“We welcome you, Morning Lord, and we honor you this day
Celebrating your light, as we partake in our journey once more
Great and powerful, the Sun is your blessing and shows us your loving way
Thank you for your gifts, thank you for your warmth that touches us to the core
Shining down on the land and sea, making things grow and bloom
Your eternal love will always be in our hearts, O Lord of the Sun
We honor you Dawn Lord, for you are the beacon who casts away the gloom
And we devote our days in your holy name, and the darkness we shun.”
--- --- ---
Prologue
Emerald green, gold, blues, yellows all swirled around, and this could be seen in the first light of dawn where she would awaken by the Prayer-bells. The bells sounded like wind chimes, they would dance around the room until she would realise it was time to rise.
The room was painted in beautiful colours; her mother had painted this room whilst with child with her. The wall told a story, it was full of trees, rivers, and the beautiful sun was painted with gold and yellow, it was the centre of the mural. The little elf child would stretch in an exaggerated manner making all these sounds just like she had seen the little fairies do.
From under her door she saw that her mother had started lighting candles and heard her walk around.
“Hurry child, we must see the dawn, and I’m quite slow!” Said her mother’s beautiful voice as she opened the door. “Good morning, my little princess.” The little girl ran open arms to her mother who hugged her tightly. “Come now Anéralys, we must greet the Dawn!” The girl’s head felt her Mother round belly kissed it, she was going to have a baby brother and she knew it.
Other lights started to light up in the windows of the trees, and red robed figures started walking out of their homes, crossing the bridges, down the stairs, to the fresh ground covered in morning dew. They were all humming the tune, the same tune she had heard since birth. The fairies awoke as well and flew around them towards the east. The fairies loved to play with the children and the laughter and humming would echo through-out the forest. The fae would play with her long red curls and put all sorts of flowers in it and braid it out of her face. One fairy in particular was Anéralys’ favourite, he was a rather sarcastic fairy, grumpy sometimes, but mostly he would look out for her when she was in places she shouldn’t be. His name was Warren, and unlike the pixies who would flee before danger, he would take it head on. For he was a fairy, a trickster and fighter.
He sat a top of the little girl’s head as they walked up hill, Nòrui was rather slow, the baby was due any time now, and walking up the hill to see the dawn was more and more difficult. Her little girl would tug on her arm, thinking this was helping… The singing started, and others who were behind helped her mother get to the top.
“We welcome you, Morning Lord, and we honor you this day
Celebrating your light, as we partake in our journey once more
Great and powerful, the Sun is your blessing and shows us your loving way
Thank you for your gifts, thank you for your warmth that touches us to the core
Shining down on the land and sea, making things grow and bloom
Your eternal love will always be in our hearts, O Lord of the Sun
We honor you Dawn Lord, for you are the beacon who casts away the gloom
And we devote our days in your holy name, and the darkness we shun.”
There it was, the star Anéralys was born to love, the beautiful ball of fire they praised every morning, afternoon and night. The elf child would get excited and jump up and down pointing at the sun “There he is Mother! Look look!” as the sun would slowly rise, she felt alive. She looked to the other children and their pregnant mothers all dressed in reds and gold and then up to her own and only felt happiness. The never ending bliss that is being a child, the simple joys of a sunrise, of feeling fresh grass between your toes, feeling the first warm sun rays on your face, not a care in the world, never knowing of unforgiving darkness that awaits us all… This child had no idea who she was to become, who she was meant to be, and what part she played in the game the Gods called: Destiny.
--- --- ---
Chapter 1 - Stubbornness
Running, run! Run! Anéralys ran as fast as she could, and dived behind a rock covering her mouth to not make a sound.
“NO POINT IN HIDING FROM ME! I WILL FIND YOU!”
She tried to make herself as small and unseen as possible but she knew he would find her eventually, and when he did it would be the end…
Silence. He might have gone in a different direction, Anéralys popped her head out from behind the rock, but only saw the trees and dried leaves on the forest floor, when suddenly-!
“I found you!” Warren pulled one of her curls laughing. “You really thought a big girlie like you was going to be hidden behind a rock?” The fairy tickled her neck and teased her some more, he’d teach her how to hide properly someday.
This is how the little elf would spend her afternoons when not helping her mother or doing her chores, out in the wild forests, playing with the pixies, fairies and sometimes other children.
She and Warren would sometimes get into some trouble, but nothing too serious, mostly just bothering the elders or an animal.
In her red robes, she had a wooden carved sword, a tiny wooden bow and a small quiver with a few toy arrows. Brother Deveral, a human Lathander priest from Waterdeep would come once a month with supplies, food, clothes and toys for the little ones. He would also talk to the adults, they would go in the house and then she was sent away to “go play” until they were done. Sometimes, Warren and her would eavesdrop but it was mostly things she didn’t understand. Things about Lathander’s relics, disturbances in the north, elemental seeds, orcs, drow, dragons… Anéralys thought the adults were telling each other scary stories; mostly because almost all of the subjects they would talk about were in the stories she would hear when around campfires with other children. “They are stories meant to scare us and give us proper judgment.” Warren would tell her. “They are not real.”
The fairy stood on her shoulder and looked towards the forest ceiling.
“We should get you home soon, dusk looks close.” He announced.
“Oh please could we play some more? One last game of hide and seek, pleeease?” begged the little elf child, before the fairy could answer she had already ran in the opposite direction to home. The fairy bounced off her shoulder as soon as she started running and hovered in place as he watched her run off into the woods, shaking his head.
“Fine! I’ll count to a hundred you better be properly hidden, and don’t go too far!” In reality, they had never been this far in the woods before, he realised this when she had ran off. Not much to worry about, these forests were safe and scouted often by the elven guards.
Anéralys ran and ran and ran, home was not –that- far, she could run some more! She jumped over dead trees, rocks and some nettles, giggling and feeling happy. The little elf child saw some beautiful flowers on the other side of a stream, a daring sensation came to her, she could jump over the stream and get some flowers for her mother, she had never seen flowers like that before!
A grove of trees cleared the area, letting these mystical flowers grow and bloom. They were glowing with a blue light, there were so many of them! She ran and ran and jumped-! She got to the other side without getting wet, panting and giggling. The child walked towards the flowers, not worried about hiding, in fact, the flowers had gotten her full attention. But as soon as her little hands got in contact with the stem the glowing light faded away.
Disappointed, she tried another with the same result… Frustrated now, she tried digging it up with the dirt and that seemed to work. She was so preoccupied with uprooting it with and putting them in her dress that the girl did not realise she was being watched. The trees began to whisper.
“Warren?” Anéralys whispered and took out her little toy bow, as if it were an actual weapon. As she did this, a laugh echoed around her.
“Hello?” She drew an arrow and remained still.
“No, not Warren little one.” Said a feminine voice responding in the tongue of the forest, suddenly from the trunk closest to her, emerged a woman, she was green, mossy almost like a tree, and very beautiful. “You are not going to use that on me are you?” She approached gracefully and put a thin finger on the tip of the toy arrow. As soon as she did, ivy and flowers grew and wrapped around the wood.
“Are you a god?” the little girl asked, she did not want to be rude, who else could just come out of a tree like that? The dryad laughed, very amused by this little elfling, she shook her head and walked around her, every step created more glowing flowers and other plants.
“I am Merillaiya, I am a dryad of this forest, this is my grove.” The forest creature said as she bowed to the girl. “Who might you be little elf?”
“My name is Anéralys, and I’m an explorer!” She said rather proud of herself puffing out her chest.
“An explorer? You don’t say? Well, Anéralys the explorer, why are you stealing my flowers?” Her tone had changed it felt stern.
“Your…? Oh. I’m sorry, here you can have them back, I just wanted to give them to my mother.” The dryad shook her head, and gingerly picked up a dead flower.
“It’s too late, but, you can do something for me…”
“Oi! Oiiii!” Screamed a tiny voice from a far. “Oi you!” Flittering wings flew in, it was Warren, he seemed angry. He started pointing his finger at the dyrad. “Don’t get any ideas miss, this is just a little girl. I said not to go too far!” snapped the fairy and he stomped his foot on Anéralys’ head.
“Oh I wasn’t going to ask for something impossible, fairy! Calm down.” Merillaiya said impatiently, dismissing him with a bored wave of a hand. “I just wanted her to replant one of those flowers she stole from me in a special place, its nothing dangerous!”
“Aye, then why can’t you do it?” He crossed his arms, raising a brow.
“Because, silly, I cannot leave these trees. If you plant it where I tell you, I can travel to that area.”
“Are you stuck here?” The little elf asked.
“Yes,” the dryad picked up a clump of dirt and brought it to her lips and kissed it, as she did, a small sprout rose from it. “If you bring this to that spot and plant it, I will forget about you stealing my flowers and even reward you sweet child.”
“Well… if it is not too far.” Conflicted with the guilt of being a thief and wanting to do good, the little girl’s foot dug into the earth.
“No, it’s just across the stream!” The forest creature said pointing dramatically. “You cannot miss it, there a small wisp of light, north east, plant it under the light and I’ll forgive your theft.”
The fairy grunted disapprovingly but said nothing. Anéralys nodded hastily, “I’ll do this for you, I’m sorry Merillaiya, I didn’t mean to steal from you…” The dryad put her hand on her shoulder and touched her bow once more and her quiver, as she did, a dim light glew and the arrow tips turned into sharp pointy thorns.
“Go, and do not get lost in the darkness.”
As Anéralys hopped over the stream once more, and they were earshot from the dyrad, Warren said: “Well then, balderdash! Lets go home!”
“What do you mean? I’m supposed to go and plant this!” She protested.
“It’s dark out, that old hag can wait until tomorrow!”
“No!” The elfling stamped her foot on the ground. “I did this, this is my fault, I need to fix it and plant this tonight.”
“Ah but she can wait! Your mother will be very upset with you if you come home after dusk.”
“She’ll be upset with me for stealing.” Anéralys said stubbornly. “I’m doing this, with or without you.” The fairy grunted, feeling annoyed with the child now, but there was no changing her mind and she was far too big for him to pull her away forcefully, it looked like he had to stay. If something happened to her, Nòrui would never forgive him.
