Fold Creature

"The General has requested that you ride with him today girly," Judy's energetic voice pulls Yelena from the depths of her sleep. She groans, pulling the covers over her head and rolling onto her stomach as the old maid cheerfully rips open the curtains, sending brilliant beams of light directly onto the bed.

"Must the sun be so bright?" Burrowing further under the covers, she finds peace in the warm darkness. Until that peace is ripped away suddenly as the sheets are torn from her desperate grasp, thrown to the floor as she is exposed to the cool morning air.

"No more of that Girly, the General is a busy man he is, and we won't be making him wait. Now up you get. I have you boots here, and a nice warm kefta, it's in his colors too so I hope you washed yourself in that bath last night, would do you no good to be dressed all up but stinking of work and sweat, and girly I know most don't choose to mention the stink, but old Judy isn't one of them. On a normal day, you smell. Bad. That's why you have so many baths, cause we can't be allowing a potential saint to be walking around stinking everyone to an early grace now can we?"

Yelena just groans, well aware by now of Judy's complete lack of filter, and absolute disregard for any form of social conduct. It was somewhat endearing.

Most of the time.

Eventually she's been bustled into some clothes, told that her smell is 'tolerable' and then pushed outside into the chilly air.

It's snowing.

No wonder she can't feel her nose.

Winters in Novokribisk were bad, but at least there she had her brothers and parents to keep warm with her by the fire, and winters in the fold were indistinguishable from the rest of the year. The fold was the Fold, year round. It never changed.

She missed her family in that moment. And despite her clothes being thicker, and her layers plentiful, she is colder now than she's ever been before.

An echo of Rylan's laugh catches her ears behind her, and she swings around, his ghost giggling as Kalev catches him from behind and tackled him into the dirt. Their parents are watching them too, but when they see her, smiles light up their faces and they open their arms, welcoming her home with a hug.

But a clatter of hooves has her looking away from them for only a short second, and when she looks back, they are gone.

The cold seeps a little deeper.

"Yelena, you are ready to leave?" General Kirigan's voice distracts her once more, and she nods blindly, taking the hand offered as he guides her towards a silver dappled brown horse. The general helps her up, but she doesn't see him, only the place where her brothers ghosts had played.

"Yelena?" His voice sounds concerned, but still, she cannot see him.

"Yelena?" There's a hint of urgency now. "Yelena? Answer me! What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong," she is floating. The clouds are dancing through her body, tingling through her veins.

Hands grab at her face, but she lightly brushes them off as she turns to look at the snowflakes. "Yelena?" He's not as strained now, calmer, more in control, but the concern is still there.

Why is it there?

Her brothers are there, holding her hands as they walk beside her horse. And their parents follow behind them, leaning against each other with arms interlinked and pride gleaming in their eyes.

Ann laughs, throwing her arms out as her brothers begin to run. She kicks the horse into a gallop and they speed off down the path, her arms thrown wide in delight.

"Yelena!" The General is following behind her, the urgency has returned, but she doesn't want him to be worried. Turning the horse back around, they canter back toward him, slowing to a trot as they get closer.

"Mr General Darkness sir, that's not my name. My name's not Yelena." Why do her words sound funny?

"My mother's next daughter was to be called Yelena, but then we got a cat. Cat was called Lena, and then we couldn't name the baby after the cat, it's rude!" She giggles as she pats him on the arm, and then reaches up to rub his head. "Your hair is just the color of his fur, but it's not as soft. That's disappointing." That cat had had the softest fur she'd ever felt. It had been like running your hands through physical happiness.

That cat is now dead alongside her parents and brother.

"Why does everyone die?" She bursts out, "why does that happen? Why do they have to leave me here in this Saints forsaken country? I don't wanna be here, I wanna go home," she's whining, why is she whining? She's at the little palace, they have everything at the little palace.

"But you don't have my brothers, and if you did one would hate me and the other despises me! Why does that happen, it wasn't my fault! But he still blames me! And then when the others died too he said no more! I shan't put up with this no more! I shall leave and you shan't follow!" She mimics, shrugging one shoulder heavily, "but of course I followed him, I'm not an idiot, and when we got to the first army, they found me and he called me a traitor to the family, said I had let them all get killed. That even though I didn't pull the trigger, I might as well have handed over the loaded gun used to do it."

Her cheeks are wet. That's new. Is the general even there still? Oh yes he is, he's still sitting on his horse beside her, staring at her, watching her, letting her speak.

"Oi, get down off that horse will you? Join us commoners on the dirty ground." She pulls at his leg pant as she slides down a tree that has appeared from nowhere. Where'd her horse go? Wasn't she just sitting on it? And why's Mr Darkness right in her face pushing back her hair?

Is he mumbling? Or just mouthing words? Whatever it is, it's weird and it's funny. Giggling she copied him, moving her mouth and slapping at his hands that get too close to her face. Dimly she recognises other people arriving on horseback, and the feeling of being lifted into strong arms.

Her brothers faces stare down at her, disappointment in one, and disgust in the other. It cuts deep and the tears well up stronger than ever. She mouths their names, reaching for them as they turn their backs to her and walk away.

One last desperate wordless plea leaves her lips as she launches herself from the arms holding her, tumbling to the ground and hitting her head. A low groan of pain is cut off by more hands grabbing at her. There's too many for her to fight them off and so she just lays there, watching as her brothers backs disappear amongst the bodies surrounding her. 

"Dont leave me! Please..." the words die on her lips as the darkness claims her.

~~~~~

"-seems to be an infection sir, left untreated it might have killed her."

"-volcra-"

"-auditory hallucinations as well as visual-"

"-should be fine-"

"-come back to me-"

"Yelena."

"-why'd you go?"

"Yelena."

"-summoned the sun again, your advice helped so much, just come back to me, I need you."

"Yelena."

"Yelena."

"Yelena!"

Gasping, she bolts up in bed, leans over to the side and vomits on the very expensive looking boots standing there.  Glancing up at the man wearing the shoes is a mistake and she vomits again, this time managing to project it all down his front.

Vomiting twice seems to have sapped her of any and all energy, and she flops back into the pillows and is instantly asleep once more.