White Innocence

 

 

Chapter 1

     I was running. Although there was no point, they would probably catch me anyway. I needed to get away from the lit torches behind me. From the yells that punctured my heart like a blade. “MONSTER!” yelled the shadows behind me. “GO DIE! WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE!” Tears blurred my vision as I ran to the smell of salt that felt so familiar and close.

     This all happened when I was walking around the village in a cloak. To catch a girl who tripped and was about to fall in mud I rushed and let my hood fall revealing my ears. The pointed things that had given me something to be proud about and yet they were too dangerous for me to show humans. My Elven ears that represented who I was, my heritage, by burden. The shouts were getting closer. I wiped my tears away to focus. I had a sword, but I would never use it against innocent people. My bow and arrows could probably scare them, but with all the trees that surrounded me I would never get a clear shot.

     “S**t!” I said as I reached a cliff. Raging waves of salt water pushed against the rocky walls. I looked back at the torches and pitchforks that I knew were a sign. It was a sign of the despair that this village has suffered from. Anger bubbled up in my chest. Why couldn’t they just leave me alone?! So what if I was an Elf?! I backed up slightly only to feel the edge of the cliff. CRACK!I stopped and looked at the noise that came from my feet. The edge of the cliff was breaking.

     The ground beneath me broke away, making me fall towards the water. The last thing I saw before hitting the icy water was the full moon overhead. The minute I hit the water, I tried to get to the surface. My heavy clothes and sword were weighing me down, not to mention the rocks from the edge of the cliff. My lungs felt as if they were on fire. The shouts were muffled by the water. I tried to hold my breath for as long as I could, but my fear was making it hard to concentrate. My arms were frantically searching for an exit from my watery prison. My lungs hungered for air as I was losing energy from my worn out legs. I looked at the moon overhead. It looked as if it were laughing at me, at my inability to stay in the air. I was too deep in thought to think about my whole situation. My consciousness was fading as I lifted my hand as if asking for help. Something gripped my wrist. I widened my eyes to see the girl I helped from falling before. Was this a dream? I looked at her with confused eyes. She tried to use her little body to help me and I was giving up? I smiled at my foolishness. I felt a sudden energy through my body that kept me going forward. I grabbed her waist and forced both of us into the night air. My body welcomed the air just as a child welcomes chocolate. I used what little strength I had to get both of us to shore.

     We were breathing heavily at the shore. Her situation seemed to be worse than mine. She was coughing up water. Humans were so fragile after all. About a minute passed before I decided to get up to gather some firewood. The air was too cold to survive in without a heat source. I gathered all the dead wood I could and piled some of it up in a clearing not too far from the shore. I prayed before I lit it as a tradition in my clan. I prayed for the soul of all these trees to be at ease and not hold a grudge against me when I burned them. When I was done I dug through my bag and grabbed two flint stones. I rubbed them together with swift movements until they produced a spark. The small twigs on the bottom of the pile were easily burned through as they fed the fire well. The flames arose to the top of the pile, feeding on the logs of wood I had gathered.

     Feeling content with the fire I produced, I went back to see the girl lying on a rock under the moon. I checked her temperature to make sure she didn’t have a fever and brought her over to the fire. I could feel her body shivering in my arms. She sneezed in her sleep and I smiled at the peaceful child. I wrapped her in the only blanket I had and set her near the fire. I sat against a tree with my sword so I could look at the moon. To the Elves, the moon was the birthplace of their souls. All of their feelings came from the moon. “All of which you feel comes from the light it radiates so you can share a common trait with another,” said a passage from the Elven Bible My tired body grew heavier with each passing second. I might as well sleep. I expected tomorrow to be a bad day too. After shifting into a more comfortable position, my eyelids finally closed into a rest period in which I was awake and asleep at the same time.
    

 

 

Author's Note

Please excuse language and spelling errors