The Stolen World

Chapter 1

Atiri Alayth Selven

            I blinked; my eyes were blurry and unfocused. It was almost hard to breathe, like I was out of breath and I just couldn’t get any oxygen in my lungs. And then, I finally did it. I sucked in my first breath in what felt like years. My throat stung and my eyes watered slightly, and I kept dragging in deep breathes until I could breathe normally again.

            I blinked a few more times and my eyes slowly let me see again. I was in a large room made of a white marble with little green veins. The high ceiling formed a dome over my head and there were pillars on either side of a large arched doorway. I turned around to see a statue made of what looked like black glass. There was a word for that glass. It was special. I could feel that word on the tip of my tongue.

            “Obsidian.” My voice, even at a whisper, echoed in the hall. My throat felt ragged and it hurt to speak.

            She was about 8 times my size and still only filled up a portion of the wall. In her left hand she held a pickaxe above her head, while her right hand rested on the hilt of the sword at her waist. She wore what looked like armor, and a helmet was tucked under her right arm.

            “Her name Ocidera.” A friendly but rough voice said. I turned around quickly, startled at this man’s voice. He was a large man with a thick brown beard and mustache that nearly covered his mouth and dark blue eyes that sparkled. He wasn’t alone though, definitely not alone. They must have just come in, because I would have seen this crowd. His arm was around a woman about his age, and a young boy was attached to her leg. On the other side of the man was an older woman and a man with graying hair and wrinkles. And man who was just slightly younger than the first man raised an eyebrow at me and looked over to the young woman beside him.

            I licked my cracked lips and decided to speak again. “Who was she?"

            “The Goddess of Stone. She’s the only Great One to be a woman. She is the one who led the first of us to places that hold iron and gold, and she fought with the Great Ones against the Evil Ones to protect our lands and protect us.” Said the man with the beard.

            “Who are all of you?” I asked slowly.

            “The Selven Clan. I am Fais, this is my wife, Igniera, our little boy, Cormar, my mother, Raies, my father, Dagsil, my other son, Lyran, and his wife, Kana. We are a family. And, we would like you to be a part of ours.” The bearded man said.

            “I don’t understand what’s going on. I don’t know who I am or where I am or anything.” I could feel my heart rate speeding up and I was panicking.

            “We don’t know how or why, but we can’t have children like the animals. We can have sex, but we can’t have children. There are stories where our ancestors used to be able to do that. Some believe that it is punishment by the Vidaaren for destroying a shrine in his honor, the god of life and death, and the other four gods built the Holy Lands to try and fix what he had broken. Others think it was a sickness that spread through the lands that infected us all, and the Great Ones took pity on us and built the Holy Lands. But no matter the reason, Great Ones graced us with the Holy Lands, and they deliver children to us. They’re all like you, confused, but we teach them our ways. We teach them everything. You are a gift to us from the Great Ones. There are five temples like this one, and in each one of them, children appear, destined to be a part of a family’s life. Come now, become part of our Clan. We were all like you at one point, and we would like to be the one’s to give you a safe home.” Fais wasn’t joking, he was serious. He meant it. He wanted me as part of their family. A nameless, confused girl, and he wanted me to become a Selven.