside. I see no problem that could come of her sleeping on her porch in her own room, as long as she stays low and is not seen indecently clothed by anyone below. We will need her wide awake for training. If she is not comfortable in a bed, perhaps we can find her a cushion that will fit on her balcony.”
   “Of course, Sir. It shall be done,” she replied submissively before he left. As soon as the door closed, she turned to me and I saw by her expression that she did not like being contradicted. “Now, let us begin. I can see I will have my work cut out for me if we are to take the savage out of you in a few months, heathen.”

First Night

   They expected me to sleep here, I thought as I stared at the soft yellow cloth draped above me over the massive bed I lay on. It had been a long day but I couldn’t sleep.
   This morning the caravan of white clothed humans I had traveled with for the past moon, since the destruction of the only family I knew, had dropped me off at some gate and driven off. When I had tried to follow them, to continue on with those that I slightly knew, they sent me back to the gate. The leader of the white clothed humans had spoken to a man dressed in darkened animal skin from neck to knees, not counting his upper arms that were open or the metal wrapped around his lower arms from slightly below the elbows to just above the wrist. He carried a thin but straight stick as tall as he was and disappeared inside the gate when the leader walked away. After I was forced to return to the gate, he returned a few minutes later and a younger man dressed much the same way motioned for me to follow him. He led me into a room filled with drying plants where I stood for a long time before a lady came towards me and reached for me. I started to back away but realized she meant me no harm. I sensed the youngish looking lady was really much older than she looked, in fact, she reminded me of the Seer in many ways. At this point she was merely curious. She spoke to me but I couldn’t understand. When she approached me again, I refused to back up. When she touched my face numerous times I sensed she was confused and scared. Something was happening that she had no clues to and that was very different from what she was used to. Her confusion was blocking her inner sight but she did not realize it and I had no way to tell her. After touching my face a few times she stepped back and looked at me for a moment before spinning and walking off.
    I stood there for a while until someone brought me a liquid filled with juicy meat and soft vegetables that I ate by hand and drank as they gave me nothing else to use. I was aware that to do so was rude to humans, to eat with one’s hands, but I had no choice as they gave me nothing else to use, just the dirt bowl they gave me. I had watched the humans in the caravan have this type of food at night around their fire but they had used small wooden things in their hands to poke the meat and vegetables and a different wooden tool to pick up the liquid. Having only been given the hard meat or raw vegetables I found when I wandered into the forest they refused to enter, I had never learned to use those tools. However, I knew enough to know it was likely rude that I had not been offered those tools to eat my meal. Still, I said nothing when the girl left the food and when she came back some time later to retrieve it. Not that I could say much as the language they spoke was different than the one the white clothed humans had spoken and I had just started to understand what those humans had told me to do.
   Eventually three women had shown up and led me to this room where they took my cloths off and laid my skin coverings, the ones the herd had helped me make that I had worn under the whitish cloths the members of the caravan had insisted I wear, on a wooden curved box against the back wall. Completely naked, they scrubbed me down until my tan skin turned red and they poured extremely hot water over my head. It ran down my skin to pool at my feet in the large wooden bowl where I stood while it cooled and the women roughly dried me before leaving the room. A few moments later a young women barely older than a girl came in to help me dress in a few layers of cloth that covered me completely from neck to toes. That done, she took the whitish cloths I had been wearing and backed out of the room smiling nicely.
   I had then used the rest of the water still in the massive bowl to clean the skins brought in by my trips hunting with the herd and laid them on the stone outside the door to a stone area suspended high above the ground below that allowed me to see for a long distance over the city below. I was just coming in when a man knocked on the door leading to the main room and entered. I immediately sensed a lot of anger was stirred in him at the sight of me though I didn’t know why. He reached out to touch my face and I stopped myself from backing up towards the door outside after a few steps. He meant no harm to me, in fact, his anger seemed to be on my behalf. His gentle stroking of my skin brought slight pain but I doubt I reacted. He muttered something I didn’t understand as he stepped back before standing tall and talking in a language I was surprised to understand. He said he was sorry for my rough treatment and would see to it that they were punished and I was never treated that way again. He understood I likely did not understand the words he was saying but that his father had taken me in as his ward and the son would make sure I was taught all I needed to know to take up that role, beginning with basic manners. In the morning a lady would meet with me to teach me things like how to eat, posture, curtsying, and hopefully how to speak. Once I managed with the basics I could be allowed to eat with the others in the main dinning room under the supervision of my tutor or choose to eat alone with my tutor until I was more comfortable. However, he told me there was a ball set for four moons away and I would be expected to be there and not be an embarrassment or his father would send me to live with a relative until I learned better. The way he spoke was very flowery and managed to say in two hours what I could have said in five minutes, as Hermana would have said, although I don’t believe he spoke for two hours. I had never before understood what she had meant when she used that phrase. Now I did and it almost made me laugh. As much as the herd would speak in riddles, at least they said what they meant. This man was trying to say I needed to learn to be human without saying anything was wrong with me. The way he contradicted himself all the time was most amusing.
    Anyways, eventually he backed out of the room assigned me and I was alone again. I was standing out on the stone area above the city when the girl returned with a long metal tray, I think it’s called, and a cup of hot water with plants in it similar to what I was used to from the herd and a juicy meat, vegetable, and wheat dish with the tools needed to eat it. The girl showed me how to use the tools and returned later to take the empty dishes. I ate very messily and was glad not to have an audience but soon the food was gone and I was again at a loss about what to do. After the tray had been removed, as had the massive bowl of dirty water, the girl had moved some of the cloths on the bed and motioned me to get in after helping me remove some of my clothes.
   Now I was in the bed and couldn’t sleep, even turning this way and that didn’t help. The clothes I still wore continually got tangled in the bed clothes and I couldn’t get comfortable. Finally I got up and stood on the stone area high above the city and stared at the stars. As with so many nights these past moons, the stars held no message but the familiar sight calmed me and I had no wish to leave the night for the stuffy bed. However, I couldn’t sleep there, or could I? The stone was hard and I doubted many humans choose to sleep under the stars when a bed is nearby, but could it be done? Rushing back to the bed I removed some of the thick blankets and dropped them in a messy heap in the stone before returning for a pillow and a thin cloth to lay under. With the cloths under me and some protection from the slight breezes as well as the stars above me, I finally fell asleep.

The Welcome

    The room in the massive stone building had only four people in it. An old man sat in an ornate chair while a younger man sat next to him and they both stared at the man and magically youthful woman a few feet in front of them.
    “Have you any news today?” the older man asked the woman.
    “No, Sire, nothing the normal way, Sire,” she replied.
    “And what about the non-normal ways?” the man asked, leaning forward slightly in his chair. It had been too long since she had shared anything.
    “A girl was brought in the gate this morning. For some reason I was drawn to her.”
    “Have you any idea why?”
    “She is different, Sire, I do not know how to explain it but she was not raised by humans.”
    “What was she raised by?”
    “I do not know but she has a reason to fear humans. What little she knows of us, up until lately, has only shown her terror.”
    “Where is she from?” the seated man asked the man standing a few feet away from the woman.
    “The Easterners who brought her said they found her in a clearing in the Forest that was soaked in blood, as was she. They said they knew not what to do with her but leave her at the gate.”
    “What do you propose we do?”
    “Sire, if I may be so bold, take her in.”
    “Why should I do that?”
    “I do not understand what is happening that the Fates can no longer speak to us, but I do know she is connected. Whatever is coming, she will play a large part in events. It would serve us well to have her on our side.”
    “That I can agree with. We have many empty rooms, see she is put in one and properly clothed. She will be my ward until things are settled. See to it," the man stated to the younger man seated next to him before the conversation moved on to the next item of note.

The Story Begins

   I woke up this morning to see a dark white something swaying above me blocking the light of the sun. I couldn't remember ever seeing that before so I closed my eyes and tried again. It was still there.  The distance looked to be just barely above my head if I stood up. That was when I noticed my other senses. I could hear strange creaking noises, the plodding of unhappy horses at work, and voices speaking in an unrecognizable language. The smells were odd, as if only the most fragrant of plants in the Forest were put together in one place and died, covering the faint scent of human sweat. HUMAN sweat??!! As the ground beneath me suddenly dipped down to my left a little before dipping deeper to the right and leveling off, I scrambled to my knees and looked frantically around. The hard ground was really wood and from it sprouted a whitish "cloth", I think it's called, that went from one side of the wood box to the other, curling overhead. To one side I saw the back of a what seemed to be a person wrapped in a similar but dirtier cloth and holding the ropes to control four sad horses pulling this thing, lined up two by two. Out the other side I saw a person in similar garb riding another horse drawn contraption, wrapped so only its eyes were showing and even those were squinted.
   Instantly I hugged my knees to my chest as I recalled the distruction wrought by people in similar garb but the cloths were black, a nearly pure black that warned too late of their intent. They were dead, all of them, Gazer, Moonbeam, Starlight, Student, Scholar, the Children, even the Seer was dead. I could still see the distruction around Starlight's dead body, the blood on thier metal as they rode off on the armoured horses, the blood silently screaming as it seeped into the ground, the body pieces laying all around as I collapsed to their screams in my head. So much pain, so much death, I thought as I again surrendered to the welcome darkness.
   When I opened my eyes again, a human female was bending beside me saying something. She was trying to sooth me, I figured, but I slipped away from her hands, hands that can do damage at any second. But no, I felt no danger here, these people meant me no harm. Closing my eyes, I recalled what the seer had said the morning of the attack.
    "'Tis time for you to return, Young One. The time has come for you to find your place among your people."
    "I don't want to return, Most Wise One, they bring pain, you all bring peace and calm," I replied.
    "Yes, love, I know you have no wish to return but you must. The stars call for you."
    "Can you at least come with me?"
    "I wish that we could, Young One. I know that would make it easier on you, but the stars say that this journey you must take must be taken alone. There is turmoil in the stars, this we have all seen. What little can be understood these days must be obeyed. You can help clear the stars, the confusion among them and bring harmony again. You must follow this path as the stars summon you to."
   "I understand, Most Wise One. I just don't want to leave."
   "Many of us are called upon to do things we do not want to do but we must obey the Fates," he had replied with a far off look in his eyes as if he too had been asked to do something he had not wanted to. Moments later the black wraiths had descended upon us as I reeled in pain all over my body. Defenseless and in shock, I had watched the gloved hands swing the sharp metal at my peaceful friends as the panic grew. Starlight had fallen on me, begging me to stay down until they left with her last breath. After the horses had ridden off I managed to push her massive body off me and staggered to my feet, her blood dripping down me. The screams of the dead bogged me down and I collapsed in the middle of the circle they had been herded into. That was my last memory before waking up in this contraption.
   Opening my eyes, I saw the wizened woman again. More accurately, I saw her wizened eyes through the layers of nearly white cloth as she handed me something. It looked like reddish tree bark and felt much the same. She was saying something, trying to get me to do something with it but I didn't understand. Finally she pulled a smaller piece from her cloth and broke off a much smaller size and put it in her mouth before starting to chew it and pointing at the piece in my hand. Reluctantly I broke off a small piece of the meat in my hand and stuck it in my mouth. The taste was bitter and bland, nearly tasteless and I realized this single piece of meat, a little bigger than my hand, was tough enough to likely last the whole day. It wasn't like the sweet and juicy stuff the others used to feed me, the fresh squirrel or rabbit we got a few times a new moon. No, this stuff was old and dry but I sensed it wouldn't kill me so I ate it.
   It was time to start my journey to find my place in my world. It was time to look foward and act as these humans act. No looking back. I can never look back.