Daughter of the Nibrue House

Chapter 1-the letTer

Naomi ran the brush through her long brown hair again. She didn't want to go downstairs today. After they had received a letter from her grandfather last night, her parents had sent her to bed before the sun had set. Only five-year-olds go to bed at that time.

Naomi imagined something horrible, like a flood or a raid had happened and her beloved grandparents were swept up in it. But her imagination got her into trouble a lot. 

Naomi looked once more in the mirror, same brown hair, freckly face with gray eyes like stone. Then she turned to the door and pushed it open. The old two-story house she had lived in her whole life was strangely empty. Naomi couldn't put her finger on it. Then she saw that the painting her parents got as a wedding present was taken down. The beautiful unicorn under a full moon.

"Mom, Dad?" She called. "Where are you?" 

Voices came from downstairs. Voices she didn't recognize. Naomi crept downstairs. Strangers were in her house and they were packing up her family's things!

At first, Naomi thought her house was being raided by barbarians, then she saw her mother standing calm in the kitchen and even telling the strangers where to put things. Naomi ran to her. "Mom, what's going on? Who are all these people? Where are they taking our things?"

Lily looked down at her daughter. "Naomi, my sweet, your father has something to tell you. He's out front with the moving wagons."

"Wait, we're moving?" Naomi asked. "Why?"

Lily gave her a gentle push in the direction of the front door. "Talk to your father." She said.  Naomi went outside, trying not to think about what could make her family pack up and move so suddenly.

David stood on the back of one of three moving wagons. "Naomi." He said. He held out his hand to her. "Come here. There's something you need to see."

Naomi hiked up her skirt and climbed up on the wagon. David pointed out to the distance. "See that?" he asked. "The tall building in the distance."

Naomi looked, not where her father was pointing, for that was the Nibrue palace and could not have anything to do with her, and instead looked at the city on top of the next hill. It was where her best friend Marta lived. "Are we moving there?" Naomi asked.

"Yes, we're moving there." David said. He went on talking, but Naomi didn't hear him. All she was thinking about was how she would move away from her next-door neighbor Sage. Naomi was pretty sure she's part dragon and was never very nice. All she heard of what her dad was telling her was the word Lord.

"Wait, Lord who?" Naomi asked.

"Didn't you listen to me?" David asked her. Naomi felt her cheeks go red. He sighed. "I'll repeat it. Your mother and I have been keeping a secret from you. Your last name."

Naomi froze. Only members of the seven magic Houses had last names. "I have a last name?" she asked, wondering if she had heard it wrong.

But David nodded. "You were born Naomi Nibrue, a daughter of the Nibrue House. I was the second-born son of the Nibrue House." he said. "My brother, your uncle, has brought shame upon our family. Your grandparents, who are the reining Lord and Lady, have disinherited him, making me their heir, Naomi." David said, pointing once more out at the Nibrue palace. "We're moving to the palace and one day all of this" he moved his hand across the land around them "and more will be mine. Then yours."

"All of this will be mine." Naomi breathed. "All mine." She didn't think that even her imagination could come up with this.

Naomi turned back to the house, full of people packing up their things. "We're leaving today?" She asked.