Hybird

✦ Prolouge ✦

EDITED

Romania. 

The screams could be heard all throughout the castle, but the maids knew to steer clear of the locked tower. Only a small handful of people truly know what really goes on behind the closed doors, but they don't dare to question it. After hundreds of years, everyone has learned that they are better off keeping their noses out of their King's business...

In the tower, a young woman, no older than twenty, lays on a ratty mattress. A single nurse is there to tend to her needs; the nurse, a vampire over three hundred years old, is one of the few people who the king trusts enough to take care of his secret business. She is currently helping the young woman give birth. The woman, whom was once one of the most beautiful creatures throughout the land, has been locked up in that tower for the last six months. Her once tan skin has paled considerably, her vibrant blue eyes, darkened and lost the bright spark that they once held. Her luscious brown locks are now clumped, knotted and thinning as the days go by. Other than her nurse, the woman has only received one other guest, and it was never the person she wished for the most.

"Breath, Arianna, breath!" The nurse chastises.

After hours upon hours of labor, the baby is finally beginning to breach. The nurse is all but ready to call it a day, seeing as how the sun is shinning brightly up in the sky, letting everyone in the kingdom know that it is far past their usual bedtime, though with the screams no one can truly catch any shut eye.

"Push!"

After a quiet grunt, one last scream slices through the air, before the only sound that can be heard is heavy breathing, which slowly becomes more and more shallow as the seconds tick on.

"A girl," the nurse exclaims, giving Arianna a tired smile as she cleans off the baby. She promptly gives the child a sharp slap on the rear, forcing the her to pull in her first breath.

"Let me hold her." A weak voice begs from the bed.

The nurse looks up at her patient for the last several months with a sad expression before looking down to eye the child in her hands. She had strict instructions. "...Arianna."

"Please." She begs, "I don't have much time left. I just want to hold her in my arms, this one time."

The nurse looks around the room cautiously before handing the naked baby off to her mother. She watches as the sickly woman holds onto her child as if she was her lifeline, her saving grace. And, for the first time since they met, the nurse saw true happiness in Arianna's eyes. The smile on her face warmed up the nurses' heart.

"What's her name?" the nurse questions in nothing louder than a whisper.

With a soft smile, she whispers her last word - her daughter's name:

"Athena."

On the other side of the castle the King stands tall in his study. He closes his eyes and releases the dart from his fingers. The dart soars across the room and lands against the map, on the wall, with a soft thud. His eyes shoot open to see where his dart lands.

"Futu-i!" he curses in his mother tongue.

Slowly, without moving his eyes from the map, he picks up another dart. To a normal eye, his hand barely moves as he throws the dart with precision. With an angry grunt, he watches as the dart strays from the direction he threw it and lands directly next to the last thirteen darts he has thrown in the last two hours. With an angry growl, coming from deep within his chest, the King flips his desk - fed up with the hand that the goddess his family has worshipped for years dealt him.