1.

“Faelwen, wake up!” Someone pulled my blankets of me. Slowly I opened my eyes. My mom looked terrified down upon me. “We have to go! Now!”  She quickly took some clothes and put them in a bag. As fast as I could I dressed myself. The sleep was slowly fading away and at the same time I got more aware of my surrounding. I wanted to walk to the window, but my mom gripped my arm tightly and pulled me away from it. Struggling to stay on my feet, I ran after my mom down the stairs. Downstairs my dad was waiting with a backpack and sword. “What’s wrong?” I asked. But all ignored me. “Take her outside, put her on a horse and drive away!” My father already walked towards a trunk in the living room. “But dear, what about you? I’m not leaving without you!” She quickly dried her tears and looked him doubtful in the eye.

“Go now! I’ll meet you there!” She didn’t need more convincing and pulled me with her into the garden. With her help, I climbed on our horse. People screamed, houses were burning. I didn’t understand what was going on. A group of people were walking towards us, dressed in dark robes with red runes. They said something in a foreign language. Continuously repeating it. Everything around them burst into flames and with their long swords they killed everybody around them. “Hurry up!”. Then my dad ran outside with another sword and a small dagger. He gave this to me. It was a simple dagger with a leather hilt and on the blade, was written one simple word: Brave.

I bound it to my tiny belt and gripped the reins tightly. The black sorcerers came closer and closer. My dad raised his sword in the air, while my mom vainly tried to climb on the horse as well. But our horse was to frighten and kept stumbling in circles, watching the danger grew near. Eventually she could grip the reins. Unfortunately, one of the black sorcerers stepped out of the group and raised his hand towards my father. He started shaking and dropped his sword. The black sorcerer pointed towards himself and as a respond my dad lost all control over his body and flew towards him hovering in the air. Then the slim hand of the sorcerer formed itself to a fist. My dad gripped his throat. Blood run down his face. Mom yelled. “Necromancers! Necromancers!” The necromancer threw the lifeless body of my father to the side and almost seemed to flow towards my mother. She hit the horse so hard, that he started to sprint away from the danger. I cling myself on his neck and looked anxious back over my shoulders. I had a last glimpse of my mother being stabbed by the necromancer’s sword after she tried to defend herself with, what looked like, a magical stone. The words of the necromancers resounded in my head: “Dinok wah jul, vos yun feln do lug on.”  One of the necromancers looked my way and raised his hand. A bright white flash blinded my eyes…

I opened my eyes, heavily breathing. Artemis pushed his nose against my cheek. “I’m fine, Artemis. Just a nightmare, just a nightmare.” They come more often lately. You almost lost yourself there, with your travelling through the past. I heard his voice in my head as always. We were communicating telepathically. “I can’t help it, it goes automatically.”Now your awake, we better continue our journey. Wearily I stood up and slung my backpack over my shoulders. An icy wind cut through my clothes, I pulled my robe closer around myself and followed my wolf. His eyes told me how the road changed and if it was safe to follow. With his ears, I heard the night sounds turn into the break of dawn. Little beasts hid themselves in the bushes when we walked by. We followed a winding road, covered with pine-tree needles, into the forest. My face was frozen from the icy wind. I smelled the strong scent of pine-trees and the soft, warm, sweet herbs growing near the trees. All familiar scents but there was one faint scent I didn’t recognize. It smelled like an almost burned out campfire.  “Are we walking the right track? It smells different.” Of course, Wen, we always walk this way. Artemis sounded irritated. A cold wind blew small snowflakes into my face and I pulled my hood further over my head. “It snows,” I mumbled in my scarf. My wolf growled and ignored me. I snarled back but he didn’t seem to notice. Once every two weeks me and Artemis would travel down the hill towards the small lake village to sell our herbs and buy new supplies. We lived so close to the forest that we had enough firewood and plenty game to hunt. But especially during winter, when our fields were covered in snow, we had to travel to the village for crops. Two days of travel and a small lake village came into view where ships full of exotic herbs, bright jewels and extraordinary fruits sailed into the harbour. According to Artemis we were almost there. I was done travelling through this harsh weather. My shoulders were hurting because of the heavy backs of crops and my nose and toes were frozen. I hope Barnabas has made us a nice hot meal. I smiled. “You’re such a weird wolf.” Barnabas was an older man who found me 13 years ago. He was a mage, but I believed he didn’t want to be part of the war that was going on now. Barnabas taught me how to hunt and survive in the nature. When I found Artemis as a puppy, he taught me how to communicate with him in a way nobody can. He told me I had it in me to become a mage if I wanted to. Unfortunately, there was something inside my body that prevented my magical ability to appear. Some people are born with what we call magic, and others are born without magical abilities. Nobody exactly knows where this magic came from. Some say that it was given by the gods to help us defend the world against the darkness below. Others say that we are descendants from elves. A mythological race who would look like us, but would outlive every human being. Not only that, it is told that they have pointy ears and are far more gracious than us. I dared not to believe either of those stories. Something is wrong, Wen. The hairs on his back stood up and he growled. I made myself smaller and sneaked through the bushes into the open field. We left the forest behind us and entered a small open field were our home supposed to be. My heart broke by what I saw. Our cosy, wooden farm was burned to the ground. The stables were empty. Cows nowhere to be found. Here and there scatter-brained chickens ran around, but beside the frightened chickens there was no life source to be seen. Artemis howled to the grey, clouded sky. I walked towards the place where used to be the entrance to our home. The farm wasn’t big, but we had everything we needed. The fireplace was nothing more than ash. The bookshelves were gone, and not a book was left alive. I sat down on the ground were the big chairs used to face the fire hearth. And pulled a floor board from its place. There was a small box hidden underneath it. The topside was covered with black ash. The strange forms on top used to be dancing, white figures on a dark blue background underneath a starry sky. Now they looked like demons rising from the ashes. I uncovered a small key from a cord around my neck and tried to put in the lock. The lock was melted, but after prying it lose, the box sprang open. A soft music echoed through the quiet night. Two wooden figures danced together in circles. Again, and again. The sound of the music never sounded so sad before. Tears sting my eyes. This music box was everything that was left of my parent’s home. Barnabas had found it after one of his research journeys. He often played it right before bedtime when I was young. On the inside, there was a painting of a sunset. Strange words danced around the sun: Ír nidh-tana-dhir í fû ón í medui calad uin í aur. I never understood the meaning behind them. The only thing I remember is that I had to protect it with my life. Faelwen, I found something, resounded Artemis’ voice in my head. I dried my tears and stood up. Artemis brought me a piece of some sort of fabric. I let him sniff it out and became one with his spirit so I could share the same senses. It smelt mostly of burned wood, but there was a deeper scent hidden underneath it. A smell I didn’t recognize. It didn’t smell like Barnabas, so this had to be from one of the enemies. I closed Artemis’ eyes, took a deep breath and pulled myself back to my own body. When I opened my eyes, I took a closer look to this piece of fabric. There was an insigne of the king on it. My heart stopped. “I believe we shouldn’t stay here any longer, Artemis.” He looked worried at me. “The Hunters have found us.” My wolf showed his teeth. They will come back for us and I’ll be ready, Artemis grunted. I shook my head. “No.” 

“We are not going to fight them. We will stay hidden in the shadows like always. That’s for the best.” The Hunters were assassins created by the former high king, most of the time just called “the king”, before his second son inherited the crown. Talron was chosen as first High king of the world after all the lands decided that they should cooperate to protect the human beings against the darkness below. The Demons with their leader, The Fiend. The high king would be the one deciding what to do and would take leadership of the war against the Fiend. And defeated the Fiend with the help of the mages, for as far as the people know. But not very long ago the former high king, Talron, had decided to kill all the mages in his country to protect the ones without magical abilities. He thought that the mages would sooner or later take over the king’s power and rule the world. When the king got two sons, one of them turned out to be a mage. He banished his son from the castle just like he had banished his archmage. This was more than twenty years ago. But ten years ago, the banished son returned. He had created an entire army of mages who were done being chased and killed by the Hunters. Who had lost family members due to these monsters. This army of mages called themselves the Necromancers. The banished son, Orion, was there leader. Not every mage agreed with the way Orion was trying to take back the freedom of the mages. This group of mages followed the archmage and tried to bring peace through politics, even though the archmage had disappeared years ago. They called themselves the Sorcerers. There is one big difference between these two groups. And that is the way they use their magic. The Necromancers mostly used the dark side of it while the Sorcerers refused to even look at that sort of magic. Anyway, the Hunters are non-magical human beings, who were trained to kill every magical creature in the land. As swift as a fox, as quiet as a mouse and as dark as the night, they sneaked through the lands. It didn’t matter how good you were prepared to defend yourself against them. If they had found you, there was no escape. And the end was near. I turned around to walk away, when I staggered over something sticking out of the ground. I fell pretty painful on my knees and cursed the damn thing sticking out in the open like that. Artemis smelled on the object and suddenly started to dig it out like a lunatic. “What the hell are you doing? Are you crazy? Get up! We need to get going!”

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It smells like… like… Barnabas! I didn’t need more convincing and started to help.

Soon a shape of an iron chest became visible, covered in dirt. After a little while we could pull it out of the ground. It wasn’t big as you would expect a chest to be. Actually, it was really small. The lock was melted by the fire and easy to break open. The inside wasn’t as spectacular as I hoped it would be. And what’s inside of it, surprised me even more. Journals. I knew Barnabas kept journals with him wherever he went. But why did he had to hide them like this? I grab the first one on top and opened it on the first page. 

So, you have found my secret hiding place, you little chaser! I knew this day would come. You are a clever girl. Maybe the time is right now you found my notes to tell you more about your parents. Come and find me in my alchemy lab, since you are on a quest anyway. I bet with your curiosity it wouldn’t be hard to find.

 “I guess Barnabas hadn’t see this one coming either.” Artemis ignored me. It started to become more of a habit of him lately. And what would Barnabas mean by “telling me more about my parents”?

“Artemis?” Be quiet woman, I am trying to listen. I snarled again towards him and he gave me an unpleasant look back. Just like siblings. Cannot live with or without them.

I turned the notebook to the next page. Here Barnabas was talking about something I did not quit grasp. Something about Patrons. Making a pact with an otherworldly being with immense powers to gain those kinds of powers as well. To become an apprentice of some sort. The time was getting shorter and shorter. We had to leave. I quickly grab all the notebooks to put them in my backpack, but a small piece of paper fell out of one of the notebooks. I opened it. It was a map. “Hey, there is a map and some notes, I think that…” before I could finish my sentence Artemis leaped up his feet. Go, go, go!

With some of the stuff we bought, we left in a hurry. Running as fast as we could into the forest. vaguely we heard someone shout behind us, but we didn’t stop for a second to look back.

 After running for what felt like miles, we finally stopped and plumped down into the snow. The air above us grew darker. More snow was coming.

What next? Are we going to run forever?

“First we find a place to sleep.”

What about the old bee lady? The old bee lady lived in a house on the route towards the village. She sold honey, well that explains the name we gave her. “Not wise. They will search everywhere for us.” I was trying hard to find a solution, but couldn’t find one.

We could sleep in her old barn. She stopped using it after her horse died remember?

I agreed. So here we started our adventure. I like to think that this was going to be like those stories you tell by the fireplace to your children. But in reality, it sucked. It was hard, icy cold and scary. With no one to watch your back or teach you how to survive in certain situation. You are completely alone. Of course, I had Artemis to watch my back. But to be honest, he was just as scared as I was. Even though he tried to be all “I can handle this situation and I will fight them off”. When it turned dark outside he was scared to sleep alone and curled up beside me. The old barn was a pathetic hiding place. There were holes in the ceiling and the front door couldn’t close properly. The wind seemed not to care that the wood of the walls was supposed to stop it and blew straight through it. Making us shiver in the darkness. Most of the snow landed upon the roof, but lots of snow still found his way in, covering the ground with a thin, white, cold layer. I gathered some dried sticks and tried to lit it up with my tinderbox. It didn’t give much warmth or light, but it was enough for the two of us. With my cloak, close around me and Artemis curled up beside me, I opened the map again. It was an old map; the sides were crumbled and it was marked with folding lines. It seemed that Barnabas had made it himself. The black ink showed the borders of the land we lived in. I could barely read the names of the towns and cities he put in the map. There were a few places marked with an X. When I compared my map that I bought in town, with the homemade map from Barnabas, I couldn’t find a town of some sort on the places marked with an X. And that confused me. What had he found on those places? Or what didn’t he find?

Maybe he was looking for something that he thought he could find in those places. But he didn’t find it. To confirm my theory, I read his first journal.

3E 917- the 21st of the second moon. Barnabas had written the era, year and date above each of his stories. We have 12 months in a year. Every month has 28 days. According to “new” moons. The people think that every month a new moon arises. I read on.

 How can we stop this war? I’ve been pondering over this question for years. Should I side with the Sorcerers? Trying to talk our way into the politics. Or should I side with the Necromancers as all the talking isn’t going to end the fear of the humans. That’s when I understood. The humans were afraid of us. We should bring them their trust in us back. But how? Why are some born with this magical ability and others not? For this question to be answered, I headed for the biggest library that existed in our land. Faerûn Librarium. For days, I searched for information. Until I found a story that completely shifted my point of view. I had to translate it as it was written in an old language. We mages ought to think that this language belonged to the otherworldly beings. This story was written in the beginning right before the king decided to destroy every magical creature in his land. It’s not that long ago. And the weirdest is that I can’t remember the king being a mage of some sort. Unless he made a pact.

 Written by the Returner

A message for the human king:

The tree we create of life

Here is how the story goes

No one gets to choose the way in which the cold wind blows

You can say your branch is strongest

That it’s highest and it’s best,

But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s connected to the rest

So instead of ripping leaves off

Perhaps you ought to stop

To ask yourselves why you’re convinced you belong right at the top

 And in this storm, we’re creating?

Well, the best view will be worst

For when the lightning finally strikes

It strikes the top branch first

 This is interesting. Why would the king be able to read this otherworldly language? And who is this Returner guy? What does Barnabas mean with ‘Unless he made a pact’?

If I can find out where this otherworldly being lives, I might be able to talk to him. And maybe I can find out more about the king and the start of this war. But where to start?

I scanned through this journal and the next and the next. I felt like I was reading the entire night, when I found something interesting.

3E 917- the 13th of the twelfth moon 

Today I talked to a strange old woman who was babbling something about graciously, slim human beings who could sing you asleep and even lit up the darkest night. I went looking for these strange creatures even though people declared me insane. Stories told me to look around in the forgotten realms. The forests there were wise and old. The hills climbed up the mountains who kissed the skies. I will walk all the way to Anduîn lake in the hope for something or someone to meet.

 3E 917- the 17th of the twelfth moon

I was right there! I was at the Anduîn lake as we call it. Named after the mountains Anduîn. But when I walked there, I heard whispers saying: Vanya-nendë. It sounds like a name. When I called, something hit me from behind and when I woke up, I was right back in the village of Erandur. The crazy old lady was caring for me. Calling me names to go all the way up there and face the dangers. I told her about the whispers and she said that the wind could play tunes like that among the trees. But I still believe some creature lives there. Right now, I must go back, this is my last piece of parchment and last bit of ink.

 In the following journals, he never spoke of returning to this lake. Instead he went to other places. Places that were often quit near our home. Until the year, I came to live with him. There the notebooks stopped. Later on, he travelled further to temples and shrines up on the mountain tops or at the cliffs above the sea.

My eyes were too tired to read any further, but this was the piece to the beginning of my quest. I would finish what Barnabas had started more than 20 years ago. According to his journals 24 years to be exact. Satisfied with my new plan, I fell asleep.

I awoke with a bloody bird that landed on my face. I brought food! Artemis grabbed the bird again and started to shake it. Feathers whirled down upon me. “Artemis!” I exclaimed in horror. “Let me cook that first.” With some struggling I tucked the bird out of Artemis’ jaw. Disgusted by the bloody bird, I started to pluck him.

After a few minutes of making a fire and roasting the bird above it, we both shared a nice hot meal. It had stopped snowing outside and a watery sun broke through the heavy clouds. “This promises a better day for us.” I smiled at my wolf who tucked his head out of the pathetic barn. Let’s hope so. We filled our water bottles with snow in the hope it would melt in the sun.

After the nice bird meal, we started our journey on the road towards the Townhaven, the small lake village. Everything around me seemed more alive than usual. Birds were singing their songs, even when winter had just begun. Here and there you heard the thump of snow falling of the branches from the trees. In de distance, you could sometimes hear the deer’s running. When I looked up through the trees, I saw blue sky peeking through the clouds. Slowly the clouds flew by. Ever changing from shapes. My thoughts went astray, back to my home.

My mother smiled at me as I hung upside down from the tree branch. “Mom, the world looks so different upside down.” I shifted my legs and started to swing a little. The branch groaned under my weight and then snapped. I fell on my back in the green grass and could just in time crawl away from the branch that hid the ground behind me with a loud thump. My mom ran towards me but as I stood up, we began to laugh. “You are such a clumsy person!” She hugged me. “You will become a great adventurer, I can feel it.” She smoothed my hair and removed the grass and dirt from my face. “There is freedom waiting for you on the breezes of the sky. And if you are older, you will do great things.”

“But what if I fall again?” I looked at my bruised knees and mom dapped the blood of it away with her kerchief. “Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?” She smiled at me and I put my forehead against hers.

Artemis bumped his head to my hand on purpose and I stroke him behind his ears. The memories were fading. But sometimes they would come back through a smell or the sun on your skin. I was scared to lose the memories forever. The watery sun now was shining brightly and the clouds were almost gone. I heard that the snow in our bottle had turned into water and the feeling of fear disappeared. “One more day and we are in the village, Artemis.” Where were you with your travelling’s?

“I was with mom.”