“Well, isn’t it the daughter of traitors?” He scoffed, “You are such a disgrace to our kind. If it was up to me you would have gotten the same sentence as your parents!” Eowyn’s blood began to boil and had to resist the urge to give him a beat down right then and there. Breathe, everything is ok. Keep your temper under control.
“Saber, just leave Eowyn alone!” Campa snapped and grabbed Eowyn’s hand to continue down the path. As they passed Saber, he grabbed Eowyn’s arm and jerked her back painfully. Before she knew it, her training kicked in and Saber was pinned to the ground in seconds. Flower screamed and ran to help her brother.
“Please let him go,” Flower pleaded and Eowyn reluctantly stood up. Saber got up and brushed the dirt off his clothes.
“You are such a coward, Eowyn,” Saber said nastily and glared at her.
“See?” He said looking at his sister, “she is as monstrous as her parents.”
“But…” Flower squeaked, “what did they do?” Eowyn looked up and knew Saber was waiting for that question.
“They attempted to steal all magic and murder the queen.”
Chapter Two
Caym
He groaned in frustration. Caym was doing the task of patching up a ripped tent but his handy work was…questionable. It took him 20 minutes alone to finally thread the needle. Why did the string have to be so floppy and the eye of the needle so small??? He clumsily poked his needle back into the fabric of the tent and tried to make another stitch but the thread he was using tangled up. In defeat, he threw the task to the ground and looked grumpily at the dirt. Caym had made it a personal mission to learn everything he could and unfortunately that included sewing. He would much rather learn how to climb trees and see how many types of flowers he could find, but Gren didn’t see that as productive.
“How is it going?” He looked to his side and saw his friend Jinn. They have been best friends for as long as he could remember. The relief he felt when he learned Jinn was going to join him on this journey made him feel much better. He didn’t show it or tell anyone, but he was terrified. A strange new world full of people that would kill them on sight. The stories of elves haunted him his entire childhood. How dangerous they were, how they were cold stone killers and killed anything that moved. How they never cared for anything and had hearts of ice. He even heard that they even ate their own children!! Well, that’s what his father told him when he was a child at least.
“I don’t know what I am doing wrong!” He complained and glared at the needle. Jinn laughed and patted his shoulder.
“Here, scooch over and let me try.” Caym scooted over and watched as Jinn untangled the thick thread and began stitching up the hole with ease.
“How did you do that?” He asked in awe and began running his hand over the even stitches.
“I have been doing patch work all over the camp, I have become quite handy with a needle.”
“Show me!” Caym said excitedly and Jinn began showing him how to make nice, neat stitches. After a little trial and error his stitches became straighter and neater. Jinn nodded in approval.
“Great work! With a little practice you might get even better than me.” Caym then flopped on the dirt and stared at the sky. Clouds floated by and the sun warmed his face. He still couldn’t believe that the sky was such a cheery color. This world was full of colors he had never seen before and it saddened him. How he had missed such a wonderful world. If his tribe wasn’t banished he would have grown up in a place like this. The air crisp and clean, the water cold and refreshing.
“Dune finally came back with more supplies. It’s too bad we can’t take more without raising suspicion,” Jinn said and snapped Caym back to reality. It was true. They only had three small tents they had stolen over time and so that meant a lot of them had to sleep on piles of pine needles, leaves, and grass. Of course it was an improvement from sleeping on hard rock but sometimes the elements weren’t very kind. They had been rained on for days at a time. Even with some hardship he had loved it here so far, especially the animals. They were so cute and fuzzy and just looked so cuddly. He could stare at rabbits for hours, just hopping and nibbling at clover. He read all he could about animals but his knowledge was still pretty limited.Fortunately, a couple precious books were brought to the realm they were banished into. Somehow the books stayed preserved and Caym guessed it was because elves put preservation spells on all the books they have so no knowledge is lost. But even then when he read the words jumbled in his mind and felt awkward when coming out of his mouth. After a couple tries he had given up and bumped reading lower on the list of things to learn. The thought of rabbits brought up the memory of the elf he saw today. Technically he wasn’t supposed to be out there. It was against orders because of the fear of being seen. But then again it technically wasn’t his fault. He caught sight of a gray rabbit, named him Clover, and decided he just had to follow him. For research purposes of course. Soon he realized he had become too close to the elf city and was about to turn back when he heard something just beyond a tall bush. He crouched and peeked out to see a creature he had never seen before. This must be an elf! He was just the teeniest bit terrified, because what if he got caught and the elf ate his insides while he was still alive?? That was another story his father told him. Curiosity got the better of him and he crept closer, letting a big bush hide him from view. Even though he had been in the real world for a while he had never seen an actual elf before. They were ordered to not go anywhere near the city and only the assigned spy, Dune, was able to go there to watch and steal whatever they could. While he had ash black skin and a tail, he was surprised by how similar they looked. Both of them had pointed ears and had the same build. She seemed to be training and was hitting imaginary foes with a long stick. She twirled and rolled across the ground and stabbed the air. Suddenly she stood up and began looking around. Uh oh, that isn’t good. He couldn’t let his insides be eaten!! He began to panic when Clover decided to hop out. She whirled around and pointed her stick inches from Clover’s face. Caym was scared she would hurt him when all of a sudden she leaned in and began petting Clover gently. Wow! We both like rabbits! He stared in awe as she smiled warmly, stood up, and began running towards the city. Caym never thought he would like the same thing as an elf. Even though they were taught elves were evil, she didn’t seem evil. She was so gentle with Clover and seemed to really care. Clover then hopped back through the bush and sat on Caym’s foot. A thrill of excitement went through him and he happily carried the rabbit to camp. Everyone at camp made fun of him for keeping the rabbit but he didn’t care. Clover was the cutest and most perfect rabbit ever. Just as he was thinking that Clover hopped over and began nuzzling his face.
“Wow, that thing has really gotten attached to you.” Jinn said.
“It’s not a thing, it has a name and it’s Clover.” Caym said irritably and he began petting the rabbit back. Jinn rolled her eyes and looked back at the sky.
“Do you think things will ever get to how it was before we were banished?” Caym asked. Jinn seemed to think for a minute and then responded,
“No. The elves are evil and banished us to a place to die. We have to take over and punish the elves for what they did to us. They will never fully accept us back and will always hate us.” Caym looked at a bird that swooped across the sky. But if we all keep our hate over each other when will there finally be peace he thought. He just wanted everyone to get along and be willing to make peace. There was no point in fighting anymore but everyone disagreed with him. Everyone wanted to get revenge on the elves for banishing them and wanted to take over.