The Beginning of a Future

Sweet Arabella

My name is Arabella and my story starts here; right in the heart of Meberstwyth. We were never a big town nor rich, but we managed on what we had to provide.

It was always busy there. The men would go out in the mornings and fish then hunt in the evenings. The day was saved for trading and crafting. As for the women, well, they had other important duties to tend to at home. I had always helped mother with her work in the house, she called me her 'beautiful little maid'.

Mr Mannering lived across from us in his old shack, surrounded by boxes and crates of scrap materials he had collected over his time in the trade. He was the only Dwarfed Giant in town and boy was he the jolliest! He was tall and wide but the shortest of his kind and that was okay because he was happy for who he was. Every week or so he would bring around a new wooden toy for me and something useful (he intended) for mother; these varied from wonky brooms and old plates to beautiful hand woven rugs - the best of all was the unwanted mahogany loom that had barely been used!

He and father were the best of friends, they were in the highest end of the market, selling by the minute! Since father left us, Mannering just stayed at home - not a peep from him. I always wondered what had happened to him. He had gone from the happiest man in town to the old man that never left home. As the years passed the piles of crates grew until the house was left hidden and unrecognizable by any means.

The loom came in wonderfully for mother, as her skills grew as fast as her pure heart. She had made costumes for parades, gowns for weddings and even small dresses for our neighbouring hobbits! The hobbits would visit once a year for our annual equalismist celebration! This is the time where all creatures, big or small, mortal or magic, comes into one place to worship freedom and give thanks for equality.

I was never allowed to the celebrations past dark because that's when the golems and orcs arrived for their dose of the party atmosphere and often that involved a lot of elder options and fire! Instead, I would sit in the ledge of my round window and watch the lights on the hill from a distance. Every now and then the sound of a bass drum and then the mighty roar of the cheering crowd would wake me from my sleep to mark every hour of peace and freedom between the land. This happened every hour until daylight, when everyone would return to their own homeland and wouldn't be seen or heard of again until the next year.

Every year, we would have an equalist monarch. They would be chosen randomly by the noble wizard of Arrgor; the land of the powerful. The king or queen would rule over all the creatures for that year and may have all the riches and power they desire. We had kings for many centuries yet not one of them stood out to make history, but that was soon about to change...