Immortal Read Free

of the forest, but something was missing in her heart. That something was her mother and her father.
    Staysia could hear her mother’s voice in her head; she could see her mother’s face. A blue blanket spread across the green grass. Staysia could see herself as a child. Her mother lay beside her. They looked into the sky and watched the clouds take shape of the creatures around them and that of creatures unknown; the ones that they had imagined together. She could hear her mother’s laughter. In her mind, she could see them laughing together. She remembered running into her father’s arms when he would return home from town. She recalled the way he smelled and the warmth of his embrace.
    She recalled the memories they had together as she grew older. Her mother spoke to her about love and womanhood. Her father on the other hand, was very protective of her. Watching her grow into such a beautiful woman made him a bit nervous. Of course, no man is ever good enough for a girl’s father.
    Her parents were the type who would take her out on fishing trips in the middle of the night. Not just when she was a girl, it didn’t matter how old she was; she would never be too old for a fishing trip or a picnic in the forest with her parents and neither were they. They were young and strong at heart.
    Their voices, their laughter; everything came to her mind. She remembered her father’s large, warm hands. She remembered her mother’s long red hair. If only she could have them back, if only they wouldn’t have been killed for no good reason at all.
    The night of the attack had been dark and stormy. Rain poured down hard on the town of Caydence. The bolts of lightning added to the horrific sight of the people who fought for their lives that night. Staysia remembered the four flashes that haunted her memory.
    The lightening had struck when a man held her mother’s throat. Another flash when her father dashed toward the man to save his wife. As Staysia prepared her sword and rushed through the dark to besiege the attacker the lightning flashed through the sky, letting her know it was too late. When the lightning flashed the fourth time, Staysia was looking down at her mother and father as they lay lifeless on the ground.  
    The men; not fit to be called warriors, had entrenched their way into Caydence, beleaguering the innocent people and victimizing them on the basis of a false accusation of petty thievery. More than fifty people were slain that night.
    Staysia had found the man’s tooth lying beside her mother. Her father must have struck him in the darkness and Staysia knew it had to be a sign for her to avenge the killer.
      Her parents were the only two people she had left in her life, now she had no one; no one except for her unicorn named Isis. She spoke to the unicorn often and always knew she was listening, though she couldn’t talk back to Staysia. She was a great listener and her best friend.
    The people of Caydence had turned on their very neighbors since the attack. They were trying to get some kind of revenge themselves. They blamed one another for stealing from the people of Gnome Hills instead of getting vengeance for the murders that took place that night. Maybe they were afraid, maybe they had all gone mad.
    Maybe Staysia had gone mad too, she wasn’t a killer. She wasn’t a warrior or a swordsperson. She was a girl who had lost everything she had.
    Staysia cleared her throat and tried to clear her mind. She didn’t want to think of her parents’ voices, their warmth, their life or their death.
    She filled her lungs with fresh air and ran her fingers through Isis’s mane. Isis neighed and stood on her hind legs, kicking her hooves in the air. “Easy now, Isis! What is it girl?” Staysia asked her. Isis turned and swung her head around in the direction of the Troll Bridge. “Oh no ya don’t! We are going this way.” Staysia gently turned Isis’s head in the opposite direction.
    Isis put her head down