The Curse of Calamities Descent

"There weren't always dragons in the valley?" Asked a bright, young voice, filled with wonder and curiosity.

"No, my little one.” The response came from a hushed feminine voice, gentle and melodious to anyone who heard it.

"Where did they come from?" The young girl asked her mother as her mother tucked the soft blankets that covered the girl's bed around her delicate body.

"It is said that they were once a mighty tribe of human warriors, and they would run rampant throughout the continent trampling everything and everyone in their path on their conquest for power." The mother spoke as she sat next to her daughter, her hand gently smoothing the girl's hair away from her face.

"They sound really scary." The girl whispered and pulled her blankets up higher to cover the lower half of her face as if to hide and protect herself from these vicious humans.

"Do not fear little one, they cannot hurt you now." The mother cooed and leaned down to place a feather light kiss on the little girl's forehead. "Your great grandfather, this kingdom's very first king as chosen by the people, rallied able bodied men from many lands across the continent and rose up against the threat of those monsters with an army powerful enough to stop them in their tracks."

The girl's eyes widened at this, she did not know much at all about the history of her kingdom yet as her lessons about it had only recently begun, but what her mother was telling her made her crave more information as it filled her head with endless questions that needed answers.

"What happened next?" She pressed her mother for more information, and her mother smiled at her eagerness to learn.

"A great battle ensued, many lives were lost, but in the end your great grandfather emerged victorious and as punishment he banished those men to the valley that we now call Calamities Descent, as all you will find there is darkness and destruction caused by these beasts. That is why we humans are forbidden to step foot into those forsaken lands." The woman's lips curled as she spoke of those foul creatures, but her expression softened once more when she saw the fear and confusion on her daughter's face.

"Those men being banished doesn't explain how the dragons came to be in…the valley." The girl couldn't bring herself to speak the name of the forbidden place, she felt as though saying the name would make her as much of a monster as those men from the story.

"You are right. I will explain." The mother rested her hand over her daughter's and gently stroked her thumb over the young girl's fingers. "When your grandfather banished these men he also had a curse placed upon them by a group of powerful sorcerers that traveled with the army, a curse that turned them into mindless beasts, and they would remain that way forever. The curse carries on through the generations, their children and their children’s children all suffer the curse of their ancestors and they all dwell in Calamites Descent, sealed within a magical barrier never to freely roam the world again.”

“That does not seem fair, mother.” The girl spoke and her mother gave her a surprised look as both of her eyebrows shot upwards. “Why must the younger ones suffer as their ancestors did? They have done nothing wrong.”

A small smile curved her mother’s lips as her mother carefully stood from the bed and smoothed out the blankets that her daughter was wrapped in. She stroked the girl’s cheek softly as she spoke, ‘That is an excellent question. I wish that I had an answer for you little one, but I do not. Perhaps someday you will find the answer to that question. Until then it is time to close your eyes and get some rest.” Her voice was only a whisper now as she strolled away from the bed and headed towards the door and opened it slowly.

“Mother?”

“What is it, little one?” She looked over her shoulder at her daughter, who had her eyes closed as she snuggled further into her blankets.

“I hope that the curse can be broken someday and everyone will have peace.” The girl mumbled sleepily.

“I hope so too.” Her mother replied, her voice strained though the girl did not seem to notice as she drifted off to sleep. “Goodnight my little Keelie.” With that Keelie’s mother left the room, the door softly clicking shut behind her, leaving the girl to dream of dancing dragons and fantastic adventures.

***

Keelie was awakened by golden light streaming through her window lighting up her face. She blinked her eyes open slowly, rubbing at them groggily as she pushed her blankets off of her and rolled out of bed, nearly stumbling as she stood up and went over to her window. Her eyes widened as the tight grip of fear began to consume her when she realized that it was not the sun that lit up her room. It was fire. Raging infernos consumed the kingdom that was spread out below the castle, fire and smoke rising towards the sky as massive shadow figures swooped down and released new torrents of their fiery breath upon the unprepared civilians.

“Keelie!” The girl whirled towards her door when she heard her mother's voice, the woman was rushing towards her. “Get away from the window!” She shrieked, clearly panicked about the situation as she grabbed Keelie by the arm and yanked her away from the window heading towards the door.

“I thought they were sealed behind a barrier?” Her voice trembled as she asked the question, her lower lip wobbling as she struggled to hold back tears of pure terror. All the while her mother tugged her along, her legs not wanting to move, but being forced to do so by the force of her mother’s grip.

“They were. They must have finally found a way to break through it, it was only a matter of time before it happened, but this…It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.” Her mother wasn’t making any sense. What did she mean it wasn’t supposed to happen this way?

“What do you mean?” Keelie asked, but she got no response from her mother who led her through the twisting hallways and down several sets of spiral staircases as servants and knights scurried past them through the castle. “Where is father?”

“He is gathering as many of his forces as he can within the castle to defend against the dragons.” Her mother replied hurriedly and quickened her pace down a dark set of stairs as something hit the castle, causing it to shake and somewhere far off there was a crashing noise that echoed off of the stone.

“Will he be able to hold them off?” She swallowed down her fear as much as possible, but when she received no reply from her mother again she couldn’t help the rising sense of dread that made her want to keel over and vomit last night’s supper onto the floor. “Where are we going?” She did not recognize this part of the castle they had found themselves in, but they continued going down down down into the darkest depths of the castle, her mother never hesitating despite hardly being able to see where they were going.

“You are going somewhere safe.” Her mother replied simply, but as Keelie went to speak again her mother glanced over her shoulder at Keelie and the look on her face instantly silenced the child.

The temperature grew colder as they traveled below the castle, her mother finally slowed their pace as the gentle sound of flowing water filled the air around them. Keelie still felt her mother’s hand holding onto her arm, though the grip was less fierce now, but she couldn’t see anything other than her mother’s outline. Whatever was happening in the kingdom sounded distant now as they continued down the tunnel until they came to an opening that revealed a dark world that was only gently lit by the light of the moon. It reflected off of the water and brightened up Keelie’s vision enough for her to see where they were going. At the end of the tunnel a small wooden boat was tied up, there was a crate within and a blanket was neatly folded on one of the seats.

“We are getting in that?” Her nose wrinkled at the thought of getting in that small boat. She never really enjoyed the water, and that boat barely looked big enough for the both of them to comfortably fit in for however long they were going to travel for, but her mother stopped next to the boat and Keelie nearly walked straight into her back. “Mother?”

“I am sorry Keelie. You will be making this journey alone. It will only take a day for the current of this river to take you to where you need to go. Someone will meet you there.” Her mother slowly turned towards her, tears staining her cheeks as Keelie’s face paled in horror.

“Wh-what are you saying? No! You cannot leave me!” Keelie wailed and threw her arms around her mother, her own tears finally starting to flow freely as she clung tightly to her mother and breathed in her comforting scent. “I don’t understand. What’s happening?” She whimpered as her hands closed into tights fists within her mother’s nightgown.

“There’s no time, little one. You must go.” Her mother peeled Keelie’s arms from around her waist and she knelt in front of her daughter, her thumbs brushing away the girl’s tears. “You can do this. You are a princess, you must hold your head high. We will meet again someday, I promise.” She kissed her daughter on the forehead and ushered her towards the boat.

“Why can’t you go with me?” The tears continued flowing despite her mother trying to brush them away. She tried to fight her mother as the woman nudged her towards the boat and lowered her into it despite her arms and legs flailing.

“Keelie…” Her mother whispered, her voice broken and it was enough to cause Keelie to cease her struggling as the two of them sobbed once Keelie was safely lowered into the boat. “I must stay. It is my duty, and they will look for me.”

“Who? Who will look for you?” She would not get the answers she wanted from her mother she knew, but she wished that her mother would tell her something instead of leaving her with all of these questions. Confusion and grief swirled around her mind, fogging any chance of her having rational thoughts.

“Answers will come with time, Keelie.” Her mother untied the boat as she spoke and shoved it away from the stone walkway as hard as she could to send it into the flow of the river and watched as it started to drift away. “You will be in good hands. He will teach you everything that you need to know. Find the truth Keelie, and then return home. I will be waiting.” She stood and watched the boat drift away.

Keelie nearly tipped the boat as she surged forwards, reaching out towards her mother with booths hands, crying out in misery as her body shook uncontrollably. “Mother!” She shrieked, but her mother did not move, she only watched as the boat was carried away with her daughter in it. Keelie did not know where she was going, who this man was that was supposed to find her. What if he didn’t find her? Would she just drift until she starved? She had no knowledge of how to survive out in the wilderness.

Her mother became a small figure in the distance as Keelie’s mind continued to cloud with confusion as to why her mother just left her like this, and what truth her mother wanted her to find.

“Why, mother? I do not know what to do…” She sniffled as she picked up the blanket and curled up on the floor of the boat. Her figure shivered, not because of the cold in the air around her, but because of the cold that now settled into her heart at the loss of her home and her family, her mother…

Her mother had promised that she would be waiting for Keelie upon her return, but how was she going to survive the onslaught of the kingdom? Would the people who were looking for her spare her? She had a great many questions and none of them had answers and she did not know when she would get the answers that she sought. She looked back towards the direction of her kingdom, but all she saw in the distance was dark smoke filling the night sky, blocking out the stars and covering the moon in an ugly haze. Keelie pulled the blanket high over her head and hid from the world around her, from the tragedy that had befallen her beloved kingdom and cried herself to sleep, part of her hoping that she would wake and this would all be a dream, but the greater part of her knowing that this was too painful to be a dream and that was the part of her that hoped she would not wake at all.

***

“Wake up, girl.” A gruff voice awoke Keelie, and a hard kick to the side of the boat caused her to jolt upright as a man hovered above her, the sun at his back making him look like nothing more than a tall silhouette of a person. “You slept through that whole journey down the river?”

She blinked at him in confusion and then looked around, taking in her surroundings though she didn’t see might beyond the shore next to her that the man stood on and the trees beyond it as well as the seemingly endless expanse of forest on the other side of the river that was far wider now than it had been when she floated away from the castle. She took a deep breath and put on a brave face despite the tears wanting to spill again as she remembered what happened to her home.

“Where am I?” She asked softly as she looked back towards the man who held a hand out to her.

“Somewhere safe.” He said bluntly and then reached down and grabbed her under the arm and hauled her out of the boat and onto the shore. “I am a friend of your mother.”

Keelie’s face lit up at this news and as he knelt to pull the crate out of the boat. “Is she alive?” She asked him, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention.

“Don’t know.” His demeanor was nonchalant and as quickly as her face had lit up, it fell again and she pulled her gaze off of him to stare at her feet. She would receive no comfort from this man, though perhaps she should not have expected to receive comfort from a stranger, even if he said he was her mother's friend. What type of friend did not care if someone they supposedly cared about was dead? He did not seem like the sort of friend her mother would keep.

He pried the crate open and smiled at the contents within. Pouches of gold pieces that were so full they overflowed and spilled out into the crate and bottles of the finest ale in the kingdom. A payment of sorts? Did her mother bribe him into agreeing to look out for me? How long had they planned this for and why? She frowned in distaste, wishing that she wasn’t left completely in the dark, wanting to know something, anything about what was going on.

“This will do nicely.” He mused as he stood and lifted the crate, turning to face Keelie, who now got a clear view of him.

A burly looking man with a dark beard that wasn’t long, but still appeared rather scruffy, it matched his dark hair that laid in messy curls atop his head, his eyes that now seemed to really look at Keelie for the first time were a rich chocolate brown and completely unreadable to Keelie.

“You are the spitting image of your mother.” He told her and it surprised her enough to wipe the frown off of her face.

She lifted her hand to her face, pressing her palm against her cheek as if touching her own face would allow her to feel like she was touching her mother’s fair skinned face again. She knew that her fiery red hair matched her mother’s, and they had the same pale blue eyes, but other than that she had not been aware that she looked much like her mother at all, but it was not something she had put much thought into. Her mother was beautiful, and she had always wanted to grow up to look like her mother, perhaps at least that dream would still come true.

“Come with me.” The man spoke again, pulling Keelie from her thoughts as he lumbered past her, she looked tiny compared to him as she followed him. It seemed she had inherited her mother’s dainty form, hopefully that wouldn’t become a hindrance if she needed to survive out here now.

She followed the man as he led her through the trees on a small trail that looked like it only existed because he walked it often and trampled on anything that attempted to grow and get in his way.

“Did you pull my boat to the shore?” She asked him, just trying to make conversation. He seemed content to walk in silence, but being in silence allowed her thoughts to roam and she wanted to avoid that if she could.

“Yes. The river is wide here, but shallow enough for me to stand even in the middle so I waded out and grabbed your boat as soon as I saw it.” He informed her, which was a more sophisticated response than she was expecting compared to the previous responses he had been giving her.

“Thank you.” She responded quietly as she stared at his back, watching him shrug off her gratitude as if it meant nothing to him. It probably did mean nothing to him. He didn’t seem like the type to care about any sort of emotion or emotional attachment. She would still thank him though and express kindness and gratitude, if only so she wouldn’t end up like him. “Who are you?” She asked and received a sigh in response.

“Do you always ask so many questions?” He grumbled.

Keelie felt white hot rage boiling up inside of me at that. He was acting like she had no right to be confused, no right to seek even the simplest of information. She stomped around him, pushing branches of all sorts out of the way as she did so, feeling some thorns scrape against her skin, but not caring at the moment as she stopped in front of him causing him to halt in his tracks so he wouldn’t run her over and flatten the girl.

“The last I saw of my kingdom it was burning. The last I saw of my mother she was standing on a stone walkway watching me float away before she would go back into the castle of that burning kingdom and face whatever awaited her. The last I heard of my mother he was rallying a force to defend against the dragons that attacked us. The last words that were spoken to me were a command to find the truth and return home and a promise that someone I love would be waiting there for me. Now, after going through all of that I think I deserve to at least know your name and you will tell it to me.” She glowered at him with gritted teeth and he raised an eyebrow at her as he watched her for a long moment…Before he broke out laughing hysterically which only caused her face to heat more.

“You are your mother’s daughter. She had that same temper and knack for getting herself into more trouble than she bargained for.” He was still laughing as he spoke, at least it was some type of emotion. She swatted his hand away as he extended it and gently ruffled her hair. “You should be more careful who you talk to that way, girl. Others might not take so kindly to a little girl with such a big attitude.” A fair warning, but she was too upset to heed it at that moment as she refused to move out of his way.

“My name is not ‘girl’. It’s Keelie. I would like for you to use my name from now on.” Even as he stared down at her, the amusement gone from his face she held cold steel in her voice, refusing to be intimidated even though her instincts were telling her to be afraid, to back down. She ignored them, she had spent enough time being afraid, now she was too frustrated to feel afraid, and this was no place for fear anyway so she would run on this anger that fueled her for as long as she could until she finally burnt herself out.

“As you wish.” He finally yielded and then reached out and turned her around by her shoulder, giving her a gentle push forwards to signal her to continue walking. “My name is Rhett, since you wish to know so badly.”

She smiled triumphantly over her shoulder at him and walked with more of a spring in her step now as they continued on their way through the forest, the canopy above protecting them from the sun that shone brightly in the sky. She allowed him to have the silence that he seemed comfortable with now that she had learned his name, she could pester him more later as it seemed they would be spending plenty of time together for the foreseeable future. She admired the lush flora that surrounded them, and all of the beautiful flowers beyond the path they were on that bloomed despite receiving minimal sunlight, species of plants that likely thrived in this environment. She did not know what they were called, but they were beautiful and she had never seen anything like them before, not even in the castle gardens, which were extremely well taken care of. She could hear the chirping of birds and scuttling of rodents along the forest floor, though she did not see any of the fauna around them it was very clear that the critters were there, watching them, aware of them.

The two of them continued on the trail until Keelie’s feet began to ache from all of the walking, everything looked the same. It was good that there was a trail otherwise she would have gotten lost. She wasn’t sure how he ever found his way anywhere if he even wandered off of the trail. They walked until a structure came into her view, wooden and relatively small in size. It was certainly no castle, but she had a sneaking suspicion that she would have to start calling this place home. It was better than sleeping outside, still she wasn’t impressed. As the trail expanded into a small opening that surrounded the…Quaint abode Rhett walked around her and brought the crate over to his home and set it down before slowly turning to her.

“This is my home Keelie and this is where you will be staying. As I am welcoming you into my home I expect you to respect my rules and help me keep this place running. Do you understand?” He looked at her expectantly.

“I understand, but I’m not sure how I would be of assistance.” She answered, feeling a little meek now as she realized she had no real survival skills since she had spent her life so far being pampered in a castle.

“I will teach you. You have many things to learn.” He approached her as he spoke and leaned over her, but she did not shrink away from him. “Everything that you think you know about the world is wrong. I will teach you the truth, but first you must learn how to survive.” He grinned at her and suddenly she was feeling meek in his presence and she did shrink back from him now. “Lesson number one starts now. Prepare yourself.”

Keelie swallowed hard to shove down her nerves and nodded at him. She wasn’t sure if she was ready for this, but it didn’t seem like she had much of a choice. She would need to learn and she would likely need to learn quickly as she doubted she would receive any sort of mercy from Rhett. Despite feeling like she was going to be sick she straightened her posture and met his stare, hardening her own and clenching her fists at her side. You can do this. You can do this. You can do this. She told herself over and over again. Find the truth Keelie, and then return home. She replayed her mother’s words in her head, setting her sights on her goal to do what she needed to do and then returned home to save her mother who promised they would meet again. The nerves slowly dissipated as she clung to this thought, as she formed this dream in her head, a dream that she would make reality. She would face every challenge thrown at her and overcome it, no matter what it took. She decided this now, and she would not back down.

“I’m ready.”