The Devils' Rose

Prologue

It was early on a Sunday morning; the small town of Lochmeadow was quiet and peaceful as usual. All the shops were just beginning to open as the sun's rays just began to peak from over the mountains, casting an orange light over the town. Several small shops and huts were clustered in the town, then, there was the castle. It sat at the edge of town, protected by giant stone walls and an iron gate; truly it could be considered a masterpiece. Designs of all kinds were intricately carved into the stone walls, stained glass pieces could be seen in every window, and a large garden could be found on the edge of the castle grounds.

The outside of this castle wasn't the true beauty though. It was the inside that held the greatest treasures. to begin, a lone flower sat in a dark room. A black rose that is. Its petals were soft and occasionally dripped some water into the room. This flower was known as the Devils' Rose, and its story is well known across the land. The story goes like this. Long ago, a war was waged across this now peaceful land, a war between trolls, orcs, vampires and witches against elves, humans, dwarfs and dragon-borns. During this war, an evil was awakened, one of unspeakable abilities and powers, one that could only be described as darkness itself. This creature spread across the land and was only stopped by a trade. The King of the Elves, known as Skalanis by those close to him, gave up the life of his only daughter in order to keep this evil locked away forever. It now remains trapped in one single rose, which lives on to this day.

The King's daughter did not die however, but was instead born with a curse put upon her. Her life was to become dedicated solely to the protection of the Devils' Rose, so she remains in the castle, destined to live on until the curse can be passed down to her own child. Once a month on the night of the new moon, the girl must enter this room and lend more of her strength to keep the flower alive and nourished, only to keep this ancient evil locked away. Despite this, her beauty never ceased to amaze Princes of other lands, and they would travel far if only to catch even a glimpse of the girl. Her hair holds the color of a natural rose, a vibrant red color, while her eyes, despite being born with piercing green eyes, are now a dim gray color, like the sky before a storm.

The girls name was Maeleth. Her duties of course came with a price. During the following three days, she would become weak and sickly, and only remains alive from the care of her brother, whose name was Nestor. He was older than her, and had been raised his whole life destined to become his sisters healer and protector until she was married. Maeleth had just recently turned seventeen and given her strength to the Devils' Rose when our story begins. A disturbing message had come in through the post, one from an unknown sender with clearly malicious intentions.

"Maeleth, how are you feeling?" Nestor asked calmly as he approached her bedside, a slip of paper in his hand. "Much better, I can't thank you enough for this. What's that you've got?" Maeleth leaned over her bedside in an attempt to get a glimpse of the paper. Nestor sighed and handed her the letter reluctantly. "You're not going to like it." he ran his fingers through his shiny brown hair and sat down next to her on her bed. With a suspicious glance towards her brother, she opened the sealed parchment and began reading. As she got farther and farther into the letter, her shoulders began to tense up and her eyebrows furrowed. Finally she reached the last few words and gasped in astonishment. check the room." she froze for a moment, then dropped the paper and stumbled out of bed, weakly limping towards the room down the hall. "Maeleth, you shouldn't be moving so much!" "Silence!" Maeleth shouted. As soon as she reached the door to the room, she threw it open and gasped at the sight, the flower that once graced the center of the room, gone.

A growl escaped the girl's throat as her pointed ears twitched in anguish. "Guards, scan the palace and the town!" she shouted at the guards that had appeared behind her. "Do whatever it takes! Find that flower and the creature that stole it and bring it back to me, alive." With that, the elven girl pushed her way past the guards and stormed towards her bedroom, her white nightdress angrily swaying with the movement of her hips. "Maeleth what do you think you're doing?!" Nestor shouted, running after her frantically. "My job, you've done yours, now leave me be." she growled, flipping her hair off her shoulders, while her eyes were firmly locked ahead of her. "You're far from fully healed! I swear you are so stubborn. Get back in bed or-" "Last time I checked my mission was to protect that flower with my life. I will retrieve it and keep that evil from escaping, even if it kills me. Just like father wanted." She paused for a moment, and a sorrowful look flashed across her face, then she continued on. Nestor slowly approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "He wouldn't have wanted you to die."

Maeleth stopped momentarily, then slowly removed his hand and sighed. "There were ways to defeat that thing, but he entrusted me to protect it instead. Once a month for the last seventeen years I've faced death and unbearable pain, father died in that war protecting us, the least I could do is carry out his final wish." She walked forward again, leaving Nestor standing there in shock. "Fetch me my bow! I have a mission to fulfill." Maeleth called behind her. Nestor nodded and ran down the hallway towards his room, where he kept her bow in case it was necessary, all the while he was thinking about what had just overcome his sister. She'd never spoken to anyone in such a harsh tone, and was always such a kind girl, what had happened in a mere few moments that had so drastically changed her personality? It seemed as though when she found out the flower was stolen that something had snapped inside her, rather than it being a burden lifted from her. He sighed and grabbed her bow from above his bookshelf and her arrows from under it in one swift motion and made his way quickly back to her room.

Once inside, he saw her dressed in a green top and black tights, her hair was tied back in what appeared to be the stem of a plant, while vines wrapped up her bare arms. At the sight of him she rushed over and snatched her bow from his grasp, then slung her arrows over her shoulder. "Maeleth, what are you doing?!" Nestor shouted. Maeleth narrowed her eyes and leaped up onto her windowsill, looking out over the castle grounds, the ones she hadn't left in so long. "I'm getting that flower back. As long as I'm still alive, I refuse to let that evil be released." Slowly she turned around and shot him a sad smile. "Take care of yourself okay? I love you." and with those words, Maeleth turned away from her last surviving family member and leaped from the windowsill onto the wall of the castle. Her brother's shouts from the castle a few feet away nearly broke her heart in two, but she ignored the feeling and jumped across the rooftops in the town, landing on the soft grass at the edge of town and then darting through the woods.

Her small body made her more nimble, thus making her able to weave between trees and through thorn bushes like they weren't even there. Her eyes narrowed in determination as she heard the sound of her army's rapid footsteps behind her, for she was all too aware that her brother wanted to keep her safe at any and every cost. She chuckled softly and took a sharp turn to the left before ducking behind a particularly large oak tree a few feet away. Maeleth smirked at the sound of footsteps growing farther and farther away. With one final look towards her home in Lochmeadow, she turned her back on her hometown and began her journey, deciding to begin by searching for the humans whom her father allied with all those years ago. Only one thing was on her mind, protecting her hometown and keeping the evil forever sealed away, no matter the cost.