Hox

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. Their arrival marked the end and beginning of many things. Not long ago, the Sun was enough to warm the gentle earth beneath your feet and the land was full of life and joy. The village children freely roamed the streets, laughing, and seeking new adventures. Nights were oft filled with music, merriment, and there was a sense of confident peace among the kingdoms.

Once the dragons arrived with their appetites and imposing presence, the people lost this simplicity of life. Ashen clouds filled the skies, a ghastly silence permeated the land, and an everlasting cold crept in—even the hearth of fire in the tunnel of Söde stopped burning.

Through months of scarcity and sorrow, the four kingdoms, at last, decided to send scouts beyond the foreboding sky-scraping cliffs encircling the Valley into the outside land of Lorne through the tunnel. On the chosen day, just as scouts had reached the tunnel’s mouth, tall and slender human-like creatures with angular features and deep aquamarine eyes emerged into the clearing: the Azurites, or the elfenfok, as they like to be called.

They stood on their horses in their glimmering clothes, menacingly scanning the faces down below in the village. The one at the lead locked eyes and motioned for a boy to move forward. Entranced by the gaze, the brown-haired boy walked closer and stood before the crowd of villagers. "Desolate", the boy mouthed on their behalf. Then he spoke in a distorted voice, "The land is desolate and dead…"

"When your people left the land, you left nothing. There is nothing for you there. We’ve been waiting."

The villagers started to chatter. “It can’t be”. “These creatures can’t be trusted,” thought some in the crowd. “Release him!” they spoke of the boy.

"The dragons are not your enemy. They guard the doors between realms and more than one may have opened in yours. We are not your enemies... A door has opened in this tunnel. We have a duty to find these doors before the Conjurers do. The fate of our realm and the others depend on it. If you would like to still cross, we can take you back with us to Silverwater, a town just beyond the end of the tunnel in our realm. Some of us will stay and some will leave in three weeks’ time."

As they walked into the crowd, they released the boy from the trance. Screams and a heavy commotion soon followed.

The elves stayed in Söde, watching the people, attempting to gain some trust, and meeting the inhabitants of the land. They came to an understanding with the kings on who to communicate through until they could learn each other’s languages. The elves started sharing tales of their land of Hox: how the elfenfok had built entire towns on the massive plateaus on high cliffs miles high, established villages at the foot of waterfalls, and on swamps. The seemingly stoic elves communed with the villagers and shared tales of the many races of peoples that lived in their land such as the Fae and terrifying creatures like weftts and vesers, and how to escape from them. Balken—the master general of this elfenfok company—spoke of the Conjurers and how they had used the essence of souls to manipulate some doors into opening to forbidden sites. They knew they had to get to them before the Conjurers did, but ultimately, they did not know what they were looking for and were desperate for an alliance…

Three weeks came and the elfenfok announced it was time to cross. Having seen visions of the land they spoke of while in the trance, the boy convinced his family to be amongst those to first depart with the others who came from other kingdoms in the Valley. And so, the elfenfok company slowly disappeared into the dark, cold tunnel into the door into another world.

Unbeknownst to the elfenfok as they disappeared into Hox, a young girl hastily swam up to the surface from a door under the lake of Beren in another kingdom in the Valley, almost having drowned.