Thoughts of Home

I realized this morning that I have been away from home for over two months now. It shouldn't be so hard; after all, I did attend a boarding school for the last six years of my education. I rarely went home then, other than on holidays, the occasional weekends, and during the summer. Still, I suppose the knowledge that I still had a place to go home to made me feel connected in a way that I no longer am.

Laurelwyck Manor, the ancestral home of the Shanahans (my father's side) was a lovely place to grow up. The house was enormous, with over eighty rooms. My favorite room was the morning room, where Mum used to read us faerie stories when my siblings and I were little. Father had a special stable built in the back for Bellamy, my pygmy dragon, and there were Mum's overgrown gardens, the pond, the woods . . . I'm making myself tear up remembering everything that I've lost. I always knew that when I grew up, I would leave for another home, but I always expected that I would be able to visit whenever I wished to. I was wrong.

Edric and I had only just returned from our so-called honeymoon (I think it would be more accurate to call it a traveling civil war, actually) when things got truly bad —er, worse, for us. King Haden ordered my entire family executed. The Royal Guard captured Mum, but Father, Georgiana, and Carwyn (my sister and brother) were able to escape. When Edric confronted his father about it and tried to convince him to spare at least my sister and brother, his father became even more infuriated. The next thing we knew, Edric's head was being demanded. Removed, that is. So, we had no choice to flee.

Now we're constantly on the move, traveling from one forest to another, hiding out in trees, in caves, occasionally in barns, when we're lucky — last night we slept inside an old tomb. I don't recommend tombs to weary travelers — they're hard, cold, and rather frightening. It was empty, but it was still by far the creepiest night I've ever spent. And that's counting the first night after I was married!

At the moment, Edric and I are waiting out a rainstorm, still stuck inside this tomb. No, I haven't changed him into anything unnatural. We've called a truce for the moment (and besides, I don't know how to change him into anything — deliberately, I mean). The bleak day is making me melancholy, and, in turn, making me even more homesick than I have previously been. I don't know if I'll ever again see Laurelwyck Manor or my family, aside from in my memories and my happiest dreams.

On a day like today, I even almost miss Georgiana (my sister).