There were darkening clouds on the
horizon as Voltarrens sat on the granite bench on top of the hill within
the ancient circle of upright stones. She stared into the valley below
with its heavily wooded forest; her mind filled with questions no one
could answer. Behind her were the village, her mother and her past. The
sun was just beginning to sink below the roof tops into the enveloping
twilight of night, burning its ebbing rays into the back of her skull.
Had life been that good in this small medieval village, secluded from
the rest of the world? The last warming rays seemed to be enticing her
back for an easier choice in life.
The trees in the valley below were
beginning to sing as a chant on the wind. Being one of the Magical People
she could hear their language as a feeling, something other than speech,
something she had learned from her mother. But now her mother was pushing
her out into the wider world beyond. The trees were her comforting friends
in the forest, and in this lonely time, she felt as if they were her only
friends.
Sixteen and short in stature, she felt
very small in the Six Realms of the world. Her long dark hair flew around
in the wind like the events crowding in around her for the task ahead.
Beside her lay the bag that her mother had lovingly packed with the essentials.
Her long green and blue dress echoed the journey she would take within
the Great Forest where she was to find her mentors. It was laced up tightly
in the front to keep her warm from the colder elements of the night. She
looked down at the leather shoes on her feet as she realized it was almost
time to go, to step off the stone seat and move forward.
This would be the first step in a long
journey she did not understand; yet she felt compelled to take. Behind
her nothing remained, as if some vast portal had sucked the entire village
from her consciousness. The days had been peaceful there and change had
been slow like the routine, she couldn’t remember a time when things
were any different.
That was until destiny changed the
workings of her world with the arrival of the Traveller...