Arianna looked upon her home village of Linderwall from the large outcropping of Euae Roeal meaning "Sea of Rock". It was made entirely of peacock ore and was incredibly beautiful. Upon it sat a creek that flowed off of Ausmus, the healing river. She was sent up there to get a pitcher of the water for Morwen, the oldest woman in the village, by her father, the leader of the village. As she looked upon Linderwall from the outcropping, she felt a closeness to nature that she only got when she was alone and away from the rest of the people in her village. She wished to hold on to the feeling forever but with a sigh, she started down the steep path with her pitcher.

She arrived at Linderwall just before nightfall. Celebration decorations were everywhere. The entire village was celebrating Morwen's 93rd birthday. Arianna hurried into Morwen's house. "Hello, sweet one'', Morwen's singsong voice called out to her from deeper inside the house. 'Sweet one' is what Morwen always called her.

"Hello, Morwen. Happy Birthday, I brought you some water fro-"

"Oh yes, yes," Morwen interrupted her, "I may be ninety-three, but I feel like sixty-five! Now go, go! Enjoy yourself! I'll be out in a bit." She shooed Arianna out the door. Good ol' Morwen, thought Arianna, she's got an unbeatable spirit. She sat the pitcher down and walked outside. Outside, her father was waiting for her.

"Arianna," he said, "How was your trip?"

"Fine," she replied as she wrapped her arms around his waist (which was a bit difficult since she was taller than him).

"What is this?" he asked, tucking some of her long, blonde hair behind her ears, revealing a small scratch that was drawing blood.

"Just some of the thorns on the way down. I just wasn't being very careful." But before he could answer, two young girls approached them.

"There you are!" exclaimed the shorter redhead.

"We've been looking all over for you!" said the taller brunette, wiping her forehead.

"Hello Kath, Rhysati," Ari said.

"Why don't you go and enjoy yourself?" suggested her father. "I'll be around." Ari squeezed her father a little tighter and then ran off behind her 2 friends.

Kath, Rhysati, and Ari found plenty to do. They gossiped about the rest of the people in the village, talked about how young Morwen seemed to be, told stories, listened to other people tell stories, and danced. A lot. They danced until their feet started to tingle. After they got tired of doing that, they wondered around and found Ari's two older brother's, Remart and Kyrtan, getting ready to do a swordfight. Even though it was just for show, she still got knots in her stomach every time they did it, no matter how many times they'd practiced it before.

Remart, the older of the two, waved them closer. Slightly short and stocky with unruly brown hair and brown eyes, he was practically a mirror image of their father, except her father was a bit taller. Kyrtan, on the other hand, was slightly taller than Remart (though not as tall as Ari) but with a very athletic build, curly but not unruly hair light brown hair and hazel eyes, she could see why he had captured many a young girl's heart, including Rhysati.

Remart leaned on his sword making him look even shorter than he really was. "Came to tell us you don't have a good feeling about this?" he asked mockingly. She said that every time, but this time, she did. Like a shadow of danger, a dark cloud covering her vision enveloping the entire village. She shook it off. It was nothing.

"Well..." she started. Kyrtan laughed, throwing his head back.

"Don't worry," he said. "We've been practicing this for what seems like forever."

"I guess," she said, still not entirely convinced. "But I do wish you'd teach me a little more about how to use a sword so I could understand what you're doing."

"You don't need to know how to use a sword. You're a girl!" Remart said in his impatient way.

Just then, Cimorene, another of the girls in the village, ran up to Arianna. "Ari, Ari!" she yelled, "Where is Morwen? It's been 4 hours since you came down from Euae Roeal and we haven't seen her since!"

"Oh, no!" Ari grumbled, tripping over her long dress while running towards Morwen's house. "I'm sure she's fine!" she yelled back to them, none too reassuringly. Was that the danger she sensed? She had been so caught up with Kath and Rhysati that she hadn't noticed if Morwen had come out of the house! It was already the dark of night, which made it a bit difficult to navigate, but the lights from the town square were sufficient enough.

By the time she arrived at Morwen's house, her father was already there. "Ari! Hurry and go back Euae Roeal to get a pitcher of water!" She just sat there and stared at Morwen. All of Morwen's muscles were having spasms. "GO!" yelled her father. Ari grabbed the pitcher she had left before and stumbled blindly out of the house. Because of the dim light, she tripped, on what she didn't know, but she dropped the pitcher. Ari cursed under her breath not caring what was or wasn't proper for a young lady anymore and ran into the town square.

She grabbed one of the pitchers and emptied out its contents. Many people yelled and shouted at this but she didn't care. She took the pitcher and ran to the path up to Euae Roeal.

If she wasn't being careful last time when she got a scratch, she was legally blind now. Which was partly true since she hadn't bothered to bring a light with her so she had to feel her way up the path, getting many thorns stuck in her skin and many more ripping at her dress.

After about an hour, she finally got to the top, but she had to stop to catch her breath. She had made good time; it usually took 2 hours to get up. Now she was afraid she would spend that extra time catching her breath. If only her father had let her practice with her brother's, this wouldn't be happening! She forced herself to get up and fill the pitcher. A sound. What was that? Ari looked behind her but could only see blackness. Her 'danger sense' flared. Something growled behind her. Before she got a chance to scream, a sword hilt hit her squarely on the forehead.