New Beginnings

Chapter 1.

    The afternoon sun shined down on me and my friends as we laughed and played in the courtyard. My cat familiar chasing after me as I chased after my friend Vex'halia and her brother Vax'ildon. The grass beneath my bare feet was soft to the touch and the earth beneath cool as the early fall breeze. The sun began to sink lower into the sky, the canopy casting shadows down as the golden light drifted through the leaves.

We had grown tired and sat beneath the large oak tree in the center of town. It was large, its branches spiraling high into the sky, its trunk thick and gnarled but sounding hollow if you tapped on it. My mother told me that it has been there for many centuries, long before my great grandfather was alive. Magic was said to keep it alive as a secret was hidden within. As to what it was, none of us knew, and the ceremonial magic was something I was told that I would soon learn as the chieftains daughter.

Vex'halia took to playing with my cat as Vax and I talked.

"I learned a new spell today! It was super cool," I told him as he looked at me with both indifference but mild amazement.

"What was it?"

"I think that my teacher said it was called...", I paused for a moment and rummaged through my pockets, "hold on a second."

Through the various stones and gems and a few acorns I collected, I pulled a small notebook out. My handwriting was still pretty messy, but at least I can read it!

"Ah! Here it is! It's called 'conjure flame' I think it says."

"Well show us!" Vex'halia chimed in. She walked around the tree holding my cat in her arms. The orange, black, and white calico purred happily but also looked a bit confused as she carried it. We looked around on the ground for a dead stick i could light so I wouldn't burn my hand if it didn't work out.

After finding one that was perfect, I showed them. Drawing the sigil in the air with my right hand and holding the stick in my left I started the incantation that I had been taught.

Both of them were captivated as I was able to create a small flame from nothing in the palm of my hand and cast it to the stick, making a torch of it. It was quite the honor in my tribe to be taught magic. Only those in power were permitted to wield arcane arts. As the daughter of the chieftain, I began my studies about ten years ago along with combat training. We are a peaceful tribe, but it never hurts to know how to protect what you must. Though Vex and Vax were the children of our secretary of war, they weren't permitted to learn alongside me. I couldn't understand why, but the high council said that since their mother was a human they lost the rights to learn what is a well kept secret to our people. I couldn't see what was so bad about that anyways, I guess adults are just mean.

I suppose I'm about 50 years old, still only a child. The equivalent of what I think is maybe nine or ten years old in comparison to humans. My mother called me inside and happily I went, I could smell dinner as I walked closer to our home. The people I passed waved and bowed slightly as I skipped past and one of the guards posted outside the door let me inside. My cat disappeared as I stepped through the doorway. My mother seemed to be worried about something as she paced up and down the hall, waiting for my father to come out from his meeting.

"Momma?"

She looked a bit startled as I tugged at the hem of her dress.

"Momma, what's wrong?"

She wouldn't tell me anything other than to go clean up for dinner. Something didn't feel right. I didn't like it one bit. I did as I was told to do and then came back down to the dinning hall. Papa's meeting wasn't finished so I ate with only my mom. It was too quiet without Papa's laughter filling the mostly empty space. It was unsettling.

It was maybe halfway through dinner when Papa arrived. He had something in his hand. As he approached, momma stood up beside him, they both looked to me with saddened and serious faces.

"Silvára," my father started, "I believe it is time."

"Time for what?"

"To give you a gift. I am afraid I cannot explain much to you my dear, but these are troubling times and your mother and I," he paused, sending a weary look to my mother who said nothing but gave a solemn nod, "believe it best to give you this."

He extended his hand and in it was something wrapped in cloth. Glancing between him, the object, and my mother, I hesitantly took it and unwrapped it. A leather sheath and the pommel that I knew to be my family's dagger. A silver blade about twelve inches long with various elven runes etched into the metal, a soft leather handle that held comfortably in the palm of my hand, a piece moonstone sat where metal met leather, though not exactly forged into it. I was about to reply when the ground began to shake and a deep, bellowing roar from above. The guards began to rush out of the house and out of the nearby barracks. Guards running left and right trying to rouse the people from their homes in desperate attempts to evacuate. Hurriedly my dad fastened the sheath to my belt and I put the dagger back in its holster. We ran.