New Beginnings

Chapter 2.

I saw the flames as they licked the trunks of the trees my people called home. The screams of the terrified people as the beast overhead spat new fire from its maw. The smoke rising into the burning canopy was enough to choke a person.

Charred bodies on the ground, the deafening roar of the dragon, my home; burning to ashes as we barely made it out. I gazed up to the sky where the beast hovered with blood lust in its slitted eyes and a glowing ember on its muzzle. Paralysed in fear, I watching with wide eyes as the beast circled us as a vulture does its prey.

A firm arm picked me up in the chaos, a silver and green armor clad guard carrying me away from the scene. She was shouting order to the other guards as my father and mother were being quickly escorted away in another direction. I shouted for them but amidst the blaze and the screams it went unheard.

It was a horrible chaos that some of us had almost escaped from. We almost made it before the dragon spotted our hasty escape and bellowed its blaze on us. The guard carrying me shoved me to the foliage of the dense Emerald Forest.

"Run, Silvára! Run!" She shouted as she tried to block my view to little success. I ducked away and began to run towards my parents but was stopped fast as a new burst of flame rained down onto were they were huddled. I watched as my parents burned in front of me, heard them screaming in pain for help.

The guard pulled her bow off her back and pulled an arrow taught in its string. It flew from her weapon with grace, the arrow lodging between the beasts' crimson scales. A rumble came from it as it spat more heat to the air around it, its wings creating winds that swept the flame farther into the trees. It sent its flaming gaze down at us. The guard ran forward to me and I was pulled back and pushed into the foliage.

I made the mistake of looking back as the dragon landed, swiping a massive claw at her before she could even draw her sword. Her body fell to the earth as I backed away. My eyes locked with the beasts for a moment before I turned over my shoulder and ran through the underbrush. I jumped behind the trunk of a tree only fractions of a second before the beast hurled its fire towards me. I stood there paralysed by the heat as it billowed past. Once it finished and I was sure I could make it, I ran. I ran from the burning trees, from my home, from my friends. I could only hope that Vex and Vax had made it out alive.

I saw no more of the scene, of the destruction of my people and my home, running faster than I ever knew I could. It was luck that I was still small enough to take cover in the dense brush of the forest. The rest of the night became a blur of hiding, waiting, running, and more hiding.

The moon rose high and illuminated what it could through the smoke and leaves. Making mad dashes through the forestry I knew so well with nothing but my dagger and notebook at my side, making my way far enough that I wouldn't be found. Scavenging enough to build something of a shelter I hid out of sight and slept sparsely through the rest of the night.

Smoke still rose from the forest where the once peaceful and proud tribe of Qual'nest Forest elves made home. Thousands of years of history, art, literature, and arcane arts all burned away within an hour of dawn rising. No more did the red beast roar as it soared back to its mountain. Scarlet scales illuminated by the rising sun and setting moon. With cautious fear of being found, I wandered out of the forest to the road that ran through it.

A sign pointed north-east to a medium sized town not too far from where I stood, in the opposite way was the capital city of Ustengrad. Turning north-east I headed down the road with a cautious eye on the sky.