Fan Fiction ❯ Fire Soul ❯ Lost Princess ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter Four

Danna was as surprised as any five year old girl would be when she woke up to find herself in a strange house with a strange man, far away from her mother. At first she had been very quiet, very confused, wondering if she was dreaming. But the girl had a fiery spirit and as soon as she realised something was wrong she leapt around the room like a wild animal, trying desperately to find a way of escape. The strange man had cried out in alarm and tried to restrain her, which wasn't difficult as Danna was only a young, small girl.

"Don't worry," the man has whispered into her ear, holding her tightly. He was trying to suffocate her, trying to hurt her. No. As Danna calmed herself she realised that the man was holding her gently, running his hands through her hair and pulling her into him as if she was precious to him. He was holding her body so tenderly, more tenderly than her mother had ever held her, and she was overcome. The man had tears running down his old cheeks, tears that dripped onto Danna's pale blue shirt and stained it. This was all so new to her, so strange. Never before had anyone expressed such love for her. Never before. It was too confusing . . .

Her mother. For a moment Danna remembered her cold, uncaring mother. Then she felt the warm embrace of the strange man and cried out suddenly. A choking sob escaped her lips and she held onto the man desperately. She didn't know who he was but something deep inside her seemed to recognise him. She knew that she could trust him, and she did. She recognised him, she trusted him. As she laced her fingers together behind his head, Danna even wondered if she loved him. But how could she love a strange man she had just met? Perhaps because he was so unafraid at showing his own feelings.

"Are you alright?" he asked as he slowly pulled away from the young girl. Danna blinked, tears matting her dark eyelashes together. He was looking at her with such love radiating from his eyes. Could this possibly be a man who would allow her to love him? Could this be a person whom she could love and admire and be loved and admired in return? Something inside him was so familiar, so warm compared to the coldness of her mother.

"Yes," she said slowly, meaning it. She no longer felt the desire to escape from this house. Already it felt like her home, much more than the cold prison that had been the castle.

"Good," he said, smiling. Slowly he wiped away the tears on her soft cheeks and chuckled slightly. "What's your name?" It was strange. He hadn't even realised that he didn't know the name of his only child, and yet it didn't seem to matter.

"Danna," she said slowly, wincing slightly. Her mother had given her that name . . .

"Danna," he repeated, grinning. "It's a very pretty name, for a very special person." He never asked about her mother, who she was, what she was doing. For the first time in five years, Gabriel didn't care about Reena. He didn't care what had happened to her or where she was because he had someone much more special. Now he had Danna, his daughter, and he loved her.

*

Danna was special to the man that she soon learnt was her father. Her father, someone she had never met and had never heard of. She wondered why her mother had never mentioned the kind and caring man to her before. Danna was glad that for the first time in her life she was allowed to love someone. Her father was affectionate towards her and she was allowed to show her feelings. She loved it when her father put his strong arms around her or kissed her before she went to sleep. Every time her father held her tightly she remembered the time when her mother had slapped her hard across the face for showing her affection. Now she could return her father's hugs with no fear.

However, in a strange way, she missed her mother. Danna had spent all her life living with her mother and she had to admit that she loved the Queen of the Firebrands. Sometimes her mother had been caring and affectionate towards her. Danna loved her, she still did, and she wondered if her mother was worried about her. She wondered if the Queen was missing her daughter as much as Danna was missing her.

Something that Danna quickly learnt was that she was different. Her father always seemed to be worried about her, as if she was going to collapse when he wasn't looking. One day he ran his hands through her long hair and murmured, "Good."

"What's good?" Danna had asked, confused. Her father had looked at her with sad eyes and then shook his head slowly.

"Nothing important," he had answered. "It's just a good thing that your hair's so dark. I was worried that it would be bright red, like your mother's."

"Would that be bad?" Danna has asked, cocking her head to the side and playing with a strand of her dark hair. Her mother had nice hair, a great mass of blood red curls that had always fascinated her.

"No, no, no," her father had murmured quickly. "It's just that if you had red hair they would all know . . ." He trailed off.

"All know what?" Danna had asked.

Gabriel shook his head firmly, determined to say nothing. "It doesn't matter," he answered. Danna had tried to ask again but was cut off quickly. "Danna, I think it's time that you went to bed," he had said quickly, guiding her to her room.

Danna was confused, but she said nothing. In truth, it was a good thing that her hair was dark. All Firebrands had bright red hair and were therefore easily discovered. If Danna had red hair too then she would be hunted, taken away from him. Gabriel had just found his daughter. He didn't want to lose her so quickly.

"Goodnight," Danna murmured sleepily as her father gently tucked the blanket around her small body. Smiling gently, Gabriel bent down and placed a kiss on the girl's forehead.

"Goodnight, sweetheart," he murmured, running a hand down her soft cheek. He watched her for a moment as she closed her eyes, then left the room. As the heavy oak door closed behind him, Danna was enveloped in darkness.

*

Danna did not sleep peacefully that night. She couldn't remember the dream that had haunted her but she could recall images. A dark figure that chased her, the heat of flames, prosecution . . . She woke up suddenly, sitting up in her bad, gasping for breath. Her lungs were burning, her heart pounding in her chest. Her whole body was trembling and she could feel sweat pouring down her face, stinging her eyes.

When her body was suddenly brought into consciousness she couldn't help but cry out. Everything around her was unfamiliar and the events of her dream still haunted her. For a moment she wondered whether she was asleep or awake and she screamed. All around her was darkness, cold and unforgiving, tearing at her soul. Nothing was familiar, everything was dark. The shadows loomed towards her menacingly. She struggled to breathe and she screamed again and again, wanting only for the darkness to disappear. She wanted to be able to see, to know where she was, whether she was awake or asleep. She couldn't breathe . . .

She wanted to see so desperately. She wanted the darkness to fade.

She had no idea what happened next. One moment she was terrified and the next a feeling of warmth was spreading across her chest. She closed her eyes as she felt the familiar warmth shoot through her body, boiling her blood. Her whole body was hot, tingling, and all she wanted to do was expel the heat from her trembling body.

Suddenly there was light. The darkness was gone, replaced by the flickering light of fire. The warmth inside her body was gone, having melted through her skin. Danna's eyes snapped open and she cried out in alarm, realising what had happened. Fire surrounded her, merciless crimson and gold flames that danced around each other in their quest to devour everything they could touch. Somehow, though her desire to dispel the darkness, Danna had created flames from her own body.

But now the whole room was on fire.

Suddenly the door was slammed open and Danna could hear someone calling her name desperately. It was her father. Gabriel had been woken by the desperate screams of his daughter, and as he opened her door to the sight of merciless, golden flames, he fought back his urge to run. He had to help her. He had to rescue his daughter. Without thinking, as if it was instinct, Gabriel turned and grabbed the large mat that covered the wooden floor. Without thinking he leapt onto the flames, desperately smothering them.

The fire was actually small, but the shock of seeing them had tricked Gabriel. As he dived onto the flames they disappeared under the material. Desperately he pounded the flames with the mat until, moments later, they had been extinguished.

Shaking with fear, Gabriel dropped the mat. The flames were gone. He looked down at the pink skin of his hands, wincing slightly at the pain. Then he realised that something more precious could be in danger. Slowly Gabriel turned and launched himself at Danna. The girl was still in bed, shaking and crying but unhurt. She was safe. Gabriel wrapped his arms around her body, sobbing gently into her shoulder. She was crying too and for a long moment they just held each other, grateful that they were both alive.

When Gabriel slowly pulled away to examine his daughter he choked back a gasp. The look of betrayal and shock on his face alarmed Danna. "What?" she cried, putting a hand to her small face. "What's wrong?"

Gabriel slowly shook his head; the tears continuing to pour down his haggard face. In his arms he held his precious daughter, who now boasted a full head of blood red hair.

*

From that day Danna became an outcast. She didn't know it herself, but Gabriel did. He cried all that night, sobbing gently into his pillow so that his sleeping daughter couldn't hear him. He had just gained his daughter and now he knew that he was going to lose her. It wasn't fair. She was half Firebrand, but she was a good person. She was so young, so innocent. What would the people of Hyrn do with her if they found out?

He vowed that night that they would never find out. He would protect his daughter even if it cost him his life. Helping the enemy . . . that could cost him his life, but this 'enemy' was his daughter. He loved her so much and he wasn't going to abandon or betray her. So from that day on Danna was forced to hide her hair, and her powers, for fear of persecution.

Danna herself was confused. She had grown up around the power of fire and it didn't worry her. The night when her room had caught fire, that had scared her, but not because of what she did. To her the power was normal, and that's why she couldn't understand her father's actions. He forbid her to show anyone her powers and she had to hide her blood red hair beneath a small white cap. When Gabriel had seen Danna wearing the cap he had almost cried. He remembered Reena, knowing that she had been hiding her hair, and for a moment he wondered why he had been so stupid.

Danna was five years old, and her soul had awakened. Gabriel knew as well as the next villager that Danna had to be sent to Waya, the Psychic, so that her soul could be read. Then Danna would have to go to school. Gabriel only hoped that Waya wouldn't discover his daughter's other powers.

Danna didn't want to be left alone with Waya but she trusted her father and did as she was told. The old woman had looked at her strangely, asked her lots of questions that Danna didn't want to answer, but she had. "Danna, do you like being on your own?"

"No," Danna answered bluntly.

Waya closed her eyes and saw the faint glow of a soul within the young girl. She gently pushed against it and felt a resistance. This young girl, she was stubborn and headstrong, but at the same time she was so vulnerable and insecure.

"You're very mysterious, Danna," Waya said. Danna didn't know how to answer, so she said nothing.

Her father had returned soon after that and Danna was relieved to see him. Gabriel looked a little anxious as he entered the room, obviously wary about whether Waya had discovered his daughter's secret. Thankfully she hadn't.

"She is a very mysterious little girl," Waya had repeated to Gabriel. "She has the soul of a great warrior inside of her."

This has pleased Gabriel greatly, and because her father was pleased, Danna was also pleased. She wasn't sure what the woman was talking about, this whole 'soul' business, but if it was really important she was sure that her father would tell her. She was just pleased without realising why.

After Danna had accidentally set her room on fire she began to think about her mother and her old home a lot more often. She was sure that her mother had loved her, and yet if her mother had truly cared about her why hadn't she visited? Danna was sure that her mother would visit her daughter if she really cared. She didn't really miss the cold castle that she had called her home, but she was confused. Her father openly showed his affection, but she wondered if she should have been stolen away from her mother like that. Wasn't that wrong?

Then Danna had started school. Al the children in her class had different abilities. Some of them cheated by reading the teacher's mind while others could barely sense anything. Danna herself never felt any Psychic power in her body, not like the warmth of fire that had enveloped her. She could never read the teacher's mind or move a pencil through the air like some of the others, but this didn't worry her. She will still special to her father. He still cared about her.

Then something dreadful happened. Danna was sitting in her class quietly when the teacher began to talk about the enemy. Danna listened intently, wondering who 'the enemy' was.

"The Firebrands are relentless and ruthless. They want to destroy us. They killed our beloved Prince and Princess and they'll never stop fighting until they have Hyrn and all of Terra. They use the power of fire to destroy. But don't worry, children, you're all very safe. No one will let the Firebrands hurt you."

As the teacher finished her speech, the children began to murmur agreements and several hissed and booed. Danna froze. Uncertainty swept through her. The Firebrands. They were talking about her mother, the people she lived with. The people who had raised her. The teacher had called them evil, the enemy. She had said they wanted to destroy. She shook her head, tears of disbelief and confusion forming in her eyes. What was happening? Was it true? Who was she talking about?

Could her mother really be evil?

Danna wasn't aware that she had stood up. She wasn't aware that she had run out of the class, or that the teacher was shouting desperately after her. She wasn't even aware that she had run blindly all the way home until her father was gently rocking her in his arms. She wasn't aware that she was crying until he wiped the tears away.

"What's wrong, Danna?" he murmured into her ear.

She told him everything that had happened, how the teacher had called the Firebrands evil. She sobbed gently, confusion threatening to tear her apart. Could the woman she had loved for so long really be evil? Did that make her evil too?

Wisely Danna had said nothing to the teacher. Her secret had been kept. As Danna told the story to her father he had laughed gently, but it was a strained laugh. He was just as worried as her.

"Why am I different?" Danna asked suddenly when the tears had subsided.

Gabriel tensed at the question, but continued to rock her small body. "You're not different, not really," he said soothingly. "Don't worry. Don't worry. You're too young to understand. Don't worry about it."

But his words didn't reassure Danna.

~TBC~