EVANORA

Evanora felt something nudging her awake. She opened her eyes and she found that she was laying on a bed of pine needles 100 meters from the back fence to her house. She sat up and looked back into the forest. She did not know how she got there or who put her on the bed of pine needles but she walked back to the tree that shivered and drop the pine needles initially when she set off on her quest to explore the forest and hugged the tree whispering...."Thank you...you are very kind"

She turned and saw her house lights on and then the horrible realisation was that the sun had set and the stars had filled the sky. She could hear her father screaming her name. This sound filled her with dread. He would be so angry and so hard to console. Evanora wanted to run back into the forest and escape his temper and the subsequent 'make up' affection he would do to her or the evil things she would have to do to him to save herself from being beaten and abused.

Evanora was scared.

She crossed her arms over her chest and knelt down on the ground. Her body was that of a young girl and in no way built to accomodate a fully grown man least of all a man who was her father. She was scared...so scared she couldn’t speak. That house she lived in was a trigger for fear and unsettling events that should never happen and now she had to venture back into it and face the wrath of her father...again.

A wind picked up behind her and blew her hair away from her eyes and she blinked trying to make out what she was seeing through the tears she had streaming from her eyes. A flower in the shape of an Orchid pulsed in front of her changing colour while opening and closing like the wings of a bird that wanted to stay in flight yet stationary. Watching the flower change its colour so vibrantly bought back the memories of what transpired in the forest. The joy at seeing all she did, sleeping in her mothers hand and while switching her gaze to the lights of her home and then the Orchid she settled and became focused and steady. The tears stopped, her bottom lip stopped quivering, she dropped her arms down and knelt forward looking at the ground. She heard the trees behind here creak and groan as the wind raced through their branches. She closed her eyes. Visions of her mother and the beautiful seed tree came into her mind and she uncurled her clenched fists and felt the ground and the connection she had with the earth and the trees. Her mood was changing from one of fear to strength and determination. The trees and her mothers hand had passed into her a new way to be and now that she was awake she was going to use this strength she was given. Evanora stood up slowly and stretched her arms to the sky then let them fall slowly to her sides as if she was casting off the old shell and stepping out of the chrysalis she had been in.

"EVANORAAAAAAA WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU???" echoed her fathers voice in all its pent up anger and frustration across the back yard of her home towards her standing motionless at the start of the forest. The wind began to howl around the trees as they sensed the hatred in Evanora’s father and one by one all the tree’s began moving at once in a frenzied dance of empowerment for Evanora to give her strength and courage to face down her evil father and bring about some peace for her at home. Slowly she walked to the back fence stopping only to look back at the forest and smile as she commenced climbing over and at once getting the attention of her father who had stopped yelling for her and was now watching the trees do their wild thrashing about. Her feet touched the ground bare foot with a resounding “thud”

“Where the fuck have you been...and where the fuck are your shoes?” bellowed her inebriated father starting his march down the back yard to Evanora who was standing like a lioness ready to strike her prey. The forest was out of control thrashing wildly this way and that.

Evanora didn’t move.

“Answer me you fucking little bitch I WANT ANSWERS..NOW”

He lifted back his arm to strike Evanora across the face and yell at her some more and he was stopped. Evanora held up her hands in front of her and her father saw for a brief second her orange eyes then all the air in his body was knocked out of him and he was hurtled across the back yard coming to land against the hot water service and lapsing into an unconscious state where he remained for two hours while Evanora went inside and ate some food, had a shower, did her homework and cleaned the kitchen all without having to bow down to his evil ways, dirty hands and horrible body. Evanora was in bed when she heard him finally stagger back into the house and go past her bedroom and he collapsed onto his bed and passed out.

Evanora sat in her room, eyes glowing orange, the room glowing and the connection she had been given was now alive and vibrating through her mind and body. The trees felt her vibrating and their thrashing stopped.

He would never hurt her again.

The next morning Evanora was up and dressed ready for school and making her lunch when her father appeared behind her in the doorway to the kitchen. His head had been bleeding and the were streaks of dried blood down his neck and congealed on the collar of his shirt...

“What did you do to me last night?” asked Evanora’s father in his best hung over voice.

“I didn’t do anything...you tripped and fell against the hot water service”

“Bullshit I don’t believe you...look at my head ...you hit me...your father, you hit your own father you little bitch ”

Evanora stopped making her sandwich and stood looking at the kitchen sink with her back to her father. She closed her eyes. She didn’t move.

“You were drunk...again... and I was getting the clothes off the clothes line and when I turned around I watched you trip and hit the hot water service with your head and I came inside and went to bed” said Evanora firmly yet still cautious about what it might stir up in her father as he was prone to violent outbursts.

“You are lying to me Evanora......” and he marched over fists clenched to strike her while her back was turned and she opened her eyes and at once the kitchen sink and surrounding area in front of her filled with orange light.

“NO I AM NOT...YOU TRIPPED.. AND HURT YOURSELF” and these words stopped her father in his tracks, this and the orange colour he was seeing in front of his daughter. She closed her eyes and the colour vanished but it curbed her fathers enthusiasm to hit her from behind and he backed off and braced himself against the kitchen table. Evanora turned around slowly to face her father and saw her father grimace as if was getting ready to be hit in return. She looked at him and he looked at her. There was no orange colour in her eyes it was normal and how it had been since she was a baby.

“Im going to school now...goodbye dad” she said with her head lowered and she grabbed her school bag then walked past her father on her way to the front door. He was dizzy from the knock to the head and loss of blood but he could have sworn Evanora hit him last night but the preceding evenings events were cloudy at best. He was late for work so he rang in sick opting to sit on the front porch and wait for Evanora to get home from school...so he could ask her some more questions to her. He opened the first of many many beers he would consume until she got home and drained it quickly, this helped his head ache but didn’t stop the questions he had and the ones he was going to ask.