By: Brianna Lee Hubler
Copyright © 2022 Brianna Lee Hubler. All rights reserved.
__________A young Relaunkatheer leapt from the branch of a tree. Fayren ducked beneath his peer’s descending feet and somersaulted over the roots of the tree. The Relaunkatheer landed and laughed. Fayren stood and inspected his scraped limbs.
__________“Did you tarnish your pretty blond skin, Fayren?” the Relaunkatheer mocked.
__________Fayren crossed his arms and threw back his bangs. “It’s nothing, Kidasha,” he insisted.
__________Kidasha grabbed Fayren’s arm. “Oh, but look how the roots burnt you!” he teased. “Delicate creatures like you usually never learn to stand.”
__________Fayren yanked his arm away and swung his foot into Kidasha’s gut. Kidasha twisted and dodged him. Fayren glared.
__________Kidasha rolled his eyes. “See what I mean?” he asked. “You’re way too sensitive, almost like a girl.”
__________Fayren smirked. “Envy is ugly,” he stated. “No wonder long eyelashes and blushed cheeks never face your way!”
__________Kidasha placed his hands on his hips and scoffed. “Think you’re more popular with the ladies? Only because they mistake you for one of them!”
__________Fayren flipped, kicked Kidasha in the chest, and knocked him off his feet. “Then consider yourself beaten by a girl,” Fayren mocked.
__________Kidasha growled and rolled aside Fayren’s feet. He reestablished the bearings of his internal compass, dusted off his clothes, and readied his fists. Fayren shook his head, turned away, and sprinted ahead.
__________Before he disappeared in the glaring, setting sun, Fayren stopped and glanced at Kidasha. “Never let down your guard,” he advised.
__________Kidasha ran to meet Fayren along the horizon, but the light of the setting sun bent around Fayren, and concealed Fayren long enough for him to escape to the edge of the woods. Kidasha squatted, noted the direction of Fayren’s fleeting tracks, and smirked.
__________The sun backs you, Kidasha acknowledged, but the woods will back me.
__________Kidasha rose and returned to the village, deep within the heart of the forest.
__________Fayren settled in the dwindling grove at the edge of the woods. He drew his longbow from his quiver. He clipped the tail end of an arrow to his bowstring and matched the arrowhead against the wooden riser. Fayren raised his arms, pulled back his bowstring, and aimed across the grove. A mighty elder tree towered two hundred feet from Fayren’s fingers. Fayren could easily have struck a slimmer target, but he knew and respected the elder tree as a guardian of saplings.
__________He aimed for the elder tree, steadied his hands, and closed his eyes. He whispered in Elvish, “Light shield my target.”
__________A reverberating panel of golden light rose in front of the elder tree’s massive trunk. Fayren opened his eyes and loosed his arrow. The tip of the arrow struck the magical shield. The shield shattered as if it were made of glass.
__________Fayren’s golden eyes widened. “Not good,” he expressed.
__________The arrow traveled through the shield, stabbed the trunk of the elder tree, and burrowed six inches into the tree’s middle. Sap bled from the hole and streamed down the elder tree’s trunk.
__________Fayren lowered his longbow, swallowed, and clapped a hand to his forehead. “What have I done?” he expressed.
__________Fayren returned his longbow to his quiver. He ran to the tree, placed a hand against its injured trunk, and wrapped the other hand around his embedded arrow. “Forgive me,” he pleaded. “I will have to pain you before I can mend you.”
__________Fayren tightened his grip on the shaft of his arrow and pulled. One misjudged tug could sever the arrowhead from the shaft, preventing Fayren from healing the elder tree, and leaving the tree’s wound to fester. Fayren steadied his hand and retrieved the arrow as gently as he could manage. As the tip of his arrow slid out from the elder tree’s trunk, Fayren heard a flurry of footsteps bounding into the grove.
__________Fayren’s eyes darted after the sound. Led by Kidasha, a group of Relaunkatheermor encroached. Fayren bit his lip, stashed his arrow in his quiver, and returned his attention to the tree. He rested his head against the trunk and his palms on either side of the tree’s injury.
__________“Grow and reform,” he whispered in Elvish.
__________Light emanated from Fayren’s palms and tunneled into the tree’s wound. The trunk of the elder tree stretched out from within, one wooden ring at a time, and plugged the hole.
__________Kidasha pounced atop Fayren, broke his concentration, and pinned him to the forest floor. The light from Fayren’s palms vanished, like a candle flame extinguished. Fayren’s spell ceased when his palms darkened, as the warmth of smothered flame diminishes. The spell ended prematurely; the rough, protective bark of the elder tree failed to cover the smooth, wooden scar that the unfinished spell left behind. Kidasha slammed his fists into Fayren’s flesh. Fayren shielded his eyes with his arms, but otherwise lay still.
__________Kidasha littered Fayren’s fair skin with bruises. Fayren breathed slowly. His arms flopped to either side of his head. He struggled to maintain consciousness.
__________The other Relaunkatheermor pulled Kidasha off Fayren. Enraged, Kidasha thrashed from side to side, fought against his peers’ grip. Kidasha’s peers restrained him, until he stopped panting, and started to see clearly. They directed his sight to the elder tree.
__________Kidasha’s eyes fell upon the elder tree’s scar. His shoulders dropped, his hands unclenched, and his peers loosened their grip. He cupped one palm over his mouth and the other over the scar. He glanced from the tree to Fayren and back. He sighed.
__________“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I acted too swiftly.”
__________Kidasha glanced again at Fayren and then at his peers. One of his peers clapped a hand to his back.
__________“He’ll be all right,” the other Relaunkatheer assured.
__________Kidasha bit his lip and nodded. He squatted, lifted Fayren onto his shoulders, and supported Fayren’s legs with his arms. The Relaunkatheermor escorted the two young men to the village. Kidasha returned Fayren to his house. Fayren’s adoptive parents received him. They kindly tended Fayren as his wounds mended.
__________“What happened out there?” Fayren’s father inquired when Fayren first stirred.
__________Fayren shakily sat up in his bed. He leaned the back of his head against the wall. His fingers curled around the edges of his blanket.
__________“I don’t belong here,” he groaned.
__________Fayren’s mother frowned, crossed her arms, and tapped her foot impatiently. Fayren’s father wrapped an arm around her, hugged her to calm her. She stilled and sighed.
__________“Where do you belong if not with your family?” she asked.
__________Fayren rolled his eyes, turned his head, and pressed a cheek against the wall. He gazed through a side window, squinted, and spied the stars through the branches of trees. His father and mother sat down on either side of him. Each of them placed a hand on one of his shoulders.
__________“That day will come,” Fayren’s father assured.
__________Fayren nodded, though he cringed when the motion shook his bruised ribs.
__________“As soon as these bruises heal,” Fayren announced.
__________Fayren’s mother frowned. She removed her hand from his shoulder and wandered into another room. Fayren’s father sighed and followed her. They had done everything they could for their son, but he had outgrown the protective woods. Fayren was a key piece for another jigsaw puzzle mistakenly stashed in the same box as the one that depicted their woodland home. There was not a way his parents could turn that piece to place it where it was not shaped to fit. They had watched Fayren’s childhood joy gradually degrade, while they had fought to raise his spirits, but he had only plunged deeper into melancholy. Fayren’s destiny waited for him beyond the woods, and now that he had realized what his parents long dreaded, he would tramp out on his own to meet it, as soon as his bruises faded.
Endlesslore 