The Path to Aradicia

In the night, I saw my breath in front of me as I hid behind a tall birch tree in the Ezekien Forest. There were men trailing a good distance in front of me with their horses and their supplies. Only a few hours passed, but I didn’t know how far I was from my camp or my friends. All I could focus on was the anger boiling inside of me at the sight of the Farrow emblem on one of the horses. A Farrow emblem was a fear-striking one at that; a creature with a cobra-shaped head with devilish horns and fiery eyes. To me, it was just a constant reminder of what I lost years ago.

Slowly, I crept around the bushes and trees to gain a closer view of the group. From what I could see, there were five dark figures in the clearing up ahead and all their supplies were stacked up in a pile just near the entrance of the forest. I stepped forward, crouching down as low as I could, making my way to the pile of food. No matter how badly I wanted revenge on these men, I had to help my friends. As I reached for a few bags, one of the boxes of medical supplies started to fall over in front of me. Quickly, I pushed up against it to prevent the bottles from crashing out, but my effort only made the entire stack come tumbling down. The men looked over at me once they heard the noise.

“Hey! You!” one of them shouted.

With the bags in hand, I made a run for it back towards my camp. My heart was pounding as if it were about to break free from my chest. I could already tell I was losing strength, but I had to keep going. There was no way I was going to let The Farrows capture me. I looked back to see if I was putting some good distance between us, but my foot almost slipped on a patch of ice, causing me to drop the bags. The icy air stung my throat as I panicked and left the supplies there. To try and throw them off my trail, I took a shortcut, sliding down some slippery rocks. When I reached the bottom of the hill, my foot fell into some icy mud. Desperate, I tried to pull myself free as I heard the men closing in on me. Just as I managed to pull myself out of the mush, a bright light flashed onto my face, blinding me. I fell onto the ground, tangling my feet in some frozen vines. Four of the men approached me with their weapons and their lights. Terrified, I crawled back a few feet until I heard another man yell in the distance.

"Hold on! She's just a kid!" The man that approached me was hard to see at first. I could only make out a tall figure. When he crouched down to meet me face to face, I saw his piercing blue eyes and his dark, scruffy hair. "Do you think it's wise to steal from other people?"

My eyes shifted back and forth among the small group of men, carrying Farrow armor and weapons. Upon close inspection of the gentleman in front of me, none of them appeared to be marked.

"I'm just trying to survive out here like everyone else," I answered, keeping a defensive look on him.

He smirked a little. When he looked back at one of his men, he reached out to receive a blade. I flinched as he made a move towards me, but he went straight for the vines at my feet. Once he cut me free, he stood up.

"You're pretty cunning. I'll give you that," he said with a grin. His eyes quickly shifted at the flicker of my heart-shaped necklace. "Where did you get that?"

I glanced down at it. On the front of the pendant was my family crest; fiery angel wings with a sword down the middle and a heart on the handle.

"It was my mother's," I replied, solemnly.

"Elara?" He looked into my hazel eyes with what seemed like an expression of heartbreak.

"How do you know who I am?" I asked him.

"I know everything about you, Elara," he answered. "You're the one who's going to save us all."