Seraphim
Chapter 01
Rivers sparkled as if they contained the purest form of water, completely untouched and ever so beautiful as an abundance of fish swam around rocks. Bright green, lush trees and bushes burst with natural energy and contained small birds which chirped away happily; forever singing their melodic tunes for the world. The village of Greenlea was small, yet the people who lived there were very warm and kind-hearted. It was a pleasant community of elves living a honest and hard-working life. Mothers gossiped in homes with their young babes in their arms, happily babbling away and playing with soft toys. Men worked hard and well; the local blacksmith hammered away on his well-weathered anvil, sweat painting his face heavily as he talked business with a customer; farmers tended to their small yet humble lands, picking plump fruits and nutritious vegetables whilst others milked cows and gathered eggs from healthy chickens. Greenlea was small on the map, hardly noticeable, but offered quite a bit of trade with outsiders, naturally. Inhabitants were healthy and happy, maintaining a close-knit community for as long as anyone can remember; everybody knew each other like family and often, elves gathered frequently to celebrate many events; birthdays, heathy harvests, pregnancy, marriage and if there was nothing to celebrate, they would get together anyway to socialise and bond.
On the outermost of Greenlea lived a small human family in a modest wooden house; A mother who was expecting a child, a father, and a young daughter. Although they were the only humans amongst the elves, they still got along just as well, and they were happy with living a quiet, average life. Their house was cosy and decorated with comfy rugs, healthy plants and warm lighting from candles in every corner. The fire in the living room crackled with warmth, inviting the father, who had just returned from work, to heat up his ice-cold hands. He daydreamed as the flames danced across his vision with the smell of fresh meat just cooked wafting in the air. He heard a giggle behind him just before a small figure pressed against his back and little arms enveloped around him.
"Daddy!" His daughter called. "Daddy, would you read me a story after dinner?"
The father laughed and playfully began to swing the child onto his lap, despite him being noticeably exhausted and covered in dirt from his hard day of work. "What happened to you wanting your mother to read you stories?" He began tickling her, which resulted in a small laughing fit from the child.
"Mummy needs to rest and read Kearo baby stories," she pokes her tongue out at nothing in particular, "I'm not a baby." Kearo was the child's soon-to-be baby sibling, who was yet to be born. Already the child was attached and couldn't wait to have a brother or sister to play with.
Before the father could respond, a feminine voice sung from the kitchen. "Dinner is ready, you two. Hurry up before it gets cold!" A pregnant woman with long light-brown hair peeked her head around the door from the kitchen and into the living room, with the warmest smile one could imagine.
They all quickly began to make their way to the dining room where hefty bowls of meat and vegetable soup awaited them, with bread rolls neatly placed in a bowl on the centre of the round wooden table. Whilst they ate, they talked about their day and laughed at jokes and before long, darkness came - bright stars scattered the sky, hardly a cloud in sight. They all helped clean up before taking turns bathing themselves.
"Nivo, bedtime!" The father called, and the daughter came running, her short light-blonde hair bouncing behind her before jumping into bed, now cosy in her colourful pyjamas. "Which story would you like tonight, dear?" He asked whilst her mother quickly came in and gave her a big kiss on the head before heading off to get the laundry ready for the day after. Nivo raised an eyebrow at her father, as if telling him that he should know better. He laughed and pulled a book from the small bookcase in the corner of the room. "The usual, huh? How could I forget?" With a small chuckle, her father sat beside her on the bed and begun to softly read the words. It was another story about dragons. Nivo loved them. Although they are known to destroy cities and cause destruction, she was enthralled with their beauty. She would touch the pictures in the books and pretend she could feel their scales under her fingertips. She dreamt about them constantly, especially recently.
Before long, Nivo's eyelids closed and soft breathing replaced her enthusiastic questions. Her father smiled and tucked in the sheets around her tiny body before quietly exiting the room.
The following day, after an uneventful morning, Nivo was playing alone by the river, watching fish swim peacefully and making up stories in her head. Although she was surrounded by lovely elves who meant no harm, she was isolated by the other children. Elves age a lot slower than humans do, and because of this, she grew taller whilst everyone around her was frozen in their image. She had a few acquaintances, but nobody she could consider a 'good friend'.
She could hear the bustling marketplace behind her – where people sold their wares. Fish, vegetables, clothing, cheese, wines, everything you could think of really. All of it was centred in the village neatly, with trees decorating the perimeter. Something shiny caught her amber eyes in the water, but she would have to get wet in order to retrieve it. Curious, she lifted up her dress and began to walk slowly through the cold currents. With the water up to her knees, she leant down and picked up a golden pebble – she had never seen anything so beautiful before! Amazed, she brought it up to the sun and witnessed it sparkle gloriously with bright specks of red and white.
Suddenly, she heard a ruckus from the marketplace behind her. Excited chattering replaced the loud exchanges of business. Closing her hand into a fist around the pebble, she began to make her way towards the excitement. Everyone seemed to be gathered around something.
"It's the dragon prince!" Somebody gasped, "I wonder what he's doing here?"
Nivo's eyes lit up in disbelief. Determined to get a look, she began to slowly sneak her way past elven legs, getting pushed further within the crowd. She managed to get a number of elbows to her head and hands pushing her away. All of a sudden, somebody must have jolted forward, because Nivo's body followed suit and she couldn't find her footing. Falling forward, she found herself at the front of the crowd on her hands and knees, which had slight scrapes and dirt from the fall. Noticing this, her eyes began to well up with tears from the pain.
"Are you all right?" A soft, well-spoken voice asked from above her. This was said in Elvish so she did not fully understand what was being said. Her parents could speak Elvish very well, but she was only just beginning to learn it. Looking up, Nivo saw the most beautiful elf she had ever laid eyes on. Still with fresh features, possibly in his young adulthood (in elf years), he was very well dressed in golden garbs she could only begin to dream of acquiring. He had short dark brown hair with chocolate eyes which were staring straight back at her.
Nivo felt her face heat up from embarrassment and before she could help herself, more tears began streaming down her face. Caught off-guard, the elf glanced around briefly, as if he did not know what to do with a crying child. His eyes settled on her normal-sized ears and gathered she was human almost instantly.
'Interesting,' he thought to himself. Greenlea was known to be home to only elves. Although strange, he didn't question it much. Sighing, he watched the small child in front of him begin to try to compose herself. However, the more she tried, the more tears seemed to soak her red cheeks. He slowly knelt down and moved some strands of pale-blonde hair from her wet face. She looked up at him with glazed golden eyes. Something inside him swelled up. This child seemed different from the humans he had met before. Her skin was pale and unblemished, and her eyes held a certain glow to which he found hard to look away from. A shimmer on the floor caught his eye. A golden pebble sat graciously on the floor between them.
"Is this yours, child?" He asked in common tongue as he picked up the stone. She nodded slowly and he gently placed the pebble in her palm and folded her tiny fingers around it. The elf thought for a second, and he looked at the guards behind him before back towards the child. He pulled a pendant he was wearing from around his neck and slowly proceeded to place it around the girl's small head.
Suddenly shocked, she looked down at the pendant. It was wonderful and probably a very precious amber gemstone, which was surrounded by a delicate, gold frame.
The elf laughed and playfully ruffled her hair before getting back up to his feet. He nodded to his guards to keep walking, but he felt a small tug on his robes beneath him. Looking down, he saw that the child was holding up her golden pebble, offering it to him. Smiling yet again, he took the stone graciously and held it tight before saying 'thank you.' Before long, the elf was gone from sight and all that remained were the excited gasps and conversations about the unexpected noble visit.
It felt like Nivo was kneeling on the floor for a good few minutes, simply looking at the pendant in disbelief. Some elves around her seemed jealous, but did not approach her. Instead, they conversed about how lucky she was. Wiping the tears from her face, Nivo quickly stood up and with a massive grin on her face, began to run home.
Her parents could hardly believe her story. She couldn't breathe when she finally reached her home so her story was quite rushed and all over the place. Her father took the pendant from her hands with a concerned look.
"Nivo you did not steal this, did you?"
Her smile quickly transformed into a look of sadness. "No…" she began, shuffling her feet. "The dragon prince gave it to me."
The father met his gaze with his wife's concerned expression. He sighed before looking back at his child. They did not believe in such stories – they would rather live a normal life without any complications with dragon princes, like in her stories. "Are you sure you weren't daydreaming about that, honey?" He continued and pocketed the pendant. "I will ask around to try and see who owns this."
"But-!" Nivo began, but was quickly cut off.
"You can have it back if nobody claims it. Nobody around here owns treasure with this much value. You will do well to tell your mother the truth before I get back." With that, he closed the front door with a 'thud' louder than usual. Nivo looked at her mother worryingly.
The eloquent woman walked forward and embraced her briefly. "I'm sure your pendant will be returned to you shortly. In the meantime, why don't you get ready for bed?"
Nivo slowly nodded and made her way to her room. Changing into her pyjamas alone, she snuggled into her bed and looked at the book on her bedside table from the night before. She fell asleep that night dreaming of the elf.
Hours drew by and the night was silent. The house was pitch-black. Nivo woke at her bedroom door being slowly opened. It was her father. Quickly closing her eyes again, she faked her slumber. The man tried his best to walk quietly across the wooden floor, but the creaks were still screeching no matter how hard he tried. Sighing, he placed something on her bedside table and squeezed her arm gently before retreating from the room. Opening an eye, she saw her pendant sitting on her table and with a small smile, grabbed it and slept with it in her grasp.
Her dreams from then on plagued her mind. Fire burnt and roars and screams surrounded her. Lights danced from outside her window although it was still dark. Her heart raced with anxiety as she heard her mother scream. She opened her eyes quickly. The lights were still flickering from outside her window and she immediately sat up in her bed. She heard painfully loud thuds and glass shattering from the room next door. Her body was paralysed and her face went white as she stared at her closed door.
Suddenly, her body jumped at her door being swung open with an echoing blow. There stood a massive, hulking…. Something. It grunted and sniffed in the room before it turned its head towards the small child. Nivo was silent and as still as a statue as she took in it's features. It had a stooped posture and it's face resembled that of a pig. Never had she saw such an ugly creature like this.
With a low, animalistic chuckle, it began to stomp its way towards her, and her body now began to register what was happening. "M-Mummy!" She shouted uncertainly whilst backing herself up against the bed.
"Your 'mummy' isn't here," it replied in a gruff, raspy and vile tone. "She's going to be choking in her own blood right after you are." It was now looking down at her from the side of the bed. Now, Nivo attempted to scurry off the bed and for the door, but she was too slow. A large hand grabbed the back of her neck in one swoop and lifted her up off the ground. Her tiny hands enclosed around the Orc's fingertips, trying to pry them away, but to no avail. Its pig-like nose came closer to the back of her head and inhaled her scent. She shivered.
A deafening roar sounded from behind them. Before the hulking Orc could move, something lodged in the back of its head. A painful grunt followed before the creature fell harshly to the floor, throwing Nivo down with it. Upon impact, her head thudded against the cold, hard wooden floor and for a moment, she went immensely dizzy.
"Quick, take Nivo away from the village!" The father cried, and her mother came running in and hastily scooped up the child before looking back at her husband, hesitating. "Go!" He repeated, this time more louder and desperate.
The world was spinning around Nivo as she was carried through the village, with the image of her father drenched in blood staining her mind. Elves were crying, running, screaming, as their homes went up in flames. Some cradled their murdered relatives in their arms, mourning as more and more Orcs stormed the village. Nivo looked at her hand, and realised she had dropped her golden pendant. She never realised that she would forget the prince's face from that moment on, but she did. Stories about dragons would be absent from her mind from then on, and they be replaced with images of people she knew lying lifeless on the floor, bloodied and never to be heard from again. The blacksmith's shop was burning and abandoned, and as the approached the farms on the outskirts of the village, the mother and child saw what looked like an army of Orc coming closer.
Breathing heavily and struggling to carry Nivo, the woman wiped the sweat and tears off her face as she ran into the woods. It seemed like forever before the child finally said "I-I can walk, mum." The mother quickly put Nivo down and fell to her hands and knees, breathing hysterically and trying her best not to mourn just yet. "When should we go back for dad?" She said quietly, and the woman suddenly fell silent.
Her mother finally stood to her feet after a few seconds and held her child's hand in her own, before putting a concerned hand on her stomach. They began to walk slowly, and before long they came to an opening of trees, where they could see their now aflame village from a distance. Screams echoed in their ears as they stood and watched, exhausted and numb. Nivo began to cry gently. Not fully aware but still very conscious, she knew that her home was lost, and possibly her father also.
Their tears stopped when they heard a harsh snap of a rather large twig from the trees behind them. The woman threw herself to face where the sound was coming from, and hid Nivo behind her. From the shadows came a large figure, stomping heavily on the floor as it chucked.
"Nivo, Run!" Her mother yelled and pushed her away, but Nivo hesitated and grabbed for her mother's hand again and the woman sobbed before kneeling down to her daughter and kissing her briefly on the forehead. "I love you," she whispered endearingly, and stroked her hand. "Now go, don't stop!" She shoved her daughter away and turned to the Orc which was readying it's axe; she was sweating and frightened to death. She touched her tummy and looked back to see Nivo's small frame running away, before taking a deep breathe. Looking the creature in the eyes, she grinned tauntingly and began to scurry off in the opposite direction. Surely enough, the Orc began to chase her; but she knew she would need a miracle.