SWNOVELS Chapter 2: Found in the Woods
The small sounds of an owl in the distance cause her body to jump slightly in fear as she quickens her pace continuing nervously on her walk. Soon, she draws closer to a small rock hut with a small lamp light streaming from the window. The wooden door of the rock hut is filled with long cracks and holes that also stream a bit of light from the lamp shining through them.
Opening the door, a tall man with an angry tone screams toward the girl as he meets her at the door. “Where have you been? We are starving.” His large hand quickly stings as it collides with her cheek, causing her to whimper in pain. He grabs her arm and throws her further into the room. “Now get to cooking before I give you another black eye.”
The light from the fireplace shows her fearful face that is filled with bruises and dirt as she scurries to the small stove in the one room home. Two old rickety wooden chairs sit on one side of the room next to the small fireplace. A woman with long blonde hair sits in one of the chairs wrapped in a dirty brown blanket staring blankly into the miniature fire. The tall man makes his way to the other chair after placing a few small logs on the fire. In a corner of the room, next to the door is a small bed on the floor made from straw. In another corner closer to the fire, is a larger bed on the floor made from straw as well with some dirty blankets spread across the straw. A small table that is close to the ground sits near the stove.
Brooklyn quickly shuffles around the small stove trying to get warm as she makes a small pot of stew from onions and potatoes. As she is pouring the stew into three small bowls, the woman in the chair mumbles angrily, “What is taking so long you wretched girl?”
Brooklyn places the three bowls of stew on the short table and sits on her knees quickly on one end of the table just as the tall man looks over noticing her. “She finally has dinner ready my dear Mrs. Hammond.” He speaks as he rises from his chair and moves towards the table and the woman follows. “What do you think you are doing?” He frowns toward Brooklyn, who seems frightened and stares down into her small bowl. He jerks the bowl out from in front of her as he speaks, “You don’t deserve to eat.” Brooklyn never looks up as she rises quietly and begins to move away from the table. “Where is my money?” His words cause her to stop and reach into her pocket pulling a few small coins out and placing them in his hand. She sold the onions and potatoes she harvested in town every day at a farmers market. As he looks at the few coins shimmering in the fire light, his expression turns harsher. “This is it? This is all you could manage today. Where is the rest?” He grabs her arm, shaking her as he speaks, “Did you steal some of the food for yourself?”
“That is all I could sale Mr. Hammond, I promise! I tried to sale more but...”
Mr. Hammond slaps her again causing her to fall to the ground. “You didn’t steal these coins did you?”
Mrs. Hammond laughs behind him as she sits down on the floor in front of her bowl of stew. “She is good for nothing.”
Mr. Hammond leans down toward the ground over Brooklyn. “You are good for nothing. If you can’t bring more than this home, you get to sleep outside in the cold with no dinner.” He grabs her wrist pulling her towards the door as she begins to feel tears build in her eyes.
“Please no, I will get more tomorrow. Please don’t make me sleep outside again. It is getting cold. Please?” He throws her out before shutting the door and bolting the lock.
The cold dark woods surrounding the small hut seem creepy as Brooklyn moves around the house to the outside of the fireplace. She knows it is her best chance of getting some heat for the night. She sits down with her back to the heated rocks as she pulls her legs up against her, hugging them tightly. There are sounds of crickets, wolves, and owls streaming into her ears from the surrounding woods and it strikes fear in her. She buries her face into her knees trying to fight the fear of being out in the chilly night alone.
The sunlight wakes her from her sleep. She loves the way the sun streams between the trees of the forest. It almost makes the woods look shimmery with all the dew on the leaves. She realizes that she feels warmer than she expected. Fear runs through her bones as she notices a red ball next to her that is producing heat. She jumps to her feet as she sees a man with a white beard in a white cloak standing next to a tree holding a tall white stick. Suddenly, the man is no longer there after she blinks and she turns to where the red ball was floating, noticing it too has disappeared. She nervously looks around in search of the man, but he is nowhere to be found. She rubs her eyes knowing she must have just been seeing things. She begins to move to the front of the small house hoping the door is now unlocked for her to enter.
She investigates the window seeing the Hammonds still in their bed. Knowing the door is locked, she still tries to open it, but it does not budge. She hears movement behind her, causing her to turn and she notices the same white bearded man with the white cloak standing near her in the woods. It frightens her and causes her to freeze in fear.
“Do not be afraid.” The man’s voice sounds closer to her than he appears. “I have come to rescue you.”
She looks around wondering who this man could be and if others are with him. “Who are you?”
She watches the old man moving slowly toward her. “My name is Verdiwild. I am an elder of Holestroy. The aran, what you call king, has sent me to find you.”
“King of holy what?” She is overly confused. She has never heard of the town. And why would a king be looking for her.
“Holestroy.” The man is now just a few feet away from her. “King Rayterbay had me bring you at the age of two to be hid in the human world.” He looks sorrowful as he continues, “I did not realize I had chosen such an unpleasant situation for you.”
“What?” Human world was all she could focus on from his words.
“You are not human but elleth. Your name is Sahara Ashdell. You are the Aranel, what human’s call princess, of Kinderton. I have come to take you home to our world.” He holds out his hand for her as she wonders who would be playing this kind of a joke on her.
“Princess?” She cannot help but snicker at the old man’s sincerity. She notices a slight point at the top of his ear poking out from his hair. “So, you are an elleth?” She asks unbelievingly.
He smiles in amusement from her question. “No. Males are referred to as ellon.” He looks oddly toward her as he explains, “In the human world, they call us elves.”
Now she believes the old man to be senile. “My ears are not pointed.” She moves her hair behind her ear exposing her rounded top ear. “So, perhaps you have the wrong person.” She begins to move past him wondering if he was just lost in the woods.
“That is because you are not of age Aranel.” His statement interests her, so she must stop and understand more.
“And what is the age I would have pointed elf ears?” She decides to go along with the act for amusement. She has never interacted with someone for so long that made her amused.
“Eighteen, which is when you will also take the thrown as what you call queen.” He bows his head slightly.
“Yes. Well, I need to be going to work now.” She begins to move away from him along the dirt path toward town.
“You do not believe.” His words are more of a statement than a question. “That is expected.” She notices him walking next to her as he continues to speak. “I can prove it to you, if that is your wish.”
His words cause her to stop in curiosity of how he could prove she was an elf. “Oh, yes that is what I wish. Please do.” She crosses her arms to wait and see what the old man was intending to do. She watches his staff slowly lift from the ground and then quickly tap against the dirt with a surprisingly loud thud. She feels dizzy as the wind begins to swirl around her and the old man as if they are in a tornado. The wind swirls into a picture making it seem as if they are being surrounded by outer space, but she can see the dirt beneath their feet as they stand still. She looks around at the black starry picture swirling around them and realizes the old man must have some sort of magic. “What is this?” She yells toward the old, bearded man feeling scared.
“Your history.” He points to the left of her and as she turns, she notices the darkness around them turn to flames engulfing a white castle. She feels the wind against her body as the scene quickly zooms into a window of the castle as if they are flying forward. She sees a small child with red hair crying in a crib. She realizes it must be her as a baby.
“Hurry, Meglaura, she must be taken to Aran Rayterbay. He will hide her.” Brooklyn looks over toward the man’s voice and notices him talking to a woman with red hair, the color of her own hair. She feels her heart leaping at the sight of the couple with the baby.
“Are those my...?” She cannot speak the word she was intending.
“Yes. Those are your real parents, Aran Freyton and Tari Meglaura.” She feels tears begin to wet her cheeks as she watches Meglaura take the baby into her arms and kiss the child’s forehead. Brooklyn notices the old man with the white beard is in the room with her parents. Meglaura hands the baby to Freyton. “Aran Rayterbay has instructed me what to do. She will be safe.” The old man says as Freyton kisses the child on the forehead. Brooklyn’s fingers move up to touch her forehead and she feels like she remembers the kiss from her father.
“You must hurry Verdiwild.” Freyton says as he places the red headed child into Verdiwild’s arms as Meglaura cries unconsolably. “They are already in the castle.” Loud banging and chaos can be heard in the background. “Sahara must not be found by him. Ever.”
“Have faith your Majesty.” Verdiwild nods toward Freyton as he wraps the child in a blanket and taps his staff on the ground before disappearing from the room.
Brooklyn feels her heart breaking as she sees her parents embrace each other. She steps closer toward them, but the wind begins to blow harder, and they fade away as bright lights appear in their place. She realizes she is seeing car headlights. Verdiwild appears next to the car holding the child. Brooklyn glances over toward the old man still standing on the dirt close to her. She begins to realize that this man was not lying. She had never seen anyone do magic as this surely is magic. She looks back at the scene in the wind globe around them. Verdiwild is replacing the red headed child with a dark-haired child in a car seat. Brooklyn immediately recognizes the dark-haired baby. It is the baby in her picture she has looked at a million times.
She falls to the ground feeling the weight of her emotions. She suddenly has no idea who she truly is or where she belongs. The globe-like wind swirling around them stops and fades away. “Are you alright Aranel?” The old man runs toward her and kneels to look at her better.
“Why did they give me up?” She asks trying to understand.
“They saved you and our world by sacrificing themselves to defeat Patreek.” His answer causes her to have more questions.
“Patreek?” She wipes the tears from her cheeks as she asks.
“An evil ellon, named Patreek and his followers were in the castle that day. Your parents were two of the most powerful elves in our world. Patreek was hungry for power and had proclaimed to become the most powerful ellon ever. He had already killed multiple elves and stolen their powers. He was becoming more powerful than any elf could ever had imagined. Patreek had heard about you and was convinced that you would be more powerful than he could ever be, so he sought to steal your powers before they manifested. Your parents fought him and his army that day as they searched for you. It is now called the dagor of naxa, the battle of evil.” He looks remorseful as he continues to speak. “He had grown so powerful that your parents failed and were killed. Patreek stole their powers. By the time I returned with the other child, I had switched you out for, the castle had been taken over by Patreek and his followers. They were searching for you. The child I had brought back had already died from the car accident, so I placed a charm on the child to make her appear alive and have red hair before I hid her in the castle. Patreek quickly found the child and killed her thinking she was you.”
Brooklyn feels fear wondering if Patreek would still want to kill her if she returned to the elf world. “What happened to Patreek?”
“When he tried to take your powers from the human child, it deformed him and poisoned his powers, causing most of them to dissipate.” He stands back up from his kneeling position before he continues. “You see, he was using the blood of elves in a potion to obtain their powers. Human blood contaminates our blood and damages the powers we possess. And because he thought the child was you, the potion he charmed was attached to your name, so when he drank the potion, it backfired and deformed him.”
Brooklyn stays silent as she tries to wrap her head around what all she is learning in such a short amount of time. “Why do you want me now? After all of these years?” She stands to her feet again realizing her tears have subsided.
“You are fifteen. Elf magic starts to manifest at the age of fifteen. We had written to the Craig’s pretending to be your mother’s family. We did not want to alarm the humans of our world or that you were not actually who they thought you were the past thirteen years. They responded to our letter stating you had run away, but I knew that was not true as I have been keeping watch over you all these years. While I was in consult with the King the eve of Brooklyn’s fifteenth birthday, the Craigs managed to make you disappear quickly and I am sad to say, undetected by me. It took some time to find you but finally, I have.”
“Brooklyn’s birthday?” She realizes she has no clue when her birthday is if she is who he claims. “My birthday is not May eleventh?”
“You turned fifteen on March twenty-sixth. The king thought it would be wise to observe you until Brooklyn’s birthday to see how you handled your magic when it manifested.” He responds.
“I have no powers.” She says feeling doubt again.
“Then how did you manage to create the ball of heat that kept you warm last night?” Verdiwild smiles at her.
She remembers back to the floating red globe from earlier. “I thought that was your doing?”
“It was not.” He says before he holds out his hand toward her. “We must return to your kingdom of Kinderton your royal highness.”
She looks down at her dirty dress and feels her mangled dirty hair. “I am no elf princess.”
“I assure you child, that you are her Royal Highness Sahara Ashdell, the Aranel of Kinderton.” He smiles lovingly toward her. It is an expression she has never seen before, and it makes her feel safe. “Now, take my hand and let us be off or we will be late.”
She reaches out taking his hand before seeing his staff slowly leave the dirt and tap on the ground with a thud. Her body jerks into motion as if she is spinning around in a washing machine quickly. She feels sick just seconds later as she stumbles to the ground.