The Legend of the ruthless Empress Freya

Chapter 256 Shiro's Nightmare

- POV Shiro -

Everything was black, dark, I couldn't hear anything, I couldn't see anything, I was all alone but I didn't understand why I was alone. Mommy and the others weren't there even though I remembered saying good night to them as always before going to bed like a good girl. I was supposed to be in a big forest under a tent with everyone else but here I was lost in a place I didn't know.

"M-Mommy ?" Mom Gaya ? A-Auntie..."

No one answered. Had they all gone and left me all alone ? Had I been a bad girl without knowing it ? It was pitch black and as flashes of my human life spent in the closet began to make me shake, the ground opened up beneath my feet. There was a big deep hole under my feet and as I felt myself falling, I tried to move around but I was too weak like always.

"M-MOMMY I'M SCARED !!! PLEASE COME BACK !!! WHERE ARE YOU ??"

I was falling into the hole under me and it was very very scary. I was screaming, begging but my family still wouldn't come. I was too scared, I didn't know what to do, what if the evil humans had caught me ? What would Mommy and Mom Gaya do ? I was too small and too weak. No matter how hard I tried to move to get back up, I kept going down, very fast, very very fast, even though I couldn't see the ground.

"MOMMYYYYYY !!! HELP ME PLEASE !!! SOMEONE !!!"

If only I could fly and be strong like the others but I didn't have great power like them and I still needed help. Once again I couldn't start crying like a baby even though I had promised Mommy to stop, it was stronger than me, I couldn't stop. I was screaming, I wanted it to stop but I kept falling. Was I going to die ? Did it hurt to fall from so high ?

*I-...I don't want to be hurt again....I don't want to feel pain...I don't want to die...*

I couldn't scream anymore, I couldn't do anything so in my endless fall I rolled myself into a ball with my tail between my legs...it calmed me. If I had been left there to die then I wanted to at least be in a position that would reassure me for what was coming next which was very very scary. My throat was tight, my tears continued to flow but I still couldn't feel the ground and as I shook, suddenly the sensation of falling stopped.

Instead, the next moment a huge explosion took place not far from me as I started to feel a lot of things. The air was no longer odorless, it smelled of burning and something else that gave me a taste of iron in my mouth with every breath. I could also hear, after the explosion, there were screams, thuds and even cries coming into my ears...it was very very loud and it scared me.

*I-I'm scared...what's going on ? M-Mommy, M-Mom...where are you ?"

I didn't dare to move, I couldn't, my whole body was shaking by itself even though I kept telling it  in my head to be nice and stop. I also wanted to suck my thumb but my arms wouldn't listen to me either, I was so scared all alone in this place. The sounds were getting louder and louder, I could feel them all around me getting closer along with my heartbeat...I had to open my eyes.

*You can do it, go ahead, b-be strong...please*

Slowly opening my eyes the first thing I saw was that it was all red around me even though I couldn't see very well. I had my head in my arms, but a big red light had replaced the super scary black of earlier, it was sure there was something. Finally moving, I stretched out my legs, wiping the tears from my cheeks to straighten up before I started screaming because of where I was.

"AAAAAAAH !!!"

I was in the sky, I couldn't fly and yet I was in the sky which was all red lit by the moon...red too. After closing my eyes very quickly because of this, I finally understood that I couldn't move and therefore couldn't fall. And then something else caught my attention, below me there was a big destroyed city with lots of injured people...that was where the explosions were coming from.

The buildings were all broken, only a big castle at the bottom was still intact but the rest was full of pieces everywhere. Everything was very, very big, so I couldn't see very well, especially since a big black dome full of magic imprisoned the whole city and those who needed help. I could hear the screams, the cries, people were begging and seeing the blood, the motionless bodies everywhere, I understood what was happening.

"I-Is this war ?"

It was horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, I couldn't close my eyes to stop watching, I wanted to vomit as I continued to shake. Death was everywhere, I was scared...too scared, it was a nightmare and I wanted to wake up to stop seeing it all. Was this what my moms did to protect us every time ? Stop. No, it wasn't possible. Stop. I wanted it to stop and felt myself passing out.

"W-Why am I here ? I-I...*sniff sniff*...I want to leave...I want to go home, I promise I will be a good girl...*sniff sniff*...please..."

"RAAAAAAOOOOOOH !!!"

But suddenly, a scary and weird scream sounded behind me since I was in the middle of the city in the air. As I turned around, I found the ugliest and most horrible thing I had ever seen in my life, something that made me say never to go near it. It was a huge ball of living human flesh with a very large mouth, hundreds of arms and eyes that was only getting bigger by the second.

Next to this thing, the people who tried to break free from the dome or attack it were like ants that it ate to grow. There were humans, maybe soldiers, but what was weird was that there were a lot of half-humans there too wearing an outfit I knew. Everything was moving too fast for my eyes, it was hard to see but I recognized the clothes of the army of my house that Mommy commanded.

As I continued to tremble while watching the scene from above, my eyes fell on a small group hidden from the creature behind a rock. At that moment I felt my heart stop, it was as if everything was hurting inside me that I couldn't breathe. Behind the rock I recognized Mommy, Mom Gaya with Auntie Kira and the lady who had arrived not long ago and who looked a lot like me.

"MOMMYYYYYYYY I AM HEEEEEERE !!! MOMMYYYYYYY !!! MOM GAYA, AUNTIE !!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON, I-I'M HERE BUT I CAN'T MOVE. I'M SCARED ALL BY MYSELF ! MOMMYYYY !!!"

I was screaming, my tears were flowing even more than before, blinding me, I was struggling but I was stuck where I was and them over there far away. I was screaming with all my strength, my throat was burning, my head was hurting, but they couldn't hear me, let alone see me. Besides, I noticed that something was wrong, Mom Gaya, Kira and Mommy's big sister were around her even though she wasn't moving.

"MOMMYYYYYY I'M HERE !!!"

I thought maybe since she was the strongest Mommy would hear me but she didn't and she was even lying down. Her clothes were full of blood, torn and she was lying in a red puddle as if...as if...as if she was dead. The others were crying and trying to wake her up, but Mommy was not moving even though I didn't know why and what was going on here.

I thought I was with them in the forest near our destination in the country next to my house but I was in the sky and the others were in the war. All I wanted to do was go home, I couldn't even cry anymore, my voice had broken from screaming for nothing. Mommy who was the strongest was standing still while the big bad thing was destroying everything, the bad humans as well as the soldiers of my house empire.

My eyes stung, I couldn't do anything, everything was too scary and the only thing I could see was a blood tinged ice flower in Mommy's black hair. I had never seen it before but that wasn't the most important thing, whatever was going on I could only watch my family and all the others being trapped. I could feel it, despite the panic I knew it was this dome and this creature that was hurting them.

"P-Please...*sniff sniff...save my Mommy...s-save...her...someone...please...Mommy..."

My chest hurt a lot, I felt like it was the end and that it was all my fault because I was there alone and safe. I wasn't as strong as the people in my family, I was very small and I cried all the time so I was useless. But someone had to save my Mommy and everyone else, if she couldn't get up then everything would disappear and I would be all alone.

I was shaking, I wanted to throw up, my head and my whole body hurt but the biggest pain was in my chest. It was as if I couldn't feel my heart, as if it had broken when I saw my family trapped under the black dome so I was begging. This was all I could do, the nasty, horrible thing kept getting bigger, grabbing people to eat them and I wanted it to stop, it was way too much for me.

"E-Everything but this...please...save my family...d-don't leave me alone...n-no more...make it stop...I-I want to go home with everyone..."

Suddenly, in the sky next to me a golden white light began to flicker below the all red moon before someone appeared. It was a beautiful lady with long white hair, golden eyes and wings on her back with white feathers. She didn't see me like the others but as I went to ask for her help anyway, she opened her arms wide to use her magic out of nowhere.

Soon a powerful blast of mana came out of her like an explosion as her wings beat the air at the same time making my hair fly. It was so strong that the dome started to crack gently in an almost complete silence, except for the creature who was screaming, everyone had stopped to watch this mysterious lady. Afterwards, all at once the dome exploded into a thousand pieces relieving me as I saw Mommy open her eyes.

"T-Thank you...M-Ma'am..."

I still didn't know what was going on and why Mommy had opened her eyes as soon as the prison disappeared but she wasn't dead. I could only thank the nice lady who had just saved them even though she couldn't hear or see me as I closed my eyes. I suddenly felt very tired, I had no strength left, it had all been too much and as I was sinking, I finally heard a voice calling me in the distance.

"S...ro...ir...o....shi...ro....!!!"

________

- POV General -

"Shiro !!! What is happening to you ?! Shiro, wake up I'm here !!!"

"My sweetie, everything is fine !"

Under the ice tent used as a shelter in one of the southernmost forests of the Vancesia Empire, Freya stood over a small bed with a worried face. The little Princess who had fallen asleep a few hours ago had woken her up because she had started screaming in her sleep. Very quickly Gaya had also rushed near her and both of them in panic were trying to wake her up for several minutes but it was impossible, until now.

"MOMMY !!!"

Suddenly as if an evil spell had been broken, Shiro straightened up opening her eyes wide, all trembling as she screamed in her little voice. Her eyes were golden like the day she had saved Angel and as they returned to their original color, the little girl looked around. Soon her gaze was on her two worried mothers and a feeling of joy came over her along with the tears and horrible memories.

"M-Mommy y-you...I...*sniff*...blood...e-everybody...*sniff*...dead...and...and..."

"Come here~"

Without even trying to understand, Freya grabbed her daughter to hug her to reassure her no matter what she had seen in her nightmare. She could feel her little body shaking, her little hands desperately clutching her shirt and her heart beating rapidly. To add to the heartbreaking sight, the Empress and the Queen could hear Shiro begging almost inaudibly because of her unstoppable crying.

"D-Don't leave me...mommy...please...don't go...ever...e-everybody...I...I don't want... that... that... everybody leave me...please...M-Mm Gaya...M-Mommy..."

At that moment Freya and Gaya looked at each other with a distraught look feeling their own hearts clench at the thought of what she may have gone through. However, it didn't matter anymore, even if the change in color of her eyes was strange, the two mothers had another priority. Without thinking the she-wolf grabbed her frightened daughter and carried her to the big bed where she had fallen asleep a few hours ago beside her wife.

The little Princess had her tail between her legs, her ears lowered and her little head buried in her mother's chest, trembling and crying. Soon the Empress laid her daughter down on the silk sheets before lying down beside her while the Queen lay on the other side. Then, using her large black tail, she would lay it on her daughter's body in the middle of them, like a blanket while she finally answered, followed by Gaya.

"It's okay my little moon, no one is going to leave, everything is fine, breathe easy, I'm here so please don't cry~"

"You had a nightmare but you're awake now, okay Sweetie ? We're here everything is fine now~"

The warmth and softness of the fluffy tail soothed Shiro as well as the caresses she received on her head, as soft as the words spoken. She felt safe in the midst of her two mothers and relieved that she had only experienced a nightmare even though it had seemed so real. The little girl gradually stopped shaking, stopped crying and quickly a cute little snoring sound rose shyly in the small dark room.

Hoping that this time she was in a beautiful dream, Freya and Gaya looked at each other once again with reassuring and loving eyes. The night was not over yet and after this moment of great panic they felt almost as tired as their little moon. So, after kissing her sleeping daughter tenderly on the forehead and her wife lovingly on the lips, the she-wolf also sank into the world of dreams.

When she woke up, the little Princess would remember almost nothing, her mind having preferred to forget the traumatic scenes seen that night. She didn't know that it was the capital of Zal that she had seen destroyed, let alone that this nightmare...was perhaps much more than that.

Only time would tell...