The Body

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     I felt both pressure and pain simultaneously as I pushed my body through the barrier. I expected death from the electric wall tearing me apart, but death never came. Even the pain that lingered with me as I emerged on the other side of the dark wall quickly evaporated within a few seconds. My body slightly trembled from the electric waves coursing through me, but I was still alive. That either meant that the wall couldn't kill me, or someone let me through. The latter seemed more likely, and I began to wonder if Dryden opened the barrier for me. I knew he was close on my heels, but I didn't expect him to allow me to come through. Maybe, he realized I wouldn't give up. Or, maybe, he knew I needed to come home.

Whatever the reason was, I stood on the other side of the wall surrounded by darkness. The Path was once again dirt, and I could see lights up ahead where Nortadane sat. I had never been happier to be home, but the trees surrounding me looked dark, and I knew I had to move quickly. Even if Dryden did open the wall for me, I knew he would be coming through as well. He wouldn't let me escape that easily, and I wasn't sure how I knew this. I just knew he would come after me.

The idea of him barging through the dark wall made my stomach drop. What if he punished Nortadane for my behavior? What if he punished my mother in front of Nortadane like he punished my father in front of Tyrenius? The idea was absurd, but I knew it wasn't hard to believe. If he didn't consider himself a Monster after eating my father publicly, then he was crazier than I imagined.

Finding my strength once again, I lifted my dress and ran down the path. I still had a mile to go before I was home, but I could see the town in front of me. Being able to see Nortadane gave me the perseverance I needed, and I knew I would have no trouble running the whole distance.

I remembered the elders walking down the Path with me, their magic constricting me, and it seemed as if the dark barrier stretched for miles ahead of us. Now, it seemed that the distance wasn't very long. I could smell the damp air, the stench of death, and it reminded of me the home I once had. Nortadane was never a happy place, never a place I wanted to be, but it was a place I was familiar with. Although Tyrenius was beautiful—and I still wasn't fully convinced it wasn't magic that made it so—there was something oddly comforting about the eerie atmosphere of home. I wanted to escape this home, this life, this stench, and this fear—but I found myself missing it. It wasn't the best life, but it was what I knew.

I wanted to change it, of course. I didn't want my town and people to be fearful their entire lives until they were chosen. Then again, if they were all given the choice to side with the Monsters or die, I was sure most of them would side with the evil on the other side of the barrier. My people were weak when it came to survival, and I knew the cannibals could easily convince them. We weren't all brave. Some of us were cowards just like my own sister. At least my father was brave. He wouldn't conform, so they did the unthinkable to him...

I felt sick thinking about what Dryden did to my father, so I tried to think of reaching my village. I was tired and cold and hungry, but I was going to make it. I knew I would faint soon if I didn't have food, but I was hoping my mother had some berries or leaves I could eat. Anything would do, but nothing would be as good as the turkey leg...

I hated how wonderful Tyrenius seemed, but I had to remind myself it was built on magic and lies. There was nothing real about the flowers, the colors, the food, the architect, the host, and the elders. Dryden might've helped create a beautiful place with our Mother, but that didn't negate the fact he was still the villain. Nobody could do what he did and not be vile. Just imagining my father's pain while becoming a meal in front of hundreds of people made me want to return to Tyrenius just to drive a sword through Dryden's body. Nobody deserved what my father received, especially such a wonderful man like him.

Tears burned my eyes, but I quickly wiped them away as I came closer to Nortadane. The Path seemed to constrict and close on me, but I eventually ran through the stone arch and made it home. I allowed myself to stop and breathe for a moment, but I knew I couldn't take any more time than necessary. I needed to get home as quickly as possible and see that my mother was safe.

The streets were empty like they always were at night, but I could tell dawn was approaching. The sky was beginning to turn the usual greenish haze, and I knew people would emerge from their homes soon. I didn't want anyone to see me in these garments because how would that look? To return from the Monsters' lair dressed in the finest clothing of Old Landria. It would appear I was on their side, and my people might attack me. They wouldn't touch the elders of Nortadane even though they knew they were the Monsters' minions, but they would touch me. A person who never spoke a spell, never felt the magic within her, and was never anything but a nobody would be easy to attack. I had been through enough these past few days, and I didn't want any more trouble.

My lungs burned along with my legs and head, but I pushed on. My pace began to slow down, but I could see my cottage up ahead. I knew I could make it, for I was almost there. I was almost home, my real home, not a fake paradise built around magic and lies. Although Tyrenius was beautiful, it was a place I could live without returning to. It held too many dark secrets and too many evil deeds, and I didn't want to be reminded of my loss. Even though my sister was still alive, losing my father was far worse than the hope of having April in my life. She conformed too quickly, I could tell. She never had a fight inside of her as I did, and I could see it on her face that she sided with the Monsters almost immediately. She couldn't face death, for she was too weak. It didn't matter that she was older than me. What mattered was how cowardly she was, and I was ashamed of her. I pitied her for bearing witness to Father's death, but that was all I pitied her for.

"C'mon," I breathily inspired myself as I kept pushing on. "You're almost there, Oceana, you can do this. If you survived the barrier, you can do this." I knew now that I didn't survive the barrier on my own. Dryden had to have let me through because I barely had enough strength to reach my cottage twenty feet away. If I could barely walk, then there was no way I could've pushed my way through the dark, electric wall. I didn't understand why he would let me come through the wall especially since I pushed so strongly against what he wanted and didn't support his ideas, but that wasn't what I needed to worry about at the moment.

I leaned against the side of my cottage once I reached it. I felt the sweat roll down my temples from running so far, but there wasn't time to rest. I made it, and I needed to see if my mother was safe.

"Mother," I wheezed as I fell against the door and began to knock. "Mother, it's me. Let me in. Please," I breathed softly. "Let me in." I was practically begging, but my voice wasn't very loud. My energy was gone, and I needed food. I needed rest, and I needed some water.

"Mother," I cried before I lost my balance as the door creaked open and I fell through the threshold. I caught myself before falling to the floor, and I quickly closed and locked the door behind me.

Turning around, I leaned against the locked door once more and faced the dining room I hadn't seen since the elders handed my mother their red envelope and took me away. Although being home made me feel comfortable for a few moments, comfort was quickly replaced with worry when I noticed the broken teacup still on the floor. Almost three days had passed since I left home, and I knew it was unlike my mother to leave broken glass on the floor.

"Mother?" I called out hesitantly as I walked slowly toward her room. "Are you here?" I couldn't imagine where else my mother would be especially since she never enjoyed leaving the cottage unless it was necessary for food or other means. However, my leaving might've changed her, and I didn't like that idea. While I was enjoying a turkey leg and trying to drown myself in a bath, she could've lost herself even further. Although she never truly gave up on me when Father and April left, I knew it could've been different once she was alone. Before, she had me, but now she had no one. However, I was home now, and I wasn't going to leave her again. Even though I was nervous thinking about Dryden coming through the barrier to take me back to Tyrenius, I wasn't that important was I? Did it really matter if I disagreed with the Monsters' ideals? I was only one person—an insignificant one at that—so would he really come through just to take me back?

My biggest fear was Dryden pushing his way through the barrier to destroy Nortadane in response to me running away. Although he claimed to be human and not a vile Monster, I wouldn't put it past him to raid my village and tear everyone to pieces. The possibility that I doomed everyone made me sick to my stomach, but I couldn't change anything now. I was already home, and whatever was to come would come.

My dress brushed softly against the floor as I pushed the door open to my mother's room and stepped inside. I knew she was somewhere in the house, but I didn't expect her to be lying on her bed as blood pooled down from her chest.

I screamed as loud as I could before falling backward as I tried my hardest to leave the room as quickly as possible.

"No!" I screamed as I covered my mouth. My whole body shuddered as tears fell down my cheeks in waves. She couldn't be gone. This couldn't be happening.

My back hit a wall and I stopped pushing myself away from her room as I slumped into a ball and allowed myself to grieve. I was used to grief from losing my sister and Father, but losing my mother was a different grief. She was with me my whole life, for we had been through everything together. Now, she was with our Mother on the other side. But it wasn't her time to go. The blood was too fresh, and I knew someone was in here recently. That explained why the door fell open when I leaned against it. Mother always locked the door. I should've known something was wrong.

But who would've done this? Who could've done this? I shut off my brain for a moment as I sat on the floor and sobbed. This life was full of misery and death and fear, and I was so tired of living. I was exhausted from traveling home, I was weary from running, I was famished from not eating, and I was parched from not drinking. I knew I shouldn't allow my body to lose so much water through my tears, but I didn't care. My mother deserved every tear I shed, and I would've gladly allowed myself to become dehydrated for her.

I only had a few moments of grief to myself before I felt something change in the air. There was a new smell, something that wasn't from Nortadane. It didn't smell like death, it smelled like life.

A chill ran down my spine as the wind stopped, and the whole world seemed to pause. The smell was new to this land, but familiar to me.

Dryden was here.

I knew he would find me, but I stayed completely still until the front door blew away and he stepped inside my cottage.

"You cannot hide from me, Oceana. No matter how much—" he stopped mid-sentence once he noticed the tears falling from my eyes. "What's wrong?" He asked gently, and I couldn't believe he had the audacity to ask me what was wrong when it was because of him that my life fell apart.

"Like you care!" I shouted. "You're the one that probably did it!" I screamed and coughed as the tears fell faster, and I didn't have enough strength to speak anymore.

"I just arrived, Oceana. I haven't stepped a foot into Nortadane since the war. Whatever you're accusing me of, I can gladly deny it," he said as he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. His confused face quickly vanished as he sniffed the air before following the scent into my mother's room. However, just as quickly as he went in, he came out just as fast.

"Oceana, you need to return to Tyrenius. Not just for the sake of supporting our new world, but for the sake of keeping you alive. This wasn't an ordinary murder. It was magic. Your mother's insides erupted, and this was done quite recently. The murderer could still be nearby, and it could be anyone over the age of twenty who was allowed to practice magic. You think that dark magic only resides in the elders, but all magic can be dark in the hands of the wrong person. You have enemies among you, Oceana, and you need to return through the barrier," he stated as he walked toward the broken down front door.

"You act like you care about my safety," I scoffed as I wiped my eyes and runny nose with the skirt of my dress, "but you don't. There are no enemies in Nortadane except you right now. Nobody wanted us dead. This was probably one of your brothers you chose to be an elder," I snarled.

"I've told you before.  My closets brethren are in the Main City. The other men I chose are in the smaller cities. This was no elder. This was an amateur. Elders clean up after themselves, Oceana, trust me. I saw the aftermath of the war. They leave nothing behind." His words didn't encourage me, but they had the opposite effect, and I suddenly felt very sick.

"Anyway, you can't travel until you've had some food. It's a miracle you made it through the barrier this weak. Here," he held out a wrapped parcel. "I brought some bread and ham."

"I don't want your food," I said as I pushed it away, but he forced it in my hand.

"Right now, Ocean, I don't really care what you want. I've told you before that the people in your town are the ones you needed to worry about. There's an evil here in the atmosphere, and I can't believe you don't feel it. There's a reason why we left Nortadane for last. The evil here is unbearable and unmatched. These humans are unlike the humans in Tyrenius and the rest of Landria. These humans have a dark past and even a darker heart. They don't want peace. They want bloodshed and death. You refuse to believe me as if I haven't been around for hundreds of years and know what I'm talking about. You're too stubborn to see that the real enemies lie in your own village, not in my world."

He stared harshly at me with his blue eyes, and I couldn't help but glance away as I nibbled on the food. The bread was still warm, and it took all ounce of restraint not to tear it apart in one second. I didn't want to show him he was right about me needing food, but we both knew he was.

"Drink up too," he commanded as he handed me a canteen. "You're dehydrated and starving. That's not a good combination."

"What are we going to do about my mother?" I asked as the words choked me. I quickly drank some water to collect myself.

"Nothing we can do now. I don't want to move her body or they'll know someone that cared was here. They're going to return. I'm going to wait for them, catch them, and bring them to Tyrenius for a trial. They'll be tried in front of the town and punished the same way." The idea of another open punishment made my stomach rumble as the bread made its way up my throat. However, I swallowed it before it could come all the way up.

"It won't be—it won't be like last time?" I asked softly as my eyes dampened once more.

"No, Oceana, it won't be like last time," he promised as his cold eyes met mine. "Last time was for a reason, and someday I'll explain that reason once you allow me. You're too fragile now especially with what you found here, and you wouldn't believe me just yet anyway. I'm really not a monster, Ocean, but I'm not going to waste anymore time trying to prove that to you. I'm a High Elder with duties to my people and country. I can no longer spend it explaining to you." His words and tone were both harsh, but his eyes relaxed as they watched me eat the rest of my meal slowly. I didn't want to respond anyway because I had nothing to say to him. There was so much he told me, but I couldn't decipher which things I should allow to roll off my back like water. What was real? What was a lie? I had no idea. I was too tired to even try to guess.

"I wish you never saw this," he sighed as he leaned against the doorway. "You deserve better than this."

"Why are you so eager to tell me what I deserve and to keep me safe? I don't understand why I matter so much," I whispered. I would've rather died than had to deal with his pitiful explanations that explained nothing.

"Lives are important, Ocean, I don't spend one easily. I'm not like the other elders who don't understand life like I do. I was there when life was created. Our world is so young still, so fresh, and it deserves more than blood shed. I've shed enough blood in the war and at the punishment trials in town. I don't want to shed anymore. Believe me, or don't," he shrugged, "but it's true."

I wanted to roll my eyes, but I didn't have the energy. The food and water definitely helped strengthen me once again, but it didn't give me enough energy to throw snarky comments at him. All I knew for sure was that I lost everything. I lost my family, my home, and my life. Nothing belonged to me now. Not even the food I was eating, for it was just borrowed from an elder.

"Come. We need to leave," he said as he held his hand out to me. "I need to get you home."

"I am home," I whispered as he pulled me to my feet.

"Not anymore. It's not safe here, and there's a new life waiting for you. Why can't you accept the beauty of the new world? Why must you be so stubborn?" He asked as he quickly lifted me in one movement and held me against his chest.

"I can walk," I muttered, but his grip tightened.

"You've done enough walking for the evening. You're in no shape for the trip back," he said as we left the cottage only to be met with two horses standing outside. One was his, and the other one held Chefford.

He lifted me onto the horse and turned to the other Monster, "See that she gets home and gets put to bed. I'm going to wait here and see what I can find out."

"Do you think that's safe?" Chefford asked. "Shouldn't we ask Hamlin or Glodin to assist you?"

The idea that the Monsters were worried about one another astounded me. I knew Dryden was a High Elder, but Chefford acting so concerned for his safety? It was the most humane exchange I witnessed from the two of them.

"The stench of death is strong in this town, and I want to know why. There's something dark going on here, Chefford, and I deserve to know what it is. I'll speak to the elders and see what they can tell me. Watch me from the Pool of Truth. If you feel as if there's going to be trouble then you can send for Hamlin and Glodin," he stated before he turned to me.

"Would you like to visit the sea?" He asked, and his question was so off topic that I needed a moment to process what he asked me.

"What?" I blinked.

"The sea. Would you like to visit it? I know most humans are astounded when they see the crystal water they've only read about in books, and I wondered if you were the same. I thought it might help take your mind off—off of the things you've endured." He glanced away suddenly, and I could tell he seemed a little uncomfortable.

"There's still a sea?" I whispered. "It's not all dried up?"

"I've told you before those history books were a lie. The sea is just as grand and beautiful as it ever was. And do you want to know the best part about it, Oceana Howl?" He questioned as he leaned toward the horse. His face was so close to mine that I forgot how to breathe. "There isn't a drop of magic in it."

I imagined his eyes to be the same color as the sea, and it was even easier to imagine this when he was so close to my face. I could feel his breath fan my skin, I could see the wrinkles near his eyes as if he smiled many many times, and I suddenly didn't know what to do. I hated the man in front of me with a passion, but that didn't negate how attractive he was. I hated myself for forgetting about all he did in those few seconds he was near me.

"I'll take you there when I return. In the meantime, stay in Tyrenius. You'll be safe there."

Before I could respond, he slapped the horse and both Chefford and I began galloping through town toward the Path. I wasn't sure if he was telling the truth, but the thought that the sea was real and not derived from magic made my heart swarm with a gentle hope. There wasn't much hope to build on lately, but I needed the hope that rested on the sea. I always wanted to see the ocean for which I was named after, and the idea of actually facing it enamored me. It left me literally speechless.

I glanced over at Chefford once I collected my thoughts, and I saw him looking at me quizzically.

"What?" I asked as we neared the Path.

"You hold too much hate in a heart that's full of hope," he informed me.

"You know nothing about me," I sneered.

"Except that you just proved my point," he half-laughed as I glared at him. "If you were as open to our legends as you were to the false histories of your people, you'd be surprised at how much hope you could actually have."

"Why would I need your legends when I already know the truth?" I asked him as we galloped down the Path, the trees surrounding us closed in on us once again. There was something eerie about the dead trees planted along the Path, and I wondered whose idea it was for them to be there.

"And I'm guessing this truth of yours that states all the people in Nortadane are your allies is why your mother is bleeding out on her bed right now."

His statement was so unexpected and without emotion that I suddenly stopped the horse to actually soak in what he just told me.

"How dare you," I seethed through gritted teeth. "You have no idea what I've been through or saw. You know nothing about us here."

"Ha!" He laughed. "I know more than you think," he promised as his horse trotted back to where I stopped. "You know nothing of the world you've created in your small village. You know nothing of the people's hearts in that wicked place. Why do you think the elders choose one human every solstice? Why not all at once? Because we try to see through the wicked ones. We try to find the lesser of the evils that believe in hope more than death. Your town is full of a disease that can't be cured, and that's why most of them will end up dead."

He said this so matter-of-factly that it left me speechless for a moment.

"And you hate magic so much, you refuse to see the good it can do."

"So killing people is good?" I asked.

"War. It was war, Ocean. It's not like we kill daily. People die in war. That's why they're two sides. They fight until the death, and it so happened that we won. But the war isn't over yet, can't you see that? Your precious village reflects that," he huffed as he nodded his head toward Nortadane. "Even you're proof the war isn't over yet. You act as if it affected you personally."

"And you're acting as if it hasn't. My father was eaten in front of a town! That doesn't affect me?" I snapped as I looked away so he couldn't see me cry.

"Justice isn't war, Ocean. You don't know what he did."

"So justice is suffering? Being made a meal in front of others? No matter what he did, nothing could justify what your kind did to him," I stated. "Nothing."

"How little you know," he laughed as he shook his head. His hazel eyes blazed with fury, but I didn't care. He didn't have the right to be as furious as I did. "I don't understand why we had to rescue you. You're more of a menace than anything else. All you do is complain about things you know nothing about. Your inferior mortal brain is selfish and only thinks about itself."

"Selfish?" I gaped. "And I never asked to be rescued! I don't care if I die!"

"Don't you see it's more than death!" He shouted so angrily it threw me off guard. "You are what we need, and I'll be damned to fail my country because you're a stubborn ass!" His chest heaved up and down quickly as he breathed in and out furiously. I knew Chefford didn't like me, but I wasn't aware he practically hated me as much as I hated Dryden. "It's about time you learn the real history. I can no longer wait for Dryden's time. Lord or not, your idea that you know more than the man who was there with our Mother astounds me. How stupid can one girl be?" He snarled. "You're infuriating. Absolutely infuriating!"

"Then why even try with me? Why not let me go?" I asked softly. His anger was so surprising that I couldn't even match it.

"Why would I even bother with you? You won't believe me," he sighed as he turned his horse and galloped down the Path.

Hurrying after him, Dryden's horse caught up to Chefford's, and soon we were riding side by side as we came closer and closer to the dark wall.

"Tell me why I'm important," I asked him. "You owe me that."

"I don't owe you anything. I've never done anything to you, so there's nothing I owe you. Besides, your brain is so curdled you don't believe anything anyway," he huffed.

"I just don't know what to believe. How would you feel if you believed something your whole life only to be told it was all a lie?" I muttered as he slowed down once we were near the dark wall.

"You act like you're the only one who's ever had that happen to them. What about Lord Dryden? He believed all people were good, and you know how that turned out. There was a large war where thousands were obliterated. Thousands of evil people. You never think about others, and that is why you're selfish. You think this world revolves around your pain and your pain only."

I never assumed I was the only one with pain, but I did assume that the Monsters didn't have any pain. I only assumed they had fury and anger to kill.

"That's not true," I muttered.

"Yes, it is. That's why it took you a minute to respond. You know it's true, and that's why it makes you so angry." Before I could respond, he pushed his way through the barrier and left me alone. As much as I wanted to stay in Nortadane to protest, I knew it wouldn't help. Someone clearly murdered my mother, and I didn't want to be nearby when they came back.

Just thinking about seeing her bleeding out on the bed made my heart ache. Before I began crying for the thousandth time, I rode into the barrier as the familiar pain and electricity coursed through me.

Each time traveling through the barrier seemed shorter than the last time, and I wondered if my body was getting used to the electric currents. After all, it was heavy magic and nothing more. Static and electricity, the very things that made magic real as much as I hated it.

The stench of death evaporated as a floral and sweet scent filled my nostrils. It was dawn, and the sun began to rise as pink swirls filled the sky. The woods around me sparkled with life as the trees glistened in the morning sun, and it would've seemed peaceful if it wasn't for what I found in my cottage.

"Come along, Ocean, I have to be at the Pool of Truth to watch Lord Dryden," he demanded as he began galloping quickly through the woods toward the House. I followed closely on his heals because as much as I didn't want to see my mother's body again, I wanted to see who would return for her body.

Once we reached the house, I dismounted the horse and expected Chefford to follow me. However, he took the reigns of Dryden's horse and began riding away.

"Where are you going?!" I called out to him.

"To put the horses in the stable then visit the Pool!" He called back.

"I want to come with you!"

"You need to rest! And you need another bath! You've been through enough, Ocean. Dryden doesn't want you to watch this!" His voiced faded as he traveled over and down the hill and disappeared.

As much as I wanted to fight him, I walked into the house and toward the room Dryden considered mine. The first time I arrived at Tyrenius, I enjoyed the walk through the woods to this house. However, this time I couldn't even remember the ride through the woods. Too many things clouded my mind as I thought about my mother and who could've possibly done this to her. There wasn't anyone I could think of apart from the elders, but why would they kill her? The Monsters took me and didn't raid the village, so who would do this?

My brain hurt from thinking too much, and my heart hurt from too many losses. As much as I didn't want to listen to Chefford, I knew that a bath was exactly what I needed. Perhaps, it would help me wash away my sorrows in the process.

Walking into the bathroom, I turned on the water and began stripping off my clothes in hopes I could strip off some of my sadness. However, I felt even sadder as I slowly sunk into the hot water and allowed the tears to overcome me once again as I sobbed in the tub while thinking about my mother's bloody body.

•••••
I meant to update earlier but I've been really sick. However, I'm feeling much better, so here's a new chapter! :)