Dragonsoul

Chapter 3

Following the sparkling red light down the dark forest path, she started thinking about her father and the best moments they had spent together. Since the moment he died, she never stopped thinking about him but at that moment she allowed those thoughts to become all-consuming as she could not in front of her family.

The last time she was able to spend some time with her father was one that would forever be engraved in the diamond stone of her memory since it was just the two of them in the hunting cabin. Her mother and brother were bound by the promise of calling upon their grandparents, and good fortune smiled upon Leonie permitting her to spend those precious moments with her father. 

Had she known they were the last ones they got to spend together in the life still unfolding, she would have cherished them more. She would have guarded those precious moments as people in her village protect the invaluable nuggets of gold sparkling around the Great Mountain of Winds. Those were very rare and hard to find, but very useful in a trade. In her young mind, moments spent with her father were irreplaceable. They held a much higher value than any of the riches of the world.

She would fondly remember how happy he was that day as long as there was breath in her body. How his smile would stretch across his whole weathered down face and how his bright brown eyes would sparkle with joy, with life. 

Now she had to accept the fact that those eyes were no more. No life would ever come into those eyes that are now part of the wind, maybe even part of the very forest she was in. 

He told her something once that now that she remembered it made her angry with him. As she was dashing through the forest looking for a light to brighten her day, mourning his death she remembered that moment more clearly than ever before. When she was still a youngling, she confided in her father that she feared death, in turn, he told her that it was something she should never be perturbed by.

Even now, in the moments of indescribable grief, she could remember his exact words.

"Do not fret about death, my little doe, for death is a companion of those weathered by time, who had seen many summers come and go by. One such as yourself, who has just opened her eyes to the beauty of the world should never fear death. Death is our friend. For it helps us live a good life knowing that it would all end one day. If everything always stayed the same, we would never change, never grow. Death is our reminder," her father said.

"It is a fateful companion of the old and the weak. It does not befriend the ones whose time has yet to come," he went on to say.

Remembering those words now made molten rage roll through her whole being. Her father hadn't seen many summers go by. His youth was obvious even in the face of a Hunter who had been through so much. Why did he have to perish when so many others had not joined the Great Hunt. Even those who had weathered many more winters than her father had remained and it stung her little heart to see them live when her father had to die before his time.

Leonie's hands started shaking in anger. Hot tears welled up in her eyes. Fury engulfed her heart. There was so much anger. Pain. Betrayal. Tears falling down with no end. Sorrow was her, she was sorrow, that was all she was. More pain than should ever knock on the door of someone as young as Leonie was there, persistently demanding entrance.

"WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME!!? How could you!!? You promised you would return!! You deceived me! It was all the worst kind of falsity." Leonie screamed.

She screamed so loudly that her throat became scratchy - it felt as if there were pricks and needles in it. Not knowing how else to release the amount of anger that her little body was unable to carry, she started kicking the nearby tree and then clumsily hitting it with her small fists until blood started gushing through the small cuts on her hand ridge.

Only once the sharp pain went through the veil of anger that encompassed her whole, did she gain the understanding of her actions, and finally spent up, fell to the moist ground beneath her feet. All her energy consumed in rage against the new life she was faced with, the new truth she had to accept about life. The new unthinkable realm in which she was not Leonie, daddy's brave girl, but a fatherless little girl who had sorrow as her companion.

Her clothes were moist from being on the wet ground and that was when she remembered the light that promised something good, but it was gone. During her clash with all the pain and anger (even the tree) she failed to take notice of the wonderful light disappearing behind the next bend of the forest.

She needed to run, to uncover what it led to, but stars and the Goddess of Being were on her side. The light returned as a lost puppy looking for its guardian. It was there in front of her spinning in the air, going back and forth. The action that was never seen before, was repeated many times before Leonie finally picked up her small body, weak as it was, and persisted on her path of following the tantalizing light.

The pain was still there. However, it wasn't all-encompassing. It was carefully packed up in a small, frail cage that was hopefully able to keep it from consuming everything that ever was or is, or would be, as Leonie went on down the path that she could feel would lead her to her heart's secret desire.

The light became brighter and brighter as it gained speed with Leonie chasing after it with newly-found strength stemming from a determination of a little girl who didn't want to blemish the memory of her father and give up on a quest that found her.

"The one who does not seek a quest, but still finds it. The one who follows the thread of their life the best they can, and protect all that grace them with intertwining two threads as one. Those are the ones who are truly the Great Hearts of our time. They do not seek fame but find it in being who they were always meant to be." The village Mage often used to say.

When that sentence first fell upon her ears, the truth of it was carried away by the winds, before the young mind such as hers could understand it. Now, in the core of who she was, she knew that soon enough she would truly learn what those words entailed.

Once the light strayed from the path and went into the dense thicket of that enormous green monster that is a forest at night, chasing after it proved even more challenging. Without letting even the slightest shimmer of doubt conquer her heart Leonie followed close behind.

It started being a slow and arduous journey since the dark foliage of the forest was trying to thwart her every step by putting small little slippery traps under her feet. Also, thin bony fingers often got caught up in her hair and pulled at her clothes. If it had been daytime those creepy hands with sticky fingers would have been revealed as what they truly were, but in the darkness of a moonless night, they were terrifying Leonie more than anything else.

After what felt like an eternity to the weary little girl, the forest finally managed to halt her advancement completely as she tripped on some low prickly entity that she hoped was only a small bush. Leonie lost her balance and fell forward into what felt like a shallow gully. Even though the gully was not of great depth, it was still deep enough for her to be unable to scramble out of it, try as she may. In the dark, it was fruitless labor having been abandoned by the only light she had.

Spent, Leonie felt around herself and finding a firm rock that was strangely warm, she curled up against it and started crying in desperation. It was the last drop in the bucket full of water that she couldn't even do something as simple as following a wondrous light with ease.

Sobbing and sniffling was the only thing that was heard around her for the time being and soon enough Leonie was carried away on the wings of a beautiful dream, leaving her poor body to regain its strength for another long day that awaited her.

"Sorry I am for hardship and pain. A better day shall come your way, if only you stay. Everything is better in the light of day." Flame said with ardor. 

Elemental's job never being over Flame had to hurry off in another direction knowing that she had done all that could have been done for the little girl whose heart needed warmth.

Flame's fiery existence disappeared in the distance - its flames flattering in a secret dance between air and fire. Flame could sense the presence of another, but both of them knew that the little girl had to find her own way. Neither of them was able to change the path of a mortal, only to guide them on their way and guided she was to the path that she was always meant to take.