Fall of Shasarazade: Vol. 1

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--This is an account of what I experienced with psychometry--

Ringing resonated throughout Shasarazade, jolting Tyllia awake. The Bell Tower was causing an upheaval within the quiet. Disoriented, she tried to wipe the sleep from her eyes. Horns sounded in the distance. The roar of what must have been thunder rushed down every cobbled street. Shouting spread from person to person as the entire kingdom was dragged out of its slumber. "Minotaurs!" was the word on everyone's lips. Torches were being lit and the villagers were readying for the coming storm of battle. Women and children locked the doors and huddled in secured locations while the men equipped themselves to join the cities defense.

The door to her bedroom swung open, Tyllia yelped, a

silhouette moved closer with the pit-a-pat of bare feet across the floor. Amid the darkness, "Come, we must hurry." her mother whispered.

"What's happening!?" Tyllia was bewildered, her voice was

strained. She was so overcome with fear she had not dared to get out of bed.

"We don't have time for this!" Tyllia's mother jerked the covers aside and grabbed her by the hand, pulling as she turned to go.

Rising to her feet at her mothers behest, she allowed herself to be led. Tyllia knew what all the commotion meant, as much as she wished she didn't, and easily complied. She couldn't help but wonder where her father was, but kept silent as they hurried to the back of the house.

Making their way into the pantry, the older woman barred the

door, then, set about moving the grain bin. Revealing the floor beneath, she took hold of a mattock resting on an upper shelf and pried two boards away with relative ease. Two small bags and a sword awaited them in the dugout below. Still in their nightgowns, mother and daughter both slipped into the crawl space under the house. Tyllia barely remembered, it had been more than a year ago, but her parents had gone over this escape route with her before.

With a vexed expression, her mother said, "Your father has

gone to reinforce the gate, we are to remain here till he returns." Tyllia's mother was a pleasant woman, she was almost always in a good mood, but tonight she fumed with equal parts anger and worry. This was a side of her that Tyllia had never seen. It frightened her almost as much as the loud clangs of steel coming from the edge of the city. Sometimes Tyllia even thought she could hear various animals howling, which scared her a great deal more.

Tyllia's heart still beating furiously, she asked, "What if he doesn't come?"

"He will." Tyllia's mother haphazardly replied, lost in her own thoughts as she was.

continued in Fall of Shasarazade: Vol. 2

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