This is the sixth fanfic I've written and the first disclaimer I've ever written. Usually, I find disclaimers annoying and I always skip them when I read fanfics. But in this case, I want it to be clear what is mine and what is not. So here goes: The setting is not mine. Although, I've added details, the setting comes from the game. The main character,Valerie, is completely mine and I hope you come to like her as much as I do. The only other character which is completely mine is Valerie's father. All the other characters are from the game, although I have added details to each one of them. The plot is partly mine. Basically, the external plot is from the game (although I've added details) and the internal plot is mine. Or let me put it this way: Everything that happens to Valerie is from the game. Everything that happens in Valerie is mine. And, I think that part is the more important one.
For those of you that have not played the game online before, you'll be a lot more interested in the plot. For those of you that have already played it, please do not reveal what will happen next when reviewing. Other than that, please review! Constructive criticism is welcome.
Chapter One- The Dragon
My name is Valerie. I was born in Soulous, a quiet town on the edge of the kingdom of Kaleo. My life was quite simple, and rather lonely back then. I was an only child, my mother died when I was seven, my father when I was fourteen. Ordinarily, I would be sent to an orphanage but the villagers saw that I could support myself perfectly well and so they let me stay and live alone. I lived in a small house, planting vegetables in the garden, picking berries and mushrooms in the forest and shooting and selling geese and ducks. I had always had a good aim and my father and I had often gone hunting when he was alive.
I had no close friends, just a few people I talked to occasionally. I was afraid of getting too close to anybody. I did not want to be dependent in any way. I could handle a bow and arrows when it came to birds and I could also protect myself with those same arrows. No robbers ever came to my home. Even young men never called on me and I was glad for that. At the moment, when my life changed completely, I was sixteen years old.
I was walking along the road, on the way home from a morning walk, rather glum because I could not get any birds for a few days. They all seemed to disappear for no apparent reason. But as I was about to find out, animals often have a way of sensing danger and getting away in time. I was looking down. It had become a habit to look down, less people would talk to me that way. I was kicking a rock down the path. Suddenly, a huge shadow covered the earth in front of me. I gasped and looked up. I saw a dragon.
Most people know what a dragon looks like. I knew him for a dragon right away even though he flew by in a flash. I stopped and stared. I had heard stories and I had seen paintings in old books and I knew that dragons had existed once, but never had I supposed that they were still alive today. I stared at the place where the dragon was, my mouth wide open until the smell of smoke reached me. I unfroze. Smoke meant a fire. I began to run. As I ran I felt my hair ribbon slip off and fall to the ground but I did not stop to pick it up. I simply ran. I forgot all about the dragon. I did not connect him and the fire. All I thought was, there's a fire in town and I must help put it out.
As I reached the town's main street I felt the smell of smoke become so strong that I began to cough. I looked up through watery eyes.
"No!" I cried out. My house was on fire. So were many others. An entire line of houses was on fire, the flames licking the ground, and the smoke so thick I could barely see. But how? These houses were not backed up against each other. They did not catch fire from each other. Each was lighted separately. At that moment I saw the dragon once more, flying away in the distance. Suddenly I realized it was him. His fault.
I tried to get some water from the well and put the fire out but I began to cough and choke and gasp for breath, and I realized I had to get to a place where I could breathe. I could not save my house all alone. So I ran back to the forest I had come from. I ran and ran until I fell down on an old stump by the lake. I sat there for a moment just trying to catch my breath in the smoke free air. Once I caught my breath, I thought of my ruined house and felt a lump in my throat. I hadn't cried for two years and I wasn't about to start now. But my house was destroyed. My whole town was destroyed according to what I saw on my way here. Burned houses here, burned houses there.
But what about the people? Where was everybody? It was early morning. Very early. I realized with horror that most people were probably asleep when this happened. And so they…and at that moment I could stand it no longer. I began to cry. Cry for my house, cry for all the people who were burned in their beds, cry for my destroyed town. Why? I wondered. Why? Why did the dragon destroy our town? What did we ever do to him?
I stayed in the forest until evening. I picked berries all day. I was starving but I was afraid to go back. Yet, as it began to get dark, I knew I had to. The woods were not safe at night. I knew this better than anyone. My father had been killed by a bear when out in the woods at night. I was there when it happened, and the memory still haunted me. As the air got chillier, the darkness seemed to close in on me and I began to shiver. I hadn't been in the woods at night since the accident. It seemed like any moment something might jump out of the shadows and grab me. I couldn't sit there any longer. I knew I had to go back.
I ran down the path. I reached the central street. The fire had gone out and only a trace of smoke was left in the night air. But the all houses were black and charred. So was mine. I peeked into my window. Everything was completely burned up. At that moment, I owned nothing but the clothes on my back and a small pouch which held a flask of water and some berries. My greatest losses were my bow and arrows. How would I shoot birds without them? And my money was probably burned up too.
Why didn't I see anybody? I looked everywhere but not a trace of people remained. I shouted hoping someone would hear me but no one answered. They couldn't all have been killed, could they? What if they were? How would I live? How would I survive all alone? I had almost begun to panic when I thought of something. My house was completely burned up. But maybe not everything was. Maybe there were some things around which hadn't perished. I began to search.
Under a bunch of burned branches, I found some coins. I felt no qualms about taking them. There was no one else there to use them. As I looked around I found more coins in various places. Soon I had twenty coins in my pouch. I also found a book. It was mostly burnt up but one page wasn't completely destroyed, just had holes in it. It might not seem very valuable, but that page held the ancient Kaleoan Alphabet and an explanation of how to read it. I thought it was interesting and so I ripped the page out and took it with me as well.
But suddenly, I saw something much greater. Under a pile of burned rubble, was a beautiful silver shield. It was exactly the sort of thing sold in the market on Sundays for a very high price. But why was it not burned? Coins could be dropped in small openings in walls and cracks in the ground and preserved that way but this great shield wasn't hidden anywhere. So why was it not burned up? I didn't know the answer but I did know that it was too beautiful to leave here. Besides I could sell it for a high price if I reached another town. I picked up the shield and took it with me.
