DISCLAIMER: the setting is not mine (the enchanted forest, that is... new
yaisa is MINE MINE MINE!), and some of the characters are not mine. i admit
it!! however, some of the characters arrrre mine, so ask if you want to use
them, or the concept behind this fic. um, i make no money off of this.
really. um, but i could use some. ..please?
--
20 years after King Daystar began his reign, most of the world was wiped out by a mysterious force. Now, 300 years later, a young girl stricken by dreams of the land that used to be is entwined by fate to dig up the remnants of the Enchanted Forest, and the story of it's destruction.
Dreaming of Dragons By Ender Casteleyn
Chapter Two: In Which There Is Some Extensive Climbing
Nerumi shut the door quietly behind her, turning to lean her back against the cold, hard wood and letting out a small sigh of frustration. Yes, she knew that "magic was evil" and "females are evil" and everything-in-life- one-could-possibly-think-of-as-remotely-interesting was evil, evil, evil. She didn't care what was evil and what wasn't, according to the all powerful Yaida hierarchy. She wanted answers. There were so many questions spinning around in her head that Nerumi thought she would explode quite soon if she didn't get the information she sought. One such question was where to look for answers for all of her other questions! She was confused, and annoyed, and just generally put off by the world.
She sighed again.
"Well... no point in stayed here," she mumbled to herself, beginning the long journey down the impressively tedious stairwell in front of the Historian's mansion.
"If he won't answer questions," Nerumi thought out loud, "who will? Historians are the only people who can even mention the Forest without flinching very much... I suppose I could ask my brother, but he'd much rather hit me than talk to me." She scowled at the thought. "At least we're not related." That made her feel marginally better.
She glanced up briefly from staring at her feet, as was required of most women in the presence of men, and her eye caught on to the tall, dark form of a crumbling tower that had been a part of the city as long as anyone could remember. It seemed very out of place - New Yaisan preferred smooth, elegant architecture; the kind that made Nerumi think of cold metal and colder people. This tower, however, was formed of stone blocks, stacked on top of each other and stuck together with some sort of whitish substance Nerumi had never seen before.
"How strange..." She averted her eyes just in time to keep her gaze from a passing man, and made her way toward the tower.
It was obvious that it hadn't been cared for in years, much to Nerumi's amazement (for buildings in New Yaisa were taken better care of than it's people). Stones were crumbling, and a green, spongy substance seemed to be - yes, it was! - growing everywhere. Growing! Nerumi had to push her own jaw shut. Nothing grew in New Yaisa! It was a city of steel and stone, old, hard wood and harder people, not a tree or a flower in sight that wasn't immediately torn asunder and crushed underneath the boot of a passing businessman. Eyes huge with wonder, Nerumi slowly reached out to touch the green...
Dragons in the mountains.
Her hand recoiled, as if shocked, ears pounding as fast as her heart. Nerumi rubbed her now throbbing head, not even noticing the greenish glow emanating from inside the tower. She took a closer look, taking notice of the strange staircase on the outside of the tower, winding all the way up to the only visible doorway; six flights up.
"That's odd," Nerumi mused, peering through many holes in the base of the tower and catching a glimpse of what looked like some ancient torture device. "Whoever used this dungeon would have to climb up six flights of stairs to get to it! Absolutely bizarre.." Her feet took her slowly up the crumbling steps to the sixth-floor doorway; a long climb that passed far too quickly. Nerumi cautiously poked her head into the opening where she presumed a door must have been.
Green. Everywhere green! The plant she had touched earlier was all over the walls and floor, radiating a clean, pure feeling. Nerumi felt, for once in her life, whole. The feeling of emptiness she had taken as normal in her everyday life was replaced by a feeling of completion, of bliss. It was as if she could almost reach out and grab a strand of pure happiness from the air. Smiling to herself, almost laughing at the idea of actually touching a piece of the air, she experimentally reached up, and pulled--
A soft 'whoosh' and a blinding white light, and then... nothing.
-- whew! well, what do you think? intrigued!? don't worry folks, you'll find out more and more about nerumi, her family, her life, and new yaisa as the story progresses (in case you're wondering...) thanks for the reviews!! keep 'em coming, folks! oh, and i tried to figure out why ff.net stole half of my quotation marks in the first chapter (grr), so... we'll see if what i did differently this time worked. whee!
~ender "i am poor."
20 years after King Daystar began his reign, most of the world was wiped out by a mysterious force. Now, 300 years later, a young girl stricken by dreams of the land that used to be is entwined by fate to dig up the remnants of the Enchanted Forest, and the story of it's destruction.
Dreaming of Dragons By Ender Casteleyn
Chapter Two: In Which There Is Some Extensive Climbing
Nerumi shut the door quietly behind her, turning to lean her back against the cold, hard wood and letting out a small sigh of frustration. Yes, she knew that "magic was evil" and "females are evil" and everything-in-life- one-could-possibly-think-of-as-remotely-interesting was evil, evil, evil. She didn't care what was evil and what wasn't, according to the all powerful Yaida hierarchy. She wanted answers. There were so many questions spinning around in her head that Nerumi thought she would explode quite soon if she didn't get the information she sought. One such question was where to look for answers for all of her other questions! She was confused, and annoyed, and just generally put off by the world.
She sighed again.
"Well... no point in stayed here," she mumbled to herself, beginning the long journey down the impressively tedious stairwell in front of the Historian's mansion.
"If he won't answer questions," Nerumi thought out loud, "who will? Historians are the only people who can even mention the Forest without flinching very much... I suppose I could ask my brother, but he'd much rather hit me than talk to me." She scowled at the thought. "At least we're not related." That made her feel marginally better.
She glanced up briefly from staring at her feet, as was required of most women in the presence of men, and her eye caught on to the tall, dark form of a crumbling tower that had been a part of the city as long as anyone could remember. It seemed very out of place - New Yaisan preferred smooth, elegant architecture; the kind that made Nerumi think of cold metal and colder people. This tower, however, was formed of stone blocks, stacked on top of each other and stuck together with some sort of whitish substance Nerumi had never seen before.
"How strange..." She averted her eyes just in time to keep her gaze from a passing man, and made her way toward the tower.
It was obvious that it hadn't been cared for in years, much to Nerumi's amazement (for buildings in New Yaisa were taken better care of than it's people). Stones were crumbling, and a green, spongy substance seemed to be - yes, it was! - growing everywhere. Growing! Nerumi had to push her own jaw shut. Nothing grew in New Yaisa! It was a city of steel and stone, old, hard wood and harder people, not a tree or a flower in sight that wasn't immediately torn asunder and crushed underneath the boot of a passing businessman. Eyes huge with wonder, Nerumi slowly reached out to touch the green...
Dragons in the mountains.
Her hand recoiled, as if shocked, ears pounding as fast as her heart. Nerumi rubbed her now throbbing head, not even noticing the greenish glow emanating from inside the tower. She took a closer look, taking notice of the strange staircase on the outside of the tower, winding all the way up to the only visible doorway; six flights up.
"That's odd," Nerumi mused, peering through many holes in the base of the tower and catching a glimpse of what looked like some ancient torture device. "Whoever used this dungeon would have to climb up six flights of stairs to get to it! Absolutely bizarre.." Her feet took her slowly up the crumbling steps to the sixth-floor doorway; a long climb that passed far too quickly. Nerumi cautiously poked her head into the opening where she presumed a door must have been.
Green. Everywhere green! The plant she had touched earlier was all over the walls and floor, radiating a clean, pure feeling. Nerumi felt, for once in her life, whole. The feeling of emptiness she had taken as normal in her everyday life was replaced by a feeling of completion, of bliss. It was as if she could almost reach out and grab a strand of pure happiness from the air. Smiling to herself, almost laughing at the idea of actually touching a piece of the air, she experimentally reached up, and pulled--
A soft 'whoosh' and a blinding white light, and then... nothing.
-- whew! well, what do you think? intrigued!? don't worry folks, you'll find out more and more about nerumi, her family, her life, and new yaisa as the story progresses (in case you're wondering...) thanks for the reviews!! keep 'em coming, folks! oh, and i tried to figure out why ff.net stole half of my quotation marks in the first chapter (grr), so... we'll see if what i did differently this time worked. whee!
~ender "i am poor."