Prologue: Home
I looked up to the ceiling and rubbed my face. My body was exhausted, for what had been hours, felt like weeks for me. And, on top of that all, I had these words dazzling around in my head: ''Chosen, Eversong, Coming, and Prepare''. I had no idea what this could mean, or how these words even came in my head in the first place, all I knew was that they weren't a good means for sleeping. This kept tormenting me as I stepped out of my bed and walked to the mirror hanging on the wall. I looked into it. A girl with long brown hair and green eyes looked back at me. I tried to put a smile on her face but my body disagreed. It scared me that I looked so awful, but that wasn't my main preoccupation right now. I walked to the window next to my bed to open the curtains, looked through the glass at the upcoming sun. Dawn had arrived.
I looked the stream which flows right next to my house, some salmons were skilfully swimming upstream. I walked away, to my wardrobe. I grabbed my chainmail vest and a pair of tiger-leather pants. I still tremble at the sight of the beast that was required to make it. It appeared all of the sudden right in the brush in front of me. As it leaped at me I was just able to draw my knife in a reflex and to impale the beast's throat. I equipped it. In conclusion I grabbed my hunting bow and arrow quiver from the bottom of the wardrobe and bound them to my back. I opened the door and went to the stream. I washed my hair and face. This really made me feel less tired. It is said that these waters have some magical powers and, according to me, this was true, or at least, it felt that way. As I was sitting there, I heard a familiar voice yelling 'Faragi are you coming for the hunt today?' I looked over my shoulder, there was Uzug. 'Yes', I said, 'Just a second'. Uzug is a really nice guy, he has some quite strange traits but he has a golden heart. It might be strange to see me going along so well with a green-skinned and braided-beard Orc. I, myself am an elf, but Orcs and elves befriended each other somewhere, ages ago. For the last couple of centuries, they have lived in peace together and accepted each other's rituals and habits.
'It is time to hunt a bigger game', Uzug said. 'Let's get to the dense part of the forest where the real threats lurk in the dark'. I didn't like him speaking these words, particularly because I had had a bad night already and I knew there was something waiting for me. As we walked through the forest we came across a clearance, a hill with no vegetation which was home of a ritual circle made by the Orcs in the past. In the middle of four rocks laid a bonfire which seemed to be ever-burning by a strange blue flame. And as always Uzug had to mention that it were his ancestors that enhanced this place and made it to what it is today. We walked alongside this place for many times now and he always had to say this. I was not in the mood for these kinds of games and didn't say a word. 'What's the matter?' he said. 'Nothing' was my response, but deep inside I felt this place was calling me, attracting me.
Nothing was spoken for quite some time until we entered the deeper forest, where the vegetation was dense and where you had to cut a path through the vines to proceed. Between two slices of my knife I heard a noise which wasn't made by either of us so I stood down and gestured Uzug to be quiet. Uzug, greedy as he was, grabbed his giant mace which was wrapped to his back with some piece of rope and was getting ready to charge in. 'No' I said, 'this one is mine', I said with a smile. 'Are you sure you can manage this on your own', he said with a grin. I shushed him. I lined up my bow and arrow and looked for the prey. Suddenly the noise came out of a brush not so far from me, and in an instant, I shot. Before I was aware of it, the beast was coming for me. It was a swine with black fur and my arrow in its flank. I strung again and shot but the beast didn't want to die it seemed. And just as it was about to charge at me it was laid to rest by a swift swing of Uzug's hammer. I felt horrible to let him have the pleasure of laughing at me. I felt dizzy and I wanted to go home but as I wanted to turn around I heard twigs snatching and the sound of horses. I gestured Uzug to be quiet and get in the brush to hide. He, not knowing what all the fuzz was about asked me what the matter was. I whispered him to be quiet and lie down, 'I hear something'. 'Hah, I don't hear a thing.'
But his smile ran away from his face in the next seconds. 'Oops, apparently your pointy ears are good for something' he said.
As we lay there, five knights approached. Four of them were in grey armour as you would expect them to be I could not figure out what was under those plates, but the other one had some shiny gold-coloured piece of armour, clearly, he was the leader of the group. He dismounted, walked to the lifeless body of the swine and took a good look at it. Three arrows impaled its flank. The knight drew his sword from his belt and overlooked the area around us. For a moment I thought he'd noticed us. I felt my heart beat at a horrendous rate and made myself as small as possible.
They walked in the opposite direction of where we were, cutting down the fern as they proceeded. I crawled backwards. I wanted to run, to get out of here, but there they were again. I could see the leader's face clearly now. He had a grim look all over his face which made me fall on the ground again. One of the others drew an arrow from the beast. It was dripping with blood. They talked in some language I did not understand, all I could make out of it was the word 'Elf'.
The one with the arrow in his hand made some gestures and pointed to the area to the left of us. They mounted their horses. It was quite funny to see how their leader was always one step ahead of the rest. He had obviously deserved leadership. However, there was no reason to laugh at this moment. As they mounted, one of the horses staggered. The leader yelled at him, but he didn't see what I had seen: He had lost something. It fell in the high grass. As they were riding away, my curiosity grew with each step they made. I took a look to the right; Uzug seemed to be very impatient as well. I put my hand on his back and whispered him to wait, expecting that it would be a trap.
He nodded. After nothing had happened for quite some time I decided to take a careful look. I found the object in the high grass, it was a satchel. I quickly opened it and found some gold coins, a map and a paper with notes which was, of course in a strange language. I split up the gold kept the one half and gave the other half to Uzug. He laughed 'you evil witch' he said. I tried to maintain a serious face but couldn't hold my laughing, 'To the looter go the spoils'. Then I took a look at the map 'Hey that's an overview of this forest' Uzug said. 'As if I hadn't noticed that yet' I sighed. The odd thing is that some of the areas on this map are coloured blue and others green. I asked myself and Uzug whether he had any idea what this could mean, but as I expected he had no idea either. And then there was this strange paper with notes…
