POV. Julie Whitestone

My name is Julie Whitestone, but in the past I was called Julie Manora. I was born as a count’s daughter of the Manora family in the eastern side of the kingdom. From young age I was talented in many things, except swordsmanship, but besides it, even advanced magic was not out of my reach, only that my father thought it was unneeded for a woman like me to learn to battle.

I lived my entire childhood like most of noblewoman, attending many etiquette classes and other lesson meant to impress influential men so they would marry them. Sometimes I would also have some free time to enjoy myself with my friends. However, what I desired was to change my life a little and experience something exiting. Once I finally asked my father to let me travel a bit in the outside world. Only after a long time of though did he finally agree to my request, but he then quickly said that I had to take a large amount of guards with me.

I was a bit annoyed by that, but I never regretted it. That journey was probably the most interesting thing I had experienced in my entire life. I saw a great deal of things and went to many unique places, meeting all kind of interesting people. The most important instance however, was probably when we found Derek, and I have gained my most loyal servant.

When I returned, there was not much change in my life for quite a while, that is until my father was unexpectedly assassinated. You see when I was only three and I didn’t have any siblings, my father also didn’t have any so he was my only family. When he died I didn’t know what to do, I just cried for several weeks in my room until Derek reminded that I had to continue fathers work and not let it all go to waste.

Only a year after taking up my fathers responsibilities, I went to a dance party for nobles in the capital. There I met Mark Whitestone and fell in love with him at first sight, he also too took a fancy in me when we had our first dance.

Soon we got married and I had become part of the Whitestone family. After two years we had our first child, who we named James after my husband’s father. James seemed to be very talented, so the one who did most of the teaching was Mark, and in all, I had a bit too little interaction with him, which made me quite depressed.

Thankfully, we soon had another child who we called Ariel, unfortunately or maybe fortunately he was born with a sickly body not fit for combat, that is why Mark was slightly indifferent to him and I could take care of him all by myself.

Ariel was a very cute child, I thought, James would grow up handsome, but Ariel was on another level. The only problem was how quite and expressionless he was, the maids responsible for him were quite unnerved by it, however I am his mother, there might be some problems with him, but I will help him in any way possible to solve them.

Soon some time passed, most of my time was spent on either working, or taking care of Ariel. James was now completely looked after by Mark. What I am regretful about is that he gained that arrogant personality while still being so young. It was truly the only thing I didn’t like about Mark.

One day, about a year after Ariel’s birth, I was coming into his room to keep him company, when I saw him on all four in front of the mirror. For a moment I froze, not understanding what was happening, but soon excitement filled my soul, as I came to realize that my son learned to crawl all on his own, and even so early. I only heard later on when James stated crawling and felt disappointed as a mother, for not witnessing my son’s precious moments in person, however this time I finally did.

I quickly ran up and hugged him to my chest, like he was some kind of priceless treasure, for several moments. After that, when I was happily watching his emotionless face, I notice he was looking towards the bookcase in his room, with something unusual in his eyes.

It didn’t take me long to go there and take out a book to read for him. Most of the time when I was with him I couldn’t get much of a reaction out of him, but when I started reading he seemed very interested, which since then propelled me to read for him right up to the later years of his life.

That wasn’t the only happy occasion I had, you could say there was a happier one when he spoke his first word, which was, mama, that made me almost faint from happiness. There was also the instance when he learned to walk that too I have also witnessed myself. Tough it was strange that he learned to talk before walking, but it didn’t really matter to me.

I was really happy in seeing all of his progress myself, of course I regret not being able to give more attention to James, but his father was adamant about teaching him alone. Because of that we drifted apart, before I would bring him to be with Ariel but he would always start bullying him, so I had to separate them.

Over all I felt satisfied remembering about rearing Ariel, only I am sad that he hasn’t ever smiled and even when he talks he does it in short sentences. Nevertheless I feel like he always pays more attention to me than other people, which truly elates me.

Unfortunately, now I am at my wits end because my baby has disappeared. He was not seen for the entire day, since morning. I looked trough everywhere and had all the servants searching every single place possible. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before someone found Ariel in the garden.

When I go there I saw him lying on the ground in dirty clothes. Faster than any one else, I grabbed and carried him to his room, while ordering for a doctor to come in. I finished tucking him into the bed when the doctor finally came, after the checkup, he said that Ariel was only overexerted and had to rest for some time.

The doctor told me not to worry, but how couldn’t I worry, maybe I shouldn’t be saying this as a mother of two children but Ariel is the most important person to me in the world who I raised by my own hands and was always there to witness his most important steps.

For two whole nights I didn’t move from Ariel’s bed, when I woke up one morning I saw Ariel sitting up on the bed and without any warning I hugged him as hard as I could. Right after that I started berating him about making me worry, unexpectedly he actually apologized to me, I thought he would answer in one of his short sentences, or not at all, but I saw the sincerity in his words, an actual emotion . However, that wasn’t what made me so surprised, it was the slight smile on his face.

This was the most beautiful smile I had ever seen, more so to my mother’s heart who longed seeing the expressionless Ariel smile. Once again without waiting, I hugged him. I never heard that he smiled to anyone else, except to me, right now.

Even if I felt like he usually cared about me more than the others, I still would sometimes think if he even saw me as his mother.

Now without a doubt I truly know he does, since in his smile, I saw the feelings of regret for making me worry and also the love for his mother which are so common for children. It truly made me happy as a mother, and swore that I won’t let anyone bring harm to my child not now and not ever.

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