The Land of Farahden

Chapter 1 : The Door

PROLOGUE

"I know she'll come. I've read it in Moca's (mother) writings... A fair Maiden, dressed in golden sheets of crimson ties with the most beautiful sound that the whole Farahden would ever hear. She,..she will awaken the King.."

"Stop it Rafen! There's no Maiden! Don't forget that Moca,..our Moca have died believing in that Maiden that you say! There's no Maiden, Rafen! There's no hope! There's no hope! There's nnnoonnooohhoo...ppee..."

"Oh dear Isha, don't weep again. Stop your despair. We have to believe..I know she'll come...the Maiden will come. Just believe,..hold on and believe.."

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It had been a long day at work and Lauren was so ready to go home and sleep under the comforts of her thick blanket in her four-poster bed if not for the hype that pay-day brings to young urban professionals like her.   However, as what  people normally do during the 15th day of the month, Lauren's newly found friends in her month-old job as a music teacher in a freshly established music school, invited her to go out and have a hearty dinner with them.  She was quite hesitant at first since it's her first time to go out with them and she's worried that she might feel out-of-place when they start babbling about their teaching experiences and all those stuff that she has never been part of.  However, she also knew that the drowning "i-can't-relate" feeling that's keeping her uncomfortable everytime she's with them would just grow more intense if she would not join them tonight.  

Lauren has always been the silent type.  Although her friends tell her that she's quite a treat to the eyes with her model-like figure, angelic, young-looking face and pleasant voice accompanied by her modest choice of words, she still finds it hard to deal with people she barely knows.  She has a certain attitude of being afraid that they might not like her or her thoughts about life.  She has been in several situaions like these when she meets new friends but still she can't seem to develop the ability to get used to these kinds of situations  She's afraid of it and she never got used to it. 

"But with my craving for good foodrightnow, it really doesn't matter who I eat with anyway. I justwantFOOD!", she thought to herself and decided right at that moment that she would join the girls and just get over with the night. 

It was a small group of four ladies, including her, which she thinks is worse since she wouldn't have the chance to talk out with any one of them when she can't relate to a current topic because getting the attention of one of those three would mean getting the attention of the other two as well.

"Oohhh right,..the disadvantage of going out in small group of newly found buddies", she thought.

 Unknowingly, she started reminiscing her moments with her friends and the familiar people of their neighborhood where she was born.

As a child, Lauren grew up in a quiet town with fields and structures harmoniously existing together. A pastor's daughter that all of the folks in town treated as a meek and lovely darling accentuated more by her love of music as she plays the piano and violin and sing every Sunday service in their local church. She was considered as the perfect little daughter to a dignified and most-loved pastor of their small town. Everything was going out perfectly as she reached highschool and graduated as the best of her class and add to that her passing and getting admitted to the most prestigious university in the country as a scholar. Being the naturally bright kid that she is, she was a dean's lister during her first year in college.  However, wihout her noticing, her life suddenly drifted when she met this architecture student in his senior year.  She knows all the do's and dont's and the sins and the goods, what's acceptable and not and most importantly, the things that would make her parents mad.  Mad in it's literal sense of being angry and it's more complicated meaning of being out of sanity.  Without her parents knowing, she broke their rules and started a relationship wih her fantasized architecture student classmate during her sophomore year.  Suddenly, she felt like she's the luckiest girl in the whole university, having everyone liking her and having the perfect boyfriend every college girl is dreaming of.  "It's my time now to start pleasing myself and not them all the time. He's here now in my life and i'm sure that if i don't decide to be with him now, I may not have this chance again." she always tells that to herself whenever she feels guilty of what she's keeping from her parents. It was easy to keep the secret since the university is in the city, a 2-hour drive away from their small town. She lives in one of the university dormitories which means she's free to do anything she likes without the usual guarding rules of her parents and the church elders.  She felt 'free as a bird' as what she usually hear from her dormmates.