A'ae'li
12-28-2004, 07:21 AM
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana>Chapter One: The Gift: </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> Aelina, a small and frail young wood elf, was but 10 years of age when an attack on her people changed her life forever. She had been playing in the berry bushes nearby when a powerful blast erupted and most everything lit aflame.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> Uncertain, she rose to her feet and stared around, the flames licking at her skimpy rag gown and causing it to light as well. Racing to the nearest river she padded into it, putting out the flames, than nursed her burnt leg, looking at the burning forests around her with a terrified expression.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> The cold water remained her safe spot until a freezing wind blew past her, chilling the tips of her hair into icicles and causing the stream to freeze around her legs, sticking her to the spot.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> Struggling to escape the strange phenomena, she beat at the ice at her feet with her fists, causing them to swell and redden.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> A sickening crackling noise erupted and she looked up in time to catch a glimpse of a falling tree. Her eyes widened into circles and she struggled even harder to escape but to no avail.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> She looked up again, her eyes teary and tried to block the tree but just as it came within an inch of her it burst into soot.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> She looked up, her face black as well as the rest of her and saw a tall, black colored, man coming towards her, his robes stalking around him menacingly.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> "S-stop!" She begged, fear clinging to her, but he did not.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> He stopped, hovering above her, his feet on the ice and took the staff off of his back, ramming it carefully, so as not to hit her, into the ice and freeing her trapped feet.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> She shivered and looked up at him, nursing her wounded hands and being barely capable of standing, "thank you..."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> He frowned at her, apparently not understanding the language she spoke, and lifted her from the water carefully. He carried her out of the forest at a walking pace as though nothing was going on around him.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> She eyed her hero carefully, studying the glowing marks over his flesh and the glittering staff he wore on his back. The man looked well dressed and tended to. She looked like a pitiful excuse for a girl.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> Gazing down at her own burnt dress she blushed, feeling out of place with this man of riches, and looked straight instead, trying to see her village between the bushes.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> Suddenly, the man stopped, and she looked up at him, than looked where he was looking, and frowned, her eyes wide with tears and surprise, "My home..."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> Sure enough, a roaring fire stood before them, where her village once was, and wood elves were running everywhere, trying to put out the brilliant fire and prevent it from burning their precious trees and homes.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> "Stay here," The man stated to the little one, setting her gently down where no fire could reach her and racing into the flames.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> Before long, she felt a familiar chilly breeze sweep through the village and she closed her eyes, bundling up tightly.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> Feeling a hand grab hers' and lift her, she opened her eyes again to see her entire village covered in snow, with white ash raining down from the sky than seeing a white and black robe.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> The man that had rescued her before was once again holding her and walking towards the snowy village, pulling aside fallen branches and going to the center of town, where the meetings had been held, and looking around at the slim number of villagers that had made it.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> "AELINA!" A skinny, weak looking, wood elf raced forward and took the little one into her arms, holding her tightly.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> "Thank Tunare!" Another frail looking wood elf came forward, eyeing the little girl and her wounds.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> She spoke hastedly, trying to explain what had happened, but the sad look on her parents' faces proved to her that they all ready knew.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> "Yes little one," Her mother sighed and looked down.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> "We know," Her father finished, placing a hand on his wife's.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> "You should take her to see a healer as soon as possible, those wounds could kill her if they are not tended to," The man spoke up, eyeing the village wearily, apparently no longer wishing to reside there.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> "The healer was killed in the flames," Her father spoke in crude human, his eyes were dark and his face was sad, "Please... Let us repay you by giving you her..."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> The man looked startled but frowned, understanding quickly, "Fine."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> The father looked to the mother and explained and she looked at Aelina in turn, frowning deeply.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana> Aelina felt her head ache from trying to understand what they were saying and the blood rushing down her wounds was making her dizzy. She closed her eyes and laid back against her mother's arm and fainted, her face turning white from blood loss.</FONT></DIV>