N is for Nyx: An Eikasia Prelude
By Illise Montoya
Copyright 2013 Amanda French
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N is for Nyx: An Eikasia Prelude
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N is for Nyx
An Eikasia Prelude
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Nyx was in the middle of practicing her Common alphabet when her little brother, Atalo, shoved a banana in her ear.
“Koen!” she screamed, standing up so fast that her chair was knocked back onto the floor. Mushy banana bits clung to her hair and she tried to wipe these away, but she only managed to get her palms and the side of her face covered in sticky slime. “Ugh, you little monster, what’s wrong with you!?”
Atalo, meanwhile was laughing so hard his face was beet-red. Thaddeus, Nyx’s older brother, was also laughing from his place in the hallway entrance. “He got you good!” he chortled out.
“This isn’t funny!” Nyx shouted, tears in her eyes. “Why doesn’t he do these things to you?”
Thaddeus shrugged. “Because I don’t react to him like you do.”
Nyx bared her teeth and whirled on Atalo, her hands before her like claws. “Well let’s see if he likes this reaction!”
Atalo screamed, his eyes wide, but he was still smiling as he scrambled to dodge his sister’s violent lunge. They ran around the kitchen table, displacing chairs. Fotini came through the door just as Atalo ran for it. He collided into his mother, and Nyx just managed to slide to a halt. With his new refuge found, the little boy clung to the woman’s leg. Their mother stared at them all, a basket of leeks on her arm.
“Sweet Aelurus, can my house not be the host of chaos every time I step away?”
“It’s like this even when you’re here,” Thaddeus mumbled with a smirk.
“And after dinner, when you’re arrogance comes running like water from your ass, do not ask you’re A-ma to help you wipe it, Thaddeus,” her mother said with a sharp look.
“A-ma! You would poison your own son?”
“Poison? Gods no! I was only referring to your tendency to eat like a pregnant pig.”
Nyx laughed as her mother moved around her, the older woman grunting as she dragged Atalo along. The boy, in his stubborn refusal to let go, had wrapped his legs around hers. Thaddeus just held up his hands and backed into the hall, where he was no doubt going to retire to his room until supper. Fotini glanced at her daughter over her shoulder as she set her basket on the counter.
“Now what was the commotion about?” She gave a weary sigh. “I imagine it has something to do with the slime all over the side of your face?”
Nyx pointed at her little brother, who only stuck his tongue in response. “He smashed a banana into my ear!” A thought occurred to her, and she returned to her place at the table, where her Common alphabet book still lay open. Large chunks of banana were on the pages. The girl’s eyes teared up as she stomped a foot. “He got it on my book!”
Fotini massaged her brow with one hand. “Atalo, apologize.”
“Sorry, Koah.” But the boy’s face was lit with an impish smile as he ran off to his room.
“That’s all you’re going to do?” Nyx whined. “Some of the words on my book are even ruined!”
Fotini looked at the girl over her shoulder. “Really? Which ones?”
The girl sniffled back more tears as she pointed at the page. “These ones! The first letters of the Common alphabet and some of the other vowels too!”
“Vow-els? Are those really so important?”
“This book translates Common to Ailuran, of course it’s important A-ma!”
Fotini closed her eyes with a suffering expression. “All right, all right my little night shard.” She fished into her apron pocket for some coins, then held them out to the girl. “Here. Why not go buy a new book at the market?”
Nyx scowled. “But they only sell Ailuran books!”
The woman let out a sharp hiss and grabbed the girl’s hand. She forced the coins into her palm. “Nyx, enough. A-ma’s head hurts and she’d like to get started on dinner before the next disaster strikes!”
Nyx’s face crumpled and she slammed her fist onto the table. “This isn’t fair! This book was A-pa’s, and you don’t even care that Atalo ruined it! You never care!”
Fotini stared at her daughter, taken aback. “Nyx! That isn’t--”
But the girl snatched the book off the table and was running out the door.
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