The curse

By Suzette Drake

Chapter Two
The nightmares


She sat as a child by the still waters of Dumbanne Bay. It was the twilight of a spring’s dawn. A breeze came off the waters, sending a slight ripple over what was only just still. The air played with the young girl’s blond hair that when all the way down to her toes in ringlets. She looked in to the water’s mirror and in to her own ocean blue eyes. A noise from the woods then startled her. Looking up the blue-eyed girl noticed a dramatic change in the landscape. It was suddenly much darker. The girl realized that she had spent the entire day at the Bay and it was now night. Though something more then just that was wrong. The sky had a metallic and crimson tinge to it. She looked back at the water and at her reflection, though it was not her image reflected. The girl saw a hideous face, one unlike she had ever seen before. It was masculine and something about it said evil. She was frightened and let out a horrified scream. At least she tried to. When she opened her mouth the only thing that came out were a hundred small snakes. The girl became a woman and the tinny snakes became large adult snakes that coiled around her body. She began to cry out in pain, this time her terrified voice resonating through the now winter landscape. A thousand ravens then flew by, only a prologue to the vultures that followed to lick at the blood pouring out of the snakebites covering the woman. It looked like night covered her, and her alone. She became night. Her innocence lost, she was now a bitter death crone who had died a thousand deaths and had become so tainted with it that she was only that.


Charlotte woke in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. She knew she had had a nightmare but now could not remember even the slightest detail about it. What ever it had been, she knew, it had not been good. It had touched a part of her that was only awake when she was asleep. A part of her that she had never really known had existed. Chills ran up and down her spine. It now felt as though the air was heavier in her room. It felt to her as if the dark was darker. Somehow the night had become much more then just the part of the day when the sun hides beyond the mountains. It was darkness and a chill beyond any that she had ever known could be possible.

The echo of her dream was loud in her room. Each shadow seemed “occupied” by something that was not supposed to be possible. Something alive but by all perceptions rotting. Charlotte pulled her covers closer to her body. She herself was balled up, shivering in fear. Small flashed of images and sound came in her mind. Unpleasing shapes of beings and the silent screams that were their voices came to the sight of her mind. Before she could see what they were the image would fleet away. Before she could make out what she heard, it was silence once again. Somehow the silence was even more terrifying then the hell music.

She did not know when exactly morning came but when it did she still felt as though she was trapped in the moment of her rude awakening. Her servant, Violet who was perplexed, found her in that state.


“Charlotte, are you all right? Are you upset because of the betrothal?” Asked the concerned girl. “Huh?” Charlotte had nearly forgotten about that because of the new fears inflicted by the night. Now with the mention of it, it all came back. “Oh, yes that…” The princess held a vacant look. She somehow felt very removed from everything around her. Even her name felt distant, not her.

Violet noted this distance in her princess and knew she would have to help her. Violet bathed and dressed charlotte, who wept the whole time. “My princess, what is wrong?” The servant asked. “Dreams…only dreams.” Charlotte said, more to herself then to the girl. “What happened in these dreams, princess?” When Charlotte could not remember she became angry and replied in such a tone. “Mind your own business servant.” Taken aback the girl kept silent, the fear of lashings behind her master’s eyes warning in the reply.

After Violet left the princess’s bed –chamber’s Charlotte began to shudder once again Am I falling apart? She asked herself. The thing was that she truly thought she was.
Charlotte didn’t dream for days… but when she finally did, it wasn’t as pleasant as the last time.



The dream started in the dark… as most dreams do when sleep embraces the dreamer. Though unlike the dark from that embrace it was a darkness of the unknown.

She watched, it seemed through her eyes, though perhaps they were the eyes of someone else. Far away in the darkness there was a dim light, as from a fire. The dark felt engulfing. She ran towards the fire. The faster she ran the louder the silent horrors rang in her ears. When she finally reached the source of light she found it indeed to be a small camp fire. Sitting around it were three figures. They spoke in union, though sometimes their was one over the other knew more, but still they spoke in union.

The first figures, a raven the size of a man was draped with a tattered cloak. The second figure was made up of a thousand tiny snakes, was dressed as a hag woman. The third figure was completely cloaked and to what exactly it was, she was unsure. The raven-man now began to lead what the three were to say. “Come child, sit. We know that you are lost in the night and that you are frightened.”
The sound of the voices in union were horrific to the girl’s ears.

“Sit now for there is certainly no where else for you to go. No, do not shy away. How can you find you way in this dark?”
They were right. She had no where else to go. No other light in the darkness. She would have to sit there with those monsters. So she sat with them, between the raven-man and the cloaked figure, across from the snake-hag.

The girl put her hands out to warm them with the fire. In it’s light she saw her hands guildded with rings, sparkling jewels and bracelets of a make she did not recognize. The snake-hag now led what was said. “Ah, jewels of Eleven make.” It nodded it’s body at her hands. “Oh,” Said the girl, “I did not know-“
“And it’s not in the least bit surprising.” They said. “elves are master craftsmen of the earth.” They said matter of factlly.
“Child,” They said. “Do you know who you are?” She shook her head, “No, I do not.”
“Quite alright.” They said, “At least you can admit that you do not know yourself. Most individuals think so much of themselves, but do not truly know. They kid themselves. You are honest.”
The girl did not know what to say, so she mearlly listened. “Perhaps you will never know yourself. But in time you will know who we are.” With that said the cloaked figure looked up. He looked at her,. She now saw the face-


Charlotte woke up with a scream and in a cold sweat. She was in her bed-chambers, still in the Kacine castle. The dark was too much for her to deal with. This time, instead of hiding in the darkness, in fear of the shadows and what lay in them, she quickly dashed around the room, lighting all the lamps she possibly could. She looked down at her hands. No decorations covering them. She never wore any. Why did I look if I know that I don’t ware any?

Though there was light in her room the corners still held shadows, where the lamplight did not reach. Lurking in those shadows, not even hiding anymore, was death. It wasn’t just the death of age, illness or the battle field. This was a rotting, living death.

“Curse the Undranes.”
She blamed them. She never had nightmares before now. it was always as though she had good dreams, even when she was awake it was like a dream. She used to know the guardian dragons and unicorns of her land. She used to dream of being able to use her wings. Now as she was awake, just as when she was asleep and in dreams it felt like she was drowning in a dark abyss, deeper then the oceans and it was cold. Always, it was so cold. A feeling of cold dread crept over Charlotte as she realized this.

She was found in the morning, her eyes had a vacant stare. “Death. Death…” she kept repeating. And it was all she would say, until Violet finally shook sense back into her. Charlotte looked at her servant with recognition, then broke out crying.
“My Princess, what is wrong?” She asked with concern laced with pain in her voice.
“Do not tell me it was only a dream. I am not so stupid as to be brushed away like that.”
Violet brushed at the princess’s tears with her thumb, cradling the rest of her face with her palm and fingers.

The two women were master and servant, yet they had grown up together, had been playmates as children. As they had grown older they shared their secrets, all in all they had been something of friends.

Violet’s feeling of friendship as well as loyalty to the princess whom Charlotte was, made her ever so concerned for her.
“Please tell me why you dream yourself to tears, tell me why you have vacant stares and murmur ‘Death’. Because if you do not tell me I am most certain that this will mean you death.” Charlotte did not wish to speak about what would happen… She was already damned, the nightmares and the lack of actual dreams was just something more added to the pain of loosing her innocence. Even if she wanted to share her fears and speak of her nightmares to the servant she couldn’t. She realized that she couldn’t’ tell the girl or anyone for that matter, of her fears and nightmares because she could not remember them.

She knew only of despair and a deep longing to fly away. She wanted to run to the ends of the world, yet she knew that no matter how far she ran the despair would still haunt her. It would hunt her until she died from exhaustion. She knew that she was strong. But just how much strength did she truly posses? She had fought before with her will and magic but now she doubted herself. She doubted her will power and she doubted her magic. The enemy was wining against her now. She doubted her magic, in doing so it weakened the magic.

The enemy must be trying to break my will. She thought. They wish me not to be able to use my abilities as what has happened to all my race. I will not let them have me! I will live on. My magic resides in my soul and has not weakened since the day I was born. It only has grown with me. It can never be diminished!

When this thought had crossed Charlotte’s mind her aura strengthened and her wings were visible for that split moment to the mundane eyes of Violet.
“My Princess, what are you?” The girl said with astonishment in her eyes and voice. “For surely you are not as we are.” Violet finished the thought.
Charlotte replied to her servant, “Ah, but you do not understand.” She said with her most regal voice. “ I am more like our race than any other living now. I am a Kacine to their truest as they have been generations before us. My bones and my blood have not forgotten what we are, as the minds of the elders have forgotten.”


Chapter One, The Loss

Chapter Three, Strength

Chapter four, In the arms of the dreamer

Chapter five, The day the whole world went away

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