A White Melody in the Silence

PART I

Hey, I wrote this two part story about my Dungeons and Dragons character, an elf druid named Holly. This ended up being like, waaaaay longer than I initially intended it (it's almost 15,000 words total), but I am actually very pleased with it. One day I may go back and edit it so that it works outside of our D&D campaign as its own story.

Quick note: in our campaign, there is a war going on between two territories, one of which is anti-all magic except divine magic, and the other which is super cool with any kind of magic. Holly, as a druid, is an arcane magic user, and grew up in the anti-arcane magic territory. This is relevant to the story, obviously. 

Oh, also I stole the title from a poem by Stephen Crane called "I Have Heard the Sunset Song of the Birches."

Okay, I'm done.

The Gilmiries lived in a large house on the very edge of town, close to the woods. They were well off, and loved the location of their home, which they thought would be perfect for raising a family, but for decades they remained childless, and the house felt very empty to Arelle and Eidono. Neither of them wanted anything more than to have a child, but the task proved itself to be much more difficult than either of them expected. As the years went by, their shared misery increased, until finally, finally, Holly Gilmirie was born.

She was small, and there had been many instances when Arelle and Eidono weren't sure if she'd make it, but sure enough she proved them both wrong and survived.

Presently, Arelle was holding her, staring down at her and trying not to worry that if she looked away, Holly might suddenly vanish, as the others before her had.

"She's beautiful," Eidono said, sitting beside his wife and reaching over to touch the soft red hairs on Holly's head.

Arelle sighed happily. "I can't believe she's really here. How long have we waited for this?"

Eidono kissed Arelle's head. "Too long." With one slender, elfin finger, he poked at the funny little birthmark on Holly's abdomen. "But that means that now, we'll waste few moments."

"That's right," Arelle said, grinning down at the baby. "Welcome to the world, Holly. Let it be good to you."

*

It didn't take long for Arelle and Eidono to realize what the birthmark was, and when they did it was with no small amount of horror. Holly was not yet talking when they came to the truth. The day after, they sat on the sofa together, speaking in hushed voices as Holly toddled around the room enthusiastically.

"If anyone finds out," Arelle said, "What might happen to her?"

"Don't think about that," Eidono replied, though it was hard to convince himself not to. "Nothing is going to happen to her if we don't let it."

"And how are we supposed to do that? If she has the dragon mark, then the magic is already in her blood. It's too late, Eidono," Arelle said.

"It may be too late to stop the magic, but it's not too late to keep anyone from hurting her, or taking her away."

Arelle shook her head. "How do we stop that?"

"We agree right here, right now, not to tell anyone what she is. If nobody knows, then nobody can hurt her for it." Eidono paused and watched as Holly ran a little too fast, tumbling onto the ornate carpet and then righting herself. "And by nobody, I mean Holly too."