Frost Bitten

Frost Bitten - Chapter One

Lyara sat on the small log that resided on the edge of the small village, and she gazed at the dark forest that appeared faintly in her vision. The tips of the thick pine forest sprinkled the horizon, past the safe, snow covered valley that surrounded the sanctuary of the small village.

For some reason she wanted to walk through the forest, but the warnings of the village elders always stopped her from crossing the fields to the darkness that called. The warnings had been forced into her mind since birth: never venture past the village limit when night fell, women are never to leave the village unattended, and no one is to even entertain the thought of entering the forest that lined the northern borders.

It was a life of restrictions and Lyara always found herself aching to wander away, to be released from the chains that the elders had locked around her ankles. At times she would give anything to be able to feel the rough sting of the pine needles across her face; however, she had heard the stories and her fear was enough to keep her away.

A cold breeze blew across the aged crops and rustled Lyara’s white blonde hair, and she could feel the descent of the winter season. It would snow soon, and then the hard times would come. For a few weeks, there would be food aplenty for each villager, but as the snow raged on, and supplies became scarce, hunters would be forced to explore past the safety of the village to hunt.

When winter came, it was a time of incredible unease for every member of the small, cursed village. The demons that wandered the land at night terrified every person that lived within the land, and though these beasts threatened all, not one villager would move. This was their home, their life, and they could never leave it behind.

“Lyara! What are you doing out here? You know the dangers!” The angry voice of her mother called. Sighing Lyara stood and faced the worried face of her mother, Mona.

“I am but a few feet from the village mother, and the sun is high in the sky. I am in no danger,” Lyara replied.

“We are always in danger, and I will not have you putting yourself in harm’s way. I have told you this before, and I will tell you again, do not leave the village!” Mona whispered with an angered intensity.

“As you wish,” Lyara sighed and gave in. She wasn’t one to argue with her mother, and remaining within the village boundaries would only shorten the length of her chains a few feet.

As her mother turned around sharply, Lyara followed, and as they walked further into the heart of the village, she could see the tension slip slowly from her mother’s shoulders, and she knew why. Since the death of her father, Lyara’s mother worried that she would not be able to protect her child.

A small, pained sigh escaped Lyara’s lips as she remembered the silver haired, kind-eyed, father that she had loved with her whole heart. While she loved her mother as well, there was always a special bond between Lyara and her father.

Maybe it was the nearly white hair that she had inherited from him, or his frosty blue eyes. In fact, she didn’t seem to display any of the characteristics of her mother, of her mother’s people.

The natives of the small village showing traits of black hair with equally dark eyes with varying shades of the same copper colored skin where Lyara had very light, pale skin that burned quickly beneath the sun’s searing rays. That too she had inherited from her father who, as her mother told, came to the village when he was still young.

Her mother told that though the villagers did not trust him at first, they soon warmed up to him when he fell in love with her. Around a year after he arrived, Lyara was born, and she became the light of their lives.

Three years after that, Lyara’s father led an expedition into the forests, her mother had pleaded with him not to go, but he entered, and he never came back.

Lyara could feel tears form in the crease of her eyes as more, faded memories flashed through her mind, memories that slipped further from her grasp everyday that passed.

“Are you even listening to me, Lyara” Mona asked as she waved her long copper fingers in front of Lyara’s lost-in-thought face.

“Yes, mother, I am listening,” Lyara replied. Though she didn’t know the exact words that her mother had spoken, she knew the topic; it was always the same: safety. That seemed to be all that anyone talked about, the dangers of wandering or entering the woods that could barely be seen across the distance.

“As I was saying, I want you in the house before the sun sets tonight, no more nightly walks with Ella, and no leaving the boundaries of the village!” Mona scolded firmly, and quickly twisted on her heels to finish a day’s work. She was the village seamstress, and though there was little to do, she took her job incredibly seriously.

Lyara watched her mother’s tall fleeting silhouette and couldn’t help but feel shackled. There was never any freedom in the village named Dusk, an irony. The founders named it after the most beautiful time of the day, like the town was to be the most beautiful and sacred of any. That was before they realized the monsters that lived only a few miles to the North.

It is told in stories that one, night, years after the founders had established the town and had started raised their families, the monsters came in the night. It was a bloody battle to the death and the villagers barely survived. Since that night it has been a constant struggle of dark and light.

However, there was still an isolated part of her that ached to enter woods. She had never even felt the touch of the leaves or seen the ground in the forest, but on some, cold, windy nights, she could smell the fresh scent dispersing through her home.

“Lyara! Wait!” The girlish shouts of her greatest friend Ella sang through her ears. She turned to see a dark head of tangled hair and a stained dress, clasped in muddied hands running towards her.

“Yes, Ella?” Lyara laughed as Ella barreled into her, nearly knocking her to the ground.

“My brother, Aldaric, has agreed to take us out tonight, to bring us to the edges of the forest!” Ella squealed as she looped her thin arm through Lyara’s.

Lyara was awestruck by this idea. Even though Aldaric was a trained hunter and could most likely protect them from anything that was a threat, it was still incredibly dangerous, not to mention completely forbidden to leave the village when the sun had set.

“I…I cannot Ella, I promised my mother that I would be in the house before night fell…”

“Well, you can be in the house before night falls, and then you can leave with Aldaric and I. Come on Lyara, you always tell me that you want to see the forest, why pass this opportunity?” Ella persuaded, and Lyara found that it was working.

It was true that she had always wanted to see what the forest was like, to finally quench the draw that pulled her to the dark green trees. Maybe if she just touched the bark on a mysterious tree, she could leave the desire to adventure behind and instead live up to her mother’s hopes that she would follow in her footsteps.

“Fine, I will go with you, but my mother can never find out.”

“And she never will!” Ella cried with a smile on her face as she skipped away like the free spirit that she was.

Lyara laughed as she made her way towards the small house that she called home, her skirts dragging on the sand. She looked up to the sky to see the sun reaching its end over the horizon, and she couldn’t help the flutters that sparked in her stomach.

In a matter of hours, her dreams would be a reality.