AUTHOR'S NOTES: Hey-o, welcome to Adventures of Enchantment! There's not much to put for an A/N on this here prologue, but I thought it best to get a few things out of the way first. First off! This is an OC fic. If you don't like those kinds of fics, you probably won't like this one. I'm doing my best to make sure all my characters are well-rounded characters but it's pretty easy to slap the Mary-Sue label onto any and all fics involving characters in situations like these.
Secondly! There is no magic in this fic, even though the title is a bit misleading. One of the definitions for enchantment is "the feeling of being enchanted," and enchanted in this case is defined as "charmed, delighted, enraptured." I have a habit of naming all of my fics after song titles because I always listen to music when I write, (and I just suck at titles) and Adventures of Enchantment by Two Steps From Hell is the unofficial theme song of this here fic. If you want to give it a listen, it's on YouTube.
And that's it. Thanks for your time, I hope you enjoy the fic.
Adventures of Enchantment: Prologue
The burning sensation in her lungs was the first sign of exhaustion that she payed any attention to. She had no idea how long she'd been running for now. Maybe an hour, maybe more. The island-within-an-island was larger than she had originally thought. Running across it was more of a feat than she'd initially anticipated. But she had to keep going. The storm that raged around her was reaching its apex which, unfortunately, meant that she was quickly running out of time to do what she had to.
Small branches whipped at her bare arms and face as she slowed unintentionally. Now that she was paying attention to how hard it was to breathe, the tiredness in her legs was even more apparent. When she stumbled over a root and fell hard into a mud puddle it was even more obvious that she was in trouble. She coughed and tried to breathe normally as she pushed herself up on her hands. "Goddammit," she said to herself breathlessly. "Come on, Meredith. Up and at 'em. You can do this."
The pep talk seemed to work, and she got to her feet. There was only a brief moment of swaying before she found her legs again and was off, ignoring the cold rain that was coming down harder with each passing second. As she ran, she heard her mother's voice in the back of her head. Find your brother and look out for him. There's nothing down there to catch us, so the further apart we all are, the harder it's going to be to find each other later. Meredith repeated those words to herself over and over until she saw a figure in the distance.
"Ash!" she yelled. "Ashton!" There was only a brief moment of hesitation—what if it was a guard and not Ashton?—and then she kept running towards the person in the distance. "Answer me, Ashton!"
As she got closer, she noticed that the figure was just a bit too tall to be her brother. Her heart sank even as she crashed to her knees, legs unable to hold her up anymore. She fell onto her side in the wet and the mud, and couldn't do anything but watch as the man walked towards her. The dark of the night and the shadows of the trees made it hard to see who he was. But luckily, he wasn't attacking.
"I'm sorry about this, Strand," the man said quietly. Ken, her mind supplied. The nice one. "But we've got our orders. I just wish we didn't have to get Thrown with you."
Lightning crashed and Meredith tilted her head up so she could see the clouds through the treetops. They were swirling. Less than a minute left until the apex, then. She swallowed hard and tried to breathe normally instead of the harsh pants that were still coming as a result of her run. "They're not going to come back for you, you realize? Whatever Dunstan told you about us, about what happened all those years ago—"
She didn't get a chance to finish. Strong winds cut her off and soon carried her off the ground. Raindrops felt like rubber bullets against her skin as the storm Threw her elsewhere. In the midst of everything, she couldn't tell up from down, left from right. Extreme vertigo was easier to handle than the disorientation she was feeling. She may have screamed, but if she did she couldn't hear herself. It took everything she had to curl in in the fetal position, one last attempt to save herself from what was coming.
And then she hit water with a loud smack! She choked as she instinctively tried to inhale and salt water filled her lungs. Arms and legs flailed uselessly as she panicked. The only thought that made it through her head was I hope Ashton isn't drowning like this, and then everything went dark, then red.
When she recognized the red she could see through her eyelids as sunlight, she was surprised. Everything felt warm, nice even. Except for the sand up her shorts. With that amusing-yet-not thought, Meredith rolled from her back onto her side and opened her eyes. She was on a beach, which would explain the awkwardly placed sand. There was a dock about ten feet from where she was and an old man sitting on it, smoking a pipe.
"Oh! You're awake finally!" the old man said with a smile, the lines around his eyes crinkling. "We would've moved you, but it was hard to tell if you were dead or just sleepin'. It's only newer fishers out this time of year and they're all much too suspicious. Poor bastards ain't goin' to last long if they stay scared like that."
Meredith couldn't help but chuckle as she sat up, then slowly stood up. "Well, so long as I didn't get too much sun I think I should be alright with some rest. But my skin burns and freckles terribly if I'm not careful."
The old man laughed heartily. "Aye, with hair like that I'm not surprised, lass. But, come now. Out with it. What happened to you that you washed up on our lovely, peaceful shores last night?"
"I was shipwrecked, I think," she said, the lie coming easily. Walking over to the dock was harder than she thought it would be. The legs in her muscles were all tense from overwork, and her chest still hurt from her little expedition. She sat next to the old man and frowned thoughtfully, twirling a bit of red hair around her finger. "I'm... not exactly sure how it happened. There were strange people and I think I may have hit my head on something." She felt for a bump at the back of her head to sell it.
"Well, lucky for you, Doc should make it to town tomorrow," the man said. "You're welcome to stay until then. Fishin' festival is this week so we've got lots of travelers comin' through. Peaches at the inn might be feelin' generous and will give you a room and a bit of coin for a day or two if you're willin' to work until you can find a ship back to wherever it was that you were goin'."
To say that Meredith was surprised by that would be an understatement, and it likely showed on her face. The old man laughed around his pipe, nearly losing his balance on the bucket he sat on. "Oh, don't be givin' me that face now. I know what it's like for a young person like yourself, wantin' to taste the seas before you have to settle in for work. Trade ports like ours get a fair few of your ilk stoppin' by. We're used to givin' them hospitalities." Meredith smiled and nodded. That made a strange sort of sense. "Now go on, get. That path'll take you right through town, and you can't miss the inn. Tell Peaches that Trafford sent you."
"I will. Thank you, Trafford," she said as she got up and dusted sand off her clothes. As she walked down the path, she could swear that Trafford's eyes were twinkling mischievously as he smoked and watched her leave.
Her head was reeling as she slowly walked toward the town. She had fully expected that once she'd inhaled sea water after the storm had Thrown her, she was a goner. Really, she should have listened to her mother. Her with her complete faith in the fact that somehow, miraculously, they would all survive such an ordeal. Well, Meredith thought, if she was still alive, then there's no reason her family couldn't be as well. But she needed time to rest and recover from what had happened. So maybe a few days of working at the inn until she could figure out where to go from here was just what she needed.