Well hi there! And thanks for taking interest in my story, first off. Second off, this is my prologue, so it's sort of short and cutesy. You can expect a bit more grown up things in the later chapters due to... well... everyone is grown up. This is my first time posting something up here on the site, so let me know how I am doing, how you like it, or how much you don't, any spelling errors and stuff. I'm generally pretty good about it though. Anyways, enjoy.

Ashes and Salt

Aroda

Prologue

An old woman was walking through the trees of the great forest that was nearest to her home. The woman was old, yes, but she did not have that appearance. In fact, she looked to be of a young maiden of fourteen or sixteen, young, but she held herself in a regal manner. She did not have the appearance of an elf, or any other being with a particularly long life span. In fact, she looked to be human, by all standards. And all knew that, even the longest living of humans, could not outlive two hundred and fifty years, and one with such a fair face as hers could not be over thirty. Plenty of life still in her. Or, so gathered the dark shadowy being that had been following her for several leagues now.

Despite the fact that she seemed to walk with a purpose, she was, from what he could tell... completely lost. They had passed by the same tree several times already, though she took a different path to get to it each time, all leading her back here. Sometimes, the forest would do this, however, lead people around in circles, until they died. It was not the friendliest or most welcoming of forests, and only seemed hospitable to beings that matched these traits. The young woman was getting more and more flustered now, or, frustrated, and tired. She had been walking a long time, and a girl with such fair skin as hers could not be used to such laborious activity. Still, she had lasted longer than the creature thought she would. A healthy meal she would make. So full of life indeed. The other creatures of the forest would have grabbed her by now, but they stayed away. She had already been claimed by him, and this was his territory, for the day, at least.

She sat down alongside a tree with roots that were slightly out of the ground, making a good makeshift chair for her. She seemed exhausted at last, and lay her head at the side of the trunk, breathing harshly. Her chest moved up and down, up and down, straining the shirt she had filled with her bosom at every inhale. And so he began to make his move. A strange wind blew through the trees and they creaked ominously. The girl seemed disturbed by this, and soon, the being made its strike. "Die now!" It shouted, clawed hands outstretched as it jumped out of the tree towards the girl. For a moment her eyes betrayed fear, and then, a smirk and suddenly the male found a swift fist making contact with his face. He was flung backwards in surprise and was stunned for a moment. A moment too long for another swift punch to the face left him sprawling at the base of the tree. A mistake he was not intending to make again. "You!" He shouted and moved to sit up, unfortunately, the tree he had fallen into had other plans. It soon wrapped around his legs and arms, eating him. He struggled, but his body was small and no match for an old tree of mirkwood. And so he was doomed to be eaten by a tree. That was it. Everything went dark. That was the end of-

"Hey, wait. It's a kid." And there was light again. The tree relinquished enough of its hold on the boy to allow his face to poke through, though, it really was quite perturbed at not being able to eat him. The woman walked up to him and got right up into his face, examining him at close range, avoiding the boy when he snapped at her. Her nose wrinkled and she backed away, fanning her face. "Eeew, you smell." She recognized the scent of rotting human flesh. That was all something he'd certainly heard before. He just made a hissing sound in reply. The woman backed up a step and shook a finger at him. "You know, you probably shouldn't announce that you're about to kill someone right as you jump on them." "Shut up! Gryah!" The boy struggled again, this time with an unexpected strength, broke through the roots with his right arm, and ripped the roots off of his left with his now free arm. Then suddenly he felt himself flung back against the tree by some strange invisible force and grabbed by it again. He gasped for breath as it was nearly choking him. His arms outstretched, the tree regained control of his limbs as he gazed at the girl whose hand was outstretched and hand slightly clenched as if she were choking air.

"W-What a-are you?" "Don't do that again, if you can help it. I'm not supposed to kill a person." This seemed to catch the creature by surprise. "... P-Person?..." It took him a moment to realize what the word was, as he was not the greatest at human tongues. He eventually figured out that it was associated with him. The invisible chokehold was released as the witch's, as that's what he assumed she was, hand went back to her side. The boy gasped for breath relieved, but his relief was soon, again, returned to anger and a glare at the woman who began talking. "Yes. I'm not sure why. But my mother says so. Though if you're a flesh eater..." The woman trailed off and got quiet, thinking on the fate of the person she held in front of her. He'd been in this situation many times before and he simply looked rebelliously and unrepentantly to the side. The lady followed him, moving to the side until again the boy was forced to look at her. He glared harder and thrust his head in the opposite direction. She followed him, again coming in his line of sight. She seemed curious. "What are you looking at?..." He hissed at her. "What are you?" The girl asked, just to be angrily talked at again. "What does it matter?" "It doesn't." This seemed to catch the creature off guard, again. It didn't matter what he was? "I just want to know what to call you." The dark creature looked away again, but upon remembering that this was not an effective way of avoiding the annoying woman, rolled its eyes in frustration. "The elves who held me last called me Bruimornhen." Something about the caused the girl to laugh greatly, and she even fell back on the ground, sitting. The creature became enraged again.

"Shut up! Stop laughing at me! If I had the use of my arms, I would rip your throat out and devour it!" The girl, still smiling and recovering from laughter stood up, wiping her eyes. "It's a good thing you don't have use of your arms then, the attempt would very well kill you." "It would be worth it to strip that ugly grin off of your face!" He said, then ran towards the girl again, pouncing, claws extended.

Unfortunately, once again, the creature found itself yanked back by some invisible force at the mere twitch of the woman's hand. She was quiet for a moment, and looked on at the creature. Her eyes were narrow, but not judgmental, or pity, or anger, or annoyance. Well, annoyance would come later. "You're different... different than the others..." The creature just growled and jumped back retreating beyond her view... However, the trees told her, he had not gone far. She was still being hunted. This would persist for the next several days, through the weeks, and lasted well over a month. The creature learned fast to avoid the mother of the witch girl. She carried sharp objects most of the time and would cause irreparable damage, not having the same morbid curiosity as her daughter did towards him. Stalking the girl, his desire to kill her grew increasingly, but it soon became obvious that hiding himself was useless and wasted too much energy, so he took to following her by foot, and watching her from a distance. The woman confounded him, and she had a tendency to talk to him all the time... and eventually, he started talking back to her...

"Are you an orc?" "Hah... Figures... That's all you humans ever see..." That seemed to humble the girl a bit, and the creature thought about attacking her then when her guard was down, but he'd tried that one too many times to want to try it again... "Well... I'm not a human..." She said, and that humbled the creature. "... Well... What are you then?..." There was a long pause. "... I don't know..." She replied honestly, so the creature reciprocated. "... Neither do I." Another long pause before the girl looked up, decidedly. "I guess, I'm just a Saura." Saura said. The creature boy looked over to her, then lowered his head. "Then what am I?" "Meldir." Saura said, decidedly. "A what?" "It's not really a very good name but, it will be good enough for now, and people will treat you better if you tell them that." "What... What is it?..." "A friend." It translated from elvish that way. And so, that stuck, from then on, his name was Meldir, and from then on, he started to act like it. Really, once a person is well fed, feels safe, and is decently educated and integrated into society, that solves most of their problems. Over a thousand years, Saura had managed to solve the rest.