Realms United

CHAPTER THREE - Elle

I knew if I left Elliot's sword in my room or out in my home my parents would find it and take it away from me. Before I brought it to my spot I grabbed a knife and I etched my name into the other side of the blade.

Elle Fletcher.

It felt so wrong. To be putting my name on a sword that felt like it didn't belong to me. It was given to me though. Given to me by my hero. I should be grateful. But the only thing I could feel was anger and grief. I supposed the two come hand in hand.

I left soon after Leo had exited the tavern to return back to the castle. I wished him well and he had told me he would return the next time he was given a break to check on me, just like my brother had. Which I will admit had warmed my heart a bit. But it wasn't enough to melt the ice that I had put up around it.

When Elliot left at eighteen. I was mainly on my own. My parents were so focused on work they seemed to ignore me. It was only for a year, because as soon as I was fourteen I was fully running parts of the tavern.

When Elliot originally left though I was lonely. He was the one person I would be able to lean on and talk to. And he was gone. Being at home seemed to put me into a depression. I hated walking past his room and seeing a practically empty tomb. It hurt my heart knowing I couldn't bother him whenever I wanted anymore. So when my parents were preoccupied with helping someone in the tavern I would slip out of the door and I would go explore the forests.

Some said that the forests were haunted. Or that whoever dared to enter the forests wouldn't return. Or that they would be lured in with a Fae Trap. Or perhaps consumed by the forest guardian himself. I claimed that I was smarter than everything and everyone and that I would be perfectly fine. That was until I realized my worst enemy would be being able to find my way back home. So every day I would explore just slightly deeper into the forest each time.

One day, I came across an old abandoned tower that looked like the place where The Forest Guardian was presumed to live. So like an utter fool I walked up to the tower and I went inside. So now that made a perfect place to hide the sword. It was somewhere away from home. It was better than hiding it under my bed or anywhere in my room. So luckily for me now, I had a good hiding spot for the weapon.

The tower stood strong. It was a tall tower that was covered in moss. There was nothing unique about it at all. It simply just looked like an old abandoned archer tower that nature had taken over. There was an old wooden staircase that led upwards, and as much as I wanted to explore it, I was smart enough to know that the wood on those stairs wouldn't support my weight.

Over time I turned the bottom part of the archer tower into a small hideout for myself. I made storage chests out of sap and wood. I found a dull ax left in the stump of a tree, so I used that to help me build my little getaway. I had also chopped a piece of wood and jammed it into the old brick of the tower to make a place to hang my future sword off of the wall and have it on display for myself when I wanted to just admire it. I had built a little chair across from it with logs and old cushions I stole from the tavern. It was my space. It was nice.

...

I used that space for months. And everything was perfectly fine, until one day when I walked into my hideaway there appeared to be huge shards of an eggshell on the ground. It was a thick shell too. Nothing that I have ever seen before. I was confused about what might have laid the egg. I then heard a low growling noise coming from above me.

That is when I made one of the worst yet best decisions in my life. I carefully walked up the stairs to the tower, and I peered over the edge when I got close to the top. The floorboards didn't look like they would hold me. But I pulled myself up and stood on top of them anyway. And what was in the middle of the tower was a giant cracked open egg. It was green with moss growing off of the sides. I couldn't hear the growling anymore. Whatever was making that sound, was coming from whatever hatched from the egg.