The Marked Phoenix: Little Red Bird - Chapter 14
Emerine’s body jolted away with shock as her fingers fumbled with the heavyweight on her wrists. Darkness was not the only thing that rudely greeted her. It was the disgusting stench in the air, so rotten that it burned her poor nose and forced her eyes to water.
Emerine glanced around her surroundings with pure shock and disbelief. She was lying in a small room with only the bare necessities a person required to survive. There was nothing more than the squeaky and dirty little bed that she was currently sitting on, a battered wardrobe, a window so dirty that one could not see outside, and a small desk that was more of a table, than a place of study, reading, and writing. Her petrified face could be seen even from the window as she scrambled to get out of bed, but she found herself unable to move as there were ropes tightly binding her together.
Emerine swung her leg over the bed and was even more irked by the presence of another pair of ropes tying her legs together. Her skin seemed to still be covered with the blades of grass she had fallen asleep in, except, they had wilted away. It shouldn’t be possible. Every plant within the ten-mile radius of the Kingdom was supposed to live past its normal life due to the King’s ability to amplify the essence of these plants.
“You’re finally awake,” a scratchy voice spoke up from the door.
Emerine’s head snapped towards the small frame where a woman in brown and stained yellow rags stood. In her hands was a wooden tray with a cracked bowl on it that seemed to be on the verge of breaking apart.
The woman took a step into the room, revealing her skeleton figure. The rags violated her features and body as her skin clung to her bony silhouette, almost as if she hadn’t ever had a single ounce of nutrition. She placed the tray on the nightstand beside Emerine’s table.
“What is that? Where am I?” Emerine questioned as her eyes unpleasantly flared. Her guard was raised as any young lady would in the face of a stranger. Disgust was evident on her face when she took one glance at the questionable brown liquid in the bowl.
“This is leftover vegetable soup. You’re currently residing with my family—”
“Mommy?” a tiny voice spoke out from the doorway as the head of a little girl popped in. Her face was covered with dirt and filth. She looked no more than the age of four and like her mother, her cheeks were sunken in.
Emerine inhaled sharply but immediately wished she didn’t. The room reeked of sour sweat and mustiness from the thick layers of dust. She thought to herself with pity, ‘When was the last time this child ate?’
“What is it?” the mother impatiently asked, placing her hand on her hips where an apron, littered with soot and uneven patches haphazardly sewn in rested.
“I-I’m hungry,” the little girl replied, her eyes nervously darting between Emerine and the bowl of soup. When she saw the cracked object that Emerine absorbed, her eyes sharpened with greed. “Jaxon said I don’t get to eat today because there’s no more soup.”
“Jaxon’s right. Your father hasn’t returned for a week now. We don’t have any more money to buy vegetables to boil soup,” the mother sighed, shaking her head at the blunt words of her son, Jaxon.
“But there’s—”
“That’s for the guest,” her mother sharply replied. Her glowering eyes left no room for discussion. Like her figure, her patience was thin.
“She can have the soup. I’m fine,” Emerine deadpanned. She’d rather starve to death than drink from the bowl. Dying from dehydration was a better death than swallowing the soup. God knows what that woman threw in there. Her pampered and spoiled behavior was completely masked by her forced smile.
The little girl didn’t wait for her mother’s response before she crossed into the room and grabbed the bowl of soup. Her tiny eyes surveyed Emerine up and down before she demanded, “Do you have money?”
Emerine blinked, “I beg your pardon?”
“You speak so snobbishly.” Her nose crinkled in pure disgust as the youthful look on her face washed away. She seemed to despise every inch of Emerine. “Mommy allowed you to sleep on my bed for a night. You have to pay rent for that.”
Emerine was taken back by the child’s rude behavior. “Do you know who I am?” she sharply asked as annoyance filled her veins. “How dare you speak to me in such an impudent manner—”
“Have you seen yourself?” The little girl frowned, her brows crinkling. “Your behavior reeks of more brattiness than both my younger brother and I combined.”
“Little brat, I can have you hanged—”
“If you have that much power, why were you sleeping on the ground? When mommy found you in the forest, you looked more pitiful than us. And we’re peasants.”
Emerine blinked at her words as she glanced down. The dress of her maidservant hung loosely on her body that she realized why this little girl treated her so rudely. “Your mother was not supposed to take me from the ground to this place.” Emerine scowled, “I never asked for your help.”
The mother could not help but place a hand on her lips. She was bewildered by how rude and unforgiving this woman was. She had saved Emerine from a night of hypothermia and this was the thanks she received?
“Look, do you have money or not?”
“How old are you in the first place? Who taught you to speak so disrespectfully? Where is your governess?” Emerine scoffed, rolling her eyes in disapproval. She was too lost in her own selfishness to realize what the little girl had said in the first place.
“I’m ten. News flash, Princess,” the girl spat out the title as if it was an insult. She didn’t realize the truthness of her own words and that Emerine, was indeed the princess of this kingdom. But after the turn of events yesterday, she was going to be nothing more than plain and simple, Emerine.
“We don’t have the luxury of a governess.”
Emerine blinked and glanced around the tiny room yet again. They were dirt poor. No wonder they acted as rashly as they did.
The little girl continued, “And second of all, has no one ever taught you to be empathetic?”
Emerin commented, “I must say, you seem quite intelligent for your age though you look nothing like it.” Perhaps it was because of her lack of food, but the girl was too thin to even come across as ten years old. “Now, untie me.”
“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” the mother spoke up, deciding it was enough. She was so tired of the bickering children and was too hungry to deal with them.
“And why’s that?” Emerine chillingly questioned them, her amethyst eyes piercing straight through the woman. There was something about the way she carried herself with respect, that her simple question was enough to make the mother take a step backward.
Uncertainty filled the woman’s body as she attempted to decipher Emerine’s identity. She behaved too full of herself to be a simple peasant or maidservant. Her chin was raised in the air as if she couldn’t be bothered to glance at anything lower than her.
“I saved your life. You owe me a payment for that,” the woman said as she pointed towards the bed. “You slept on it for a night, that’s also an additional charge. I offered you food, that’s something else you have to pay for. A roof over your head and a blanket. You need to pay all of the fees.”
Emerine scoffed, “Bill it to the castle. My father will have your daughter’s disgusting tongue and your head for your shamelessness.”
“The castle? You’re a simple worker there,” the mother nodded to her outfit, “Which maidservant’s father would have enough authority to issue the execution of a citizen?”
“I’m more than a simple worker—” Emerine forced herself to stop rambling before she gave away more than she could afford.
“Useless, I assume?” the woman answered for Emerine before letting out a small laugh. “Just wait and watch. Soon enough, we’ll see who’s more useless,” she didn’t bother to wait for Emerine’s response before angrily picking up the bowl of soup and then guiding her daughter out of the room.
“Where are you going—”
Mother and daughter slammed the door shut. Emerine scoffed at their behavior. “We’ll see who’ll have the last laugh,” she muttered to herself.
