Daughter of two worlds-the beginning

The silver grass sparkling in the double sun’s light might seem mesmerizing, but you must never touch it if you enjoy the delicate skin on your hand. Deadly, like most things in Reath, it only grows here, in a perfect circle in the middle of the yellow forest. The grass is so harsh that nothing else dares grow around it, or through it, but this place is where they’ve chosen to build their stone cottage. Years of cuts on their feet have scared the skin, barefoot they walk with ease through the razor-sharp silver grass.

They hide here, together, among the dangerous grassland in the heart of the yellow forest. Their modest world was once full of unique creatures that lived in harmony with each other. Out of respect for community, there was never bloodshed or callous disregard to others’ life force. But when he crossed from his world to theirs, the ripple effect changed everything. The balanced scales tipped and, like a plague, bitterness and ignorance turned to hatred---coating the land, poisoning the minds of the weak, and turning their own against them.  

Conquering and war mixed with murder and mayhem caused their once peaceful land to fall into slaughter-filled wasteland. The Reathers have used their intelligence and might to overtake the other beasts of the land and claim ownership. Now they are coming for him, the scientist that started the rift. But they can’t be allowed to capture him, for if they do, they will force him to open the door to his world so they can wage a war that would destroy them all. 

Roisolee knew she must give up her life partner in order to not only save his world from the Reather, but to save them all from their egos and false pride. She rushed from the meeting, which had called for her and Anthony’s head, running barefoot through the woods without a notice to the sharp prickers or the poisonous spinal dragons. Breaking into the clearing, her purple feet flitting easily over the silver grass, slightly out of breath, she made it to the edge of the emerald river. 

Her eldest offspring was splashing in the hot water with her two best friends, Jexton and Lordon. “Cadence, out of the water. Now!” She reached in and yanked out the startled child. 

“Mama, what’s wrong?” Cadence whimpered as her wet arm stung under her mother’s grasp. 

“Wait, Aunt Roisolee, we just started playing.” Lordon pouted as Roisolee dragged poor Cadence away. 

Jexton set his hand on Lordon’s arm. “Something is wrong,” he murmured. Almost three years older than both Lordon and

Cadence, Jexton considered himself almost a full-grown male. He knew things that the kids didn’t. “Let’s go home, Lord. We need to be away from here.” 

“But Cady…” Lordon whined as Jexton shoved him towards the opposite banks. 

“We will see her tomorrow,” Jexton grumbled, sending one last glance to where his aunt pulled Cady into their cottage. 

Cadence rubbed her arm where her mother had left fingerprint marks, her heart racing as her parent’s spoke to each other in low tones, arguing. Her mother handed her baby sister, Boheme, to their father and crouched down in front of Cadence. 

“You listen to me, sweetling. You, your sister, and Daddy are going to go on an adventure.” Roisolee held in all her emotions as she stared into her daughter’s mixed, human and Reather, eyes. This had to be done in order to save their children and Earth from the threat of Reath. 

“What about you, Mama?” Cadence cried. 

Roisolee brushed the tears from her pale cheeks. “I can’t go with you.” She held her purple hand next to her daughter’s light one. “I would stand out on Earth. But you and Boheme… look enough like humans to pass. And you must be strong.” She gave her daughter a strained smile. “Help care for Daddy and Boheme for me, alright?” 

Cadence nodded when her daddy took her hand. 

The four of them made their way into the woods. Anthony set down his machine and pushed buttons with unsteady hands as Roisolee patted her newborn daughter’s back and watched the edge of the woods for the enemy. Cadence quietly sobbed as the tension in the air added stress to her already confused mind and heart. She wanted her friends. Her home. And her mama. Now she was being taken to an unknown land with only her daddy to protect her. She held her dolly closer to her chest as angry shouts bellowed through the air and her daddy brought up a huge, scary swirling hole. 

Anthony got the portal to Earth going and took his newborn daughter from his partner. He pulled Cady next to him. He touched Roisolee’s purple skin, that seemed to shimmer in the portal’s reflection, and said, “I’ll come back for you. We will figure this out. I love you, Rois.”

Roisolee kissed him gently before briefly resting her forehead against his. “Take care of our girls, Anthony.” She placed a chaste kiss on Boheme’s fuzzy head and grabbed Cadence in a hug. As the angry voices got closer, she shoved her offspring and love towards the hole. “Go. Go now!” 

Anthony stepped into the swirling black void with two screaming children and tears in his eyes. 

“My dolly! Mama!” Cady cried as the portal drowned out the sounds with its loud teeth rattling, bone crunching pressure. 

They watched as a spear flew through the air and embedded itself into the back of Roisolee. Anthony shouted her name as black blood trickled out of her mouth and her knees buckled. She blew him a kiss, reached behind to yank the spear out, and then stabbed the bloody spear into the machine, sending sparks flying everywhere.

The portal closed and Anthony, Cadence, and Boheme were thrown through space and time. They landed with a crash on the shores of a lake in the middle of a bitter snowstorm. Only wearing their tropical attire, all were freezing and shivering as Anthony tried to make sense of not only where he was but how he was supposed to raise two half-alien girls by himself on a planet he hadn’t been a part of for almost twelve years.

Cadence continued to scream for her mother and he knew, right or wrong, there was only one way to make it so she could transition into a normal life here on Earth. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a needle he’d filled with the serum. He’d been working on it for years but he hadn’t even been able to test it on animals let alone humans or Reathers, but his daughter would have to be the experiment. She was too old to forget by herself that she was from an alien planet. He’d be doing her a huge favor by removing this burden. 

“Come here, Cady.” He tucked Boheme into his sleeveless button up and pulled Cadence close. “Daddy has something to give you. It’s going to make you feel so much better. Okay, baby?”

She nodded with tears icing her cheeks. 

“Then we are going to get more clothes and get warm. It’s going to be okay. You trust Daddy?”

She nodded again, but whimpered when he pulled out the needle. 

“Shhh, Cady. It’s going to be fine. This is going to help you calm down.” And not remember Reath or her mother, he thought as he injected his little girl with the serum. She cried out once before simply falling asleep. He plucked her off the ground and, with each of his girls in his arms, Anthony set out to start a new life for them.

One without their mother, homeland, or knowledge of anything other than humans.

It was for the best, after all.

Daughter of Two Worlds coming December 2022