Antomea's Chronicle - Hera

The main problem is not the fabric, but the little koala bear that is wrapping her waist with its legs and hugging her. To try and get some sleep at last, she tries to push it away. However, the koala has an uncommon strength and tired of fighting against the girl who finds it more comfortable to sleep this way, she gives up.

"Lucy, you"re drooling on me. By the way, you always talk about your family, so why do you travel without them?"

Those words seem to wake the teenage girl up. She wipes the drool that hangs from her lips on Alice"s nightie, thinks about it, then lies down on her back to look at the ceiling. She remains in this position for a long time without saying a word and thinking that talking a little about, the real her, about Hera, wouldn"t be so bad, in order to place her eyes facing those of the beautiful young woman, she turns to the side.

"It"s just that my life is complicated. Do you want to hear it?"

[She looks like an overly happy puppy wagging its tail.] "No, I"m not especially interested in your life."

This girl is not always very delicate and unsatisfied with the answer, Lucy pinches Alice"s arm. "My life is really very interesting. It"s a real fairy Tale, then, don"t you want to hear it?"

(Slap) "Yes, yes, I want to hear your life story. As soon as I met you, I immediately thought, "This girl, I would love to hear her life story, but, (Slap) (Slap) stop, stop pinching me."

So glad there"s finally an audience to hear her own Tale, Lucy sits in bed. She adjusts her pajamas on which her foster mom has embroidered ducks and geese, she picks up the bag of sweets from the bedside table, and after eating a sugar bear, she feels ready to talk about her.

"Well, you"ll see, it"s very exciting. Um, I"m going to do it the way Helene tells me Tales so I can have nice dreams...

[Once upon a time, in a big black castle, a beautiful woman gave birth to a beautiful baby girl with long brown hair. The baby girl was so beautiful with her adorable red eyes and her two little horns that her daddy wanted to eat her...

Too immersed in her marvellous Tale, which is a little too much like the real thing, Lucy doesn"t notice that next to her, Alice sits down and stares at her.

... The beautiful baby girl quickly became a very beautiful little girl. So beautiful that on the market for severed heads, some ladies wanted to buy her. This child was very awake. She liked to play with her servants. She liked to run them through the long corridors of the castle and attend public executions in her daddy"s arms. She enjoyed going to dances with her older cousins, as well as going to bathe in the public geysers, however... Yes, but one day, this so sweety little girl"s experienced a terrible tragedy that broke the lives of all those who loved her...

She can"t be so stupid as not to have recognized her own little cousin? In any case, seeing that Lucy"s eyes lost in the void, the young woman decides to try her luck.

"Was the little girl a little princess?"

"Of course she was, but please don"t interrupt me when I tell my life."

...So one day, the beautiful little girl who had found a new playmate, was playing with him in the halls, then she accidentally walked into a sort of big bas.e.m.e.nt. There she found a big, ugly dog. The little girl, always very playful, kindly offered the big dog to play with her, but not very playful, the animal threw her in a hole...

[Probably a pet cerberus???] Taking into account Lucy"s immersion in her own history, without forgetting that the teenager is not the cleverest girl she ever met, Alice tries to trick her.

"This little girl had no luck to be thrown out of h.e.l.l in this way."

Sullen face, Lucy nods sharply. "No, it"s true. "Because of that dog, I lost my way home, but... But how did you know I live in h.e.l.l? No, don"t say anything. Let me guess."

Still slightly unsure if it is Hera, but finding the situation as ridiculous as it is amusing, Alice decides to play with the jug. "Because you tell the stories so well that for a moment I thought I was transported to this castle."

The teenage girl nods with confidence. "That"s what I thought, too, but it was up to me to guess. Okay, now, please don"t cut me off again. Where was I again? Hmm..."

"In the hole."

"What did I say? No more untimely interruptions. You see? Because of all your immersions in my history, I"m losing the thread of my life...

...in fact that hole wasn"t very deep. If ever there was a depth and that it was indeed a hole, because as soon as I entered it, I was already coming out. Ah, but not from the same place!? I didn"t understand everything that day, but since then some magicians have explained the theory of the hole to me...

"You mean, s.p.a.ce-time or vacuum maybe?"

...what do I care? I"m going back to my Tale to my hole . No, I missed. I started telling it in the third person and now I"m saying I... That"s OK, the main thing is I"m telling you my life story. So, out of the hole, I was in a place I didn"t know about. It was too bright, it burned my eyes, I could hardly breathe and around me was full of grumpy dwarves. Also, the sky didn"t look like the one I knew...

... At the beginning, the first two minutes, I must admit that I was a bit afraid of this new life that was stretching out my arms and then seeing all the funny, new and strange things that were waiting for me, after having borrowed a milk can from a stand, I left to explore my new world...

... I went from discovery to discovery, but my nights were a bit sad. I was all alone and I missed Dad. I slept where I could, ate what the stalls offered me, but this difficult life ended like a fairy tale...

... One evening, while I was helping a granny cross the road, a man came to see me and you know what he said? ...

"Liar?"

... No, he says to me: "What a sublime and kind child. I didn"t know there could be such a perfect child in this declining world. Little girl, you are like a light that shines in my darkness, so I will adopt you." Why don"t you react more after hearing something so fabulous?...

"Liar!"

...no matter! Maybe I forgot some details but the general idea is there. This man became my second father. That"s him, that"s Caius. He taught me... He taught me... Well, even if he didn"t teach me anything interesting, he"s a good person, who took good care of me. Then I met my mommy and my brother, Helene and Cliff... My Helene is a sweetheart, but Cliff"s a dumba.s.s. I always thought my Helene couldn"t have given birth to that boy. That she must have found him in a garbage can or a dumpster, you know, one of those places where people throw away what they think is useless...

...in my town, everybody knows me. As soon as I get out of my home, people say, "Hi, sweetie." "It"s okay, my little darling?" "You got up early today, Hera." I"m a local celebrity according to Caius, and all the locals love me. Um, why are you making that ridiculous face? ...

...Well, your little personal problems can"t be as important as my life, so I"ll finish answering your first question. In my town, I also have a good friend. She"s beautiful, older than you and I like her a lot. Her name is Gina. She"s an adventuress who always travels with the two men on her team...

...but.... Gina and her team left three months ago and never came back. Their mission was, in Caius" words, "A simple scouting job." And yet they never came back. Since the strange purple haze appeared in the forests, more and more adventurers and civilians disappear, but this time it"s my friend who..."

[She"s so cute.] Alice has a strange urge. Her lips spread from themselves. A sound tries to come out of her throat, but she is too unaccustomed to laugh that something blocks this reaction so usual for all. She came for the first time in this world already four years ago. Not only that, but she was in a neighboring kingdom. However, one day, she no longer perceived the presence of her young cousin and that same day, she met three greedy men with ungrateful faces who comforted her in her first idea. The restless little girl had gone on another trip...

"Do you have to go to the toilet, Hera?"

Helene says that when you think very hard about someone, that person can feel it. With only this solution to try to reach Gina, Lucy clenches her fists and focuses all her thoughts to get them to Gina.

"Yes? Uh, no! Hey, how do you know my real name is Hera?"

…

On this moonless night, in the centre of the part of the forest explored by the two girls, the recently turned over earth collapses in on itself, revealing small seeds with partially split ends. After an initial series of small, almost inaudible squeaks, the tops of the seeds let out a light stream of smoke which in a short time turns into a small cloud floating on the surface of the ground.

Attracted by the sweet smell of the seeds, a host of this forest, a variety of small red lemur with black heads and long white teeth, moves cautiously through the tall gra.s.s. Suddenly, it stops all movement, its right front paw remains suspended in the air and it listens to every sound coming from its immediate surroundings. More confident and attracted by the scent of the half-buried fruit, the small animal starts to run as fast as it can. Its paws quickly lead it out of the gra.s.s, but as soon as it reaches the level of the overturned earth, it collapses to the ground.

Inside the strange little cloud, which is only spreading more and more, the body of the little lemur is shaken by violent spasms. Two unbearable minutes elapse. So much time leading the heart of the little beast to stop beating. After a last tremor, the legs of the small lemur stiffen and finally, it comes to a standstill.

Attracted by the sweet smell of the seeds, a host of this forest, a variety of yellow mice with green eyes, moves cautiously through the tall gra.s.s. Suddenly, it stops all movement "squick" and tries to escape, but already, long grey teeth sink in its spine.