Fading Light (second installment)
Once he brought me home the night my family died, he was the only person I had to take care of me. I didn’t have parents anymore. Only him.
14 Years Later
The pounding of my footsteps and the swishing of the other runners bounce throughout the forest around me. I pump every ounce of energy I have into my legs. Someone on my left catches up and aims an arrow right at me. My instincts kick in and adrenaline pulse through my veins, guiding me to dart up a tree, pull out my own bow and arrow, and fire at my opponent while flipping backwards, all before I could hear his own arrow leave his bow. Mine nails him right in the shoulder and he falls. My feet land back on the ground and I keep going. As I rush through the beautiful ebony trees, I breathe in the fresh oxygen, fueling my body even more.
I spot a wooden figure a couple of feet in front of me. I grab my Ulinor mini knife and prepare to throw it at the cut out, when someone appears in front of me out of nowhere and jabs his sword toward me. I immediately duck, grab his wrists, and hurl him into a tree. He slams into it so hard, it sounds like he’s a tree himself that fell to its death. I take my Ulinor and swipe it across the silhouette’s neck, cutting it clean through.
I pick up the sudden beating of another pair of feet behind me. Whoever it is, I will not let them win. My eyes immediately spot a thick, brown vine that hangs from a nearby tree. I speed up towards it, grab a hold of the vine, and swing myself entirely around the tree with such power, it’s as if my body is a mighty machine. I slam myself into my opponent to the ground, face-planting him right into the autumn leaves that decorate the forest floor. Once he’s down, I front flip forward and continue on my way onto the track.
After dodging more opponents and striking any targets I can find, I spot the winning flag standing in the distance. The sight of it sparks hope inside of me, fueling any remaining traces
of adrenaline like rockets. The flag approaches me within seconds and is just out of my arm’s reach.
“Larissa!”
The sound of my name breaks my attention like a mirror splintering into a million pieces. My adrenaline halts in its tracks when someone flies right toward me on a vine, steps onto my shoulder as leverage with enough force to knock me down and grabs the flag.
“Time!” someone shouts. I stare up at the winner who joyfully swings on the vine from my pit of defeat. He looks back at me with his confident grassy-green eyes and smile.
“See? You cannot let anything distract you. Not even me.”
***
“You had to pull that one on me,” I say to him. “For once, I almost had the flag.”
Fagin releases a chuckle that fills the open air. “Like I said earlier, you can’t let anything distract you. That’s the one weakness you have had ever since I began training you.”
The sunlight peaks through the trees of our forest home and bounces off his long strands of silver hair. I’m almost awestruck from his natural beauty. Before he saved me from that night, I rarely heard about elves. Stella told me about how magical they are, that they live deep in the woods, and they possess such beauty, even mother nature herself is jealous. She showed me pictures of them in one of her storybooks. They were tall creatures with pointy ears and did appear beautiful, though they looked 2-D in the illustrations. She even told me about the elves who worked with Santa up in the North Pole, but they were shorter and wore goofier outfits. Even my two-year-old self enjoyed the taller elves rather than the other kind.
“I want to braid your hair,” I say to Fagin, changing the subject.
He looks at me with a puzzled expression. “Well, that was random and completely off topic.”
“Yes, because it is too darn gorgeous to just sit there on your shoulders. You’ve trained me my whole life and protected me. At least let me do something for you in return.”
“By putting pretty strands in the shape of flowers in my hair as if I was raised by fairies? No thank you.” He gazes back at me. His green irises warm up to the sunshine that dazzles the afternoon atmosphere of the forest.
I can’t help but smile. “I was raised by elves and I didn’t expect to be trained as one.”
The warmth in his eyes gradually dim. “That’s because I didn’t want to leave you in that car and be taken by death,” he says, his tone firmly soft.
All I can do is gaze back at him. “I know, and I’m thankful you did save me. Who knows what my grandfather could’ve done to me.”
“That’s why I came along,” he says, linking his arm around mine and taking us back to the center of our hidden realm. “When I saw you panicking in your seat, I saw the innocence in your eyes. Your grandfather didn’t have that spark in his when I threw him to the ground. His were full of malice. I knew deep in his soul he was hungry for revenge and I didn’t dare wait to see what he would do to a toddler.” He looks back down at me. “If I didn’t do that, not only would that break our morals, but I wouldn’t have been able to see the beautiful girl you’ve become.”
The elves live by a strict code. Fight evil to preserve whatever purity remains in this world. Thousands of years ago, both humans and elves shared the planet in harmony. Until the curses of greed, lust, envy, and pride entered the weak minds of the humans. One by one, hundreds of them became corrupt and wanted anything to please their desires. They stole sacred objects and weapons from their elven brethren. They destroyed parts of the planet to create businesses. They slowly began craving domination and were possibly becoming vigorous over the wise and ancient years of the elves. They even initiated war against the elves unless they joined their side, but the elves refused to abandon their pure ways to be corrupted by the evil that had made a mark on this world. Battles blazed between the two brothers, leaving thousands of them dead, their blood painting the very soil they both originated from. Because of the loss, the elves refused to live among the humans, so they abandoned them. Now they hide in places they believe they cannot be found. Somewhere in the woods in the northern United States is where Fagin, I, and our clan reside.
The opening sunlight draws me out of my thoughts and takes me to the center of my home of Conimar. The trees are decorated with swirling staircases intertwined with elvish designs, beautifully carved into the wood. Small cabins are built in the top center of the trees; the base where the branches are secure the homes as a foundation. The ground is covered in brown and black tiles, camouflaging with the earth and marked with the ancient elven language that expresses the very purpose we live for:
N- sanda. Termáre- manwa. N- i kal.
Be True. Stay Pure. Be the Light.
“Im’ll govannon- cin an aes?” Fagin asks, stopping in front of the staircase that leads to our home.
I give him a look. “You know my Sindarian isn’t as good as my Quenyan.”
He returns a playful smirk. “Cin baur na herdir ha.”
I sigh. “Um, baw, im ceri- ú- anír- na ech- aes?”
He closes his eyes and shakes his head. “I asked, I will meet you for food? Not, Do you want to make food?”
“I was close enough. Ni indóme oment- tye. Linne- care- aiqua tye maure ana care,” I reply in Quenyan. I will meet you. Go do whatever you need to do.
He rolls his eyes yet still holds onto that radiant smile of his, kisses me on the forehead, and heads back into the forest. “Care- vamme care- anime nat verca.” Do not do anything crazy.
“Ni tanca indóme!” I sure will!
I climb the spiraling staircase up to our home and approach the wooden entrance. I enter and before me lies what has been my home for the past fourteen years. Sunshine peeks into the windows, spreading its splendid light onto the beauty that is held within this structure. The whole entire house is made from nothing but gorgeous, smooth harvest gold wood, which was used by nearby trees. Fagin’s desk sits across the living room with notes and maps in order. Black cushioned window seats sit adjacent to the breathtaking view of our realm. I’ve always enjoyed sitting there and watch our fellow elves practice and relax during the day. In the summer, I loved watching the sun ascend high into the sky, and then descend beyond the tree line, its disappearing rays would transform the blue heaven into shades of orange, pink, and purple, until it completely vanished and the similar darkness would consume everything into night.
Once he brought me home the night my family died, he was the only person I had to take care of me. I didn’t have parents anymore. Only him. Once he and the other elves brought Stella and I here, he took us to the head elf, Indrumara. She had majestic, flowing hair like Fagin, except hers was a solid black. She was thin and appeared very young, though I later on learned she’s four thousand five hundred and eighty-one years old. Her dazzling green eyes shimmered like emeralds, brighter than the moon that rose that night. Fagin spoke to her in elvish, which I obviously couldn’t understand. She slowly approached Fagin and I and looked at me with the most iridescent smile I have ever seen a woman carry. She continued speaking to him in elvish, and as she did so, I couldn’t help but stare at her in awestruck wonder.
“Welcome, Larissa.” Her voice rang like a soft harp. It was so comforting, it practically evaporated all the fear I just faced less than an hour ago. I knew right then and there that everything was going to be okay. When Fagin carried me back to his place, I never felt so secure in someone’s arms before. I truly didn’t feel safe when my Dad held me. But whenever I was in Fagin’s arms, I was overwhelmed in such comfort, I completely trusted him from that day on.
Growing up, he was the person I would look up to. He guided me. He taught me the simple lifestyle of the elves and how to stay true to myself. He trained me with all the skills and knowledge I hold onto to this day. Whenever I had any problems, I knew I could go to him without any shame. He accepts and loves me for who I am, though I’m the only human to live among these elves.
I trail toward my bedroom, but before I enter, I notice the empty room next to mine. Fagin not only took me in, but Stella as well. It surprises me now that an elf as young as he is was willing to take in two young human girls, since no one else wanted the responsibility. At his age of seven hundred and seventy-eight, that’s young for an elf. He even appears as if he’s my older brother. Elves around his age are more focused on training to become the best fighters they can be and work alongside their clan. He still does that, but somehow, his heart wouldn’t allow him to abandon us. He’s the purest being I have ever known. Though I see my fellow elves as spectacular as the stars in the night sky, he’s as brilliant as the sun.
It’s also shocking to know that Indrumara allowed Fagin to bring me and my sister in, when humans were the only reason why they isolated themselves.
Unfortunately, my sister didn’t obtain the same characteristics as me. No matter how long Fagin dedicated himself to teach her, she would constantly rebel against him. She never listened nor obeyed. She always wanted to do things her way. One day when I was eight and she was ten, she dragged me with her to steal some sacred elven stones. I refused to help her, but she forced me to stay on guard while she snuck inside. By the time she exited, I had no other choice but to do what Fagin trained me to do.
I aimed my arrow at her and said, “Stella. You know this isn’t right. Put them back.”
She stood there appalled, then tried running away into the trees. Suddenly, a group of elves swarmed the area and captured her. One of them gave me the offer to shoot my arrow into her brain, but as much as I wanted to honor the morals I was raised by, I didn’t have the courage to kill my own sister. I reluctantly dropped my bow and arrow to the ground and got away from there as far as I could. I’m surprised I was the one who ended up escaping and not Stella. I couldn’t face the judgmental stares penetrating my being after that. But at the end of the day with only the soft moonlight coloring my room in a gentle bluish-silver hue, I felt Fagin enter. I honestly thought he was going to punish me that night, but his presence alone brought an atmosphere of peaceful tranquility, burning away any fears that lingered from my past. He explained to me that Stella was banned from the clan and sent to live in the human world.
“Why didn’t the other elves kill her?” I asked him.
“Though she should’ve deserved death, Indrumara decided to let her live, because she is still a very young child.”
Guilt consumed me like a snake strangling its prey; my body shrunk into a ball as tight as it could, as if I was trying to suffocate myself.
Fagin leaned over and put his protective arm around me. “You have no need to feel guilty, Larissa,” reading me like a book. I glanced up at him through my blurry vision. The moonlight illuminated his hair as if it was glowing. “Though we are taught to kill anything evil in this world, I think what you did was the purest thing I have seen anyone do. And that’s still holding onto your love for someone, even when they fail.”
No other words have lifted me up out of the dark before, besides the first words he spoke to me when he took me out of the car.
“Larissa.”
A familiar, sing-song voice flies into my home with a soft tune, almost like the ringing of a small bell. I quickly leave my bedroom and peer down outside my front door.
“Would you like to take a walk with me?” Indrumara looks up at me with a smile as bright as the afternoon sun. Her black hair is tied up in a beautiful yet simple braided bun. She wears an elegant, bluish-green elven robe that gently swishes in the crisp autumn air. The gown reaches all the way to the ground, practically hiding her feet. The bottom of the robe and the edges of her sleeves are decorated with delicate elven patterns in silver thread, glistening in the sunlight.
“Of course!” I exclaim, closing my door immediately and rushing down the steps. I greet her with a generous bow and look up to my clan’s valiant leader. So much knowledge and wisdom rest in those immortal eyes. They have lived much longer than my own guardian. She turns around and I follow her into the woods; their leaves paint our surrounding barrier with the intertwining colors of red, orange, and yellow, matching the shifting shades of the setting sun.
