Search for the Extinct [Last of Elves book 2]

Six: Aura

Aura

I want to go out. Maybe I can convince the High Priestess.

The quill stopped, settling down on the parchment sadly. It was highly unlikely that it would happen. After a moment, the quill continued to write, carefully and slowly forming the sad letters.

She says it’s dangerous out there. That I won’t know how to behave. That I would be in danger.

I don’t believe her.

I will get outside.

For a long moment, the quill was still. What had just been written was scary, terrifying. But it would happen.

I have to.

There is something in me that yearns for the wind, the open air. Something that pushes me to see that waves of the sea, feel the earth under my bare feet.

I want to run.

The sun slanted over the parchment, illuminating the last four words. Again, the quill paused, thoughtful.

I wonder why she keeps me safe here. What she’s so scared of. I spend so much time on my balcony, watching the people hurry past. I can’t imagine what could be out there to hurt me.

Maybe it’s outside the city walls. Maybe it’s Mutestep Wood. All the stories I’ve heard about it are scary.

They say that there are creatures in there that have never seen the light. That they come out only at night to prowl beyond the city walls.

I wonder what they look like. I wonder how we know that they are there.

For all we know, they’re just stories, made up to scare children into staying home after nightfall.

Knowing the priestess, they probably are.

Once more, the quill stopped moving. There were so many things to say, to record, to write down so that her voice could be heard. But it was hard to know how.

I know of the Terrors. The four-legged creatures that the elves once called nightbirds. Their call is terrifying, high pitched and eerie. I once heard them every night.

Now I rarely do. I think they’ve been hunted. Now that the elves are no longer around to tell of the wonder and grace that the nightbirds are, they are being killed because we fear them.

I wish I could hear them again. Something in their call echoed in my blood. I could hear their song, could almost understand what they were saying to each other. They were only hunting, looking for the small rodents that were their only prey.

If they were the only danger, then surely I can leave this place of stone. They’re nearly all gone.

I find it sad.