She woke up. She was thirsty. Not
such a surprise, she had been hiding there for two days, until they left, and a
bit more, just to make sure. Rish stood up, and pushed the ceiling. The scuttle
opened with a shriek. A whiff of corruption. She came out her hideout. She was
in the basement of his home. She started to walk up the stairs to the ground
level, fearing what she may encounter.
She
found nothing, and everything. Her house was no more, just a smoking ruin of
scorched wood beams. The smell made it difficult to breathe, but she kept
wandering around what had left of the house, looking for something that had
survived. On one corner of her room was a little commode, untouched by the
fire. On it was a wooden pieced, carved by a friend artist. It resembled her,
and her father, and colorfully painted.
Rish
reached out to pick the portrait with her dark hands. She took her black straight hair away from her
face to look at it. Her father, a tall blond man, hunter, she wasn't at home by
the time the village was attacked. She didn't know where he was. She didn't
look like him at all. Some said she was
like her mother. She had an exotic looking dark skin, and dark eyes too.
She
put the portrait in her bag and left the house. The hole village was a smoking
field of ashes. She headed for the well, so she could drink something. When she
arrived she didn't like what she saw. Some of her neighbours lay dead around
the well, and as she looked inside, another was floating in the well. The water
was probably poisoned by the dead body.
The
unknown enemy had come in a thunderous rage, burning and killing. Rish barely
had time to hide. But she had been ready for one day like this. War had expanded throughout the country, it
was just an issue of time before it arrived to her home. But she knew what to
do. She had already told her father to leave the village and look for the Hidden
City, the last elven settlement in the whole country, where her mother had
friends. The only mementos she had from her mother was the bow at her back, and
a silver round plate with and elven text. She couldn't read elven, but she knew
it was a kind of token she could use to request asylum in their city.
Rish
left the village, walking into the forest, in search for a stream where she
could find water, and hopefully find any sign of her father.
****
Something
was amiss. She could sense it. She was hidden on the tangled branches of the
trees, where she thought she would be safer. There was a whispering stream, and
a little pond. It was the place where she usually met her father after a long
absence from home.
Feeling
the danger, Rish took her bow from her back, but kept hidden in the foliage. As swiftly as a wolves pack, a group of soldiers
entered the clearing next to the pond. They wore black armors with an nine-pointed
white star on the chest.
−
We've been hunting this man all the way down the river for two days... we'll
never get'im.
− Orders are orders, just shut up and hurry, he was here an hour or two
ago, we're gaining on him!
− shouted the one with a golden helmet.
Rish
waited until the noise was lost. She climbed down the tree, and approached a particular
stone next to the water. It was big. She lifted it, and, surprise! There was a
parchment under it. It was a message for her, from her father.
"Walk following the river upwards, until you find the ancient
temple in the forest. From there, take the East path. Seven days walking until
you find the Ward. I hope to meet you there, but don't wait for me."
****
Two
statues guarded the trail to the ancient building, more a chapel than a temple. The statues, one
of a druid and another one of a deer, were covered by moss. Big oak trees cloaked
all the place in deep shade. The ivy
crawled all over the ruins. Rish entered the building.
She
was admiring the sculpture of the Lady of the Forest inside when she heard
something. Voices. She looked through a broken window, and she saw three
soldiers. With the black armor. They were aiming for the chapel. They had
surely seen her.
Quickly,
she readied an arrow, and with a swift movement, loosed the string... The arrow
raced through the window, hitting one of the soldiers on the neck. He fell in
silence, unable to shout, while his companions roared and run for the entrance.
Rish
waited for them to come in, and when she saw them, shot at one of them. The
black armor nothing could do against the arrow. The bow was really strong, a gift
from the Eastern Lands, even matching those of the elves.
The
last man, with a shout in an unknown language, started running. An suddenly,
with a red flash, he disappeared... and appeared next to her! Rish threw the
bow aside and kneeled to avoid the blade of the enemy. She took her hunting
knife from the boot, and screamed. Screamed for her missing father, for her
dead friend back in the village. And screamed for her luck, for the blade of
the soldier, when failing the thrust, had hit a bench, getting stuck in the
ancient wood. She didn't hesitate, and beheaded him, full of anger, wrath, and
hunger for revenge. The blood tainted the sculpture of the Lady of the Forest,
and she kept there. Kneeled in front of the Goddess. Crying.
****
It
was raining. Lightnings cut a sky covered with dark clouds. Rish was completely
soaked. She could see the Ward. Two incredibly large oak trees silhouetted an
archway, one of the few gates through the Ward, the magical wall that protected
the Hidden City. Her father had told her many stories about this, but he was
the only human alive that had ever seen it.
She
gathered her courage and started walking. Her father was not here, and she had
waited more than enough... more than he would have wanted. She stood in front
of the gate, holding the silver token, and walked across the archway.
It
felt like crossing a waterfall... the token heated up, and almost burnt her
hand. Suddenly the sensation was over. She was at the other side. A forest as
alive as the one out of the gate. Then a sound came from behind.
A
blond man was running on the path. And after him a group of knight was chasing
him. He stood no chance against the horses. The one with a golden helmet raised
the sword, and swung it with lethal efficiency.
Her
father fell dead.
A
yell broke through her throat. She took the bow, and she was about to run back
through the gate, when a hand held her shoulder.
− Do not waste your life− said
the blue-eyed elf holding her−. You are safe now. Your mother told us you would
come.
When
he finished saying these words, arrows started to rain over the soldiers, and
they died, but Rish could not see that. Could not hear so. She had lost almost
everything.
Tears
flooded her eyes. Again.