literature

Odelia's Identity Trials

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Literature Text

Trigger Warning: Child abuse, mild gore & blood

Part 1

1221 Words

Once upon a time, there was a queen named ‘Pisum’. She was kind, and fair, and ruled as a just and compassionate leader. Most in the land of Beania adored the queen, or at the very least acknowledged that she was a good bean to the core. This Pisum was known for leaving presents around the land near bagbeans she thought deserved them; she was good ilke that, she noticed things. For those bagbeans whom she thought deserved it most, she often left them a wonderful present; a lovebean, red and glowing most usually, often tucked away near them. She would watch and wait to see the reaction of the new parent or parents, gleefully tucked away.

Really, it was all quite a lovely affair, and a wholesome sentiment. On the particular day of a certain bagbean’s lovebean being hidden, however, there was a commotion to the side that drew Pisum away. Though a competent fighter and quite shrewd, the queen had failed to notice that she was being watched near constantly by a bagbean with a terrifying grin and a sinister look to their black gaze. The commotion was purposeful, caused to draw her attention away. Finally, finally, this bagbean had what they wanted. The new couple who were supposed to find the lovebean had their attention drawn away by this commotion, and instead the sinister bagbean was able to steal their new prize and make off with it.

What a life Odelia would have led if the queen had only glanced back just once to see the prize she’d left for another being stolen away.

“Hold still,” the voice murmured behind her, Odelia whimpering but doing as she was told. She always tried to do as she was told, still under the false belief that it was going to do her any good. The sprout bowed her head as her caretaker pressed the needle through her skin, the feeling of it and the thread being tugged along making the sprout pant and desperately curl her claws in against her palm – so hard it drew blood, even. That wasn’t enough to distract her from the awful sensation, the way it made her skin crawl and her eyes bulge.

“There, now, that wasn’t so bad, was it? This way you can really get a feel for how it works, can’t you?” Her caretaker asked, their voice a little shrill and excited. Odelia nodded quickly, swallowing and refusing to respond out of fear that it would only get her into more trouble. Quietly explaining that she didn’t understand how threading a needle worked had only ended up with her being taught in this rather… Brutal way. It had been a bad question, though she didn’t understand why. Everything she said was bad though, wasn’t it? Everything she did, too. Maybe she should stop doing and saying things!

Odelia felt a tear slide down her cheek. “Go on then, give it a try. If you get it wrong, I can show you some more how it works.” Odelia’s caretaker encouraged, their tone oddly patient given how swiftly they had snapped to rage not a moment before.

The sprout’s paws shook as she lifted them, her creamy palms dotted with blood from her own nails. The sight made her feel a little less out of control, like somehow being the one to hurt herself was better than seeing yet another wound on her body inflicted by a shadowy figure that was always hovering over her shoulder. She wanted to pull her tail back towards her body, away from her caretaker’s needle and wandering paws that seemed so desperate to maim her. Maybe her caretaker wanted her to be covered in scars and stitches like they were? Odelia didn’t know if the scars and stitches were her caretaker’s own doing, or if someone had done something to them.

Sometimes, quietly, the sprout wished that it was someone else who’d done the injuries, and that they would one day come and take her caretaker away. It was a useless hope, Odelia wasn’t sure she’d be free until the day she stepped foot through the portal to go on to the human world. And even then, she didn’t doubt that her caretaker would be able to find her when she returned. They always told her that if she ran, they would find her. They would hunt her down and break her legs and scratch up her pretty little face, then dye her tear stains onto her cheeks so she would always be crying.

Odelia pushed the needle through the soft fabric in her paw. Trembling a little, she pushed the needle through and pulled the thread along. It fell out of the other end, but before Odelia could tie a knot in it, she felt her caretaker’s needle pierce her own tail. “Ah!” Odelia shouted, before immediately shutting her lips and trying to muffle the sobs in the back of her throat.

“I’m going to keep sewing your pretty little tail until you’re done, dear. Better hurry up now.” Her caretaker laughed softly. Odelia felt tears stream down her cheeks as the pain kept repeating, over and over, the needle pushing through her skin and the thread pulling tight. It hurt and it felt wrong, so very wrong, to have fabric inside of her own body.

Trembling like a leaf, Odelia scooped up her thread and tied a knot in it, hurrying to push it through along the seams of the bag that she’d outlined. She couldn’t move fast enough though, every one line of her own thread crooked and wrong and hastily done but still not fast enough, not faster than her caretaker. The sprout’s tears blurred her vision so awfully that she couldn’t see what she was doing, and she yelped when she pricked her own finger, but kept going. She couldn’t stop, not until the straps were on and the bag was done. She needed to keep going so that the pain would end, her insides clogged up with fear. What if it didn’t end? What if she couldn’t get her bag done and her caretaker sewed string through her whole tail?

Odelia choked out another sob, stabbing her finger again. It hurt, the pain blinding everything else, and for a moment the sprout nearly succumbed to it. Then, all of a sudden, it was over. Odelia gasped as the pain ended, realising that in her hands she held her own finished bag. It was hastily made, the edges all messy, the stitching uneven but it was done, and the pain was gone.

“It’s terrible, but you did it. Good girl. See, that wasn’t so hard, was it? It was good that I motivated you, made you do it faster. You see, everything I do is because I love you, don’t I?” Her caretaker asked, holding Odelia’s jaw and tipping her head up so their eyes could lock.

Odelia spat in her caretaker’s face without hesitation. “No.” She snapped. Rage arrested her caretaker’s features and they grabbed her hair, dragging her away from her finished bag and towards the bad room. Odelia screamed and writhed, not wanting to go in the bad room again, where her caretaker always locked her away for weeks with barely enough food or water to survive. “No! No! No!”

Part 2

1439 Words

“Your hair is awful Odelia, just awful, do you know that?” Her caretaker demanded, yanking a comb through it. Once, maybe a year earlier when Odelia had first made a bag (foolishly believing her caretaker would let her leave anytime soon for her trial), the sensation of having her hair pulled at by the roots might’ve made her cry. She might have even whimpered, or twitched, or reacted at all. The only indication that Odelia had even heard her caretaker that she gave was to sweep her eyes to the side as if she could see behind her.

She saw their paw, their blood-stained paw, and that was enough. The tug at her head had her body moving back with it, pulling it even though the sprout knew it would infuriate her caretaker. She didn’t care, she had long since stopped caring about any of it anymore.

Odelia watched a lizard scuttle past her feet. They were outside which was rather rare for the two of them, her caretaker preferring the dark of the underground cave home that they lived in. Odelia liked the dark too, purely through conditioning more than anything else. Even though she had suffered horrors under the cloak of darkness, it had also been where she’d turned when she had no one else. She’d scurried into a corner, tucking herself away and curling up where it was pitch black, where no one could see her or find her. It made her feel safe, and she had learned some months ago how to see without seeing. How to taste the area, hear the softest movements, feel her way through her surroundings. She had even picked up a knack for sensing things in her way before she could touch them, their mere existence rippling through her plane of perception.

Yank. Yank. Yank. Odelia kept watching the lizard, watching the way it scuttled up onto a rock and flicked its tongue out to taste the air. She did the same, wiggling her tongue. The world tasted fresh and bright today, though there was something about the air that made her think it would rain soon. Not that Odelia would see it, mind you, since they were leaving for Fabian’s right after this. Odelia couldn’t wait, anticipation thrumming through her bones. She wanted to be away from this just once, to be able to breathe fresh air when she wanted, sleep when she wanted, eat and drink and live however she so pleased. She was tired of her bland food that was good for her ‘growth’, and tired of being rationed water. Her caretaker said it was because she was allergic to water, but Odelia knew that was too stupid to be true. Really, they just kept her weak. It was why she couldn’t sleep for very long, why they always roused her after an hour, kept her on her toes. She needed to be weak so that she never, ever, felt stronger than her caretaker.

Odelia was stubborn though, and she did anyways.

“Put your tongue away, stupid girl,” her caretaker scolded. That was the last thing they ever said to her, before Odelia stood abruptly and smacked them across the face. As her caretaker reeled, the bagbean hissed and dropped onto all fours, bounding down the hillside and off towards Fabian’s without a glance back.

She’d never see them again.

---

Odelia pushed her dark hair away from her face, slicking it back and up into a high ponytail as she sashayed her way through the crowd. Her tanned clothing was dirty and hung loosely over her skin, covering up the essentials but otherwise leaving as much of her exposed as possible. The air was hot and dry today, pulsating around her like she was standing inside of a fire, but Odelia loved the way it burned. The heat always felt like it was pushing everything away from her, stripping the pain and the fear away until she was beautiful and new again.

Clean.

“Hey, pretty girl,” a merchant purred, reaching out and grabbing at her. She darted just within his reach, before smacking his hand away and hissing. “No pretty, no pretty girl,” she scolded, sinking lower and baring her teeth as she curled her fingers like they were claws. “Lion, eat you.” She snapped her teeth. The merchant reared back, looking concerned for her sanity.

Odelia smirked and straightened, sashaying back on down the street with her tongue hanging out of her mouth like a puppy panting after a run. Once she’d made it to the end of the street, Odelia turned the corner and slid on down another one. There was a place she wanted to go today, somewhere that she’d heard some human calling the “Cave of Medusa”. Medusa was said to have a head made of snakes, and she could freeze anyone she wanted to stone with just a look into their eyes! Odelia wanted to be like that, wanted to be able to freeze her caretaker, and anyone that had ever known her caretaker and done nothing to help her.

She knew they existed. How else did her caretaker get them food without ever leaving the cave? And who did her caretaker mutter to when she thought Odelia was asleep?

The cave entrance was easy enough to find, marked by regal stone pillars and a gaping, hungry black mouth. Odelia pulled her bag more firmly onto her shoulder, before stepping in and wandering deep inside. It was pitch black, but Odelia was used to that, the darkness.

She must have been walking for hours, tasting the air and sensing someone was close, when finally, she heard a voice. “Who are you?” It was beautiful and melodic, but there was a haunting power behind the words. A threat of strength lay woven into the syllables, and Odelia marvelled over how she did that.

The bagbean did not answer. She did not like to speak.

“Odelia, is it? I hear your thoughts child, come closer. I know you can ssssssssense me,” they lingered on the ‘s’. Odelia turned and walked towards the presence, only stopping when a hand came to rest on her shoulder. “None have ever dared come into the darkness and face me like this. Is it courage or stupidity that you carry with you today?”

Odelia growled in response, sinking down onto all fours and snapping her teeth. “You don’t like being called stupid?” The disembodied voice asked, laughing when Odelia made a purr-like noise in agreement.

“Fine then, child, I will call it courage and we shall see if that is true. Tell me child, what do you seek?” The voice asked.

Odelia paused, then quietly hissed and held her hands up above her head, wiggling them like snake hair.

“You seek Medusa? Do you wish to steal her power, then?!” The voice grew angered, and Odelia hissed at the mere suggestion. Steal, no! She wished to understand it. “I see. You are a tortured soul, wounded and beaten, not of this world. You wish to gaze upon Medusa, even though it may turn you to stone?”

Odelia paused. He didn’t want to die, but perhaps being stone would be better than having to return home without a way to escape her caretaker’s reach.

“Fret not, child. I will not turn you to stone. Come, look up. Look into my eyes, see my power.” And then suddenly, the cave was flooded with an unearthly green glow, pulsing and shining all around them. Odelia lifted her head and gasped, eyes wide.

Medusa was pure beauty. She was magnificent, and frightening, and powerful, and all of it made her such a radiant beauty to be exposed to. Odelia’s eyes flicked over the snakes, hissing and spitting at her, and then moved to Medusa’s eyes. They were orange, blue, purple, green, all such beautifully mesmerising shades. No wonder men had been sucked into her gaze and frozen still!

“Tell me child, am I all that you expected?” Medusa asked then, tearing through Odelia’s stunned thoughts.

The bagbean grinned ear to ear and nodded eagerly, darting forwards to touch one of the snakes. Instead of rearing back and hissing, it moved into her touch, nuzzled her, tasted her scent on the air around her finger.

                         

“I sense that you and I could get along very well, if given the chance.” Medusa suggested with an amused grin, her snakes calming as her eyes returned to a soft, normal brown. Her hair slowly turned back to… Well, just that. Hair. Odelia was still mesmerised all the same. “Me too.” Odelia agreed with a wicked grin.

Part 3

1022 Words

Odelia crawled over Medusa’s lap and made a noise of protest, reaching up to touch one of the snakes – her favourite, actually. He was always good and never once hissed at her, always licking his tongue over her finger and then nuzzling into it. If Odelia could take him with her, she would, but it would be rude to pull Medusa’s hair out like that.

“Child, whatever is the matter with you?” Medusa asked with clear amusement. The soft, familiar green glow of the cave around them soothed Odelia’s racing heart and racing mind. She made a noise of displeasure and curled around until she was comfortable, like a cat nesting into place. Medusa’s hand came to her hair immediately, stroking through the fluffy black locks as her snakes hissed softly in the background. They weren’t upset, they just liked to make constant noise. The hissing faded as Medusa’s hair shifted back, and she drew her tiny bagbean daughter into the warm embrace of her arms. “You don’t want to return home, do you, my child?” Medusa asked knowingly, caressing the lines of Odelia’s face.

The bagbean purred, leaning into the touch. Medusa was good to her, kinder than the rumours and stories about her. She had a soft touch and it was always nice, always innocent, never with the intent to hurt or frighten Odelia. The bagbean was certain that Medusa would sooner turn herself to stone than ever lay a finger on Odelia.

“Mama,” Odelia mumbled, nuzzling into the touch and burying her head against Medusa’s neck. She never said much, not able to overcome the instilled fear of talk in her, but Medusa was able to hear her loudest thoughts even if Odelia didn’t mean for her to.

“Child, you must go home. This is not your place, and you must face the demons of your past to move forwards. You cannot be truly happy and at peace until you have found out the true strength of yourself as you are now.” Medusa kissed both of Odelia’s cheeks. The bagbean grumbled and squirmed, but finally settled as a way of letting Medusa know that she understood.

They shared a heartfelt goodbye, Medusa leaving her cave just this once to return Odelia to the portal that she had come from initially. She kissed Odelia’s forehead sweetly, and then plucked Odelia’s favourite snake from her hair and handed it to the bagbean.

The gesture made her beam all the way through the portal and back into her own world. She tucked her snake friend away into her bag, just as Fabian delightedly examined her. “You’ve grown so much, little Odelia! You look much healthier too than when your caretaker brought you in,” he had a knowing glint to his eye, though this time it was much more happy than the one he’d had when she’d first come scampering in, panting and searching desperately for the cookie that would make her human. All she had been able to think about during their first encounter was how badly she wished to be human and free and safe. She had hit her caretaker after all, and Odelia had known that her caretaker would not stop chasing.

Hence, the need to get through the portal as soon as possible before something truly dreadful happened to Odelia.

The bagbean took the cookie that was offered to her, Fabian looking a little awkward about the fact that she hadn’t said anything in response, but he seemed to recover quickly. “I hope your journey brought you peace,” he said, looking over his shoulder as he stood by his potions cabinet. Odelia nodded, wiggling her tongue from where she was sat on the ground. Bagbean again; it felt strange, and a little frightening, but this was her skin and she would never let her caretaker be able to creep her out of her own skin again.

“Your caretaker is locked away, just so you know. They were smuggling illegal potions and Queen Pisum brought them to justice. They won’t ever be let out,” Odelia knew Fabian was lying about the reasons why her caretaker was locked away, but she appreciated that he knew she didn’t want anyone to know what she’d been through.

Odelia cracked a grin, one so wide she thought she’d break her own face in half. Scuttling forwards, the bagbean pulled her snake out of her bag. He wove around her neck, settling there comfortably on her shoulders and watching as she emptied the contents out at Fabian’s feet.

“Oh, what have you brought m-“ He stopped when he saw what was in the bag, his mouth shutting as he quirked his brow in amusement. On the floor at his feet was a great deal of sand, some rocks, a really shiny pebble (it was her favourite! She hadn’t intended to give it to Fabian, but he had given her such good news, how could she not?), some chewing gum (used) and a strand of Medusa’s normal hair.

“I… Yes, these are quite excellent gifts,” he grinned a little, like this happened to him all the time. Odelia truly wondered if he could get any use out of these items beyond thinking they were pretty like she did, but then swiftly decided it didn’t matter to her. “You can pick whatever potions you’d like, Odelia. Go on then, don’t be shy.”

Shy, Odelia was not! The bagbean made a squawking noise of delight and jumped up onto his counter, knocking off a few things but paying them no mind. She gathered up a bunch of potions in her arms, before dropping to the floor. She hissed when Fabian moved towards her, but he lifted his hands in the surrender position. “I was just going to put them in your bag for you,” he assured her. Odelia considered this for a moment, before poking her tongue out and wordlessly handing them over. He packed her potions away neatly, before having the bag snatched out of his hands by Odelia.

             

“Thanksssssssss.” Odelia whispered, before she was gone like the wind, running on all fours out into the world. 

Odelia's childhood wasn't the happiest, but I needed a reason that I felt logical to justify how odd she is. Odelia doesn't talk unless she absolutely has to, or she feels that you've earned it (and even then if you get one word, you're lucky as all hell). She also mostly walks around on all fours and communicates through hissing and purring.

Her best friend is Shrub. Because ofc. 
© 2017 - 2024 CylaDavenport
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Caracopal's avatar
duuUUUUUUUUUDE THIS WAS SO GOOD!!! im excited to finally read about odelia omg this was really?? OUCH at the beginning like damn that needle thing was sO messed up and the room and starving thing was all so ;;_;; your writing makes it so easy to get immersed in with the character and i just felt for her as she was rushing along through making that bag and ARGH i wanna punch her caretaker ))::<<
i really really love her interactions with medusa... and medusa being like a mother to her was so sweet! Medusa in mythology was always portrayed as a monster and stuff but like i recently became acquainted with the full extent of the myth and it was through no fault of her own she became that way, it was because she was harmed by others and forced to become something terrible as a punishment for being assaulted??? thanks ancient greece. but i think that makes the connection between the two all the more meaningful, medusa being punished for something out of her control and finding a kind of motherly companionship with a child who was also punished for simply existing in the wrong place at the wrong time. and she gave her one of her snakes that's adorable ;u; <3
also odelia giving fabian her favourite pebble even if it was by accident was just an adorable bit of writing, and her excitement at getting the potions just made me!!! 8D SO CUTE! and good to hear her caretaker is locked away..... hopefully for total actual good >:'D 
bUT YEA AMAZING WRITING AS ALWAYS!!!!