Eternal Awakening

Prologue

 

Roku stood at the entrance to his private tent and held the flap open as a brisk and wintery wind assaulted his half naked body. He shrugged off the cold and looked out over the snowy landscape of the allied military base on the edge of the Elothian border. Winter was raging hard and a gentle snow fell from the bleak sky. Winter had once been Roku's favorite season, but now it had soured. Fighting in the snow for nearly thirty years would do that to someone though.

It was early morning and already it was looking like it was going to be very cold. Heavy black clouds on the horizon threatened to bury his troops in snow. Large green, red, blue, and purple banners flapped violently as a wind gusted through the camp and the snow was quickly pulled and tossed around, creating little swirls that danced for a brief moment before falling once more to the ground. Watching nature work was a thing of beauty, and for a moment Roku forgot all about why he had gotten out of bed and why he felt a nervous energy creep into his body. The distraction couldn't last forever though.

The sound of someone shifting beneath the thick fur blankets on his cot caught Roku's ears and he turned his head slightly, peering out into the darkness. At first he couldn't see anything, but as his eyes readjusted to the low light he began to make out the slim form of a woman sitting up in his large cot, her cinnamon hair draping over her shoulders and her bright blue eyes regarding him silently. There was a small smile on her beautiful face, but it felt haunted.

He sighed to himself at that thought. Of course it looked haunted. Everyone's smile was haunted in this age. The war had taken a grave toll on the people of not just one country, but all of them on the continent. Only the Dark Elf Kingdom of Elothia still stood, but it wouldn't for much longer. The enemy was on their border and a single decisive battle would decide the fate of millions.  And that battle was only hours away.

"You woke me up with your groaning," the woman in his bed sighed half heartedly and shifted in the bed until she was right on the edge.

"Forgive me, Princess," he replied softly. He remained where he stood at the slightly open tent flaps, refusing to move closer. His will was already waning just standing there and he knew it would take everything he had to not rush to this gorgeous woman and embrace her.

"How many times must I tell you not to call me by my title? Call me Celia!" she growled and there was real emotion in her voice. It always annoyed her when he called her Princess and over the course of the last forty years she had been continually reminding him of it.

"My apologies, Celia," he smiled through the darkness as another gust of cold wind ripped through the open flaps behind him. "Perhaps it's not such a bad thing that I woke you though; it's getting light out. We wouldn't want the Prince finding that you are in here, and not in the capital where he believes you to be."

"Are you, the Great General, afraid of my brother?" Celia giggled now.

"I would be a fool to say that I wasn't."

"My, I never thought I would hear a claim quite like that. I fear you are right however. With the way the war is going my brother hasn't had much patience and even our father has been snapped at. He's turning into someone I hardly recognize. All of you are."