Smoldered Flames (Edonia Series: Part I)

Prologue

Februadu 2, 5032

Western Faelios

The first streaks of dawn brought forth chirrups of small-winged creatures and woodland beasts. Mora Evergreen, a would-be seer of Sereia, bolted from her rickety bed. With a spiked heart rate, she dashed to a small alcove bathroom of her tiny room. Splashing ice-mountain water on her milky pale face, Mora tried to gather her thoughts.

She was surrounded by flames. They shot down from the heavens like fallen stars. Once they touched the cold earthen floors, flames erupted and circulated shards of ice. Each crystalline jagged piece illuminated with every fiery swirl until it aerosolized and dispersed into the winds.

And then eerie silence.

Until...Until the rumbling of the earth began, bringing teeth-jittering jolts; faces new and old appeared in the shadows.

When this vision ended, Mora was met with a dark, wrenching emotion. The most prominent notion was, her homelands were in trouble. She didn't know who or what had the power to disrupt the already fragile peace in Edonia, but it was enormous. This new development was so vast, that she was afraid not even her Majesties could defeat it.

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With gathered courage, young Mora decided it was best to tell her majesties in person. Better than chancing it with a letter or it being intercepted with the new gear, HyTech ProWatch. She made way to her sparse belongings, packed them in a patched-up satchel, before marching out from the cottage. Nearby, a low whistle-like bellow revealed a stout, low-to-the-ground boarish creature straight from legends. It was amass cloud of shaggy and disheveled fur. Weaponized horns sprouted to and fro like a strong oak tree from the Melancholy Forest in Aethia while thick tusks curved outward.

"Baok!" Mora called out. "We must travel to Central City. Immediately! No time to dally about!"

Baok grunted his distaste, bringing a smile on the fraught faeling. He never liked to leave Faelios and all its wintry wanders.

Mora, with her thick fur-hide boots and clothes, traveler's cloak and hat, stamped to the small thatched barn to retrieve riding equipment. Turning back around, she was met with heavy huffs from Baok.

"You sill, silly bhorl. You are excited, aren't you?" Mora giggled as Baok gave a warm and slimy kiss from his tongue, and nudged her with his thick skull until she fell to the cold ground.

He knelt to the snowy ground next to her so she could place the riding equipment on his dorsal side. Despite his gentle nature, Baok rode as wild as the mustangs in the southside of Balendros.

Mora placed her small traveling gear in the saddlebags and leapt atop Baok. Baok stopped his heaving breaths. The Faelion birds went silent, as did the creatures who braved the freezing temperatures.

"Baok, you remember the last time-" Mora began, but belted out shrieks as her four-legged ally shot up from the ground.

Mora's vision was filled with barreling hills covered in dense snow. Grey skies had begun to fill earlier in the day and the sharp bite of what's to come crept into the faeling's bones with each bountiful strides from Boak. Her sturdy steed exhales clouds of steam with each snort, its breath mingling with the Mora's in the chilly air. Her layered clothing was no match for Sereia's frigid grace. As they ride, the creak of leather and the crunch of hooves against frozen earth are the only sounds that break the silence.

The landscape around them is a study in monochrome: fields blanketed in snow, trees stripped bare, their branches reaching like skeletal fingers toward the leaden sky. The cold bites at exposed skin, turning cheeks rosy and noses numb. Yet, despite the harshness of the weather, there's a quiet beauty to be found in the starkness of the winter landscape. The world seems to slow down, as if holding its breath in anticipation of the coming thaw.