Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

AUTHOR'S NOTES

I do not claim to have come up with this idea on my own. My good friend Marilyn (Amikwa) and I are both in a Mystic Forest roleplay in our own roleplay forum called Roleplay Fever. My character is an elf named Fiera and her character is a faerie named Duvessa.

Amikwa originally came up with the idea to write a short story outlining Duvessa's past and her journey to the Mystic Forest. After reading it, I was inspired to do the same thing with my character, Fiera. Personally, I think Amikwa's writing far surpasses my own skill with this particular piece of writing but I think mine turned out rather nicely as well. Amikwa's story is called Tales of a Young Faerie and can be viewed here.

Please take the time to read both of our stories and be sure to drop a comment on both journals. Also, I am planning on editing this chapter to include more descriptiveness of the surroundings.

Chapter 1 - Devastation

A chilling scream broke the still silence of the morning, rousing a small elven girl from her slumber. Before she had the chance to even rub her eyes or sit up, rough hands grabbed her around her middle and set her unceremoniously on her feet, shoving her through the nearest doorway. "Fiera! Run! Don't look back, sweetheart!" her father's panicked voice shouted to her. Brushing her long silver hair out of her eyes, Fiera looked up at her father in confusion.

"But-" she began, but her father hushed her and shoved his little girl still harder out the back exit of the hollow Oak tree.

"RUN!" he shouted more forcefully. Frightened, Fiera did as she was told. Scampering as fast as she could through the trees, she could see large looming shadows overhead and the sound of many beating wings met her long, pointed ears along with deafening roars of ferocity.

"Dragons..." Fiera breathed, her fear turning into blind panic. The elven child crashed through the dense thickets, desperately trying to put as much distance between her and those fire-breathing monsters as possible. As she ran, the terrified screams of the villagers she had left behind pierced the air like a rose thorn pierces soft skin. Smoke billowed up forebodingly from beyond the trees where Fiera's village was located. Panting hard from bolting full-speed for so long, Fiera skidded into a clearing. Finally stopping to rest, the small girl put both hands on her knees and sucked in large lungfuls of luscious air, her chest heavily heaving in and out.

This clearing had a small brook that caused a faint mist to rise from the rushing water, cooling the sweat on Fiera's face. She fell to her knees on the brook's soft muddy bank and cupped her pale hands together to scoop up handfuls of fresh clear water which she gulped down gratefully.

With a small sigh, she stood up, snagging her white cotton nightgown on a thorny branch. A quick look around revealed to Fiera that there were two large, rather flat stone slabs wedged beside each other, with just a small crevice in the middle just big enough for a young elf to crouch in. She could not remain out in the open, the dragons would spot her and not hesitate to kill her as well as everyone back in the village. Fiera wriggled her way into the stone crevice, waiting... for what, she was not certain.

As Fiera had expected, the massive shadows of half a dozen dragons shrouded the entire clearing in darkness as it flew overhead and the little girl huddled between two slabs of rock began to shiver in fright. Her parents had told her tales of dragons since before she could remember. They were heartless, vile creatures who took pleasure in killing and devastation, often leaving both in their wakes. Fiera knew the horrible, frightening stories and therefore she knew her family was in the Realm of the Dead. This realization struck her harder than anything she had experienced before in her short sixty year life and that was when Fiera cried, her tears streaming hot down her pale cheeks and blurring her vision.

As if mourning along with the newly orphaned child, the clouds opened up and released a torrent of steady droplets from the sky. Soon, Fiera's tears ebbed away as the eyelids of her large, almond shaped eyes close, enveloping the young elf in a wave of exhaustion. Slowly, her awareness faded and Fiera quietly drifted away into the Land of Dreams, the ever-steady sound of the rain pounding onto the ground and the stones covering her lulling her softly into deep sleep.