Hey everyone! I just couldn't bear the original Chapter One anymore, I just have to change it. I am rewriting it and fleshing it out, introducing the company, and letting the reader see Aedomir's relationship with them, I mean, I don't think I can have an entire novel about trying to find some companions, who the read doesn't even know.
Thanks for reading!
Scene 1:
Chapter One
Love before Lamentation
My heart is the fire of the storm, and the light on the horizon, leading dawn to break, day to sleep, and life to roar with a mighty ember. Look to the skies, and your eyes will see me, for I am the protector, the foreboder, the creator. I will greet you as an eerie silence in the shadows, and you shall hear my presence in the footsteps behind you. Cast a glance towards me, drive an arrow at me, yet, your eyes will overlook me.
A stir moves against the tides of night, calling for me in a bitter song. There is something that haunts your mind, and drives you to the edge of darkness, so burnt, so black you would see yourself cower before me in fear, than stand for your heart as a true man.
But there are words, those many, many words. What are they? Who are they? What do they seek?
You. Your soul. Surrender it, and lose. I will be waiting for you, and neither regret nor remorse will save you.
Never give in.
Fight.
#
“I will see them fall upon our swords this day!” the rider cried to the heavens, blade driving high. “Our strength may not flow as divine, and such power may not roar this day, but let our courage drive us! Let vigour seek and find our bones!”
The man steered his horse and bounded into the glow of the setting sun. His sword gleamed spectacular silver under the twilight and his warm, blue eyes stared into the heart of the host. Countless were their numbers, but hope remained a fiery star whilst his kinsmen’s passion tarried.
“Now! Ride forth!”
A chorus of horns followed, trembling the ground beneath.
Hooves raced behind Aedomir, cries of valour and of spirit floating in his wake. A fear struck hard into the enemy, and some turned and fled. Aedomir garnished the inspiration and let rip a cry of despair. Soups of crimson clouds and dark, sapphire nights melted overhead, as was a customary tradition of such tidings.
# Battle to be added. If you are confused, great!
“I will see who turned this place rot before us!” growled Aedomir. Both he, and his company gasped in disbelief, for where once a splendid picture captured the landscape, now veils of darkness, gloom and despair filled the mountains. They stood together between roots of weaving slopes, once so doted Suntary for its great expanse in Serigiil. A long, sordid shadow descended as the last of the sun peaked below the horizon, and lights of ember and torches awoke under the moon. She paled this day, and her glow was slight. The bloody night had finally retired, revealing heavens of shade.
“The darkness has passed beyond here also!” wailed Felanol. “Is there naught a place that can sway from its path?”
Iared snarled. “Long ago our paths crossed here. Aedomir, you stole our trust in time. What would have become of us, any of us, if we had not met before the springs had been tainted?”
“Alas!” cried Aganost. “This place burdened many fond memories, now forever lost, beneath this undergrowth, and ill winds.”
Aedomir sighed. “Look there,” he said, pointing to a welter of snow and dead plants, cast down like decay upon graveyards. “Where are the great pines? Far ago, a pool of silvery water carved the tree-clad lands, a secret hollow beneath the cover of the mountain, but where are they now? I see a defiled and foul strand of grass, desolate with its age and amid the ruins not even I can picture the old light there. Long this place was empty of men, and ever from their hands.” Aedomir stayed his tongue, as his eyes too pierced the night with his keen eyes and looked upon yet more squander.
“Evil gropes further,” muttered a voice. Aedomir’s ears would hear of that sweet, comforting voice in all lands of darkness with no fear, “for these fingers that you speak of are not men, but of a different land,” Vélia said.
Hladris descended from her horse, and moved across the ground so lightly barely a sound crunched beneath her. “Yea, sister,” she called back. Aedomir too took to his feet, and followed behind. “What is this devilry? Never, or rather, forgoing yesteryear had we seen none of the like.”
“Had they not waylaid our road, I would have assumed them to be just monsters of the forest, or of Faraheight, attacking the city folk.”
“Nay, Gorrim,” said Aedomir. “Nature would not offer shelter to evil, and even if they were in coming to the city, which I believe they still are, our sphere is distant leagues from theirs. Have I not told you that enough?”
“Yes, you have,” snapped Vélia.
Aedomir cringed in her direction, but thought better and returned to his glare of the night. “We should set up a camp,” he said, “for there are many forces out this night, both grim and troublesome, I can smell it amid the air. It is best we do not trouble them.”
“Yea, a reigning evil has passed here,” said a darkened figure. Aedomir then saw that it was Ergöf. He passed along the ground, pausing at the edge of the mire, and his face was windswept with dread and loathing. Where his finger then stopped, was upon many marks in the mud. They cut deep in and passed around, with large waves and channels. “Here not long since has it been that a great eagle has nested. Her tree may be at close, and she may linger still. We are in need of haste.”
Aedomir gestured for silence. “Nay, for the chase behind us is late, and the enemy is far.”
“All is evil who seek to take us, Aedomir,” said Ergöf.
“I would not deny you of that,” Aedomir replied. “Yet if you think our friends here could last another journey, through further, sleepless nights, then I fear you are wrong.”
Vélia turned. “And you would suggest we would rather await and gamble our chances of escape, than leave?”
“Us, I did not mean,” Aedomir knelt before his horse. “These creatures have served through a long and weary fight. Please, we cannot abandon those who have fought for us on many a time, and shed ranks of our pursuers for no cause.”
“Aedomir!” cried Iared. “When will you realise? We must hunt, yet our time is so far rather spent upon escaping a hunt than leading one!”
Aedomir rubbed his forehead. His mind played against him, for he thought to open his woes to his company, but better he thought of it. Much already lurked in the fogs of their hearts, and no room was there now for more. “Set up a fire,” said he. “And do not sleep beyond the Mother’s rise.”
#
Aedomir began to hum an enchanting melody under his tongue, so he was forced to close his eyes and lean against the breeze.
“Why sing you of us, Aedomir,” spoke a voice. Vélia’s words were quiet and soothing, yet cold and dominant also. Aedomir looked to her, and his heart warmed. “An end to our road, I see not, and have not done since we met. Where is you longing for a free life?”
“Free?” Aedomir smiled, and placed his hand upon her shoulder. “We follow no path, and are not sworn to an eternal leader, for we are in the hands of ourselves now, and no other. Not even the divine can abide us as a burden anymore. Vélia, you would call that confined?” he asked. “The world is out there for us! It is there for us to adapt, mould and remake how we please best.”
Vélia sighed, and let her hair gleam under the new moon. Ever had Aedomir loved how she let nature adorn her every movement, and her open voice for longings. She stepped back, sliding from Aedomir's embrace. “But where is your ambition to reach a road then? Do you not have one?”
“My fair Vélia,” Aedomir said with a loving voice, fashioned with a warm and nurturing tone, “I beg of you, look the horizon, nay, horizons.” He gestured about the night, towards the blackness of the distant mountains. “Tell me that you would not yearn to touch where the sun sets, and then see the path anew at the struggle of dawn's break, past the horizon and beyond 'til the steal of darkness. Yet for me, that would live until the close of my days, not even the downfall of my kinsmen would hold back my soul, for I would rather live among exiled company than live alone, or unloved.” Aedomir's voice shrunk some more, almost alone to himself did his words then reach. “I should like to witness one day your lips curve a smile,” he said, “lest I shall know your dreams of freedom will go untouched forever, for only you can live them.” His voice then rose again, and flew through the air. “Now stay your gloom! Never have I endured in good faith such ill mind before.”
Vélia shook her head, and clasped her hands over her face. “Aedomir, your virtue is so wise I should love to caress it, but my heart protests. I must return to my people.”
Aedomir frowned. “But surely, you mind is not made up?”
“I feel it is. Please, do not seek to change me,” she said, and turned to the fire.
“But these people! They cast you aside their walls like meatless bones – how can you wish to be apart of such again?” Aedomir spluttered, heart pounding against his chest.
“Aed-”
“Tarry a moment, I beg of you, listen to me,” said Aedomir. “I cannot, nor do I wish to, counsel you by force, for it is your decision and I ask not to change that. Not only would our hearts be torn to pieces but you would risk yourself if you turned away. The road would be a danger and then, to what end? What would you do in the city aside from take pity as you seek to relive your former life in the pits of the alleys?” he panted.
Vélia sighed. “You know much, but when will you learn to appreciate some more? My business is my own, and I see it was not your office for me to confide.” She turned, hair trailing in the dry breeze.
____
Thanks!
