Birth of The Phoenix

chapter 16?

The atmosphere outside the window was so eerie, and depressing that it gave of an unsettling feeling to the onlookers.

Every living thing that was able to walk, and crawl can feel the bone chilling feeling of the night, that could even freeze the hot temperature desert in a minute.

The night before, the whole kingdom was subjected to the wrath of the dear mother nature, and they were able to see the enraged side of the mother nature.

It’s like she was provoked, and was venting her displeasure over something. The whole night, there was heavy rainstorm, making the surroundings of the households to look more dark, dull, and lifeless, with the dramatic change in its climatic conditions. Very alike to the temper of a living person.

Its as if the mother nature was venting her anger upon them. The lightning, and thunder that accompanied the rainstorms, sent a shiver run through the spine of the people.

Since it rained heavily the night before, so even when the rain stopped, but in the c***k of the dawn, it didn’t bring any light rays to brighten up the day, as it usually does, as the sun refused to show its face, and denied to come out of the horizon, making the early morning totally dark, like it would look like at the dusk.

Instead, the cold weather because of the rainstorm, brought in the chilly winds as it’s lifelong companion, that could even freeze the bones, and make them weak and brittle, inside the room through the cracks on the doors, and the windows, making the already suppressing feeling of the atmosphere in the room to take a whole new levels of the peak.

The chilly winds from the result of the last night’s rainstorm, sent shiver down everyone’s body, making them shiver unknowingly, due to its cruel prickling on their sensitive skin. Those chilly winds are the type that could even freeze the bones inside a living person’s body.

With all these things altogether making one to feel as if they didn’t want to experience the surprise, and shock, and the new experiences that a new day would be offering them, there was another soul, a wounded poor, and lonely soul, weeping in the darkest pit of the abyss in the whole world, facing the deepest pit of the darkness in a lonely manner, without having anyone, or anything to turn up to. To support, or aid the lonely soul out of the deep darkest pit's cruel clutches.

Even when the ones who were already awake was not ready yet, and didn’t feel like facing the new day.

While the lonely soul struggled hard, fought relentlessly, and tried it’s very best to break free from the clutches of the dark demon, which was showing its nasty, and bloody sharp fangs, as if, it was ready to devour the lonely soul in whole.

But the already tortured soul didn't retreat, and tried to over come the fear creeping inside its injured heart, and with a strong will power to survive, and defeat the dark demon, tried it's very hard to open its eyes to face the world, even if it is cruel, and always played dirty tricks on it.

Even though the innocent lonely soul already knows that the real fight was not yet over, and it will begin the moment it opens its eyes, and embrace the light of the day, even if the said light was very vaguely present around it.

Unknowing about the struggles of the deserted innocent soul, the servants in the Hastings household Mansion seems to have going on about their daily routine lives, without any care in the whole world.

The only thing that made them to frown was the bone chilling feeling that they felt due to the current change in the climate.

It was rare to rain like this in the Valerian kingdom in this period of month. But to others surprising, and shocked eyes, it did rained and heavily too, like never before on the previous night.

Even though the rain storm had already stopped, the after effects of that didn’t go away the next day.

The outside world looked gloomy, and gave off an eerie feeling to crawl deep within one’s body, making them to fear that it was some sort of warning, that was given to them by the mother nature.

With all these happenings going on around, the inside of the Hastings household Mansion was no good either. Since it was so dark even after the dawn had already passed, the servants inside the mansion scurried away to lit many candles, and oil lamps to brighten up the rooms, and made a little bit of light for them to maneuver inside the rooms of the Mansion.

At this time, the figure that was huddled on the bed, present in the center of the room, began to stir, and was giving off signals to the others that it was time for her to wake up.

The fragile figure that was buried deep in the center of the big cozy looking bed, was covered from head to toe, and it made her look like a cocooned silk worm, wrapped in its own work. She really did look like a pupa, with blankets fully covering everything inch of her body, leaving only her small and round, pale looking face to be seen by the others.

All of a sudden as if she was struck by the powerful lightning bolt, like the lightning current was being passed across her whole body, she withered, and whimpered, for a few seconds, and rolled on the big bed as if something, or someone was strangling her to death.

Then to the surprised eyes of the servants, who were gathered around the foot of the bed, the fragile figure on the bed sat up straight in a jolt, making the surrounding onlookers to take a step back subconsciously, due to her abrupt change in action.

Then the fragile figure gasped loudly, and took deep breaths, for air looking very much alike to a fish that came out of the water, and quickly released herself from the layers, and layers of blankets that was put on top of her, which was practically weighing her down.

That fragile figure was none other than Avery Hastings, the first Miss of the Hastings household Mansion. She looked lost. She didn’t know what had happened and what was happening to her now. She was dazed at the moment she opened her eyes, and her pair of eyes that looked always pure and bright, which had shinning innocence, and warmth back then, now looked disoriented, and warily look around. Those shinning bright eyes lost its focus right now.

She looked around her surroundings to know what was happening, and where she was current now. She didn’t know what was happening to her, and she was still somewhat terrified of the unknown, and what had happened to her that night, and what might happen to her in the future.

These disturbing thoughts ran through her mind in an inhuman speed, and it also made her anxiety to grow and be restless.

Soon her line of messed up thoughts were interrupted by the voice, she heard beside her bedside.

Distracted by the somewhat familiar voice, Avery looked to the side to find out who was speaking to her.

“My Lady…my Lady. Thank the almighty God. You woke up soon. You scared the life out of me. Don’t scare me like that again, my Lady. What will I do without you??”, saying this her maid servant Zara cried loudly, while kneeling near the foot of the bed.

Soon her other maid servant, Sally came forward, and squeezed her eyes, and tears flowed out from her eyes the next second.

“Yes, my dear lady. Don’t scare us anymore like this. Everyone in the Hastings household Mansion was worried about you. Especially your mother, Madam Gwen. Madam Gwen was so worried about you, my lady. Due to worrying about you too much, Madam Gwen also fell sick lightly”, Sally said, and stood near the bed, near the edge of it.

‘That old scheming witch was worried about me…well Its new….what a fantastic move to trick others that she was such a loving mother', Avery thought silently, and looked at her maid servant.

The eyes that had looked like that it had lost its focus a few minutes ago, and her hazy messy mind, which was confused by various thoughts a minute ago, suddenly regain its full focus in full force, and her eyes looked alert with sharp vigilance.

The moment, her maid servant Sally mentioned the name Madam Gwen, her step mother, and the current Madam of the Hastings household Mansion, Avery regained her full vigilance, and her eyes narrowed sharply with an unknown expression crossing across her face, which Sally missed to notice, as she had her head bent down, looking at the floor of the room.

Avery then began to access her surroundings, and she wanted to find out what exactly had happened, and how in the freaking hell, she was sitting on a bed in her room in the old household aka the Hastings household Mansion, that too alive. It remained a great mystery to her, as to what else those scheming mother and daughter pair wanted from her. That they let her to be alive, instead of killing her.

While Avery was busy analyzing what to do next, her line of thoughts was again interrupted by Zara, her maid servant, whom had followed her since her childhood days. Zara was only a few months younger to her, and both were nearly of same age.

“My lady, do you feel any pain in your body?. Should I go, and get some medicine, and herbal tonics to lessen your pain??”, Zara asked, and looked at Her lady from head to toe, to see if Avery needed anything from her.

“No need, Zara. It doesn’t matter. I don’t feel any pain in my body, but I only have a throbbing pain in my head”, saying this, Avery held her head weakly as she really felt as if someone was braking a stone with a iron hammer inside her head.

Only when Avery touched her head, did she felt the wet cloth, that was tied around her head covering her small forehead.

She quickly removed the cloth to see that it was a bandage cloth, that was filled with green crushed herb paste in it.

Zara, who was standing in the side of the bed, filled in the details to her lady, when she saw the confused looking Avery with the herb dipped cloth in her hand.

“The medicine man came to look at the wounds on your body, my lady. He applied the medicinal paste, and said that it would reduce the swelling on your forehead, and relieve your pain”, Zara said, and took the medicinal herb filled cloth from her Lady, Avery’s hand, and went to throw it away.

Soon she came back with a wooden bowl filled with hot water with steams coming from it.

Soon Zara placed the wooden bowl near the foot of the bed, and asked Avery to wipe her face, and freshen up quickly to remove her fatigue.

“My lady. Wipe your face with this. Then I shall bring the medicinal herb soup for you to drink, so that you can feel better, and recover soon. The medicine man told us to feed you this medicinal herb tonic for your speedy recovery”, Zara continued her ranting, with her usual chirpy voice, with an underlying concern in her tone. She thought that if she talked, and behaved happily, then the sour mood of her lady too would become more lively, like it was in the past.

Avery cautiously looked around her, and quickly freshened up, and gulped down the herbal medicinal broth that Zara handed over to her.

After that she dismissed all the servants from her quarters, and laid back down on the bed, and closed her eyes. She needed a moment to catch onto the things that was happening right now.

The memories that had happened before, and the last moments of her, during her near death experience, flashed before her closed eyes, like a movie had been played.

Avery felt something was off about her, and also she felt weird, and a gut feeling of hers poked at her mind constantly.

A small voice in her head repeatedly warned her that something was fishy around here, and something was amiss with her.

Soon she realised that her body didn’t felt so much pain like she had felt, when she was facing her death.

The endless, and excruciating pain, flashed across her mind making a cold shiver to run down her spine.

She then sat up straight on the bed again, and looked at her body. Like before, she didn’t feel any pain in her stomach, and her hands, and legs were fine, like it was not broken by those cruel guards.

She looked keenly, and inspected her hands sharply. Her hands were free of any scars, and she didn’t have any marks on her body too. But she clearly remembered that she had scars from the torture that she had experienced under the hands of her step sister Cassy.

To confirm more, she quickly got up from the bed, and stood on the ground to feel her legs.

Like she had thought, it was not broken, and she didn’t even feel even an ounce of pain in her legs too. She could move freely without any pain.

All of a sudden she looked up, and happen to see the mirror in front of her. She happened to look at her reflection on the golden mirror.

The golden mirror she used to use in the past. the golden mirror had a nice round shape to it, with golden flowers, and vines decorated in the outer layer of the mirror.

~*~

happy reading ❤❤