1 Arrival Preface Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4 (2/2)

”Aw, it's a sister?” He whined, but he came over to see her anyway. ”I was hoping for a brother, but I guess sisters are alright, too,” he pouted.

”This is Kysael. A royal Wraith, born to a Woodelf maiden. What a mess,” I whispered and laughed softly, before I fell into a peaceful slumber.

If only I knew how much of a mess this truly would be.

*

Going back to the city with a child was a challenge. I had to get her cleared by the guards, and then again by the King.

”Is that why you were gone for so long?” Eranton asked. I nodded, silently answering him. ”Garin must be quite proud.”

”Garin has deserted me.... He did not wish for a daughter.”

”Oh...well, how very shameful of him,” he told me. ”She must be quite beautiful if you are her mother.”

”Yes, Dragon is watching her for me.”

”I am glad to see that he has been brought back to life.”

I nodded. ”Yes, I watched him deliver her, and his reaction to her was one that I certainly did not expect.”

”I will be by this evening to see her, just to clear her and give you her certificate of citizenship into this city, since she was born elsewhere. You may go.”

I bowed, and quickly took my leave. I needed to get back to Dragon at my small home, and we would need to go to his mother to get the concealant.

When I arrived, Dragon was reluctant to hand me Kysael, but did so momentarily. ”What did he say?”

”He is coming by in a few hours to give me her certification of citizenship and to see her himself. We need to talk to your mother right away.”

He nodded. ”I will go and fetch her. It's too dangerous to have Kysael be seen before we get the concealant.”

I watched as he rushed out, and I took the time to continue gazing at the girl. She was mesmerizing. It was odd, she was very charming.

It wasn't very long before Dragon returned, as his mother didn't live very far from me, and I saw that Drakul was with her...

I tried to prepare myself for the reaction. I knew that this wasn't going to go over well, especially not with my friend. Her parents had been eaten alive by Wraiths, and she had barely escaped with her own life. She wouldn't be able to accept this easily.

”Darah?” She asked as she entered. ”What on earth has happened? You've had a child, Dragon says! What happened to being best friends? You never mentioned that you and Garin were expecting!” She asked, mocking sadness. And then she looked at the child in my arms. ”Good Heavens!” She shouted, backing up quickly, her hands up in surrender.

”A Wraithling!” Drakul practically growled as he stepped in and saw what had scared his mate. ”Darah! This is the child you bore?”

I sighed. ”Yes. We were travelling last autumn when a group of them crossed our path. They....the...the leader thought that I was beautiful, and in exchange for our lives...I let him lay with me.”

”Oh, Darah,” Drakul said. ”You may not be a warrior, but I can only imagine the bravery that took on your part. To face down such creatures....and to allow one to be...intimate with you,” he shivered as if some insect had gotten into his tunic and wormed its way down his spine. He gazed at my daughter. ”Have you named her?”

”Kysael.”

”I see,” my friend said, coming down from her shock. ”You intend to keep her?”

”Of course. Her paternity isn't her fault, nor is it really my own. I intend to keep her and raise her as I would any other child.”

They nodded, but there was hesitation. ”Darah, I am....still working on the concept of the concealant. It isn't finished yet.”

I startled. ”But...But the king will be here any moment!”

Tears ran down her face. ”I'm so sorry!” She pulled out a little bowl of creamy clay, and tried blending it into my baby's face. It helped, but even with quite a bit, it did not completely cover her markings, and all of the rubbing and blending caused her to start screaming as her face began to grow red with irritation.

Despair ran through me. There was no way that the king would forgive this. He would not accept it. Our king was one of the very eldest living of our race, the Woodelves. He was strong, and full of pride for our nation. He was arrogant and did all things with the purity of our kind in mind. He would likely kill her when he arrived, without thought. Our king was simply that way. All I could do was pray to the Creator that he would be enraptured by her charm and beauty, as we were, and be lenient.

Dragon's face was displeased. ”Mother, we have to do something.”

”The only thing that we can do is try to get the king to agree to a lesser sentence than execution,” Drakul said sadly. ”And even that is unlikely. Honestly....execution may be the least cruel thing, in the end. What kind of life would you expect for this child? Surely, with her parentage and the fact that she is a bastard, she will face many hardships.”

”Darah, for that matter, what were you going to do when the girl is older and it was time for her to be sent off to school? Or going out into public? She has almost no aura, and it is quite dim. You can tell that she is not a full-blooded Woodelf just simply by looking at her. Not to mention, what about when she is a teenager and its time to marry her off?” My friend asked. ”That won't bode well. She would be extremely blessed to be able to find anyone to marry her at all, let alone someone who wouldn't abuse her for her breed. The law would not spare her, either. She would be forced into an arranged marriage either way, and forced to reproduce. What on earth had you thought was going to happen?”

I had not even considered this. When an elf-maiden reaches the age of sixteen, she is placed into an arrangement to be married to one of the eligible men in the city, preferably from a similar-ranking clan. The men could be anywhere from sixteen to twenty, but the women had to be sixteen.

The latest that a woman could wait was until she was eighteen, and even that was frowned upon. That was the tradition. And they had to be married when she was eighteen. The courting could last for two years or she could wait to find someone until she was eighteen, and if both of them agreed to not marry, she could be arranged to someone else. But my daughter....

How could she possibly hide her identity? How could she hide who she was? What she was? If she were to be placed in an arrangement to marry, that could ruin everything.

”I will do it.”

I startled and looked to our salvation, the man who had delivered her when I could not, the one who had given the solution to hiding her heritage in our judgmental city, the one who had given us a way to live.

”What?” I whispered in my shock.

”The king has allowed me to bypass the marriage laws because of what happened with Kassiel. Healers and nobleman get special treatment, after all. When she reaches the marrying age...I will do it. The king is about to discover her identity, and you, unfortunately, will more than likely not make it out of this alive. But she is only an infant. She may or may not be spared. If she is spared, she will be able to reach maturity. And she would never be able to reveal herself to another man, lest he turn against her. I already know what she is, what she will become. I will protect her. Besides,” he said thoughtfully. ”There is no one else in this city that is worthy of me.”

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. But I simply nodded, accepting his vow. ”It is a promise, then,” I said softly.

His parents glanced at one another, wary expressions on their concerned faces, but they nodded. ”It is agreed between the four of us, then,” Drakul said softly. ”If she is spared and allowed to live, and allowed to mate.... then when the time comes, Dragon will marry her.”

I had to wonder what kind of life my daughter would lead, with all of it already planned out for her. It would be unlike any other in the history of our race.

The king arrived a short time later, and our lives were all turned upside down...forever.

He opened the door, leaving his guards outside, and stepped inside.

And then he quickly drew his sword, swearing and cursing. ”What on earth is that.... that thing doing here?” He demanded.

I stepped forward. ”Your grace.... this is my child. This is not Garin's daughter, you see. We were happened upon by a group of Wraiths in the forest, and as Garin deserted us, I offered my body to the leader of the group in exchange for our lives. I have been hiding in the forest for the entirety of this pregnancy, fearing the worst...and I was right. But when I felt her kicking inside of me, I simply couldn't bring myself to kill her or leave her alone in the forest to die.”

The king slowly put his sword away, glaring at me. ”You knew the consequences of this, and you brought her anyway. Why? What could you hope for, bringing that atrocity here to my city? You could have gone anywhere. Lived on the run and in hiding, maybe, but lived all the same. You knew what would happen if you came here. But you, knowing the fate you faced, returned here. Why?”

”The best that I can ask for now, your grace, is to ask for mercy. Dragon gave me hope, you see....I ask you to allow my daughter to live, allow my friend here to take her and raise her in his own home, raise her to feed on normal food and on animals only if it should come to that. I ask you not to end her life just because of the circumstances.”

”And how could I possibly allow that? She's not only a bastard child born out of wedlock, while you are married to another, but she is a Wraithling. She is neither Light Realm nor Dark Realm, but a disgusting and sickening combination of the two. She is not even of the Gray Realm, which puts humans as being above her. She is very clearly not a full-blooded elven child, even. A mixing of the races I could tolerate, mixing with a Mountain elf or something, but this.... this travesty, no. The people would revolt against me for allowing her existence the moment that they saw her face.”

”I am working on something, sire,” my best friend spoke up. ”It is a concealant, once it is ready, she will be able to cover her face with it and go out into the city and not be discovered. It is to be able to hold up in water, as well. I am making it so that only a special cleaner can take it off,” she insisted.

He stroked his beard for a moment.

”I would raise her, and all of us here would swear to never utter her true identity to anyone outside of this place,” Dragon said softly.

The king seemed to mull over the notion, looking around the room as he contemplated it before he met my eyes again with his own. ”I will allow this, then, and only because I hold all of you in such high regard as high ranking citizens of this city. But the moment it comes unraveled, its all of your heads that will be on spikes in this city,” he said. He looked at me. ”You have until dawn to say your farewells, make your preparations, and get everything ready. Then, the guards will escort you to the dungeon, where you will wait for your execution.”

”What?” My best friend cried out. ”But sire-”

”NO!” His voice boomed. ”I have been merciful enough to spare the child. But she is quite obviously, markings or no markings, not related to Garin. She looks nothing like either him, nor does she even look like her mother. Not to mention that Garin has fled. What other reason but that the child isn't his own? Then I would be facing riots over allowing an adulteress and her bastard in our midst.” He shook his head. ”It is an unfortunate truth, but this child was born out of wedlock. The other things could be hidden, but not this fact. There are consequences for this action, willing or not.” He looked at me with a tired expression. ”Be thankful that I am not having you taken away now, and am giving you time to prepare and to say your farewells...”

Fear struck through me, and I knew then that these were my last hours in this world. He walked out the door, leaving the silence in the air deafening...all but the thundering of my roaring heartbeat in my eardrums, and the sound of my struggle to breathe around the lump that had formed in my throat.

*

***Preface Part 4- Kysael***

August, 1086 A.D.

I ran and danced, singing a happy elven tune as I played in the summer heat of the forest. I was now four summers old.

I didn't know my birth parents. I had once thought that Dragon was my father. Dragon is the noble Lord who took care of me, but he had set me straight rather quickly and told me that he was not my birth father. He was only my caretaker. He had told me that he had promised my mother that he would take care of me before she had died.

I was not only born out of wedlock, a bastard...but I also had no parents living. Maybe that was because I was a bastard.

Not that Dragon ever told me that bastards were bad. I had heard it enough in our society already to know, bastards were unforgivable. That is why the Woodelves chose life partners so early. To ensure there were no bastards. Woodelves took purity very seriously. Purity of the race, purity of the clans, purity of the races, purity of the Realm.

But Dragon had told me the truth, that my father was not a Woodelf, nor was he my mother's husband for that matter.

My father.... he had been of a different race, and I guessed he didn't want me. Bastards were supposed to be extremely unwelcomed, as it were. And mix-breeds were just as unwelcomed. Since I wasn't a full Woodelf, that made my situation even more dangerous. I was absolutely forbidden to ever tell anyone what I knew of my parentage. Lord Dragon had always stressed that to me. That was a secret, and if I told anyone, he and I would both be in danger.

As it happened, not many people in the city knew that I was a bastard. Only the royal council knew, and I was not welcomed by them. Everyone else seemed to be unaware, and I was treated as a normal Woodelf girl in our grand forest city.

My mother died right after I was born. From health problems or because I was a bastard, Dragon had not ever told me the details of it. He said that I was too young to know yet. But that answer told me enough in itself. I may be young, but I learned very quickly and I knew that if I was told that I was too young to know, it wasn't a pleasant answer.

I had an older brother, but he had gone to live with an uncle, and I didn't see him very often. When I did see him, he was distant from me, and he left my care in the hands of Lord Dragon.

Dragon was in charge of watching me. He had raised me, and he taught me how to do things and how to read and write, how to speak. He taught me everything. He was good to me. He made sure I had clothes. He had taught me how to dress myself. He made sure I could brush my hair, and he would braid it for me often. He made sure I stayed bathed and in fresh clothes. He made sure that I stayed fed. He helped me with homework from my primary school, and even helped me practice a spell for the Mages' school. He told me I could go there, and be whatever I wanted to be.

He taught me to be kind to people, to go around the town with him as he ran errands and did chores for people. As a member of a high-ranking clan, it was our solemn duty to help those less fortunate than us, to be good to the people so that we would have their respect, Lord Dragon always said.

He had me help him chase down people's lost pets, or help weed their gardens. He had me help plant flowers for older ladies and help shop keepers' stock their shelves. It was important to learn to help others. Lord Dragon was very kind.

He was, at that moment, at home. He was preparing my meal for me, while I played out in the forest, as long as I didn't wander too far off from home alone. I felt more peaceful when he was around me.

He was a hard person, and he was hateful a lot of the time to other people. He was always angry at the world. I think he was trying hard not to be that way, but he told me that something had happened a long time ago, something that had hurt him really bad. He pushed himself to be good to people though, even if he hated people sometimes. But he had been always so nice to me. And he was always there whenever I needed him. He told me that things had happened in his life to make him a harsh person, but I didn't see him as a harsh person. I just saw him as someone I care about a whole lot.

Life was peaceful. Things were bright in our world. We saw things differently. There were constantly deep, soulful songs sung in the elven language of our people throughout the city. There were peaceful families with their children, learning and enjoying the fruits that our forests provided. The Hunters of our nation provided meat to the restaurants and shop keepers, and things were calm. The streets stayed lit with lamps, the candles flickering beautifully in the fountains and springs around.

Dragon always rubbed this gunky stuff on my face before we could go into the beauty of the city, but that was alright. My markings preferred to breathe, but I enjoyed going with Dragon into the city. He insisted that only the king knew who I was, and that I had to keep my markings covered or bad things would happen. At my young tender age, I simply did not understand why. But I knew I would find out soon enough.

”Kysael,” Dragon said, coming into the little clearing in the forest where I was. ”I have your meal ready for you,” he said with a smile.

”Lord Dragon?” I asked. ”Can I ask you something?” I asked, and he came to kneel in front of me, taking my shoulders in his big, strong hands.

My heart fluttered. He had been there for me since I could remember. He was the one who helped mother give birth to me. He was incredibly important to me.

Despite being four, I somehow knew that he'd be by my side forever. And there was nowhere else I would rather him be than by my side.

”Hm?”

”How come I don't eat what you eat?” I asked.

He smirked gently at me; his eyes warmer than usual. His eyes were very pretty, a bright, light purple color.

Lavender, he had called it. It was special to his clan, and showed that he was from that family of hunters for Havengrove. His father was a big shot hunter, even famous around the world.

But Dragon was not a hunter. He was a healer, the opposite of a hunter. ”You are very special, Kysael. You have to eat special food.”

”Is that why I can't spend the night with friends from class?” I asked.

”Oh, Kysael,” his eyes looked sad. I didn't like to see his eyes sad. It made me sad. ”You are so young,” he told me. ”Once you can hunt for yourself, and you can keep it secret from your friends, then you can spend the night with them in their own homes. But for now, it is not safe.”

”Why?”

He looked away. ”If someone knew about your diet, they might get scared.”

”But why?”

He chuckled. ”Oh, it's nothing you need to worry your little head over right now, little one.” He ruffled my hair, and my cheeks felt hot. ”You will know some day, I promise.”

”Lord Dragon?”

”What is it?”

”Will you always be with me?”

His eyes widened, but his smirk stayed in place. ”Of course, I will. I have always promised you that I would, haven't I?” My stomach suddenly growled, and he laughed. ”Now, come along, little girl. You need to eat.”

”One more question?” I asked, and he stopped himself from standing and nodded to me. ”How do you always know where I am?”

He actually smiled. ”I have been given the honor of making sure that you are safe, Kysael. And while it may seem odd, I am extremely protective over you. I have my ways of keeping an eye on you.”

”Do you always watch me?”

He sighed. ”That was more than one question,” he said, careful to not answer. ”Come on, now. It's time to eat. Let's go,” he took my hand and led me into the house.

*

December, 1091 A.D.

The snow was coming down hard. Dragon had just been called into the inner city to take care of a patient going into labor. It was evening, getting dark.

I was left alone. Dragon was the one who took care of me, raised me. But with him gone, and being hungry, I didn't know what to do.

I'd never been left completely alone before. I had been born nine years ago, and it felt strange to be by myself.

I put on my boots and gloves, and stepped outside. It was quite cold, but I was getting hungry, and no one was around. And Dragon had needed to leave in such a rush, that he didn't have time to find someone to watch me. I took a deep breath, and I continued onward, away from my house.

I began wandering around the forest, deciding to take the matter into my own hands. I would have to learn to hunt sooner or later, wouldn't I? I thought that I may as well try to hunt something now. It couldn't be that difficult. I wouldn't always be able to depend on others to hunt my food for me. Lord Dragon had coddled me for too long.

Of course, I couldn't always expect Lord Dragon to come running every single time I was hungry. He was a nobleman, and a member of the royal War Council for the city. He was a member of the City council board. He was an important healer. He had many important jobs to do, too.

We lived in a decent sized cottage out in the middle ring of the city, and there weren't lamps posted about out this far, and it was getting darker. The sky wasn't bright. I began to feel afraid. But I couldn't find my way back to the house. I'd already lost my tracks in the snow.

After a while, my arms and legs began to feel cold, and it began to get harder and harder to move around. The snow was blowing past me hard, and it hit my skin like knives. The wind picked up, and I could barely hear myself think over the roaring of the winds as snow and ice blurred my vision, and all I could see was white.

I had been outside for a couple hours, and the weather had taken a turn for the worse. I was unbearably hungry, and now, I was caught in a blizzard. I suddenly wished that I had remembered a coat. I started running with my urgency.

I climbed a tree to try to get a lay of the land, to see where I was and if I could see any signs of home. But once I had gotten about halfway up, my foot slipped on a branch, and my fingers were too numb to stop my hand from slipping off of the branch that I was holding myself up with.

My body plummeted to the snow-covered ground underneath me and I quickly flipped my body to try to land on all fours but I was unsuccessful, and I felt my head collide with the icy ground. Warmth quickly began leaving me through my head...and I vaguely, somewhere in my frantic mind, knew what that meant. I was bleeding out from my head.

”Ouch!” I cried out. I couldn't make my body move anymore. I was getting so tired....my vision wavered, and I felt strange....”Lord Dragon...!” My voice was pitiful, quiet. My body felt weak. I could feel myself slipping. And suddenly, I couldn't see anymore. I felt warm liquid rushing down my forehead, over my cheek. I rested my face on the ground, and I began to feel completely numb all over.

”Kysael!” I heard a voice cry out sharply, full of panic and fear, and I suddenly felt warm as a thick coat was wrapped around me, still warm from his body heat, and I was lifted into a strong pair of arms. I could vaguely feel us moving. I was afraid, wondering who had me...? Where were we going...?

But if it was anywhere so that I wouldn't freeze to death and bleed out in the snow, I almost didn't even care....

But my eyes wouldn't open. All I could see was the blackness behind my own eyelids.

”Stay with me! You are safe now,” I heard his warm voice say, and my heart filled with grateful relief.

Lord Dragon had come to save me.

I felt my body moving with each step that he ran, and it took what seemed like a long time to get back home. I numbly wondered just how far I had managed to make it away from home.

I finally felt him set my body down by the fireplace, and put a pillow under my head.

”Kysael? Are you still with me?” His voice was tired but anxious, and I could feel his hand on my head, warm with his healing powers. My head began to feel less heavy, and I was able to breath a bit easier.

I slowly, ever so slowly opened my eyes to see him.

He was wearing a thick tunic, with no coat, and I realized that he'd taken off his coat and wrapped me in it.

My favorite coat, at that. The outside was a nice cotton material. It was a dark, forest green color with dark, evergreen leaves embroidered all over the collar to intertwine down the shoulders and the outer part of the sleeves, and it had dark evergreen leaf buttons.

It was lined on the inside with wool, and it was especially warm and comforting with its ever-present smell of Dragon, his musky scent of trees and rain, a smell I'd come to know and be comforted by.

”Lord Dragon,” I whispered, and he pulled me up into a hug.

”Thank heavens,” he said softly. ”I'm sorry that I didn't get here sooner. I was running some errands for my father after the labor because I needed to get some more things done, so I was gone a little longer than anticipate, and then when I came here, I saw that you weren't here. And the door had been left open, so I knew that you must have went into the forest. I am just so thankful that I found you in time!”

”You saved me...”

He smirked at me. ”Of course, I did. I promised you that I wouldn't let anything happen to you as long as I could help you. I promised you that I would always come for you. I have always been, and will always be, there for you, on your side. I promise you.”

I gave him a small smile. ”I'm sorry.... I don't mean to be trouble,” I grumbled. ”Please don't be mad,” I pleaded, and he nodded at me.

He gave me a small kiss on my forehead. ”You're not trouble for me, Kysael. I chose this path. And I am not mad at you,” he said with a sly grin. The grin that always made my heart flipflop in my chest. ”But I am going to start teaching you how to hunt and fend for yourself. I will help you.”

*

The next morning, Lord Dragon took me to the training fields. There, the field keepers held a number of different preys to practice hunting for the young ones to learn with, and I was no exception.

Dragon had told the keeper that he wanted to rent out the field for the day without giving him a reason, and so the keeper just accepted the money and agreed without pressing the issue.

Everyone in this city knew better than to press things with my ever-quick-tempered Lord Dragon. He'd never had much tolerance for the people in this city.

Although I didn't understand why he would need to rent out the field for the day, I did understand that women weren't supposed to be warriors or hunters in our culture, and I figured that must be the reason as to why he would keep it a secret.

”Alright, Kysael,” he told me when we got onto the field. ”There are many different types of animals out in these fields for you to hunt and practice your hunting habits. You will need to learn to find and catch these animals, and to feed from them without needing to have someone to do it for you.”

I nodded. I was afraid, but I was ready. ”I have to kill them?”

He smiled sadly. ”That is what we do when we gather your meals for you. I will teach you how to perform this task for yourself. You will need the skill in the future if you are to survive.”

”Does everyone hunt like this?”

”The men in the city do, yes. Women are not supposed to do this, but you are not a normal girl. I can't always be able to get to you in time, as we saw yesterday. This is why you need to know how to do this.”

I smiled. ”If you say that I need to learn it, then I will learn it.”

He nodded. ”Good. Now,” he gave me a small knife. ”Let's get started.”

He started by hunting something himself, showing me the technique, how to pick up scents and look for tracks in the snow.

At first, I had some difficulty, but I felt something click in my head after a the first few tries, and I vastly improved. It somehow felt second nature to hunt like this, and I felt powerful and strong.

My very first catch was a young hare, and when I had caught it, Dragon didn't need to say anything.

It had been my first instinct to rip into its body with my teeth, and I felt my incisors burning.

”Your hunting teeth have grown,” I heard him whisper. But I was eating and didn't press the matter. ”It seems as if you already knew what you needed to do. I never had to skin it or de-bone it for you.”

I finally finished, and threw the bare bones to the snowy ground at my feet.

”Oh,” I said lamely. ”I wasn't thinking about anything...I was just hungry. I'm sorry.”

”No, that's quite alright. I just didn't expect you to be such a natural right away, but I suppose that I should have,” he said, his tone holding more insight than what he was letting on. He knew something that he wasn't telling me.

”Is it not natural to be such a natural?”

He laughed as he saw through my intentions. ”I'll tell you that when you're a bit older.”

*

It had been shortly after the incident in the snow when I had been nine and Dragon had found me almost dead, that he had taught me how to hunt for myself, and to mark where I had been to keep track of my path.

He taught me how to climb trees using rope tied around myself, rather than just with my bare hands. We never wanted an incident like that to happen again.

When I had turned ten, my normal classes at the school in town took a turn-the teacher began to teach us about courting, and about the marriage laws that took affect once an elf turned sixteen.

A girl was supposed to be married by the age of eighteen, while a boy was supposed to be married by twenty, at the latest. They began to teach us proper etiquette, manners and the like.

Teaching us wild, free spirited young elves to be ladies and gentlemen was not an easy task, I was sure.

Dragon would help me with further instruction at home, because I was particularly bad with these things like dancing, proper use of eating utensils, proper speaking habits and so on. He said that I was particularly wild, and often joked that he didn't know if I would ever learn how to be lady.

But he pushed and pushed the issue, and he told me that I would be placed into a marriage with a lord someday. That I needed to know how to behave like a lady.

He always gave me these strange glances, watching me with solemn eyes. I would catch him, and watch his eyes skitter away as if he was avoiding me or something. I always wondered why. Sometimes, he would look...almost ill.

I was normally a natural at things...but it seemed that being a lady elf would not come naturally to me.

But there was something that I was still a complete natural at; hunting.

I was hunting one day while Dragon was off at work, and it was after school. I was almost eleven, now.

I dropped from the branch that I'd been sitting on to land gracefully beside of my prey, and retrieved my spear from it before I sunk my teeth into my catch, a young wild boar. Its blood was warm on my tongue.

I drank and drank, and ate the raw flesh straight off of its carcass. After only a half hour, all that was left were the bones.

I stood, feeling refreshed and satisfied. In giddy spirits from my profound skill on this hunt, I closed my eyes and danced, twirling as I sang a merry Elven tune. I skipped to the small pond nearby, dropping softly to my knees, peering at my reflection on the surface of the water. I stroked my long, beautiful hair that was held back by a leather band that let the rest of my hair fall out from under it like a waterfall.

I saw the strange tattoos on my face, that I didn't know the meaning of. I had never understood why I had them, what they were for. All I knew, was that when I left the house, I had to have the marks covered.

Dragon had always stressed to me, that I must never leave the house with my marks uncovered. But a trip out into the forest to hunt didn't count, right?

I heard a gasp, and there was a sudden sharp pain in my arm. I cried out, looking down at my arm to find an arrow sticking out, and my eyes whirled behind me to find a city guard, his bow and another arrow pointed at me, his body quivering.

”You! Your kind isn't supposed to be here! According to our peace treaty, Wraiths are not to trespass on our lands!” He shouted. ”You will leave our city at once or you will be taken to the king to be dealt with!”

”What?” I asked. Clearly, the man was confused. I took a step toward him, and he shot another arrow at me, its mark my thigh. I shouted, my leg caving, causing me to topple to the ground. ”What is the meaning of this? I live in this city!”

He took a good, long look at me. Then, he pointed at me, his voice and face looking as if he was now in hysterics, and he certainly seemed hysteric, leaving me even more confused and startled. ”Oh, creator of all that is Light! You're Dragon's charge! Which means that you are Darah's bastard daughter! She mated with one of the damned and gave birth to an abomination! Finally, it makes sense why she died. So, she didn't die in just because you were a bastard, she was executed for her transgressions!” He pulled out a horn from his back-pack, sounding it loudly. In the distance, frantic horns began blowing, and I startled.

What was happening? I just didn't understand. Then he pointed his weapon back at my face.

Fear rushing through my heart, questions rushing through my mind, I couldn't understand what was happening.

Why was he going to attack me? I held my hands up, stuttering out pleas. I knew that I was a bastard, but surely execution was an extreme after I had been allowed to live in this city all of my life, right?

Dragon came running out of the forest, interceding between me and the guard, quickly pushing the guard's arm up and bringing the weapon away from me. I sighed a breath of relief.

”Lord Dragon, why are you stopping me? Don't you know what that thing is? That creature could kill us all!”

”What?” I gasped. ”I've never hurt anyone! What are you talking about? I'm a Woodelf, one of your people! I know that I'm a bastard, but the king knows that and allowed me to live! So you need to take up your problem with him.”

”Stand down,” Dragon said, authority in his town. ”She is able to sit in the sun light, Nisset. Think. She is not a pure-blooded Wraith. She has no idea about that way of life. Please, she isn't any of your concern. Don't do this.”

”You can't protect her from this, Lord Dragon. I'm sorry, but I am telling the king!” He said as he rushed off.

Dragon looked at me, then, an angry glint in his stare. ”You should have listened to me, Kysael. You weren't supposed to leave the house without the concealant! And now look what you've done!”

”What have I done?” I asked. ”I don't even understand! What am I? What is a 'Wraith', Dragon? I truly don't understand! What is happening? Is that worse than being a bastard?”

He gripped his hair in his hands, exasperated, before the life-altering truth blindly tumbled free of his lips. ”Wraiths are blood drinking, flesh eating creatures of the Dark Realm. We may have a peace treaty with them, but it is very fragile. They hunt anything and everything, including our own kind outside of our boarders, and the treaty was only signed a few years ago. The treaty simply states that they are not allowed within our borders or we will declare war. They are feared creatures. And your mother.... she mated with one. And thus, not only are you a spawn of the enemy, but you are a mix of the races and realms. The king is aware that you are a bastard, yes. And he knows what you really are, but nobody else knew that information, and the king stressed to never let anyone find out. And now, he just might decide to have you executed!”

Shocked, outraged fear ran through my heart and soul. I couldn't believe this...it was too much for me. I barely understood, but this....it was almost too much for me to bear.

I might be executed, simply for someone finding out what I was? I had never harmed anyone. I had never been anything but kind and respectful, a good Woodelf child...and these people were going to turn on me like wolves, simply for something that I had no control over? But everything finally made sense. Why I couldn't stay over at friend's houses, why I ate different than he did, why his father was wary of me, why the King never made eye contact with me whenever I was in his presence....it all clicked in my mind like a puzzle that had finally been finished.

As the guards came and tackled me to the ground, binding my arms and dragging me away, I looked at my protector with a mixture of hurt and fury.

”Aren't you supposed to protect me!?” I shouted, not really meaning what I was saying because I was afraid and angry. But my accusation caused his body to flinch, and shake. His head hung.

Somewhere, deep in my heart, it felt good to know that he would be this upset in the event of my death.

*

I was drug out of my cell the next morning, and pulled to the throne room of the King of Havengrove. The walls were made of jade, the floor made of white marble stone. The throne was large, interlocking limbs woven to make a grand seat with jades nestled into little nooks notched into the limbs.

The king sat there. His long, tan colored hair falling past his shoulders, his skin light brown, a goatee on his chin and his eyes were green. He looked like the personification of the forest. I looked around.

There weren't many people in the room.

Dragon and his family were there.

Dragon's expression was one that I wasn't used to seeing often.

He looked as if he were ready to rip someone apart.

The king looked down at me from his throne. ”Kysael...” He shook his head, and looked at Dragon. ”Dragon, you were supposed to keep this quiet, and now the entire city is buzzing, questioning my authority for allowing her to live. A bastard and a hybrid, in our very city under all of their noses and I hid it from them. Now, they are enraged. I've slaughtered countless people, infants, for less. They are threatening riots. All because you begged and pleaded for me to spare her, this disgusting creature. How could you have allowed this?”

”King Eranton, please,” Dragon pleaded. ”Kysael is innocent. She has been raised to feed on animals, as you instructed, and she has never brought any harm to anyone. I have done as I was supposed to, and raised her up like a normal Woodelf girl. You've already taken the woman I love and an innocent child's mother from the two of us. I implore you, don't take her life for this.”

”You know that I have always valued your opinion, Dragon. You are held to very high standards in this city, as is your clan. You came back from the brink of darkness after that incident many years ago, and you have earned your stature in this city. Then, you changed again after Darah's execution, and you have been angry and dark since that day. Yet you have still followed my orders, and raised the girl as you were instructed to. You vowed to raise her, and I vowed that I would leave her alone as long as her true nature, her conception, was not discovered.

But can you promise me now, that she will never cause harm to any of my people? Can you truly look me in the eye and assure me that she will never turn? She's a Wraithling. And now, people are wanting to revolt. The guards are bringing me word of conspiracy and rioting from the city! What if someone saw her out in the city and chose to strike out against her? Would she simply take it? No. No, Dragon. You cannot make me any promises that could change my mind.”

”I can promise you that she wouldn't turn! I swear it. I am willing to stake my life on it.” Dragon came to stand between the king and myself, kneeling to the king. My heart jumped into my throat at the act. ”Take my life instead, if you must kill someone today. I haven't protected her well enough. I have failed, already, and she is only this age. I offer my life in her place.”

The king rubbed his goatee. ”Dragon, I truly cannot understand why you have pledged your protection to such a creature. Just the nature of her conception is...she is an abomination!”

”But your highness, it wasn't Darah's fault!” Dragon's mother cried. ”She was taken against her will! It wasn't her fault nor her decision! Please, spare Kysael. It is what Darah would have wanted!”

Hurt tugged at my heart. I was only a mistake, just a token to my mother of someone who had taken her against her will. And then she had been executed because of my birth. I had never even gotten to meet her.

Pain radiated through my heart. I was only a reminder of her being forced into something that she hadn't wanted...and she had still wanted me, still wanted me to have a safe life.

”But it was her decision to keep it a secret from me, and the city. To lie to everyone, making them believe that Kysael was one of us. That is why she was executed. And it was Dragon who swore to keep her identity hidden to avoid a rebellion, and that has failed. This girl can never be one of our people.”

”The lassie is one of us, King Eranton,” Drakul, Dragon's father, spoke up. ”The girl has proven that she isn't a danger to anyone.”

”The citizens are already outraged that I have allowed the girl to live in the city as long as I have. I understand that you all hold emotional attachment to the child, but she is no normal elf child. She is a Wraithling. Riots are forming in the streets. Word of overthrowing me is making its way to my ears. Despite the respect and the rank that you all hold in this city; I am afraid that life can no longer continue to go on the way that it has up until this point. I will not execute her, no. But she is to be removed from my city.”

”No!” Dragon shouted. ”You cannot do this! How is she supposed to survive on her own? She's a child!”

”That is not my concern. I will allow her to live just inside of the outer wall, if that would make you feel better. But she is not allowed to come any further into the city limits. If I find that she has, she will be banished. Under the condition that she not come out of her designated space, and she wait for food supplies if she so needs it, and she stay under surveillance of the city guard, I will allow her to live. You should be thankful she isn't being sent to execution in the square.”

”Please, your highness. Please do not do this.”

”You truly care for this creature, Dragon. I pity you. Your devotion to her is admirable, but no less foolish. Your dedication to her protection is leading you down a path of death.”

”I swore it, the day I delivered her from her mother's womb, that I would always protect her. No matter the cost. I have foreseen greatness in her future. I know that she will be our salvation.”

The king continued to stroke his goatee. Then, he stood, and pulled out his sword. He pointed it at Dragon's throat. Dragon stayed relaxed, even though my heart raced and sweat dropped down my burning skin, my breath hitching. Dragon glanced up over his shoulder at me, before turning his attention back to the king.

”I, King Eranton, hold you, Dragon of the Huntsmen clan, fully responsible for this creature from this day forward. If she turns, if she harms anyone in this city, it will be your head on the display block in the square after watching yet another woman you care for die. Is that understood?”

Dragon bowed even lower to the ground. ”Yes, King Eranton.”

”And you will no longer be allowed to live with her. Your sickly attachment to her grows increasingly concerning to me. You may, however, visit her to train her because from this moment on, I hereby decree that this creature will be bound to live in the very outskirts of this city, and she will be my very own, personal weapon.”

Everyone startled. ”What?” Dragon asked, horrified.

”She will be instructed in the ways of the hunters and the warriors, and she will help us defeat our enemies that have risen up in the west. The Wolf-clans have been attacking our travelers and convoys, and they are teaming up with the Orks and the Dwarves. She is a creature of both the Dark Realm and the Light Realm, and her.... capabilities and dark talents could come to be quite useful. She will be my weapon henceforth. She will be in your charge, and she is to be trained and given to the army. If she proves to be worthwhile, I may perhaps… give her a better situation.”

”King Eran-” Dragon started, but the king interrupted.

”This creature is currently of no other use in this city. She will not become a normal Woodelf maiden, but a woman of battle. The very first female warrior that we've ever had. That is the only means in which she could possibly be of use to me at this point in time. She will be my warrior and my warrior only. And if she proves successful and worthy, perhaps we can see what further uses she can serve for us. If I decide that her abilities are useful.... then I will allow her to marry and reproduce to further our society with more weapons. Now....Take this girl out of my sight, and to her place in the outer ring of the city. I will be there shortly with a designated plot of land for her.”

Dragon's face was outraged, fearful. But he sighed, stood, and turned away from the king. I was....to be a tool for the city, a weapon. I would never become a lady. I would only be a weapon. I would never marry, or have a family?

I would never....

I could hardly keep up, and I didn't fully understand what was happening. Did this mean that I'd never have a family?

I would always be alone?

Dragon took me by the hand, and he led me out of the room, taking me into the forest, back to our home.

I said nothing as I watched him pack some bags for me, but he held an expression on his face that, truly, I hoped to never again see on his face.

I had never seen such unadulterated rage on his face before.