Chapter One:
"You're gonna be famous soon." They all would tell her. Lyriel never believed them. She saw no reason. Her, famous, no; it didn't quite click. But, she humored them, all of them, even the foreman's daughter who was too nice, and too naïve to no otherwise. And why would be become famous, she was just a dowry girl, a simpleton maid for her foreman? It didn't make sense, but then in the village of Ceadmha, people rarely ever made sense. So life went on for Lyriel and the days went by, and she accepted her fate with as much dignity as she could muster.
"Why don't you leave this place?" Trei looked up from the passage he was reading and locked eyes with Lyriel's green.
"Why should I?" Lyriel rested the water jug on her hip.
"Because, you are never going to be someone and maybe out there you might?" This was an old debate between the two, and Lyriel wasn't going to let him win now.
"I like it here, Trei, I'm safe, I have enough to live well and I have friends, what else do I need when I have that?"
"To feel needed Lyriel, to feel wanted, to feel special, don't you want that? Friends and money come and go as easily as the tides, and I am sure there are better, safer, more likable places out there than Ceadmha."
She just ignored him and went about her duties.
The shouts from the barn bayed her to come rushing leaving the wet wash in the basket forgotten. Rushing in the barn, Lyriel followed many of the hands towards the sound. In the barn, a few of the grooms, the blacksmith, and his assistant, had one of the new horses cornered. The young while colt reared up, bringing his hoofs down sharply on the dirt. The men brandished red hot irons at his scared animal. Lyriel was frozen in shock at the animal and what the men she had known all her lives were subjecting it to. Gathering all the courage she had, she rushed towards the animal as the foreman came into her sight, brandishing a sword. Lyriel slammed her body up against the young horse, trying her best with her fingers and voice to calm him.
"Get out of here girl. Great Gods…someone get her out."
The foreman's voice cut through the commotion and silenced the lot.
One of the burly guardai's (pronounced gar-dees) started towards her, but the horse craned his white neck around her and snarled making the man jump back a bit. Lyriel turned to look to the horse, confused.
One blue eye winked at her before lunging forward into the guardai.
Lyriel slipped off the horse's back, so was it a horse? She was quite sure anymore, she saw this horse do things no horse she ever saw do.
The horse turned its deep blue eyes on her, and Lyriel was washed with the feeling of falling, and fluffy white clouds, and complete happiness.
: I'm Amaro and I choose you, Lyriel: