A Shattered Confession

     A pair of leathery wings flapped mightily, shielding Sylvana from the nearly blinding sunbeams as she reached down to pick a berry. She stepped to her left and scanned the bushes, only to reach within the foliage and grab another, this one a Loveberry. She stared at the pulsating berry in her hand before dropping it in the basket beside her, where Voidberries, Fishberries, and more Loveberries lay. Her rough blue-grey fur concealed quite the muscular body despite Sylvana’s somewhat lean frame. The farmer had gone to find a lost Turtum in the fields, and while he insisted that she rest, Sylvana chose to continue picking berries. Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead, which she was quick to wipe them off her brow.

     “Hey! There she is!” A shrill voice behind her make Sylvana’s ears perk up. The sound of children, a sound she was too familiar with in this land. But frankly, it was not a sound she enjoyed hearing.

     “It’s the darigan! Get her!” More shrill voices cried out behind her, but Sylvana was quick to ignore it. She had to finish her work, and finish it she would. Her clothes were simple, being a loose-fitting woven shirt resembling more of a potato sack than anything, made worse by her wings ripping through the back. Her pants were of a darker color, but both her feet and the ends were covered in mud and bits of leaves. On a male neopet, her clothes would have been much too short, but on Sylvana, they nearly threatened to cover her clawed hands and feet.

     Without slowing down, the kyrii stepped over another bush, eyeing a particularly large bush. There had to be something good in it given the size. She bent down and reached inside, but before her hand could feel anything worthwhile, Sylvana felt something pelt the back of her head.

     When she turned around, a trio of young children guffawed and jumped about wildly. Sylvana’s eyes went to her feet, and a squashed tomato lay close by. A low growl tore in her throat as she locked eyes with the children, who all stuck their tongues out quite mockingly.

     “We got her!” One of the children, a yellow Buzz reached for something at his feet, only to toss it up and down in his palm. “Don’t let up! We have to beat this monster!” He then raised his arm in a throw, and Sylvana felt something moist hit in the cheek, a Rotten Berry.

     Quickly joining in, the Buzz’s friends started to reach at their feet for anything they could to throw at the darigan kyrii, who raised a wing to shield herself. One friend threw a half-eaten berry, the Buzz continued to throw Rotten Berries, but the third of the trio had the audacity to throw a Pile of Dung straight at Sylvana, which pelted the top of her head and slid down, creating an unsightly streak of green in her grey-blue fur.

     Growling, Sylvana felt her claws clench. She didn’t want it to come to this, but she had quite enough of these brats. Slowly, she stood up, her fingers clenched as she flapped her wings, creating a wave of wind that blew past the bushes, past the fields, and reaching the children, who immediately stopped throwing, their haughty arrogance quickly being replaced with a newfound uneasiness. Sylvana turned and faced the children, and the growl she had been restraining couldn’t be contained any longer.

     So she opened her mouth, and a guttural roar screamed across the fields.

     It was a roar of pure and utter power, a warning to the children to never annoy her again. And clearly it worked, as fear quickly overtook the trio before they turned and ran away, shrill screams filling the now silent air.

     Watching the children run away made Sylvana sigh breathlessly. While they were the ones who annoyed her first, their fear in their eyes and their screams were a constant reminder of what she was, and would always be - a darigan. Years ago, Kass had tried to make Meridell bow to him and his near-unstoppable power. When Meridell refused to kneel, he used force to try and make them. And Sylvana was once a part of that force to make Meridell bend to Kass’ will.

     That was the past. Now, Sylvana heaved another sigh as she knelt down again, one clawed hand reaching for the basket and the other reaching for any potential berries.

     “Quite the monstrous roar,” a gruff voice commented behind her.

     Sylvana instantly paused, her basket dropping to the ground. That voice did not belong to the farmer, but a stranger, a potentially hostile one at that. She bit her lip, one hand slowly reaching for under her shirt, where a knife was hidden. But the possibility of others entered her mind, and her hand withdrew itself from her shirt. If that was the case, a simple knife wouldn’t be enough to take them all on, and Sylvana certainly couldn’t fight them off with just her bare hands.

     “Why use such brute monstrosity against children?”

     A figure emerged from beyond the fence, behind a rather large oak tree. A pirate Eyrie stepped forward and stared at her, clad in green and brown armour. Dark bangs hung in front of a pair of piercing golden eyes, A sheathed blade hung at his hip, something Sylvana immediately took notice of out of the corner of her eye. He was a knight, a warrior.

     Both of which were a threat to her.

     She did not answer, not because she wasn’t able to, but more so because she felt no obligation to. This was a stranger she was staring at, and he had no right to judge her for her roar. Scoffing, she turned around and focused back on her job, one hand once again holding her basket.

     “You don’t seem like you’re from around her,” the eyrie said, folding his arms. The gruff tone indicated he was a seasoned wanderer and possibly an even more seasoned fighter. Still, Sylvana refused to speak in the one-sided conversation.

     “There are rumors swirling around. Rumors that Skarl and his subordinates found new evidence of Sir Aldrid’s death.”

     Sylvana ignored him as she rooted through another bush, though in her mind, she knew who he was talking about. Sir Aldrid was once a seasoned warrior and a personal friend to King Skarl, but fell in the final throes of the Meridell-Darigan War.

     “But you must be a stranger to Meri Acres, are you not? Perhaps you have no idea who Sir Aldrid is or what I’m even talking about.” The eyrie’s voice slowly grew harsher.

     Finally, Sylvana turned around and locked eyes with the eyrie, his eyes threatening to stab her if she stared too long. She could see harshness, but at the same time, she saw what looked like...inquisitiveness?

     But a new sound make her ears perk, far past both her and the eyrie. Noticing Sylvana’s ears, the eyrie smirked almost wryly. “They’re here.”

     Sylvana looked past the eyrie, and a group of knights trekked down the path, all riding on armoured unis. A flag bearing the Meridellian shield flapped with a slight breeze as the group entered the small berry field.

     “Here you are,” the leader spoke, a brown tonu. On his back, a wrapped bundle hung from his shoulder, concealing any idea of what its contents could be. “We finally found you, beast.” His voice was unforgiving, enough to send chills down Sylvana’s spine.

     “But sir...she can’t possibly be alone,” another knight remarked, a green gelert. “There’s no way she’d risk being caught alone, right?”

     A sharp breeze made Sylvana’s wings shake slightly. When she turned to where the eyrie had been standing, he was no more, with her crimson eyes widening in slight disbelief.

     The tonu turned towards his fellow knights. “Must be one of her victims, looking for revenge.”

     The knights then each reached for their weapons and pointed them at her in a circle. Some wielded sharp blades, others wielded long lances, but regardless, all of them posed an immediate threat. Not just them, their unis had their eyes locked on Sylvana, and even if they possessed no weapons, they were just as much of a threat as their riders.

     She instantly glanced down to her hip. Though she still had her knife, it was a death wish to fight all of them head-on, especially given their own weapons and their armoured mounts. Even if she drew her knife, two of the knights carried bows. She would be taken down before she even thought of charging them.

     Before long, her entire body felt tight. Her years of training screamed at her to draw her weapon and fight. Even if she was just a farmer in these acres, deep down, Sylvana was still a warrior, and surrender was unthinkable to her. Against her urges, her fingers reached for her shirt, closer and closer to the handle with each second.

     “Stop!” A yell shocked Sylvana back to reality as it echoed across the field. The knights looked up, and the farmer, a yellow ogrin, hobbled across the bushes to meet with the calamity. Not far behind him, a red blumaroo followed, the farmer’s wife.

     The tonu glared at the couple as they came closer. “I warned you to stay out of this.” But the ogrin shook his head.

     “She has done nothing wrong, knights. Don’t you recall, that I was the one who brought it to you?” He pointed towards the bundle hanging from the tonu’s back. “I will be the one to answer, not her.”

     The tonu merely glared at the ogrin. “You already know what she is. She is a darigan. She has committed many crimes in this land, and no matter your objections, she will answer to them.” The tonu paused to scoff, now staring at the Sylvana. “If not for my orders, I would have cut you down where you stand now, darigan.”

     He then turned his attention back to the ogrin. “But if you have the chance, you can speak your part at the hearing. But it will do her no good, might I warn you.”

     Throughout the conversation, Sylvana was silent, but on the inside, her torment was coming back to haunt her. She felt her entire body grow heavy, as if she was going to sink in the surrounding fields and dirt. She struggled to try and find a way to end it, but nothing prevailed.

     She closed her eyes briefly, and Sylvana found herself in a different time, a time she wanted so desperately to forget. She saw desecrated fields, burning forests, fortresses and soldiers alike, and how desperately she wanted to escape, break away from it all. Acting solely on a new feeling of panic, she opened her eyes before any more past horrors could eat her alive. Instead, a pair of shackles entered her sight, as the tonu approached her with them in hand.

     “You can never outrun your past, darigan,” the tonu spoke with a growing sense of arrogance and pride. Sylvana briefly spared a glance at the full basket and the old couple. Their faces were a cauldron of worry and pain, and just looking at them, she winced. She had already brought about so much pain on them, she couldn’t bear bring them any more.

     But when she stared at the tonu, her eyes were cold, just like the cold metal cuffs that snapped over her extended wrists.

     “Sylvana,” the farmer’s wife called out, causing Sylvana to turn around. Despite the sorrow in her voice, there was the faintest bit of hope, hope that stuck with Sylvana as she was led further and further away from the couple. “We will tell you who you really are.”

     Before the couple disappeared completely from sight, that hope whispered one last thing to Sylvana.

     “You are our daughter. You always will be.”

To be continued…