"How do you come here?" A girl asked a boy. The girl was squatting on top of a huge rock, watching the boy from above. They were of the same age, not older than eight years old.
"Well, I'm lost. " The boy's face was beaming with a smile, not showing any emotion often associated with being lost. His clothing was dirty from the dirt and the mud, making it look ugly, not that it was nice in the first place. "Mom and dad told me to follow the trail."
"Trail?" The girl asked. She looked around, there was no sign of trail or anything of the sort there. All she could see was the thick vegetation, bushes, undergrowth, and the massive tree that touched the heaven. There were some mountains in the distance, but no trail. "Aren't you afraid? There are monsters here, have you heard of them?"
The boy nodded, though there was no fear on his expression. "I heard about the story of monster here, and I was scared at first, but Mom and Dad told me there's a mountain of candy in here, so I'm not afraid anymore."
"Mountain of candy? I never heard of that." The girl jumped from the rock and landed next to the boy. The boy watched in awe at her feats of athletic, not even adult could jump from that height without getting hurt. "And I have lived here for a long time now. I would have known if there's one."
The girl observed the boy. He had short black hair, red plump cheek, dirty pink skin, and all the feature of a young boy. Her eyes opened wide when she looked at his ears. She grabbed it. "D-did your parent cut your ears?" The girl asked with fear in her voice.
"What? No." The boy grabbed his own ears. There was nothing wrong there, it was still sticking to the side of his head. "It's normal."
"But it's so short. I've never seen an ear that short."
"Short?" The boy was confused. He moved the girl's long hair that covered her ears. And hidden behind her white hair was a long pointy ear like the one he heard in children's tale.
"You're an elf?" The boy shouted and jumped in place. He was happy beyond happy. To see an elf had been his dreams since his mom first told him about them. His mom and dad told him that they were nothing but myth and only existed in tales. He didn't believe them, and he was right, elf was real.
The girl was surprised by his sudden burst of joy. "Y-yes, I am. Wait!" The girl realized something. "A-are you a human?"
The boy nodded his head joyously. A wide smile crept on the girl's faceLordand she joined him in their jump of happiness. "I-I can't believe it! a Human in the forest?!"
After a while, they were exhausted from their excessive jumping. They sat next to each other on the foot of the huge rock. "I am Jack, Jack Hartman, and you are?" The boy asked after he had eaten a fruit from the nearby tree.
"Valera. Alesi Valera Sanna, you can call me Val." She had a warm smile on her tanned-brown face, and she still had the fruit she picked for them on her hands.
"Val, let's look for it together."
"Look for what?"
"The mountain of candy. My mom and dad said I'm not allowed to go home before I found it." The boy stood and cleaned the dirt from his laps. He extended his arms towards Val.
Val looked at his hands, her face turned red all over. It was the first time someone ever asked her nicely. The first time someone didn't shout at her when they wanted her to do something. She smiled. "Sure."
Val took his arm and followed him wherever he went. They walked around the forest, mostly in a circle since Jack couldn't tell the difference between one tree and another, or one bush from another. So they were lost ... he was lost, she was not. She knew the forest like the back of her hand. But they were lost together, and they were both happy.
"Where's your mom and dad?" Jack asked. They sat on the foot of the huge rock again after re-encountering it five times. Val had tried to tell him that they were walking in a circle, but Jack was confident in his navigating skill. She had no complain though, being together with him was a joyful time.
"They told me to wait here. They said they will come to get me later."
"When will they come?"
"I don't know. I've been waiting for a long long time. Maybe they are busy, my father is the village chief after all." Val extended her arms to emphasize the 'long long time' part.
Jack gave her a curious look. "Then shouldn't we wait here? What if your mom and dad come to get you when you're not here. When we are searching for the candy."
Val smiled. "It's fine. The wind whispers to my ears. I will know it when they come to get me."
"You can hear the wind?" His face was once again beaming with a smile. "Is- Is it some kind of magic?"
"Yes."
"COOL!" Jack shouted. "Show me! Show me!" He jumped in place again. Being able to see an elf and to see magic in the same day was a dream come true for him.
Val was surprised, she couldn't understand what was so special with magic that made Jack so happy, everyone in her village can use magic, and she assumed that anyone anywhere can use magic. It appeared that she was mistaken.
Val was more than happy to show Jack her magic. She opened her palm and the wind danced around it, creating a small swirling wind over her opened palm. when she put a leaf in it, the leaf was shredded into a thousand tiny pieces that scattered all over the place.
"WOW!" Jack shouted. He stood and flailed his arms around, trying to catch all the flying pieces. "I've never seen anything like this before."
Val blushed again. "T-thank you. This is the first time someone like my magic."
Jack turned towards her with his brows raised."What? How can anyone not like this? This is the most beautiful thing in the world."
Val hugged her legs, there was sadness on her face. "My mother said that I can't control it, that I have hurt a lot of people with it. She's always angry when I tried to use it."
"Then why don't you just learn how to control it?" Jack asked innocently.
Val was surprised. "I-I have tried that before, but ... I still can not control it."
Jack walked to Val, ignoring all the flying pieces whistling around him. "Don't worry. I also have that same problem." Val looked up at his face. "My dad and mom always tried to teach me how to count. But I'm not smart." He laughed. "But my older brother always help me. Even why I don't think I can do it, he always told me to go on and to always keep trying." Jack sat next to her again. "Let's do it together. We will learn how to control your power together."
Val looked at his eyes with a hopeful stare and red face. This was the first time someone was so nice to her. The first time someone offered her help. She couldn't believe it. "R-really? Y-you promise?"
"I promise." Jack smile that time was ingrained into her mind, burned in the deepest part of her memories. It was the brightest, warmest smile she had ever seen in her life, and was the second brightest and warmest smile she will ever see in her long life.
The scene changed abruptly. The world shifted and the sky turned. When everything was normal again, Jack and Val stood on the edge of a cliff, staring at the sea, both have aged significantly.
"You see there Val, to the south?" Jack pointed his finger to a landmass in the distance, on the edge of the horizon, almost fading. "People call that The Continent, that's where human came from before we arrive here."
Instead of looking where Jack was pointing, Val watched his back, she was too focused on it that she didn't hear him telling the history of how human came to the Northern Land. His back was broad and manly, he was no more the child she met in the forest. He was a man now, and she was a woman. Looking at his back made her heart pound hard and her face red. His gray armor, his red fluttering cape, and his broad sword hanging on his back only added to the manly figure in front of her.
She eyed his hand and moved her hand closer to his, hoping that she could grab it without him noticing, hoping that they could hold hand without him saying anything, without him looking at her.
"So, how about it?" Jack suddenly turned.
Val's body jumped and she pulled her hand back. She stared at him with her bright red face."W-what?" She cursed him inside her mind. Why did he turn with that timing?
"How about we cross the Mid Sea and sail to the Continent? I heard that there are Elves there, though their skin is pure white unlike the one here." Jack laughed, ignoring Val's red face and strange behavior.
Val looked one more time at distant landmass and smiled. "Sure, why not. It should be fun."
The world shifted again and the vista changed. A few images flashed for a brief moment. Val and Jack arriving at the northern coast of the Continent. Their first encounter with Elven race other than Dark Elf, and learning the difference of custom and culture. An image of their house in Amaryn, a small beautiful and comfortable house in the countryside with tended flower and garden. Jack being knighted and later raised to a position of a lower Lord for his service to the crown. Them kissing together inside their new manor. Their marriage. The birth of their first son. Their son and two daughters playing around on the river banks with them. Then ... War.
The First Mosk-Amaryn War, two hundred years before the Fire Invasion on Mount Etna.
Amaryn and Mosk had been around for three hundred years when the first war broke out. The relation between the two kingdoms was never a good one, they were enemies, nemesis even. But a war was simply not possible because of the massive mountain range separating them, a nameless mountain range that would later be called the Dawn Range. But a major incident and the ever increasing pressure from the noble houses of Mosk forced the Tsar of Mosk to declare war on Amaryn.
And for Mosk to declare war on Amaryn, there was only one way they could take, one passage big enough for an army to march from Mosk straight to Amaryn through the Dawn Range. Through a rocky wasteland that would later be known as the Field of Dawn because of what was transpired there during that war.
Val observed the field from above, flying among the white freezing cloud of winter. Most creatures would have froze to death in her condition, but the cold never bothered her in the slightest, it was comfortable for her.
Stolen story; please report.
Far below her was Lord Auburn Fenix, his vassal lords, and his army of ten thousand men. Knights, sellswords, adventurers, but mostly conscripted peasants dragged from their warm home to fight in this frozen wasteland.
Among those vassal lords was Jack, and among those conscripted peasants were people living in his land. Farmers, hunters, miners, masons, woodcutters, fathers, and brothers, and sons. He didn't want to drag them to this war, but his duty, his loyalty to the crown, and his honor forced him to. And even if he refused to conscript them, the higher lord could still do it.
Val descended down until she was next to Jack. He sat on his brown destrier, draped with warm fur cloak while the rest of his soldiers shivered in the cold. Amaryn soldier and Knight were not trained nor equipped for winter, their metal armor and weapon robbed their body of heat if they didn't use any thick clothing underneath. The knight could afford fur to keep them warm, while the peasant had to improvise.
Jack had aged considerably, turning forty-five next summer. His face had some wrinkles on it and his neat short beard was turning white. The rest of his hair that still retained its color was painted with snow and frost, making him looked much older.
"Can't see anything. The damned fog and snow are blocking my vision. Even magic doesn't help that much," Val complained.
Jack turned his head towards Val, who hadn't aged a little bit since she reached twenty-five. Still as beautiful, as youthful, as alluring as the painting hung on the walls of their manor. Even their son looked older than her. "We can't know for sure about our enemy then."
"You sure they gonna attack here?"
"This is the only spot to attack if they planned to attack with an army. They could mount a smaller attack from the mountains, but then it becomes the job for the other armies to handle."
"Can they even attack during winter?" Val questioned their enemy's decision to attack during winter. Amaryn was already cold as it was, Mosk to the south was even colder. And the winter that year was the coldest in decades.
"Anyone who tries to wage war in winter is a fool." A handsome youth on a horse appeared next to them and answered Val's question. He was Lord Auburn Fenix, the oldest son of Lord Rayne Fenix, the richest man in Amaryn. He commanded his house's armies in his father's stead as his father was too weak and fragile to fight in a war.
Lord Auburn coughed to clear his throat of the biting cold. "That's what I would like to say, but our enemy is the Kingdom of Mosk, or Tsardom of Mosk to be more precise. They are the only army in the continent that can use their full power in winter. When their enemies freeze to death, they only shiver. Winter is their weapon. The colder the air, the greater their advantages." The young lord looked at Val, who only wore thin clothing. "You're not cold, My Lady?"
"Of course not, my lord" She grabbed the white scarf coiling her neck. "How can I feel cold with a gift from my husband keeping me warm?"
Lord Auburn and Jack laughed together. It was almost twenty years since their marriage but Val still acted like they were newly wed. While it seemed like fun, it introduced some strange problems to their marriage life such as how active she was in bed despite her age, which Jack was unable to keep up with his aging body. Though that might just be what Elf was like.
But their laughs were cut short by a shadow in the distance. A small dark shadow blurred by the fog and the falling snow. Jack squinted his eyes to a near close, but it was no help. "Val, can you use that?"
Val enhanced her vision with magic and molded mana into a lens in front of her eyes to further enhance it. "I can't see a thing. The enemy is too far or using magic to obscure my vision."
Jack turned his horse to face Lord Auburn. "What is your command, my lord?"
The young lord closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He had commanded and won a few battle before, but never with a size like this.
"Lady Val, use your magic to remove the snow so we can see the enemy better."
"But it would be dangerous without knowing the enemy position."
The young lord had considered that. removing the snow not only meant he could see the enemy, but the enemy could also see him. There was a risk involved, but considering that the plain was a flat ground with tall mountains to their left and right, it was almost impossible to flank or ambush their position. Destroying his enemy as fast as possible before his army succumbs to the cold was his decision.
"Do it once the horn is blown." Lord Auburn tapped Jack's shoulder. "Prepare formation!"
Jack turned and galloped his horse in front of the army. His raised his sword high and gave the command. "MEN! PREPARE FOR BATTLE!"
The sound of horn washed over the battlefield, and the soldiers quickly assumed a battle formation. Their weapons drawn and their armors clattered. It was not perfect by any mean, but it was good enough.
Val created a small ball of swirling air on her hand. When she removed her hand from it, the ball expanded rapidly, covering the entire battlefield and sweeping away the fog and the falling snow.
Their enemy stood directly in front of them, four kilometers away.
Lord Auburn's, Jack's, his troops', and Val's jaw dropped. They couldn't believe what they saw. Was the Kingdom of Mosk making fun of them? Did they fake an attack so Amaryn wasted resource on defending a feint?
A single man. A single naked man without even a piece of fabric on his body, stood in the middle of a frozen wasteland. His skin was snow white and covered with scars from his neck to the sole of his feet. His snow white long beard, long hair, and long mustache were fluttering in the strong wind like a flag. If not for the raging wind, all three would have touched the ground.
The man stroked his beard. There was no rush in his movement, no panic, no fear, he took his time well. He was calm. Far too calm.
Back then, that man was no one. A monk, a hermit, a mad man that spent his whole life on the southernmost peak of the Continent. He was nothing but a crazy man with no talent for magic or aura, and with a questionable allegiance. He only sided with Mosk because its capital was the closest to his home on the mountain.
But that man would later have many titles and many names. He was Thomas Dawn.
Dawn vanished, leaving a huge crack on the ice where he originally stood.
For ten seconds, everyone was confused, not knowing what to do or how to react. Then Dawn reappeared right in front of the army, in front of its General. Right in front of Lord Auburn's horse.
He punched the horse with his right fist, yet his hand didn't quite reach the horse. With his arm fully extended, he needed one more steps before touching.
Val was filled with horror when she realized, she was the only one able to follow Dawn's movement.
And the fact that even sound, lagged behind him.
A large booming sound similar to an explosion resounded in the battlefield, enough to deafen everyone in the army. Some had their eardrums ruptured. Some even fell unconscious from the sound alone.
A hole appeared on the horse body, large enough for a grown man to put his arm inside it. And Lord Auburn's head exploded without a trace, dyeing the snow around him with the color of red.
All because of one punch.
Dawn vanished once more. And when he reappeared, men and horses were thrown into the air like pebbles. Their armor torn, their weapon broken, their shield shattered, and their life taken.
The battle was over in a flash. Six thousand people were massacred that day, and the rest flee in a rout. It was a decisive victory for the Kingdom of Mosk. A victory that would change the course of history, and people, forever.
If only Dawn was willing to fight more than once in that war, the victory of Mosk would have been assured. But alas, Dawn was an eccentric man, and history had already been set in stone.
Among those 6000 bodies lying around the frozen battlefield, two were still alive, with one crying over the other. "Jack, Hold on!" Val shouted while trying her best to hold back her tears and heal him.
Jack's body was in shambles. His left arm torn off and his internal organs ruptured. He didn't die, at least not yet. He was stronger than Lord Auburn, and Dawn only hit his left side. "Val ..."
"NO! Don't speak! I'm healing you, you're going to be okay." She focused her healing spell on his torn arm, closing the wound almost instantly. She raised his body from the ground with her wind and created a hovering fire to keep him warm.
"It's ... useless, Val. I ... have lost too much blood ... already." His right arm slowly rubbed her chin. "Leave me here with my men, and run." He mustered what left of his voice in his throat. "Live ... for our children."
"NO! NO! NO! You're coming home with me, Jack. You're-..." The word caught in her throat, unable to leave, unable to go out. She knew what she did was useless. Her healing spell could regenerate broken tissue and organ, but she couldn't regenerate his blood. He would die of blood loss.
"Val. LISTEN!" He yelled.
"NO!" Her vision blurred by her tears. "Little ..." The word stuck in her throat again. "Li-little Jean is waiting for her father back home, Jack. Y ... You know how much she loves when you carry her on your back. You ... You know how much she is waiting for her tenth birthday with her father." She couldn't think. She couldn't imagine how to tell their son, their two daughters. The sadness on their face. Their cries. "And George ... George ..."
Jack wiped her eyes. "Val I ... I ... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I can't grow old with you. I ... I ... can't carry little Jean on my back anymore. I'm sorry. I ... can't be there when George ... when George marry his beautiful wife. I can't be there ... to ... to see our grand children ... I ..."
Val stopped her useless struggling, reluctantly accepting the fate that had befallen her beloved, her childhood friend, her man. She would use his last moment to listen to all that he has left to say.
"Val I-" A fist, appeared on Val's left, followed by a huge booming sound.
And Jack's body exploded into a torrent of blood right in front of her eyes.
Val's mind went blank as Jack's blood showered her body, touching her freezing dark skin and painting her white scarf and white cloak blood red. Her mouth opened wide, but nothing came out of it. Her eyes opened wide, but no tears come flowing down. She couldn't see anything.
Nothing at all.
When the light came back, she had returned to the present day, inside her tent on Mount Etna. Her body was drenched with sweat and tears pooled under her body. She hid her face behind her hands and cried, the hardest cry she ever had in two centuries.
Why? Why? Why must she remember those painful memories again? Why must she remember Jack two centuries after his death? Why must she remember the detail of his death?
The last time she had that nightmare was a century ago. The combination of magic, potion, and the passing of time locked that nightmare away in the deepest part of her consciousness. What caused its return?
An image of Theo flashed inside her minds. But it gave her no reprieve from her suffering. It instead, made her suffer even more.
She hated that man. She blamed him for hurting her friend. For playing with their feeling. For playing with her feeling. Yet she also loved him. Not the way she loved her children, or grandchildren, or her descendant. Not the way she loved her friends, the Miracle. No, she loved him the way she loved Jack. A love she never felt anymore since his death.
But why him, why must God be so cruel to her, why did she love again, why must she love a mortal, a human, again? A weaker man than her. A man whose life couldn't outlast her. A man that she will surely saw his passing, be it on a battlefield like Jack, or on a bed with his wrinkled face and whitened hair.
Val was filled with dread when she remembered, the dark burnt wound on his stomach when he carried him, his friend, and the Miracle back to the camp. The mark that barely missed his heart. He almost died. The Flame Born Knight almost killed him or sparred him for some reasons unknown.
And she was filled with regret and guilt when she remembered his pale bluish face when she almost freezes him. When she almost killed him just a few hours earlier. Why? Why did she do that, why did she almost kill him, why did she wants to kill him? She couldn't understand her own emotion anymore.
She placed her hand over her pounding heart. She pumped her body full of mana, filling every blood vessel and every magic vessel inside her body until she could hold it no longer. The mana moved around her body, circulating when she commanded it to, accelerating when she wanted it to.
Val grimaced and gritted her teeth. The mana inside her body was creating a vortex and moving at a dangerous speed. She was purging her body from any residual magic, or miracle, or curses that could plague her mind or her heart. Though the method she did was, extreme, to put it mildly. If she made even the smallest mistake, she could burst her blood vessel and broke her magic vessel, killing herself. But she had steeled her will to do it.
She wanted to confirm one last time whether the feeling she felt for Theo was a genuine one or a trick of some sort.
She went on and on for a half an hour, not stopping or slowing down her mana in the slightest. Then she released it all, cleaning her body of any residual magic no matter how powerful or sticky it might be.
And she still felt it, her affection, her love towards that man. "So it is real?" She asked herself. After she did all that, there was no use in denying it anymore.
There was a strange sense of relief washing over her when she finally accepted her feeling like a shackle finally opened. She didn't know why. It was like she wanted to accept that feeling for a long time, her heart wanted her to, yet she kept denying it, her mind kept denying it.
She rested her head on the warm sweat-soaked pillow once she made peace with her own feeling. Her body never felt lighter, nor did her heart. The bed never felt softer and her mind was never more at peace.
She smiled to herself. The first time in many many years.
She was about to close her eyes and rest when her mind reminded her about the one thing that robbed her from a peace of mind, the word Theo uttered. He would attack the mountain, the summit on his own if she didn't want his help.
The bed creaked when she jumped from it so suddenly. She picked her daggers and all her usual gears and placed her blood-red cloak over her naked sweat-covered body.
Her mind began playing tricks on her and played out the worst possible outcome. What if just hours after she felt love again, after she made peace with her feeling, she would lose the man that invoked that powerful emotion within her. What if after finally wanting to love again, she would lose that love in the same night?
The cold wind that whistled past her face brought her back to reality. She abandoned all negative thought and focused on the real world. There was no way she would let the worst outcome to happen.