Mist

Chapter 1
Mist

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Chapter Description: An abused wife makes a wish to a dark entity known as the Shadow King for a better life.

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This village.... This village was a hub for them, a place where the two could come when one husband was out in the woods cutting his way through deer and the other was in the mines.

The blonde woman, the wife of the hunter, was the second to arrive - her hair and features were pretty, smooth and with plenty of color, but one could not help but look away - her dress was ripped, torn, and were it not for the other not much better one beneath it the holes would have revealed certain parts of her body to the world. But that was nothing compared to her face.

"Your husband got angry before he parted, I see..."

Yes, the swelling around her eye was fresh enough to be a dead giveaway. Still, the woman - Mist - answered her slightly less attractive redheaded friend with a nod as confirmation. "I don’t even know why this time. He just... felt like it."

"Would you believe me if I told you mine has proven worse than yours?"

"How did... Oh God, Andrea..." It was right about then that Mist noticed that something was very wrong with the way her friend looked - last time they had seen each other in any way but through messenger, a solid two months prior, Andrea had already been showing signs of a pregnancy. Now her stomach was only slightly flabby, like only a bit of access of this remained. "He didn’t -"

Mist was relieved when her friend shook her head, but she was about to hear news that was quite possibly worse. "No, he didn’t. There were some problems and... according to a doctor with the newest technology from the United Trifecta I cannot have children. Ever. And... he told me he had no interest in a wife that could not produce an heir, so he dropped his ownership and banished me from his home. I have a place to stay and food thanks to the Shadow King, but it’s so taxing. Being alone..."

"The... The Shadow King?" The blonde had tensed up slightly at this, which just served to make her injury look all the worse. "What did you have to give in return?"

"There was nothing up front. He just said that I would pay him back sometime, and I would be happier for it."

"Hmm..." It was a tempting possibility with that option on the table, but Mist couldn’t help but sigh as her thoughts drifted back to her own situation. "Have you ever questioned what life has given us? I recall when we were younger and all that we knew was playing and happiness. Then my parents sold me, your parents gave you away, and we have had to go behind the backs of men to get anything done? How did we wind up this way?"

Andrea did not know how to address this. But she tried. "I don’t know. The wildlands are as cursed as they are blessed, I’m sure you have noticed. Perhaps we’re just not among those who have received this land’s blessing."

"I suppose..."

"Things are not easy anywhere, Mist. But... You could find the Shadow King. You could find him, and you could ask what he can do for you."

"I..." This was true, but she was unsure. If nothing else the concept of the Shadow King was this abstract, larger than life and quite frankly terrifying idea that it was hard to work up the courage to call upon for a favor. Especially as those granted such would always suffer some sort of loss in order to further his goals. But what else was there? What could she lose?

She could lose her home and her dinner... but she could lose her husband. That alone was what made the offer a tempting one.

"I have to think on it."

"It was not an easy choice for me either, Mist." Andrea bowed her head for a second, before raising it as her expression of concern but composure was replaced with a small, slightly forced smile. "But let us not dwell on this longer. Our meetings are too far apart for depression."

"I suppose. How has... how has life alone been?"

"It’s been fine, though I must admit..." Andrea’s hand drifted over to her stomach, gripping the remaining flab and sighing slightly. "I wonder..."

Things were a little more routine for their conversation after that, but in all honesty neither woman could focus at all on the discussion. What was there to talk about? Other than the fact that Andrea’s new home sounded nice, the only things to discuss were the depressing subjects that they were trying to skirt around. Speaking of this home was not exactly a good way to take Mist’s mind off of the Shadow King either...

The pair parted after a time - Andrea briefly urged Mist to come with her and to take residence in her home, but the blonde refused because she knew what would happen if her husband came home to find she was not there. But just because she refused the offer did not mean she had any intention of returning to that man.

"To speak to the Shadow King..." Mist had to speak her thoughts aloud as she strolled aimlessly through the roads of this village, just so she could remember. "To speak to the Shadow King, I need to..." What was it? It was on the tip of her tongue, but it just would not come to mind...

It was simple, she remembered that. Perhaps too much so... Itd be a few days before he returned, so she had time to think on it, but it was just so hard to remember...

"When did I--" Mist became aware of her surroundings once more then, as she saw she was outside of the village. She remembered the beds of flowers now, the ones that lined the village walls and gave the illusion of a more colorful town than it really was. They looked comfortable - peaceful. A soft, gentle escape from life that she would give anything to lay along.

Now that she thought about it, Mist had not exactly gotten much sleep over the course of these last days. Both for the obvious reasons and for the not as obvious... She could not afford an inn, but these flowers were a safe, sheltering place and town was close enough that she could be safe from the horrors that were known to roam the wildlands. With her head sifting through ideas of how to reach her potential benefactor, the woman soon had lay down and drifted to sleep amidst the plants of many colors...

"Oof!" For an instance. Mist landed on her bottom in a place unlike anything she had ever seen. It was like the darkest night’s sky was all around her - the sky was black. The scenary was black. The ground was a dancing wave of black itself. But even with herself the only color in sight, Mist could feel that she was not alone in this place.

"Nuh..." It was a stunned sound, one with no particular context nor with any particular attempt to form a word behind it. There were... creatures, gathered around her staring with invisible eyes. But the most glaring feeling of being watched came from above, and the battered wife could not help but drop her jaw as she turned upward to see a throne of black and white upon which set a creature that somehow gave off even less light than the pitch black of the rest of her surroundings.

And then this creature spoke to her. "For what reason do you stand before me?"

She instinctively dropped to her knees, her head bowing before him. This was horrifying... "Ny name is... is Mist. My husband -"

"Hmm..." Based probably on her appearance the Shadow King seemed to gather from there. "Is that all?"

"N-no!" Mist was not at all sure if he was dismissive or just curious, but she wasn’t going to chance it being the former. "Ever since I’ve... I used to have such high hopes, but my parents sold me to Mitto Mantos. I had to move to a town I hate... I had hopes, and they’re--"

"Silence." The darkness continued to dance around her, with the king of it watching her intently. "You stand before me in search of happiness, and it will be yours. However..."

Mist could feel herself shaking in the presence of the leader of the shadows. Somehow though she could make out no features of him she could tell he had a focused, not particularly emotional look pointed in her direction - and this was more frightening than the glares she could feel his subjects giving her.

"Your own bliss will be entirely dependent on that of another. Fate will guide the two of you to each other in due time - but if you do not recognize that time when it comes, then the two of you will be forced to carve your paths without my intervention. Is this understood?"

Mist didn’t even consider turning the offer down, in spite of her terror. After all, her life was never going to improve on its own - and she felt confident that she would know when to take the initiative. The blonde woman nodded, and she began to fall.

"Are you okay?"

"Uh huh..." Mist rolled over and into a seated position groggily and instantly after she began to rub one eye with her knuckles she noticed that something was different. There was no swelling.

Still tired but knowing that night had come and gone, Mist returned herself to her feet and, surprisingly, she was only mildly surprised to see that the woman who woke her up was much, much taller than she was.

"Do you know your parents are?" It was a woman asking, one who looked to be Mist’s age - her old age - and judging by the basket in her right hand had come back from picking herbs, and she spoke in a light, concerned voice. Her left was then lowered to the now-small blonde, who instictively took it.

Mist was entirely aware that she was supposed to be big, but she for whatever reason wasn’t particularly bothered by the situation she was in. In her mind, it felt right. "Um..." She had to think very hard on this, but after a little consideration she nodded enthusiastically. "Uh huh!"

The woman gave her look that signified that she was expecting Mist to tell her where, but the blonde’s thoughts had quickly trailed elsewhere. She was supposed to find someone and she’s be happy, right? Was this the somebody?

No... Just like when she was in front of the scary Shadow King and could tell what he was doing, this lady didn’t feel like the one. "Mommy an’ Daddy live in da next town over, in Pah - zuh - too..." It was hard to say a big word like Pazatu, especially since while Mist had been fortunate enough to learn how to read before now when she tried to think of letters all she got was a bunch of funny scribbles in her head.

"Oh dear... How did you wind up all the way here? I’m sure your parents are worried sick... Here, let me take you to my husband. His travels take him through Pazatu often, so he may be able to take you home once he leaves again tomorrow." Mist was walked home by the nice lady - who gave her name as Maura, although for Mist it felt much more natural to call her ma’am.

The evening was okay, but it could have been a lot more fun - Maura and her husband only had a little baby, so they had to spend all night taking care of him which left Mist to play alone. The trip home the next morning mostly consisted of Mist sleeping, since it was a long ride home and she had to get up very early, but eventually she was dropped at the gate of town and the man who brought her was on his way.

Knock, knock, knock.

Mist stared nervously at the front door as neither her mommy nor her daddy gave an immediate response. However, she instantly began beaming once the door opened.

"Who--"

"Mommy!" The little blonde thrust herself at the woman at the door - who was in about her mid-40’s by the appearance of things, which was certainly older than she had been in Mist’s first childhood but still totally recognizable. "The Shadow Kin’ made me little again! He was real scary, but--"

"Quiet." Mist instantly went silent, staring up at her mother. The woman, her hair already beginning to grey, sighed deeply - it wasn’t like she was totally unfamiliar with the concept of the Shadow King, but she still clearly looked like she was ready to freak out. It was only through her aggravation that she managed not to. "Get in here and stay out of the way until your father gets home."

The blonde pouted slightly, but she followed her mother into the old wooden house regardless. "But I, um... I wanna play, Mommy..."

"I said quiet!" This surprising shout made the little girl jump back in fear, which of course only irked her mother even more. "Just go lay down or something..."

Mist wasn’t really sure how long passed after that. She wound up going to her old bedroom, which while it still contained her bed (which, while it was never a big one, was gigantic now), was also packed with all kinds of things like silks and furs and the like that came from when her husband bought her. And thinking of that meany that had bought her from Mommy and Daddy just made her sad.

"Agh! She... How the..." Once sounds were filling the air again, these coming from Daddy, Mist put her ear to the door; she could only make out every few words, but it sounded like he was mad. Not to mention scared - maybe since...

"Daddy!" Mist wasn’t able to keep herself in her room as she realized exactly what the cause for fear was. There were tears streaming out of her eyes as she rushed up and hugged her father - she knew full well what Mantos was likely to do if he found this out. And he knew full well that her family did not have another daughter, and what Mist looked like when she was little. What would -"

Mist was even more hurt when it occured to her that her daddy wasnt’ returning the hug - indeed, it seemed like he was not even going to acknowledge that she was there as he spoke to Mommy instead. "You tell me, what are we going to do? That man could - and would - kill all three of us if he even suspected what occured."

"Um... Daddy? Are we gonna --"

"Quiet!" Mist jumped backwards in response, tripping in the process with her bottom landing on the rug covering the dirt floor. She decided it best to do as told, though she could not help but whimper pitifully as her father continued. "We can’t... if we are lucky he will kill us and make it quick. That would certainly be better than if he took what he paid and left us here to rot."

Once he was done speaking, though, Daddy turned away from his wife and toward his daughter. He was scowling, which only served to make Mist terrified especially in the face of this new fact. When he started speaking, it did not improve much. "You really messed up. What possessed you into thinking that running from that man, and coming back here afterwards?"

"W-well, Anny told me she did it, an’--"

It was her mother’s turn to cut her off. "Women today.. It’s disgusting. No loyalty whatsoever." With her own look of anger still painfully in place, she quickly added, "And get out of the floor, we taught you better than that."

"Yes’m!" Mist scrambled to her feet, while both of her parents returned to facing each other. She didn’t want to hear any more of this rather scary grown-up talk, though, and so she retreated to her bedroom - she got the sense they wanted her to go away anyway.

The rest of the night was boring. Mist spent most of the day in her room, alternating between crying and half-heartedly playing with whatever she could find lying around the room that passed for a toy. Still, even that was better than dinner, with its awkward silence and yucky food. She remembered that when she was a grown-up her own cooking was much more yummy. After that, though she wasn’t too tired, Mist decided to lay down and eventually fell asleep.

"Guh!" She shot up in bed a few hours later. She’d had a real weird dream where Mitto was talking to a pair of girls in a village about a killer... Still she wrote that off. It was time for breakfast.

"Mommy, Daddy! Can I --"

The house appeared to be empty. Mist wasn’t sure where they were at, and just by nature of the fact that her Mommy and Daddy weren’t present she could feel herself biting her bottom lip. Things became a little more when she heard voices outside the door, though.

"I’m expected to believe that she did not come back here?"

"She did not. We would tell you if she did - we know what you would do if we lied to you."

"No you don’t. But you know that you would rather not... She has probably gone to hide out with her friend. I’ll see about apprehending her later, however. I received a message this morning about a killer in Refio. The pay is worth more than that useless daughter of yours ever was. Although... if she does come here, you will distract her for as long as you possibly can and you will not tell her I am searching. Am I clear?"

"Y-Yes, Mr. Mantos."

From there Mist could only hear silence until the sounds of hoofbeats kicked up and carried Mitto away - only once he was definitely gone did Mist’s mommy and daddy come back inside. And when she ran up and hugged Mommy’s leg, the gesture went almost totally unacknowledged.

Even as Mist lifted her face from its affectionate burial in her mother’s limb, though, she could tell the two of them were just as angry as they had been before. To their credit though, when Daddy spoke he restrained it as best he could seem to manage, "Go play outside. We’ll call you in when breakfast is ready."

"But Daddy, I’m hu--"

"You heard me."

Her lip quivered as she thought about answering, but when nothing that would work would come to mind a defeated Mist merely let go and walked outside. Playing would be nice at least, but she was just so hungry too...

Even worse, once she got outside it became immediately apparent that there wasn’t actually anything to do. She didn’t have any toys and there weren’t any kids nearby to play with, and though she was sure she would enjoy it for the short term the little pigtailed blonde knew just running and rolling around wouldn’t be very fun for very long. Plus, she didn’t want to ruin her pretty white dress.

So all there really was to do was just stand around and hope Mommy and Daddy finished breakfast soon... The little blonde did pace around a little, the feel of the moist morning grass cushioning her bare feet the only good thing about this morniing so far but soon she grew bored with this and leaned up against the cleanest spot on one of the house’s walls that she could find.

Her toes wiggled and she watched them do so, numb to all else around her. The Shadow King was supposed to make her happy, wasn’t he? That’s what he said he’d do... Maybe--

"Is...?"

Mist knew... She knew that voice. Her head turned up to see for sure, just as the woman who had spoke was looking down at her.

And that woman soon got to explaining, "Oh! Um..." The redhead standing before Mist looked embarassed to even be considering it, and quickly got to explaining. "I’m, um... I’m sorry little girl, you just kind of remind me of some--"

"Andrea!"

"Gah!" The redheaded adult in question was terribly confused as the little blonde plunged forward and seemed to start doing her very best to cut off the circulation in her legs. But while Mist squeezed as tight as she possibly could, she was still aware enough to look up to her friend as the woman began to speak. "Um... You’re--"

"Uh huh! The Shadow King made me all little!"

"Wait..." Andrea looked like she was trying to absorb the information being thrown at her and doing a poor job of it, but she was never one to break under pressure either, "Did you ask to be like this or something?"

Mist was quick to answer, while her arms only now released their grip on her significantly taller and older friend’s leg, "Nope! He just told me I needed to meet somebody, and then when I woke up I wasn’t big anymore!"

She had a question of her own to ask, though, "Why ya here, anyway? Thoughtcha didn’t live here no more since we met boys..."

"Oh, I was just... I was just in town visiting my parents. After we talked I thought it was past time when I should have come to tell them what happened." The still-slightly-flabby woman kneeled down then, and her friend giggled as her hair was ruffled, "You, um... I had probably better be going. You sure you’re happy like this?"

"Uh... huh?" Mist’s confusion came as she was pulled in and hugged by her friend, but she eagerly returned it after a second of adaption.

"Next time I’m in town I’ll see if I can stop by and play with you, okay?" That seemed odd to Mist - the way Andrea’s voice sounded, it was like she was sad... And the faint, distant smile she had on her face as she pulled away and stood up didn’t help clear up much confusion either.

And that was causing a nagging feeling in the six-year-old’s head as she answered with, "Okay! Bye-bye!" and a little wave. But as Andrea did walk away, and got about 20 feet out of Mist’s reach, it hit her like a ton of bricks exactly what that nagging feeling was.

"Wait!" The redhead froze at the shout, which gave Mist all the opening she needed to take off running after the girl. This... This felt right... "Andrea, um... C’n I ask you somefin’?"

Once Andrea had turned to give an affirmative Mist wasted no time. "Um... the Shadow King told me if I wanted ta be happy I had to know when I met someone what to do and, uh, I think, um... Could you be my new mommy?"

Were Andrea eating something she would have promptly choked to death on it, and spotting this the little blonde was quick to explain further, "Um...My Mommy and Daddy’ve been real mean ever since I got little, and I think when I get all grown up again they’re gonna do like they did the first time, but I bet you’d be a really nice mommy!"

It was strange, but by the look on Andrea’s face it was like she decided on her answer almost immediately. Maybe the Shadow King had had this arranged even when he first granted her wishes, who knew? But whatever the case was, Mist was scooped off of the ground and into the redhead’s arms after only a minute or so had passed since the explanation. "I don’t know how good I’d be at it, but I’ll do what I can for you, okay?" A second later, another question was asked in the form of, "Have you had breakfast?"

"Nuh uh. Can you please cook some, An... Mommy?"

"Sure. Here, how about we go eat breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa, huh?"

While Mist was carried all the way, both girls were smiling.

 

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