CURSE OF VENOM
Curse of Venom is my first try at a fantasy novel. It is my current project and the one I'm most proud of. Because of that, I'm only posting the first two chapters since I hope to publish it in the future.
I struggled forward in the intense desert storm. Making the mistake of opening my eyes during a strong gust of wind and sand, they became irritated. They felt like cacti needles were scratching against them. I continued to stumble forward as I overcame the discomfort. Taking no more from the relentless assault, I readjusted the hood of my cloak and pulled the scarf tied around my neck over my nose and mouth.
The sandstorms were a common occurrence in the Tempestas Terra desert. Even though it was horrible weather today, I still had to go outside to get water. My family couldn't wait until the wind weakened since the storms could last for days.
I looked harder for well as I noticed the clouded light of the sun diminishing further. I held my hand over my eyes and squinted to look for the well. The waves of sand were so thick, I couldn’t see much, but after sometime searching I found it covered half in sand. After pushing forward to the well, I held onto it to ensure I wouldn't be pushed back. I pulled off the heavy wooden cover protecting the well from disease, sand, and the occasional animal desperate for water. I grabbed the bucket and dumped the sand out of it, the sand inside spraying me. I sighed in annoyance as I placed the bucket back into the well and grabbed the wound-up rope at the top of the well. I unraveled the rope until I heard a silent splash. Feeling the bucket get heavier, I brought the bucket up as I grabbed a water pouch from my robe's pocket. Once the bucket was out of the well I poured the water into the pouch and began my treacherous walk home.
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My house was a simple mud style home with thick planks of wood covering the windows to block the sand from coming inside. I pulled the door open enough for me to slip past and limit the amount of sand from getting in.
"Hello?" I called into the house as I pushed away my hood, unveiling my wavy brown hair. My sister, a little girl with black hair ran up to me. I kneeled down so we were the same height and hugged her. I let go and she smiled. "How are you, Charlotte?"
"Good," she responded as she squeezed her stuffed sand cat, a modest toy made with fox fur and stuffed with dried beans from the farm.
"That's good. Do you know where Mom and Dad are?" I asked. She responded by pointing to the kitchen. I walked over in the direction of where her little finger pointed and pushed opened the door.
"We can't just star—" my dad argued but stopped once he saw me.
As their harsh gaze followed me, I rushed to place the water on the table and walk out of the room.
I twisted the doorknob my dad began, “Ashlin, wait, you should be included.”
I closed my eyes, my heart sinking. I was so close to leaving, my thoughts complained as I turned to face them.
"Tomorrow, I need you and a group of others to get at least ten gallons of water from the well. The underground farms are dying out because water is becoming harder to get. If we receive enough, the farms might stay alive."
"And if the farms die?" I asked.
"We can’t think about that now," my mother retorted.
"Don't you think that we should plan for the worst?" I questioned, annoyed she wasn't thinking about our future, about Charlotte's. "What are we going to do if we run out of food?”
"We are not discussing this now," she looked at me with a stern and rigid expression.
I lowered my head in defeat and walked out of the room. As I opened the door I almost hit Charlotte but stopped myself before I could. “You shouldn't be over here." I grabbed her hand, pulling her towards our room.
"Why are the farms running out of food?" She looked up at me, tears threatening to roll off her round cheeks.
"Oh, Char, you shouldn't have been listening." I picked her up and held her in my arm, against my side. "The wind storms, you know, they're only getting worse and attacking more often." Charlotte nodded her head. "Well, because of that, people are having a harder time getting water and of course you know that plants need water to grow." We got to her room and I placed her on her bed.
"You just got the water today," she said, sniffling.
"Yeah, but it's still dangerous. Every time I go outside when it's like that, I am scared for my life."
"Oh," she responded in a small voice.
"You need to go to bed, now.” I paused as I pulled a blanket over her. "But, since I don't want you having nightmares would you like me to tell you a story?"
"Yes, please!" She smiled as she squeezed her toy tighter in anticipation.
"Ok," I laughed, "I'll make sure it's a good one." I began, "Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a castle. She was kind and loved all. One day, she would become queen and trained every day to try to become the Queen everyone would love because of her kind heart and just hand. However, one day reality came and showed her peace comes at a price. Hers. She realized she couldn't have everything she desired and if she didn't fight for her crown she would be killed. She realized that she had to let go of her dreams." Charlotte was sound asleep by the time I finished. Moisture ran down my cheek, a tear. I held up my hand to wipe it away, wondering why it was there to begin with.
Exhausted, from arguing and work today, I got up and stumbled to my bed.
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
“Boom!” Something from outside banged against the wood covered window, startling me from my sleep. I sighed, knowing it was a too late for me to fall back asleep.
In the black darkness of the house, I rolled over to the edge of my bed. Grabbing the candle by my bedside and striking the striker, I watched as light flooded into the room. I struggled to get up from bed since I was still half asleep. Once I was up, I threw on a dark red robe similar to the tan robe from last night. The floor beneath me creaked as I attempted to sneak out of the room, past Charlotte and past my parents’ room.
"Hey, what are you doing up," I turned around startled but saw it was my mom. I smiled at her appearance, noticing her straight hair somehow managed to become a tangled mess.
"I was startled by a rock or something hitting the window," I said.
"I'm sorry sweetie," she comforted.
"It's fine," my lips tightened into a forced smile.
"Would you like to help me make breakfast?" She asked.
"Um, sure." We walked to the kitchen together being careful not to wake anyone. The kitchen was small with a simple wooden preparation table in the center and a basin on the wall for washing food and dishes. On the same wall, we had a stone stove and a single cabinet for storage. "What would you like me to help prepare?"
"Well, since the bread is already made, can you make some butter?"
"Ugh, do I have to, that takes forever?" I groaned.
"You offered your time," Mom reasoned.
"Fine, I'll be back in a few minutes," I said as I rolled my eyes.
I put my hood over my head and my scarf over my mouth. Walking over to the door, I opened it to the harsh weather and sighed in protest one last time.
As usual, the wind and sand pelted my face as I made my way to the other building in which we held our cow and its food. I opened the large door, the cow welcoming me as I entered with a snort. "Hey, Rose," I called to her. Her name was ironic considering she smelled like anything but a rose.
She walked towards me, begging for food. In re- sponse, I climbed up the rafters of the barn where the hay was stored. Once I got there, I was surprised to see one small hay bale left, even though the next harvest wasn't for a month. Considering how the farming has been going we would be lucky if we got anything. I sighed and grabbed a smaller portion than usual to ration her food. I threw it down, startling her.
"Sorry, Rose," I grunted as I hit the ground after jumping down.
She nodded her head as she ate making it seem like she could understand what I said. I turned around and wandered over to a small shed which was in an odd place since it was inside the barn. I reached inside and grabbed a bucket which I would use to collect the milk.
I went back to Rose and milked her until I got a decent amount of liquid. I poured the milk into a container with a lid and cleaned out the bucket as well as I could. I hid the container under my robe as I prepared for the storm again.
Once I got inside, I noticed mom brought the churner out. I sighed as I turned the milk into butter. Once the liquid solidified I turned to my mom. "Here you go, it seems done.” She looked inside the churner. Seeing I churned it well, she took it out and finished pre- paring it.
"Thank you, sweetie," she smiled as she finished salting the butter and set the bread on the table. At that time Dad walked into the kitchen stumbling around from sleepiness.
"I'll go wake up Char," I said as I headed out the kitchen door. Being as quiet as possible, I opened the bedroom door and kneeled down next to her bed.
"Hey, Char, time to wake up," I poked her stomach in a playful manner, in attempt to wake her.
"Ugh," she groaned in protest. "I'm tired," she whined as she rubbed her eyes.
"Oh, come on, breakfast is ready," I picked her up and brought her to the kitchen.
"It looks like someone's up," my mother teased. I set Charlotte down at a seat and prepared her food.
"Here you go," I offered her the bread. She struggled to pull her eyelids apart when sleep still threatened to close them. She squinted for a couple of seconds until she adjusted to the lantern light.
"Thanks," she said as she took the bread out of my hand.
"You're welcome," I smiled while grabbing my own piece of bread and buttering it.
I stuffed half of the bread into my mouth, smacking my lips and clinking my teeth as I ate.
“Gosh, your worse than Charlotte!” my mom complained while my dad nodded in agreement. I looked over to Charlotte who had eaten more than half of her piece too; however, her face was a mess. It was shiny with grease and she somehow accomplished smearing butter in her hair.
“Am not!” I mumbled as little crumbs of bread flew from my mouth to halfway across the table. In embar- rassment, my cheeks burned bright red, they were right.
My dad rolled his eyes. “If you don’t stop eating like Rose, I won’t give you your present.”
My purple eyes lit up with excitement, “What present!?” I swallowed what was still in my mouth and started taking mini rabbit sized bites of the bread.
“You don’t have to go that extreme,” my dad laughed. In response, I ate the rest of the bread in normal sized bites. He reached into his pocket and took something out and set it on the table. “I thought you might need something to protect your eyes from the sand.”
The object looked like they were handmade by him, but that was good enough for me. The reflective lenses had a dark navy-blue tint to them and attached to a circle of rubber were a pair of frames made by two large washers which were strung together by elastic to create a pair of goggles.
Stunned and surprised I ran over to him and gave him a huge hug, “Thank you so much, I love it!”
“Well, if you love it so much, try it on.”
I grabbed the goggles with a huge grin on my face and strapped the them onto my head. They fit well and didn’t block too much light.
“They are amazing!” I gasped.
“I thought you might need a pair since you have been having to get water more often,” he told me.
“Thank you,” I smiled.
“Oh, and I hope you don’t mind getting wet.”
My smile fell at his words and I pulled my goggles down around my neck in seriousness. “No! I am not getting in that well.”
“Yes, you are, while I’m in the underground farms, you need to get water for the crops. You have to be the one to go since you are the smallest person in the village besides Charlotte, and we all know Charlotte is too young.”
“Why can’t I? I’m old enough. I want to help!” She jumped up and down in her seat with excitement.
“You’re only five,” my mom laughed and Char sunk down in her seat in defeat.
“Do I have to?” I whined.
“Yes,” Mom and Dad said in unison.
“Ugh,” I sighed as I looked down, knowing I didn’t have another choice.
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I pressed my eyes shut, causing specks of color to cloud my vision.
“How much farther?” someone called from above causing his voice to ricochet across the stone walls surrounding me. I opened one of eyes part way as I held on to the rope tighter. If I lost my grip, or if the person who was holding onto the rope from above lost their grip, I would plummet to the bottom of the well and at least break many of my bones, depending how far from the bottom I was. I looked down to see that the bottom was ten feet away.
“Ten more feet!” I yelled.
I don’t understand how I’m always stuck with this job. I am claustrophobic and not even that small, I mean I'm skinny—as is everyone else from starvation—but I'm also taller than most woman in the village. Most of the people in our village are either young men, children or older adults who don’t want to risk their lives for “lowly” things like digging in a well for water. So, older males supervise, older women stay home with their kids and cook, young men do manual labor, and I’m stuck doing what no one else wants to do.
I opened both my eyes and saw I was five feet away from the bottom. I jumped off the rope into the shallow water. “That’s good! I’m at the bottom!” I filled up the bucket a few times with water until the well was dry. “Toss down the shovel!” The rope made its way back up the well and when it came down again, a shovel was tied to it.
“Time to start digging,” I muttered to myself. I filled the bucket with mud multiple times and sent it up each time it was full. After a couple of feet were dug, they began to bring down stones to support the sides from caving in. As I continued digging the ground got cakier and thicker making it harder to dig. The ground beneath me trembled as the sound of water rushed beneath my feet. “Were about to hit a river!” I shouted. At the moment, the ground beneath me gave out. My feet sunk into the thin layer of mud which then crumbled. I grabbed the rope just as the ground fell down twenty feet into the rushing river below. I screamed “Pull me up, pull me up,” as I closed my eyes shut. For what felt like hours—even though it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes—I hung, until the people above pulled me out.
I collapsed on the sandy but secure ground, muscles achy and exhausted. I gasped for air which caused me to cough from sand entering my lungs. Gasping for air, I inhaled sand dust. As I coughed, I yanked my scarf over my mouth and my goggles over my eyes. I started to rise only to crumple on the ground when my knees refused to hold my weight. A gentle hand reached down and pulled me up. The world around me dulled and all I could hear was a loud static in my ears. Soon everything around me disappeared.