Taria
A warm summer breeze blew through the Eastern Valley. The sun was slipping behind the tall White Mountains where it would sleep until the morrow. The golden trees turned brown and the green grass turned black. The moon’s light not bright enough to show the glow of the world beneath it.
It was the same every time of the year. We didn’t experience the seasons like in the city. Pa said it was because the White Mountains surrounded us. They blocked us from the cold and bitter winters, and the wet and dying autumns. Spring did appear occasionally when the wild flowers that filled the valley would bloom anew. However, the Eastern Valley was common know for its hot days and humid evenings. Our land wasn’t good for farming on for we didn’t get enough rain, but it was healthy enough to raise herds of sheep and cattle. During the middle of the year when the cows were fat and the sheep were overgrown will wool, the farms of the Eastern Valley would send their herds to the capital where the cattle were slaughtered and the sheep were shorn. The time of year was upon us and it had been busy.
For the first time in weeks I finally had been given a day to have fun. Being the eldest of my parent’s children, I had to be the responsible one. My younger brother, Gean, had to go where I went since Ma and Pa couldn’t watch over him while they worked. Gean was seven and didn’t like to do much other than read books. He liked to stay inside and hide under the blankets. When he emerged from his room to eat his pale skin almost reflected off the rest of our families golden brown skin. So when Ma told me to keep him entertained for the day, I grabbed him by the sleeve of his shirt and dragged him out into the wood that ran along the edge of our family’s fields. I spent the day trying to get him to play games or teach him to hunt but he wasn’t interested.
The rustling of the wind through the trees made me spin on the spot. I thought it was a rabbit, but no luck. My brother had no doubt scared them away and now I wouldn’t return home with anything. I left out a huff and turned to glare at my brother. Gean sat on the stump of an old tree, a bored look on his face. He looked up to see me looking at me. “Can we go now?” he said.
I rolled my eyes. Why did I have to bring him? All he did was annoy me. “If you hadn’t scared all the animals away we could have left hours ago.”
Gean groaned and lay down on the stump. “It’s not my fault you suck at hunting.”
I really wanted to punch him, but there was no way Ma would allow me to get away with it. Gean would no doubt run to Ma or Pa crying, saying that I beat him up for no reason. Even though Pa knew my brother was a lying little brat, he would side with Ma.
No matter how hard I tried to relate to Gean it didn’t work. He liked to think himself as the adopted son. He would tell me often how since he was adopted that Ma and Pa chose him as their child. They wanted him where as with me I was what they got given and they couldn’t change that. Ma had assured Gean many times that he was her son but he refused to give up on the charade.
What Gean didn’t know was that I was the child who had been adopted. Ma had told me after I continued to ask her why my hair was red and the rest of them had brown hair. Some with my eyes. They were grey while they all had brown eyes. Ma told me that she had found me on their doorstep one morning and that she knew nothing else.
“Taria! Can we go?”
I threw the makeshift arrow onto the ground. “Yeah, let’s go.”
“Yes!” Gean jumped up off the log and ran ahead.
“Hey, wait for me.”
The forest that surrounded my family’s farm wasn’t thick but it was on a steep hill. I had fallen over plenty of times and rolled down the hill and so had Gean, but that didn’t stop him from running down it. I didn’t bother running after him. If he fell, he fell. He could deal with the consequences.
Stepping out of treeline I spotted Ma standing near the bottom. Every time I went into the woods she would be waiting for me. I had asked her many times why she waited and every time she would just shrug her shoulders. She never gave me an answer. I always thought it was because she was worried that one day I wouldn’t come home. But that would never happen. I would always go back to my family.
As I reached the bottom of the hill Gean was complaining.
“...she tried to make me hunt rabbits Ma. I don’t like rabbits.”
Ma laughed. “You have never even touched a rabbit.”
“Yeah, but just look at them.”
I rolled my eyes. He was so weird.
“Did you have fun?” Ma asked me.
“I would have. If someone didn’t scare all the animals off.”
Gean glared at me. “Sorry, that I don’t enjoy hunting animals.”
“Okay, you two. Let’s go home.”
Gean ran off ahead and Ma wrapped her arm around my shoulders. I leant my head against her shoulder as we walked.
“Why must I be responsible for him?” I said.
Ma sighed. “Because you are my mature and responsible daughter and I know that you will take care of him. If he stays inside for the rest of his life he will die old and alone.”
“And surrounded by books.”
Mum nodded and laughed. “Yes, and surrounded by books.” She squeezed my arm. “He’s your brother. He is meant to drive you crazy.”
“I know.”
Pa was sitting at the table cleaning one of his rifles as Ma and I walked inside. Gean had already made his way upstairs and into his room. There was no doubt that his face was buried into a book.
“Hello sweetheart,” said Pa.
“Hi,” I said.
“Have fun, did we?” he asked.
I frowned. “Yeah. It was great.”
Pa laughed.
“Who’s hungry?”
Pa and I nodded.
“Okay, I’ll get cooking.”
My parents were so different in was a wonder that they got along so well. Pa was certainly hard working but he was stubborn and quiet. He often would stay silent in arguments or conversation to avoid an argument that would happen when he stated his opinion. Ma, however, was bold and loud. She could be stern but only when she had to be. She also loved to tell everyone how it was. Ma knew everything, or it seemed like she did.
As we sat around the dinner table, Ma mentioned our chores for the next day. The trucks would arrive in three days to collect our cattle and some still needed to be brought in from the south paddock. There was also smaller things like collecting the eggs from the chickens and feeding them; cleaning out the barn and the stables. It was the same thing every day but it never got boring.
After a bath I sat on my bed as Ma brushed my hair. Ever since I was a child she loved to comb my long hair and no matter how much it annoyed me she never let me cut it. It was too precious to her. I never understood why. Even as I got older, like now – I’m almost an adult – and she still brushes my hair every night.
Ma hummed a song as she ran the old brush through the thin strains.
“What song is that?” I said.
Ma stopped humming. “Just an old lullaby that my ma sung to me.”
“Did you ever sing it to us?”
She sighed. “No. You didn’t like my singing, made you cry in fact.”
I laughed.
“And Gean was a good sleeper so he didn’t really need singing to sleep.”
“It’s beautiful.”
Ma nodded. “Yes, it is.”
Ma finished my hair and left the room. Wishing me a good night. I pulled back the sheets and slipped into them. The sheets scratched at my bare legs, they needed to be washed, and my pillow held no comfort, it needed to be restuffed. Everything in our family home was old. Even as a farmer times were hard. The sheriff had been sent around to collect more taxes. Pa had barely had enough to give him from our savings. The family farm hadn’t fallen into ruin, at least, not yet. If the capital continued to raise our taxes then soon we would have nothing left.
I tried to find comfort in the fact that we were okay. We all were. Gean had his books. Ma was still humming. And Pa was Pa, nothing had changed. But I couldn’t seem to drift off.
By the time my eyes began to drop I heard a screech. It wasn’t a bird screech it was more of a scream, but it didn’t sound human. Sounded like an echo. I laid there listening and for a moment nothing. But then it came again. A little bit louder. I stood from my bed and walked over to the window.
My window looked up on the North Hill, where the edge of the White Wood began. Through the dark of the trees I saw the flashing of a red light. Poachers! There had been rumours of poachers hunting in the surrounding woods; I didn’t think they would get this close though.
Poachers lived in the woods. Many of them were men and woman who had lost everything, been kicked out by their families or they had been orphans who had run away. They hunted animals in the cruellest of ways. Using cages and metal nets. At least when I caught a rabbit I gave it a quick death. No, poachers liked to make their animals suffer.
The flashing red light was a poacher’s cage that had been activated. Pa had told me that when a cage is trigger it flashes red so that the poachers can see it in the dark and it makes a horrible noise almost like an alarm. It scares off everything else and lets the poachers know.
I turned and grabbed my breeches from the floor. I needed to save that animal. I quickly dressed and grabbed a knife from the kitchen and my bow and quill that sat near the front door.
Running up the North Hill was hard. My legs burned and I almost slipped a couple of times. I got into the treeline and listened. I could see the flashing red light but I didn’t want the poachers to spot me.
Poachers had the nasty of habit of killing anyone else tried to take their hunt. Men and woman’s bodies had been found brutally beaten and torn. I had never seen a dead body before but the way Pa had described it made me want to be sick.
The woods were silent from the occasionally shriek of the cage, and the closer I got, the quieter the noise became. It was strange. Pa had never mentioned anything like this.
I found the cage buried hidden under a fallen over tree. One tree had fallen and hit another and at the base of the second tree was a hole, a hole big enough for a cage. I walked over to the cage and dropped to me knees. What had they caught?
I tried to peer into the cage but the lack of lighting didn’t help. I pulled the knife from my pocket and moved it to the opening of the gate. Hopefully it would break. As I slipped the knife through the hole the animal inside hit the front of the cage and scared me. It growled and spoke. “What are you doing?”
I sat their speechless. It can talk! The animal can talk.
“You can talk.”
The animal growled.
“You can understand me?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“That means you are...”
“That I’m what?”
“It doesn’t matter. Can you get me out?”
“If you explain why you can talk.”
“After. Hurry, before the poachers finally show up.”
I gripped the knife and pushed. I begged the lock to break. The animal growled impatiently and hit its paws on the door. The door swung open and the shriek of the cage grew louder. I covered my ears and gasped. The animals jumped from the cage.
“Come on, let’s go. Quickly.”
I grabbed the knife and chased after the animal. We moved out of the tree line and I saw that the animal was a large black cat. A panther. It was long and moving quickly.
“Wait for me,” I said.
The panther stopped at the bottom of the hill and waited as I slipped down. Standing at the base the panther said, “We need to hide.”
“Follow me.”
I headed towards the barn. The panther was right behind me. I jumped over the fence that ran along the edge of our property and waited as the panther slipped under. We ran through the long field towards the large brown barn. I gripped the large handle and pulled at it. The door creaked and slid open. The panther slipped inside. I followed and pushed the door shut.
The barn was cloaked in darkness and it was cold. The moonlight did little to show anything. I dropped onto the hay covered ground; I was out of breath and ready to fall asleep, but I needed answers.
The panther stood not far from me, looking around. “Does this belong to your family?” it said.
I nodded. “Yes.”
“It will do for the night.”
“You will need to leave by morning, before my father gets up. If he finds you in here, he won’t hesitate to shoot you.”
The panther furrowed its face. “What a polite family you have.”
“Well, we aren’t really used to talking animals.” I was amazed that it was even happening. If anyone heard about this I would be called a witch. No one in this town liked the idea of magic. Anyone who was suspected of anything was reported to the sheriff and his guard. I had seen many people in my life dragged through the town square. I didn’t want it to happen to me.
“They wouldn’t understand me anyway,” said the panther.
“What do you mean?” I said.
“I mean what I said. They wouldn’t be able to understand me.”
“But I can.”
“Yes, you can.”
“But they can’t.”
“Yes.”
“How is that possible? How can I understand but they can’t.”
“It’s complicated.”
Very complicated apparently. But I needed to know. “Well make it uncomplicated.”
“Even if I explain it you won’t believe me.”
“Try me.”
“Fine.” The panther turned and paced for a moment. Was it that hard to explain it to me. “I am your familiar.”
“My what?”
“Familiar. I am your protector or sorts. Your guide.”
I laughed. “My protector. I’m the one who just saved you.”
“Yes, for which I am thankful. As your familiar I am meant to protect you and guide you through your life. You are also meant to look after me. Keep me safe. It’s a two way relationship.”
“Okay. Does everyone have a familiar?”
“No.”
“What is so special about me?”
“I don’t know. There are many different reasons for someone to have a bond with a familiar.”
“And they are?”
“Well, the most common is generally someone who has magic of some sort, witches and warlocks; or it can be because of your family, if your family is a part of a special bloodline then you can end up with a familiar.”
“Well as far as I know no one in my family is magical and no one else has a familiar. I have never even heard of your kind.”
“These days we are rare, thanks to the queen.”
“What has the queen done?”
“Besides bringing this kingdom to itself downfall, she has murdered many of innocence’s and their familiars. She has hunted us down for over thirty years hoping that she would wipe us all out.”
“Seems to me she hasn’t succeeded.”
“Well, she is close. If the queen had never started her hunt then you would know what a familiar is. You would seem them everywhere but now familiars and their humans are forced to hide and live in fear. If they queen were to find any of us we would all be slaughtered.”
“Why does she hate familiars so much?”
“When I find out, I will let you know.”
I had a feeling that the panther wasn’t telling me everything. It seemed to know a lot. But it was late and I knew that if I had to get up with the sun then I would need to get some sleep.
“Is it alright if I sleep here tonight?” the panther said.
I nodded. “Yes, just don’t get caught by my Pa.”
“Don’t worry; it is hard to catch me.”
“The poachers didn’t have any problems.”
“Well, they are poachers not farmers.”
“I’m Taria, by the way.”
“Goodnight, Taria.”
“Goodnight.”
I locked the barn door behind me. I would need to make sure I bet my Pa to the barn the next morning.1132Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ06BqL9Ufqn
