Prologue
The sun dimly shone through a hole in the crumbling stone wall. The flowers, that once stood proud on their growing stems, bend in odd directions, nearly falling apart. Gone is the green grass and the happy cries of children. Gone is the blue sky which has become a stormy gray this past week, but I am used to this.
I grew up to the horrid cries of fleeing humans and flames eating up everything in its path. Red and black is an everyday color for me. What is a home? Such a simple question, yet I cannot answer it. My family has been on the road since I was born and as my family dwindles we carry on.
I was born under a bridge during the cold winter. My grandmother once told me that the cold winter, I was born during, was a good thing because it has hardened me for the future… but she was wrong. Watching my sister murdered in front of my eyes was my undoing. I slowly started to crumble and I could not take any of it anymore. But I had to carry on and carry the pain with me.
War stalks me. It falls in my footsteps. I wonder if I can laugh again. Or smile, cry happy tears, and look over my shoulder without any fear. I have forgotten how to do the most simple of things… and it scares me.
It was when I was staying at Minas Tirith, the City of Kings that war, again, came to my doorstep. But this was different. Hatred and war destroyed my childhood but this one gave me a future. I saw the sun shining once again and the flowers growing when I saw him. He gave me a future. He taught me how to smile and laugh. He showed me happiness.
My name is Eve.