Tales Of The Forgotten

[childofthehunt]

"Blood Red"


June 14th, 1788
Grenoble, France

"Isn't it absurd?" A young woman, with porcelain pale skin and sunshine blonde hair, asked a young man lying on the grass from down below. "How would they expect the monarchy to finance the entire of France if they would cease paying their taxes?"

"And how would they expect Marie Antoinette to host her elaborate parties if the money would stop coming in." The man replied as he watched her beloved ride the swing.

The woman laughed with the man's joke. The Queen has been known to throw grand galas and balls for her friends using the collected taxes, while the citizens starve and remain poor.

"Faster." She demanded the servant man who was pulling the rope of her swing. Then she returned talking to her companion. "All the nobles love her. My Father and Mother practically worships the she-devil."

"Not all the nobles my dear." He countered, his eyes following the lovely shape of her flowing rose coloured gown as she rocks back and fourth in the swing. "Some of us still considers her incompatible for Louis. What was that name again that you brand her with Helene?"

The woman in the swing giggled as she covered her mouth, her cheeks turning bright pink.

"The dwarf of the Hofburg Palace!" Helene replied, controlling her giggle.

The man laughed out loud upon hearing it.

"Oh stop it Charles!" She exclaimed with a chuckle. "You are making my stomach hurt. It's bad enough I have to wear a corset inside this gown."

Charles' tried to stop laughing. Helene looked angelic up there in the swing. He remembered something he's been meaning to ask her since yesterday.

"How was the meeting with the Swedish count?" He inquired, casually. "I heard the viking showered you with alot of presents."

"Axel you mean?" Helene cleared, looking down at Charles. "He left yesterday and he did offer a lot of gifts for me."

"Is that so?"

"Oui. They're nothing extraordinary really."

"How come?"

"Jewelries, perfumes, clothes. The usual things I receive from my suitors." She stated, rolling her beautiful blue eyes. "But there's this one gift I find rather odd."

Charles was listening, extracting every bit of information about his competition for Helene's heart.

"He said it was enchanted and that it was created from the blood of the Goddess Sif." She narrated, sounding bored.

"I've never heard of that Goddess."

"Sif he said was the wife of the Norse Thunder god called Thor." Helene informed him. "Can you believe that? He probably jurt acquired it from some shop in Paris."

Charles chuckled, "What is it?"

Helen removed her white laced hat, "This ribbon."

The ribbon was tied beautifully around her small head, making her look like a doll rather than an angel. The ribbon was made of rich deep blood red satin and it glided through the air as Helene swung back and fourth from the swing.

"He even told my Father that it would protect me from harm." She added with a snort. "How can this small plain shiny ribbon protect me from harm?"

Helene and Charles broke out laughing together.

That same day, a rebellion broke in Grenoble. The civilian finally took charge and stormed the houses of every noble in the area. Helene Renaud's parents were captured by the angry mob and was sent to the town hall and was publicly executed.

Helene meanwhile, escaped and as per the account of the witnesses, she magically went through the palace's walls and gates and escaped. She was labeled a witch and was finally captured a week after her parent's execution.

Charles Hébert, helped the mob with her capture. Letting Helene believe that he was ready to help her escape France. He could not accept his failure to win her heart.

She was executed by the guillotine.

Helene Renaud died at the tender age of 18.

[childofthehunt]

"Flight"


October 5th, 1576
Venice, Italy

He didn't know where they're going. His father packed up their belongings and stormed out of their Villa that early morning. Inside their horse drawn carriage, his father sat quietly on the seat before him. He had that worried look on his wrinkled face, and his eyes looking down on the carpeted floor.

"I heard the servants talking." Francesco informed his father, his tone soft and hushed as usual. "Alexis died ... didn't he?"

His father, with furrowed gray eyebrows looked up to his son. He wanted to lie and inform him that his close friend is alive and well, but he knew lying would be pointless, especially to Francesco.

"The Black Death got to him..." The words fell out of Francesco's thin rosey lips.

His beautiful face grew sad and it broke his father's heart to see it. He had the face of his deceased mother and his father's intelligence and charisma. But his most striking feature, is his ruby red eyes.

The carriage left the Berlusconi estate and found it's way to the village. Outside they could hear people crying for help, people coughing uncontrollably, glasses breaking, shouting, it sounded like chaos was upon Venice.

"We have to get out of Venice. Your Uncle Vasilis had offered his Villa in Trieste for us." His father advised holding a small block box. "Then from there we could cross the boarder to Rijeka. I have received news that the plague hasn't gone there yet. We would be safe there."

Suddenly they saw a bloody hand, pressing against their transport's window. Then a face of a frill old woman appeared, begging for help, beginning to be saved. She was coughing up blood. From above they heard their driver shout at the woman and told her to get away.

"What if the plague gets to Trieste too?" Francesco asked. "What do we do then?"

"We keep moving." His father replied simply. "We keep moving to survive."

A gun shot shattered the air, people outside screamed and started running away. It was only then that Francesco and his father noticed the carriage stopped. Mr. Berlusconi tried to get a view outside the window, when suddenly, their transport started shaking.

"We have to get out of here!" Francesco shouted to his father. "They are trying to turn the carriage to it's side! We need to get out!"

An uproar of screams filled the air as the residents started pushing, shoving and shaking the Berlusconi's carriage. They figured, if the richest family in Venice wouldn't help them, then they might as well die them there.

"No one leaves Venice!" A man holding a gun, yelled on top of his lungs, as he pushed the dead body of the driver off the carriage. "We all die together!"

Inside, Francesco and his father felt fear. The moment they stepped out of their transport, the people would probably try to kill them.

"Take this! Wear it!" Mr.Berlusconi told his son, as he opened the small black box, revealing a silver ring. "Wear it!"

Francesco held the ring and noticed the precious stone set on top of it. He wore the ring as his father instructed him. Mr.Berlusconi hugged his son tightly and told him how much he loves him.

The door of the carriage was thrown open. The angry mob grabbed Mr.Berlusconi and dragged him out. Francesco wanted to help his father, but the other door burst open and hands pulled him out as well.

"Get away from me! Get away!"

Francesco could hear his father's scream from the other side of the carriage. Slowly, his voice was drown out by the mob's shouting to kill them.

"Father! Father!" Francesco tried his best to get out of their grasp, but he was over powered.

Just when he thought it was his end, he witnessed something completely unexplainable. He saw his arms disintegrating and the rest of his body followed, vanishing, fading slowly into thin air like smoke.

The last thing he remembered was looking down at the sea of people, their faces all in awe as they watch him take off, higher and higher, into the sky...

[childofthehunt]

"Portrait"

January 29th, 1860
Edo Province, Japan

It was a cold winters night. Although the snow has stopped falling from the sky, at the moment, everything in Edo's covered by a thick layer of snow. They're on the house's roofs, they're on the trees, the narrow streets and pavements ... they're everywhere. Despite the condition, the people of Edo doesn't seem to be bothered. Tea houses are open, specialty shops outlined the streets as well as some tobacco and leather goods vendor.

Kikuya stared out of the bamboo made blinds of the window. Even with the glass window closed shut, she could feel the coldness outside, seeping in from the small cracks around it. She was watching the view from inside the governor's mansion.

Suddenly the door to her room opened. A man in his early 30's came in, dragging a bunch of stuff inside the room. Lagging behind him, Kikuya saw the man she met earlier at the tea house, Richard Starkings. Immediately, he bent her head a little for a graceful bow to the two gentlemen, and then slowly brought her head up.

"Kikuya, this is the man I was telling you about," Richard said, hands inside his trousers pocket.

"How do you do sir?" She struggled to say the words in english, as she gave him a little bow. "I am delighted to meet you."

The man Richard called Owen, stood there looking at her from head down, holding a painting board in one hand and a white blank canvas on the other. His face turned into an astonished expression.

"My Lord, Richard! You're right, she is ... extremely ..." Owen's sentence trailed off, searching for the proper word to describe her. Then it came to him, "Ethereal."

Richard crossed his arms over his chest, with a pleased smile plastered on his handsome face, "The most beautiful Geisha I have ever seen." He added.

Owen snapped out of the trance, releasing the painting board and the canvas to the carpeted floor, "I'm sorry. Where's my manner?" He mumbled, raking his long dark hair with his fingers. He offered his hands to Kikuya for a handshake, "Owen Loughridge."

She stared at his extended arm, not knowing what to do. Surely he knew that Geisha's are not accustomed to touching a man's hand, let alone make physical contact. It was just unacceptable. She lowered her eyelids and bowed instead acknowledging his gesture.

"Right, I'm sorry." Owen muttered, scratching his chin, embarrassed. "You don't shake hands. Right."

Richard shook his head in complete disbelief at his friend. He knew Owen has not been around beautiful girls, even way back in England, so he doesnt know how to act around ladies, let alone, Geishas.

"Shall we begin?" Richard inquired, putting his hands together.

"Yes, yes. We shall." Owen replied, picking up his board and canvas in a hurry.

Owen instructed Kikuya to pose, next to the brightly lit lamp of the room, while she was holding a Japanese parasol. He told her to look down, just enough to see her eyelids, and her thick eyelashes. Her dark shiny hair was in complete contrast to her white porcelain colored face make up. Her ruby red lips and a tinge of pink powder on her cheeks gave her face some color.

"It was given to me as a present the night I became a geiko." Kikuya explained, referring to the red ribbon that held her dark raven hair in a bun on top of her head. "It was from one of my customers, a french art collector."

She was serving the two gentlemen tea as she told the story.

"He said it had history and that I should take very good care of it for it will protect me." Kikuya added, her voice soft, almost hushed and soothing.

"Protect you from what?" Owen couldn't help but ask, taking a sip of his tea. He looked over at Richard from the other table, who was also enjoying his tea.

"You." She mumbled, eyes looking down on the tatami mat.

Before either Owen or Richard could react, they felt something strange inside them. As if on cue, they held their throat and started coughing, tongue hanging out. Kikiya sat there on the floor, head bent down, as her guest crashed on the floor, dead.

She stood up, slowly, and walked outside the room, leaving the two dead men. In the hallway of the mansion, she looked up and saw the governor and his guards at the far end, holding rifles and bladed weapons in their hands.

Kikuya gave them a nod as she spoke, "It is done." The governor and his men stood there, motionless as she somehow passed through their solid bodies, like she was some kind of spirit or ghost. "The spies are dead governor. As you ordered."

Kikuya didnt stop from walking as she said those words.

"Thank you oh kind goddess. The province of Edo will forever be in your debt for your services."

[bilalansari]

I found this weblog rather helpful. The particulars and exact recommendation are specifically what I was wanting.jobs in Dubai
agriculture Articles
I’ve book marked and will definitely be returning.Thanks for the information in this blog.The posting in this site is very cool and also interesting.I had read the entire blog and I came to know many things which I don't know before.I am sure that the visitors who visit this site will also be enjoying reading the posts.Keep it up.Waiting for new posts from you to be posted in this site.

[alixjohn110]

I found this weblog rather helpful. The particulars and exact recommendation are specifically what I was wanting.
no.1 software house in the world
I’ve book marked and will definitely be returning.Thanks for the information in this blog.The posting in this site is very cool and also interesting.I had read the entire blog and I came to know many things which I don't know before.
Web Development
I am sure that the visitors who visit this site will also be enjoying reading the posts.Keep it up.Waiting for new posts from you to be posted in this site.