The morning sun shined with it's full potential. Hexa was huddled up to Maya, her arms around the taller girl as they slept peacefully in the tent.
Suddenly, they were woken up by a male voice outside. Their eyes snapped open.
"Maya! Report to the queen. She has something to tell you," the voice shouted, before footsteps echoed, quieting down every step.
"Morning, firefly," Hexa said, her voice raspy from the night.
"Morning.. I need to go. It's important," Maya replied.
Hexa eventually let go of Maya, letting her get up. Maya took the took the chance, getting up and and exiting the tent.
She walked back to the castle with wobbly steps, nervous to hear what the queen would tell her. She opened the door and made her way to the throne room.
There she was. The royal, Medea, tapping her fingers against the armrests of the throne.
"Officer Emberhold reports in. What does yourhighness have for me to hear?" Maya said, kneeling down infront of the throne the queen was sitting in.
Medea got up from the throne. She grabbed Maya's chin and tilted her head to face her.
"I hope you know that acting sweet to someone to get information doesn't include spending the night outside the assigned area," Medea said, her voice dripping with fake warmth.
Maya's blood ran cold. Shoot.. Did she find out this quickly? Maya thought.
But she quickly regained her composure, staring right into Medea's eyes, keeping her expression neutral.
"It won't happen again, ma'am," Maya said.
Medea's long fingers traced Maya's jawline, making her want to gag, but she couldn't. Not infront of the queen, as much as it disgusted her.
"I'll make you understand your position here. You're nothing but a piece in my game of chess," Medea said to Maya while tracing the curve of her jaw.
"Yes ma'am. I under-" Maya's words were cut off by a hard slap delivered on her cheek. The sound echoed in the big room, and the spot was already beginning to redden. It hurt.
Maya lifted her hand to hold the spot, looking up at Medea with a hint of fear in her eyes.
"Did I say you could talk?" Medea spat, her voice dripping with anger.
Maya shook her head, trying to avoid any more pain. Her eyes glinted with unshed tears.
"I'll make you learn your place, puppet," Medea told Maya before knocking her on the floor by her shoulders like a ragdoll, taking her own expensive-looking belt off.
That's when Maya let her tears flow freely. She knew what was coming. She would have to face the worst pain in her life all over again.
At the same time in the Eternal forest, Remy and Aatos had settled down with the woman. She lived in a small cottage deep in the forest, covered by plants, and gladly took the two in.
Soon, they found out they weren't the only ones with the woman. Three children also lived there. They found that out when the youngest girl, around eight years old, with shoulder-lenght ginger braids, light, freckled skin, and green eyes, got hurt and went straight to Althea infront of them, letting her mend her small, bleeding wound by touching it.
There was a boy who had short, blonde hair and amber-colored eyes. He was probably fifteen, that's how old he looked.
And the oldest, around sixteen in age, had heterochromia. Her left eye was brown, and the right one was blue. Her long hair was a light shade of red violet. Remy and Hexa shared a bedroom with all of them and slept in a wooden bunk bed.
Currently, all of them were talking in the living room. Remy, Aatos, and the newfound family.
"We didn't catch your name, though. What's your name?" Remy asked her.
"Althea is my name," the woman with green hair responded with her usual smile.
"Cool name," Aatos said. "We didn't introduce ourselves yet?" He then asked.
"I'm Remy and he's Aatos," Remy told Althea.
"How about them?" Aatos asked, pointing at the children.
"This little one is Aurora. The older girl is Hazel, and the boy is called Ocean," Althea said, smiling as she gestured at them all by one.
"Are they all your kids?" Remy asked curiously, tilting their head to the side.
"Well, not like a villager would describe a family, but they see us all as abnormalities. I gave them a place to live safely, so I'd consider myself a mother to them," Althea said.
"Do you two want to play a game of poker? No bets, of course," Althea said, pulling out a deck of cards.
"Yess!" The two responded in union. "But I haven't played it before," Remy said.
"I'll teach you," Althea said, spreading the cards on the table to show Remy how the rules go.