Prologue

 She lay hidden in the nook she had found, her hand over her right side trying to stop the blood. The water sliding over the cave walls was the only sound that came to her ears but then she heard it, the sound she had known would come...that of boots on the stone floor.

 

"Where the hell could she have gone?" A harsh male voice asked.

 

A second less harsh voice spoke up. "She couldn't have gotten too far."

 

"What is the point anyway? I say we just leave."

 

"The lord wants them all dead, you know what that means."

 

"Yeah, yeah. It means ever single person had better not be breathing anymore." The first man sighed, "Why do you suppose he wanted that village dead? They never have done anyone harm, infact they even save people who get lost in the forsest."

 

"I don't know, it isn't like he explains what is in his sick mind to me." The second man said, his voice drawing closer even as he did. The light from his torch casting shadows making her hold her breath.

 

"Well she won't get very far anyway not with that wound you gave her, she is as good as dead."

 

The second man sighed, "I suppose you are right. All right then, lets get out of here."

 

She heard as the men turned and started to head back the way they had come and let out the breath she had been holding then very slowly she crawled out of her hiding space biting her lip as the pain from her side made her nearly scream. When the wave had passed she continued to her feet and used the walls of the tunnels to help her further into the caves. They were right She was indeed as good as dead thanks to the b*****d that had stabbed her from behind while she was locking blades with another foe. So she headed deeper into the caves so that she could die without them finding her.

 

She had walked for awhile when she came upon a massive cavern with a large lake that glowed from the crystals that stuck out in groups and ran in veins of purple, green and blue through the stone walls lighting the whole cavern in a hauntingly beautiful light. It was with this light that she was able to see her reflection on the mirrored surface of the water.

 

Her hair was lose about her, filled with leaves and twigs from her run through the forest having fallen several times from the pain trying to take over her senses. Her clothes were ragged from other smaller wounds she had recieved in the battle and were covered in not just her blood, but the blood of the men she had killed and the blood of her people. The wound that was claiming her life was a slice of darkness across her skin, the crimson liquid flowing down over her body to drip to the ground at her feet.

 

She examined the wound flinching when she hit too close and she sighed. The blade had done its job, piercing deeply and making it impossible to stop the bleeding. All ready her body was beginning to feel too heavy and her limbs felt tired and weak.

 

And there on the banks of the lake her strength finally left, leaving her to fall to her knees with her head hung forward. Tears streaked down her cheeks as she thought about the horrors that had taken place just as the sun had started to rise that morning. Her mother, father and two brothers had been slain in the massacure that had swept through her village like a cold moutain wind, leaving her to die as the last of the Seranian people.

 

She had been sound asleep in her hut, the furs wrapped tightly around her when a chilling scream had called her from her dreams. Instantly she had lept to her feet; the twin blades her father had given her just that year for her birthday, in her hands as she charged out to see what was going on.

 

The sight that met her eyes made her stare in surprise, her people were fighting off armored men with bodies of both parties laying dead or dying on the ground. Huts were being set on fire and horses were screaming in fear from the smell of the smoke. But what snapped her out of it was seeing a little girl of only five winters fall with an arrow through her chest. Instantly she ran to the girl and gathered the girl in her arms, watching as the light left her blue eyes.

 

It was then that she had risen to her feet and with a fierce roar ripping from her lips began attacking the soldiers, not caring when their blood began to cover her body and face. She had heard her name being called after taking out another man and turned to see her mother reaching for her from the ground. She had run to her taking out any that dared get in her way, falling to her knees beside her beautiful mother.

 

Dark blood was flowing from the corners of her mouth as she had spoken. "My beautiful Trélìna," She had stroked her daughter's cheek. "You must g-get as far from here as y-you can. The hopes of our p-people rest with you."

 

Tears had begun falling down her cheeks as her mother had spoken, the pain she was suffering evident in her eyes and voice. "I am only one woman, what can I do?" She had asked.

 

Her mother had smiled, her own tears falling. "You can live my daughter, your d-destiny is far greater...then you think."

 

Trélìna had looked at her mother's body seeing her entrails pushing against the gap in her stomach. She turned back and strocked her mother's hair, "I will do as you ask Mother." And then with a nod from her mother she had plunged her blade into her heart, ending her pain.

 

But she had been unable to grieve for her beloved mother, instead she had been attacked and had had to instantly raise her blades to save herself. It was during her battle with this soldier that his smaller companion had snuck up beside and jammed his blade to the hilt in her side. She had cried out and turned to parry an attack from him, ripping the blade free as she had done this.

 

Her father had then charged them, fighting them off while shouting for her to run. Trélìna had tried to refuse her father but he had flung her back towards the forsest shouting once more for her to run. And so she had, visions of her slain brothers and of the man thrusting his blade through her father had pushed her on until she had made her way into the caves.

 

And now through it all she was still dying and she felt she had failed her family. "May we be joined in the forests of Heaven." She prayed in a soft whisper, just as her mind fell to darkness.

 

This was how he found her, laying on the banks of the lake with a pool of blood spreading out from her to just touch the water's edge. She was nothing to look at with her wild mane and ragged and bloody clothes, but something had awoken him after 3,000 years and brought him to her. He moved forward slowly and pushed her over with the very tip of his talon forcing her onto her back and exposing the gash that was ending her life. He could hear her heart beat and with each one it grew fainter.The woman had mere seconds to live, already in the grips of darkness that had taken over her mind and he nodded with understanding.

 

He could save her life with the magic that flowed through him and so he placed the very tip of his talon on her once more, this time over her heart and in a laungage long since forgotten called on that magic. Slowly he began to glow and then it spilled from him to her, the light getting brighter and brighter until finally he filled the entire cavern before fading out. He had saved her by binding her very being, her very soul to his and they would now be that way for all eternity.

 

He stepped back and watched as her eyes fluttered open and then with shaky movements rose to her knees and then her feet. When her eyes fell on him they did not fill with fear, instead they filled with awe and curiosity and then she spoke.

 

"You have saved my life?" She asked.

 

"Yes." He answered simply.

 

"Then I am in your debt."

 

He shook his head, "No, there is no debt child."

 

One slender brow raised. "Who are you?"

 

"I am Zélar, and you are now my bonded." He replied.

 

She stood silently for a moment before nodding her head. "I am Trélìna, last of the Seranian race."

Reviews

[Syldor]

The story setting is very exciting. The plot certainly seems to have much promise. However the sentences are a little.. choppy. But they can easily be improved.