(Nyx is the girl in the cover photo)
Prologue
In a place by the name of the 'Shimmering Woods', there is but a race said to be lost behind means of stories and songs. In these woods they do so hide, using powerful magic to vanish from plain sight. These woods lay far from humanity, much to a young princess's dismay. The faery, or fey, wish to live in peace away from others with thoughts of greed and hatred. The King and Queen's daughter wished nothing more than to travel and stay far away, to a place where Dwarves, Humans and mysterious Wizards live. She remembered the time where her mother and herself had traveled to a most beautiful secret valley called Rivendell, where she met two twin boys that were all but friendly with her. That was many, many years ago and her heart longed to be rid of the Shimmering Woods for a good while.
Those wishes were long since gone four moons later.
Screaming and shouts came from all different directions as she fought her way through mobs of people that scrambled to run from the burning forest. Orcs ran at them from behind, tearing down fey who could not fly from their burning home. Nyx hitched an arrow in her bow and pulled back, sending it flying into the left eye of a nearby Orc. It simultaneously fell once the arrow hit home and the faery princess continued on. She used both her daggers and bow as she cut away a good chunk of Orcs that followed behind her kin. She made a vow when she was younger to protect anyone who needed to be protected and she intended to do just that. As she made her way back towards the burning kingdom in the trees, she sliced and cut at any enemy she came across.
Her eyes raced over faces and bodies as she searched for her mother and father, a small smile lighting up her grim expression as she watched her ever-so graceful mother cleanly cut off the head of a Orc that charged her.
"Mother!" She yelled to her. "Get to safety with the town folk, I'm going to search for father and help the remaining ones before we're all slaughtered and drove out!"
"Nyx, be careful!" The Queen cried back to her child.
With a curt down, the small princess ran and jumped out of the way of other fey, searching for her father through the chaos around her. She didn't dare unfold her wings in fear of them being ripped from her back when she saw her father. He was about 200 yards away, battling it out with the leader of the Orc Park. He looked to be winning as she ran forward, but her heart stopped in her chest as she watched the Orcs blade slice across his stomach. He was knocked back where he continued to lay in wait for the Orc to finish him off, but it never came. Nyx had ran with all her might to where the beast was and smashed into him with two heavy slices to its leg. Her blades twisted around in her skillful fingers and she stabbed at his unprotected chest, landing both blows into his heart. She sneered up at the thing before she removed her blades from where they were lodged and watched as it dropped to the ground. Seconds after, she rushed to her father and took his dying body in her arms. Tears streamed down her flushed cheeks as she held him close to her in the now almost empty clearing. The Orcs and her kin had both fled.
"Father, I'm so sorry," the princess whispered.
"Do not be sorry, my dear child. You made me proud today, I know you'll be a most wonderful queen one day. Just like your mother,"
He moved to try and smile but was interrupted by a fit of coughing, in which mouthfuls of blood spat up. Nyx shed more tears as she watched him give a bloodied smile before his life faded away in front of her eyes. Her slender fingers brushed over his eyelids and closed them before she placed a gentle kiss on his forehead. She stood up proud and tall, snatching up her own blades along with her father's sword and his crown. The fire the Orcs had set raged closer as she began to walk away, her small form slowly leaving behind her home.
She sought out to find where her kin and mother ran off to for safety. She passed by giant trees and green bushes, flowers and stones. She passed the daring houses of town folk and the gates that led into the once safe sanctuary of Ramoth inside the Shimmering Woods. Each thing she passed got her silent goodbye and wish of goodluck. Everything inside the forests would be destroyed by fire, even the forest itself. There would be no returning for the fey: No rebuilding, no growing up in a land of their own, no forgetting. The race would have another deep, dark page in history, one that told of them not belonging anywhere. Forever would they be known as wanderers.