Young Writers Society

A/N please keep in mind this is a horribly rough draft simply set in to give you a basic feel for the characters, I am currently in the process of self editing, so please stay away from nitpickers in the review. I am more looking for a basic view of the story.

Chapter One: Unwanted

“She will never fit, Anber, it is not your fault, you have tried you hardest to raise her as one of us. She does not want it anymore; there was nothing you could do to change the girls mind on that one. One thing is for certain, she is as hard headed and stubborn as her mother.”

Anber shook her head, her eyes betraying the emotion she tried so desperately to conceal. “She’s not given up, Seante, she’s not!” the poor woman exclaimed. Despite the obvious differences between her daughter and the world she’d raised her in, Anber would never allow herself to fully believe the girl would never fit in… sure she was different, they had expected her to be different, but not so much so that she did not fit.

Seante patted her shoulder in the most comforting way that he could manage; he cringed inwardly, loathing Anber for nearly doing something all but a crime to his people. She almost cried.

Anber pulled herself together the moment after it happened, shaping her face into the customary blank expression, though for brief moments he would still catch her shoulders trembling.

Her daughter was not wrong.

~~~~~

Dracen skipped down the stairs, a smile plastered onto her face as she hummed some unknown tune under her breath, making it up as she went along. Her mother shook her head and closed her eyes tightly, glad that she did not have guests over at the time.

“Drea!” Anber hollered at the top of her lungs. Dracen stopped in her tracks, bowing her head in shame.”

“I apologize, mother, my behavior was unorthodox, it will not happen again.”

Anber sighed deeply, not daring to bring up the age old argument between the two of them. She always said it would not happen again, and every time, it happened again. For years and years Anber had pressed the true life upon her daughter, but it never took. Too much of him showed through her… she was much too much his daughter. And though a part of Anber soared at the sight of her smile, the other part of her, the part she kept shielded and guarded, that part broke all over again.

“Yes, daughter, I am sure.” She said instead. “Where are you off to today?”

Dracen had, unfortunately, quite surpassed her generation physically some years ago; she had since dropped out of her classes and decided to take her own path. “I must find it, mother, and the teachings they force upon me will not show me the way. I’ve tried your way, now I beg you let me try mine. I beg you.”

Anber had been a hard woman, she had followed the rules of the true life for her entire existence, but her beautiful young daughter made her break her own rules far too often. She’d grown soft for the girl, the others complained, she knew, but with a girl so free and strong willed, how can one say no?

“I think I shall just explore today, I should be home before next dawn, I promise this time.” Dracen said, the ever so convincing grin once again returning to her features.

Anber closed her eyes for a moment, knowing she would hear words from Seante in the near future for letting such a young person go off so unsupervised. Dracen was young, compared to most of their kind, she was all but a toddler, but to a world unknown to Seante, she was quite old. Old enough to be left unattended for a day. Seventeen was nothing to scoff at to the other side of Dracen’s heritage, and Anber did her best to give her child the freedom she demanded… the freedom she desperately needed.

But no freedom came without a price.

“Have fun, my darling.”

And without another word, just an appropriate bow and a skip hop out the door, Dracen was gone. Anber was not entirely certain when her daughter would return, or what strange exotic thing she would bring back with herself, but she would come home. She always did.

~~~~~

Dracen bounded out the door, two leather bags tied loosely around her belt and a pin in her dark hair keeping it pinned off of her face. Though her features were still sharpened and defined, there was undoubtedly human blood in her veins. Nonetheless her eyes were equally undoubtedly Elvin, the same clear green gaze as her mothers; she was an odd mixture of two halves. But never for one moment did she consider herself not whole.

She scurried forward with half the grace of her peers, and while she ran she rejoiced. Inwardly, outwardly, she did not know. The wind in her hair, the scent of pine and ground mulch hit her face in a rush—and she rejoiced. Laughter bubbled from her throat and her eyes closed for brief moments to savor it as she continued forward through the forest. Her forest.

They held claim to parts of it, she knew they did and she did not question them for it. In some aspects, they held claim to parts of herself as well, and she did not question that either. But damn the being who ever tried to tell her this forest, this sanctuary, was not in fact hers in every sense of the word.

Dracen slowed her pace once she had cleared the town’s limits, leaping high over logs and bounding up her stream, dancing in the water as it splashed itself up her legs and into her hair and face. Her mother, though a sweet gentle creature, could never understand this.

She loved the forest in the same way you love a home you’ve known your whole life. There was no passion in the love, no freedom in it. It just existed. Dracen considered herself the lucky one, being born her father’s daughter had given her certain opportunities that her mother could not have. She saw the world, smelled it, touched it—she was part of the world in a different way. In that way her mother and her would always be distant, and separation could be difficult. She wished for her mother’s soul that she could feel this.

Shaking her head free of thoughts of society and politics, she allowed the very world around her to draw her away. The branches reached out to touch her, leaving their mark in pink lines along her arms and calves, claiming her as their own as much as she claimed them.

She ran and danced and laughed the day away, making nice with the forest critters and climbing high when one of the larger creatures made their way towards her. She didn’t carry much with her, just a carving knife and a few bags to collect berries, and a canteen for the fresh spring water. And when nightfall came, she hunkered down into a crevice or cave somewhere, hoping that it had not been previously claimed by one of the beasts she had hidden from earlier in the day.

Night melded to day and day to night once more, and she continued on, only finally going back when her stomach begged for sustenance that simple berries and mushrooms could not give.

She walked the unpaved roads of the small city she’d known her whole life, her feet soar and aching from the three day trek, though her soles were prepared for such journeys. She hummed quietly and swung her bag of berries to and fro happily, smiling at the hidden world around her. To the naked eye, all that existed in this place was more forest. Only someone trained to see could actually tell there was an entire city here. Elves, for all of their faults, knew how to create a beautiful home, and had the magical talents to maintain it.

For that she would always be grateful to them.

She skipped her way up the uneven steps to her mother’s home, stopping short when she heard voices.

It was Seante, she could tell, his tenor voice carried easily through corridors. Anber sounded shrill and upset, and her heart tore slightly, hoping her absence had not been what caused her mother’s pain.

“Anber! She does not belong here; she is much too wild for our people. I know you care for the girl, but do what is right and let the child go. Send her to her father, send her anywhere, the city is done with her now. Did you hear what she has done! She laughed like a mad woman while running through our beautiful city. She laughed!”

“She’s just a free spirit, like her father. That’s all, I swear it. She was destined to be different from us, you accepted that when you invited us to join your city. You promised us peace here, Seante, you promised us.”

Seante sounded calmer this time. “Anber, calm yourself. You’re behaving more human by the day.” He scoffed at that. “Pull yourself together; you must see that she cannot fit here. She is as unhappy here as you were in their world. Send her to their world; see if she can find happiness there. As now all she does is cause the absence of comfort in the city. The rest of us want her gone.” He retorted cruelly.

Dracen backed up, clutching her fist to her chest and gasping slightly. She knew she was not fully welcomed here, though despite all of that her heart adored this place and these people. They did not see eye to eye, never saw the same thing the same way… but she loved this place. Her forest—what could she ever do without her forest?

See her father? The man that had learned he held one half of the responsibility of bringing her into the world and ran from the mere thought of her—see him? Speak to him? Be a daughter to him? How could she, when he had never been a father to her?

She shook her head violently. This could not be.

Dracen stormed into the house, slamming the front door behind her, to alert them to her presence. Her mother came from the kitchen, her eyes desperate and pleading. Seante was calm, a stoic expression plastered onto his face, like a chiseled block of rock, he was.

She held her head proudly, standing only a few inches above him. “If I am not wanted here, I will leave.”

“Dracen no! That’s not what he meant, I know it seems harsh, the rest are just unsure of you. If you tried harder, and kept yourself quiet, I know they would accept you back.”

She turned to her mother and smiled at her fondly before returning her gaze to Seante. “Leave us.” She demanded.

His face contorted, she could tell without doubt that one of the elders of the city did not take kindly to being ordered. A sly grin crept across her face and she delighted in seeing him so offended by her words. “I said leave us. Though I am leaving soon, as of this moment this place is still my home, and as of this moment you are less than welcome. Leave me be for just one night, I will be gone before long.” She told him, meeting his gaze boldly and without mercy.

My mother let a quiet strangled cry escape from her throat, and she saw him look back at her, disgust written across his features, but he let himself out. Only once he was gone did she go to her trembling weeping mother. Dracen held her arms wide, and her mother fell helplessly into her embrace. She petted her hair quietly, murmuring words of nonsense and comfort as best as she could. Anber quieted soon, her lifetime living the true life had trained her well, though not as well as most. She masked her face in an emotionless shield. Dracen stood on shaky knees. “Help me get some things together? I won’t need much, just enough to help me along my journey.”

“Oh, but where will you go?” She asked quietly.

“I am not positive yet; I shall walk north along the path and see where it will take me.” She kissed her forehead, and held her for another moment. “I’ll find my way, I swear it.”

Anber’s hear sank ever so slightly, as the thousands of broken promises playing through her mind without mercy. Still she set herself on the task of getting together anything and everything that would help her daughter make it through this journey alive.

Dracen made a makeshift pack out of old leather scraps and filled it with as much dried fruit and fish she could carry. She pulled on her good boots, and stuffed her heavy woolen cloak into her pack for colder nights. Anber walked her to the door, and Dracen turned to her. She held her hands tightly, before bringing them to her lips and kissing each knuckle. When she met her mother’s gaze one last time, she had tears in her eyes.

“We’ll meet again, I look forward to it.” She said, embracing Anber one more time before turning out the door. She did not need to see the tears to know they were there, though hidden, they were there.

Dracen ambled out of the city she had always known, her head held high as tears glistened down her fair skin.

And as she walked away, she promised to always live without shame and without fear.