Runes and Royalty

Sunlight and Flutes

      The sunlight hasn't touched the grass, wet with dew. The chirping of fairies, getting louder and louder as if they had a competition with the birds to greet the early morning. The morning breeze stirred, making the water in the stream ripple and dance. An elfin scurried by, carrying water worm eggs in its pouch. She placed the flute to her lips and blew, its notes high and sweet, going along in harmony with the breeze.

      Up on the highest, thickest branches of the home tree, she sat. A girl with hair as red as the sinking sun. Lithe and graceful her body was, with grass green eyes, she played the flute like she was borne only for it. Every greenery spreading below the bough she was sitting on, was covered with a thin mist, making her see only figures and sounds. The echoing sound of the sweet notes told her where everything was.

       At last, one of the sun's rays touched her, making her hair fiery red, like leaping flames. A rooster crowed somewhere, and the people who came to live in the home tree began stirring to life. Smiling and leaping down the branches as nimble as a squirrel, she stopped in front of a nest. This nest wasn't a bird's nest, it was far more bigger than that, enough to house a person or two. Woven intricately, and slapped with mud, sticks and leaves, it was perfect for winter or spring, with a roughly hewn door of wood, to keep out intruders. She knocked softly on the door, and entered without the answer of the owner. 

       The room was circular and spacious with a chair, a table and a hammock. And on that hammock, sprawled messily with only a shirt and leather short skirt, was the snoring Ryn. Allicaryn Hollyatria is her best friend and guardian since she found her, almost dying and alone in the wilderness.

Eli shook Ryn with gentle force. "Ryn, Ryn wake up."

Ryn groaned and turned around. Annoyed, she spun the hammock, making Ryn fall onto the floor. 

"Hey!" she groaned. "What the heck, Eli?"

"Get up, you lazy bum! We need to get the Cohors Fures assembled!" 

"Don't you think by now they've had learned the drill? Just let them be! I'm sure they know what to do." she said and began to pick up the fallen pillows and back to the hammock.

She grit her teeth. "Ryn, we need to get to the kingdom immediately! Otherwise, Sybillia will starve!"

Ryn slid into the hammock and shut her eyes. "They've enough food to last the winter. Why do you worry so much?" she buried her head back into the pillows.

She doesn't get it. Why doesn't Ryn get it? she wondered angrily. She began to snore again, making the blankets fall over her face. She sighed and tipped the hammock over again, snatching up the blanket out of Ryn's reach. 

"Eli, gimme back my blanket!" Ryn whined, making jabs to get it back. "It's so freezing cold in the morning you know!"

"Not unless you get your butt out here and lead them to the morning drill." With that, she began pulling out clothes out of a wooden chest and tossed them to Ryn. Before getting out of her nest, she added, "And don't ever forget to brush your hair. I mean seriously, try not to look barbaric in front of the Cohors Fures for once!"

"Easy for you to say, your hair doesn't need brushing since it's so smooth and silky!" she shouted from inside the nest.

        True enough, she thought. The Cohors Fures were their group of the best robbers and thieves in Sybillia. Stealing from the nearby kingdom of the Blazing Springs is what they could get a living ni. Though she had been here for almost 5 years, Eli knew that the others had built Sybillia, a Tree Kingdom, built solely by outcasts and for outcasts. 

        Most of the outcasts here were thrown out of Blazing Springs. According to Ryn, they were thrown out because they can read Runes. Runes were ancient writings that showed omens, events, warnings, or even the birth of a new highborn baby. But sadly, from generation to generation, the minds of the royals changed, and they hardly listened to the Runes by now. So they threw out anyone who could read runes. Sure enough, she and Ryn could read those, but more fluently than the others.