Cambion Love

    Though the sun shone bright, occasionally hidden behind fluffy white clouds, she could only see darkness. A darkness that could be described as the abyss of her empty stomach. A darkness that tortured her heart relentlessly with despair. That darkness that skillfully eluded the sun wasn’t of her making. It was just her fate to live in it.     She laid on the small hill next to the swampy ocean, hoping the warmth of the sun would pierce her cold heart and alleviate the pain of the past ten years. With her hand held high she tried to grasp at it.     “This is my life.” She whispered to herself as her stomach growled for the millionth time. A sound only challenged by the sound of large mosquitos and bees. The dugery was filled with them. It was a place almost akin to an island but it was connected to land by way of a narrow passage and there was a part that connected more so, at the south but it was covered by water ninety percent of the time. This was the dugery. An uninhabitable place inhabited by an exile and a lost child.     Their forsaken home was in Wilshana near the border of Basilia. Alone. They were thirty miles from the town her mom was exiled from and eight hours from food and help. The last time they were there, she heard a man telling the tale of the siren called Aria.      Alefa stood at the store front at the gentle age of ten while her mother talked to the keeper regarding changing her monthly ration allowance. She had taken in a lost child and needed more food.     The men said that after her first husband died twenty-four hours after they were married, within six months her parents had another suitor lined up. Aria had no problem finding men. She was exotically beautiful. She had long white hair and light blue eyes. She was the first and probably the last albino woman born in Wilshana.       Soon the second husband died in the same manner as the first. An investigator was call in to check every aspect of his death and there was nothing unusual. Then they decided to check her. The forensic team found that Aria’s blood had a lethal poison flowing within it. A foreign substance that she could have only been born with. She was poisoning the men, unintentionally, during intercourse. The poison was expelled from the body in death.     The story was so farfetched that many men thought the investigator just wanted her himself. Aria pleaded with her family. She was okay with being unwed. Her pleads fell on deaf ears because the person who asked for her hand in marriage next was a wealthy duke. He was willing to pay her dowry upfront to her parents.     Aria avoided his touch for months until he snuck into her bed one night. His death sparked outrage among his people. Instead of killing her, they exiled her to the dugery to live out the rest of her days in ‘no man’s land’.     Alefa swatted a mosquito from her purview and rolled her eyes at the beautiful day. She sat up and looked out over the swamp. She was happy that her mom saved her when she was five but this dugery was her hell. Besides her adoptive mother being an exile, she herself was physically different from anyone she had seen in Wilshana. Her mother told her she had roots in a different continent. She was born in a faraway land that she couldn’t possibly tell her how to reach.     Her dark brown skin was never a problem though, except that she stuck out like a sore thumb. Those who had negative words to say were usually talking about her weight. She shook her head at how f****d up her life was. Since the town only gave them enough food for one person, they spent many days on almost empty bellies.     But she continued to gain weight. Her tommy pooched over her waistline. Her thighs were plump down to her ankles. Her every movement yielded a confounded jiggle. Everything about her was contradicting. She was starving and overweight. She was overweight yet she could run for miles without breaking a sweat. She was even so strong that she punched a tree too hard once and knocked it over. There were so many questions she had and no real answers.     Alefa sighed deeply. Today was the day they walked to town to pick up their rations for the month. She dusted herself off and headed back to their one-room shack. Her mother walked out wearing her best dress as usual. Even though she was exiled, she still felt the need to keep up appearances. Alefa looked at her mother in her lovely dress and smiled. She looked like a sick angel.      Before she found Alefa she had been in the dugery for almost eight years. Alone with her books and journals that she had covered in plastic. She never feared the rising swamp waters or the creatures because she was always ready to die. But after seven years she was sure she was meant to suffer for eternity. Aria smiled back at Alefa.     “You ready Leaf?” she asked while handing Alefa the grocery sack.     “Yea. Let’s go.” Grabbing the bag out of her hand and flinging it over her back, she felt today was a turning point. She didn’t know why, but the depression she normally felt, felt deeper, almost crippling.  It would be afternoon by the time they arrived in town. The one walkway from the dugery to the mainland was three feet wide and partial covered by water at the edges. They made sure to walk down the middle of the walkway, at all times. A step of more than two feet in either direction would leave the walker to swim with the giants or become their food. The biggest issue was if the walker fell in, it was hard getting out. The walker’s body would become covered in slippery swamp slime. The walkway was basically a tall wall in the middle of the swamp ocean. Her mother walked dutifully in front of her. The walk always made her sad that her mother used to do it alone. After walking for thirty minutes, they were surrounded by open water. The slightest change in the weather and they were dead or struggling to survive. The people of the town had sent her to her death, but she refused to die.     They walked in complete silence, listening for unusually movements in the water. Listening for the mildest tremble of thunder or speck of rain. In the silence, lingered the fear that their presence would call forth the spikey four-legged water demons. She wasn’t worried though. This was their one hundred and twenty-something trip on the path. They never stopped for breaks. Her legs should have been sculpted like a seasoned Olympiad. Yet they gently rubbed together when she walked.     Once they arrived her mother’s legs shook from being overworked. They rested out of sight in a wooded area. Alefa massaged her legs with warm oil so that they could finish their errand. She stared into her mother’s eyes as they seemed to be wanning under the sun’s light.     “Mother, are you okay?” Alefa asked. In that moment, she just wanted the truth.     “I am just getting old that’s all.” Her voice trembled as she spoke. Aria took several sips of rice water then worked to get back on her feet. Once they arrived at the storefront the same patrons sat talking and drinking out front. Alefa took her place in the corner out of the public eye and waited, like she always did.     “I still can’t believe that witch took in a fat rogue child.” One of the men said to the others.     “Right! How weird is that situation?!” The shorter of the men said causing the men to break out in laughter.  [What is a rogue?] It wasn’t the first time she had heard the term, but she couldn’t decide if they were referring to her or not. The men continued talking down about her and her mother. Alefa’s blood started to boil. She felt like turning over their table and beating each of them to death. Before she could act, her mother exited the store.     While Alefa took the grocery bag from her mother’s arms, she could see the life leaving her mother’s eyes. She fell forward in what felt like slow motion. Her long hair swayed in the wind behind her limp body. She could hear one of the men say, “took long enough.” As her mother laid unconscious. She picked her mother’s body up in her arms and carried her like the princess she was.