Chapter 1
Lunaria, that was her name. The beauty of it rang in the air. Honesty it meant. Straight forward and precise. This child was perfect. She was destined to do great things in her life.
At least that’s what one would have thought at the time when the
very first female prophet had been born, but, alas, there was something
holding us back, something we never saw coming, the wave of insanity some
called it ,but no, I knew what it was and it was not insanity but the essence
of a man I thought I once knew. The Grand admiral of Lillitopia.
We used to praise his heroic efforts. We would bow at his will. No one knew him better than me, but no one knows me at all. I’ve never met another of my kind.
When I was born, Victor , the admiral, was so greatly tempted to kill
me, but something in his heart let me live.
He raised me as his only daughter, but in fear that harm would come
to me if any other being knew of my existence, he locked me away in a high
tower of the castle. Occasionally he would visit me in short moments of
silence where he would stand and stare as I played with my toys. When he
was content with what he saw he would leave without a word, my only
company being the little mice that lived in the walls.
I needed nothing but what I had, the food that was slid under my door
each morning (The given provisions had to last the day for there was a
shortage in the kingdom due to the drought),and my toys. Millions and millions of toys. I loved every last one of them, dragons, princesses, my toy castle.
My castle had a tower as did my real one and each
day I would talk to the princess that the evil dragon had trapped in the
tower. It was my favorite game. Strangely at the time, I didn't even realize
how extreme the reality of my little games were. I had no idea.
Somewhere far beyond my pile of belongings was a small crack in the tower
wall, a crack which would make a miraculous change in my life. I didn’t know
at the time that it would become the most important thing in the world to
me.
I am the prophet Lunaria and a long time ago the end had come. People say it was rebirth but only I knew what had happened. Somewhere along the road, that tiny crevice turned out to mean more to our kingdom than any thing. Mine and another’s fate was the start of it. His name was Diarmuid.
It was my 15th birthday, Victor hadn’t visited my room in almost five years,
but that wasn’t surprising. Sadly I was used to it, being alone and all. It gave
me a chance to think at least.
But, later that day, I heard a noise, a loud noise, it sounded like
people. Angry people. I stared over at one place I hadn’t looked at since I
was five. It was the crack in the tower wall. Surprising now it had become
more of a hole from rain and erosion.
I got up and walked over to the hole and peered out, temporarily
blinded by the light of the miraculous sun I had read so much about in my
library. I saw humans, so many of them chasing a boy. One of their own!
The boy had olive skin and short curly brown hair. He was magnificent,
like nothing I had ever seen before. Then I heard a strange sound, a sad yet
hopeful sound, and quickly I realized it was me!
"No, please stop, leave him be," I said
"Who’s there, " said one of the men that had been chasing the poor boy
down."Tress passing on the property of the Grand Admiral is illegal and
punishable by death. Get out before I come find you."
Somehow from such a high distance we seemed to both hear
each other perfectly clear. Somehow.
"Please, just leave him be ." I said again, not shaken a bit by the man’s
threat. " I will only leave if you let him go."
The man, angry now from my stubbornness, opened his mouth as if to
speak ,when he was interrupted by hoof-beats on the trail. He spun around
just in time to see the admiral coming towards him on his favorite
horse,Gabriel.
"What is going on over here?" said a voice that seemed so close yet so
far away.
"Your Majesty, I didn’t know you’d be coming home so soon. I was just
taking this thief into custody, he stole a loaf of bread from your kitchen."
said the man that had threatened me. I soon recognized him to be one the
guards.
I had heard his voice before, once when it was his turn to bring food
to the tower. Though no one knew they were providing food for a young girl.
"Please let him go!" I yelled again.
Startled by the sound of my cries the Grand Admiral looked up at my
tower with his eyes wide and mouth hanging open.
The guard was about to say something when Victor hopped off Gabriel
and started running for the tower. I didn’t know what to do so I ran to a far
corner and sat down forgetting the thief and guard from the outside world.
No sooner did I do that, that an awe struck Victor swung open my door thrust himself toward me. He picked me up by my arms and spoke.
"You spoke, how child how. How!" Angered and baffled he shook me
like a dog and ran to my bookshelf, he flung my tales of princesses and
fairy tale endings across the room."Come with me," he said, not giving me an
chance before he grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the door. Then, he
dragged me down the stairs to a dark, cold room and locked me in there,
alone.
I didn’t know what had gone wrong, what could I have possibly done to
hurt him? I halted my questions and, after about five minutes I had fallen
asleep from the crazy, tiring day. It was a well deserved sleep.
"Wake up , food." a soft voice said. I woke and when my eyes adjusted
to the dim light I saw him. The thief that I had tried to save. I stared at
him, eyes wide and confused.
He realized that I was scared and he said, "You are alright, your a bit
bruised up, but you looked okay.The Admiral brought you here last night. You
must have done something really bad for him to take you here himself.
Here’s some bread, it’ll make you feel better."
After a moment of staring his direction, unsure of whether I should
respond, I slowly took the bread and ate. I felt a lot better and wanted to
go read my books and play with my toys but when I looked around I realized
there were no toys and no cracks in the walls that I could peer out of, just a
dark, wet, room.
“So what did you do?” He asked. “Why are you here?” I hesitated a
moment before answering.
"I think it was because I spoke out of turn," I replied. " I mean Victor
came and yelled at me for having spoke, and I," I was interrupted by a noise
on the other side of the dark wall.
I crawled over to put my ear to the wall to hear but I couldn’t hear
through it because it was so thick. I concentrated, as frustrated as I was,
and then I heard the voices more clearly. I was amazed at how I had such
amazing hearing. Victor was speaking at the time and soon after a
professor Normandine replied.
"That child has done the unspeakable," Victor whispered sharply and hoarsely as if he had not slept in days, "You told me that she couldn’t speak. I should have you hanged for this mistake."
" No, please, Sir, Have mercy, I will show you the book," said the
professor and after a moment of silence he finished. " There must be
something. There, see, there the ancient book says that the female prophet
can’t speak with a voice but has, after a 15 year period the ability to use her
mind to communicate with whoever she wishes to hear her."
Prophet? Communicate with my mind? They were talking about me.
What? I can’t be a prophet. That’s just crazy!
Then I heard a voice. Brought out of my thoughts and back to the
dungeon cell, I realized it was the boy.
" Ho... How, How did you do that?" he said.
"What do you mean?,"
" Your lips are not moving and your.. barely breathing." he said
"So its true," I said to myself not realizing the boy could here me.
"What’s true? What’s going on?" he asked
"We need to get out of here, Something is really wrong, come on" I
said.
"There’s no way to," he was stopped by a glow surrounding the two of
us. I looked down. The blue glowing light was coming from me. I was doing
this somehow. At that moment I knew how to get out. I grabbed the boy’s
hand and started running toward the wall head on, despite the boy’s
screaming fit.
Suddenly, I felt as if I were in a pool of warm jelly. It was a
weightless sensation. Completely unimaginable. Then, I was outside standing
in a field of prickly, green, and flowing ribbons.
I felt foolish when the boy I had barely realized was still there was
laughing at me. I wasn’t sure why but I looked around and realized I was a
mess. My hair was all a frizz and on top of that I was in the middle of
petting what was apparently a commonly know plant called grass.
"I don’t know what you are are what just happened, but I owe you my
gratitude for setting me free. I am Diarmuid, and you?"
I didn’t know what my name was actually I had never been addressed
as anything before. Then, I recalled a book I had read in my tower by a
young writer named Elizabeth, it was my favorite book. Its main character’s
name was Lunaria.It was beautiful.
"You may call me Lunaria,"I said.
"Lunaria," Diarmuid repeated," I love it."
That made me hot in the face. It was a strange sensation but I
welcomed it , just as I welcomed the sun and the grass of this new world.
The moment of smiling was interrupted by a loud bang. It was a gong.
Announcing that a prison break had occurred.
"Come, take my hand we must run, my home is far but I’m sure we can
make it to safety if we hurry," Diarmuid said.
We ran, fast as we could , both barefoot and wearing torn old clothes.
We had a hard time going at an average running pace you’d normally see, but
it was good enough to get away. Once we were to safety, we sat down on a
near by field to rest.
"So tell me," I said."How did you come to be taken into the custody
for thievery here if you live so far away?"
"It’s the drought, I made the long journey here to attempt to get
some food for our village. I was unsuccessful of course, because all I got my
hands on was a loaf of bread before the guards found me, and I ran. I was
put in the cell and soon after you were tossed in. It seemed like you passed
out on impact , but I took a look at you and you seemed alright. Are you?"
"Yes, I am fine, thank you." I said
"That’s good. How did you do that back there? We went through the
prison walls? How?" Diarmuid asked.
"To be honest, I am not sure. I really just don’t understand it
completely." I said, frustrated now. Noticing this, Diarmuid lifted my chin
with his hand so I was looking at him and at that moment I noticed how
beautiful his face was his eyes were as blue as the sky and his face was just
indescribably perfect.
"You are the strangest girl I’ve ever met. Your different is all. That’s
a really great thing I hope you know." I smiled and a tear streaked across
my face for I had never witnessed such kindness in this world before.
"My eyes are wet," The rain now pouring from my eyes scared yet
soothed me as Diarmuid cradled me in his arms and I fell into a deep sleep.
When I awoke I saw that I was in the back of some sort of wagon, just a
little farmers one, but it was as nice a one as I could have asked for.
Diarmuid was sleeping not that far away from me in pile of hay. I
didn’t want to wake him, but I wasn’t sure exactly what had gotten me here
so I tapped on the driver’s shoulder.
"Excuse me Sir, but where are we? How did I come to be on this
wagon?" I asked. He responded in the most deep Australian accent I could
have imagined.
"Oh, good morning miss. Your little friend over there put up quite a
fight to find a ride home for the two of you. You were asleep at the time.
Sorry, where are my manners? The names George. I hope your sleep was
comfortable."
"Oh, it was, thank you very much." I replied. By that time I heard a
faint yawn and was delighted to turn around and see Diarmuid was waking
up.
"Diarmuid," I exclaimed as hopped up to embrace him. I kissed him with such force and as surprised as we both were at my actions we both welcomed the sweet feeling of each others soft lips.
"Well, good morning to you too." he laughed as I pulled away. "This is George he’s taking us home." said Diarmuid.
"Oh, don’t fret my boy," George interrupted. "We’ve been through the
introductions, except I believe I missed your name miss."
"Oh, my apologies, I am Lunaria."
"My, what a unique name. It’s a beaut!"
"Thanks" I said. Afterwards we continued our journey to the little
village of Pinecrest where Diarmuid said his family was awaiting his
arrival, but I wasn’t sure they would be happy he’s come back with me and
not the food he’d gone for.
The ride was long but we passed the time with stories and games.
When we arrived I awkwardly stepped out of the wagon almost tripping over
the torn dress I had on.
Diarmuid stepped down first and was being warmly greeted by the
people of the village. When they spotted me, silence filled the crowd.
Diarmuid stepped up to save me from suspicion.
"Everyone. This is Lunaria. She helped me escape the wrath
of The Grand Admiral. Without her I would probably not be here." he said
"I hope you all treat her with the highest respect," he looked at me and
smiled,"she deserves it."
The silence continued for sometime as disapproving faces looked upon
me, when an old women came up and caught my hand.
" Thank you." She whimpered, and I realized that most of the others were starting to relax a bit. " You may call me Aggy. I am Diarmuid's Grandmother.
One of the women, a bit younger than Aggy, she turned out to be Diarmuid’s
mother, took my hand and lead me toward a small house made of what looked
like woven straw and took me inside.
"Let’s take care of you. You are a mess. I can’t even imagine what
you’ve probably been through." She said.
She took me to a tub of hot water and ordered me in. After getting me washed up, she gave me a beautiful dress, something she said she used to wear often at my age. After I put it on I examined it more carefully. It was shiny and a deep silver color with rouge at the middle. It was long and elegantly draped off across her shoulders. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
I thanked her after she had brushed my hair and shown me myself in
the mirror. I’d never seen a mirror before. I was amazed by it and got to
see my own face for the first time in my life.
I had long, curly, dark brown hair, but that I already knew. My eyes
and other facial features were the most shocking. I had the most striking
green eyes I could have ever imagined and a wide array of light freckles
across my upper cheeks and nose. My jaw line was very precise, I almost cried
thinking my whole life I never knew what I looked like.
Once out of the house, I found Diarmuid and spun around a few times
to show him my new look. His jaw was dropped in an unsure response but his
eyes were smiling the whole time. Once he saw my eyes he could tell I’d been
crying and asked what was wrong.
"It’s just," I hesitated a moment. "I have never seen myself before, I wasn’t
allowed mirrors and never had a chance to see my reflection. I’m just shocked at my
appearance."I said." A bit traumatizing is all, I mean, so much has happened
today."
"I’m going to call you Luna from now on." his strange change in subject caught me off guard. "You know why?" I stared, puzzled, for a moment before I responded.
"Why?" I asked, still lost.
"Because you remind me of the moon. It's as if you a glow is radiating off you and calling the night forward. It's almost too strange to explain."
"Luna, you are beautiful and no matter what happened to you in the past, your safe now.
The Admiral wont come after us now he wont waste his time on little prisoners when the rest of the kingdom’s got so much work to do with the crop problem and all. You don’t need to live in that life anymore you've’e got a family now. They’ll grow to love you and I am already on the way there." He smiled at that and blushed realizing he had said it.
"Thank you Diarmuid. That makes me feel safe and if its all the
same, I’m extremely flattered. " I smiled." Well all I can say to that last
part is.. Dido." I laughed and started running. He ran after me and playfully
wrestled me to the ground, tickling my sides. Such joy to experience
in one day. It made me happier than anything in the world ever had Spending
the day walking and talking with Diarmuid. I felt like I could spend the rest of my life this way.
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