Summary: The child that was born was identified as one of the cursed children who were left motherless. Legend stated that cursed children came from the realm of the Xa and only caused misbalance to this kingdom. Santana is one of these cursed children and needs to take a child back to the realm of the Xa (is explained in the story). Quinn (not yet in the first chapter), and others, will help her get to eagle eye bay, past the Shoaclan Mists (forrest) and over the wall to the realm of the Xa.
So it's kind of a romantic adventure story. What Quinn is will be explained in the next chapter.
_
"Come on lass one more push!"
With her last push she drew her last breath. Her head fell back down on the pillow, tears of sweat colouring her blonde hair darker than it was. A baby's cry echoed through the room as Emma held the newborn in her hands. She frowned, looking confused at the sandy-coloured skin. Nevertheless she smiled looking at Tamsin, not yet realizing the girl's skin had turned cold while she was pushing the child to air.
"Tamsin? It's a- Tamsin?" She cried. She quickly gave the child to one of the bystanders, after she realized her daughter's labor bed was colored in more blood than was natural. She took hold of her wrist and blinked hard looking for a heartbeat, but there was none. The melancholy on her face when she closed her eyes, while shaking her head to the side, as if she tried to wake up from a dream, was agonizing for the family friend that was helping out that day. Emma swallowed deep, her gaze frozen on Tamsin's sallowed frail face.
"She's gone." She spoke with a confused, cracking voice.
The child that was born was identified as one of the cursed children who were left motherless. They could be recognized by the tattoos that painted their lower backs. The villagers knew of a curse cast by 4 ancient wives, witches they called them, that cursed women who had been unfaithful to their mate and slept with another woman - a woman of the Xa. The children that were born into these families were no blessing as they did not even belong to the women that carried them. The children belonged to the Xa.
"I don't want this child. This is not Tamsin's child and you know it!" Emma yelled at the next towns meeting at the family that possessed another cursed child - an eighteen year old girl named Santana. Legend stated that cursed children came from the realm of the Xa and only caused misbalance to this kingdom. Every breath a Xa child drew in this world, caused another being of this world to draw their last, usually the mothers that carried these children.
"This all your fault! Why? She was to be married, why did you have to do this to her!? She could've been happy and now she's dead!" Emma jumped at a confused looking Santana. Santana's grandmother leapt in front of her grandchild, even though she didn't really want to defend her at that particular moment, feeling disappointed and ashamed.
"The child will stay in care of the elderly couple." One of the younger council men said after he called order, nodding at one of the women sitting at a table almost hidden in the back of the room. "Once we've figured out what to do with it, we will act. For now the child stays here."
Alma dragged her granddaughter to their house. She grabbed the girl by the sleeve of her shirt and swung her inside, then she closed the door behind them and locked it.
"Did you sleep with that girl?"
"Abuela -"
"Don't lie to me Sant'ana!" She only called her like that when she was truly angry. Santana looked down rubbing her lips together before she looked back up.
"I'm sorry." She whispered seeing her abuela clenching her teeth. The old woman took a step forward and then slapped her cheek viciously.
"Oh Sant'ana" She was yammering looking at the ceiling of their house. "Why did I agree to keep you?"
"Please mamy!" Ana yelpt.
"I can't. I didn't agree when you didn't turn her over to the council then and I don't agree now."
"Please, look at her, she's not a threat!" she tried to say with all her strength. You could see the pain in her eyes and her sentences started ending in pants instead of syllables. Alma looked at the small creature jerking its feet up, while laying in the crib. She closed her eyes and nodded.
"Alright. I'll do it for you hija, because I love you."
"Abuela I don't understand- I-" She looked the old woman right in the eye, searching for a conclusion after the events that took place prior to this conversation.
"You know the laws! You are not to sleep with another woman, especially one of another race!" She screamed, her voice sounding worn out and about to crack. Santana knew of the laws that held a grip on the village she grew up in. It didn't make sense, most people did break the laws. The baker had married a woman from the wall, a woman with black hair and eyes that barely had any color. They just glowed. They had the color of an icicle, if that made any sense. You could practically use them eyes as a looking glass. Even though that was the only example she could think of, it was enough to prove that there was a double standard. People of the village didn't pay too much attention to the details of the ancient laws - that was when it didn't concern her.
"She was meant to be with someone else. Jared was your friend!"
"She did love me. I thought - I thought she ended it. And even if she didn't- what does it matter now?"
"What does it matter?! Oh Sant'ana." She sighed sitting down, putting her head in the palms of her hands. Her hands looked aged, the veins popped out, the skin was sagging and the wrinkles cut them as if a small creature had whipped her hands. Santana crutched down and took hold of one of her grandmother's hands.
"I'm sorry. You think I wanted her to die? If I could make it un-happen, I would. I just - I don't understand why Emma is blaming me for her death." She said with a high pitched voice as her grandmother raised her head.
She sighed looking at the creature her child gave birth to. Somehow she couldn't bring herself to believe that a murderer sat behind those dark eyes, which were looking at her in anguish. She never told her granddaughter what she was- not really- and now she was paying the price. She thought filling her mind with the laws of the village from an early age and on would help. It's not that she didn't want to tell Santana - well maybe she didn't want to tell her that she was considered a cursed child - but the primary reason was because she didn't know the fine points herself. When she asked the elderly woman for advice after her daughter had passed, the woman told her it wasn't time yet. She couldn't make out what that meant, until today.
"Sant'ana, your mother begged me to keep you. She was dying, so I agreed." She stated as Santana listened carefully to the tale she had heard many times and thought she knew. Nevertheless her brows grew into a triangle in the middle of her forehead. Her mother asked her grandmother to take care of her on her deathbed - that's what her grandmother told her- but she never heard the story like this. She felt uncomfortable and queasy, and so she felt like she should, by looking at the seriousness in Alma's eyes.
"I never agreed to keep you in the first place, but I did and I grew to love you." Santana's brows only grew deeper. "You're what we call a cursed child. Your mother was foolish enough to sleep with another woman, when she was still married. She had you and when we saw the devilish painted black lines on your back, we knew- we all knew."
"Knew what? I mean obviously I know the superstition about our family but-"
"It's not a superstition. You think your mother and now this girl died of superstition?" She said angrily as she scolded at her. She regained her breath and closed her eyes.
"I should take you to the elderly woman, she'll explain this. I never fully understood- I- we moved here from the southern countries. I didn't know of the dangers that roamed this part of the realm. I couldn't protect her." Her frail voice hung in the air, refusing to evaporate and stuck to the ground like thick mist.
With a muffled thud, the molded wooden door closed behind them. The elderly woman beckoned the two inside, then stirred a bit in the stew that was boiling above the humble fire and kicked a small stool in their direction for Alma to sit on.
"Alma." The silver haired wife said keeping her gaze focused on the foam at the surface of the brew that was creeping up on the sides of the kettle.
"It's time." Alma said matter-of-factly. Santana swallowed deep, she felt nervous regarding the interaction between Alma and the old wife. Even though they weren't watching one another, it felt as if they were. The phrase 'Eyes on the back of my head' got a whole new meaning as she watched them. The elderly woman, Kaël they called her, had irises coloured with a light grey pigment. Santana could almost see them turn lighter while a small smirk tainted her shriveled lips.
"Is it now?" She answered her gaze still not meeting Alma's.
"Please."
The small smirk that had crept upon her lips before, now disappeared hesitantly. She looked at Santana -no she looked through Santana- or so it felt when her eyes met the eighteen year-old's. She felt she was one of her grandmother's foulards that you could look right through. Santana wanted to peek behind her, thinking there was something else grasping the attention of the doyenne, but she didn't. Instead she cleared her voice and asked "Can you tell me who I am?"
The lady chuckled, only her chuckle turned into a nasty cough and she took out a handkerchief out of her pocket pressing it to her mouth. Alma gestured to help her but the silvered hair one held up her hand and took a deep breath before she looked at Santana once more and answered "My dear no one can tell you who you are. Not even those old goats at the council." She said bitterly waving her hand agitated in the air.
"Right well, my history then. Where did I come from- if I'm a cursed child, then -" Santana started ranting nervously but her grandmother put her hand on her elbow and tried to calm her down. Santana halted at the frail touch. She took a deep breath and looked at the old wife, who was now looking straight at her - not through her - at her. She also noticed her eyes had grown darker and small dark dots could be found at the center.
"History ay. Yes, it might be time after all." She stated looking at Alma now. Alma smiled gratefully, clutching her hands together in her lap. Santana breathed out, bracing herself for the revelation. She eyed the woman, focusing on the grey straw like strands of hair. She was taken back to a memory when she was a child, where she and her friends would see who could stand the longest on one leg. The trick was to focus on a single thing, to let your mind go numb and that way you wouldn't fall. She tried to apply the same strategy now, focusing on those dry hair strands, that would help her not to fall, emotionally that was.
"Child do you believe you are cursed?" Kaël asked Santana almost breaking the spell. Santana didn't let her gaze leave the hair strand though. She scowled a bit at the thought of her belonging to such creatures.
"I don't know. I don't feel cursed."
"I have lived a long time, what our village calls curses others call blessings, it depends which tribe, which realm, and even which family you belong to."
"So I'm not cursed?" Kaël ignored Santana's question.
"Years ago, when we still had good connections with the Xa -that was before things like this started to happen- we had chaos. Every time a child was born chaos crept into the crops, making them rot before they bloomed, chasing away animals, and keeping the sun longer and dryer." She ranted on swaying her hand from one side to the other, sounding bitter as she took another deep breath after another cough interrupted her. "When one brings a life into this world, a life that does not belong here according to the simple laws of nature, something is taken by nature. You can have your laws and values and your norms, but eventually it all comes down to how nature decides on your fate." Kaël said quite swiftly, which made Santana feel a bit frustrated. This was her history, her heritage after all. It all felt too nonchalant. "Long ago 4 of my ancestors casted a curse. Malika, one of my great great great aunts had a husband. Her husband had been with one of the women of the Xa and they had a child. She was very angry." She said chuckling a bit. "So they casted a curse that every woman or man that consummated a child with a woman of the Xa would die, while being unfaithful to their spouse that is. So that nonsense that the curse only stands when it's between two women is utter bollocks." Santana had to laugh a bit but her grandmother's face told her to stop quickly.
"I thought it was all about balance?" Alma spoke up sounding confused.
"Ah but it is. A few years back a child was born without any unfaithfulness in the equation, and we had a very hard winter, everything died, it was just chaos. My apprentice took the child to the realm of the Xa and the balance was restored. The Xa agreed to take these children in."
Santana was numb. This all seemed surreal, like it was a tale they told the children of the village to keep them honest, to teach them good values. This didn't sound like her history, her heritage. She laughed a bit at the audacity of the story, the ridiculousness of it.
"What should we do with the child?" Alma asked after a moment of silence. Kaël looked at her suprised it seemed.
"Well Alma I suggest your granddaughter takes her child home, since I've heard Tamsin's family doesn't want it." Santana's eyes almost popped out of her skull.
"Are you insane? That's not my child!"
"Calm down, surely you were listening to me while I was telling-"
"No! Stop. She's not my child. She's Tamsin's and Jared's child. The only thing that happened is that I cursed her by sleeping with her mother, but that is not my child."
"Sant'ana!" Her grandmother said sternly, shooting daggers.
"No, I'm not going to listen to an old wench's fairy tales while she brewing greasepaint for dinner! You're both insane! I'm not taking that child home!"
When Santana finished her little tantrum her grandmother looked speechless and ashamed. The old lady on the other hand didn't seem bothered by Santana's outburst at all. She just leaned back getting herself comfortable and said "Well if you don't want the child lass, you'll have to take it to the realm of the Xa."
"The realm of the Xa-" Santana laughed incredulously. "I - by the Gods, both of your heads have been touched by insanity, every single hair on your head is gleaming with madness!" and with that Santana left the moldy house on the hill and bolted off of it, trying not to trip over her own feet while doing so.
Okay so I know it's farfetched, if you're confused or you have any questions please tell me lol. This is leap for me, it's the first time I do a fantasy story, like actually write it down, I have alot of drafts for other stories, but this is the first time I actually write one down. Someone asked me to do a story for Siophie where one of them gets knocked up, but I can't just do a story like that, cuz it goes against biology and lol I just can't, so I invented this, where you still need a man but you end up with a baby of two women. So thanks to DestinyFaithHope, I'm sorry I'm not really doing what you wanted but you did inspire me to do this (I'm kind of excited about this story).