“Hyah! Take that you vile fiend! Taste my fury!”
“My, you have certainly grown much stronger since our last encounter! Alas, you will not win this time.”
“I always win!”
“Never again, for I shall--”
“Belladonna! What in the heavens’ name are you doing out here?”
And suddenly, the imaginary scenario disappeared. It was no longer a brave Tabaxi fighter facing off against her nemesis, mighty swords being brandished by both of them - it was just a young Tabaxi girl holding a stick, facing a tree with a low-hanging branch.
“I was just playing.”
The person who had shouted was her mother, a stern-looking Tabaxi woman with similar fur colours to Belladonna. She looked at her daughter angrily, her arms crossed over her chest.
“You have set time for playing, now you are meant to be in your classroom!”
“That’s not even real playing! I never get to do what I want!”
“Oh please, you sound so selfish. You are going to be a noblewoman, Belladonna, you have responsibilities that are more important than what you want. Inside, now!”
Belladonna growled at her mother before going inside like she was told to. She always felt so angry and restricted. She was never allowed to do normal kid things. She wasn’t read normal child-friendly books as a baby, she was read French poetry and Greek philosophy. Ever since she could stand on two feet by herself she was taught ballet and ballroom dancing.
Every day of her life was read, dance, schooling, learning to eat dinner correctly, the correct way to pour and drink tea, how to stand with impeccable posture at all times, how to walk while making as little sound as possible, when to keep her mouth shut, when it’s appropriate to speak up, the correct way to style her hair, the correct thing to wear for which occasion.
She hated it. Every single second of it all made her furious. Whenever she was able to, she would run out into the large garden of her estate and play, managing to escape for short bursts of time and pretend life was better than it was. She would pretend to be a pirate queen, sailing the seas, battling monsters of the deep, pillaging from other pirates, and fighting off the navy. Or another day she would be an explorer, searching for ancient temples filled with cursed treasures and enemies brought back from the dead. Or another day she would be a dashing heroine for the common folk, travelling the world, evading the law, and defeating big bad enemies that threaten the lands.
But every time, she would get caught. And brought back to her real life, being forced to be a boring noblewoman. Always needing to be completely perfect with no room for error or mistakes. This continued long into her late teenage and young adult years. She would play less, but she would sneak out of the house sometimes, or find storybooks of perilous adventures or diaries of expeditions around the known world.
One day I'll run away from all of this. And this time they won't catch me! I'll go wherever I want to, drink like crazy, fight like an animal. One day.
Little did she know, that day would come sooner than she thought.
It was her eighteenth birthday. As always, it was celebrated in her home, the guest list consisting of poncy, arrogant, rich folk. Belladonna managed to keep it together enough around them, but deep down she wanted nothing more than to scratch them all across the face so deep that is scarred. Some of the noble families were Tabaxi like her and her mother, but most of the others were either human or elves. It didn't matter to Belladonna, though, they were all just the same to her; annoying.
