Life of Change

My parents and Zenya returned when it was dark, and my stomach ache had subsided. Sarka went back to her room with Makila's permission, and I stayed with her while I recovered.

Both adults looked quite exhausted, especially Mom whose eyelids looked heavy. It was as if she was going to fall asleep at any moment.

Zenya on the other hand, as soon as she saw me, she ran to me immediately and started telling me very excitedly about everything she experienced at her first big festival. From the music to the decorations to a choir made up of Obana priestesses who sang old songs to the pillar. But what she liked the most about the event, which had caught her young heart, was the parade itself, representing the story Sarka had told me that morning.

An incredibly beautiful woman, wrapped in bright and very luxurious clothes, walked through the streets of the capital while dozens of men and women in folkloric dresses, each representing an animal or plant, joyfully followed the woman representing Obana, wearing her characteristic pure white cloak, which stretched several meters behind her, and which was held by several women, thus preventing it from getting dirty.

Zenya's eyes sparkled at the memory of that image, and she described it in as much detail as I had ever heard her speak of.

Dad stood to the side of us, amused as he watched his daughter talk ecstatically with her little sister. Makila at his side was maintaining a cheerful smile, completely different from the serious expression she had maintained until recently, but holding my mother by the shoulders who looked like she couldn't stand on her own.

"Hal, do you have time later to talk? There's something I need to discuss with you."

"Is it important?"

Makila nodded earnestly.

"I see. I have some paperwork to go over, but I think I can leave it until tomorrow. Iri doesn't need to know?"

"She must. But with how exhausted she is..." said Makila, looking at Mom with a slightly worried expression as she saw how she wasn't able to keep her eyes open.

"Got it," Dad replied, gently stroking Mom's cheek. "Why don't you put her to bed? With all she's had to do today, I think it's best to let her rest now that she's home. I'll take care of the girls."

"Thanks, Hal," Mom mumbled.

That was the last thing they said to each other before Makila retreated with my mother in tow.

Although she looked very tired, that didn't stop her from totally sticking to Makila, who didn't seem to complain about it. Dad chuckled as he waved them goodbye.

Zenya, totally oblivious to all that, continued to tell me about everything she saw, did, and ate at the festival, with so much energy and happiness that I honestly felt very sad not to have gone myself.

She enjoyed different types of meat skewers, sweets, and fruit juices, and what surprised me most about her descriptions, was that she mentioned something that even I could guess what it was. She said she had eaten a sweet cloud. Naming it "fairy thread." It was a piece of a pink cloud that melted in her mouth when she took a bite.

In other words, cotton candy.

I was incredibly surprised. But also, very confused. I didn't know how old cotton candy was in my old world, but somehow, I felt it didn't fit the era this world seemed to be in. Or I might be completely wrong and it did fit the era, I didn't know. What I did know was that I was starting to feel a little too jealous of my sister who had the opportunity to try it.

Anyway.

Dad played with us for a couple of hours until sleep finally caught up with my sister, and followed by her, I too fell defeated by Morpheus.

I just remember hearing Dad giving us both a sweet "I love you" and a faint memory of being carried to my bed.

A faint whistling of the wind could be heard at the window. The room was empty of people, with only my presence in the place.

My old couch was there.

The same coffee and gravy stains on the seat. Some dust on the floor. A crack in the wall from when I fell and ended up inadvertently tackling it. My shoulder still ached from time to time from that.

The apartment still looked old and the walls, floor, and ceiling were still worn.

Right in front of the couch, there was a table attached to the wall with my old TV. A console right underneath with its respective controls, which I used to play a lot on weekends with my sister.

A picture of both of us was framed on the wall, right above the TV. It was a souvenir of the one time we went on vacation together. We had gone to see a Turtle nesting and we were incredibly pleased with the experience.

All the furniture and decorations we had picked out over the years were there.

It was strange to see all this. As if it had been dozens of years since the last time I was here.

I felt... homesick and disconnected. I felt like this was no longer my home. But why?

The lights were off, and the afternoon sun was all that illuminated the place, giving it a peaceful, but also a bit gloomy look. Added to the general eerie silence and that strange whistling wind that was starting to get on my nerves.

*knock knock

I heard someone knocking on the door.

I stood, not wanting to open or even approach it.

I had no idea why, but something was telling me not to go. It was as if I was forgetting something important, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't remember what it was.

*knock knock

Again the pounding. This time more loudly.

"Hello? Who is this?" I shouted, hoping to get an answer.

"..."

There was nothing but silence.

I was starting to get very nervous and anxious. Alerts were ringing in my head, a foreboding that something terrible was going to happen.

I stood still and silent for a long while, as the knocking continued to echo at a fixed interval, sounding louder and louder. For a second I lost track of everything, as if suddenly time had jumped, and when I realized it, my hand was already on the doorknob.

I could feel my heart pounding against my chest and my breathing became erratic. I missed the instant I got there and couldn't control my body when I realized what I was doing.

It seemed like something was forcing me to go along with whatever this situation was.

My hand moved, turning the doorknob and pushing it all the way open. Unable to regain control, I peeked out to see who was on the other side.

No one was there.

I looked both ways, but it was empty.

I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as I regained control.

I closed the door immediately, leaning my forehead against the cold wood it was made of, thankful that nothing dangerous or scary had jumped out at me.

"Lucky you, huh?"

"Yeah..."

Wait... who...?

I immediately turned around with my heart pounding and a scream caught in my throat.

There she was, standing in front of me.

My mother.

Looking at me strangely.

Those eyes gave me a horrifying, sickening feeling as if I was being watched by a bloodthirsty demon.

Even though I knew she should be an older woman, that she should have white hair, the woman in front of me was young. Around her early 30's. Her expression was calm, and... in a way gentle, which sent shivers down my spine.

"Son." She said, in a voice that turned my stomach. It sounded... motherly, kind; loving even.

"..."

I didn't want to answer her. There was no reason to speak to her.

"Son." She called me again in that voice that caused a ringing in my ears, like fingernails scratching a chalkboard.

By what right was she calling me her "son"? This old hag had no right to even look at me.

"Son, I miss you. why did you leave me?" she said... her voice sounded sad like I had never heard it before. I almost believed it.

"Leave you? LEAVE YOU!!? You've got some nerve coming to tell me that you fucking bitch!" I shouted at her in response. The anxiety I had been experiencing up to that point had been immediately replaced by anger. "What right do you have to come here and say anything to me? You filthy witch."

"..."

She didn't respond. She just stared at me in shock. Her expression was as if she couldn't believe I was talking to her like that. I could... I could see the pain in her eyes. She was hurt by my words.

"What the hell, who the hell are you?" I asked in dismay. That thing was not my mother. There was no way that woman, whose face was so expressive was the woman who brought me into the world.

"Honey, it's me. It's mommy." She sobbed, I could see tears threatening to spill from her eyes. Her bottom lip was trembling.

I stepped away from her feeling disturbed, but I couldn't take more than a step before I felt the door on my back, preventing me from moving any further away.

"Honey, why are you acting like this? I'm sorry, I did something to you, didn't I? I'm sorry, mommy's sorry. Please don't hate me." The woman ranted, approaching me with her hands clasped together as if she wanted to place them on my face to reassure me.

"G-get away from me!" I screamed in panic as I pushed her aside and ran away from her.

Suddenly I fell to the ground, tripping over my own feet.

What the hell, tripping over myself so foolishly, in my house?

I looked down reflexively, wanting to make sure there wasn't some object to make an excuse for my embarrassing fall.

And then I saw it.

That was not my body.

It was me, but it wasn't that "me."

It was... Orinthya.

I was small, with stubby legs and arms, barely able to support my own body.

I was barefoot and wearing my sleeping clothes, the ones Makila always put me in at night.

I began to look around me. My old apartment was gone.

I was now in my playroom. Everything was normal, just... quiet. I was alone in that place.

*drop*

I heard a sudden dripping sound, and when I looked down at the floor, there was a small puddle of water.

No, it wasn't water. It was red.

It was blood.

My blood.

It was dripping down from my chest and onto the ground.

I was lying on top of a pool of my own blood that continued to drip slowly and caused me to feel drowsy.

Suddenly I felt an intense, burning pain in my chest.

I could see a very deep cut there. No, not a cut. It was a stab wound. Right where my birthmark was. The mark that I had been reborn.

"Is this why you left, is this why you abandoned me?" That woman said, coming up from behind me and crouching right next to me. "Because of... this?" she pointed to my appearance with a sneer. "I never imagined you were 'that' kind of kid. But it doesn't matter. You're with me again now." She smiled at me with a mouth much larger than a normal person should have. Her teeth, thankfully, were not sharp, but "perfect". In a way that was unsettling to look at. And I could have sworn there were more of them than was supposed.

She brought her face close to mine, taking advantage of the fact that I was frozen in place and slowly losing my strength because of the amount of blood I was losing. It didn't seem to be that much, but it was a lot more than a girl my age should have, and it kept gushing more and more and more.

"That looks bad. Maybe, I should have made it shallower? Or better, I should have done more."

"Why?" was all I could say to her as I felt myself losing consciousness. Ice-cold tears were streaming down my face and a burning pain in my chest. I didn't know if it was the wound that was bleeding me out or my heart that had broken even more than it had that day.

Suddenly, her face distorted, like clay being worked, wrapping around itself until it formed....

"Tya?"

I shuddered. For an instant all the pain I was feeling stopped mattering.

"Tya, why are you bleeding so slowly? Why haven't you died yet? Should I help you?" said the thing that had taken the form of Irlana, my new mother. It was smiling as it always had. And that only made it even worse.

"Maybe we should help her, Lana." Replied another voice behind me.

"Makila?"

"We can't have a freak like... this one, in our family. After all, he abandoned his former mother and left her to rot in a remote and lonely place. If she could, she would surely do the same to us." She said, with clear disdain, in a tone that did not fit at all with the serious, calm, and kind Makila I had known.

*tap, tap, tap*

A few footsteps echoed in the place. Then another pair, and then another pair.

3 figures emerged from a strange fog that had, at some point, surrounded us, emerging from it as if they were being born from it.

All people I knew.

"Maybe we should lock her in a dark room away from the mansion." Said the being that had the appearance of my father.

"I say we rip off her arms and legs, so she can never escape or crawl near us." Added the one who looked like Sarka.

"What if we better just kill it outright? Sooner or later she'll abandon us too, so it's better to get rid of her once and for all." Crooned the last one, looking like Zenya, grinning from ear to ear as she approached.

The 5 were now surrounding me; looking down at me on the ground, unable to do anything but stare back at them, terrified.

They all looked just like my family, but their expressions, though familiar, were the complete opposite of what they had shown me so far. They wore the same clothes, spoke the same way, and moved in the same way. Everything was the same, except that now they were holding a knife in one of their hands and smiling terrifyingly. Too bizarre to even describe with words.

Just as I noticed that the 5 instantly fell silent, and watched me intently, giving me a cold and indifferent look.

"Maybe, we should just stab her until there's nothing left." Said all 5 in unison.

And then, it began.

First Zenya, stabbed me right in the heart while maintaining that childish, adorable smile she always gave me when she saw me.

Then it was Irlana. She plunged her knife deep into my stomach. She smiled lovingly. Just like when she would lift me and whisper to me how happy she was that I was born.

Next was Fiana. She didn't stab me but rather cut my neck, running her knife slowly across my throat. She had her always calm expression, the one she always gave to everyone in the family. A look and a small happy smile as she saw us all together, in the same home.

She was followed by Halfred. He plunged his knife deep into my back. He laughed gleefully, just as he did every time he finished telling me one of his hero stories. I loved listening to him, and he loved telling me every one of them.

Finally, Sarka approached what was left of me. A bloody mess with no strength or will. She took me by the chin with her free hand, squeezing hard to force my gaze to focus on her face.

"Did you think you could enjoy this new life of yours? That... goddess, she did nothing but use you as a pawn for who knows what nonsense. A secret agenda that you do not know of. A disposable piece." No Sarka said. Her voice was the same one she used when we were together. That tone that I always thought jokingly was dangerous, but that I knew was due to her enormous affection for me. "If you really thought that, you're even more naive than I expected. But don't worry, you'll never see anything like that again. Your big sister will take care of that." She said, emphasizing big sister.

Then she raised her knife and plunged it deep into my left eye. I tried to scream in pain, but... I felt nothing. It was as if I had been anesthetized. I knew that object was embedded in my eye, but I couldn't feel the pain related to it. Just, a very deep discomfort, like an itch that I couldn't scratch.

No Sarka, pulled the knife out, leaving me blind on that side. Then, with the same smile she showed me when she gave me those sweets, she stuck it in once more. This time, in my right eye. Leaving me completely blind.

And as if that had been a sign, I began to feel the rest of them stabbing me again and again. Every part of my body was being mutilated and torn apart by those beings with the appearance of my family.

I couldn't feel the physical pain of their actions, but I could feel something breaking in my chest. Something that really... hurt and that was made worse by listening to the joyful laughter of those beings pretending to be my family.

I looked up at the ceiling and... there was my sister's face, Nadia's, staring at me helplessly as I was turned into minced meat.

She was screaming something, but I didn't know what, I couldn't hear her. I could only see her torn, her eyes swollen from crying.

Suddenly everything stopped.

The place fell into a sepulchral silence.

For a second I wondered if all that had happened, until I heard a pair of footsteps approaching.

I was still unable to get up from the floor, but there was no need to do so. The person whose footsteps I was hearing had stopped just short of my head.

"You look pathetic." She said in disgust. I looked up as I recognized that voice. Her violet skin glowed in this empty room. Her golden eyes, bald on me, judging me as nothing more than a rotten piece of meat, disgusted and annoyed, like a pretentious highborn glaring at a commoner who had the gall to stand in her way. "The others were too soft and kind to you. They should have taken you out quickly." She said, as she raised her sword and gave a quick slash towards me, causing my consciousness to disappear from that plane.

I woke up with a gasp, feeling tears running down my face and my sleepwear clinging to my body. I was drenched in sweat. A smell of urine flooded my nostrils, making me aware that I had wet myself. Something normal for a baby, but not for me, who had never done such a thing until now.

I took a shaky breath, as I tried to comprehend what had happened. I moved my hand to my chest, to the birthmark, feeling a phantom pain there. Then I looked at my palm, just to make sure there was nothing strange about it. I was afraid that, looking at it, it would be soaked in blood. But fortunately, apart from some sweat, it was completely clean.

Relief washed over me, but also, fear. I have had a nightmare. A very explicit representation of my deepest fears. Everything I didn't want to think about or imagine, and had kept hidden in my head.

I held my head in my trembling hands, trying to quell the headache that assaulted me, and somehow hoping that the scream that wanted to escape from my throat would stay there, that it wouldn't come out, because, if it did, I wouldn't be able to stop myself.

But I failed.

I let out a scream so loud that I felt as if I had torn my throat.

And I cried.

I cried like I had never cried before.

"Tya!?" someone shouted in fright. Her voice was strangely familiar, but one I didn't try to recognize. The pain in my head and my heart had completely taken hold of me, and I wasn't going to let go easily.

I felt someone lift me from my cradle and hug me. A soft voice trying to bring me back from that spiral of pain and confusion. I clung tightly to that person, but I didn't stop crying. How could I? I felt as if I had been torn from the inside out. My heart had been ripped out of my chest.

"Shh, shh, I'm here honey, I'm here." The voice would say, trying to comfort me. But it wouldn't work. I was terrified. Terrified that this nightmare would come true.

"Fia? What happened?" I heard another voice, another woman, ask scared as I heard her approach.

"I don't know, I heard her crying and I came running. She never cried like this before."

"Orinthya, baby, what's wrong, does your stomach still hurt?" she asked in her soothing voice as she grabbed me from the other person's arms.

I shook my head and clung even tighter to her.

She kept asking me questions, but I answered them all by shaking my head.

Both were completely at a loss as to what to do, and the truth is I didn't even care.

It was a couple of hours until I finally managed to calm down for real. I was exhausted from crying so much, and my throat felt like it was raw.

When I finally raised my head, I met my mother's worried gaze. She had messy hair, an exhausted expression, and dried tear stains on her cheeks. In her eyes, I could see the fear. And it wasn't hard to tell why.

It wouldn't be unusual for her to be in a panic not knowing the reason for my...whatever it was I had.

"Did she stop crying?" asked a voice from across the room. I turned my head to see who had spoken and saw Makila, and I was immediately shocked. If Mom looked bad, Makila looked even worse. Her eyes were red and puffy, her expression a mixture of despair and relief. Her lips trembled and cracked, forming a broken line. And like Mom, there were traces of dried tears on her cheeks. She looked at me in hope, her hands clasped on her chest, trembling as she doubted whether she should speak or run to us. But the hesitation was short-lived, as she moved forward as soon as our gazes met.

Makila normally never shows many expressions, especially showing strong emotions, and the only time I saw her do that was at Zenya's party when Grandma said those things. But now? She was a completely different person, full of expressions of pain, sadness, and despair, but also relief and hope. She threw herself at us, hugging us both tightly, planting kisses all over my face. Mom was stroking her back, and now it was Makila she was trying to comfort.

I decided to remain silent, letting her do whatever she wanted. I had worried them both too much, so it was best to let them get it off their chest.

However, just as I decided to do that, there was a knock at the door. A maid on the other side said, "I've brought the physician." Before she opened the door.

Tina was the one who had come in. And I could tell that even she looked worried about what had happened. She breathed a sigh of relief to see us entangled in that strange hug.

Behind her came a relatively short man, with some marks of old age on his face, short horns on the side of his head, curled up, similar to those of a goat, and a serious look. Makila immediately stood up and walked towards him.

"Sorry for my late arrival, I was on the other side of the city, what seems to be the problem?" he asked calmly before Makila could utter a word. She just nodded and began to relate what happened.

“She woke up in the middle of the night and started crying inconsolably. No matter what we did, we couldn't calm her down. It was only a few minutes ago that she stopped crying." Makila replied, summing it all up.

"I see." He replied as he stroked her chin. He was looking at me seriously, analyzing me clinically (never better said) hoping to find something with just my current expression and appearance. "Duchess, if I may." He said after a few seconds of reflection, wanting to hold me. Mom didn't hesitate to hand me over and I was placed by him on the bed to the side.

From his bag, one I had not noticed until now that he carried with him, he took out something similar to a stethoscope. He listened to my heart, my stomach, checked my eyes, my ears, my mouth; looking impressed by my fangs. He checked my head, feeling around for something. Then my arms, my legs, and my back. He carefully checked every part of my body while asking some questions to both my mother and Makila.

Finally, he stepped back, with a somewhat confused, but relieved expression.

"I have checked your daughter, my ladies, but I can't find anything unusual. Considering her age, I thought perhaps it was the dental pains. After all, sharp-toothed breeds tend to have a lot more trouble adjusting to them, since they tend to 'fiddle' with them and hurt themselves. But her mouth is in perfect condition, and her dentition seems to be growing correctly." He concluded. He looked at both women and shrugged. "To be honest, she's one of the healthiest girls I've had the joy of caring for. Also the calmest and most cooperative."

They both looked very relieved to hear his words, with a smile at the end, thanks to that last comment. But they quickly returned to their worried expression.

"But then, what brought all this on? We had never seen our daughter cry so much and so hard. She looked... extremely terrified." Makila said, looking at me with those red, puffy eyes, wishing she could do more than just watch.

"And she held on very tightly to us." Added Mom. "We thought someone had snuck into her room and scared her, but everything seemed normal."

"Hmm." The doctor took a second to think, stroking his chin again. "Did you consider it might have been just a bad dream?" he asked.

A bad dream... no, that's not what it was. It was my worst nightmare...

Mom and Makila looked at each other and nodded. Then Makila spoke for both of them.

"We had considered it. Based on her age and how we've raised her so far, there wouldn't seem to be any reason for it." Makila said. Then she pondered for a second as if trying to remember something. "There would be something but... could that really be the cause?

"What could it be?" asked the physician, expectantly.

"Well, several days ago her aunt, Anven, came to visit, and.... well, she let out her aura. At the time Nita was very frightened and cried a lot, but... not to the same level as this time."

"Hmm. Well, that could be a pretty plausible explanation. Sometimes traumatic experiences or frightening situations can resurface randomly in our dreams or, very rarely, while we are conscious because something triggered that memory. And it may be especially true in young children." The physician explained. "At the moment that's the only explanation I can give you about it. She has no fever, nor does she seem to be in pain from dental or horn growth. Even her little valah seems to be in perfect condition. A terrible nightmare is the only explanation I can give you."

Mom and Makila were silent as they contemplated the doctor's explanation. Accurate, but there was no way to tell them directly that that was the reason, without seeming... weird.

"For the time being, I can prescribe some Adofria powder to help her fall asleep, but I'd like to make some regular visits just in case."

They both nodded and thanked the doctor for hurrying him to treat me. With that, the physician said goodbye, giving me a slight smile. Tina escorted him out.

"I'm so relieved," Makila said sitting down in a nearby chair, finally relaxing. She held her face in her hands and was breathing deeply.

"So am I. But now I don't want to stay away from her."

"Should the 3 of us sleep together tonight?" Makila asked, to which Mom nodded instantly.

Before long, they had wiped their faces, changed clothes and we were lying on the big bed in Makila's room.

They both had one of their hands placed on my body. I could feel their warmth and concern.

That dream was... I don't even know how to describe it. But it's an experience I never want to repeat ever again. I moved my own hands and clung to my mothers', hoping that alone would be enough to calm me down.

I was given the sleeping medicine to drink and it was already starting to take effect.

"What's wrong?" I heard Mom ask Makila in a whisper as sleep was slowly claiming me.

"I..." Makila hesitated without answering further.

"You're thinking about Kalenia, aren't you?"

"..."

¿Kalenia?

"Fia. Orinthya is not her. We're not going to lose her too."

"I know, it's just..."

"Fiana." Mom said interrupting her. "We're not going to let that happen. Get some rest, today has been hard for you too. Sleep, and don't think about the scars of the past, okay?"

I could feel Makila nodding slowly. Then a movement from my mother's side, the echo of a kiss, and then their voices wishing each other goodnight.

Another mystery in the bag. Kalenia... Who...?

I fell asleep at that instant.