"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swaps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it's yours."
―Ayn Rand , Atlas Shrugged

"I have lived for twenty-one and a century, and in all those years, I have seen many, many things. To my people, I may still be but a child, but to mere mortal humans, I am old and wise. Well, I suppose I should start at the beginning, even if it is boring compared to all my many adventures, it is just as important, maybe even more so...

My adventures began when I was just a child of eight years of age. The time when I still had a place to call 'home'. Now, I don't remember much from my childhood, just a few details of my family, our house, and that fateful day when everything changed..."

Prologue

My name is Tahleth Hlae'anea.

I hide behind smiles and sarcasm...

There was once a time when I had a family, a clan. I was young, very young, just a child then. I don't really remember much from over a century ago...

Green trees and grass bursting with life, our homes, small and quaint, the other children. We used to run and play together. And...my parents. My mother...endless black hair, like silk, and soft, pale skin. I remember her eyes the most...beautiful and expressive green orbs, even in the face of danger. My father...his dark hair was always tied back save for two braids that dangled in front of his ears. I used to pull on those as a young child. I remember he was a scout for our clan...he would sit, hidden, at the edge of our encampment and keep watch. And my twin brother, Tahlen. We were only eight years old.

When I was young, father taught me a few of his skills. I was so excited...until one day, he didn't come home. Mother was frantic and told me to stay with the family that lived next to ours. She hurried off and...the last I saw of her was black hair dancing wildly as she ran away. I took my brother and went to where I was told to go.

I don't remember much after that. Just...fire, screaming, running then...darkness. Nothing. Next thing I know, I'm alone in some dark place that smells of filth. Not my home. It was an Inn at the town that sat at the edge of my forest. Then I wasn't alone. A human woman was at my side peeling potatoes and humming. A stout woman with a pleasant face and brown hair. When I came to I began my questions. She didn't understand me at first so she fetched her husband. He was tall and kind and smiled all the time. He answered my questions in broken Elvish.

"It was a little past sunrise. I went to the forest to collect some things. There, I found you beaten up, bruised, and unconsciousness." He sat down next to the woman and looked at me solemnly. "You were alone. And quite far from where you say your camp was."

"Alone...?"

"Aye."

"What about...my family? Mommy, Daddy and Tahlen?"

"Child..." He began and the woman covered her mouth to stifle a sob when the man told her what I asked. "You were alone. I...I'm sorry. I don't know where your family is."

Silence ensued. A long silence that I did not break for two of their human years. I didn't realize it then but...I had been listening. To everything. I had taught myself to speak common so that I could communicate with the ones who saved me. One day I came into the kitchen and asked if dinner was ready in near perfect common. The woman was astonished and the man commented that elves are very wise creatures. I did not think myself wise at the time, I was only ten.

I lived with the woman and her husband for many years after that. I had grown accustom to the Inn, to humans, and many other kinds of travelers, coming and going, to cleaning and cooking and serving, to referring to the woman and her husband as my parents. Then came the day when I decided I should leave. I needed to find the ones who destroyed my clan. Who took my family away from me. I packed what little things I had, bid farewell to my human parents (who were very, very old by that time), and left at the age of forty-five human years. It was time to exact revenge...

I traveled back to the forest behind the Inn and found where my clan once was. It was over grown with trees and brush, and to the untrained eye, it would seem just another part of the foliage. But to me...it was once my home. Fragments of the encampment still remained and I sorted though the soil for some sort of clue as to what happened. I had closed my eyes at that point and searched my clouded childhood memory.

Fire. Screaming. Running. Smoke. And...

There was something else, buried deep within my memories. Something I was forgetting. I shook my head, gathered what little clues I had found, and left the forest. Thus, my adventures began...I followed my clues for years, coming to many, many dead ends. But that...was just the beginning.