~Chapter 1~
Violet was having slight issues with the rest of her clan. Yes, they were her entire family, very extended, but she wasn’t quite sure that they always knew what they were doing. Her violet eyes swept the forest floor, looking for something to pick up and fidget with. She found a wildflower, already picked and just dropped. It must have been one of her sisters, getting flowers for the long table for dinner. Vi reached down with her abnormally long fingers, even for an elf, and snatched it from the ground.
Frustrated, she pulled off all the petals, counting as she pulled: five. She’d have to start with “he loves me” to come up with the fact that Adahy loved her. But she didn’t need a stupid flower to find that out. She just had to think of the fact that she was engaged to him, against her will.
Her dowry was all set to go to her lovely cousin. She really couldn’t wait. She smirked into the darkness.
Ok. That was a lie. She hated the man. He beat his sisters, his girlfriends, even on occasion his mother. She despised him, abhorred him. And yet, much to her chagrin, she was engaged. She crushed the flower in her hand, grimacing to the nearest tree. She then opened her hand again. She concentrated, twisting her pretty features and her eyes grew dark. The flower grew taller and fuller in her hand, leaves and petals sprouting out from the previously bare stem. She stopped concentrating, her pale face becoming smooth and relaxed again, and the flower crumbled.
She sighed. She wandered a bit farther into the darkness. Day was going, so her vision was becoming limited. She looked up as the last stars winked out of the sky, ever taken by a sea of pink and orange. She trudged back in the direction of camp.
Apparently she’d gone farther than she thought she had, as she didn’t make it back before daylight made her blind. She grumbled softly, and then pulled off her cloak, finding a clearing and sleeping on the edge of it, draping her cloak over her tall frame and closing her eyes for exactly 12 hours until the sun had had enough for the day and skimmed across to the other side of the world.
Her eyes snapped open as she heard the *crack! * of a twig near her. She closed one eye, keeping the other on the male slowly approaching her.
He certainly wasn’t an elf. An elf would have been much quieter. No, he appeared to be human. ‘I must have walked in the wrong direction,’ Violet wondered. ‘The elf camp is on the other side of the woods!’
He was tall, with sandy brown hair, a thin frame, and a pair of suspicious eyes. His mouth was set in a line and his dark eyes stared into Violet’s as though he expected her to leap up and attack him. She closed her eyes and pretended to still be asleep.
He kept creeping closer, thinking he was very quiet and stealthy. She laughed to herself silently, and wondered at the fact that humans thought they were so quiet.
He knelt next to her and called quietly, “Hello? Are you awake?” She didn’t respond, so he picked up her pale hand in his larger, tan hand and turned it over, examining the extra joint in each finger. He brushed back her hair to reveal slightly pointed ears, and jumped lightly.
She opened her eyes, pretending to have just woken up. He leapt back, dropping her hand and gasping quietly. She sat up, pulling her cloak around her shoulders and clasping it with the silver pin that that signified her family’s high rank in the clan.
She looked at him curiously, “Who are you?” She spoke in English; most humans knew that language.
He gaped at her like a very fish and blinked. “Uh… I… I’m…” He seemed to have forgotten his name. Then he blurted, “Gary.” Almost unwillingly, he put out his hand to help her up, which she took gracefully.
“Violet.” She said. He nodded. “How old are you?” She asked, attempting to remember how humans aged.
“Eighteen in 3 days.” He smiled proudly. “You?” His eyes hardened again into their suspicion.
She pondered how she looked to a human. “Seventeen,” she decided. He nodded once again.
She spotted the oversized pack on his back. “You’re running away,” she stated matter-of-factly. He looked her over, as though deciding whether or not to tell her what she already knew.
“Yes. I can’t stand to live with my parents anymore. You know, they want me to work as a tailor?” He scoffed. ” ‘But your father does it, dear. You should be proud!’” He mocked. “No more. I want to travel!” He looked over at her from the bush he had been speaking animatedly to. “Are you?” He asked.
“Am I what?” She asked, confused.
“Running away.” He looked at her as though she were slow.
“Oh!” She pondered. That might solve her problems…. She smiled. “Yes,” she decided. “Yes, I am. May… May I accompany you? I don’t exactly know anything much about the world.” She looked up at him, pretending to be cute and innocent.
He looked her up and down, from her soft shoes to her simple brown dress and to the clasp that held her cloak together. He sighed. “Alright. As long as you don’t get in the way. Where do you come from, anyways? I haven’t seen you around town.”
She looked around at the surrounding trees that in the last few minutes had been plunged into darkness as she searched for an appropriate answer. “A village on the other side of the woods. I can’t remember what it’s called.” She lied.
He raised one eyebrow, and then decided not to question her. He shook his head and pointed to a well-worn path on the ground. “We’ll take this path to the exit of the woods, then try to find an inn that we’ll stay in for the night. If anyone asks, you’re my girl and we’re running away to elope. O.K.?” He asked. She nodded, silently wondering what eloping was, but she figured he was frustrated enough with her that she’d better not ask.
Gary looked at her back. “You’ve not thought much about running away, have you?” When she looked at him questioningly, he explained, “You don’t even have a backpack. No food, no extra clothing-“
Vi interrupted him. “There’s food all over the forest.”
Gary shook his head. “You don’t have anything to kill deer with, to make a fire, anything.”
Vi furrowed her brow. “But you can make fire with anything. And you don’t need to kill deer. There’s plenty of plants and some fish in the stream that you don’t need anything to catch.
Gary raised his eyebrows. “Show me that you can find dinner for the two of us without a gun or flint.” She shrugged, nodding.
He sat down on a rock as she walked away. ‘What a strange girl,’ he pondered, watching her examine some mushrooms. ‘She seem to know nothing about the world outside of the forest. I wonder if she actually lives here and lied to me about her village…’
Vi wandered the surrounding forest, examining mushrooms that grew on the trees, then decided to catch the fish first. She looked at her surroundings, making sure Gary didn’t follow her before sliding her dress off and slipping into the river. The cold made her gasp at first. Many fish swirled around her, as they were used to her. She lashed out a hand and grabbed a silvery fish that wriggled in her hand, trying hard to get free. She lashed out another hand into the frenzy and snatched another one.
Violet walked back to Gary, the fish in her hands. She nearly smirked at his wide eyes. He nodded to acknowledge the feat and set up a place for a camp fire, without fire in it; that was Vi’s job.
