A Brighter Future?, The story of Tara Willow. Options

[Tábrasa]

Hello! I'll start by introducing myself.

My name is Tábrasa and I'm new to the forums. I've been silently looking at some of the stories on the forums and have felt truly inspired.
Therefore I have decided to start the story of my Breton Wiccan, Tara Willow, who I've been travelling with for the past year. Below is an introduction to Tara, which will soon be followed by the Prologue...

INTRODUCTION TO TARA WILLOW

Tara Willow is a 20 year old female Breton born on the 14th of Rain's Hand, 3E 413.

She is primarily a Conjurer but also dabbles in Destruction and Illusion. She is also handy with a blade in certain situations.

Her father died when she was a teenager and her mother resides somewhere in Cyrodiil, under a new name following events in High Rock that led her to abandon Tara as an infant.

Tara's father was a man obsessed with the art of Mysticism; but in the wrong kind of way. He wanted to experiment the thought of finding a way to turn the human body itself into a soul gem; an experment not only ridiculed, but dangerous.

One day, however, he managed to succeed in his experiment; using a teenage Tara as his unwilling test subject. He managed to trap a spirit withing Tara's body, leaving her in an unusual state.

Tara now has to permanantly live with an extra spirit inside her, who she named Willow, after her surname.
Willow is able to communicate with Tara and take control of her body for brief periods; but only when Tara desperatly need's her assistance. However, Willow's possesions are almost NEVER a good thing.

Currently Tara is on a mission to find her mother, mainly for her own piece of mind. All she knows is that she is in Cyrodiil, but nothing else. The only thing she has to offer any aid in her quest is the memory of her mothers face...

This post has been edited by Tábrasa: Dec 12 2011, 01:17 AM

[Tábrasa]

SubRosa: Thank you so much for reading As to you're assumption that Riccard is the Willow, I wanted to leave it ambiguous as to which parent is the origional Willow; despite the fact that I know which it is! Lol. Thank you for the compliments and the nits

Acadian: Thank you so much for the comliments! I'm glad you enjoyed my wording of the picture/sound quote I'm so thrilled that you are enjoying the story

Fawkes: Wow, thank you! Your comment about that segemnt was a huge compliment! I'm so glad i can help the readers feel for Tara

McBadgere: Thank you so much for the compliments! I'm glad you're enjoying the dark tone to the Prologue

King Coin: I'm so thrilled that Riccard's behaviour leave you pondering about him. And no, calling him sick was totally NOT inadequate; I'm sure many feel the same

mALX: Haha, thank you! I'm happy my writing passes off some kind of emotion to my readers

Grits: I'm so glad you are enoying the story! Even though i wrote the words, i too felt for Jada when she was scolding for loving her child.

Athynae: Thank you! Yes, Tara's story does begin quite dark, and hopefully once Willow is intorduced it'll bring more cheer to our dear Bretons otherwise unlucky life Thank you for the nits

***

0.3 ~ Prologue

3E 432 ~ Farrun, High Rock

The pain was unbearable; like a spark spell attacking every inch on humanity she had inside of her. Tara couldn’t even scream; the pain forced the scream into a silent whelp. A single tear strolled faintly down her cheek.

The spell lasted at least ten minutes as Tara has watched the clock in the basement as she suffered her torment. Each minute slowly dragging and painfully as she had felt.

After a what felt like an hour, she could feel something emerging slowly from within her as the spell appeared to be drawing to a close due to the glow of Riccard’s hand beginning to soften from a harsh light to a tiny shimmer. It felt like something was crawling from inside her chest, slowly reaching upwards, eventually into her brain. Her head began to violently tingle, before eventually settling down. It felt heavy.

Riccard’s spell began to ease, and then eventually cease. He stared at her in shock, a smile on his face.

“I’ve done it…” He mumbled to himself.

Tara stared at her father. He was motionless, as was she. She felt strange, yet in extreme pain. It felt like something was rummaging through her brain very softly, but making enough noise to be easily detected. She didn’t know what to do; she was exhausted.

“This is it Tara. We’ve done it. My life’s work, accomplished. Now all that’s left to do is…”

“RICCARD!?”

Riccard moved his head towards the basement door. Aleksander stood sturdily with a sword drawn, his eyes wide in horror at what he was witnessing. In Aleksander’s eyes all he could see was Tara tied to a table with Riccard groping her chest. He may have read the situation wrong; but it was enough.

“Riccard, you get away from her. NOW.” He demanded. Riccard didn’t move. Instead he stared at Tara with intense glee.

“Aleksander, I’ve done it! I’ve been waiting nineteen years but I’ve done it! Her body is mine!”

Aleksander glared at him, gripping his sword tighter; anger fuelling the adrenaline he had gained. He thought Riccard was his friend; a good man. There was no way he had prepared himself for this.

“You sick monster!”

Almost instantaneously Aleksander sped toward Riccard and plunged his sword into his abdomen. He held Riccard in that position whilst Riccard spoke his last words.

“You don’t know what you’ve done! I… wasn’t finished…”

Riccard looked at Tara before falling off Aleksander’s sword with an almighty thud. Neither Tara or Aleksander felt any pity. H-he... he had it coming…I’m sorry it had to come to this father…

Aleksander stared and Riccard, then spat on his corpse. Tara felt an ounce of pity for her father at that point. To Aleksander, Riccard was molesting his daughter; but Tara knew the truth. Whether she would tell the truth was a different story.

All she knew now was that it was over.

***

Aleksander held Tara by the waist, supporting her as he led her to his and Mildred’s house.

“I don’t understand why he would do such a thing. He was such a well respected man,” Aleksander pondered. Tara remained silent. Aleksander looked at her. “I don’t want you going back to that house. You’re coming to stay with Mildred and me.”

Tara looked at him and smiled.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t worry, Tara. You need SOMEWHERE to live.”

“N-no I mean, thank you, for helping me,” She said. “I thought I was going to…”

“You thought you were going to, what?” Aleksander asked. She was going to reveal that she thought she was going to die, but Tara remembered that she wasn’t going to tell the truth, so she remained silent.

They continued to walk as Tara began to notice many residents of Farrun staring at her. She looked at the floor and refused to acknowledge them; despite the fact that she could still feel their eyes boring into her.

“Anyway,” Aleksander started, looking at Tara. “You have your mother to thank, not me.”

Tara’s eyes shot a look at Aleksander with a small smile etched onto her lips. My mother?

“She wrote me a note on your sixth birthday ordering me to keep an eye on you on your nineteenth birthday. I just wish I hadn’t lost sight of you at the party. Maybe I could have stopped this sooner and spared the bloodshed…”

Mother DID know this was going to happen! Why did she let father keep me if she knew what he was planning?

Tara looked into Aleksander’s eyes and smiled; holding him closer as he supported her.

“Thank you, Aleksander…”

3E 433 ~ Farrun, High Rock

“Tara? Can you hear me?”

Tara woke up, startled at the sudden voice she heard in her ear. She looked around the room. No sign of anyone. She put her head back down on the pillow.

“Tara! Don’t ignore me, rude-o.”

Tara shot up again, her eyes darting across the room.

“H-hello?”

“Hello! No, wait, you know I’m here. Doofus.”

Tara jumped out of bed and spun, looking behind her for the speaker.

“Who… who are you?”

“Me? I could tell you my name… but it’s stupidly long. Call me what ever you want.”

“Who?”

“ME!”

“Who’s ‘me’!?”

“OH! Sorry. I’ve kinda been in a dormant state since daddy dearest did his wacky mumbo jumbo spirit trap thing. That was cool… although maybe not for you”

Tara panicked. She was too freaked out, even for words, so she did the only thing that made sense to her. She screamed and ran to her bedroom door to seek Aleksander and Mildred’s aide; but halted as she caught her reflection in her bedroom window.

She saw something in her image, a girl stood closely behind her. Her body was nude and partly misty. It looked as if half of her body was growing from Tara’s back as the Red-headed girl looked over Tara’s shoulder. Tara smiled. Even though it was strange and completely, undoubtedly and unexplainably petrifying, it was quite beautiful.

Tara relaxed as she gazed into the eyes of the Redhead.

“Where did you come from?”

“Well before I died I used to be a Spellsword from Bravil, then I took an arrow to the knee… and the eye. I think it was the eye shot that did it.”

Tara giggled. Even though she was completely in shock about the current situation, it felt somewhat comfortable; almost like the Redhead was a part of her. Part of her soul.

“That sounds pretty painful.”

“Ah, I’m over it. I’m sure I’ll get my own back one day.”

Tara continued to look at hers and the Redhead’s reflection. An awkward silence ensued; but only for a mere moment.

“So I guess I’m going to be sticking around then, huh?”

“Why do you assume that?”

“Well Mister Wacko created a spell which would leave a spirit trapped inside your body, right?”

“Right, but with the soul eventually being put into an enchantment. Who knows how long you’ll be with me.”

Tara then suddenly remembered something. Aleksander and saved her BEFORE Riccard completed the spell. For all she knew, the Redhead could be trapped inside her forever. She didn’t know how the spell worked, so that was all she could assume.

“Well if we’re going to be soul mates I’m going to have a cool nickname or something.”

"Well, you're very outspoken considering you've only just come round." Tara joked.

"I may have only just come out, but I HAVE been watching you, you know!" She revealed. "But that's beside's the major issue here. Are you gonna give me a super cool name or what?"

“…Like what?” Tara replied, surprisingly calm

“Um… I don’t know… how about Phoenix?”

“Really?” Tara questioned. “You don’t really look like a Phoenix to me.”

“Oh… Mental slap in the face right there. I could easily pass for a Phoenix.”

“Really?”

The Redhead looked disappointed. The name clearly had meant a lot to her for some reason.

“You need a name which I feel comfortable saying all the time. You ARE a part of me, remember…”

Suddenly, with that thought in mind, Tara had the perfect name for her new friend.

“How about Willow?”

“Willow? Your surname?”

“Yeah sure, that way you will always be associated with me. We will always come as a package deal. So?”

She thought for a while, pondering the thought of having such a tree-like name. It was very tough and it certainly wasn’t very intimidating; but nether the less, she loved it.

“Alright,” Willow smiled. “Willow it is.”

Tara nodded, and then smiled with her. Despite everything, she was happy. She grabbed a seat and sat looking into the mirror.

“So, Willow, why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself?”

Tara knew, somehow, that this was going to be the start of something wonderful.

This post has been edited by Tábrasa: Jan 12 2012, 03:21 AM