Destruction

Thea`s feet ached with exhaustion as she shoved her spade into the ground once more. It had now been four hours that she had been doing this for, and she was beginning to feel rather faint. She looked up for a moment, and saw the children by the big oak tree. She smiled. They were sitting underneath it, having a novel read to them by Madame Zita.

Thea had done the very same thing when she was a child. She remembered going every day to the tree for her lessons, where Zita would tell her of the great kings, and the stories of how the very land was divided.

“You must remember, child.” Thea recalled her saying “That the land wasn’t always split up into three provinces like this. There was once I time when the land lived and breathed as one. I remember those days, child. Those were the days that I really felt alive.”

For a while, she watched the old woman before realising that she had a job to do. She continued shovelling the hay onto the cart.

“Well well well, if it isn’t Thea, the little city rat.” she heard a voice taunt behind her.

“Get lost, Morgana. Can you not see that I’m busy? Or is your mind too full of deceit?”

She heard the girl scoff behind her, seeming dismissive of her words. “Well, at least I`m not working with the men.”

Thea spun around as quickly as a hurricane, irritated by this statement. She tried to think of a good comeback, but her anger soon turned to sadness as she sank against the hay cart, unable to answer back to her.

Morgana was a strikingly beautiful girl, polite enough to the rest of the townsfolk but foul to Thea. For some reason she really had it in for her, just because Thea came from the city. Now, her mouth twisted into a truly evil smile as she spoke once more.

“I would have you remember, City rat, that my father owns half of this village, so if you want to mess with me, I-“

“-would have you best remember that.” Thea finished for her. It wasn’t the first time she had heard that speech. Morgana clenched her fists in anger, irritated by the boldness of such a pathetic person. She began to advance towards her.

“Morgana, Thea has more in her head than you ever will. At least she has the decency to help out around here instead of strolling around stopping everyone from getting their work done.”

Both of the girls spun around in shock at hearing Zita speak. They saw her strolling towards them at a clam pace, her wrinkles shrivelling up when faced with the sunlight and her skirt swaying gently around her ankles. Morgana held her position for a moment or two, but Zita`s soft and omnibenevolent eyes forced her to turn away.

When Morgana had left, Zita turned to Thea. “Don`t listen to that wretched girl my dear. She is just jealous.”

Thea smirked at the old woman’s words. She respected Zita more than anyone, but she just wished that she would stay out of her business sometimes.

“Jealous of what? She has everything. Money, power, looks..”  Thea whispered.

“Looks? Don’t you start. You have no idea how beautiful you are, child. One day, you`re going to grow into a strong and independent woman.”

Thea stole a glance at the wizened figure beside her. She looked into her eyes, ones that pierced into her very soul. The longer she looked, the further the old woman’s smile spread, her wrinkles backing away across her face so that she almost looked young again. Zita reached out her hand for Thea to hold and they walked with one another back to the younger girl’s house in silence. They did not need to use words when with one another. They were comfortable in each other’s company.

That night, Thea was lying in her bed. She was exhausted from the day’s work and she knew that the blisters on her knuckles were about to burst from the pressure she kept putting them under. She wasn’t the right build for manual labour at all. Bringing the harvest in was a man`s job, and she had no idea why her stepfather had forced her into that position.

Her stepparents certainly didn’t care what happened to her. They had been forced to look after her after she had been left at the edge of the village. Nobody knew how she got there or where her parents were, but all they knew was that someone had to look after her. As they were the only ones without children (they hated the idea of caring for any), they were forced to bring her up as their own child. They hated her.

“Thea!” Her father`s voice bellowed from the next room. “You haven’t finished clearing up in here, girl!” 

She sighed as she pulled her gritty duvet off her and dragged her feet into the main living space. Her step mother was sitting by the fire, resting her feet on a stool and watching the bowls by the door, as if expecting them to magically become clean and be placed by the fire. Her step father on the other hand grabbed her arm and pulled her close, allowing him to smell the foul alcohol on his breath.

“I thought I told you to clean the cutlery, girl. You`re pretty, but about as useless as a blunted knife. Now, get out there and clean them. Be quick about it too, don’t you dare go and talk to that stupid fortune woman.” He let go of her arm to push her firmly towards the door making her fall to her knees from the force of it. Her eyes brimmed with tears. She was sick of being treated so badly by such foul people, sick of being pushed around as if she meant nothing.

Suddenly, Thea felt her sadness turn to anger. She pushed herself off the floor and turned herself around weakly on her hands to face her stepmother. She looked directly into her eyes, forcing the woman to stare back. For a few moments, everything was as normal, and then something strange began to happen.

The step mother`s body began to shake softly, then more violently, as if she was having a fit. Blood started pouring out of her mouth with the speed of a tsunami, and the woman fell to the floor in the pool of it. She didn’t even cry out. It had happened too quickly.

She was dead.

Time to upload the first chapter! :) Hope you enjoy and think about subbing :)

Yellowshu4

Characters

Morgana

Daughter of the village owner

Madame Zita

Fortune teller