Flashback So Long, StellaLuna

[Drusilla]

Spring 497AV, Swiata vo Viratas Drusilla sat on the floor of the house. Her eyes tightly shut and hands folded in prayer. She recited the words that had been drilled into her head for as long as she could remember to the point where the young girl wondered if she had simply been born knowing them. "Spilt blood cries out to me. It speaks of life and death. It sings of sins and blessings." She felt someone sit beside her, causing Stella to move about in her hair. "Every drop is precious, but not all cries holy." She quickly finished the verse. Opening her eyes she found her father had sat next to her. Drusilla smiled attempting to climb on his lap, "Papa!" He quickly stopped the squirming girl, "Ah-ah, you messed up the last part of the verse." Drusilla looked at her father and blinked a few times, mentally trying to pin point her mistake. "Oh?" She sat back down and took to thinking some more. "Where? Where did I mess up?" Purple eyes looked at him with confusion. Where had she made a mistake? "But not all..." Dovinid bated his daughter. "Cries holy!" The girl proudly finished. "No dear, 'But not all cries are holy.'" He chuckled at her, "You keep forgetting the 'are'." The young girl looked down and away, "Oh... I'm sorry Daddy...I did mess it up...." Dovinid smiled at his young daughter, if only her mother was alive to see how pretty and smart she was. He nudged her, "Don't worry, you have plenty of time to learn it. So you don't have to know it perfect yet. Plus that's just one verse of many."Drusilla watched as her father retrieved a worn book and handed it to her. The little Symenestra looked over the worn leather cover of the book, "I have to learn all of this?! That's impossible!!"

[Drusilla]

The six year old began to panic, opening the book and paging through it. How could anyone memorize an entire book? Heck, she knew only one verse and she messed up on that even! A sudden feeling of frustration set in and Drusilla handed the book back to her father. "Why do we need to learn that book anyways... The Virsadis or whatever it's called?" The little girl asked, annoyance filled her voice. She had more important things to do that memorize a book that made little to no sense. Dovinid sighed at his daughter, "Drusilla, you don't have school today, do you?" She gave her father a large grin, "No, I don't!" It wasn't that Drusilla disliked school... In fact, she loved it. It also got her away from her sadistic Step-Mother. But a day off spent with her father was more than welcome to the girl. "Do you know why you have no school today?" An even bigger grin plastered itself on her face, "Because there's a festival today!" The little girl was pleased with the fact she knew that. "What is this festival for or about? Do you know that?" Dovinid asked raising an eyebrow. The young Symenestra made a face and tried to think of the right answer to tell her father. She sat there quietly in thought for a few ticks until the young girl's companion grew bored. A squeaky chatter protested a lack of attention from somewhere within the child's mass of hair. "Stella! I wondered where you went!" Drusilla giggled happily as the small bat found her way onto the girl's shoulder. Drusilla coaxed the bat onto her hand and began to talk to it, forgetting all about her father's questions.