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--412 years ago-

Port Royale, Nova Scotia

July 1607.

The night of Eve

The wind cooled my skin as I stood erect on the small port. This evening was the eve of my sixteenth birthday, and as tradition, the village had planned a special celebration in the courtyard. I continued my iciest glare to the horizon. The sky there was casting a shadow with blustery winds and funnels for clouds.

It was to rain on the eve of my birthday, it must be a bad omen from God. A warning sigh perhaps. My father, Pierre Dugua, is a French merchant here in Port Royale and is also one of the three founders of our settlement. He helped us build something out of nothing, he was a true leader, a true man. A real example to me on whom I should look forward to marrying. I closed my eye's against the wind and continued to brood.

Don't get me wrong here, I absolutely love my parents and my three brothers. But here in the settlement, I am always being watched. Because of my Dads high ranking here, it makes my family quite the celebrities. I just wish the walls weren't so paper thin in the village. Where our walls end another's walls begin. We have stuffed an abundance of housing in the rectangle shape of our settlement, the middle was our courtyard.

We all have our appointed positions in our village, and we are expected to not upheave them. So that's why in one of the smallest rooms of the village is what you may call a brothel, where Betsy and Lili run around and serve their customers only at night. I hear them all night long in my dwelling, the moaning, the panting, and the creaking. It really puts pressure on my lower stomach.

Since the begging of their establishment, it has made quite the ruckus with the few teens of our settlement. Encouraging us all to learn our bodies and it's needs. The teens hold sessions on Saturdays during downtime, out of the ear of the village. It doesn't take a genius to know that there's a massive orgy going on. I have been invited to many of their "sessions", but I am not allowed to go anywhere near them.

I'm not the only one either, my betrothed Ioseph wasn't allowed anywhere near them either. And we were both okay with that. Many of the other teens during our daily lessons sulk about how they have to marry someone that they don't even have feelings for, or how they may be bad in bed. But I and Ioseph were perfect for each other, we loved each other.

We barely went an hour without seeing each other willingly. Usually, he sneaks to my bedroom at night and we just lay together listening to the sound of each other's hearts like in the few romance books in our villages limited stash of books.

We were blessed by God, by the Angels who watch over us. We would not be miserable like the others. We would thrive, we would be happy with full stomachs and fame. We would move out of this village and go back to the motherland of France. We would be free from paper thin walls.

I breathed in deeply before turning around on the docks and starting my short journey back to the village gate. I moved my body elegantly through the rocks and onto the human-made path. And as I passed my fellow villagers, I wave like the princess I feel like.

My whole life is centered around my emotions. How I feel them and when. For instance, when Ioseph attacked me from behind placing a gentle kiss on my neck, I shivered. Not from surprise but from the coldness of his hands.

I glanced up at him as I intertwined our fingers, trying to ignore the coldness, and started on my walk again. "Ioseph, you really should get your hands checked out. They've been cold for the past few months."

He falls into step with me, his mood a little dampened, "There's nothing that they can do. Plus can you imagine if I told them a masked figure visited me in my dreams every night?" He scoffs, "They'd probably think me possessed."

I examined his face. His high cheekbones exaggerated his full lips, and his brown hair swayed in the wind, but upon his perfect pale skin sat an imperfect purple under his eyelids. The only sign of his lack of sleep. I sighed, "Promise me tonight that you will at least try to get some sleep. You have me worried sick about you."

"I'll try at the most. But listen," He pulled us to a stop outside the village entrance and huddled me in an embrace, "It's getting closer. Every night, every second. I feel her rubbing up against my skin and pulling at my fingertips. I expect her to arrive soon."

I took a deep breath in realizing what he was talking about, "How soon is soon?"

"Tonight perhaps, or tomorrow morning."

"Oh god," I squeezed him tighter before letting him loose and backing away towards the gate.

"Before you go, Happy Eve my Angel."

"Happy Eve indeed," I gave him my best smile as I walked away.