Chapter Three: 1461
Then The Wind Shall Call Thy Name
Shall I walk through open skies?
Open fields shall not I cry?
Mayhap through gardens with no shame?
And Then the wind shall call thy name…Shyriyh giggled happily to herself as she combed her hair that evening. She felt… well… like something special since looking once again into the eyes of the Count she so longed for. "Count," she tried as she looked into her large mirror, which was encircled by golden faeries. Too formal, she thought. "Count Dracula?" She asked her reflection. The reflection seemed to smile without her at that suggestion. "Please Darling, call me Vlad," she tried to deepen her voice in an attempt to make it feel like he were actually speaking to her. "Shyriyh?" Her little brother poked his head into the room. "Agh!" She jumped and tossed her conch shell comb across the room. Figures he should walk in at that moment, she thought to herself. "Who are you talking to?" The tiny elf child asked. Shyriyh smiled innocently at her brother. "No one. Just saying to myself how luck Sequoia is… Milane is quite charming. So, Renolyn… why are you in my room?" Her demeanour switched quickly from dreamy to annoyed big sister. "Well I heard you talking and I was wondering if you had someone in your room," Renolyn said. "Just trying to get me into trouble, eh you little snoop?" She said provocatively. Her little brother grinned with pure Elven innocence. "No," he said as he held his hands behind his body and stepped slightly to the side. "Liar, get out of my room. You must be getting to bed," she commanded. "It is late and we must be up early tomorrow." Renolyn groaned. "Why must we arise early, Sister?" He asked in his sweet voice that made Shyriyh forgive all his mischief. "Sequoia and Milane are leaving to the Crystal River Forest for their Post-Matrimonial Vacation," she said, "and we must see them off." Renolyn groaned again before walking out without a word. Shyriyh turned back to her mirror. "Do you think he will ever ask me to call him Vlad?" She asked her reflection.
The Count lay awake in his large bed of red silk and black satin. His mind was on the forest. How odd… the Kaernian Forest. He had the strange yearning to visit it but in his adynamia he could not remember exactly why he felt such a compulsion. The compulsion to be where the willows wept in perpetual misery… where the rivers showed the faces of those who walked hand in hand… where the wind called the name and sang songs of the one you loved… how lovely it all seemed and yet… it didn't seem real. "Why… I shall come soon," the dreary Count muttered as he fell into a much-needed sleep.
"Come now Renolyn!" Shyriyh shouted into her little brother's bedroom the next morning when the sun was only just awakening. "Ahhh," he groaned and turned over in his large bed, made only for a prince. Shyriyh had to literally drag her little brother out of bed to get him downstairs. "Shyriyh!" He moaned as she pulled him by the hand out to where her best friend and her lover stood. "Sequoia!" She called as she walked out to where her Uncle stood with the new couple. "Shyriyh!" The two friends embraced. Next Shyriyh walked over to Milane and curtsied. "May you have a wonderful time," she said, "both of you." Milane bowed. He bows much deeper than the Count, Shyriyh though oddly. He seems much to desperate… I like a man with much confidence, she didn't even really notice her mind was chattering along with no one as she spoke with her friends. "I am going to miss you so!" Shyriyh cried as she hugged Sequoia for the last time. "As am I to you," Sequoia said in her beautifully accented voice. She was not from Kaernia, but the Princess of the Crystal River Forest. Milane was a noble from the Starnight Forest. Both came to Kaernia for a vacation, met, fell in love, and decided to stay longer before returning to their origins. "Good bye! I shall see you soon!" Shyriyh called as the coach drove Sequoia farther and farther from her.
"You seem awfully happy for someone whose best friend just left for an entire month," Renolyn said as he watched Shyriyh put on a straw sunhat with a beautiful pink ribbon around the head. "And why are you getting so dressed up?" He asked. Shyriyh just giggled before walking out of her bedroom door past him. "I am going for a walk," she said simply. "In your Sunday best?" He asked suspiciously. "Yes," she concluded. He looked at her again suspiciously. "I want to come," he said. Shyriyh's mind cracked suddenly. "No!" She roared with a very not-like-herself voice. Renolyn shrunk back. "Fine, but be back before dark or else Uncle will kill you," he said as Shyriyh skipped out.
The Count shielded his dark eyes against the sun as he walked out of his sizeable palace. He stared hatefully at his plants that never seemed to want to flourish. He was about to walk around to his little lake on the side of his castle when he saw a young woman running up the walk in a light creamy-coloured dress. He couldn't see her face underneath the sunhat but he was sure it was the Elven Princess. She was really the only one brave enough to come up to his castle… alone at least. He felt a strange warmth in his chest when she lifted her head to reveal her lovely face. Her deep dark eyes shined in the sunlight. "Count!" She called out happily. "Lady Kaernia?" He walked closer to her so he could see through the vicious sunlight. "Yes, it is I! I said I would see you soon!" She told the graceful Count as she walked up to him. "Indeed you did," he said. He didn't know she meant that soon. He was… well… rather glad and he suddenly knew why he wanted to go to Kaernian Forest. He wanted more than to hear the wind call her name.