Aella

Cordsdale

Evander quickened his pace as he caught a glimpse of his best friend Aella. She sat patiently, waiting for his return. The sun glistened as it rose on the dusty morning. Even with her back to him Evander recognized her beauty. She had light brown hair perfectly sitting past her shoulders. To anyone else she would look small and fragile but Evander knew differently, she was tough and perfectly balanced. She was strong for her size. As he approached, she turned with sparkling pale blue eyes. He was a mess from being out in the wilderness. He smelled of swamp, and his whole body was covered in dust. But she didn’t care, Aella launched her body at him Grinning from ear to ear, catching him off guard in a tight hug. “I’ve missed you.” She said in her quiet sweet voice.  

The sun was now high in the sky burning down on them. “What a beautiful day.” Evander exclaimed. “Yes, I love days like this.” Aella was in the best of moods. No bad weather, her best friend was home and her guardian Castor had given her a new bow to replace her old tattered one. She loved archery more than anything.

“Let’s go to the market, I want to thank Castor with a nice meal tonight.”

 There were two main entrances into Cordsdale one at the northern wall Where Aella had been waiting and one at the east wall closer to the castle where Queen Nona lived. Evander and Aella were of the less wealthy folk. They didn’t spend much time in the southern part of the kingdom.

Cordsdale was huge and had all the resources needed to sustain all of the villagers. The western border was next to Pliantary Lake; which had three main rivers running through the kingdom. There were Woods lining the entire northern end of the kingdom outside and within it, which also curved around to the east and stopped before the east gate, and within the middle of the kingdom laid acres of wheat fields. There were no other kingdoms nearby to trade with but Cordsdale had no need of it they had everything they needed. There were small villages around the country side of people who once lived in Cordsdale but had decided to leave. But for the most part, every human being sought a home within queen Nona’s command.

Aella was curious about what Evander had been up to outside of the kingdom. But she refrained from asking him because she knew it wasn’t one of his favorite topics. So they walked in silence for a bit. They stopped suddenly when they heard someone scream in pain off to the right of their path. Evander winced and Aella clenched her fists. As Evander took a step towards the noise, Aella grabbed his arm. “Don’t.” She said with a grim face. His deep blue eyes troubled her. They were filled with fear but far more knowledge than her. “I have to know.” His voice was tough, but she recognized the shake of anger and sorrow. “Fine, but I’m not coming with you.” He nodded. “Head of to the market. I’ll be there in a bit.”

Aella ran wanting to get away from the cries. She knew as well as anybody what it was from. Someone had done something to upset the queen so she was punishing them with a whip. Evander took a deep breath and walked between two houses and turned the corner. He knew what was coming but he still had to look away from the bloody body tied to the post. His skin crawling Evander walked to the other side of the court into the surrounding crowd, so he could see the face of the man being whipped and also hear the whispers. “Strait up said no to the queen” grunted one man. “Stupid elf” whispered another. Evander sighed with relief. At least it wasn’t someone he knew being tortured. But still the pain in the elf’s face made his blood run cold. Goose bumps formed on Evander’s arms every time the whip came down on the elf’s back. He couldn’t stand to watch another minute, so he hurried off to the market.

Aella looked around after buying bread, cheese and a few vegetables. She knew she had not enough money to buy anything else but she continued to sniff and gaze at the spices and other products. “How is Castor?” a short man with a thick accent asked Aella as she turned away from the onions. She smiled and said. “Good.” He smiled back with missing teeth and reached out to shake her hand.

“My name is Alexander; I’ve known Castor since we were kids, good ole times. I don’t live in the kingdom anymore though.” He paused and looked around. Then he whispered. “Problems with the queen Ya hear.”

 Aella nodded. A lot of people left the kingdom because of the way they felt about the queen. “But I came for a visit. Make sure you tell Castor I’m here. Don’t forget alright missy? I need to speak with him.” He thanked her and walked away.  Aella thought nothing of the conversation, because Castor had what he called important meetings with all kinds of people, he seemed to know everybody, and through him her. Sometimes Aella felt as if she was Castors puppet bringing messages to certain people and letting him know of all the news. But she loved Castor and he had taught her everything she knew, from how to catch, kill, clean and cook a meal, to how to entertain and be respectful.   

Aella was sitting watching the chickens peck at the ground when Evander came back. She looked up at him and smiled, but her joy slowly subsided remembering where he had just been. “An elf, didn’t do as he was told.” Evander answered her unspoken question. Her eyes saddened.

“Why does she do it? Especially to all the elves, I don’t understand. All of the old stories about how they protected our land, about how majestic and brave they were, Nona ruined them.”

 She shook her head with grief. “I hate it; no one deserves to be treated like that. It turned them evil, they’re terrifying now.” Evander and Aella had these conversations all the time. About all the wrongs queen Nona had done. First and foremost how she forced all the elves into slavery because of their natural magic ability. Nona despised magic and forbid it from her lands. Aella had a reason to take that personally, she had magic ability herself, although she told no one besides Castor and Evander also she didn’t practice it because of the danger if she got caught, which left her abilities limited. It’s a wonder Castor hadn’t been punished although he doesn’t use his power openly either. Evander grunted. “I know. It isn’t fair. But it’s not like we can stop her Aella.” He sat down next to her and they sat in silence for awhile. Aella broke the silence saying “I would do anything, anything to stop her.” Evander chuckled. “I’m sure you would… but not without getting yourself killed.” They both frowned and sat for another minute. Evander was the first to stand. “Come on, let’s go find Castor.”

Together Evander and Aella started walking back through the kingdom chatting along the way. As they passed though the whipping area they saw that the elf and the onlookers were long gone, and both sighed with relief. The further north they walked the smaller the buildings got and less people were walking about. They found Castor sitting with Evander’s cousin Marcus with whom Evander lived with, on a farm a couple miles from where Castor and Aella lived.

“Evander, you’re home what a pleasant surprise!” Castor exclaimed with delight, but Aella could tell something was troubling him. “I was thinking it was about time you got back, lots of work to be done.” Marcus grinned at Evander.

 Castor turned to Marcus and said sternly. “Don’t forget.” Marcus nodded and they shook hands. Before they parted Aella asked “Can Evander stay for dinner? I’m planning to make a big meal.” Marcus shrugged “Sure.” They all turned to Castor. “You’re always welcome at our place, you know that.” Aella smiled and tugged at Evander “come on you can help me make dinner.” They all laughed.

As they headed for their home Aella remembered her talk with Alexander. Casually she said. “There’s a man named Alexander looking for you Castor.” Both Evander and Castor stopped in their tracks to stare at her. She paused “what?”

“Alexander is a very old friend of mine I haven’t seen him in years, he’s been living outside the kingdom ever since…” Castor’s voice died away and his gaze fell upon something in the distance. Aella was confused “What, Ever since what?” Castor didn’t answer but Evander put his arm on her shoulder. “Aella, Alexander’s a wizard.” Now it made more sense why he left the kingdom. How did Evander know this? “Why did he come into the kingdom? He’s just going to get killed.” Aella commented. Castor seemed to shake himself. “We must get home quickly; this is no place to be speaking of such things.”