Lorkana by Emily Zimmerman. (free e books to read TXT) 📕

putting her favorite flower with her, a lily. I smoothed her hair from her face and let a few tears escape, and then, the hardest task of all, my own, five year old sister. I had to stand at her door for thirty minutes before I finally got the courage to open it, what I saw made me drop to my knees yet again, and weep, for three hours I wept, not just for my sister, but for my family, I sat at my sisters side, and wept.
The moon had come out, and I was finally picking up my little sister, closing her eyes. I set her in her grave, kissed her forehead, set her rose in with her, and sang her favorite lullaby.

“Let me be free, be who I am, for I am not moldable, not anyone but me, if you should tell me what I can and cannot be, then princess, oh princess, let me be free” my words carried through the night air, my voice marred my sniffles and thick with tears. My sister only liked that song because it involved princesses; it always made me laugh when she would get excited before I would sing that part.
I got up, dusted myself off, blew a kiss to each of my family, and started filling the holes. It took most of the night to fill each hole, and I was exhausted by the time I was done.
I sat against the house, too scarred to think it ever as a home again, I leaned my head back, humming my sisters lullaby, I fell asleep.
Chapter three:

I awoke to sniffing in my face, not a large nose, as I expected, but the nose of a pup. I opened my eyes and looked down, in my lap was a little fluffy white puppy, I knew what kind of pup this was, it was a Pyrenees, it was so fluffy and cute. “Hello little guy, where did you come from?” I asked, scratching behind his flappy ears. Pyrenees are usually used to protect sheep and goat, this puppy seemed all alone. He barked a small, yappy sound and jumped up, licking my face. I laughed and stroked his small body.
A huge bark, booming and definitely a large Pyrenees came from the barn. I had forgotten I left the barn open last night, this pup looked about eight weeks old. The pup yapped at me and skipped clumsily over to his mother, standing in the doorway of the barn. I sat up on my knees, touching all three of my family’s graves, getting up; I walked over to the barn, stretching lightly.
I looked inside; my horse didn’t have a problem with the little litter of five and the giant dog inhabiting the barn. I walked cautiously inside, I didn’t want to startle the mother, the mother didn’t have a problem with me though; she trotted over to me, her stomach still a little stretched, and plopped down on her haunches, her tongue lolling out to the side.
I leaned down and let her sniff my hand, and then I stroked her head and scratched her ears. She looked thin, and I wondered how she had been feeding her babies. I sighed “are you hungry, girl?” I asked softly.
She licked my face, I didn’t expect that and laughed, I wiped my face “alright, follow me” I said.
All six of them were practically stepping on my heels as they followed me. I walked into the back door, it lead straight into the kitchen, so I didn’t have to see the living room. I looked in the pantry for something, a few cooked pieces of deer from two nights before were not edible to me anymore, and so I set it on the wooden floor, the puppies were probably about weaned off their mother’s milk by now, so they chowed down on the meat.
I decided that I should clean the living room, it wouldn’t be the same, but at least my father’s blood wouldn’t cover the floor.
I grabbed a mop and the tin bucket from outside, pumping the water from the well into it.
A sound in the woods made me turn my head sharply and stop pumping water. I watched for any movement, but saw none. I shrugged it off as a deer or a critter. I walked into the house; the dogs were already finished with their food, so they just sat on the floor, their tongues lolling out. I walked into the living room, sucking in a deep breath.
I started mopping the wood floors; my father’s blood was almost completely dried on the floor, so it was a little hard to clean. After about an hour, I was done. I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand, sitting down on the ground. The door to the kitchen opened and the mother dog skipped in with her litter. The mother lay down against my side; she must have felt my pain, because she cried softly.
I put my head in my hands and cried, the mother dog sat up, putting her head on my shoulder and crying.
I took my hands from my face and wrapped an arm around her, petting her shoulder lightly “you wouldn’t understand sweetheart, you have a wonderful family of little babies to take care of, you’re a good mother, kept your little babies alive for eight weeks at most” I praised her softly.
“Your good with dogs” a deep voice startled me.
Logan stood at my front door, watching me as I sat with puppies and a large dog surrounding me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“King Nefarious wanted me to make sure you were safe, it’s dangerous, being all alone in this big house” he said, assessing me with the dogs.
“I left the barn open and they found their way in, I wasn’t about to let these puppies starve” I said, picking one up and cooing at it affectionately.
Logan walked over, sitting down across from me; all five of the puppies clumsily climbed up on his lap, the mother, however, stayed faithfully at my side.
I laughed slightly at the look he had, it was a little overwhelmed. “What, never been surrounded by puppies before?” I teased.
He gave me a blank look, and I realized that he hadn’t. “You haven’t had a dog before?” I asked.
He shook his head “no, being a dog myself, I never really wanted a dog” he said.
I looked down, I had forgotten about that, I didn’t know how, but I did.
“Oh, well it’s a walk in the park, like this, pick a puppy up, and scratch him behind the ears or stroke him down his back like this, it’s relaxing” I explained, picking a puppy gently up and holding it to my chest.
He picked it up, and the puppy wriggled excitedly, he examined it close to his face, and the puppy licked him. He scrunched his face up and put the puppy down, I laughed and picked the same puppy up, cooing at it “that’s a good puppy” I cooed.
The mother got up, and I set the puppy down, all the puppies were tripping over each other trying to get to her stomach, she growled at them as they tried to get milk from her.
“Why is she growling at her young?” he asked in alarm.
I gave him an amused look “she’s weaning them from the milk she provides, once they get about eight weeks old, she starts the weaning process. It’s natural for her to be rather aggressive toward her pups” I explained, watching as she walked out the back way.
“King Nefarious is worried about you” he said suddenly, as if he had wanted to say it for a while.
“If he were worried about me he would have come himself” I said, getting up and walking into the kitchen.
“He wasn’t lying when he said he was your father, do you know how long he has been searching for you?” he asked.
I slammed my hand down on the counter “I’m not his daughter! My father is out there in a grave, along with my mother and sister, I am not related to him” I snapped.
He stared at me in shock “I don’t understand you Johanna, why can’t you just accept the truth?” he asked.
“Because I’m scared!” I shouted, my voice breaking.
I walked passed him, running a hand through my hair, I walked out to the barn where the pups sat with their mother on their little bed made of hey.
“Johanna, I…I’m sorry, but denying everything doesn’t make it any better, what do you have left here?” he asked from behind me.
That struck me, what do I have left here? The graves of my family, an empty house, a horse and six dogs, I have nothing.
I fell to my knees and put my head in my hands once again “I don’t know!” I cried.
He sat beside me and put his arm around me, pulling me into his side. “Come home Johanna, please” he whispered, rubbing my arm.
“Okay, but can I bring the dogs? They’ll die if left here” I said softly, sniffing.
He nodded and helped me up, keeping me close to his side “come girl, follow us” I said, my voice still a little thick.
She got up, as if in understanding, and walked over to me. Logan led me out of the barn and shifted, looking back at me, I hesitated a second and ran back into the barn, opening the stall, I led the horse out; I stroked her nose while taking her reins off of her.
“Bye Starfire, I hope you find a good home” I said softly.
I took a few steps back and used the command I taught her to run “hae!” I called.
She took off into the forest. I turned around and looked at Logan; his big silver eyes were watching me with a strange expression. “Let’s go, but make sure the dogs can keep up” I said.
He nodded as I situated myself on his back. He took off in a run, but not the inhuman speed it was, it was slow enough that the dogs could keep up. I looked back every once in a while, the dogs were keeping up easily, but it took about an hour to get there, much more time than the ten minutes it took last time.
When we got to the clearing, it was much more beautiful in the light of the sun, wildflowers and long green grass covered the field, the puppies were yapping and jumping around in the field, while the mother stood idly by our side, watching them. Logan walked over to the rock slide and sniffed around, once he found the rock he was looking for, he pressed his paw to it, it glowed once again, and the crack echoed