A single feather

Darya: The savior

By now the cold had seeped into her skin, infecting every inch of her body. She welcomed it. It helped numb the throbbing pain from all the kicks and blows she had been victim to just hours earlier.

Darya wondered if her parents were worried about her. If Nerida was waiting up for her to return home. Had they sent out a search party? Did they think she had run away? A million thoughts rushed through Darya's mind. It hurt to think. Her mind felt fuzzy yet sleep would not allow her the honour of momentarily forgetting her pain. Instead, she remained awake, wincing as each shiver moved her beaten body. 

"Darya."

Her name. However, the voice wasn't the voice of one of the guards. It was a female's voice, gentle yet commanding.

"It's time to get up."

Darya struggled to open her eyes and for a moment everything was a blur of black and white, mixed with an eerie gold that made Darya wonder if she was perhaps dying. Then her vision cleared. 

In front of her was a lady who could only be described as beautiful. She wore a pure, white fur coat, that covered the length of her, tall, slim body. Even her skin was the colour of snow and her eyes a grey so very light, that they themselves almost appeared white. The only break in the otherwise white was her long golden hair, which hung on her shoulders forming an imaginary halo. Darya's first thought was that this lady was an angel, coming to take her away from the physical world, away from the pain.

"Oh dear, look what they have done to you. Thugs, they are. All of them." Her voice was almost hypnotic.

She bent down beside Darya and ran a hand along her cheek. Her touch was gentle and surprisingly warm. When she removed her hand it was coated in a thick red substance that Darya came to recognise as her blood.

"Can you get up sweetheart? I know it's painful but we need to leave." She asked, light eyes staring down at Darya.

Darya tried to open her mouth to reply but found that her voice refused to speak any intelligable words. A mere gurgling sound escaped from her mouth and she realised that her mouth was still filled with a mixture of blood and spit. She gazed down at the snow, watching as her escaped blood stained it with a deep scarlet. It reminded her of a red rose, liquified and broken.

The lady shushed Darya. "No need to reply darling. Just stand up, I will help support you."

Darya slowly stood up, wincing as a sharp pain ran down her body, each muscle tightening, recently scabbed wounds breaking open and broken ribs puncturing her skin. She felt the lady's soft hands supporting her weight from under her.

"Don't worry, the carriage is nearby. It is a short walk and then you can rest."

Suddenly Darya's mind began to work, a machine woken up by the sudden movement. "Who are you and where are you taking me?" She asked, spitting out the blood filling hr mouth.

The lady smiled mysteriously. "Who I am is a story far too long to tell at a moment such as this. However, I am not here to hurt you but to rescue you. Where I am taking you, is somewhere safe. Somewhere you can recover and learn the truth about yourself and your situation. "

"I want to go home." Darya found herself saying. She had spent her entire life wishing to leave her home, to live an exciting life, yet now all she wanted was to return to the safety of her run-down home and complicated family.

"I'm sorry Darya, it's not safe there." The lady told her, beckoning for Darya to start walking. "The faeries know where you live and will come searching for you there. Home is no longer an option."

Darya wondered whether she should follow the lady. Whether the lady really was her savior, or whether she needed Darya for a far more nefarious purpose. Finally, Darya decided to go with her. She couldn't be worse than the guards. Besides, Darya doubted that the lady would have risked her own life to save Darya, only to kill her. At this point, the lady seemed like the only opportunity to escape, and there was only one lady compared to several guards.  She seemed like the better alternative, and in emergencies, you always choose what appears to be a better alternative. And so, Darya started walking.

Each step felt like torture. As though Darya's legs were breaking apart and reforming with each bend of the knee. As though her muscles were snapping and her lungs wilting. Yet she continued. She needed to escape. 

Darya suddenly realised that no guards had tried to stop them. That despite her slow, noisy movements, not a single guard had heard them or run after them. Taking a deep breath in preparation for the pain, Darya turned her head, towards where the guards had been stationed. The guards were all there, some asleep, some awake and standing guard. Some were even staring right at her. Yet none of them moved. Not so much as the blink of an eye or the small movements of the chest that come with breathing. They appeared to be frozen in place.

"The guards..." Darya started.

The lady grinned. "Don't worry they will be fine. I momentarily froze them in place so that we could escape."

"Are they conscious?" Darya asked, staring at the faeries in a mixture of fear and awe.

"Yes." The lady replied. "They can see and hear everything. Their senses are working even if their muscles are not. I want them to know I came. That I saved you, Darya."

A realisation suddenly dawned on Darya. A realisation she probably would have realised much sooner, had her mind been less blurry. 

Darya turned her gaze towards the lady's almost translucent eyes "How do you know my name?" 

The lady grinned devilishly. "Oh Darya, I know more than just your name. I know everything about you. My darling, I have been watching you for quite some time."