Palace of the Cursed and Forgotten

Chapter 1- Elvira

In my village, there was a legend. Long ago Fae and their Dragons coexisted with humans. As humans began to crave the Fae's immortality, tensions arose. To avoid war, The Past King of my kingdom and the Five Kings of the Fae Territories signed a treaty, which stated that from then on our two peoples would be separated by the Chasm. On the West side would be the Mortal Kingdom, and in the East would remain the Five Fae Territories: Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, and Ice. The Five Fae Kings agreed to these terms: humans would stay on the West side and Fae with their Dragons would remain in the East. Any individual to cross the Chasm would have their fate determined by the ruler of the Territory in which they landed. This agreement was struck over a hundred years ago and remains today.

In my village, as children, we were warned never to go near the Chasm for if we fell in we would never get back out. It was at least a hundred-foot drop to the ground and there were rumored to be sharp rock spikes at the bottom. If somehow we crossed the fifty-foot Chasm we would never see our families again.

When I was sixteen the forest had increasingly fewer animals to hunt. My job was to supply what my father couldn't for our family. My father normally brought in the money and I brought in the extra food and money. I was hunting for my family while my father off on a trip and my mother was home with my baby brother. Not wanting my family to go hungry I ventured into the forest next to the Chasm.

There was a rumor that such a forest was plentiful in animals and berries. As a very young child, I was warned to never enter that forest for it was too close to the Chasm and some animals from the East were rumored to have never been expelled after they wandered in from the Fae lands. Those animals would lurk in the forest closest to the border.

It was less than an hour before an unidentifiable animal was chasing me to the Chasm. I should have listened to the legends, I was such an ignorant child! I came upon the Chasm far faster than I expected. I tried to stop, fearing the Chasm and all its warnings but my feet caught on the slick dirt, and straight over that edge I went.

I was lucky in the sense that I landed on one of the only landings protruding from the wall I still fell about thirty feet before I landed. My ankle snapped with a wicked pop, which I can still hear sometimes. From my landing point, I was able to slide down the smooth side of one of the rocks protruding from the Chasm floor.

If it wasn't for that damn broken ankle, I might have made it out. So far I've been stuck for two and a half years. Animals will occasionally fall down the sides into this hellhole and I can eat them, otherwise, I'm limited to the scarce plants that grow in the low light.

It's funny, if I was given the chance to leave I don't know if I would. I can't go back. About a year ago I dove into a lake about a mile outside of where I was staying at the time in hopes of finding fish, only to find that the soothing waters that made me feel as if I was finally becoming whole turned one from human to Fae. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't return home, unless there was a war and the Mortal King called for aid. So, in a weird way, I hope I never see my family again for if I did it would mean they were in more danger than I could imagine.

It's been two years since I heard the pain-filled roar echoing down the Chasm that led me to my Dragon. Pyre, named from the blistering, searing fire that flares from his mouth when he is either protecting something or pissed something isn't cooked. By the looks, he had been down here a long time, maybe even since birth. He couldn't fly. There are so many close-packed rocks that stretch ten feet into the air and litter the ground. Pyre would catch his wings on these rocks and tear them open in long-spanning gashes. I have worked to get his wings to strengthen, I don't want him to miss out on anything.

I had taken Pyre to the "clearing" I had made my camp where he has room to move around without tearing his wings. Over the last two years, we have been slowly stretching and strengthening his wings. When his wings are strong enough, which will be very soon, we will go hunt in the Fae lands, then return to the camp. Every day he can fly higher up the Chasm walls and he has begun to be able to do more tricks successfully. Once he reaches the top we can go hunt.

I don't want to leave Pyre so if he wanted to stay up top I would stay, if not we would be returning to the camp that has sheltered me these last few years. He is the only family I have now. I won't leave him, so where he stays I stay.

If my history stands correct both the Territories of Fire and Earth share the border of the Chasm. Dragons are most common in the Wind Territory so it would be less noticeable if we hunted there or one of the surrounding Territories. Fire was a viable option, though, there was a rumor that the ruler of the Territory was involved with one of the Dragon Riders. In my experience rumors were normally mostly true. Not heeding rumors is what got me here.

So there was my answer: we hunt on the border of both Fire and Wind. Fae and humans haven't interacted for over a hundred years, so I'm basing all this off of information that is a hundred years old.

The gossipers of my old village claimed to have the most updated information, but who knows? Everything might be different now, I've been in the Chasm for two and a half years.

Pyre slides his tail around me, it makes a nice barrier against the elements. Back in my village, it used to get so cold by the time you carried the water back to your house from the river down the road it was frozen. Down in the Chasm, I wish those were still my problems. Now my fire goes out at night because the bottom logs freeze. The only thing that keeps me constantly warm is Pyre. My fire went out right before I went to sleep last night giving me a warning that the first snow of the season was fast approaching.

Pyre grumbles behind me, "Alright, alright you big busy body I'll go to sleep. Stop worrying."

Pyre proceeds to wrap his tail closer to him, shielding me further from the elements. I should be figuring out how long we can spend in each Territory without being noticed, but sleep decided to be particularly persuasive tonight. I have always been a figure-it-out-as-I-go type. Figure it out tomorrow. Those were the words I told myself the night before I fell into the Chasm. Tomorrow has always been my hopeful word forever. If I say tomorrow I can let today's problems become tomorrow's solutions.