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As I left, I thought about past events leading up to today. My twin sister kidnapped at the age of 3, Kire attacking our family during the day and knocking me out, Justin (a six-year-old) coming to my defence, my father sacrificing himself to save us, and my mother absolutely having to leave to the Far Realms now, no matter what. What’s so important about my family that all this happened, and I have to go receive special training before going to join the other protectors? (I know my mother was one and I’m one but there has to be more than that) It was all so strange, and, to top it off, I had to leave my circlet at the palace. That’s the only sign I have of my royal heritage and I might need it in the future. Why should I leave it behind?
My escorts made me wear an old cap of human fashion and a cloth to cover half my face, but I was still wearing my guardian gem, fighting cloths (they said I’d need them often so I’d better get used to wearing them a lot), and my mithril bracelet. My mother was dressed similarly, except she had on a special gem to allow her to travel to the Nether Realms.
My escorts were two warrior elves, dressed for travel, but with a stern, almost hard look on their faces. They had lived through the ancient battles, but, being elves, only had scars to show for it. We elves don't age much, if at all, once we reach maturity and can live for up to 2000 years. The last ancient battle was about 1000 years ago and our requirement to participate in battles of such a large scale is to have completed warrior training, which takes about 10 years and requires you to be at least 3-years-old to attend (strong enough to hold a small dagger). By my calculations, they were 1013-years-old at this time, at least.
We travelled for two days before we reach a tall hill with a single tree and arch on top. My mother turned to me for one last farewell, “This is where I must leave you, Sapphire. This is the portal to the Far Realms, if you ever need me in the future and there is no other way, I want you to come here and summon me with your guardian gem. Send Emerald through to fetch me and I will come as soon as I am able. I will miss you. I wish you well as I travel around the cape of darkness.”
“Why do you have to go mother? Why can’t I go with you?” She just looked at me with that look saying that I knew the answer. I didn’t know right then, but there’s no arguing with the look, maybe I will know later. I looked down and said, rather disappointedly, “Very well. May your journey be safe and swift so you may soon return.”
She climbed the hill and chanted an incantation, then she stepped under the archway and was gone. We stayed at the hill's foot for the night, then left. Five days later, we reached a forest at the foot of a cliff. There was a small hut at the forest edge. We walked up to the door and my escorts knocked three times before a fairly old looking male stepped out. He was slightly bent and had a hard, wrinkled face. As I looked at him I realized this was Kraine the wise, and I wondered to myself how an elf could possibly look so old, since elves have incredibly long lives and rarely look old. He must have been working around his herbs too long.
“Greetings, Princess Sapphire, future saviour and ruler of the realm. Come in and we will get you settled. You have much to learn and little time to learn it in.” He turned away, then paused when he realized I wasn't following him, “Well, come on in. Don’t just stand there in the cold looking like a startled deer.” I shook my head and finally got my feet to work. It was cosy inside and much larger than it first appeared. Kraine showed me to a small bedroom to the right of the main entry room. I bid good bye and safe partings to my escorts then followed Kraine into my new temporary bedroom. He showed me a small closet and dresser with garments that were a little too big for me. He then went back to the main room, most probably to cook dinner.
I sat on the end on my small bed and stared out the window along the foot of the cliff, seeing nothing of great interest there besides a sparrow I started to unpack my things and set them up around the room, which didn’t take too long as I didn’t bring that much besides my clothes and a few things of sentimental value. I then walked back to the main room to find a pot of water near the hearth fire, not yet boiling, and Kraine staring into the dancing flames. “Come in, child.” His sudden command startled me for a second. How could he have known I was behind him? I walked up to him, thinking I must be about to receive my first lesson. “We are going out to gather herbs and vegetables for soup.” Maybe I was wrong.
We headed out into the verdant forest, and every so often Kraine would stop to point out a plant or fungus and name it, then name any properties it had and some common uses for it. After about half an hour, judging by what was left of the sun, we had gathered enough herbs, vegetables, and mushrooms to hold a small feast.
Back at the hut we proceeded to clean what we had gathered. Kraine started to hang up some herbs to dry while he had me working at preparing supper. I then noticed a large scar on his left arm, but he just told me to get back to work when I asked him about it. It was probably something he would tell me about later.
The soup was very good for my first attempt at cooking. I had found some spices to flavour it with making it rather savoury. It was dark by the time I was sent off to bed, once I had cleaned up the mess. My bed was surprisingly soft and I fell asleep quickly. In the last moments of wakefulness, I felt as if my parents were whispering to me 'Happy birthday,dearest star child.'
 Girl of the Dragons · Tue Jun 22, 2010 @ 04:44am · 0 Comments |
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