Emerald Eyes

by TheApostate

The Lost

The child exited her hiding spot. Slowly, carefully she walked to the center of the street. Here, the Changelings had retreated in a desperate debacle following Chrysalis’s-

‘Failure,’ the young girl whispered to no ears but her own. She was used to one hearing her, she thought. It did not bother her, she thought.

The reflection momentarily lingered in her mind. She pushed back the memory of the event down her being, digging it deep within the recesses of her mind. She started to sing, pushing all doubts and fears from her mind. She pushed everything back and focused on her objective, on the singularity she ordered her mind to sail forth toward. To not deviated from the goal and ignore everything that could distract her. She fell back on her teachings, on what her mother had taught her. The girl permitted herself one last thing before singularity: she missed her. For all the harshness, she missed her.

She looked around, scanning the strewed debris left in the wake of the retreat.

Her head ached. A thought rushed up.

Would she still be proud of me?

The girl locked her mind to the task. She made herself forget.

The girl searched.

She did not find it.

Then, hours later, glistening in the afternoon Sun, she saw pale green reflections of precious stone.

The girl rushed to its emplacement at the street’s edge.

There was a string peppered with green flakes, barely enough for a single gem.

The young girl felt dizzy, her mind perturbed greatly. Head bowed, a stunned expression stoically congealing her face, her eyes darkening at the loss of the most precious object she ever owned; the girl remained like this for what felt to her like hours.

‘You are here,’ a Griffon said, putting a claw on the girl’s right shoulder. The girl kept staring at the ground. The Griff did not add anything related to the chattered gems.

The Griff shook the girl a little; perhaps she would react to her presence.

‘Come one, Chry,’ she whispered. ‘Time to go. We are waiting for you.’

‘Failure…’ she whizzed.

The Griffon felt like she had heard the faintest hints of grief in the girl’s voice. She lowered her head, putting herself at the same height. In the dim light of her lantern, she perceived dried streams running down the little girl’s cheeks. The Griffon wanted to speak and reassure her, but she knew it was useless to reason.

‘Let us leave, my Queen.’

Again, the girl did not do a thing.

‘I… I’ll get you a new one…’

The Griff heard a snort, full of grief and sadness.

‘You will like it. I promise.’ She caressed the girl’s arms simultaneously.

‘I lost-’ her voice narrowed sobbing. Something stuck in her throat. ‘I failed completely.’

The Griff did not say a thing for a long minute.

‘We really need to go. We can try again. You need sleep, now.’

The little girl tucked in herself further, nearly completely choking the air between her body and limbs.

The Griff reached her claws to lift the girl but stopped in half-movement. Instead, she played with the girl’s mane, knotting it into a style she might like. But the girl's eyes did not deviate from the broken necklace.

‘Time to go,’ she said in the girl’s ears. The Griff lifted the child. But as she felt her legs leaving the ground, her arms made a silent demand.

“Let me have it.”

The Griff let the girl take the remains of the only gift she had ever truly received. The only thing that ever let her sleep. The girl gritted her teeth and winced her eyes so no weakness could be apparent, but her lower jaw betrayed her internal torment.

With the dirt cradled in her arms, she let the Griffon lift her once more.

Looking around, Coccinelle flew, staying close to the ground.

‘Where is Alkenex, Cici?’ the girl asked.

The Griff kept looking ahead, dodging obstacle after obstacle to their escape.

They reached the plain that led to Everfree Forest, but still, the Griff did not answer. However, she afforded herself a quick glance.

Chrysalis was sleeping, tightly gripping the neck plumes of Coccinelle.

But Coccinelle could reciprocate nothing.