What Darkness Hides

[Michael Paolini]

This is a story I'm currently in the process of writing. I realize it it ...ahem... a bit lengthy, so if you make it through in one sitting, I thank you and give you props. If you could please let me know what was good and what wasn't, that would be very helpful. I'm in the process of writing Chapter 6. Thank you so much.
P.S. If you see the name 'Adam' anywhere, could you tell me? I had originally had the main characters name as Adam, but then decided to change it to Felix. Thanks again.

Chapter 1
Felix stumbled as he tried to run away, a trail of blood following him.
“Damn,” thought Felix. “I need to get the poison out befo-”
His words were cut off as the pain caused him to choke. Adam was at least a few miles away from the nearest church. With the condition he was in, it might as well be days away. There was no way he would be able to get to the church in time. He took a moment to take in the landscape around him and get his bearings.
He was in a grassy plain, with no one around for miles. His horse was dead, so Felix would have to make the trip on foot. He could’ve been to the church in less than an hour to rid his body of the poison, but the werewolf had killed his horse quietly before it turned on him.
Felix heard a noise behind him and turned around, arrow knocked and ready. He stood still, taking in everything. He heard a noise off to his right, turned ready to pounce on anything that might harm him, only to see that it was just a deer. He relaxed, but didn’t put his guard down.
He pushed his blond hair out of his eyes. He took a hair tie, and put his hair up in a ponytail, making it easier for him to see everything around him. His icy blue eyes seemed to cut right through the darkness. Other than his eyes, none of his features were very salient. Mixing into a crowd was fairly easy, as long as he kept his eyes down. No one would notice a 17 year old who went with the flow of the people around him.
The deer started to walk away, and that’s when Felix saw the huge gash in the side of its leg. The deer collapsed, and he started to run again. He was winded, but adrenaline was pumping, so he ran harder. Time seemed to stretch, turning seconds into what seemed like months. His mind couldn’t figure out how long he’d been running, telling him that he’d been going for eternity a few times over. With sweat dripping down his face, Felix looked up at the stars, and saw that he had only been running for a few minutes.
He stretched his senses, searching for any sign of disturbance. He sniffed the air, only smelling his own sweat, and the aroma of the plant life around him. Felix looked all around him as he ran, but only seeing the random grass and shrubs throughout the landscape. On the horizon, Felix thought he faintly saw a steeple, but exhaustion and sweat had clouded his eyes so much that it was difficult to know for sure.
He could hear the soft pat of his boots on the ground, but then he heard four other beats. Adam didn’t have to guess what it was.
He ran harder, nearly in a full out sprint, hoping there was some slim chance that might be able to out run the wolf. He quickly realized that he couldn’t. The footsteps suddenly faded, leaving Felix wondering if he had somehow managed to get away.
He slowed to a jog, glad for the rest. Happy to be rid of the wolf, he eventually went to a walk. Felix looked up again, seeing that spotting the church earlier wasn’t just his mind playing tricks on him. He would be able to get to the church in time, considering of course, that he didn’t collapse from exhaustion before hand.
“Finally! I’ll be able to eat a decent meal, maybe get a bowl of soup, and a bed! Oh, how I miss a nice warm bed. If I fell on a straw mattress right now, it wouldn’t be soon enough.”
A bark not far in front of him brought him from his pleasant mindset into the here and now. It seemed the werewolf was back. Unfortunately for him, it was angrier than ever. It growled and barked, as though it was possible to paralyze Felix just by making noises.
As slowly and as meticulously as possible, Adam reached to his hip and drew a long dagger. As though the wolf was reading his mind, it tensed, ready to pounce. As the tip of the dagger cleared the sheath, it made the smallest sound of metal rubbing on metal. Felix cringed, knowing he had been trained better than that.
That was all it took for the werewolf to pounce. More out of involuntary instinct than conscious reaction, Felix dropped to his stomach, as though a raging fireball was heading towards him. Instead of tearing into his ribs, the wolf overshot and landed behind Felix. It turned around faster than he could follow, and bit into his calf. It ripped his leg into pieces, as though it was a fresh turkey.
Felix screamed out in pain over the yells of his clothes ripping, over the sound of his own flesh and sinew being torn to shreds, tainting the purity of the land around them. He could feel the poison of its bite spreading throughout his entire body, leaving a burning sensation wherever it touched. It infected his heart, and only spread from there. The poison spread to his arms, legs, and everything in between. It spread into his organs, kidney and stomach, even his liver.
Felix rolled, kicked, punched, did anything he could to try and get the werewolf off of him, but it held tight. It seemed as if he was on the menu, and the wolf didn’t want its meal escape.
The poison’s effect reached a crescendo, leaving Felix with a strength that he thought had left him. He embraced his newfound strength such as a mother embraces her long lost child. The strength turned to rage, which soon overwhelmed Felix. His punches and kicks gained momentum, now showing some physical signs on the wolf. Its dark gray coat was now splotched with patches of red, which spread like a wildfire.
Felix’s vision blackened in patches, leaving him to try and guess where to hit. From what he could see, his body was trying to do anything it could to damage the wolf, ripping, tearing, kicking and punching as much as it could. It was as though his body had been taken over by some barbaric strange being, one that didn’t plan on losing this particular fight.
The wolf collapsed, its neck twisted at an impossible angle. Felix managed to get to his knees and see the damage he had done. There was flesh and blood everywhere, not sure to whom it belonged. The ground was torn up beyond recognition, huge patches of dirt where he and the wolf had fought.
Felix managed to somehow get on his feet, and started to walk. The church was closer than he had thought. If the blood loss didn’t kill him, he’d be able to make it.
Every step was agony, each more painful than the last. It was through sheer determination that he was able to walk. If he tried to run, he’d surely pass out.
“Baby steps,” he told himself. “Baby steps. Remember what Uncle Julius always said. ‘Baby steps young one. Too much too fast, and you’ll fall flat on your ass.’”
As much as it hurt, Felix forced out a laugh. His Uncle Julius always had a sense of humor, even if it was in a darker sense. It always seemed like he was guilty of that although from what Felix could tell, Julius was as pure as a new untouched snowfall. He’d been the one who had taken him in when his parents had died. He’d raised Felix since he was 3 years old. After 14 years, they’d become close.
“Too bad he’s not here. I could really use one of his pick-me-up’s now.”
“I’m right here lad,” said a deep masculine voice.
“I know that voice,” Felix thought. “I could never forget that voice. But what’s it doing here?”
Felix looked up, and sure enough, standing in front of him was Uncle Julius himself. His long black hair now had streaks of grey. In fact other than the hair, he looked as normal as ever. He wore the same crimson robes, with the same gold trimming. His boots were still polished to a shining black, so well that he could see his reflection.
Felix knelt immediately with his eyes low on the ground. It had been so long he’d seen his uncle that he wasn’t sure how he’d react.
“Stand up lad,” Uncle Julius greeted. “None of that kneeling horse crap. Only kneel to your betters. Otherwise, you’ll end up being every man’s lap dog.”
Felix stood, looking his uncle in the eye. The same burning blue eyes stared back at him.
“Wait a minute. Uncle Julius didn’t have blue eyes. They were green. I could never forget them. Those mystical gre…”
Felix’s vision blacked out completely as he collapsed, his hand barely raking the door of the church.
Chapter 2
“Considering he passed out in front of the church door,” thought Alicia, “it looks as though he’ll be alright.”
She, for one, had not expected anything unusual to happen that morning. It had started out like any other morning. She had gotten up before most of the other sisters and bathed. She then went through her morning rituals of praying to Reta, the goddess of purity. After her morning rituals, she proceeded to go downstairs to get eggs from the hen house outside the church. As she had opened the door she saw a man, who was now laying in her bed, unconscious on the stone entryway. Being so shocked, she had tripped backwards and yelped, causing every one of the sisters to come and see what the ruckus was about at the crack of dawn.
It had taken some time for all the sisters to get over their initial surprise of seeing a man on their doorstep. Some of the younger ones tried to poke him with a stick, but got shooed away by the elders of the group. Afterwards, Alicia directed everyone to carry the mystery man upstairs to her room, where she had tended to him herself.
Afterwards, she had gone down to the doorway where she had found him. One of the younger sisters, Elizabeth, had come running up to her, telling Alicia to follow her.
Elizabeth grabbed Alicia’s hand and started leading her somewhere. Alicia wasn’t sure where, until she saw the trail of blood.
“Elizabeth is one smart, brave, and reckless girl,” pondered Alicia. “Most other girls would be too frightened or too afraid to go following a trail of blood. She certainly is an odd one for her age.”
The trail led her to a person who was torn to bits. The only reason Alicia was able to tell that it was a person was because the skull was intact. That would have been normal, except for the fact that it was a good ten feet from the torso. There were also bits of muscle and skin everywhere.
Alicia turned around and emptied the contents of her stomach in a nearby bush. Elizabeth just stared at her, concern written deep in her furrowed brow.
“I’m alright,” gasped Alicia. “I’m ok. This is just, inhuman.”
“I know.” Elizabeth walked up to her and pulled Alicia’s dark blond hair out of her eyes and gently rubber her back. “Its ok. I have a tough time accepting it myself.”
Alicia looked at Elizabeth with surprise. “You don’t seem to be showing it,” she said. “How is that possible? Your half my age, yet you look like your used to this site.”
Elizabeth looked away, a pang of guilt and worry on her face. It looked as if she was going to cry. Alicia was now the one who felt guilty. Elizabeth usually acted so strong, so tough that it was easy to forget she was only a twelve-year-old girl.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a corpse, or something this brutal,” Elizabeth admitted. “When I was younger, I lived in the slums of Oriena. My parents, well they weren’t the greatest. My father abused my mother, sometimes multiple times a day. It didn’t help that she would always say that she would leave him. She never did.
“One day, he stopped abusing her, and started abusing me. It was terrible. He would just keep on hitting me, and hitting me, and wouldn’t stop. When I was lucky, I blacked out. Other times, I wasn’t so lucky. He would break my arms, legs, anything he could. The sick vile man would smile when he did it too. He would always say that I deserved it, that I liked it when he did it. He would say how I should always be proud, of what I never knew.” Elizabeth was crying now, but she was trying her hardest to keep going.
“I eventually managed to get away. I was an orphan, but that was an even worse hell. I slept in gutters, trash full of disgusting things I don’t even want to think about. It was worse than being at home. I spent at least half a year as an orphan. It was so lonely. I didn’t have anyone to rely on but myself. I had to steal from good people. I always told myself I would pay them back, but I never did.
“Finally, I went back home, barely able to stand, let alone walk. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had eaten. My ribs were so visible you could tell that they had been broken multiple times. My skin was covered in dirt and scum that you could barely see the skin underneath. When I got in, my father had finally done it. He’d killed my mother. Her body was in the same fashion as this one. Her body parts were everywhere, and there was my father, standing soaked in her blood, laughing. The sick freak was actually laughing about killing her. I don’t think he even had an ounce of empathy in him.
“That’s when I lost it. I was so enraged when I saw that, I didn’t know what to do. All I remember is that I was somehow running towards him, and after that my vision when completely white. I don’t know how long I went on in that state, only that it wasn’t the same day when I awoke. My father’s corpse was in the same fashion as my mother’s. I ran after that. I didn’t know where I was going, I just did. I eventually found the church, where I’ve been ever since.”
Elizabeth continued to cry all the harder. Alicia decided this was too much for her, so she gently led her back to the church. Somewhere along the way, Elizabeth had fallen asleep, so Alicia had to carry her. Opening up had taken a lot out of her. As far as Alicia knew, she was the only person who knew about Elizabeth’s past. It was a heavy burden to carry, being the only person who knew about her. Having that kind of trust in someone, Alicia wasn’t used to it.
When she got back to the church, Alicia had one of the sisters put Elizabeth back to bed. Even though it was only midday, she was wiped. Alicia decided to check on the man who had showed up at their doorstep, despite the sisters’ reports that he was fine. Considering the state he had been in this morning, she needed to verify the claims for herself, as odd and as outlandish they might seem.
For a man who had had all his clothes ripped and torn, Alicia had found very few marks on him, and nothing that would be a cause for alarm. There were some scratches on his chest that had needed bandages, but his leg had received the most damage. Alicia had checked it over quite a few times over the past day, and it looked like it would heal eventually but ‘the Dead Man’ as he was being known as by the sisters among other things, wouldn’t walk for a few days at least.
Alicia had started to change the bandages on his chest when she noticed something shine. Curious, she picked up a medallion that had been hanging from a chord around his neck.
She gently ran her fingers over the gold coin, fingers picking up the intricacy of the design. There were knots going over and around each other, every one connecting somehow to form a cross, which was circled by what looked to be like a snake eating its own tail. Alicia had heard of the snake once referred to as an ouroboros, which signified the person wearing one was a worshiper of dark arts.
Instead of scaring Alicia, it only made her more curious about who ‘Dead Man’ really was, and why he had come to their church of all places. She had many unanswered questions, but they would have to wait until he awoke and was able to speak.
Chapter 3
Dreams seemed to plague people who were passed out for days, compared to dream or two one had every night. For Adam, those dreams, more often than not, turned into nightmares.
There were strange visions that swarmed him, none of which he could tell were from the past or the future. There were men in suits of armor fighting on an open field, baying for blood. There was no telling who was on what side. Everything was in chaos. Felix was shifted around the battlefield, seeing men torn in two, another with his skull split, one desperately trying to hold his innards in.
The battle scene was gone a moment later, replaced by a burning castle. There were people running everywhere, trying to find some way out of the gate. Men were shouting, women and children were screaming, and Felix stood in the thick of it. He tried to get around the people, but there were too many. A peasant was running towards him, her eyes looking back, searching for something. She was transfixed on something, but what, Felix could only guess at. She came steadily toward him, not seeing Felix standing right in front of her. He tried to move, but there was nowhere to go. He looked around everywhere, trying to find an out.
The woman passed right through him. Confused, Felix turned around seeing if she had noticed she had passed right through what should have been a solid human being. But she only continued to run away, as though nothing had changed from a moment before.
The image suddenly transfigured into what seemed like a small village, with a woman who possessed beautiful blond hair with few streaks of chestnut brown, who sitting in a rocking chair on a cabin porch. The woman looked at peace, almost as if it was her first time feeling safe.
Felix walked towards the mystery woman, wondering who she was and why she was in his dreams of all places. He noticed a small bundle in her arms, one that hadn’t been there a moment before. He leaned over and saw a small babe reaching out with tiny hands, as though it wanted to grab onto his clothing and hold it. Felix smiled at the babe as it yawned. When the child opened its eyes, red darker than a rose petal had taken up nearly its entire eye, all except for a small slit that served as the pupils. Felix stumbled back and fell over the porch railing, falling right on his face. He stood and was about to run off when the thing spoke.
“COME HERE,” demanded the child like thing, although it sounded like no child born of man. Its voice was a mixture of two voices; one that warmed Felix everywhere, like a chorus of angels singing, the other seeming to come from the darkest depths, so cold and uninviting. “LET ME LOOK AT THE AVENGER, JUSTICE INCARNATE, THE ETERNAL JUDGE OF ALL FREE MEN.”
“Are you talking to me?” Felix said hesitantly. He wondered if all of this was part of him dying, or some strange ghoul haunting his dreams.
“No, I’m talking to this slave holding me. Of course I’m talking to you, you idiot.”
“What were you calling me? Justice, the Avenger and such?”
The child let out a laugh full of cruelty that made Felix’s skull feel as though it were on fire. “You actually believed that? THAT! Oh that’s rich! Just plain rich! Don’t worry, your not going to save the world or anything cliché like that. There’s no chosen one, no long sought talisman held by an elder, nothing that stupid. No, I merely wanted to see how you’d react.” The child continued to laugh even harder, as though it were the funniest thing it had ever heard.
“Well then what the hell are you?” Felix queried, finally summoning up enough courage to actually look the babe in the eyes. “Why do you come and haunt my dreams, showing me that battle?”
The child-thing smiled mischievously, as though it knew more than it would tell. “That’s a vision of things to come. As for what I am, you need not worry yourself with petty things like that. You’ll find out in time. Just keep in mind that we’ll be in touch more often now that you’re TAINTED.”
“Quit with your roundabout answers! Tell me what you mean by calling me Tainted. Make sense of yourself.”
“You need to learn patience young one. If this partnership is going to work, you’ll either learn to bite your tongue or face the consequences.” The child looked at him and gave Felix the smallest of smirks. It coughed, wiped its mouth of spittle, and then continued. “Now, I will give you a taste of what I mean. After that, no more questions. But as to what I meant by TAINTED you may know this: you are not alone. Many others have been TAINTED as well, although they try not to show it. Go to the town of Oriena. It is there you will find your answers.”
“Oriena?” Felix questioned. “Why would I go there? It’s half a world away, with nothing but barbaric tribesmen and harsh weather. It’s a pointless endeavor.”
“So you may think. But if you truly wish to learn more, I suggest you go there. Look for a man named Redheart. He will give you more information.”
“Again with that annoying smirk,” thought Felix. “He’d better remove it before I remove it for him.”
The smile on the baby’s face was wiped off so quickly that Felix barely registered it. If looks could kill, the glare on the babe’s face would have sent Felix to the deepest circle of Hell.
“That’s enough talking between us for now.” The thing spoke slowly, each word its own command. “Now be a good boy and go back to sleep. Don’t forget about Redheart.”
Felix reached towards the babe, ready to try and force some sense out of it, when the whole world went black. He looked around, only to find more darkness. He walked three steps then collapsed, just as he had done at the church door. He lifted his head and saw the child again, standing over him, smirking yet again.
“I SAID SLEEP!” it screamed.
Felix fell into the infinite abyss of his own subconscious mind. The dreams came to him no more that night, nor the rest of his slumber.
Chapter 4
“Well its good to see you’re finally up. You’ve been out cold for the past 3 days,” whispered a soothing feminine voice.
Felix squinted his eyes against the light, trying to let them adjust. He tried to roll over to his side, and found that he couldn’t move a muscle. It wasn’t from a drug, merely pure exhaustion. Worried, he tried to lift his head to see if his body still retained its lower half. It did. His pants were in very poor condition however, being torn to shreds. His shirt was nowhere to be seen.
He looked around, trying to see who it was that had spoken, and possibly taken his shirt hostage. The room was made of brick, not one out of place. The mattress he was on was lying on a straw mattress, which he found was on a stone slab anchored to the wall by a set of chains on each end. There were very few other noticeable features about the room, only that there was separate room for bathing and the lavatory. There was a basin filled with water at the end of his bed, which was tainted red. Judging by the number of bandages on his body, he guessed it was his own blood.
As for people he only saw a single person in the entire room, but their back was to him. Judging by the long hair and petite shoulders, he figured she was the one who had spoken.
“At least I hope so,” he thought. “I don’t think I can take many more surprises.”
The woman turned around, bushing her long dark blond hair back behind her ear. She looked him up and down with a practiced eye, checking the status of the many bandages that covered his body. She looked at his face, looking into his eyes with her forest green ones, looking for some sign that only she could see.
Felix noticed that she was a bit older than he was, anywhere from two to five years. Her maturity, from what he had seen of it so far, seemed to suggest that she was twice her age. She handled the situation as though she tended to unconscious, severely injured men everyday.
Oblivious to his mental take of her, she continued on with her job, taking his pulse and feeling up along his side to feel his ribs. She poked right below them and Felix jolted back, more out of ticklishness than pain.
“Watch what your poking there,” he laughed. “I’ll fall out of this bed and break something else.”
She smiled back at him, slowly taking her hand away from his body. “Oh I think you’ll manage. Your wounds have healed quicker than I anticipated. I certainly didn’t expect you up for another day or so.” She did one last check over him, then went to the sink and washed her hands of the few bloodstains.
“When do you think I’ll be able to move my body?” Felix asked. “Laying down paralyzed in a mattress isn’t exactly my idea of paradise.”
“That’s what the poke was for, actually. You should find that sensation is returning to your limbs within the next few minutes, if not already.”
Felix tried to lift his arm and found that he could. It wasn’t very much, but it was better than nothing. He tried to sit up on his elbows, but collapsed a second later. The woman rushed over to him, worry written thick on her face.
“Don’t try to rush things sir,” she cautioned. “You’ll reopen your wounds.”
Felix burst out laughing. Her look changed from one of worry, to one of confusion.
“What’s so funny?” she questioned, tone somewhat stern. “If you start pouring out blood, I certainly won’t be laughing.”
Felix looked at her, somewhat taken aback. “I’m sorry miss. It’s just that I’m usually the one calling other people sir. My name is Felix by the way, and I’m grateful for the hospitality you’ve given me. I sure didn’t expect to be this well treated. Please tell me, are we near the church I passed out in front of?”
“Actually we’re still in it. These are my quarters.” She motioned to the room. “As for formalities, my name is Alicia. I was the one who found you.”
“Oh no!” Felix gasped. “I hope I didn’t scare you!”
Now it was Alicia’s turn to laugh. It was a light, carefree sort of laugh that could improve the mood of even the most dampened spirit. “Well let me tell you, I certainly didn’t expect to see a body in front of the door first thing in the morning. But after the initial shock, we got you up here and managed to tend to your wounds.”
“May I ask who exactly ‘we’ is?”
“Oh that’s right! I forgot about the others.” She walked briskly to the door, poked her head into the hall and yelled down the hall “HE’S UP!”
The sound of feet running towards the room started not even a second later. From the sound of it, there were quite a few people hurrying towards the room. Alicia stood back from the door and let the flood of people in.
It was truly a flood. There were women of all races and ages. There were mainly human women, a few half elves, and Felix thought he even saw one elemental, although he couldn’t be completely sure. There were girls who were no older than three, and some who looked as if they were five times Felix’s age. Every one of them tried to ask him questions at once. The problem was that each thought her inquiry was more important than the next person’s.
Alicia walked through the thicket of women, stood next to his bed, and raised her hand. The room quieted immediately. It seemed that even the elder of the women held her in high regard.
Once the room was completely silent, she spoke. “Everyone, this is Felix. He only just woke, so please try and keep it to a minimum with the questions. Now we’ll start with the youngest, so go ahead and ask little ones.” She lowered her hand but didn’t move from his bedside, which Felix found comforting.
The youngest of the girls stepped forward, her bright blue eyes full of wonder at who this new man could be. When she spoke, it was with a soft, cautious voice. “How come you’re so beat up mister? Did you get into a drunken fight with your horse?”
The women instantly hushed the girl in protest, giving her stern looks. Now it was Felix who raised his hand, although it was hard while he stifled his laughter in his arm.
“Don’t worry, I’m not offended,” he soothed. “To clear up your question, no I did not get into a drunken fight with my horse. Quite a ways away, a werewolf chased me. I only managed to escape through some sort of luck. But…” he looked around.
Many of the women looked at him with fear, some with confusion, others with plain hatred. He looked to Alicia and saw she was biting her lip, as though wondering what to do with this information.
Felix sat up and the women backed off. Alicia put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it gently. He looked up again at her to see that she was staring each and every woman in the room in turn, looking deep into their eyes like she had with him. Only this time, she looked more with scorn instead of wonder. None of the other’s could match that gaze.
“Reta tells us all to be accepting of everyone,” she told them. “She tells us to accept everyone into our hearts and cast no one aside, no matter their condition. This is a test of your faith right here, and none of you have passed. You should all be ashamed!”
“When will he change?” a voice from the back asked. Felix searched for whom the question had come from.
The crowd parted and one girl stepped forward. It was the one girl that Felix had guessed was an elemental. As she stepped forward, he saw that his guess was right. Her hair was whiter than the purest snow. She looked at him with green eyes, although unlike Alicia’s, these eyes were a lighter green, and shone with power that had nothing to do with the lighting in the room. Her pale skin made her eyes stand out that much more, as though they needed the extra strength. If Felix guessed correctly, she held the aspect of wind. They tended to have lighter skin than the other elementals, and have a more confident air about them.
Each elemental held one of the four elements of the world: air, earth, fire, and water. Every one was powerful in their own right, but all tended to try and keep their powers hidden. They were some of the nicest people Felix had met, but there was one lesson he had learned about them: you did not want to piss one off.
She walked up to Adam and gently touched his shoulder. She looked to Alicia, eyes questioning, but calm. “When will he change?” she asked again.
“I don’t know,” Alicia sighed. “He was only bitten a few days ago, and the full moon was that same night. So I’m not exactly sure, but I would guess he has a little less than a month until his first change.”
The elemental girl looked at him again. He tried to read her face, but the girl kept a straight expression as she stared back. They lingered like that for a few seconds until the girl spoke again.
“How much time do we have to apply a remedy?”
At the mention of a remedy, many of the women started to brighten up. It seemed that spending time among a werewolf didn’t appeal to many of them.
“Until his first full moon,” Alicia responded. “So until he changes. After that, the effects become permanent. But remedies for werewolf venom are rare enough as it is. To find one in time for Felix to be rid of the venom would be nothing short of a miracle.”
“Now who’s the one not following the teachings of Reta?” the elemental girl said. “Doesn’t she say that we should not doubt ourselves, but take matters into our hands? Doesn’t she say that no matter the cost, no matter how slim the chances of success that we should try and do what we can to help those in need?”
Alicia smiled. “Very good Elizabeth. You seem to have been reading the scriptures lately. Yes, all of us should help.” She looked around at all of the others, who all met her gaze this time. “By a show of hands, do I have any volunteers, who would be willing to venture out to try and find a remedy for Felix?”
Every single woman raised her hand, including Elizabeth. Alicia smiled with pure delight. “Alright, now lets narrow down the volunteer. Anyone who is either under the age of ten or over the age of 40, lower your hands please.”
“What about those with elf blood?” asked a woman, who was a half-elf herself.
“No, I’m sorry,” said Alicia. “Though I know all of you are fully capable of handling yourself, merchants tend to be biased against those with elf blood. So those with elf blood please lower your hands as well.”
The number of volunteers was cut by over half. Alicia looked around, seeing who was left. She bit her lip again, trying to figure out her next requirement. After a few seconds, she had it.
She smiled to herself, as though this next standard would wipe out all of the volunteers. “Those of you who would go on this trip would most likely not be able to bathe for quite some time. On top of that, you would be traveling many miles a day. You’d be gone from the church for quite some time, most likely a few weeks. You would encounter many people who are not accepting of our faith and therefore would most likely ignore you or make rude comments to you. Those of you who could not deal with the mentioned conditions, you should put your hands down now.”
Felix looked around. The only one who had her hand still raised was Elizabeth, who stared at Alicia with an adamant look on her face. Alicia looked back and smiled to herself as though this had been her plan all along. Felix guessed it probably had been.
“Well Elizabeth, it looks like you’re the one who’s going to make this trip. However, I cannot let you go by yourself, so I shall accompany you as well.”
Many of the women protested this. Alicia held up her hand again. “Please, everyone. Elizabeth volunteered to go with, and she shall not go alone. I will accompany her, and no one can make me change my mind.”
“If I may make a statement,” Felix interjected. “I should like to go on this trip as well. If you do somehow manage to find a cure, we’ll need to get it to me as soon as possible. If I stay here, you may get back too late. So I’ll make the trip too.”
Felix stood, looking Alicia and Elizabeth straight in the face. Both of them stared back with just as much conviction. Both nodded to him, accepting his offer.
“Its settled then,” Elizabeth stated. “We’ll leave in the morning. Felix, I suggest you get your rest. Out of the three of us, you’re going to be the biggest liability. So get your rest. At dawn, you start a trek that determines how you’ll live the rest of your life.”
Chapter 5
She couldn’t turn back, not now. To turn back was to accept the empty façade of a life she had known. That life wasn’t meant for her. It was weak, warm, and a life of happiness. Ash didn’t deserve that life, not after all she had done.
Ash turned around and took one last look at the cabin she had called home for the last decade of her life. It pained her to leave, but she knew that it was safer for not only her, but for Vince as well. That cabin was full of memories, both good and bad. These past ten years had been bliss for her. Ash knew that she was unlikely to experience anything like it for a long time, if ever again.
“It just doesn’t seem right,” Ash thought. “I shouldn’t have other people suffer for my mistakes.”
Tears threatening, she wiped it on the back of her hand. Tears were for meant for after everything was settled, for after the battle was won. Her own battle hadn’t even started. She pushed her dark brown hair back behind her, fashioning it into a ponytail. She checked her gear over one last time, making sure that all her weapons and packs were in order. They were as always, but it gave her something to do to calm her nerves.
After her check over, she looked at the cabin one last time. It seemed so calm in the middle of the night. Ash gave the house a nod, as if accepting some unseen signal it had given her that all was well. She pulled up her hood, turned around, and headed into the forest.
“Please Tretus,” she begged. “Please make sure nothing happens to him.”
After that initial thought, she was off and running, dodging trees braches as thick as her calf by fractions of an inch. She didn’t care though. To her it was exhilarating, almost exciting even. It let her take her mind off of what she had just done. The only thing to think about what was right in front of her.
After a few miles she saw the road. It surprised Ash, because she wasn’t even winded, or anywhere close to thinking about taking a break. Apparently she was in better shape than she had previously thought. Granted, she had gone out for a week every now and again to keep in shape, but this was far above what she had expected. Then again, maybe it was just the adrenaline coursing through her veins.
She took one final leap from the edge of the forest to the road, landing on one knee and hand, kneeling to protect herself from the force of the impact. She took one look around, making sure no one had seen her pull that little stunt. To her great relief, there wasn’t anyone around as far as she could see. She was glad, because explaining what she had just done would take quite a while.
Taking a coin out of the leather purse she kept at her hip, she held it in her palm as though it were the most precious thing in the entire world to her.
“It actually is,” she whispered to herself. “This little coin decides where I go from here. If it hits the eagle, I’ll head to the south, to Kenand and Prisda. If it lands clouds, I’ll head to the north.”
Ash took in a deep breath, closing her eyes, attempting to calm herself. She stood, the coin gently resting on her thumb and the edge of her first finger. Bending at the knees, she pushed herself up as high as she could, flipping the coin high into the air. The sound of metal hitting nail resonated throughout the night, gently waking everything around. It seemed that even the smallest life forms took notice of this lone girl and what she was doing.
The coin came to the earth as quickly as it had risen from Ash’s thumb. It crashed into the soft dirt road, leaving an indent where it had hit. The coin pinged; rolling around, and impossibly came to a stop right on its edge.
“Damn coin. You can’t even do the one thing you were good for.” She kicked the coin into the forest, not caring what she hit. She took another sigh and decided that trying to calm herself would have to wait for now. She was on a mission, and she couldn’t rest until the mission was done. Julius would have been very disappointed if he could see the state that she was in. He had taught her better, and both of them knew that. Even after she had left, his lessons still haunted her.
Ash took a look at the sky, judging the moon’s position and how long it would be until sunrise. If she wanted to get anywhere before the night was over, she would have to start now.
“Burn the moonlight and you burn away your chance at a decent get away,” Julius’ voice echoed in her head.
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you old man,” she mumbled to herself. “Quit with the lessons would you? I’ve had enough of those to last a lifetime and then some.”
She looked again at the road, seeing the vast amount of tracks that had come on it just that day. From the looks of things, everyone seemed to be headed south. She looked to the north, seeing nothing unusual with its state. She decided to head north. Ash had never been one to follow a crowd, no matter how much Julius rammed the opposite into her head.
“Well Vince, I guess this is goodbye,” she said more to herself than anything. “I love you, I hope you know that. I just wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you. I doubt that you’ll ever understand. This is just something that I have to do on my own.” Ash took a moment to remember all of the memories between her and Vince one last time. “I’ll do my best to return here one day. When this is all over, maybe you and I can come here again and raise that family we always talked about. So long my elf prince.”
With that, Ash turned and headed north, away from everything she had spent the last decade building. Little did she know that it would be the last time she would see the cabin she had called her home.

[Michael Paolini]

Thanks. I will post more when I've written it.

[Jacob Lotz]

this is great so far can't wait to read more of it