Chapter 135 - Silvia's Story Part 2

"Some couple centuries or back, before the first invasion, your great great grandfather, I think it's two greats, was a well known modified fighter. He had the strength and grit. He was very popular for his sportsmanship and showmanship. When the aliens first struck earth, he was in the middle of the biggest fight of his career against a fellow fighter named Boxer. Boxer is the ancestor of the royal family. Grandpa Wolfe was the first person to deal a fatal blow to the alien ship. Of course, that's not what the history books say. Apparently, to further bolster their image in the eyes of the citizens of the kingdom, the historical records were altered, but the royal family and certain important families know the truth. That's why Tiger City was given its independence in the first place. As a tribute to our ancestor and to maintain a good relationship with us."

Wilson blinked. He understood most of that. As usual, his observant mom noticed.

"We will go into details about that later. Anyway, fast forward some centuries later and I was a teenager. Your father, Larry, came to Tiger City. He was boisterous, skillful and good looking. We met, fell for each other and the young stupid me followed him back, against the whole extended family's wishes. They did their best to keep me but no one in the family knows Tiger City better than I do. Not even after so many years."

"Really?" Wilson asked.

"Yeah."

He really doubted it.

"Whatever." She waved him off. "I got away. We courted for a couple years, I would rather not talk about how I got pregnant. But it was around that period Larry began to change. He made friends with Ruthless and a group of other people and when he lost a fight that would have set his career straight for life, his confidence took a big hit. He became very sad, then angry and began to lose his temper on everything. I tried to help him, bur his choice of friends were not helping matters, so we broke up. By that time, I was already pregnant and I could not go back home with a pregnancy. The Tiger Family is very strict about stuffs like that, so I went to Larry's step brother, your uncle Corey for help. He offered to marry me but Larry would not have any of it and on the wedding, he struck with his friends."

Silvia paused and took a deep breath.

"Lots of people died that day, including Corey in his blindingly white suit. Larry was blinded by jealousy and hate and wanted everyone dead, so Corey held him back while I ran away. In truth, I didn't think Larry would actually kill Corey. Until he did."

Wilson opened his mouth but did not know what to say, so he closed it.

Silvia continued. "I hid in the forest around the city, wandering about and barely surviving for about two months. Then I met her."

Silvia paused for a long time. She was reminiscing that time. Wilson waited but finally couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Who?" He asked.

"Agnes. A witch. She took me in, fed me, treated me like her own daughter. It felt good until she noticed something was wrong with my pregnancy. She said the foetus, you, was giving some sort of waves that didn't belong there. It was like some dark external force was tampering with the baby."

"They were tampering with me? Could it possibly be a curse?" Wilson asked, causing Silvia to gasp.

"How did you know?"

"I keep getting into trouble whenever I enter a forest. It's like someone or something is always trying to kill me in some dense part of a forest or something."

Silvia laughed. "No, that's not a curse. It's just your stroke of bad luck. This part of the world experiences a lot of rain and the forest is the ideal place to hide away from human eyes and do all kinds of evil deeds.

"The curse I'm talking about is more complex and has quite the historical origin as well."

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About eighteen years ago. In a small camouflaged clearing at the outskirts of Forest City, Agnes stood beside a raised stone platform, on which laid a young, beautiful, naked Silvia with a noticeable bump in the abdomen region. Agnes chanted in some unknown language that made the air around them pulsate ever so slightly.

A large cauldron filled halfway with an unknown substance boiled over burning firewood. Purple steam came out of the pot and mixed both the blackish smoke and slowly surrounded them until they were engulfed in it.

As Agnes' chants got louder, small drawings began to appear in the air around the smoke until they stuck to the smoke that further solidified into a dome that slowly smoked away in the air.

Agnes' chants stopped at that point. Small tendrils snaked out of her and the same number of tendrils, albeit twice as thick, came out of Silvia. As soon as the tendrils from both sides touched, both eyes blanked out.

The same images flashed past both pairs of eyes. Time seemed to flow backwards on them. Past events fleeted past very quickly, past Silvia's childhood, to her birth to her mom's death, past her father's life all the way back to a month before her grandfather was born.