Genre (s): Fantasy/Adventure

Written When? Sophomore Year of College

Prologue

Smokey the Bear on Duty

Three days earlier

Carter Johnson learned an important lesson–to never hike by himself. Thirty-five and single, he was day hiking the Appalachian Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains when he took a tumble over a rock and broke his leg.

“Damn. And I was so close to reaching Clingman’s Dome,” he mumbled to himself. There he was, propped up against a rock, with his leg in a very unnatural position. His backpack was next to him, and his hat had rolled down the mountain into the lush greenery below.

Carter searched the area. Nobody was in sight. All he heard were the crows.

They circled him above, calling, “Caw! Caw!”

“I’m not dead!” Carter yelled at them.

“Not yet,” the crows seemed to call back.

Carter tried moving his leg. Nope. He was going nowhere. The pain was too much. He would have to call a $50,000 medical helicopter for this. Carter opened his mouth, preparing to yell for help, but he stopped.

Something moved in the greenery where his hat fell.

Oh, gosh. It was a bear. Within minutes, the crows would have Carter for lunch. At least, whatever the bear did not eat.

Carter waited. “I’m too young to die!” he yelled at the bear.

However, it wasn’t a bear that appeared over the hill, but a cloaked figure. He said not a word, but merely stared at the wounded man.

Carter stayed positive. “`Sup. Hey, you have my hat!”

Sure enough, the figure held his hat in his right, gloved hand.

Pointing up to the crows, Carter asked, “Are those yours? Can you tell them I’m still very much alive?”

Again, the figure said nothing. He eased closer to Carter.

“Whoa! Bro, what are you doing?” asked the thirty-five-year-old, single man. He again tried to move. “Ow!” Terrified, he held his arms up to his face.

Strangely, the cloaked figure did not steal his soul. Instead, he kneeled next to Carter and took his glove off his hand.

Carter never got a good look at him. He had his attention focused on the hand the figure set down on his leg. Only a few seconds later, the skin under the hand glowed up. Carter’s leg moved back to its natural position. He felt no more pain.

Up above, the crows stopped circling Carter. They were obviously disappointed. Cawing at one another, they took off in flight.

The mysterious, cloaked figure returned Carter’s hat. He gave him a quick bow with his head and started back down the mountain.

All Carter could do was stare. He rested his hand on his leg, which felt brand new. Thank goodness. He wouldn’t have to call a $50,000 helicopter after all. Nevertheless, who was that figure? Where did he come from? Who taught him magic? What was the secret of the Great Smoky Mountains?

***

Down, down the mountain went the cloaked figure, into a cluster of bushes that were next to a clear, calm, and cool creek.

Sipping water from the stream was the figure’s noble steed–a unicorn named Silver Moon. While her body was purely white, her mane and tail were silver. The horn on her head was at least two feet long. At the sight of her master, she pulled her head out of the stream. She and the figure approached one another. They were obviously happy to see each other again.

The cloaked figure gave her mane a gentle tug. “Let’s go home,” he whispered in a young, male voice.

A group of butterflies fluttered by their heads as they left the stream, and they vanished into the blue sky above.

Chapter 1

Nìiā

Three days later

The day was Wednesday, which meant Cades Cove Loop was not open to motor vehicles, but cyclists and hikers. That meant there would be plenty of people for Embrose to heal.

Cades Cove Loop Road was a beautiful section of the Smoky Mountains. An eleven-mile loop road, it passed through the Tennessee-e landscape, as well as several historical cabins. If people started walking and cycling earlier, they could very well see some wildlife... maybe even a fifteen-year-old elf named Embrose.

Every Wednesday, Embrose left Seranet, his village, early. He and Silver Moon traveled to John Oliver Cabin on Cades Cove Loop Road, one of the more popular cabins, and waited for anybody to come by who looked injured. Embrose had healed broken bones, scrapes, cuts, and plenty of dislocated shoulders, but never a brain injury. He hoped he would never have to. Healing a brain injury was a lot of work for a young elf like him.

A handsome elf, Embrose had long, brown hair and brown eyes. His ears were pointy. For his hairstyle, he had two braids decorated with beads in front of his shoulders, and he held the rest of his hair back in a ponytail. He wore an animal skin top with a pair of tan pants and brown boots. Finally, he wore a brown glove on his right hand, his Healing hand, and his brown cloak that he sported around Carter.

Embrose and Silver Moon made it to John Oliver Cabin around 6:30 am that Tennessee Wednesday morning. He healed a few bear cubs on his way there and was eager to heal another human.

To get to the cabin, visitors had to walk down a long path, for the cabin rested up against the forest. The cabin itself was one story with an attic, and it had a wooden gate surrounding it. In front of it, where the path began, was the great Tennessee-e landscape: lush, green fields and hills, with the Smoky Mountains in the background.

Embrose dismounted Silver Moon in the forest just behind the cabin. The morning was cool, but he knew it would warm up later. Before heading into the cabin, the young elf made sure the coast was clear. It was. After all, who in their right mind got up at 6:00 am to bike the loop? Very few, that’s who.

Embrose gestured for Silver Moon to wait for him, but Silver Moon was having none of that.

She followed her owner out of the forest and to the cabin’s backyard.

Embrose groaned. “Silver Moon, you know I can’t take you with me.” Facing his unicorn, he pointed to the ground. “Sit.”

Silver Moon did. She desperately stared into Embrose’s brown eyes, causing him to sigh.

“Why don’t you go play with the other unicorns and whinny if you see anything?” he asked.

Silver Moon huffed. Whatever. It was normal for Embrose to be a little grumpy in the morning. She rose to her four legs and trotted back into the forest.

“Thank you,” Embrose whispered from where he stood. He waited until he could no longer hear Silver Moon prancing around in the forest before he whirled around and faced the cabin. A huge grin stretched across his face, and his white teeth shimmered in the morning sunshine. “Yahoo!” yelled the elf. He sprinted to the cabin.

John Oliver Cabin was one of his favorite cabins, so he loved to play there. After all, he did not have many friends. Most elves rejected him, because they thought his Healing magic was a curse. Yeah, right. It was not a curse, but one of the most beautiful gifts in the world. Just imagine how many lives Embrose could save with it. The conclusion he came to was that the other elves were just jealous.

He hopped over the cabin’s fence and instantly started to act out a cowboy. “Welcome, partners, to John Oliver Cabin! The wee lads will be happy to see you after so long!” Despite living away from humans but spying on them every day, Embrose had a distinct Tennessee accent.

He entered the cabin and pulled his hair out of the ponytail. Embrose concluded having it down would keep him a little warmer. His smile grew. He absolutely loved the cabin. Even though the cabin itself was not that big, Embrose still enjoyed checking out the old fireplace and wooden planks. He literally felt like he had gone back in time to the early 1900s.

He was the first one in the cabin that day, which gave him more time to have fun. He headed over to the fireplace and played Cowboy for a little longer. When he finally wore himself out, he settled down for the morning.

Embrose opened the door to the cabin’s attic, closed it, and jogged up the stairs. He hummed the Seranese language to himself. It sounded a little bit like gibberish, but it was what his tribe spoke. It was only one of the twelve languages spoken in the Smoky 12. These twelve elf tribes lived in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Embrose’s language caught the attention of a few barn swallows fluttering around the attic. They seemed to smile at the sight of him. After all, the swallows were used to Embrose’s presence. They followed him over to the attic’s only window and settled down on his shoulders.

Embrose plopped down on his butt. He peered out to the beautiful, Tennessee-e landscape, along with the swallows. “So, what do y’all want for dinner?” he asked them. “How about a nice collection of maize with a cup of brandy to go with them?”

The swallows chirped. They hopped off Embrose’s shoulders and pecked at his pointy ears.

He tried to catch them, but they were too fast.

Embrose and the birds played for a good fifteen minutes, but they stopped when they heard something downstairs. Someone just entered the cabin. Right when they did, Embrose’s Healing hand started to shake, indicating that someone was injured.

“Nìiā!” Embrose whispered to himself. Nìiā meant “yes” in Seranese. Embrose shushed the swallows and tiptoed towards the attic’s staircase, quiet as a mouse. On his way down, he heard faint crying. Oh yeah, somebody was definitely injured.

***

Embrose stopped at the base of the stairs. By then, his eyes had adjusted to the dark, so he could see the wooden door perfectly. He rested his palms on it and prepared to push it open, but was unaware that he just caught his cloak on a nail in the wall. Before he could say “Whoa”, it ripped, and he tripped over it. Yelping, the young elf fell right through the door and landed flat on his face on the wooden floor next to the cabin’s main entrance. “Aw man!” he groaned. “Usually the stealth approach always works!” Rising to his feet, Embrose brushed himself down.

Standing in front of him and staring right into his soul… was a human girl.

She was about his age, fifteen, and was quite pretty. Her hair was long and red, and her eyes were green. She wore a black tank top with an emerald green jacket over it, as well as tan pants and sneakers. She had some of her makeup smeared down her face. She clutched her wrist, which bled.

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Embrose kept brushing himself down. “Think, Embrose! Think! Next time, watch where your cloak is!” He finally looked at the bewildered girl. “What’s up?”

“Who are you?” she asked. “What were you doing in the attic?”

“I was... assessing the situation,” was Embrose’s answer. “You sounded distressed, so I came to check on you. After all, I am mighty popular amongst the other teenage girls.” He gave the girl a quick wink.

She just shivered. After falling off her bike and injuring her wrist, she hoped to rest a little while her parents caught up on their bikes. She did not expect to run into a random boy.

“Anyway.” Embrose cleared his throat. “It looks like you banged your wrist a little. May I?” He reached for the girl’s wrist, but she pulled away.

“Whoa, dude! I have no idea who you are!” she said.

“Oh, I apologize.” Pulling away, Embrose gave her a quick bow. “I am Embrose.”

The girl lowered her voice, afraid she would offend him, but she asked, “Are you, um,… Cherokee?”

“I’m Seranese. I hail from Seranet in Cades Cove.”

“Sera what?”

“I can help you.”

The girl scoffed. “Yeah right. What are you going to do–call a $50,000 helicopter?”

“No,” Embrose replied. He was used to having hard patients. He offered the girl his gloved hand.

Still clutching her wrist, she stared at it.

During their moment of silence, a butterfly fluttered into the cabin. A beautiful monarch, it plopped down on the girl’s knuckle.

She stared at it. “A butterfly.”

“Where I come from, butterflies are a sign of good luck,” Embrose explained. “It means you can trust me.”

The girl looked deep in his eyes. After some intense thinking, she finally gave him her wrist.

The butterfly hopped off her knuckle and moved up to her shoulder.

Embrose pulled his glove off his Healing hand. “So, what have you got here?” he asked. He studied her bloodied wrist. “Nothing but a minor scrape. Let me guess. You fell off your bike?”

The girl puffed out her cheeks, clearly a little embarrassed. “Yeah. So? People fall off their bikes all the time.”

Nodding his head, Embrose said, “I know.” He had treated plenty of people injured in bike accidents. He moved his hand over the girl’s wrist. Right when he did, the butterfly shifted from her to him, and it plopped down on his own knuckles. Closing his eyes, Embrose said, “Butterflies are magical creatures. They give me my power.” Like what happened with Carter three days ago, the wound on the girl’s wrist glowed up. Within seconds, new skin grew under the bruised, scraped skin.

Her eyes widened with shock, but she closed them when a great flash of light overtook the John Oliver Cabin.

The butterfly lifted off Embrose’s knuckles and fluttered away, leaving only him and the girl.

“How, how did you–?” she stuttered, but her words were cut short when she heard her mother calling for her.

“Fern! Fern, where are you?”

Embrose gulped. Both he and the girl looked in the direction of the voice.

“Oh, what a beautiful butterfly,” they heard Fern’s mother say, but then she again called, “Fern!”

“I’ll be right there, Mom!” Fern called. She turned back towards Embrose, but received quite a shock. Where was he? Embrose just vanished! What the heck? Fern was the only person standing in the cabin now. “Where are you?” she asked. She received no answer.

Fern examined her brand-new wrist. She shook it around, feeling no pain at all. What on Earth just happened to her?

***

While Fern wasn’t looking, Embrose slipped back outside and met Silver Moon in the forest. They stood behind a cluster of bushes, with a creek behind them.

Silver Moon nudged Embrose with her horn, but he did not move. He merely watched the human girl who just met up with her parents at the side of the cabin. He put his glove back over his hand and rubbed it behind Silver Moon’s ears.

She stomped her foot, telling him it was time to go home.

Embrose sighed. He didn’t want to go home. He wanted to spend more time with Fern. He wondered if she was staying at the Cades Cove Campground. If she was, he wondered if he could visit her. It was worth a shot.

Smiling feebly, the young elf hopped onto Silver Moon’s bare back. He used her mane as reins and turned her around. As the elf and unicorn left John Oliver Cabin, Embrose glanced over his shoulder to Fern one more time. While things felt normal now, that was not going to be the case for long. Embrose was unaware that he was just about to embark on an epic adventure. It was just the start of Embrose and the Butterfly.

Chapter 2

The Butterfly Village

“I’m serious, Mom! I met a boy!” By the time Fern’s parents made it to her, she smiled so much that they wondered if she was feeling all right. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a reasonable reaction.

“Fern, we’ve talked about this. There are some places where your imagination shouldn’t run wild,” said Laura, Fern’s mother. Like Fern, she had long, red hair and green eyes.

Even though she knew she had a wild imagination, Fern argued with her. “But I wasn’t imagining it! His name was Embrose!”

“Embrose or Ambrose?” Laura asked.

“Embrose!”

Cailu, Fern’s father, rolled his eyes. “And what did this Embrose look like?” He looked quite different from Fern and Laura. He had long, brown hair that reached down the top of his back and dark brown eyes. His hair usually covered his ears.

Fern heard rumors that he wore earrings, but she never saw his ears to confirm.

It was strange. Despite having such long hair, Cailu never put it in a ponytail. Did he not get hot?

Fern couldn’t avoid his strange behavior. However, she could argue. “For your information, Daddy, Embrose was native. However, he said he wasn’t Cherokee. He hails from somewhere called Seranet.”

Cailu fell silent. Something about that last sentence unsettled him. He turned his back to his daughter, running his fingers through his hair. After twenty-two long years, he thought he would never hear that word Seranet ever again.

Laura stood up for him. “That’s enough, Fern! Grab your bike, and let’s get moving. We’re trying to beat the crowds here.” She and Cailu hopped onto their bikes. They started to peddle away from Fern.

Before joining them, Fern checked the forest for Embrose, but she saw no one. Ugh, her life had changed so much since the pandemic started. She needed a miracle, and something told her that Embrose was it. For some reason, his name sounded familiar. Had she heard it before? If so, where? Hm, well, perhaps Fern would see him again. She hoped so, but the question was... when?

***

Embrose’s home, Seranet, was deep in the forest of Cades Cove and behind a mystical, magical waterfall. The elves kept it running with their magic. Only elves or elf-based magical creatures could see it. The waterfall had a name, Seranet Falls, and the pool it fed into was Seranet Pool. The pool led to another elvin village further downstream, Luta. The waterfall was beautiful. One could literally see their reflection in it. That gave it the nickname “The Mirror of Cades Cove”.

To gain access to Seranet, Embrose and Silver Moon followed a dirt path next to the pool. They climbed up a small ledge to reach the waterfall’s backend. They had to walk through a cave behind. Twelve torches lit the stone alleyway. The torches, the Seranese Twenty, had been burning for thousands of years, ever since the elves first found the village. They were sacred to the Seranese people, for they divided the elvin and human worlds.

Embrose took a moment to dismount Silver Moon so he could grab a drink of water from the waterfall. He stuck his hands under it, letting the water’s chill cool him down, and stared at his reflection within. “Do you think she liked me?” he asked Silver Moon.

No. Silver Moon rolled her eyes. Not again. The teen hormones were kicking in.

“I like her,” Embrose added. “I feel like she has a fiery personality to her, much like me, if I do say so myself. You know what–I’m going to do it. I’m going to go to the campground and look for her.”

“Oh, really?” a voice suddenly asked behind him.

Dang it.

Embrose froze. Shivering, he turned his body, only to come face-to-face with Stadia, his mentor. “Master!”

“Embrose.”

Stadia was the Elder of Seranet, said to hold all its secrets in his section of the village. He had long, brown hair, but it was starting to whiten in a few places. Every member of the tribe had long, brown hair. It was part of their culture to keep their hair long. After all, long hair was a sign of power.

The other elvin tribes also shared a single hair color. They included red, blonde, amber, white, black, purple, green, aqua, silver, pink, and tan. Therefore, it was not hard to figure out which tribe elves belonged in.

Stadia, besides being the Elder, was also Embrose’s guardian. Embrose’s parents mysteriously disappeared when he was a baby, and Stadia found him stranded in the forest. No one, not Embrose, and not even Stadia himself knew what happened to his mom and dad. Stadia was also a hunchback, so he walked with the support of a cane.

***

“So, where have you been, huh?” Stadia asked Embrose a little later.

“I was just out with Silver Moon,” was Embrose’s answer.

“Doing what?” However, Stadia knew Embrose had been Healing. That was where all his attention went nowadays, rather than the coming-of-age ceremony over the weekend.

Every year, during the first weekend of August, young, male elves from each tribe participated in a coming-of-age ceremony. The ceremony would determine where they belonged in the tribe, whether in the back or in the front. The ceremony had three events: a fire bending event, a musical event, and a natural event, meaning the young elves would spend some time alone in the wilderness. The tribe’s chief would give them an assignment, and the children would complete it. Depending on the child, they would each get a different assignment. The coming-of age ceremony, or Baka as the elves called it, was one of the most important moments in a young elf’s life.

Girls were a little different. Their mothers would teach them how to take care of a house and rear children. It was to get them ready for motherhood. The female elves were the heart of the tribes. They carried the most magic in their bodies, and they used it to keep the tribes alive. Men were the protectors and hunters.

“How many times have I told you kid?” Stadia asked Embrose. “Elves are forbidden to interact with humans. Not to mention they are suffering through a pandemic right now. You’re risking the future of our tribe by getting close to them.”

“But she was different! The poor thing fell off her bike!” Embrose argued.

Stadia held his hand up to him, in order to cut him off. “I don’t want to hear it. You’re supposed to be getting ready for Baka, and you waste your time healing humans!”

Embrose shrugged. “Hey, at least it saves them from a $50,000 helicopter ride.”

Ooh! Burned! Of course, Embrose had always been a little rebellious.

Stadia was used to it. He rubbed his face down, asking, “What am I going to do with you, Embrose?”

He, Embrose, and Silver Moon soon made it to the end of the tunnel. The second they stepped through it, they were officially in Seranet.

It was a cute, little village. Scattered about it were huts, as well as mushrooms. The fairies lived in the mushrooms. Multiple smaller waterfalls and pools surrounded it. A canopy of trees overhead provided the village with its shade. In the middle of it was a wooden stage that had the Seranese logo on it–a butterfly. Another name for the tribe was the Butterfly Tribe. That was another way other elvin tribes could distinguish them from their own.

Children ran around the village with their friends, and a few other children visited the unicorn stables. Older children, like Embrose, trained for Baka.

On their way to the stables, Embrose, Stadia, and Silver Moon passed a group of three boys, all Embrose’s age. All were shirtless, and paint decorated their bodies. They stood around a fire and practiced fire bending.

One boy accidentally lost control of his flame, causing it to fly all over the place. He and his friends ducked under it.

Embrose chuckled, but Stadia glared at him.

The next thing the three passed was the amphitheater. It was at one of the many waterfalls in the area.

Groups of children sat around the waterfall’s pool. In it stood the shaman–a woman named Azora. She was telling the children an old Seranese tale, “The Lorutea Wilderness”. According to legend, thousands of years ago, an elf named Lorutea founded Seranet, after a butterfly whispered in his ear to travel to the Great Smoky Mountains, and that was how the Smoky Twelve were born. In conclusion, the Seranese were the oldest inhabitants of the Twelve.

Embrose wanted to stop and listen to the tale, but Stadia did not let him. He grabbed Embrose’s ear and dragged him to the unicorn stables so they could board Silver Moon.

“Ow! Ow! Ow!” Embrose yelped. Oh, his poor ear. He knew it was going to be sore.

“Ah, if it isn’t Silver Moon!” Erik, the unicorn stable’s owner said to the two elves. He took Silver Moon away from Embrose and asked her, “What has Embrose done to you this time?”

Silver Moon gave him a funny look. Her look said it all: Nothing!

Stadia let Embrose’s ear go (that allowed him to fan it), and he said to Erik, “Mr. Embrose here took her to John Oliver Cabin, right in the pandemic-filled human world! He met a girl.”

Erik glanced at Embrose, who lowered his hand from his ear. “Really? Was she pretty?”

Stadia smacked his shoulder. “Erik! We’re not supposed to encourage him! You know how dangerous Healing magic is!”

Embrose shuddered after hearing that sentence. “Dangerous? What are you talking about?”

“I should have not said that. I’m such an idiot!” Stadia grumbled.

Erik said nothing. After all, he wasn’t the one that brought that up. He scooted past Embrose and Stadia and put Silver Moon in a stall next to another unicorn named Dauntless Drive.

Dauntless Drive had a minor crush on her, so he did not mind having her next to him. He was a huge creature, about seventeen hands, who had a white body, mane, and tail. The village children liked to braid his mane, so he always had some kind of striking hairstyle.

Embrose narrowed his eyebrows, asking Stadia in a stern voice, “What do you mean ‘dangerous’, Mr. Stadia?”

Luckily, a screech from the sky saved Stadia from having to answer, and he quickly changed the subject. “Oh, look! It’s Phoenix!” He pointed up to the canopy of trees. A gorgeous, orange-red bird that had wings made of fire–a phoenix–soared down and headed towards him and Embrose.

Phoenix was the chief’s bird and the village’s messenger. He was actually a cursed man, whom the forest spirits punished after he betrayed Seranet a long time ago. Though cursed, the spirits allowed him to return as the chief’s bird, hoping he would learn his lesson. Only then would he be free from the curse. Now what did Phoenix do to make the forest spirits so furious? That was a good question for another time.

Phoenix tried to land in front of Embrose, Erik, and Stadia, but he failed miserably. He ended up crashing, and he lost a few orange-red feathers in the process.

The three elves covered their eyes. They opened them only when they no longer heard Phoenix sliding on the ground. Together, they asked, “Are you okay, Phoenix?”

“Never better!” was Phoenix’s response. His wings stopped flaming. He now looked somewhat like a normal bird, except for his blue eyes, of course.

Phoenix picked up a few of his feathers and tried to put them back on, but he did not succeed. Finally, he just gave up and faced Embrose. He stood as tall as a light post. “Embrose! The chief wishes to see you!”

Oh no. Embrose was in trouble. He gulped, but Stadia merely smirked.

Silver Moon nickered at her owner, saying that everything was going to be okay. However, she took a few steps to the right when Dauntless Drive started to move in on her.

“If you would follow me, son,” Phoenix stated. After a few more failed attempts at trying to put his felled feathers back in, he opened his wings again, and they burst back into flames.

Embrose jumped. Jeepers, he thought he would be used to that after fifteen years, but apparently not.

Phoenix started to fly away, but then he noticed Embrose wasn’t following him. “Come on, man! The worst thing the chief can do to you is turn you into a worm.” Oh, was that supposed to make Embrose feel better? No, it only made him even more nervous. Yet, he followed the phoenix, unaware that he was whispering to himself.

“Cailu, please, I do not know how much longer I can keep this up,” Phoenix silently said. “The boy is growing stronger.” He quickly shook out his head and called back to Embrose. “Come on, bro! The chief is anxiously awaiting your arrival.”

“Oh great,” Embrose mumbled, as he and Phoenix made their way through the Butterfly Village.