"NO!"
She grabbed the pot off the fire and flung the contents at the attacker. The man screamed, clawing at his face as the broth burned him. He panted with pain as white blisters erupted on his brutal features.
"You'll get it now!" he growled, and threw the girl's mother aside.
Tamia caught her breath as her mother slammed into a shelf with a crack of snapping bones and collapsed in a heap on the cold stone floor.
Her leaf green eyes widened with anger as they snapped back to her attacker. He stared evilly while he stood in the middle of the scantily furnished room of the cottage.
"Filthy half-breed!" He snarled.
Tamia backed slowly away from the hulking bear of a man, her finely featured face creased from suppressed emotion. Tamia bit her lip. "think cool," she whispered to herself.
The man smiled a grin borne from blood lust while he reached for his long dirk.
"Now look, I'll get your mother's pretty trinket anyway... so if you be good maybe I'll make your death quick!" His smile froze the very marrow in her bones.
He leapt across the room with a demonic cry. Tamia quickly ducked aside and slipped behind him. He span on his heel. An inhuman growl erupted from his lips and he lunged yet again.The metal of his dagger flashed in a wide arc straight for her heart. Tamia leapt back, her instincts from the days of sparring with Vrenic, the local weapons master, taking over. They danced a brutal and deadly dance around the room, Tamia only one step ahead of a glittering cold-steel death by the brutally sharp dirk.
Eventually they came to a halt.
Staring at each other the hatred could be felt across the room. The attacker was breathing heavily, both from pain and weariness.
"Your mother defiled herself when she let you come into excistance from a filthy elf!" He spat, his eyes two points of rage. "And now I'll take her pretty charm and you'll both die because of it!"
Tamia snapped. All the fury that had been pent up was unleashed at once as a blast of power. Windows cracked. Cobblestones were thrown against walls. A knife was thrown across the room and quivered, embedded in the soft wood wall. The flash left an image of the man's shocked face to be forever imprinted her mind.
The man was tossed like a discarded scrap against the hearth, unconscious.
'What have I done? she moaned.
Tamia felt all of her energy being sucked away. she swayed, nausea sweeping her in great waves.
She dropped in a dead faint.
(part two)
Ahead of her... a light. Tamia blinked slowly, uncertain. She was floating.
Somewhere, she was aware that her her body was lying on the cold cobblestones of her mother's kitchen. She looked back at the light, content to float here in this other-world.
She rose her hand, but to protect herself or embrace the light she wasn't sure.
The light wavered, and twisted upon itself. Tamia looked on, her mouth slack as a half-wit's.
Suddenly a man stood before her.
His face was delicate, almost feminine, with a pale green shade to it.
A laughing yet compassionate mouth was centered beneath eyes the same leaf-green as Tamia's own. He was clothed in a simple robe of undyed cotton.
A wave of recognition swept her to her very soul, yet she knew with a terrible certainty that she had never seen him in all her fourteen years.
"Father...?" She ventured, her foot taking an uncertain step forward. It was then she relised her surroundings. She was surrounded by palette of soft whites, all slightly different in texture. Here or there she saw hints of shapes, but
whatever was out there was keeping itself hidden.
"Where am I?" She murmured, confused.
"Hush Tamia, all will become clear in time." Her father's voice was warm and tender, yet guarded.
"but father..." She took a step towards the lost parent. He waved her back, regret showing in his eyes.
"I cannot. Not here. There are... others." he looked away, tears shining. "You look just like your mother." His voice cracked. "What I would have done to go back to her that day." He shook his head.
Turning to her, her raised a hand. "You must go. We will meet again when we are unobserved."
Tamia's head burst with unanswered questions. She looked at the pale ivory clouds far below her.
Where had he gone?
Why?
Those days of sitting at the window wondering haunted her. She looked up at him, a protest forming on her lips.
He was gone.
Behind her, shadow leapt.
Tamia sat bolt upright, unable to say what caused her heart to race and her mind to panic.
She held her head as overwhelming pain hit her, wave after wave, in time with her heartbeat.
"My head!" she gasped, struggling to get to her feet on legs unable to
comply as she would like. She eventually dragged her self to her feet, and once she stopped trembling she raised her head, pondering. Her reflection caught her eye in a polished brass plate.
"Father..."
Tamia fingered her small, pointed ears. Her hair, the pale colour of
driftwood, was straight and fine. Her mouth was set and determined,
yet slightly curved upwards as if she she was smiling at some jest no-one else could hear or understand.
Then recollection hit her.
"Ma!" She cried, spinning on her heel, all pain forgotten.
Her mother was slumped against the wall, as limp as a soliti in winter hibernation.
Tamia shook her roughly, desperation creasing her face. "Ma, wake up ma! don't do this to me!" Tear slid down her face, making her look like a child.
"Tamia..." a gasp from her mother rose tamia from her keening. "Tamia, my necklace... take it for me..." Tamia was shocked "Mother! But, Its yours! you'll be fine mother... just hang on!"
Tamia more begged then believed.
"Tamia... take the necklace. Anything of value-" she halted, gasping for breath.
"Ma I saw father! Please mother just hand on." Hysteria crept into her voice as she gazed on her mother's passive face. It seemed she didn't mind that she was dieing. "You will be fine, and it will be the same Ma! maybe father will come back to us, maybe... maybe..." Her voice trailed off, uncertain.
"No Tamia, take my necklace find... your father. I am finished. Go sweetling..." Her last words trailed off as her eyes grew dim as all of her bright life left her. All the laughter, the cheer and the steely determination Tamia relied on left her, her body no more then a decaying shell.
The days off sitting with her mother, listening to her wisdom of the wider world from her days traveling as a bard, over.
No more self-defense practice with her wily parent.
No more laughter while doing the washing.
Tamia raised her head in high, almost animal keening for her beloved mother.
