Serenna: Chapter Two: The king's favorite

It was a clear dawn. The abundance was in full stride, and Serenna, age sixteen, was sitting on a fence post, watching sheep grazing in the pasture. Her head was full of dreams, and her parents deemed she was suited for nothing else. She was pretty and they had hoped she would be married off to some rich suitor, and they would be paid well for her. But it was not to be, they were poor, and no rich suitor would travel into the fields looking for a beautiful wife. 

That morning the call had gone out. King Ragnus was dead. Mourners from every corner of the country would be gathering at the capitol for the funeral. This was the chance Sernna's Parents were waiting for.

The had Serenna dressed up in the finest clothes they could afford. It was not much, but she no longer looked like a farm girl. She was in a dark gown, for morning. It was a simple dress, there was no embroidery, and she wore no jewels, but her beauty shone far brighter without such distractions. Perhaps, perhaps today would be the day that she would find a suitor.

The funeral procession that was passing the humble farm was long. The king looked as if he were merely sleeping on a pallet carried by somber guards. His body was followed by his family, firstly, the dowager queen, who appeared to be on her own deathbed. She was followed by a gloomy looking group of unimportant relatives who seemed to exist purely for their own intent. And lastly of the royal party, the Prince Aragath. The sole heir to the throne of Dignusterra. 

It was pure chance that caused his eyes to look away from the gave path before him, but Prince Aragath glanced towards the farm and saw the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. With hair the color of sunlight, skin the color of snow, eyes the color of baby leaves, and lips, her lips the pure abundance color of a fresh apple at harvest, at that moment Serena was destined to be queen.

Once the Prince had been crowned King, he came to call upon the girl who had haunted his dreams since that moment during the funeral. Serenna's parents nearly fainted when they had opened the door and found hi standing there. He promised them power, a small mannor to live, and wealth for the hand of their daughter. The did not refuse.

A month later, without so much as a goodbye to their only child, they left for their new life while Serenna was left to the King. He promised her love and safey, and so she took his hand, barely knowing the man at her side.

Serena woke up five years later, an hour before dawn. The damage of the unspell that went so horribly wrong did not spread as wide as she thought, and so she had spent the night tucked under a tree with weeping branches. The first time she had not slept in a bed since meeting the Prince, the King, her husband.

Her dream brought back the bitter memories of her love, how it had blossomed, how they had thought all of their dreams had come true. But it was not to be. 

Serenna turned to the west and continued for her doom. She would undoubtedly be killed should the king find her. She was two days East of a small fishing village in the country of Perustrum. If she was found out here, she would be killed by this king as well, or tried for a ransom that her husband would surely not pay. Her only hope was to charter a ship to take her to the Isles of Silva Fons, a rural farming country with little to do with politics. Only there could she be safe.

After several hours, she came upon an abandoned orchard full of pears and apples just to ripening. She had just bitten into one of the crisp fruits when a screech rent the air with a foul and unkind sound. Serenna knew instantly it was after her.

She knew that Aragath would be mad, angry, even murderous, but to send those foul pygmy demons after her? Looking wildly around Serenna spotted the crumbling cottage not far away and ran with all her might to the sanctity within. 

Intently, she sliced her hand on a jagged piece of wood inside and began painting runes on every open part of the house. But she was not quick enough, they broke through somewhere upstairs. Thinking quickly, Serenna drew the blood runes on her own face, just as the first emberenjexcio reached out his flaming bone hand. He had only just grasped Serenna's wrist when he erupted, sending flames, and fragments of sinewy-bones past Serenna and onto his comrades. The rest stopped warily. assessing that she was a threat. 

One of the demons at the front growled and hissed at her, speaking in his native tongue to the others. They all responded with war-cry-like sounds. Serenna hart throbbed terribly against her chest, she was sure it would soon burst from its cage and the emeberenjexcio would no longer need to kill her.

But then, without warning, they retreated. One by one, until only the pigmy demon that had growled at her remained. He stood there silently for a moment and then in a rough and raspy voice uttered "We will never stop hunting you1" And then he too dissolved into the darkness of the shattering cottage, and Serenna fell to the dirty floor in haggard sobs. Barely able to breathe, at last she fainted into darkness.

Author's Note

soooo... tell me what you think... did i go too fast with the dream sequence..... and did you understand the pygmy demons called emberenjexcio?