FicWad

Contrast to popular belief and assumption, I am not what you would call an Amazon. Though I live in a matriarchal society where the women are warriors and men are the lesser sex, we are not the Amazon tribe. We live on a remote island in the Caribbean, and my mother rules over this island.

My name is Loreley, the third daughter of Queen Dahlia and her consort Xavier. As the third daughter, I am expected to become a priestess, so instead of living with Her Majesty, I live with High Priestess Nalahia, one of the women who decided not to become a warrior, but chose to join the Priestesshood. The name ‘Loreley’ is strange, but the name comes from the young priestess who sacrificed herself in the river Aliz, which runs through the island out to the Caribbean Sea; the island itself is called Donoussa.

My eyes are strange, a gold colour, and my hair is the colour of bronze. I mainly wear shades of green in terms of tunics, my favourite a mossy green embroidered with silver. I have two sisters, Aleera, who would have been Queen after Her Majesty’s death if it were not for her eloping with Heath Blackmore, an Englishman who she had rescued from a shipwreck, and Ida. Ida is everything Her Majesty wanted Aleera, her firstborn, to be. She is strong, capable, and she has a warrior’s body. Tall, lean, but so much hard-spun muscle there! Her hair is a bright auburn and her eyes are the shade of the jungle leaves. She is the Queen in Waiting. She decided to take the rites of passage to be a warrior, had her right breast cut off at sixteen, as par the tradition of our people. I, then seventeen, refused, and so was sent by Her Majesty to live with Priestess Nalahia.

So far it may seem to you that we have similarities to the Amazons. If a male child is born, we do not abandon them like the Amazons did. We respect the men, despite them being the lesser, and so, they respect us for doing so. You cannot expect respect from others if you do not respect them. It is truly as simple as that.

Donoussa does have the Caribbean climate, and the evenings are balmy. The sands are golden and the sea surrounding my home a brilliant blue. The greenery- the palm trees, the bushes, even the grass, are so green it looks unearthly. The birds are all brightly coloured- reds, golds, blues, any colour you could possibly imagine. The water in the freshwater river Aliz and the springs are clear and cool, perfect for both drinking and bathing. All this fertility is caused by two factors. The first is our Goddess, Amira, who is a virgin Goddess, and the second is the volcano on which the greenery flourishes.

My story begins with how we flourish. Of course we need swords and other such necessities, and unfortunately, the metal supplies had practically run out by my eighteenth birthday. So we began trading with the buccaneers and pirates that prowl the Caribbean. Aleera’s husband, Blackmore, was a pirate, and I believe he still is. But we only traded with those who swore to keep our existence a secret. We had flourished for many years, and we did not want those who were intent on conquest to find us. The strongest may be warriors, but we prefer not to be in war...