''And as the dark clouds gather above the lands of Rumerra, a wizard bearing the marks of all six elemental magics shall rise up to carry the world into a new era.''
– Book of Elid, chapter 7, paragraph 13
Simula was an ordinary town in the south of Ardor. An ordinary town, full of ordinary people. There were merchants, trying to get a good price for their goods at the market. Craftsmen who created beautiful items out of wood and stone. And farmers who dutifully grew and harvested their crops among many others. James Crow was one such farmer, living on the outskirts of town. His house was modest, but homely, covered with a thatched roof, and above all, completely ordinary. He owned two cows named Belle and Millie and he milked them every day. This year, his field was full of wheat and he had planned corn for next year to avoid overloading the soil. Something every knowledgable farmer does. There was one thing in Mr. Crow's household that wasn't so ordinary, though. And that was his daughter, Velvet. The girl has exhibited an intuition and intellect far beyond her years and had this strange obsession with fairy tales, especially ones including wizards and magic. Every evening without fail, the father would read a story to the nearly nine-year-old and she would often continue reading them into the night, despite him telling her not to. He was reading one to her on this day as well.
"The dragon roared with all its might as it descended upon the village. But the wizard stood tall and strong. A blinding light turned night into day as he unleashed his spell, one of many to follow. Their fight lasted throughout the night and until dawn. When the first sunbeams started to emerge from behind the hills, an exhausted but victorious Thoracc stood atop the dragon corpse. He had won. With his mighty magic, the wizard had slain the dragon. All the villagers cheered him on, offering him gifts and words of gratitude, for their village had finally been freed from the accursed beast. Thoracc, however, rejected their gifts and said, 'The smiles on your faces are reward enough for me. If you want to repay me, live happily, love each other and keep me in your memory. For a man only lives as long as the last person who remembers him.'
After saying that, he bid his farewell and continued on his path. Stopping for just a moment, he breathed in the fresh spring air, looked at the bright blue sky, and smiled as he thought about what new adventures await him. THE END!" her father concluded as he closed the book and laid it down on his knees.
"Thoracc is just the greatest! I want to be like him when I grow up!" the girl exclaimed and jumped up on the bed. She grabbed the staff her father carved out of wood for her, standing tall, one hand on her hip and the other one lifting the staff up high towards the ceiling.
"The smiles on your faces are reward enough for me!" she quoted her hero with a deep voice while trying to maintain as serious a face as she possibly could, but immediately started laughing as she finished saying it.
"Now, now, sweetie, I know how much you like this story, but it's time for bed. You have a big day tomorrow at school," her father gently scolded her, standing up and making his way to the door, book in hand.
"Sorry, dad." She sat back down on her bed with a pouty face. "I'm just so excited, I don't feel sleepy at all."
"That's alright, just lay down, close your eyes and think about what you'll say tomorrow. You will fall asleep before you know it." The man smiled gently as he opened the door to leave.
"What if they laugh at me?" the girl said quietly, a tint of concern in her voice. "My dream will probably seem weird to them. You know how people feel about magic in this town."
Her dad stopped between the door for a moment and turned around. "They won't," he said half-heartedly, shaking his head. "No dream is weird, and yours isn't either. Remember what your mother always said."
"Any dream can become real if you believe in it?" the girl answered, unsure if she remembered it correctly. It's just been so long since...
Her father came back into the room and sat down on the side of the bed. He looked down at the book in his hand with tired eyes and one could almost feel the air in the room getting harder to breathe. She felt it too.
"I want to tell you something, Velvet," he confessed, looking at her. "Something I haven't told you before. I think you are old enough to understand this."
The girl tensed up on her bed as she heard her name and turned towards her father, giving him her full attention. She knew when father called her by her name, he is about to say something very important.
"You know, your mother had a dream too," he said calmly, his eyes fixated on hers. "We loved each other very much and one day, we decided we wanted to show our love to someone else. We wanted a little boy or girl, to who we could give our love to..."
Her father stopped and his gaze trailed away from hers. Velvet started having this uneasy feeling. Like the feeling when something bad is about to happen. She felt a "but" coming and sure enough, it did. The room was quiet for a bit before he continued.
"But the healer said that this was not going to happen. He said your mother was ill and that this was not possible. That not even his magic can fix it."
He scratched his nose and looked at his daughter, holding her hand. She said nothing as she looked back at him. Memories of her mother began to seep into her mind. Her gentle smile, her warm touch, her calm voice...but it was all a blur. It almost felt like a dream of some sort. Like it never really happened. She knew for sure it did though. It was real. Perhaps the most real thing that happened to her. Velvet snapped back to reality as she heard his voice continue.
"Your mother wanted to hear nothing of it, however," her father chuckled. "She was stubborn like that. For her, it was not a question of if, but how and when. Having a child to give her love to was your mother's dream. And she had no intention of giving up on it." He paused and wiped his eyes, but soldiered on, suppressing his tears. "We visited countless witches and wizards, but the answer was always the same. 'You should give up. There is no chance,' they all said. But your mother never gave up. She struggled through countless rituals, had all sorts of healing spells cast on her, and drank weird potions even though I told her not to. She was relentless. And after six years, you came to us."
He smiled, gripping his daughter's hand tightly. She could see tears in his eyes, no longer being able to hide them. But they were not tears of sadness, no. They were tears of joy and gratitude.
"You were your mother's dream," he said, his voice cracking. "And you are here because your mother never stopped believing in that dream."
Velvet could feel tears starting to slide down her cheeks. She grabbed her father's hand with both of hers, closing her eyes and letting them fall. Letting the pain, which was building up in her chest, hurt. Her father hugged her. "Don't ever let go of your dream. No matter how impossible you think it is," he said, caressing her wavy brown hair. "Let them laugh if they want to. No one can tell you what you can and cannot dream of. Any dream can become real if you believe in it and keep working towards it."
After what felt like an eternity, they finally broke their hug. He kept looking at her and smiling. "You are a wonder, Velvet. I love you more than anything."
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"I love you too, Dad," she responded, giving him another hug.
"It's getting really late," her father said after a while, looking at an old clock on the wall, monotonously ticking away. His old man got the thing from some dwarf more than sixty years ago. "You should really get some sleep now. And don't go on reading into the night like you usually do. It's not good for a girl like you to go to bed so late."
She nodded and tucked herself in. He stood up and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, picked up the book which was lying on the bed and made his way to the door. Before going out, he turned a knob on what looked like an old oil lamp fixed on the wall next to the door. The room fell into darkness. The door creaked as he started closing it, but not before glancing back at her.
"Dad?"
"What is it, my dear?"
"Thanks for telling me this story about Mom," she said and he could feel her smile, even though he didn't see it. "I'm going to do it you know! Just watch me!" she added confidently.
A smile crept upon his face as well. "I know you will, dear. I know you will."
The door slowly closed and so did her eyes. The man sat down on a chair in the kitchen and laid the book on the table. He stared onto the counter across it, where an expertly drawn portrait of a happy couple was on display. Him and his wife holding hands and smiling. Behind them was a field of flowers.
"It's been almost four years now," the man said to himself. "Am I doing this right, Sarah? Am I doing a good job raising her?"
He looked down at the book in front of him. A dragon breathing fire and a wizard blocking it with his spell were depicted on the cover. The title read Tales of Thoracc the Light Wizard. He opened it and started to scan over the pages. There were beautiful pictures in the book as well, showing the wizard fighting monsters and helping people. He sighed.
"Is it really alright to keep giving her hope, despite knowing the chances are so slim?" he started, thinking aloud again. "I am only doing it because I know you would want me to. But what if it never happens? She will be that age in a few years."
He glanced up from the book and back to the drawing on the cupboard. "You know how much she loves magic. It was you who sparked that in her with your stories."
The man paused for a moment and rubbed his forehead with his right hand, like he was thinking really hard about something. "You knew as well as I do that not one of us is a magic user. And children of people like us almost never develop magic themselves. What if she can never use magic? What should I tell her then?"
Standing up, he made his way to the cupboard and picked up the portrait. His hands trembled slightly as he gently ran his fingers across the glass that was covering it, almost caressing it.
"I wish I could believe in fairy tales as much as you did. But I know they don't always have a happy ending. If they did, you would still be here with us."
He put the portrait back down and walked across the kitchen. From the highest shelf, he took a bottle and poured himself a reddish-brown liquid into a small glass.
"Don't tell Velvet," he whispered as he looked back at the cupboard and lifted the glass to his mouth. "A man has to wash down the pain sometimes."
After drinking the entire contents of the glass, he exhaled loudly and put the glass down. "I guess I should get some sleep as well.«
***
It was a warm summer morning and the smooth stony tiles of the road were glistening in the sun as Velvet was walking to school on her usual path through the town. Her attire was all but usual though. In addition to her standard white blouse and brown leather shorts that went a little over her knees, a pointy hat was shielding her from the morning sun. It seemed to be stitched together from many different pieces of leather, varying in color and size. Over her shoulders and down her back, a purple cloth that seemed a bit worn out hung lazily, engulfing the small girl almost entirely. So she walked, staff in hand and with a smile as bright as day. People were glancing her way every so often and every time young Velvet noticed it, she would happily wave them good morning and proudly march on.
"What do we have here!" A jolly man with a big nose and an even bigger belly laughed from the side of a fruit stand. "I have to say that's quite the look, Velvet!"
"Good morning, Mister Bigmin!" she greeted him with a big smile and stopped for a moment.
Mister Bigmin has been selling fruits in their town for as long as she remembered and often her father would give her some money to stop and buy herself an apple or pear to eat during a break in school. It's fair to say that she was more closely acquainted with him than anyone else on the main street.
"I see you've finally become a witch like you always wanted, congratulations! Now don't go casting any funny spells around here or you will drive away my customers, ho ho ho!" The man laughed heartily, winking at her.
"Not really," Velvet said as her eyes trailed to the ground for a second. "But I do get to wear this to school today because it's the last week and we are doing fun things!" she said, beaming and looking back up at the man.
"Fun things you say? What sort of fun things, if I may ask?" he inquired.
"We are talking about our dreams and what we want to become in the future."
"Ah, I see. It's only natural then for you to talk about becoming a great wizard like...what was his name again?" The man scratched his head, trying to remember.
"Thoracc!" she exclaimed happily. "But, to tell you the truth, I am a bit nervous," she added, her smile waning.
"Nervous? Why so? What would the great Velvet Crow have to be nervous about?" he chuckled.
"I am afraid the others will make fun of me," she said with a hint of concern in her eyes. "But it doesn't matter even if they do! I'm going to do it anyway!" she quickly added, regaining her composure and clenching the fist of her free right hand.
"That's the spirit! I never doubted you for a second!" As he said this, the man reached over to his stall and picked out the largest apple out of the bunch that were on display. He handed it to a surprised Velvet. "I'll tell you what, this one is on the house! Consider it a good luck charm for today."
"Wow, thank you so much Mister Bigmin! It's so big!" Velvet was examining the apple from all sides with amazement.
"Aye, they've grown well last year. And fast too! Must be that new fertilizer I used. Sometimes I surprise even myself!"
"Your fruit always tastes the best!" she added, inflating the man's ego even further. Just then the bell in the church rang a quarter to eight, which meant school would be starting shortly.
"Oh no, I'm running late!" the girl suddenly jumped up in panic. "I have to go! Thank you again for the apple Mister Bigmin!" she waved back at him, apple in-hand, while bolting off further down the street, her pointy hat jumping up and down and her cloak fluttering behind her as she ran.
"Don't mention it! See you after school!" he yelled after her as she disappeared from his view.
She ran past shops and stalls, over the main square and past old Betty's guesthouse, where the regulars were already sitting down for their morning cup of coffee. The large hat was slipping down over her eyes constantly and she had to keep pushing it back up to see where she was going. A few times she almost ran into an innocent passerby, who looked at her with bewilderment or snarled "Watch where you're going!" after her. By the time the school came into her view in the distance, she was completely out of breath already and barely able to keep pushing forward.
I can't be late today of all days! she thought as she forced herself to continue running, despite her small body protesting against it.
Thank you for reading the first part of my story!
Is Velvet going to make it in time? Comment below! [https://img.wattpad.com/1e103d2d8847cb3c375f7cf53a709bbe64c82575/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f6e6f2d6b76366a793061654547773d3d2d313235313830383532392e313730366665313464663633626631383931303035333139323434312e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
Is Velvet going to make it in time? Comment below!