The Beginning (10 page)

As the sky became darker just before dawn, the three companions tried to find the brightest stars that had managed to shine past the moon-lit night. Jahrra smiled to herself, completely content with the world the way it was for the first time in years. She had two wonderful friends and she had just won a major battle against her enemies. She sighed happily as she laid back with Gieaun and Scede, admiring the glittering stars and familiar constellations above, watching over her, always watching over her. Yet, the stars weren’t the only things examining the world below them that night.

***

In the distance, a pair of strange eyes twinkled as they considered the three children from the ridge of a nearby dune. The eyes belonged to a face hidden beneath several layers of cloth, and the one wearing the cloth was unknown to Jahrra and her friends. But the children weren’t unfamiliar to this mysterious onlooker.

Someone was watching these three young ones earlier, but it wasn’t me
, the dark figure mused, disturbed by this revelation. This wasn’t the first time the stranger had spied on the children, but it was the first time the essence of something else was present in the area, something foreign but familiar at the same time.
Like a delicate scent I once knew as a child and had since forgotten; a scent to bring back memories best left alone.

The stranger shivered, looking like a crooked, quaking willow against the blackness of night. The faint sound of snoring drew the figure’s attention back to the small grove of creek willows lining the shallow stream below. The children were at last asleep, the excitement of the night finally taking its toll. The onlooker grinned, for the show that had taken place on the lake earlier that night had been quite spectacular. If it hadn’t been for a keen sense of hearing and eyesight, the stranger would have thought the children’s lake monster was the real thing.

The peculiar being sighed, trying to focus on the task at hand. The detection of another creature wandering this part of Oescienne was disturbing, and the spy started to wonder if a closer watch should be kept on the young girl with the golden hair and blue eyes.
Yes child, I will keep my eye on you, but I fear I am not the only one.

The onlooker quivered as an uncomfortable ripple of fear unfurled deep within in its heart. Was the other presence one of evil or one of good? It was impossible to tell. The mysterious figure closed its glittering eyes and slinked quietly down the opposite side of the dark hill and off into the rolling sand, the grey of an eastern dawn peeling back the darkness of night.

***

The final weeks of school were much easier to bear because of that eventful night on the lake. Everyone was looking forward to long warm days free from schoolwork and exams, daydreaming their lessons away as they imagined what they would be doing and where they would be going for the summer, receiving a sharp reprimand from Tarnik along the way. As distracting as the thought of the approaching summer was, it wasn’t nearly as interesting as the talk about the mysterious lake monster that had frightened Eydeth and Ellysian, and several others, half to death.

It seemed to Jahrra that with time her classmates had gradually drifted away from the twins, forming their own groups of friends or just growing tired of the same old harassment of the unfortunate Nesnan girl. But the incident on Lake Ossar suddenly turned Jahrra into a temporary super hero.

“Jahrra may have lied about the Witch of the Wreing, but she sure didn’t lie about that lake monster!” a younger girl whispered to her friends while Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede listened from their oak tree.

“I bet she didn’t lie about the witch either,” another girl added quietly. “I think it’s Eydeth who’s been lying all this time.”

Some of the children even ventured over to Jahrra’s side of the schoolyard with the sole purpose of making friends. Rhudedth and her brother Pahrdh were the first to do this. Ever since helping Jahrra after Eydeth’s attack in Kiniahn Kroi, the siblings had always made an effort to say hello or glare at anyone who gave her a hard time. One week after the success with the lake monster, they invited Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede to go camping in the hills with them. Jahrra, not knowing what to say, just stared in disbelief.

Before she could speak, Gieaun burst out cheerily, “We would love to!”

From that day on, Rhudedth and Pahrdh became good friends with the trio of outcasts.

Of course, none of the newcomers ever measured up to Gieaun and Scede. They had been Jahrra’s friends forever. But she was very happy to see that the twins’ overpowering reign seemed to be coming to an end.

Jahrra was also enjoying the looks of putrid rage on Eydeth’s and Ellysian’s faces when their jokes about her were suddenly no longer funny. On one particular occasion, Jahrra thought that Eydeth’s face might catch on fire it was so red with anger. When she asked some fellow classmates what had happened (it was nice talking to classmates without being ignored), they laughed and a younger boy told her, “My baby sister saw a spider and screamed, and Rehn here did an imitation of Eydeth trying to escape the lake monster.”

Jahrra sniggered as the boy called Rehn rushed past her as he went chasing after Eydeth, trying to apologize.

“I’m sorry!” he wheezed, making a great effort to suppress his laughter. “But she sounded just like you did when you saw the monster!”

For once it was the twins who were being ostracized and not Jahrra and her friends.

Yes, Jahrra was very pleased with this turn of events, but even though the twins had been brought down a peg or two, it didn’t stop them from being their normal, evil selves. Jahrra had the lake monster memory to reflect on, but as time went by, the twins started up with their insults once again. They no longer drew the attention of the whole class like they used to, but it still gritted at Jahrra’s ego. When she found Phrym splattered with blotches of yellow paint one day after school, she knew that summer couldn’t come soon enough.

I need a break from all this
, she thought as she, Gieaun and Scede scrubbed the stubborn paint off a very disgruntled semequin.
I need to take a trip to the Belloughs.

The ominous exams during the last week of school, followed by the immediate launch of her daily lessons with Viornen and Yaraa, gave Jahrra very little time or opportunity to visit Denaeh. She had needed the two weeks before the school year ended to study, and the two elves had insisted on longer and more frequent practices during the summer months to learn the new exercises and lessons. Despite her busy schedule, Jahrra found time to stop in and see the Mystic on her way home from the last day of school.

Denaeh was glad to see the girl after such a long absence, and as soon as she spotted her riding into her swamp atop Phrym, her elderly façade faded into her youthful one. “How is your lake monster plot coming along?” she queried, her topaz eyes sparkling.

“Oh! We finished weeks ago and it worked perfectly!” Jahrra answered breathlessly as she got down from Phrym, returning Denaeh’s sunny smile.

She went on to describe the events, in great detail, as they tended to the Mystic’s precious mushroom garden. The two of them spent the rest of the day in the peaceful woods, chatting and drinking tea in the pleasant weather.

Jahrra amused herself by watching Milihn fly in and out of the Belloughs. He would hop around Denaeh’s garden before stopping in front of a bare patch of earth. After examining the soil for several moments, the unusual bird would us his sharp beak as a tool to quickly plant a seed, or sometimes a seedling. Once done with his job, he would grumble contentedly to himself before flying off again in search for more.

Jahrra sighed as the light became slowly lost to the encroaching dusk. It had been a lovely day and she hated to see it end. She bade farewell to her Mystic friend, knowing that tomorrow she would be starting the summer off with a grueling day-long session of defense lessons.

Yaraa and Viornen planned to give her a preliminary test in order to see where she stood first thing tomorrow morning. Jahrra had been meeting them on the weekends for lessons, but she was supposed to be practicing every day on her own. She had performed the required stretches and practiced her swordplay and archery in the fields with Phrym watching, but she still felt a little nervous about her testing tomorrow. The last thing Jahrra wanted to do was let down her elvin trainers.

The next day came and went, and to her great relief, both Yaraa and Viornen complimented her on her progress. The two elves had employed their three children to help in the assessment of Jahrra’s skills, and they had done an excellent job in distracting her. Regardless of the disruption that Strohm, Srithe and Samibi presented, Jahrra still managed to fend off Viornen while simultaneously detecting Yaraa as she crept up silently behind her. Hroombra was all smiles when Jahrra returned home that afternoon with the good news.

“Now, if only you could do the same in your Kruelt lessons,” he teased.

Jahrra had been struggling with the ancient language ever since she first started studying it. She sighed deeply, wishing she didn’t have to continue learning Draggish.

Now that summer was in full swing, Jahrra found herself struggling to make time for her friends. She had started a more rigorous training program with the elves, since she’d been progressing so well, but that also meant a new schedule, one that consisted of early mornings and nighttime meditating under the stars. She hardly ever had time for Gieaun and Scede, and they were often left spending the long summer days with some of their new friends from school.

Jahrra missed her best friends and her lessons with the elves of Dhonoara were proving to be harder than ever. If only she could visit Denaeh once more before the start of school, that might help ease her mind a little. She hadn’t seen the Mystic since the beginning of the summer and she dearly needed the cool, soothing calm only the Black Swamp could offer. Jahrra sighed inwardly knowing that the Belloughs would have to wait. Right now, she needed to focus on her training. She still had half the summer left and perhaps she would get a day or two free to spend however she wished before it was all over.

***

“Now, we are very proud of the progress you’ve made over the past few years Jahrra, and we believe you are ready to start the next step in your training, but we want you to remember that we don’t expect you to learn this overnight,” Yaraa told her seriously a few weeks after her assessment. “This is the longest and most challenging step in becoming an expert fighter, so you must practice patience.”

Jahrra took a deep breath and focused all of her attention on what Yaraa was telling her. This new stage in her training required every scrap of concentration she could muster, and she wasn’t about to let her daydreams get the better of her.
Focus
, she told herself as she narrowed her eyes in scrutiny,
focus . . .

By the end of the day, Viornen was sporting a bruise on his forearm, Yaraa was sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath, and Strom, Samibi and Srithe were hiding somewhere where their parents couldn’t find them and drag them out to act as potential enemies.

Once Yaraa finally caught her breath, she glanced up at Jahrra and smiled broadly. “Well done!” she breathed.

She stood and dusted off her leather pants and stretched out her arms and back. “You have been working very hard all summer and today we see the evidence of your hard work paying off.”

Jahrra was covered in dirt and displayed a few scrapes and bruises herself, but she had managed to stay on her feet.

Yaraa went and stood by her husband, stretching to murmur something in his ear. Viornen nodded once and Yaraa turned her bright eyes on Jahrra, smiling enormously. She approached the bedraggled girl and held out her hand. Jahrra blinked in surprise, for the elf was holding a blue leather bag, drawn tight with a string.

“We have been saving this for you, but both Viornen and I agree that you are ready to have it. It may not seem like much, but we suspect it will aid you in your progress of our arts of defense.”

Jahrra gave her trainer a puzzled look, but smiled lightly and took the bag.

“Open it,” Viornen urged, a small grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Jahrra drew a forearm across her brow and sat down on the fence that surrounded the cabin. She carefully tugged at the strings and upturned the pouch into her hand. A bracelet made of string and beads, coiled delicately like a languid snake, fell into her palm. The string was rather fibrous, tough and the color of hay. The beads that were woven within it were made of polished wood, all a slightly different texture, color and grain than the next. Each bead, Jahrra noted, had a rune branded onto its smooth side, and on the opposite, a tiny symbol, each looking like some sort of tree.

“Thank you,” Jahrra said quietly as she uncoiled the unique gift.

“It is a bracelet made of beads from each of the Sacred Trees of Ethoes,” Yaraa said softly. “It was crafted by the elvin clans of Dhonoara many years ago. We have been holding on to it, hoping one day we could find someone worthy of wearing it.”

Jahrra blinked up in surprise. This was a grand gift indeed, for her trainers to be holding on to it for such a long time.

Viornen grinned, the smile reaching his eyes. “It will bring you luck and protection.”

“I, I can’t accept this!” Jahrra whispered. “Surely you want to save it for your own children.”