Losing Shadows

Dead Memories

TW: strong language and abuse

Chapter Six

"Polaris!"

Her older sister called out from the window in the kitchen, looking upwards at the tall green leafed tree in the backyard of their cramped home

"Polaris! please go get Cali for dinner, it is almost done."

"Coming!" She called back before starting her descent from the top of the tree where she sat. Hitting the ground with a light thump she ran back into the house and up the questionable looking steps to her little sister's room.

As the door swung open at Polaris' talons, it revealed that it was empty, nothing left except Cali's messy bed and her beaten looking plush toy of a dragon.

"That's weird." She thought.

"She's not here Lani!" Polaris yelled back, descending the steps back down to the kitchen. In her opinion she had more things to worry about then finding her little sister, like being able to eat a whole other portion of the meal her sister was preparing from the scraps they had found earlier today. Besides, she had grown a bit tired of having to be constantly looking after Calidora, she was six, and when Polaris was six she was already helping their father at his job, but now she was eleven and had better things to do.

Polaris came to Lalani's side trying her hardest to see into the bubbling pot that was just a few inches out of her reach. But the smell, it was enchanting, She hadn't smelt food this good that she was actually going to eat and wasn't someone else's.

"Can I pleaaaase have a taste?" She asked, looking up at Lalani.

Stirring the pot with a wooden spoon she sighed before scooping up a small amount of the meat stew, holding it a few inches above her talons bending down to Polaris' level. Carefully, Lalani held the spoon in front of her sister's mouth as she sipped, her face lighting up as the taste of the brew hit her tongue.

"Mmmm, It tastes so good!" she exclaimed, smiling from ear to ear.

She set the spoon down. "Okay now please go find Calidora, we don't want her running into any trouble, because you know father would have our heads."

"Okay, but only because you let me have a bit of the stew." Polaris said stalking off with a slight smile on her face.

Slamming the front door as usual to keep it from swinging open on the hinges if you didn't do so, she went to all the usual spots where her sister often would hang around. Not finding her sister at any of these locations, she flew to the village square, not that far from the city of Ileyrith.

It was way busier than usual, just her luck. She crept around the back alleys searching through the piles of trash for any sign of her sister, like a salvaged bag of trash where she may have found something to eat. Turning around Polaris' noticed one ripped bag just below her foot that had a small rip at the top, revealing a sweet smelling half eaten piece of loaf.

"Has someone thrown this away half eaten? Or did Calidora eat it?" she wondered.

Either way she was going to eat before anything else could, as food was hard to come by in their family quite often.

But just as she hopped off the pile of bags with food in hand,  an older looking shopkeeper rounded the corner spotting her right in the act. His face was furious, lunging out to try and grab her by the neck.

"You little vermin! So it's you who has been ripping open my bags and making a huge mess!" he snarled.

She panicked, stuffing the bread into her mouth scrambling to get as far away as she could from his searching talons. Just before she was just out of his reach, he managed to tightly grab her tail as she cried out in pain.