Almendra's Quest

                                                -1-
Dark green curtains with ripped edges and many holes were drawn back, showing wide ominously looking windows in grim iron frames and a huge usually dark room lit by feeble rays of an unenthusiastic sun coming from the high grey sky. Now that the room was illuminated two figures could be seen inside. One sitting in an old black deep armchair, rocking back and forth an ancient rusty book in her hands. Another standing by the window, her arms folded on her chest and her lips pursed into a thin cross line. One old, another young. One in a good mood, another out of humour. One was unwise enough to break the gloomy silence of the house by chanting an old, long-forgotten line.

'Once Love Is Settled On This Earth And Vow Is Sealed By Kiss The Queen Will Be Again A Rose Her Country Will Find Peace.'

One fell with a thud on the floor. A rather short and plump elderly woman in a white apron, too many skirts and funnily shaped glasses that slid down her nose. Towering over her was a very angry-looking young woman with long black hair and smoldering black eyes. The plump woman on the floor was frantically trying to untangle herself from the abundance of her skirts that seized her movements, while a young woman was furiously yelling at her cowering form.

"JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING BY SAYING THIS LINE! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NEVER AND UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES TO CHANT IT IN FRONT OF ME! Give. Me. That. Book. Now!" she roared in a dangerous voice that clearly bore no further arguments.

But the woman that was still on the floor was rather brave judging by the way she started shaking her head in protest, gripping the book tightly to her chest her knuckles getting white.

"NOW!" barked an angry figure from above and waiting neither for an answer nor for a fulfillment of her command grabbed the book away from trembling hands and shoved it in the direction of someone who appeared out of nowhere standing on all fours at her side.

"Take it and hide it so that no one ever found it!" ordered the girl still glaring at the terrified woman on the floor.

Someone on all fours took the offensive object in between its sharp teeth and ran off with a growl.

"Almendra…" started a tremulous voice from the floor only to be cut off the next moment. Taking a deep breath Almendra spoke in a deathly calm and cold voice.

“No. Don’t say another word. I gave you too much freedom and it clearly ran away with your tongue. But from this time on I am not going to stand it without you paying the consequences.”

And with a last furious glare the tall young woman all dressed in black walked away, leaving a sobbing figure trembling on the cold stone floor.