A Cursed Land - Shall We Date Wizardess' Fic

Prologue

Dense clouds quickly gathered over a small, familiar village on the outskirts of Gedonelune's kingdom, exactly an hour away from the royal palace. The sky darkened to a grey color and the air got both warmer and humid. A strong gusty wind blew across the tall trees in the valley and a violent wave of rain has befallen the land, taking ridiculous amounts of dirt and parts of the living beings of the local flora along with them. With the earth's movement, the animal's cries came from every direction, and they grew desperate and agonizing by the minute.

Viola observed the thunderstorm through the window of her bedroom. From time to time, a white curtain of light would light up the skies and a loud roar would shortly follow, making the earth shudder under her little feet. The sound was quite unsettling and frightening for a 9-year-old girl. It was unpredictable as it was loud, and for a curious, powerful, inquisitive mind, it can surely feel as though the sky is breaking. And like any other day, she ran down the hall to her parent's room to find some solace in the arms of her mother. But, to her surprise, she found it empty.

Confused, our little Viola decided to go downstairs and so, she made her way to the main and only staircase and hesitantly took each step on full alert. She needed to be cautious since it wasn't normal for her parents not to be in their room at that time of the night. Upon reaching the end of the long staircase, the child peeked her head in the main hall and looked for any signs of her parents.

There she saw her father frantically running around the house, gathering several vials and bowls from his working stall in the parlor and throwing them inside a small bag while constantly looking to his right and speaking in whispered tones almost as if there was someone else in the room with him, but Viola saw no one else but him. What was going on? Why was Father being so secretive? And where was Mother?

Just then, another familiar voice echoed, overcoming her father's voice."I'm done packing. Here, let me help you, dear." And her mother had finally come into view. She had joined her father, bringing with her two leather suitcases and a few pieces of clothing like a winter jacket, a bonnet and a scarf.

"Thank you, but I'm almost done." He glanced up to his side and his troubled gaze halted on her for a moment. His gaze loitered over her face, feeling the weight of the elephant in the room on his shoulders, and rushed her action."We must go quickly. If we linger, they might just catch us."

The child observed them intently and then she made a note to herself: her mother was frowning when she entered the room, so she must have been annoyed or frustrated about something, and her father seemed to be more low-spirited than ever.

Viola had never seen either of her parents like that. Mother usually was a calm and diplomatic woman, a person does not show or feel any worry, anger, or excitement while father had more of a bubbly personality, always so cheerful and optimistic, nothing seemed to get to him and it lacked the times that he would get angry at her or anyone else.

Her 9-year-old mind couldn't start to fathom what had happened to have her parents act so differently, but she quickly caught up with the fact that something was indeed up. They kept whispering among each other and her ears were slowly catching up on some bits of their dialogue.

"Then, we'll get things done faster if we'd do it together." The woman said in almost a scolding tone and placed the cases beside the counter and the rest on top, before going to help her husband pack whatever was left that he needed."How much of these vials do you really need?" And she heaved a sigh of frustration at her luck and continued to pack frantically.