Jaina

A long time ago, my home was known as the Paeris Woods. I grew up in those woods. As a little girl, my family was happy. Me, mom, dad and my brother. A happy little family. Except, there was nothing little about it. Mom and dad were the leaders of our village. We were some sort of tribe, living in the top of the trees, right underneath the big layer of leaves. A tribe of wood elves. This way we would be far from the dangers on the ground. Emelle it was called. If there would be any dangers, we could see it coming from above, even in the dark. We have always been able to see in the dark, while practically being almost invisible to other creatures.     Mom (Aravae Yelleth) and dad (Ascal Qinnorin) were the leaders of our village, lady and lord Qinnorin. My mom was the only daughter of an old high elven king, thus she was bound to be queen someday. She never liked being a princess. She would be out of the world, her fate being within the walls of her old hometown without ever being able to leave. Her hometown was a city called Ilnlion, a huge elven city. Since she would be a queen someday, mom always thought she’d better learn something of the world. But she was not allowed to leave. Every day she ached. Even though others would say she could get everything she wanted, but that was untrue. She didn’t have the one thing that others did have: freedom. Forever bound to the royal house. Wanting to leave the borders of the city she lived in. But then one day, she met my dad. Already lord of Emelle, since his parents died when he was only 17. My mom was 23 when she met him, and my dad was 30. Dad came to Ilnlion to get in agreement with my grandfather, king of Ilnlion. To become allies. But mom did not know that was his purpose. She met him in one of the hallways in the royal house, bumped into him. They talked, hit it off and actually fell in love with him straight away. Not only that, but she saw a way out. They were lucky to have fallen in love, because to get to an agreement to become allies, my grandfather wished my mom would marry my dad. So they did. Mom took my dad’s last name and went to live with him and rule as lady of Emelle. Dad did not like large cities, but having one as an ally would be in his favor. You could say, even though mom and dad did fall in love, deep down they both had other intentions for marrying each other. Years passed in peace and as Emelle and Ilnlion as allies. Emelle bloomed and was known as a center of elven weaponry. The town expanded and a lot of secret meetings would be held here. Since wood elves are incredibly stealthy, sadly Emelle was also known by the amount of assassins that would be hired by other towns. But nobody really knew where the town was located. We hid ourselves pretty well. Those times were the happiest for my parents. First, my brother, Hagmer, was born. Mom loved him, but always felt something was off with him. Call it an instinct of mothers. Few years later, I was born. As we grew older, my brother and I would fight more and more. We never really got along. But dad always took his side, while mom always took my side. That kind of separated my family over time. It looked like the love between my parents faded more and more. Because of Emelle’s golden days and huge, strong allies, his ego became bigger and bigger. Bigger than it should. Emelle became wealthy, steady, but dad always wanted more. So he became very greedy as well. Dad was my brother’s big example, so he would follow dad everywhere and copied all his actions and everything dad said. My dad loved my brother and taught him everything. Dad never really payed much attention to me. After all, I was his second born. No heir of the throne. My brother was. I never felt like dad or my brother cared for me. Somehow it felt like they could do something bad to me anytime. I didn’t trust them.   Mom would protect me for everything. My dad still loved my mom, but mom avoided him as much as he could. The bitterness in my dad’s heart grew bigger. He got a temper. Mom wanted to get out of there, away from my dad and away from this town. Dad knew, but did not tell her he knew. He would not let her go and watched her every step. But mom wanted to go away and take me with her. That was not something that would go easily. Every night, after dinner, mom would take me for a walk through the forest. At least, that’s what she would tell my dad. Instead, we would go to a quiet spot in the forest. Mom would smuggle some equipment and weapons underneath her robe. Right there, she would train me. She would train me to become the best, fastest and most quiet bowman of Emelle, or even of our entire region. She taught me to climb fast and silently, to shoot with a bow and arrow as perfectly and precisely as even could, and she taught me to be fast and stealthy at the same time. Every night we would do this since I was 15. And she would train with me. So we could both get out. One night, when I was 23, she believed it was time. Time to go. She woke me up and told me to get all my stuff. That this was what we had prepared for. All these years, my dad and brother seemed to have gone crazy. I grabbed my stuff and got dressed as fast as I could. Then we quickly but quietly walked through Emelle, upon the wooden paths. Hiding in the shadows whenever we heard or saw someone.   That was when we heard it. The loud blowing of the wind. But it was not the wind. It was the sound of something large flying above us through the air. But we could not see it. That was Emelle’s weakness. We could see everything on the ground, but in the air there was no sight. The layer of leaves was too thick. Mom told me to hide in one of the buildings in our town. One of the storages for the town’s weapons. She pushed me inside and, as much as she wanted to go, went to sound the alarm bell and woke my father and brother. The town was in danger. She knew it. I had no idea what was going on. The sound of the wind became louder and the trees were moving. Suddenly, I heard an immensely loud growl. This was no wood elf, human or dwarf. This sound was something else. It went through my whole body and the trees and the ground shook. Then I heard screams. I stood up, grabbed my bow and secured some short swords from the storage to my belt. I pushed open the door and immediately looked around to see what was happening. Fire. Houses were burning. Our people were running through the town, trying to get out as fast as they could. On my left side I heard loud cracks of tree branches that broke and fell onto our town. There was a huge claw that leaned on one of the houses my friend lived in. It was collapsed. I screamed and cried. What was that thing? I still did not know. The hole in the treetops where the claw was positioned, was suddenly colored a bright orange, as if the sun was coming up. But that was definitely not what was happening. An enormous ray of fire was spurted towards our town. I fell down and tried to call out for my mother. I did not hear anything so I started running towards our house. Mom, dad and my brother came running out. “We have to move, now!”, screamed dad and mom grabbed my arm tightly. We ran through our now partially destroyed and burning town. So much screaming, dead people underneath large branches. This was a nightmare. I thought I was going to die. And I was close. While running, we heard another growl which was so close and so horrific, that we all stopped running. Mom ran to the side, where a screaming woman who was stuck underneath her house was crying for help. Mom tried to help her, and I ran with her. “Mom, we should go now!”, I screamed in panic while I ran towards my mom. All of a sudden, a loud crackling of branches was heard and quickly after, two claws crashed in front of me. I fell on my back and did not see what was happening, until a huge head showed itself. A large mouth with huge teeth that looked like knives pulled away the foliage and branches above my head. This was no ordinary threat. This was a dragon. This would be our deaths. Why was it here? What would it want with us? Why was it doing this to us? That went through my head within seconds. I would later find out. My face suddenly hurt, it was bleeding. So was my right arm. The dragon looked at me, my dad, my brother and my mom. The red, snake-like eye scared me but I could not move. Its scaly chest slowly turned bright orange. It was heating up. “Run!”, my mother screamed at us. I cried and screamed, because I couldn’t reach my mother. But my dad pulled my away and we ran. I did not dare to look behind me, but I already knew what was happening. My mom screamed and the sound of the blazing fire raged in my ears. The sounds of that evening I would never forget. As soon as the dragon came, it left. Like its job was done. We had to leave, Emelle was burning in the night. If we did not leave soon, we would burn as well. We ran and ran, tried to save the children and elderly first. The others took care of themselves. But most of the damage was done. Our people screamed, the sound of their pain was horrible. This monster. It took everything from us. I was so distraught, shocked and heartbroken. But anger, together with sadness, took the upper hand in my chest. Emelle fell to the ground, into ashes and remains. There were not much of us left. We had to leave, we did not know if the dragon would come back. All these lost lives, my mom. And with all this happening, I saw my brothers face. No emotion. I didn’t notice it before, but now I am sure I saw it.   My dad, brother and I would wander the forest for a few years. The surviving people coming with us. We had no home anymore. We would help the wounded and children as much as we could. There was almost no food and medicine. Everyone was hungry. Dad had took what we needed to survive, and so did the rest of the survivors. But it was not enough. Some of the wounded would not live to see better days. Children grew up in sadness, without their parents. But we took care of them. At least, I would. And my dad tried. But after this all happened, my dad would never be the same. And he would slowly slip away.   After Emelle burnt down, my dad also took the town’s holy jewel. Yes, we had a holy jewel and my dad was obsessed with it. Even though it wasn’t his. It was my mother’s. But she never liked it. A large green stone that was stored and guarded within a tiny building in the middle of Emelle: the lord’s tower. Every now and then, dad would enter the tower to admire this stone and he came out more confident a lord. But it was not a normal stone. My mother knew that. It captured my dad entirely. The days we wandered the forest, we would also use to look for help with our allies. Me and my dad would anyway. Hagmer was always on his own. I knew he was up to something, or that he had done something terrible. And my dad, of course, wasn’t himself anymore as well. Those days he would walk around our camp at night while everyone was sleeping, talking to something. And I knew it was that creepy, almost bewitched stone that he was talking to. I would see his eyes glistening green as reflection. Even though there was no light, the stone would shine bright enough.   We tried to seek rescue with our allies. But they would not think twice to send us away. I never knew why. Dad was furious and sad. He lost his wife, was left wandering with his children and had nowhere to go. Also having to take care of the survivors. Emelle was burnt down, but dad was still its lord. I knew he was grieving for mom, and he would grow even more bitter. After a few years living in the woods, we returned to Emelle. All of our hearts ached. But it seemed like my brother could not care less. All of this time since the attack, he would show no such thing as emotions. Emelle, all burnt down and actually a total wreck. Within a few years my dad had tried to rebuild Emelle to its former glory. With the help of the people that survived. Within this time, there was never any help from our allies. So it was hard. Emelle would be rebuilt, but it would never be the way it once was. Dad would take precautions by building a few watchtowers that towered over the foliage. Just in case some danger, like the dragon, would attack us from above. The people were still sad and grieving, but now they could grieve properly. Dad did everything for his people, but he would never be the same. He never talked to me and Hagmer, when he spoke it would be an attempt of giving advice, but without any context. This was understandable though. I myself was never the same as well. I would often sit by myself in the window, not doing anything. Just thinking. Thinking about my mother. We tried to be happy, but it was hard. At night I would often walk through the village. Sometimes people would ask me if they could help me, offer me dinner at their house. It was lovely to have people care about me. Everybody saw what the day of the attack did to my family. It broke us, and it broke the people.   My brothers attitude would always bother me. Always. But one day I came to look for him. My dad wanted to see him and asked me if I could look for Hagmer. So I did. I looked for him around the whole town hall, but no sign. My brother had a separate little house in the village. He liked to live in solitude. So that’s where I went. I opened the squeaky wooden door of his house, but he was not there. So at that moment, I had some time to snoop around. All this time Hagmer had been acting strange, being off. This was my chance to find something. And lord knows, I did find it. Hagmer had an enormous closet. Made from a thick, hard kind of wood. It looked kingly. I guessed he got that from my dad. One of the closet doors was open. Not wide open, just a tiny bit. Just enough. Because when I looked and snooped around his room, something caught my eye. Something shiny and sparkly coming from inside that closet. I walked towards the closet and tried to open the door as silently as I could. Inside of the closet there was a pile of something, covered with a thick woolen blanket. But it wasn’t fully covered. There was a piece of metal, or so I thought, peeking out from under the blanket. Of course, I lifted the blanket. It was diamonds, jewels, gemstones, so pure and beautiful I had never seen it. It didn’t look… natural. As I got closer I felt weird and uncomfortable. But I had to see it. I had to touch it. At that moment, I felt something sharp against my back. Hagmer. “So, what are you doing in my house, sister?”, Hagmer said in a grim and sort of sly way. “Father asked for you, I couldn’t find you so I looked if you were here. I’d better hurry if I were you”, I replied. I was definitely not scared of him. So I turned around to face him. There he stood, with his dagger pointed at me. His eyes had a suspicious twinkle in them and his mouth was crooked into a grimace. He knew I found it. He slightly turned his head but his eyes were still looking at mine. “What do I do with you now. I knew you were a nosy one. But this only makes things easier for me.”, he said. “What do you mean? Why are you being suspicious and are you hiding this strange treasure from us. You know we need everything right now! How did you get this anyway, we don’t own this kind of treasure”, I was angry, how could he! “None of your concern, dear sister. If you think about it, you already know what it was. And I don’t really care for Emelle. This only means I can get rid of you faster. Enjoy while you can”. His words echoed through the room, and I shivered. He scared me, but luckily he didn’t notice it. Slowly I walked out, but my brother kept staring at me as I did. The days after this eerie conversation, I thought about it. The jewels, the strange feeling I got when getting closer, and the dragon attack. My brother didn’t keep it a secret from me anymore. And that’s when I knew it. My brother had a dragons’ treasure. To my knowledge, that was not something anyone could do. Except for when it was a stolen treasure. That’s why the dragon attacked! Hagmer stole a dragons’ treasure!   This kind of treasure was not something we possessed in Emelle. Putting aside our town’s holy stone, us wood elves did not value gold or jewels. We valued each other. But I always knew my brother was off. The greediness had grown within him. My dad was greedy, yes, but it always had some sort of limit. But my brother had none. He had one day heard that dragons were the creatures that valued and owned treasures like no others. He kept in mind that dragons possessed treasures. A few years before, he had apparently gone to a dragons’ den. There he stole some of the treasure. But he did not know how much this particular dragon valued its treasure. I think he also did not care. The dragon tried to look for my brother, but since Emelle was so well hidden, he could not find him easily. But a dragon will lay on its treasure for ages. It creates a smell, like it’s his bed. So the treasure is found easily. That night it came looking for Hagmer. That was the night the dragon attacked Emelle, and as revenge, killed our mother. Hagmer seemed to care nothing about our mother’s death, and I was right. While he told me everything, he showed no emotion for mother, only for the fact that he could keep his gold and jewels. The dragon would not find its treasure, since Hagmer was one of the first people to leave Emelle when it was attacked. This was something I found out later. I knew that my knowledge of this would not go without some sort of silencing. Hagmer would not want me to tell anyone. Because I knew this, I just kept my mouth shut. But of course, I was a loose end. If it wasn’t for my awful brother, mother would be alive and everything would be the way it was. When time went on, I felt the hate grow bigger and bigger. I hated my brother, and I hated that dragon.   But this was only the beginning. One day, my father stormed out of the town hall. I have never seen him so angry. “Where is it?! Someone took it, search everything! The whole town, leave no stone unturned and arrest the scoundrel that did this! I will have him HANGED!!”, he screamed at one of the guards. The guard was shook but ran to the big bell tower. We used the belltower these days for a number of purposes. There were various rhythms. One rhythm was for emergencies, but this one was to gather everyone in town at the town square immediately. As soon as the town square in front of the town hall was filled with people, one of the guards blew the trumpet to announce my dad’s speech. Dad walked up the stairs and stood at the top. He looked big and scary. Something was terribly wrong. He looked around the town square, it was dead silent. He left the silence to be, until a few minutes had passed.   “Someone has stolen the king’s jewel,” he said, to cut right to the chase apparently. “if that someone will not bring it back today, I will search the whole town. When I find the person who did this, I will have him hanged. Without trial. Come forth now if you know anything. Any accomplice will share the same fate.” The scary and harsh tone in my dad’s voice gave everybody chills. Everybody was still dead silent. My brother stood at the side of the stairs. I saw his face. Again, there was a small grimace on his face. After yet a few minutes of silence, my father turned around and walked back to the town hall. Then he turned around and said: “I will be in the town hall, in my chair. You have until midnight!”. And he walked towards the town hall again. The people went back to their homes and the town square was empty again. It was about 10 o’clock in the evening. I was eating an apple while sitting on my windowsill, with the window open. The weather was lovely. But there was a weird vibe going on. The town was clearly distraught by the events of today. One thing did not leave my mind though. That was the strange and creepy smile on Hagmer’s face this afternoon. Something strange was up. At that same moment, I heard loud slams and bangs coming from inside the town hall. I looked towards the door and right away, my door was slammed open and soldiers came barging in. Before I knew it, I was dragged with them and brought to the main hall where my dad’s throne was. Right in front of the throne, I was thrown onto my knees and the soldiers pointed their spears at me. I looked up, and my dad looked right back at me with a stern and angry face. Like he did not know what to do. The whole town was there. And my brother, of course, stood by the side of his throne again. “Father, why am I here, what’s going on?” He didn’t answer. Instead, he stood up and looked me in my eyes. “I never knew you, of all people, would do this to me.”, he said. There was pain in his voice. I was startled. What did I do wrong? But I could not speak. “For this crime, I wanted the guilty person hanged. You did not even come and speak to me. You did not tell me. But you are still my daughter.” Hanged. Fear overwhelmed me. My own father was going to hang me? Then I understood, he thought that I had stolen the king’s jewel. “I did not do anything! I don’t have it!”, I told him desperately. But he raised his arm and showed me what was in his hand. The stone. “Hagmer told me everything.” “He is lying! I did not do this, you have to believe me!” “It’s a terrible thing. My own daughter. I cannot have you hanged. I raised you and you did this. How.”, he babbled to himself silently while he walked back and forth, looking down at the ground.   The room went silent again. Then he turned to me and pointed his finger at me. “You will be banned! I will not have this betrayal in my village, let alone my own family. Be gone, you have one hour. Never show your face in Emelle again!” My eyes widened. And the crowd gasped. My brother still stood by the side of the throne, this time looking straight at me. And he smiled. The huge grimace. This was his revenge for me finding out what he did. Apparently he had rattled me out to my father. How could he believe him? This was his way, who Hagmer was. An awful liar, everything for him to gain. I was dragged outside by the same soldiers and thrown onto the cobbled stones of the town square. “Grab your things, if you are not gone within the hour, your father will have you hanged. His orders.”, one of the guards said. So I stood up to grab my things and left the town. I am now 35, I have been wandering the forests for years and years. Never have I been able to return to Emelle again. The hate inside me has grown thick and heavy. One day it will be my time for revenge.