fandomania | The Adventure continues...

When Jayzon had had his fill, he was quickly burped, rocked to sleep and laid back into his cradle. I then gave Loysa a chance to suckle before putting her back to bed. Once all the children were asleep, I decided to go to bed myself. Orlando said he was going to walk around for a bit. Donal seemed lost in his thoughts. I think that I must have fallen asleep by the time my head touched my pillow.

I was standing naked in an arena. Thousands of people were staring at me from the surrounding seats and enjoying my shame and humiliation. There was no place for me to hide and there was nothing I could find to cover myself with. From behind the arena’s door came twelve gladiators. They approached me, overpowered me and began to rape me with their swords. With every thrust and with every scream, the audience applauded and cheered. I…

“Wake up, Patra! Wake up! You are screaming and having a nightmare!” I awoke to find Donal shaking me. His face filled with concern and worry.

“What? Oh… a nightmare… There were these gladiators and they were …”

“Shh! Shh, Sweetheart. It was just a dream.” He gathered me into his arms and held me so close that I could hear the beating of his heart. And I let him hold me so protectively. I felt so safe being held by him.

I don’t know how long we sat there, but when I realized how it was affecting Donal, I slipped out of his arms and got up. Donal blushed and then covered himself. He walked quickly over to the bushes. A minute later, I heard him softly moan followed quickly by a few gasps. He emerged a few minutes later, trying to compose himself. I didn’t know what to say to him, so I went back to bed and tried to fall asleep.

I was in a birthing chamber. I was in agony. I had been in labor for four days, but the baby still wouldn’t come out, even with all the pushing that I had been doing. I could feel all of my energy being drained out of me as wave after wave of contractions wracked my body. My father walked into the room. “How is my wife doing, Doctor?” “It is a breach presentation, Sir. I have to be honest with you, it isn’t going well. I have tried and tried to turn the baby, but it refuses to budge. At this point, there are only two options.” “And they are…?””Either kill the baby and dismember it, so that your wife can expel the baby, or cut your wife open and deliver the baby that way. The first kills the baby, but your wife will live. The second kills your wife, but the baby lives. The choice is yours.” My father pondered for a few minutes. “Do the second. My son is more important than any woman.” He then walked out of the room. I began to scream as the doctor’s scalpel cut me open and delivered my daughter …

“Wake up, Patra! Wake up! You are screaming again and having another nightmare!”

I sat up quickly and felt very disoriented. When I put my emotions back into order, I said, “It was very surreal. I dreamt about my birth, as if I was my mother. I was watching myself be born.”

“That is odd,” Donal said. “But why would that be frightening?”

“I was a breach baby. My mother died giving birth to me because they cut her open to deliver me.“ Donal looked shocked and horrified.

“My father was expecting me to be a boy,” I continued. “He was very disappointed to find out I was a girl. That is why my grandmother raised me for twelve years until she died.”

Orlando came back into the clearing. “WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON? I HAVE BEEN HEARING SCREAMING LOUD ENOUGH TO WAKE THE DEAD.”

“Patra has been having nightmares.” Donal replied. “I was just about to make her a sleeping draught.”

“But …” I started to argue. “No buts, young lady,” Donal said firmly. “We all need sleep and no one is sleeping through your screaming. You are getting a sleeping draught and that is that!” He walked over to the fire, stirring it back to life and prepared the draught.

While Donal was doing that, Orlando sat down next to me. “I haven’t studied humans well enough to know what the meanings of their dreams are. But I can tell you that you are not under any kind of magic spell. I don’t know if that is of any comfort to you…”

Donal returned with the draught. “You are to drink this entire mug down,” he ordered me sternly.

I looked at Donal and noted his concern. I took the mug, took a deep breath and chugged it down. Within minutes, I was sound asleep.

Our eggs:

Our hatchlings:

It was my wedding day. I was kneeling on my wedding litter that was being carried down the street by six festively dressed men, going from my father’s house to the temple where I was to be married. People were singing and dancing and celebrating in the street. Musicians followed along, playing wedding music. The air was filled with multicolored confetti made from flowers, which symbolized fertility. I thought about the lecture that my stepmother gave me just before sending me off, about the duties of a wife to her husband. I didn’t understand half of what she said. I wondered about who I was being married to, what he looked like and what our life together would be like.

We arrived at the temple. I helped down by the high priest. Several nuns brought out the traditional wedding cover and put it over me, so that I could see nothing and no one could see me. They walked me into the sanctuary and stopped in front of the altar. The priest started rambling on about marriage and stuff. I couldn’t hear much under the cover. When they came to the final part, I tried very hard to listen to what was being said.

“Who gives this woman in marriage?”

“I, Baron Hernan vanDraco, give Lady Patra, my daughter, in marriage.” stated my father.

“Do you, General Jaizel finSorda, accept Lady Patra as your wedded wife?”

“I do so accept.”

“I now declare General Jaizel and Lady Patra to be husband and wife.”

The nuns lifted the wedding cover and I saw my husband for the very first time. All my childish hopes and dreams shattered. Jaizel was old. Perhaps 47 years old. He was tall and well built, as befit a soldier. His face might have been handsome once, but his saturnine expression and his hard eyes hid that away. As young as I was, I could tell that he was going to be difficult to please. He was scowling in my direction, looking every bit displeased with me and my looks. Then we were swarmed by family and well-wishers. We were rushed out of the sanctuary and together we knelt on the wedding litter that then carried us to Jaizel’s house.

The banquet tents were erected outside on the lawn. We were escorted to the head table. Once there, the guests sat down and food was quickly brought out. There was celebration and merriment everywhere and the wine flowed like the water of a river. I tried to eat, but found that I was too nervous to do so. Jaizel ate nothing, but was drinking heavily. His scowling worsened. He was beginning to frighten me.

Several drunken young men approached and started to give obscene suggestions for our wedding night. I was taken aback by them and started to cry. Jaizel jumped up, slammed his fists onto the table and glared at the drunks. “That is enough!!!” he roared. “Stop bothering my wife!!!” He then grabbed my hand and stalked out of the tent, pulling me along without even checking to see if I had gained my balance. I fell as he dragged me up the stairs that lead to the house. He stopped only long enough to pick me up and throw me over his shoulder. He then stalked into the house and up the stairs to his bedroom. He threw me roughly onto the bed. He angrily paced back and forth the length of the room.

“Your father deceived me!” Jaizel shouted at me. “He told me that you were a woman, ready for marriage and breeding! The #$@&@$# scum married me to a little girl! He probably thought he could pass off one of his bastards, just because I am not of his class!”

“I assure you, sir, that I am the legitimate child of my father and his first wife, my mother. My father is many things, but he didn’t deceive you. I am old enough to be wed. While it is not the norm for a girl my age to be married, it also isn’t thought unusual to do so.”

“You are what, 10 or 11 years old? You probably haven’t started your monthly courses yet.”

“I will be 14 years old in four months. And I started my courses eight months ago.”

Jaizel swore and left the bedroom. I didn’t know what to do, so I sat down on a chair and waited for his return.

He returned half an hour later, with a bottle that he drank from. “So, little girl, who thinks she is all grown up, show me what you’ve got. Take off your clothes.”

With shaking hands, I took them off, until I stood before him naked. “Well, little girl, you are better than I expected.”
He got up and looked at me all over. “Oh, what the #$%@.” He picked me up, threw me onto the bed and raped me.

“WAKE UP PATRA! YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP! YOU ARE PROJECTING YOUR DREAM TO DONAL AND ME! WAKE UP!”