A.N: Another chapter, yay!! Hey, I just might be able to get this story done! LOL!! Thanks to everyone that has kept with this story. Sorry, I haven't been getting chapters out quick enough. But I do have an 19 month old and 4 month old twins, so yeah busy, busy, busy, me. Especially with thanksgiving coming up, and 4 different dinners to go to. YAY!!= T_T (I need a spot on a wall to bang my head up against before I start to lose it. This story is my figurative spot on the wall. It saves me headaches this way. LOL!)
Okay, enough about me, lets get to Alura's story, shall we?
Last Chapter:
"What destiny?"
"One that will make a kingdom fall to its knees and show the strength in one soul alone."
My mind was telling me don't listen, don't believe her, but somewhere deep inside my heart, I did. "How?" I urged her.
"By healing a heart that was never meant to be broken."
Chapter 6: A Very Old Story: An Even Older Gift.
My eyes widened at that statement. "But I thought that you were going to tell me how you came to be here and how you knew me even though we have never meet before this day?" I questioned Tshilaba…err..Vadoma. No, she told me to call her Grandmother.
She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. "I just wanted to tell you a simple story. Quite a sad tale, in fact, but it needs to be told. It's needs to be kept alive. It's an old myth among us gypsies. You need to hear it, you must hear it."
"What is this story about?" I asked.
"It's quite a fanciful tale, about a princeling elf, the one woman he loved above all others, and the gift that changed the course of their lives forever."
"What was the gift?" I pushed her. I was very intrigued by Grandmother's words. I wanted her to continue.
"Now, now, it wouldn't be a story if I told you everything important in it now, would it?"
"Yes," I replied quietly.
"It is good that you understand that. Now let us begin."
Many ages ago, in a land similar to this one, there lived a race very different than ours. A race of people known as the Kelvas. They were tall, dark-haired and very beautiful to behold. And the king and queen being the rulers were the most beautiful to behold of all.
Now the King and Queen, though very much in love they were, only had but one child. A son, that they named Eitairn Ailyr. Which in their language meant "strength of the everlasting". Now since Eitairn was their only son, he was given everything his heart so desired.
"Wait. So in other words, he was a spoiled little boy?" I questioned her. I finished the soup and set it aside.
"Yes, so spoiled in fact, that if he saw something that another child had, that he did not, he would cry and beg until finally it was given to him." She replied.
"That's horrible! Why didn't his mother and father discipline him or at least make him work for the toy?"
"It was so because the King and Queen could not bare to deny him of a single thing. He was their only child after all."
"Still, they needed to-" I was cut off by a hand on my leg. I looked straight at Vadoma, her unseeing eyes burning deep into my soul.
She tilted her head to the side, "Now are you going to let me tell this story or not?"
A blush crept onto my face as I nodded my head slowly.
A smile broke onto her face, a small chuckle working its way out of her mouth, "Now, there is no need to be embarrassed, my child, it is good that you are asking questions. It means that you are paying attention to the tale. Now where was I? Ahh..yes."
And so it went on and on. Until the boy became a young man and like all young men, he went through battle training. You see, the Kelvas lived in a land that was bordered on either side by two different warring kingdoms and both those kingdoms fought for control of the Kelvas. And so there were many wars being fought at the time and many soldiers were needed, even the King's son was forced to fight.
Eitairn found joy in combat and so he finished his training at the top of his class, but knew his mother and father were saddened by this, even though they did not show it. His father hardly smiled anymore and his mother cried herself to sleep at night, but he was happy and did not care for their silliness. Although there was only one soul he cared about and that was Amealura. She was the most beautiful woman he had laid eyes on and he wanted her, loved her with a passion, but he could not have her.
Slightly shaken by how similar her name was to mine, I interrupted, "Why? I mean if he wanted her, if he loved her, then why couldn't he have her? Did she not love him?"
"Oh yes, she loved him very much, and she knew that he was selfish, but hoped that her love could change him, but it could never be. They could never be." She stated sadly.
"Why not?!" I exclaimed.
"Because, she was already given to another. Her mother and father had arranged the marriage the day of her coming of age, her eighteenth birthday. She was to marry the captain of the guard in the neighboring city of Kalgare, a man twice her age, and full of anger. Eitairn and Amealura were torn apart by tradition and law, and it filled him with hatred, and her with a deep, unrelenting sorrow."
I could not speak, or the tears clouding my eyes would fall. Instead I patted Grandmother's hand, silently telling her to continue. She nodded her head in a strange way showing her understanding.
Even though he begged them and pleaded with them, his mother and father did not bend to his will this time. They had to uphold the law of their people. And Prince Eitairn, though he loved his Amealura, could not go against the law of the Kelvas.
So that day he ran from the city of the Kelvas in a horrible mood. Rage filled every ounce of his being and so he rode and rode until his horse finally collapsed from exhaustion.
He had no choice but to leave his horse behind, so he walked, until he came upon a forest much like this one. He decided to explore and soon came upon what looked to be an old cottage, overrun with vines and trees, but as he approached, he found that it was a tree, not a cottage.
He heard the door to the tree dwelling open and hid quickly within a thorny bush of red roses. The thorns sliced his skin easily and he bled and bled. He started to get dizzy from the loss of blood and his eyes grew heavy. As he started to succumb to the darkness, a face clouded by mist came into his view. "You should not have crawled into my rosebush like that, my beauties do not like it. Close your eyes and rest my dear. You will not die this day. When you wake from your sleep, we will talk, young princeling."
"Hearing every word, Eitairn fell asleep, haunted by the deep, bottomless, black eyes of that face."
Vadoma stopped, and stood up, removing her hands from my own. The sound of her footsteps leaving me, pushed my mind to work. I shook my head, coming out of my daze and looked up at her.
"What's wrong? Why did you stop? Keep going, please?" I pleaded with her.
She turned and put up her hand to silence me, "It is a good place to stop. Also, it is getting late, my dear, and you need your rest. Sleep. I will tell you the rest tomorrow after a good breakfast. Good night."
I laid my head on the soft furs as I heard her close the doors to the wagon. A million things swam through my mind at the moment, but one thing kept coming to the front more than anything. The sadness I felt at Amealura's situation. I knew how she felt, I too was promised to a man twice my age, and hated it. I hated him, I even hated my father that day but now I just missed him terribly. As I slipped softly off to sleep, I thought about my father. Oh papa, I hope you are safe.
There would be no rest for me that night for I was haunted by another nightmare this one far worse.
Running. I was running. Again! My dress was ripped to shreds and blood flowed from my shoulder. My head was pounding from the pain, and the loss of blood was making me dizzy. I felt a deep sadness fill my whole being and my eyes were blurred by tears yet again. I ran until I came upon a clearing. It was a cliff overlooking a deep ravine, and far below was a river churning with power and speed. Panic and dread filled me now. The wind blew, and the shreds of my dress whipped around my legs. I heard the faint howling of wolves in the distance, but that did not frighten me. It filled me with a strange sort of peace, like they were somehow protecting me.
Alura…A raspy voice whispered…You will be mine..
I will have you.
