Chapter One; Essence of Frixell LogixA Chapter by Alyssa B. LongLegend goes that 7 brave children of the Goddess, Seles, will restore the land's riches, nourishment, and Soul. Soul is the mana of the land, however, not everyone agrees...
There the young lady laid her back against the tree. The wind blows on her face as she listens to the roaring sound of the waterfall. She gazed upon the sky as she sighs, listening to the water only to hear nothing.
The sun glared its light upon her eyes as she held her fishing rod. She grabs her straw hat to shield herself from the sunlight. A distant shout echoes throughout the lake ceasing the young lady's food gathering.
The young lady had skin white as snow, which often causes envy with the village girls. She was shunned for having nothing, but a simple white dress and her red cloak.
She often got made fun of her height, for she was shorter than the average girl her age. Nonetheless many fear the young lady for the curse she was born with.
“Frixell!” A young boy at the age of four ran up to the young lady whose hair covered her face. She spits out realizing that she had been chewing on her beautiful short black hair. She stands up running towards the little one only to slam her face on a bark of a tree.
“Huh..my mind must be playing tricks on me...Unless..” She turns around hearing rustling in the bushes that surrounded her. She steps carefully circling around the tree to conceal herself from the shrubs.
“How many times have I told you?! You can call me Frix, Frixell is too formal!” She roared out to the forest.
There Frix laid her back against the tree breathing in synch with the wind that blew against her skin. Suddenly yelp from the hedge is heard, she jumps from hiding surprising the little boy.
“Ha! I got you!” Frix said as she lifts the boy up from the ground. “Aw, darn it! I thought I got you that time..” Cried the little boy.
Frix waved her index finger at the little boy as she clicked her tongue.
“I'll have you know, fishing is the most important job, especially in our village! Hey, wait... John, are you ditching the Royal Lecture?" Frixell tilts her head while she ponders with her thoughts.
John looks away from Frix and sulks by the tree. She shifts her gaze onto him as she kneels to meet his eye level.
“You know.. Prince Xill has commanded everyone to attend the Royal Lectures right? It's not to torture kids, it's so that you would all get educated” Frixell says in regret.
John grunts under his breath and turns away folding his arms.
“I don't want to go! I don't want to be a scholar Frix! I just want to be one of the Legendary Knights who protected the weak and innocent!” John pouts at Frixell.
Frixell closes her eyes as she lifts her hand then slaps it onto her face.
“Hey... the Legendary Knights are a family lineage only for those who can wield The Right” Frixell smiles to herself as she nods.
"Well, it's better to dream to be a Legendary Knight than be born a Zest!" John runs from Frixell then throws a rock at her.
Frixell covers her face with her fishing rod as the rock hits the handle. John runs away from her, crossing the lake by using the bridge that connected the lake to the village.
Frixell kneels down to sit back down against the tree resuming to her fishing.
"It's not like I choose to be born a Zest, John.." Frixell grabs a caterpillar from her bait bucket, stabbing the poor creature onto her hook. She stands to keep her hands instance on her rod then casts onto the lake.
Frixell feeling disappointment and resentment towards herself look at her right hand. There resides a sky blue spade covering the middle of her hand.
Frixell puts down her fishing rod as she lifts up her right hand against the sun. The red spade on the back of her hand glimmers under the sun's light shining upon her blue right eye.
Frix approaches the lake to see her reflection. Sadness is the expression that Frixell is wearing today, she told herself.
"Why have I born a Zest? Did I do something wrong? Or am I about to do something wrong which is why I'm a Zest..?" Frix gazes deeply to her reflection to see her right blue eye and left green eye.
“Why was I born different and be born with strange things.. I mean look at me! Who in the Goddess has two different colored eyes?!” She trusts her fist onto the water hoping to destroy her image and create a new. Frix lifts her fist onto the water the coded her in further pity.
“Why am I.. different? I could never understand why I could never feel water... I know it's cold I keep telling myself it's cold...however... it's warm. No matter what I do or where I touch water.. it is always warm!" Frixell clenches her teeth bringing her fist against her bosom.
Splashing noises startle Frix as the snapping of her fishing rode catches her attention. She holds the rod tightly swiftly hanging it up in the air, she twist the rod to the left and then turns to the right.
“Ugh.. what did I catch this time?! More Rainbow Trouts?!” Frix hisses as she continues to talk to herself.
Frix and her fishing rod get dragged closer to the lake, she digs her feet onto the soil to prevent herself from losing to a fish. In agony, she holds a firm grip walking towards the tree.
In desperation, she wraps the string that connected to the fish and her fishing rod around the tree. The string slices lightly onto her skin oozing blood from her left hand. She was determined to capture her dinner continues to pull the string.
“C'mon....c'mon....!” Frixell prays to herself.
The string snaps as it slaps Frixell's right cheek. The stinging sensation of her right cheek forced her to bite her lip to hold the pain, she then closes her eyes to calm herself.
As she lifts her eyelids to see what she had caught she slumps onto the tree.
“Finally! Salmon... and not Rainbow Trout! I finally caught dinner...”
She then tends to her right cheek by applying ointment to help ease the pain. She laughs to herself feeling proud and successful in finally capturing a salmon. After tending to her wound, she grabs her bait bucket and bag to return to Serum Village.
Frix passes the large tree that had guarded the lake for centuries. She bows and thanks the tree for assisting her in capturing dinner.
She follows the lake back to the village as she was greeted by John. The small boy gazed at her in pain as he puts his hand on his neck.
"Frix... I'm sorry. I-I know nobody in the village likes you... Since you a Zest...b-but..." The young boy's cheek flushes in redness as he held his fist in the air.
“I-I'm still your friend Frixell!” John motions joyfully.
“You're just apologizing because I caught more than just a fish. Am I right?” Frixell smirks at the young boy as he scratches his head.
"Well. I mean... you're the only one in the village who actually fishes. Since there's no Soul in the land..and everyone knows that Soul is what fills these lands with life and nourishment... everything is limited. Maybe that's why Prince Xill wants Scholars....I mean Scholars are able to solve every problem!” John says embarrassingly.
"John.. you're the smartest four-year-old I have ever known in my life! I know being a scholar might be boring, but you have captured Prince Xill's attention! I think he wants to teach everyone so that they can be as smart as you! You know not everyone can read!" Frixell waves her index finger at John again.
John and Frixell laugh as they walk through their small village. The sweet scent of Honey bread spreads in the air causing both of their stomachs to growl. In each corner of the hamlet, everyone lived in a small, but durable cottage.
Each citizen snicked and ignored Frix as she walked by them. Every merchant and peddler asked Frix if she would like to trade bread, money, or cloth for her fish.
She shook her head “No” to John several times to ignore the villagers. Soon as the sun sets the stars began to dance upon the sky, Frix then walked John back home waving good-bye.
Frix continued to walk through the village to see her home. Her cottage lay in shambles surrounded with weeds and dead flowers. The area smelled like horse manure that had seemed to never get her sick. In the darkness, she hears coughing and heavy breathing, she approaches the door, opening it to greet her father.
“Father I'm home! I finally caught Salmon!”
There Frix's father laid in bed coughing, however, still greeting her with a smile. Her father covered in sweat and with wrinkles surrounding every inch of his face.
"Welcome, home Frix... You caught Salmon you say? That's my girl!" The old man smiles at his beautiful daughter.
“Did anyone throw water or rocks at you today?” He stretched his arms sitting up to properly greet his daughter.
“No, the string from my fishing rod just snap on my right cheek. Other than that the Goddess was kind to us!” Frix smiled at her father.
“Everything is alright father, no one is going to hurt me! I'm fine!” She told her father with reassurance as she pointed to herself.
She carcasses her hair braiding right side to keep her hair from her face. With a flick of her index finger, she lit the fireplace.
Silence pierce through the atmosphere making Frix feel uncomfortable, her stomach turns as she gazes into the flames.
“Father, why..why do I have this essence?”
Frix's father beckons her towards, the young lady shed tears as her father embraces her.
“I know you were to be a curse in our lands. However, this essence inside you defines you and that is Frixell Logix. Daughter of Charles and Isabelle Logix” he smiled as he wipes the tears that streamed from her cheeks.
Frixell couldn't help, but smile at her. She rubs her nose against her sleeves running towards the kitchen. She stabs the Salmon and the two Rainbow Trouts with a stick and placed all three by the fireplace.
That night the cold grew stronger as Charles' cough became rougher. With each cough, Frixell patted his back keeping her father warm with her essence. The sweet smell of the Rainbow Trout and Salmon perfumed the cottage. Knowing she could no provide any more resources to her father, having the skills to fish for food was enough to bring joy to the Logix family.
After numerous coughing, she walks over the fireplace grabbing their dinner. She motioned joyfully the crispy appearance of their dinner. Without hesitation, Frixell gave her father the fried Salmon which outweighed the small portioned dinner.
"Frix, are you sure? I mean this huge even for a man!" at her father's remark she couldn't help, but laugh at him. She nodded her head "no" and handed the salmon over to her father. To her delight, the Rainbow Trouts that she grew tired of capturing had become her favorite fish. Every bite was the last to her and her father, for each day grew more difficult.
The succulent smell of their feast had reduced to reminding her the life they currently live. The burnt ashes of the firewood, the aging corpses of plants that continued to decay over their cottage, and the rat feces that laid on the floor.
She looks up to see that her father had finished consuming his fare and was ready to retire for the day. She helped straighten her father's back by providing a warm temperature from her essence, which slowly eased the pain her father's arthritis.
She tucks her father in with blankets made of Silkie sheep and with that she laid herself onto the floor.
"I have to find a better place for you father... Somewhere where you can be happier" to that night she vows to seek new lands in which her father could find true happiness.
“F~R~I~X~E~L~L!!” A loud scream ringed her rings to her anger she called upon the essence of fire.
Walking out of her house with a flame over her right hand to her surprise, she quickly distinguished the flames to find John in front of her house. Roosters were waking each village, however, Frixell could not afford one. For years, she had gotten used to being disturbed by John every morning.
“Good morning Frix!” He jumped as he tucked her arm.
“I guess... You know how are you able to rise and set like the sun?” She said as she rubbed her right eye.
"Oh, it's easy! Get a damn Rooster!"
“No, you're just as useful as any Rooster in this village” she shrugged at him.
“Aren't you suppose to be at that Royal Lecture...?”
“Yes! But I have an assignment that involves you in it!”
“W-wait I c-can't- F-father I'll be back with breakfast!”
The narrow road to the village made it difficult to run, every village was awake hustling and bustling around the roads. To each villager, a good trade meant waking with the sun and bargaining with every peddler and merchant. Chickens, Roosters, Silkies, Cows, Goats, and Ducks were all 50% off, Frix's head began to ache at the amount of screaming and arguing going in the village.
“I hate mornings...!”
Whispers echoed throughout the village as Frix entered. Hateful expressions and fear were on their faces. Mothers took their children away from her sight and fathers pointed as her setting an example to their daughters of what they should and shouldn't do.
“Ignore them, Frix” John had finally let go of her hand and stopped running.
Frix gave a puzzling look as she twitched her nose.
"W-what...are you serious?!" Frix gives an astonishing look as sweat dropped down from her cheek.
“Yes! By Order of the Prince, every village, small or large, must have a school! Isn't this awesome?!” John jumps up and down swinging his arms towards Frix as he continues to express his excitement.
“Well...it..uhh.. certainly looks interesting..?”
The school's structure seems to puzzle Frix. She observed the outlines of the frames and the length of the windows. The glass was made of diamonds as the walls were made of Maple. She knocks on the wall to see if it was hollow as a tree, no sound was made. She cuffed her face against the windows to see shelves of books and chairs lined in a row from a peculiar device. She backs away from the window feeling fear as her palms soak in sweat.
"Well, what you think!? Isn't it awesome!? I mean diamonds for windows!" John eager waited for her response.
“I-it's gorgeous.. it looks expensive... and evil..” She murmured.
“Excuse me?” John asks to confirm what he had heard.
"It looks evil! It's an institution they are going to control you! You shouldn't be in there! How was this made during the night!? There's evil afoot I tell you! EVIL!" She barked at John.
For a few minutes, John stood in silence unsettled with her opinions. He then laughed, he held his stomach and fell on his side laughing in outburst at her.
“Hahahaha! L-leave it up to Frix to see the “bad things in life!” Hahahahaha!!!” He rolled in the dirt and her face turns red she soon covers her face with her hands.
She sighs to calm herself down and lifted John from the dirt. She inhaled and exhaled to calm the inner flame of her essence.
“You didn't need to laugh THAT hard. I'm happy the village has a school and I'm proud of you for taking further interest in education. Does that mean today is your first day of school?” She petted him to the point that she messes up his hair.
He shook his hair to find a way to fix his hair, but failed. "Yes! Today is the first of the day. However, I am intrigued to the proper calculations of the dimensions of this building. The configurations and angles are fascinating! The mathematics of this structure are on the point!” John stands admiring and embracing the school's pillar.
Frix scratches her and shrugs, "I keep forgetting.. how intelligent you are. Are you certain you're four years old?" She realized he was ignoring due to the admiration he feels towards the engineering of the building.
"Frix... do you..do you think... I'll be a scholar one day? Do you believe I have what it takes to.. help our economy and find a solution to the kingdom's hunger?" John directly asks her nervously as he plays with his shirt.
“I don't know” He staggers at her answer causing him to trip over and land on his butt. She walks towards him and kneels to meet his eye level.
“What I do know is that.. you'll do great! You are smart, too smart, and that's what Prince Xill needs in the kingdom. It is your choice to pick the pen or the sword. Just know that either one can make a difference in our lives” she smiles giving him a pat on the head.
“......”
She stands up offering a hand to him aiding him. He stood up bowing giving thanks to her as he runs inside along with the other children in the village.
She waves towards him smiling watching him attend the system that Prince Xill had ordered. She then continued back home following the narrow path from the village to her home. On her way home a rock gets tossed her head.
She trips feeling the burning sensation on the back of her head, she fingers her scalp to reassure herself that she was okay. Frix turns around to see a couple of villages had followed her home.
Remorse were in their eyes and they held pitchforks, hoes, and hammers all fixed their gaze on Frix. She smirks at them holding her head high as she looks down on them like the insects they were.
“Came to threaten my father and I? Again?” She spoke in amusement as she turns around to see if more villagers were around.
“Frix, we are tired of poisoning the mind of our children!” Cried of villager holding a hammer over his shoulder.
“Poison? Last I checked that wasn't my Zest” Frix sarcastically responds as she lifts her hand out towards the villagers. A small flickered of flames surround her right hand. Exposing it towards the villages who attempt to attack her.
“Huh...you are all nothing, but worms..”
The flames burn above the surface of her skin yet shows no signs of harming her. The warm fiery red that surrounded her hand scared the villages as they shake in their shoes.
Another village threw another rock towards the young lady, instead of dodging the rock she allowed the rock to hit. The villages ran away seeing the eyes of a demon, she showed no feelings or pain upon the inflicted damage they have done to her.
“The Z-Zest! R-Run!” They all struggled to get further away from her as they dropped all their weapons.
She watched them run and run away from her. She looked down onto the ground feeling the blood trail down from her scalp. She turned and continued walking down the small path to greet her father a proper morning.
"If only they knew.," she drew the flames upon her right hand as she places it on her head. The wound that the villages had placed on her slowly began to heal.
“My flames heal...not cause pain..” She kisses the flames from the palm of her hand causing them into vanish back inside her.
On instincts, she runs past her house following the wind the gestured her to move east of her home. There she continues running up a hill to see a tombstone embedded onto a tree. Quietly to herself she dropped down to her knee and began laughing and crying.
“W-why... wasn't I born a human? Why am I a Zest?!” She laughed and laugh, but the tears only continued to stream down her face. Soon she cried loudly to herself as she digs her nails onto the dead soil that engulfed the tree.
She held herself as she buries her face onto her thighs, in mezzo-forte did she cry and continue to cry towards the heavens of the agonizing pain. She sat there four countless of hours crying and laughing, in hopes that her laughter would void the pain.
Recovering from her tears, she sought out fruits to give to her father. She scans the area for food but fail to see any Frix rubs her eyes ending the sobs and laughter.
She wipes her nose with her sleeve again to her surprise three apples fall on her. Confused she looks up onto the tree in which she was sure was dead. There a small sample of her fire granted the tree life in which gave her food.
“T-thank you... mother..." she smiles at the tomb in which her mother lies beneath. She takes a moment and bows with the sun.
She walks away from the tree turns and takes one last look. "M-mom. I won't be coming back... I know you've told me my Essence heals others... But... like myself it is misunderstood. I'm taking father with me where he can live a happy life..so long" she runs the down the hill feeling a guilt, but tranquility.
Happy to have finally calmed herself down she greeted her father that night.
“Welcome, home my dear!" Her father greets her in exhaustion.
She shakes her head thinking how silly her father can be especially when he is starving. She pulls out the three apples and begins roasting them above her palm.
“Did you scare the villagers again? I heard screaming around noon..”
She pauses thinking of how to answer her father, "No father... In fact, they scared me, haha!" She chuckles at her father.
Frix tells her father about the new school that has John excited to continue learning about arithmetic and mathematics and how lovely the new building was.
Like the previous night, she and her father ate what she could salvage for themselves. To each bite, she only grew deeper in despair desperate to find a new home.
As she had told her mother, it was time to leave the Serum village. She tucks her father in bed and rotates her right had upon his shoulders along his spinal cord.
“I can't do much... but this is what I can do..”
Her father snores loudly which turns into a beautiful melody to Frix.
Frix hits the hay on the floor feeling the burning sensation upon her nose once more. At the moment, everything was going well like any other night.
The night continues as the moonlight shifts its gaze on the cottage in which Frix and her father took shelter. A musky, rusty, and smoggy scent captures her nose causing her to awaken.
"W-what is that? Father, please get- Father?!" she stands up from the floor immediately seeing her father's bed was empty. She panics and storms outside she looks around the house hoping that he might have walked out instead she sees a large smoke escaping fro the village.
Her eyes shook in fear as she gasps. She stands there frozen feeling unable to move from the horrific screams she hears from the village.
The sky clear of starts nothing, but the moonlight and flames glowed brighter than fireflies. Before she decides to run a small chime captures her, a soothing melody chiming with no rhythm or melody.
She followed the tune, a tune she had hidden deep within her heart. She goes back inside the cottage slowly, she returns to her father's bed.
The tune song decrescendos with every step closer. Frix took the blanket off the bed and there she sees the a silver hand bell. The same bell her father and mother had used to help her sleep. The bell's silver fades turning into a fiery red and in the middle of the bell's handle was a spade.
“Ack.. that shape... again?!" In anger she didn't have any time to feel nostalgic with her past, subconsciously she grabs bell heading out the door once more.
The flames had engulfed the entire village Frix runs back and forth searching for her father and anyone around.
“Father!! Where are you!?”
“Joooooooooooooooooohn?! Anyone!?! Are you here!!?”
No response all she could was the wood collapsing on top of each other, there were no screams or cries.
“M-maybe they all evacuated the village..?” Frix keeps running around screaming from the top of her lungs in search of her father. She covers her mouth for each scream she lets out so that her lungs don't get burned.
She then checked the school to see if anyone might be hiding in there. The fire blocked her way of entering the school, she then forcefully consumed the flames by thrusting her right hand out. The spade on her skin glowed in bloody red with each flame she absorbed.
“Frix! Help!” A young boy similar to John cries out for help.
“John?! I'm coming!”
She kicks out the door with all her might and shoves herself inside. She moves slowly, but quietly pacing herself to find John.
“Frix!”
“John, what in the Goddess' name did you-”
“Never mind that let's get out of here!”
The young adolescent and child run out of the burning building only to see angry villagers once again.
“You monster! You planned this all along didn't you?!”
Frix stopped in her tracks as John runs out of the building gasping for air.
“W-wait I-I didn't do this! Where's my father?! What have you done with him?!”
A man wearing a feather ornament in royal robes appear and embraces John. The entire village looked to him as he waves John off to a safe distance from Frix.
“You.. you have caused all of this-THIS DESTRUCTION!”
“Father...?”
He continued approaching her, he grabs her hair shoving her down to the ground. The same man whom she loved, took beatings for, fished and hunted to feed was no pulling her hair blaming her for the village's destruction. She bit her lip and he throws her onto the ground, confining her hands in chains.
“Frix!” John calls out, but the villages stop him preventing from getting any closer to her.
The same hand that patted her, the one who was proud to call her daughter, was now disowning her.
“W-what is the meaning of this father?!” She struggles to break free from the chains, however, only prove to be useless.
“Father Logix, the fire has ceased to increase. We were able to put down all of the flames.”
"Excellent work. Now, my brothers and sister, we have now captured the Zest that has caused all of this mayhem! This Heretic shall now be sent to Prince Xill for crimes against the land!"
“W-what?!” Frix melts down the chains running up to her father in tear. Only to be grabbed by the other villagers.
“W-what is this?! Why are you doing this!? I didn't do this! Father, why are you calling me a Heretic!? You know my essence does not cause destruction!” She screamed reaching out to him with her right hand.
Her father walks up to her and to her delight she smiles. The man kneels down and slaps her face imprinting his hand onto her left cheek.
“...?” The villages strap her in chains, shocked from being slapped by her father her mind goes blank.
They throw her in a caravan holding her prison with guards in Light Armory, they the salute Father Logix.
"Thank you for all your support Father. We will be taking this Zest to Prince Xill in crimes against the crown" The soldier pays the Father in gold held in a leather pouch. The soldier then gets on the horses beginning their journey to the kingdom of Light.
Frix looks up in pain trying to reach out to her father, in response he smirks at her walking away. The bell she took from her parents falls out of her pocket shimmering it's beauty upon her eyes, causing them to glow like the stars.
“Why..?” She asks softly crying in tears that her only relative had sold her out to the crown of the land. © 2016 Alyssa B. LongAuthor's Note
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StatsAuthorAlyssa B. LongAboutJust a girl dreaming to write for a JRPG game one day. Please keep in mind all of the characters in my stories are mine! I will sue, if taken for credit. All of my characters are designed by me an.. more..Writing
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