Lost Fragments

Chapter 1: Strangers

"Stop right there, you thief!" a loud yell interrupted the noisy chatter from the market people. As they wondered what was happening, a young man covered in a dark red cloth came rushing through the street in hopes of escaping from the guards. "Hey, that man is a thief! Catch him!" The merchant said angrily, "Tsk... he who's selling rotten apple talks as if he's any better." An annoying murmur comes from one of the women buying from the merchant. The merchant then glares at the women, completely ignoring the "thief".

The market was quickly surrounded by numerous guards. Aside from that, the guards had already made their way to the gates, blocking all his escape routes. After witnessing this, he blends cautiously with the crowd. He made efforts to walk unsuspiciously towards the stacked barrels to hide. He hid behind the stacked barrels and took a rest for a moment to catch his breath. (panting) He whispered to himself, "How am I supposed to get out?" He looked around the market to check whether the guards had already seen him.

While in a daze, he saw that a child was watching him. He panicked because the child might endanger him at his hiding place. His heart was beating fast as he signalled by hand gestures for the child to walk away and to pretend that he didn't see him. Instead of leaving him, the child walked closer and closer to him, which was the complete opposite of what was supposed to happen. He looked left and right, finding a way to escape as fast as possible.

The child's mother had finished procuring her goods when she realized that her child was missing. She then saw her child standing near the stack of barrels. She grabbed her child quickly as she was so worried and pulled him closer to her. She told her son to never do it again. The young man left out a sigh of relief, while he was listening to the mother talking to her son. Looking around once again, he finally was able to think of a plan to escape. He saw a narrow space behind the merchants that he could use discreetly as a passageway for his escape.

The young man held tightly onto his dark red hood that covered his face, to prevent it from falling or getting stuck to something. When he saw that the surrounding was already safe for him to leave, he tiptoed passing through the narrow space behind the merchants and going in the direction leading to the gate. The young man deliberately kept himself not to get into trouble with the merchants. After passing by them at a slow pace, he had arrived finally at the end of the passageway. The young man searched immediately for a leeway where he could intercept and escape through the gate. He waited for a perfect opportunity so that he could run towards the gate. Fortunately, one of the guards left his post to eat. The young man trotted rapidly towards the gate. With his swift movement, the guards were not aware that he had already passed through them while they were guarding the gates.

Now that he was outside the castle, it was easier for him to escape. However, he was not yet far away from the guards when they saw him and ran after him. While he was running fast, he kept on looking behind him to see the distance between him and the guards. On his track, he stumbled upon two trails where one path would lead continuously deep into the forest while the other one would lead towards a vast green meadow. The young man was in a state of confusion but, with the guards on his tail, he had no time to contemplate. The young man ran hurriedly towards the forest with hopes of losing the guards. He ran and stumbled many times but the guards continued to follow him. "I agree that this gauntlet looks promising but you, guards don't have to be so obsessed with it!" The young man shouted angrily in despair as he kept running.

After a while, the forest had darkened, the plants he was stepping on had withered, and the fog began to rise. The ambience in the forest was common among the guards for it was a well-known tale in the kingdom. It had been a familiar rumour that deep within the forest, tall dark trees were shadowing the withered plants that were embedded beneath them and the thick fog covered the vastness of their mighty branches. It was the place where the dead elves dwell, also known as the dark grove. The guards ceased following the thief. "Hey, let him be! He's already a dead man by stepping into the dark grove." The guard told his colleague.