It was time for Midsummer’s feast and the whole village of Mosquito Bay was preparing for celebrations. Midsummer’s feast, which was held in the middle of summer, was the most anticipated event of the year. Then the whole village would dance around bonfires, eat like kings and just generally enjoy themselves.
Maryen, Mary to her friends, though, was having anything but fun. Mostly because she was currently elbow deep in dough and she would have given anything to be anywhere else. She had been baking since six in the morning and felt like she had been at it forever.
“Is it ready yet?” she whined with a voice that she hoped portrayed the pain and frustration she currently felt. She also hoped it portrayed the hidden threat of her soon throwing the bowl of dough out of the window if she didn’t get to quit soon. Her mother did seem to notice it, since she glared at her and sighed tiredly.
“Yes, it’s ready. You may go and play with your brothers.” It was actually quite clear that the dough wasn’t even nearly ready, but her mother was just tired of her whining and moaning. Mary did feel a tiny stab of guilt on her heart for leaving her mother to bake on her own, but it disappeared quickly when she got out of the house. No more suffocating heat! No more dough! She was finally free!
Mary smiled. She could feel the cold wind on her cheek and wiped some of the sweat away off her forehead. This made her realize, to her utter dismay, that she had dough on her blonde hair as well. This meant she would have to bathe. Or even cut her hair! Neither of those options sounded good to her. Maybe it would dry and then just...flake off? She could always try! Proud of this solution she decided to worry about her hair later and try and find her two brothers.
Green eyes blazing with excitement she set towards the pier where she had seen her brothers fishing earlier. Maybe they would even be nice enough and teach her how to sword fight. Usually they just practiced with each other, but maybe today they would include Mary as well.
She became so excited by the idea she found herself a rather long stick which she pretended to be her sword. She named it Glory, after the great hero Glorien, who had killed a dragon, saved the princess, inherited half a kingdom and still made it home in time for supper! Although Mary’s favorite part was when Glorien had decided court life wasn’t for him, packed his stuff, dumped the princess and became a pirate instead. The whole nation had been in an uproar and most of the people believed Glorien to have been the victim of a horrible curse. Maryen didn’t think so though. She believed that Glorien had just been bored and had craved for adventure. Just like Mary did!
“Hah! You stupid dragon! Feel my wrath!” she yelled and slashed at an innocent bush that was on her way. “Have a taste of this! And that! Give up your treasure to me! To the greatest pirate to ever have sailed the ten seas! I am Blood Red Mary! Tremble before me!”
“Who would tremble before you? You don’t even reach me to the shoulder!” said a low voice behind her. Mary could feel a blush creeping on her face and quickly spun around.
“I haven’t had my growth spurt yet!” she argued, but could feel herself blushing even more. Stupid cheeks. Stupid brothers. Why did they always have to show up when she said something that wasn’t meant for their ears? She hadn’t told them her pirate name because she knew they would tease her. And now she had blurted it out in front of them! Stupid!
“Blood Red Mary?” the older of her brothers, Evin, laughed and shook his head. “After your blush?” Her younger brother, Oven, laughed at that. Mary just stared at her feet. This was exactly the reason why she never told her brothers anything. They just teased her. And they would tease her for eternity for this.
“Dad will be so mad when he hears you want to be a pirate. They steal and kill! Is that really the life you want for yourself? You should be ashamed. I thought you were cleverer than this,” Evin continued, while Oven nodded next to him. “You are thirteen years old, it’s time to leave those silly childhood fantasies behind you. Mom is becoming old and she’ll soon need help around the house.”
“I don’t want to be your personal kitchen slave! I don’t like baking, I don’t like cooking, I hate cleaning and I most of all hate washing clothes! I want to go on adventures, like you do! This is so unfair!” Mary yelled and could feel the tears forming. She always got the boring chores, just because she was a girl. At this rate, she would die of boredom before reaching her fifteenth birthday.
Her brothers shared a look which screamed “sisters are so dumb”.
“You want to be a hero? You are so weak you can’t even lift a sword! A fine hero you’d make! How are you planning to defeat the monsters? By screaming at them?” Oven argued. “Believe me, they wouldn’t fear you. Who would fear a girl?”
Mary couldn’t handle it anymore. She quickly spun on her heels and started running as quickly as she could towards the shore. How could they? She could feel the tears prickling at her eyes and she could feel her resentment growing. Why had she been born a girl? Only thing she was good at was household chores and she wasn’t even that good them. Her brothers were learning how to fight and hunt and only thing she was allowed to learn was how to wash their underwear!
It - was - not - fair!
She wanted to learn too. She wanted to learn sword fighting, archery, wrestling and how to hunt boars, deer, birds and most importantly - dragons! She wanted to be the hero and not some boring servant girl who served the hero ale and washed his dirty undergarments!
Her first victim was an unassuming clam. She threw it as far as she could (which was not far). After that she threw a series of small rocks and lastly her makeshift sword. They all fell to sea. Since that didn’t help her anger she turned her resentment towards the sand and beat at it. Even that didn’t help her dissolve the growing feel of utter helplessness that was growing inside her.
She would be stuck in this village. Stuck forever. She would clean and cook, cook and clean and clean and cook every day for the rest of her life while her brothers would have adventures. They might even join the king’s guard! And she would just rot away!
The tears were now freely streaming on her face. She was trying to tell herself she just got sand in her eyes, because heroes never cried. They were strong and always found a way to beat the odds! What would have happened to Glorien if he had suddenly decided that the dragon was too strong? What kind of a hero would do something like that?
A new determination stemmed from within her. She would not stay in this village. She would leave and become an adventurer!
“I will become Blood Red Mary!” she yelled at the sea. “And my name shall be known everywhere in the world!” As if in response a mighty gust of wind came from the sea and almost blew her over. After regaining her balance Mary started yelling the worst curses she could think of. Didn’t that scoundrel believe her?
While she was cursing at the endless blue she noticed something strange and out of the ordinary. There was a ship. She stopped her cursing mid-sentence. Why would there be a ship this close to the coast? They didn’t have a harbor in the village and they didn’t really barter with anyone either. So why would a big ship like that (she thought they were called galleons?) be that close to their village?
She glanced back at the village and the huge bonfire that had already been gathered at the center of the market square. Should she tell the village Elder about the ship? Maybe it was just passing by? Maybe the wind had blown it closer to the coastal line than normal? She could remember her father mentioning that the neighboring village was starting fur trade again… That’s it! They were probably heading that way.
After solving the biggest mystery of the year Mary couldn’t feel but a little disappointed. This was as exciting as her life would ever get. She’d seen a ship passing by. There was never anything exciting! Even the Midsummer’s feast had grown stale over the years. It had followed the same pattern for… Well, for as long as Mary could remember.
At first the women would bring the food trays on the long tables assembled around the bonfire. After that the village Elder would light the bonfire and chant a prayer to the gods. The prayer was a signal for the maidens in the village to gather around the bonfire to sing, their hairs decorated with fresh summer flowers which they would throw to the bonfire as a sacrifice to the gods. This was believed to bring happiness and prosperity in their future marriages. Most of the marriages were even agreed upon during the Midsummer’s feast. Finally the men would arrive, carrying the prey they’d caught during the hunt. The meat would be cooked around the bonfire, while people would be dancing and singing around it.
“Stupid Midsummer’s feast, stupid Mosquito Bay, stupid brothers, stupid father, stupid mother, stupid sea,” Mary muttered. “Stupid ship!” She was annoyed. She hadn’t even seen whose ship it was.
“Stupid ship,” she whispered. She would never be on a ship. She would never feel the wind on hair or sail the seas free of all the chores she’d need to do at home. The thought of home was depressing. She kicked a clam in front of her and decided she had had enough! She’d had enough of sea, the beach, the ships and especially of the feast! Right now everything just irritated her and made her even more depressed.
Mary should have known that after she returned home, the only thing she’d get would be reproof from her mother. Her mother wasn’t very happy about Mary’s sandy appearance and that her hair that was still full of dough. In truth, she was the very opposite of happy. Mary was pretty sure her mother had used more force than needed when brushing the dough out of her hair. Her scalp was on fire. But she didn’t complain, well at least not out loud. A real heroine would not complain!
You see, on her way home she had thought up a plan. After the Midsummer’s feast everyone would be sleeping soundly. And late! Except for Mary. Because she would be sneaking out of the village with some food from the pantry and a weapon from dad’s chest. The mere thought made her giddy!
What if she met a dragon on her adventures? She bit her lip not to exclaim out loud of sheer excitement.
“That child is planning something,” her mother muttered to the neighbor’s wife while carrying a food tray towards the bonfire as Mary was prancing ahead. “That skipping around doesn’t promise anything good. Remember what she did last time?”
“Oh dear, how could I forget? The milk turned sour for a week after that little terror decided to take dear Milly for a ride,” the neighbor’s wife answered and shook her head. “She’s a fiend and I don’t think she’s going to change.”
“Do you think it’s because… well, you know what. Because of that.” The last part was said in a whisper, so Mary wouldn’t hear it. It didn’t matter though, Mary was outside of earshot anyway and wouldn’t have heard even if her mother had screamed it.
“Oh, yes, it might be… After all, they are so mysterious… You never know about them. Did you know Alma saw one in the city?” The wife nodded vigorously at the horrified expression on Mary’s mother’s face. “Yep, that’s what I thought! Why’d they come this close to us! You’d think they’d know that the king hates their very guts! But no, apparently this one was acting very weird! Was asking about old treasures and the Windfort’s woods. Alma had been terrified. He had been even asking her! She’d almost fainted on the spot!”
“By the gods, about Windfort’s woods? It’s right next to us! I sure hope they won’t come anywhere near our dwellings! They can rot wherever they are right now, but they need to stay away from our village and my little girl!”
Mary, completely oblivious that her mother had just been discussing her, continued on with her planning. She’d need a map. He was quite sure he’d seen one on her father’s chest at some point… Maybe it was still there? Or had Evin borrowed it? He had always been fascinated by old stuff and was collecting it in his room. Oven always complained about it. Took too much of his space or something like that.
So busy was she with her planning that she almost walked straight into the bonfire, which now was at least double the size of Mary. Which wasn’t saying much, since she was shorter than all the other girls in the village. They had even nicknamed her. Mary the Gnome they called her. Well, what did they know? After tomorrow they’d all still be in the village and she would be known as Blood Red Mary, the terror of dragons, sailor of seas and finder of treasures!
“Mary! Mary!” The yell got her attention immediately, since it was her best friend, Vilna, who did it. She was running towards Mary like she was being chased by a dragon. Her usually so pristine hair was loose and her brown eyes were glinting. Mary didn’t have time to wonder why she was so excited when Vilna collided with her.
“Sorry, sorry! I just couldn’t stop in time!” she breathed out.
“I - ah - noticed,” Mary muttered while trying to climb up from underneath Vilna. She was met with failure, since Vilna was larger than her.
“Oh, sorry! I’ll get up!” she realized and offered her hand to Mary when she was on her feet. Mary wanted to pout, but accepted the hand after some debate. Besides she was curious on what had gotten Vilna so excited. Clearly the news had to be big! So, there she stood, waiting for the big reveal.
Vilna just stared back at her.
“Well?” Mary asked, impatient.
“Well, what?” Vilna asked, oblivious. Mary groaned. Why did Vilna have to be so slow?
“You yelled my name and ran me over… I’m pretty sure you had something to say?” Mary prompted, the frustration clear on her voice. She had even renamed the Midsummer’s feast as the Feast of Frustration. But apparently now Vilna remembered what had gotten her so excited in the first place.
“I heard this wicked gossip! I mean, I heard Alma, you know Alma, the merchant’s wife, tell it, but still, you know,” Vilna checked around her so that no-one unworthy of her big news heard it, “she saw an elf! In the city! An elf! Can you believe that? And it had been asking about the Windfort’s woods!”
Mary couldn’t stop the hammering of her heart. Windfort’s woods. It was right next to their village! And an elf! A real elf! A real living elf! Vilna could see from her friend’s face that she was at least as excited as her.
“Imagine if the elf will visit us!” Mary whispered. “Then we’d really see an elf. I mean… wow!” An elf! A real living elf! Mary had heard a lot of stories about the Elder Race, but she had never seen one herself. Not even pictures in books. Their village Elder had told them stories occasionally, but that was it. She knew they were always fierce warriors, whose bravery was unmatched and their beauty otherworldly. They didn’t fear death and even knew magic!
“Do you think we might see some real elf magic?” Mary asked her friend, whose eyes got as wide as saucers.
“That would be wicked,” she sighed in awe. “But why would an elf come here? Or… Or do you think there is some sort of elven treasure here? In the woods! They are old right? That’s the only reason why they’d come. The king banned them centuries ago right?”
“So there’s an elven treasure, right under our noses,” Mary summarized. “And that elf is coming to look for it. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Both of the girls stared at each other, their cheeks red with anticipation.
“Do you think our parents would let us go treasure hunting?” Vilna whispered. Mary scoffed. As if.
“No, but we don’t have to tell them…” she smiled. Vilna grinned right back at her.
Their excitement soon turned to puzzlement though, when they both heard a weird whistling sound. It was followed a large bang which made both their ears ring. For a while everyone just stood still, like time had stopped. And then everything started happening at double speed.
It was a total mayhem.
The warning bells started ringing. Mary noticed that a small fisher’s hut had collapsed near the beach and only pieces of wood remained. During the next whistling sound both Mary and Vilna realized the reason for this.
Cannonballs! Someone was shooting at the village.
“Pirates!” a yell could be heard. “Pirates!”
The horrified look on Mary’s mother’s face made Mary realize this was real. This was really happening. This was real. But she couldn’t understand why. Why were the pirates attacking? Especially at their village? They had nothing special. No treasures, no goods, no nothing…
Would they kill people?
Mary noticed one of their neighbors had already climbed in one of the watchtowers and was now waving a white flag. They’d surrender peacefully. Which was the only logical thing to do. They didn’t have enough weapons or trained people against pirates.
Mary could feel her stomach drop, when the next building to collapse was the watch tower. The flag bearers scream rang in her ears even after he had perished under the rubble. She could feel the nausea bubbling inside her. This was wrong. This could not be real.
This wasn’t how stories portrayed pirates!
“Mary! Vilna! To the forest! Run!” Mary’s mother yelled and tried to search for her boys and husband. Mary tried to protest, but her mother fixed her with a steely gaze. “Go! Now!”
“But what about you? I can’t go by myself!” Mary protested while Vilna just looked at the carnage that was unfolding before their eyes. The cannon balls just kept coming and they could see some of the pirates had already reached the beach.
“Vilna will stay with you! Now you both need to go! We’ll catch up to you! I promise! Run! NOW!” It was the last yell that finally made Mary’s legs obey her. She took a firm grip of Vilna’s hand and started to drag her towards the woods. It took several steps until Vilna woke from her trance and started to run on her own.
Mary could feel the tears prickling her eyes and heard Vilna openly cry behind her. This was a nightmare. This had to be only a nightmare. Soon she’d wake up on her own bed, with her father hugging her and telling it would be alright, it was just a dream.
When they reached the edge of the forest they could smell fire and Mary just had to glance back at the village. What she saw made the desperation inside her grow tenfold. The village was on fire. She could see her own home starting to catch fire from the neighbor’s house.
“No, no, no…” she whispered. “This can’t be happening.”
The cries from the village made both of them jump. Vilna was shaking like a leaf and Mary squeezed her hand as hard as she could. She was afraid too. What if the pirates would find them? How about their families? Would they survive?
The thought about her family reminded her of her mother’s last order. To the woods. They needed to run.
“Come on, Vilna. We need to go deeper to the forest,” Mary said while swallowing her tears. “They’ll follow us later, I’m sure they will. All will be well. The king’s guard will come and drive the pirates away!”
She grabbed Vilna and started to drag her to the woods. They needed to run and hide! What could they, two thirteen-year-olds do to a bunch of pirates? Nothing!
So, they ran. They ran until Mary felt like her lungs would burst and her heart wouldn’t be able to beat any longer. Vilna was panting loudly behind her until her foot got caught in a root and the both fell with a large thud. Mary could feel her head collide with something hard and heard Vilna cry out loud in pain.
She tried to clear her head out of cobwebs, but everything seemed to spin. When she finally got her gaze to settle, she could see Vilna’s leg was contorted in a weird position and the girl was cradling it while screaming in pain. Mary didn’t know what to do! She didn’t know what to do to broken ankles! That was the village healer’s job.
Mary could feel the tears of desperation on her face. She couldn’t be strong anymore. She wasn’t a heroine either. She was running away from pirates and now they were lost and her friend was hurt. And she could do nothing! She was useless!
“W-w-why?” Vilna was crying. Mary had no answer for her. She wasn’t even sure what Vilna was asking. Vilna stammered for a moment and then asked again:
“W-why? Why would they attack us? We don’t have anything worth stealing! And why didn’t no one notice?!” Vilna started beating the ground beside her. “Why didn’t anyone notice and warn us!”
Mary could feel her heart freeze. Why had no one noticed? Why had nobody warned them? Her legs turned to jelly.
She had seen the ship. It must have been the same ship. She had seen it and told no one. And no one had visited the beach afterwards. Everyone had been too busy with the feast. She had seen the ship! She had told no one!
The amount of guilt she was feeling was overwhelming. She felt like she was drowning. She couldn’t breathe. So… This was all her fault? She hadn’t sounded a warning. Maybe the whole village would have been able to escape if she had? Maybe the flag bearer wouldn’t have died?
“This is all my fault!” she cried out loud. “I saw that goddamned ship and didn’t tell anyone!”
Vilna was staring at her like she had sprouted another head. Mary realized her friend didn’t understand.
“I saw the ship. I visited the beach earlier and I saw it!” she explained. “But I didn’t tell anyone… I thought it was just passing by, but it wasn’t and it attacked us and it was a pirate ship and and…” Mary stopped her blabbering when Vilna’s hand collided swiftly with her cheek.
The look on her friend’s face was unlike anything she had ever seen. Mary could feel herself become speechless. Even her tears stopped.
“You know... “ Vilna had to pause for a moment. “You know very well, that we should report anything out of the ordinary to the village Elder. You know it full well! There had been pirate sightings before! You should have told him and not wander around like a headless chicken! I knew you were stupid, but I didn’t think you were this stupid!”
Mary could do nothing but gape at her friend. Vilna thought it was her fault too. Vilna. Her best friend. Was. Blaming. Her.
“Are you even listening to me?” Vilna screamed at her. “This is all your fault, Mary! You idiot! They will all die because of you!”
Mary couldn’t even answer to her. What could she say? Vilna was… Vilna was right. She hadn’t told anyone. The whole village would perish because of her. And mom, dad and her brothers… Oh gods, what if they’d all die because of her?
“Are getting it now?” Vilna continued. “They will all die and it’s all because of you and your idiocy! Because of you!” Vilna grabbed a near-by stone and tried to throw it at Mary. It glided past her, but Vilna was already grabbing another. “Leave! Go away! I never want to see you again! You hear me! NEVER!”
Mary could just stare at her. Vilna… hated her? She didn’t understand. It felt like she wasn’t even in control of her own body. She was floating above it, just watching it go through motions. She couldn’t even hear Vilna anymore, but she saw the rocks she was throwing. And she could see her own body turn around and run. Run deeper into the forest.
It had all been her fault. The pirates would kill everyone. And it was because of her.