29th October
There was a little village where she lived called Caelin. It was a dainty little village but there were several acres of surrounding fields that were – years ago – turned into farmlands. The houses were made of hard wood with stone slates on the roofs and they were built inside large ancient trees that had their trunks scooped out. Streams wove between some of the houses and they connected to a lake that was used primarily for fishing or swimming on hot days.
Don't be mistaken, she loved her home but she equally hated it where she'd known for her whole life that she wasn't born here. Here is some context for you.
In the late autumn several years earlier, there was a man wandering through the woods outside the village. He was six foot two, very wide and heavily muscled; he needed a double door to comfortably walk through. His brown beard was braided and trailed to his collar bone with a head of hair that was loose across his shoulders. He wore a black leather tunic with grey fur across the shoulders and boots just the same with brown cotton trousers. He had a belt that was a foot wide across his abs with a polished stone emblem and a thin stone crown that embedded a single opal.
This man was called Byril Birdhill, the chief of the village. After he went through the woods on the night of the full moon, he came home with a mud-stained blanket carrying a small child. Soon enough, that small child grew up to be the chief's daughter. The child in the blanket was this particular young lady being spoken of today. She was only a year old – a tiny toddler – when Byril found her and she was raised under his guidance ever since.
Oh, you were never told! How rude to assume you would know... Her name was Skai Birdhill. And, ironically, today was the day of the full moon too. Funny, how the most curious events always seemed to happen whenever the full moon was due. Again, to fill you in.
Skai was never like anyone else in the village. As far as appearances went, she looked like anyone else; two eyes, a head, arms and legs; but there were also three other things she had that no one else did; a deep single scratch vertically across her left eye, a silver necklace she always wore and strange 'magic' she developed growing up – the latter of which she kept to herself, never once did she tell a soul.
She was pale and had freckles across her button nose, her eyes were metallic blue with gold in the outer iris, and she had curly light-brown hair in a loose braid. She was also much shorter than Byril at five foot one, wore a green tunic with a black skirt and carried a plain dagger with a leather handle sheathed on her belt.
And what about the magic she possessed? Well, she liked to call herself a 'Faelin', if you were never familiar with the official language then you wouldn't have known that this term had loosely translated to 'Little Goddess'. It was considered more of a nickname for parents to their daughters whom they deemed beyond precious.
In this case, she had not only one but multiple powers. She could see in the dark as if it was broad daylight and hear from impossible distances. She had a sixth sense, combined with her natural instincts, that alerted her to potential danger and also had the strength of twenty men with the speed of an arrow being shot from a bow. Enhanced would be another term that could be used for someone like Skai.
Let's not go into too much detail just yet because there is a reason we have chosen this date to begin with.
For the past year, Skai has been a chieftess in training; to become the new leader of Caelin when she came of age at twenty-one. So far, she was very involved in the village affairs regarding annual events like festivals, plans for the upcoming seasons and had a seat as a member of Caelin's council to discuss the future. Today was her day off. She didn't like it.
"Papa, are you sure I can't be of any help?" She whined, eager to be of assistance.
Byril chuckled as he sipped his morning tea from a wooden mug. "Yes," he said with a grin, "I am sure. Take the day for yourself. When was the last time you simply enjoyed the weather?"
"When would I possibly have the time? There is so much that needs to be done –"
"– and I have it all in hand. Kolin and Ilea wholeheartedly agreed with me that you should use this time for yourself. No work for today. Understood?" His stare was firm but his voice was gentle. Beside herself, Skai bleakly nodded. "That's my girl. Off you go."
And off she went. Out of the house and into the woods she walked. Why did she detest this village as much as she adored it?
Suddenly, Skai was shoved to the side. She couldn't exactly avoid it even though she wanted to; it would have defeated the point of not showing her powers to anyone. "Watch yourself, Birdhill. You were in my way." The culprit of the shove was a crooked blonde – about the same age – named Ari. She was a couple inches taller and skinnier. She was always followed by her cronies; Bili, a stumpy boy with shoulders like a lumpy loaf of bread, and a girl called Deni who always tried to copy Ari in every way possible.
With a scoff, Skai responded. "If I was in your way, you could have just walked around me or asked me to move nicely."
"Oi!" Bili shouted. "Don't talk to Ari like that! You're lucky we didn't push you off road."
"Considering your ass could rub your own footprints away when you walk, no pushing is required in that regard." Bili scowled. Skai rolled her eyes. "What in the world are you doing out this way?"
"None of your business," Ari smirked, "what's it to you?"
"Yeah! What's it to you, Birdhill?!" Deni cocked her hip sharply to the left, pouting hard. Skai tried to keep herself from laughing, Deni was about as intimidating as a bobbing fish. "Got something to say?"
"Nothing that would leave you any braincells by the time I complete my sentence."
Ari growled, her hands clenched into fists. "We are going to Fog Trench."
"You wouldn't be welcome, by the way." Bili piped up. "It's for people who are actually liked."
"Then I don't see why you three are going in the first place." Skai said with a cheeky smile. "You wouldn't reach Fog Trench if your lives depended on it, let alone jump across it even if you were paid to."
"Why don't you?"
Skai gulped. "What?"
"Jump across Fog Trench... and go into the cave."
Deni gasped. "Ari! Are you insane?! You never said anything about crossing it!"
Bili stepped forward. "No one who goes into that cave comes back. It's haunted!"
Skai huffed, "Do you guys actually believe that?" They nodded. "Nothing is in that cave. Otherwise someone would have seen something by now."
"I dare you." Ari said. "Go on. Prove me wrong."
Why did she agree to take the day off?! She could have kept herself busy with some chores, or visited the farm animals, even spent the morning in bed. But no, she had to go to the woods and bump into the worst of the children her age by pure coincidence. "And if I don't?"
"You will admit, in front of everyone, that you truly are a coward and not fit to be our future chieftess." Of all the stupid things Skai could have done, she agreed to the wager.
Fog Trench wasn't any normal trench. It was a barrier between the cliffs of the common woods belonging to Caelin and the Banned Woodland; it was dangerous territory to explore. The gap was twenty feet wide, and it was never discovered how deep it was because it was blinded by fog the moment you looked down. The grass was forever dead on the other side, and when you looked across there was a large tumble of rocks with a veil of wrinkly vines overhanging from the top of the opening. It was wide enough for two people about the size of Bili to walk through but the inside of the cave was immediately pitch black.
"There is no way you can actually jump across," Ari argued, "you're short and uncoordinated."
"Have you ever successfully crossed it yourself?" Skai asked with a sideways glance, at Ari's shaking head she internally cackled. "That's what I thought."
"Go on, then." Bili butted in. "Do it."
Taking a deep breath, she stepped back. She didn't want to make it look too easy; it would have given her away. Staring straight, she focused on the cliff edge that appeared closest. She sprinted hard and as she jumped she curled her legs in so the oncoming wind wouldn't force her back too far. She gripped tightly into the ledge that was deep enough for her fingers to bend comfortably. She could hear the sharp intakes of breaths behind her as she established herself onto solid ground; it sounded like they were almost worried she would fall into the trench.
"Damn it! She actually made it!"
Ari groaned and stomped her foot. "That was good, I admit it, but you still need to get in that cave!" She shouted across.
"Don't you worry about that. I will."
The hard part was over. Now came the easy one; proving to them that nothing was in the cave. With ease, she entered. The vines felt slimy to the touch and were caked with mud, ruining her clean clothes with long streaks of dirt. The walls were damp and droplets of water echoed as they touched the ground. She had no idea where she was going, it was her first time so she kept herself steady with her hand on the wall beside her. Whenever she took a step, something crunched beneath her boots like brittle bones. It got very cold very fast, and whenever she exhaled she could see the moisture of her breath.
A few minutes passed with nothing but silence.
A growl, deep and menacing. She froze.
"Who's there?" She squeaked, her voice felt tiny but the echo carried deep into the darkness. Even with her enhanced eyesight, she couldn't see ahead, instead relying purely on sound and touch. Whenever she moved forward, the growling got louder. "I'm warning you, whatever you are. I'm armed." Her shivering hands made haste to grab the dagger in her sheath.
Two specs of gold blinked at her. She gasped.
"What are you?" No response. The growling continued. "Tell me what you are, right now!"
"He is coming."
"What?"
"He is coming... he is coming for you... RUN!"
She held her dagger in hand as thick black smoke drowned her, shoving her to the ground. She screamed as loud as she could. The words repeated themselves over and over again. At the first opportunity she could grasp, she forced herself to her feet & bolted back the way she came.
The smoke chased after her, the thudding of feet – like a wild animal – thundered on her trail. She tripped a couple of times, had gotten caught by rocks she was sure weren't the same ones as before, and winced when she felt a sharp cut on her left palm while she leapt out of the cave as fast as she could the second she saw daylight.
A howl echoed behind her just as the smoke went to grab her again, but evaporated as soon as the sunlight touched it.
"Skai! What the hell was that?!"
"I don't know!"
"Didn't you see it?!"
"No, you idiot! I didn't exactly have the time to sit down and have a civilised conversation." Her limbs felt heavy and she panted to catch her breath back.
"Oh no... What happened to you in there?" Deni shouted.
"What do you mean?"
"Look at your arm!"
As she did, she wanted to scream. The cut on her palm had turned into a deep tattoo of a scar, shaped like strikes of lightning that travelled from her palm to her elbow. "What the hell?!"
"I can't believe you." Ari said angrily.
"What?"
"I can't believe you are that much of an attention-seeker that you would fake getting that on your arm in order to scare us... I was right. You really are a coward." She motioned to her cronies – who were still in disbelief – back out of the common woods to the village the way they came. Just then, it started to rain.
Byril sat in his mighty chair with the fire burning the first of its embers as the thunderstorm rolled in. Dusk had cast the last of its glow over Caelin as he set the table with two bowls and cutlery. The door slammed open as a clap of thunder boomed, showing Skai soaked to the skin.
"Skai! You're all wet!" He grabbed a blanket and wrapped her up tightly. "You should have come home earlier. You'll catch your death a cold."
"I'll be fine. I stayed sheltered most of the way home."
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"Yes." He continued to dry her off. "Why?"
He sighed. "Don't fret. I just seem to be worrying more about you as you get older."
Knowing this, she couldn't help but ask. "Are you scared that I'm going to change, Papa?"
"Not at all. Everything changes over time. I'm just worried that you might suddenly change so much so fast that you won't be my little girl anymore... Like how you jumped Fog Trench this afternoon." He simply raised a brow, and she gulped. "Bili and Deni told me that Ari dared you to do it. Is it true?" She nodded. "Of all the most reckless things to do, you had to agree to a dare that could have risked your life."
She bowed her head. "She said if I didn't do it then I had to admit that I was a coward and unfit to be the next chieftess."
"And it didn't occur to you to simply ignore her and walk away?" She shook her head. "Courage is simply being yourself no matter what anyone says!" He sighed. "Skai, I love you very much. You know that, but you need to be setting a better example than this. What you did wasn't to prove your lack of cowardliness; instead it proved that you can be a fool." She frowned. "However," she looked up again, "I understand that you have learnt your lesson the hard way, so I'm not going to punish you."
"You're not?"
"No. Instead, I have a favour to ask of you."
She sighed with relief and smiled again. "Anything for you, Papa."
Byril grinned and clasped her hands in his own. "Tonight, I have to leave for a meeting with the Minister's Court." The Minister's Court was a very important gathering; every village across the known world travelled there. The Minister himself was, essentially, the leader of the world and published all of the laws. He never travelled to others, they always came to him at his home in Hilan; the world capital. "I will be gone for a few weeks and I need you to look after Caelin while I am gone."
Skai smiled even more. "I will. I promise."
"I love you." He kissed her hair.
"I love you too."
Later that night, while the storm had temporarily ceased, Byril had already left with Kolin – the village blacksmith – and she had the house to herself. She was just getting herself ready for bed as the moon casted its cobalt glow in the starry sky when a strange echo summoned her from outside the window; a solemn voice that sounded like it came from far into the woods.
She froze, and turned to face the voice that called out to her. Her body was paralysed with a heavy and unfamiliar ache in her chest, her breathing became shallow and any other noise was deafened to silence. This wasn't a voice that she recognised but it was the only thing that had her focus in this moment; she had never heard it before. It seemed sad... a sadness that Skai didn't even know existed. No, not sad... It was desperate. Like a warning.
She winced as her scar on her eye suddenly burned along with her left arm. The heat bubbled inside them like a coordinated attack, she gripped the bed post in her fists tightly; making the wood crumble to splinters beneath her fingernails. What in the world was going on?
She hadn't yet eaten, but now she wouldn't because her stomach just repeatedly clenched into thick knots. She closed the curtains of her windows; it was getting a tad too much for her to handle without the back of her head now aching from the strain of it, the hurting mainly in her scar. The smells of the grass and damp moss outside were foul to her nose like over-rotten compost.
Everything became too loud, too strong, too intense. She couldn't stand it. The moon was a comfort though. It was almost midnight before she started getting tired, hearing the voice once again.
It couldn't be stressed enough where she was concerned. It was clear she wasn't going to be able to sleep tonight. She needed to get out before she suffocated.
Everyone was asleep. It wouldn't be hard to sneak out. She wouldn't be able to sleep if she wanted to let alone comfortably, so she decided against it and took a stroll outdoors.
Away from Fog Trench – the opposite direction, actually – was a spring. The spring itself was warm throughout the year; it provided tranquillity and a wonderful serenity to anyone that set foot within its soils. It was known for its soothing waters; dulling the pain of wounds and making worries disappear. It was closed in by a crooked ancient willow tree that gave everyone shade from the sun; the gaps between the leafy vines made the water glisten and flicker alight like diamonds in mountain mines.
Skai sat alone in the spring. That was good, she supposed. She could sit in silence and get her thoughts together.
The voice was still ringing out, getting closer and closer with each passing second. She tried as much as possible to ignore it and ran her fingers through the spring water in the false hope that it would solve her dilemma; her other hand held onto her necklace.
It was a simple silver chain that carried an oval sapphire melded into a diamond shaped silver locket; it was about the size of a fingertip. On the back of the locket, there was an elegant engraving of a crescent moon. No special carvings of any initials or numbers, nothing that identified it was hers, but it was hers nonetheless. she had it for as long as she could remember.
The water calmed her physically but it didn't barrier her mind from it. Silence couldn't comfort her enough at this point. She groaned and ran her fingers through her hair, "What do you want from me?! What could you possibly want!?" The voice continued in response so she gave up frustratedly and stared at the ripples in the water. The ever-expanding circular echoes soothed her fingertips and the wrinkle of the liquid surface recurrently drifted against the edge of the grass patches.
"What could you ever want from me...? What are you?"
The remarkable shimmer that reflected the moon in the water had blurred with the soft breeze that came through. She chuckled softly, though she wanted to cry at the scar on her arm. "I presume that's one way to put it. Absolute nonsense." She played along like it was a two-way conversation. Maybe it would help, to distract her a little bit; to make it seem like it was normal, no matter how weird it was.
If only Ari could see her now. Maybe she really was a coward.
The moon in the water was beautiful though, so she tried to focus on that instead. What she didn't anticipate was the moon changing shape. Intrigued, she removed her scarred hand and waited for the water to still. It halted the moment the ripples faded away.
The voice didn't stop singing, and like before she was pulled towards it. But as it kept going, it steadily transmuted to the howl of a wolf; the moon shape became exactly that, the shape of a howling wolf that made itself present and glistened radiantly. The wolf stopped and stared at her; her heart skipped a beat.
The water elevated with this shine manifesting as the wolf faded away, and a powder of light like small fireflies orbited over the liquid surface. Enchanted, she extended her hand towards it.
Upon contact, the light dispersed.
Several shapes animated themselves around her from all angles. The first one was a cloud of stars sweeping into a ribbon-like current; they twirled around her from her feet upwards, morphing into trees as a whole pack of wolves strolled through. The trees then contorted into a gate.
The gate was tall and wide, and the intricate plaited decorations allured her. The elegant engraving of a crescent moon was decorated over the top of the door... exactly like the one on her necklace.
The wolves sprinted from behind her towards the gate, and the gate slowly opened to allow them entrance before they disappeared inside. Blackness spread from the gate as a cloud of smoke and ash surrounded her. Her necklace elevated and the sapphire glowed as it was attracted towards this gate. Skai closed her eyes and listened to the wolves howling the harmonic melody of the voice she heard. Her mind became airborne with fragmented illusions of a twilight world, a world that was broken and full of sadness. The voice still sang for her, almost like it was right in front of her. She heard it. She was coming, and she was answering the call.
Up to her knees in the spring, the water shifted and shook like small tsunamis before the water swirled into the air and surrounded her in liquid flaming blue and white. But then it changed to red.
The woods were aflame as horrified screams bellowed around her. Men and women were running from the heavy stomps of metal boots. Wolves were barking and trying to fend off the incoming attackers, some lucky to be getting away within an inch of their lives while others fought valiantly.
Children were screaming and crying, women were begging for mercy. Men howled in pain as spears stabbed through their chests & stomachs. Everything she saw was a blur of flame and blood.
She could then smell lavender while pressed against warm linen, she was tightly wrapped in a thick blanket and bouncing as the surface she was being held to inhaled and exhaled heavily; she was smaller, weaker; a frail child in the arms of someone else.
'Get them all!' a rumbling voice commanded, and the clashing of spears, shields and swords could be heard.
She screamed, the pain agonising like being stabbed with a thousand needles at once; fierce buzzing hammering through her ears and around her skull. She couldn't take it. She needed to get away. So she ran.
Tears flooded the lower rims of her eyes as the horse she stole galloped hurriedly out of the farmland without any idea where she was going; letting the stallion guide her to freedom. She had to get as far as possible away from what she saw no matter what it took. In her fear, she didn't realise she was leaving the village... away from Caelin and everyone she knew for her whole life. Away from her father and everyone she loved very much.
Rain poured heavily in the suddenly cold air and the thunder clashed like war in the sky. Several flashing spikes of purple lightning struck the ground around her, spooking the horse from side to side while she struggled to hold on.
One strike came too close and the instantly frightened horse reared onto its hind legs with a neigh, forcing Skai off of the saddle with a scream. As she landed, she rolled and toppled over a cliff but managed to grab onto the edge and pulled herself up just before she fell. At the bottom of this mile-high cliff was a large river crashing violently against huge rocks and rapids followed the current. From the storm, there were also large trunks and branches from the trees that were blasted into explosive flames.
Her blood pounded in her ringing ears and she screamed as a a tornado of black smoke landed six feet away from her, leaving her trapped between it and the eroding cliff. It was the smoke from the cave...
The glowing eyes now burnt with fury into hers, scorching her soul while her body was soaked and freezing, "He is coming..."
"What do you want with me?!"
"He is coming to get you, Rhavendil..."
She froze; her chest heavy with dread at what could come next. "What did you call me?" One thing was for certain right now, between this creature of smoke and the cliff behind her... Skai knew that she was frightened and only one option seemed to be the safe one, even though it would involve almost certain death.
"RUN!" The smoke charged at her, forcing her body to fall into the rapids down below. There was a distant scream, the last thing she heard as she splashed into the violent waters.
Just as she crashed into the river, the first snowflake touched the ground and everything went black.