Our story begins in the mystical land of Farramore, where a small peasant couple has recently found a little baby girl tucked into the mountaintop edge, lost and crying alone.
It was an awfully rough day for Aleena and Corrin Rillfanger, two poor farmers who owned a small, 5-acre plot of land on the country plains of Farramore. Corrin and Aleena Rillfanger were their names, common and easily forgettable. They were childless, for the years had been hard on them and there was barely any time or money to raise a child. Their ancestors claimed to be descended from the gods, but the bloodline was so weak that it became hearsay. Aleena and Corrin were neither dirt-poor nor middle class, but they had a farm and some animals and each other, and for a long time, that was enough. They owned a small field where they grew local delicacies like strawberries, tomatoes, and thornfruit. The new harvest had just burst into ripeness, and the poor couple had to harvest the whole field all on their own. They didn't have any neighbors within shouting (or seeing) distance, and the nearest town was at least an hour away. All that existed for miles around were wildlife and the various plants and animals that populated the moderate hills of Farramore's countryside. Every now and then, the two farmers had to hire extra help from town, in a special, once-a-month gift kind of way. Then, one person would work while the other took turns laying down and enjoying a day of dilly-dallying freely. Right then, however, it was peak harvesting season and there wasn't anybody to help out on the farm. The two were stuck in the fields, dawn to dusk, trying to get everything in place before the annual farmers market festival. There were only so many hours in a day, and not a single moment could be spared for anything else.
Aleena had just bent down to pick some juicy ripe strawberries when she heard a faint baby's cry, winding its way out from the forest that surrounded the field into her attentive ears. She perked up, motioning for Corrin to be silent and come over. Corrin grunted and swung his sickle over his shoulder, silently marching over to where Aleena was standing. The cries became louder and more frantic, and there seemed to be a great rustling and growling coming from the forest that definitely was not a baby.
Aleena's eyes widened and she dropped her basket, rushing towards the edge of the forest as quickly as she could without making a noise. The footsteps were light and hurried, soon followed by Corrin's heavier boots. Within a minute, they were right next to the forest, face to face with a huge beast-bear, who was clutching a wiggling bundle of cloth between its teeth.
In this world, there were two types of beast creatures: those that could easily transform between their beast form and their normal form, and those whose beast and normal forms were permanently combined into a hideous combination. The transformation beasts, as they were called, had more power, and could easily become mages and warlocks, but could not advance past that stage. Permanent beasts, however, are the product of magic experimentation gone awry and are, therefore, highly unstable. Permanent beasts attack anyone around them and have a vicious bloodlust that is only satisfied when they die or stay far away from anything living. This permabeast, a particularly large and bloodthirsty bear, was covered in faint black runes and its eyes were completely red, like two twin lasers.
Aleena screamed and stumbled back. The bear, upon hearing the noise, roared, the noisy blanket hooked on one of its footlong canines. Corrin cursed and swung his sickle menacingly, yelling and shouting in order to drive away the beast. The bear paused, stood still for a moment, and opened its mouth again. Fear flashed in Aleena's dull brown eyes, and she pulled Corrin down just as a column of fire erupted from the beast's maw. The flames singed the blanket that the baby was swaddled in, and suddenly a burst of golden light shook the field. A single glowing rune appeared in the sky above them and smashed down on the bear, almost flattening it. The baby was tossed into the air, wailing in terror.
Corrin saw the whole thing in slow motion: Aleena rushing out with outstretched arms, the baby doing a slow somersault through the air, and the beast leaping forward to catch it. Corrin's sickle, which was now glowing hot with the fire, made a clean arc through the hot air and sliced the beast's muzzle. The baby into Aleena's arms with a thump and started to cry once more. The beast, wounded and confused, gave one last roar before bounding off into the thick forest.
Aleena sighed with relief and looked into the baby's eyes. The baby had stopped crying and was now trying to grab at Aleena's bright headscarf. The eyes were a beautiful lavender, deep and full like pools of moonlight. They seemed to be filled with a curious hunger and excitement, and the pale, soft face was framed with wisps of raven-blue hair. A tiny fist clutched a piece of the headscarf, and the baby giggled, revealing two pearly white teeth. Corrin looked over and smiled, thinking to himself that there couldn't be a more perfect child.
A look of worry crossed Aleena's face, and she said the thought they were both thinking in their hearts. "Where are the parents?"
"I don't know... surely they wouldn't leave their child in the forest on purpose," Corrin replied, rubbing his stubbled chin.
"Hmm. Well, let's at least feed the poor thing and... change its clothes." She said the last part with a face, sniffing the suspicious looking stain on the cloth the baby was wrapped in.
Corrin chuckled a bit and picked up his sickle. "Well, there's no time to waste then. I'll get the wheat and berries; you can boil up the water in the meanwhile." He headed over to the grain shed, and Aleena shifted the baby in her arms and walked home.
A couple hours later, they were sitting by the fire, the baby playing with a carved dragon figure in front of them. Aleena was sewing some clothes while Corrin turned a note in his hands over and over again. It had come in the blanket the baby was wrapped in, tucked away in a little pocket. There were only 10 words on it, written in a frantic and messy script that was barely legible: 'Take good care of her. Her name is Selene Damaris."
Aleena was clearly lost in thought, too; she kept poking her hands with the needle until the white cloth was stained with freckles of red. Suddenly, she spoke. "Corrin, what do we do?"
He sighed. "Isn't it apparent? She was abandoned, and it's lucky we found her before she ended up in the belly of a beast."
A crease appeared between Aleena's brows. "That's true, but still... It's not right! We shouldn't be taking someone else's kid and raising them. You always said you wanted a child with your eyes and my mouth..."
"And we've been gifted with a child after gods know how long! I don't care about whose eyes or mouth our kid has, as long as they have a good personality and strong morals. Let's forget about the past and make use of this! Come on, Aleena, it's a one in a million chance..." He smiled hopefully and gestured to the baby, who was now gnawing on the dragon's head. Aleena sighed, then smiled slightly.
"Okay, then. Welcome to the Rillfanger household, Selene."
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Over the years, Selene grew into a quiet, shy, bookish young girl. Contrary to the other, rough country kids, she preferred to curl up by the fireside with an atlas or an old almanac. She would rather explore new worlds through the words of others rather than live out her own adventures. It was tough finding books and maps for her, though, since the nearest library was dozens of miles away.
Every weekend, she would sneak out of her house at noon, shouting to her parents that she was going to play with some friends. However, instead of heading to the other houses, she turned left at the bakery and slipped onto an ox cart going to the next town over. After a couple hours and a carrot to the ox, she would arrive at Hubbonvil, the only town with a relatively extensive library (which meant it was more than the size of a closet).
Selene idly walked up to the entrance, where the word "LIBRARY" gleamed above her in chipped gold paint. She took a deep breath, savoring the moment, before plunging in.
The inside of the library was cool and damp, a stark contrast from the dry summer heat. Maybe it was the books, the magic seeping out from their pages and encasing the building in a cool refuge. She happily skipped past the front desk, past the ancient librarian who looked like he hadn't moved an inch since the last great war, past the dusty stationery, and to the back of the room – where the mythology section was.
Mythology was Selene's favorite subject. It always had been, ever since she learned how to read – or perhaps ever since she could remember her parents' bedtime stories. Every night, they would narrate a popular story or legend before bed, and every night she would dream of going on those adventures herself. Sometimes she would make friends with the hero, and sometimes she would become the hero, battling dragons and saving villages herself. The possibility of being the main character, of being the one that everyone looks up to, made her heart pound with excitement every time.
This time, she was looking forward to a new shipment of ancient classics from the capital city. Last time, the librarian had told her to wait for the new books to come in and then come and check them out before anybody else got to them. Fortunately, she arrived right on time – the town helper had just stumbled in with a crate full of dusty titles, the box almost obscuring his eyes.
"Morning, Selene!" The handyman, a scruffy young man in his twenties, jerked his head to shift the raggedy blue cap blocking his sight. He almost teetered over, supported by a quick hand from Selene, who had quickly rushed over upon seeing the books.
"Morning, Cam! Do you mind if I have first dibs?" She eagerly asked him before he could even put the crate down.
"Why, who else in the whole region reads as much as you do, little miss? Of course, you can. Just don't tell the others!" Cam put a finger to his lips and winked, the two glancing at the near-comatose librarian. They giggled, and Cam put down the crate with a grunt. He had not even stood back up yet when Selene threw herself into the bin, fishing out a handful of books and scampering away.
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He chuckled once and headed out. The little bell on the door jingled, and Cam held the door open for a trio of schoolgirls who were walking in. The girls were prim and proper, dressed in sleek silk school uniforms with matching mini handbags. Their noses turned up at the musty dampness of the library, and the leader, a dainty yet intimidating young girl, condescendingly coughed at some imaginary dust.
"Eww!" She wrinkled her porcelain face. "What is the absolutely disgusting place?!?!"
Selene looked over and immediately froze. These were the most popular girls at school!! What were they doing here? She shrank back, trying to hide her petite frame behind a stack of books nearby. Unfortunately, she couldn't stop her long, gorgeous, purple-black raven hair from spilling over her shoulders and onto the floor.
This caught the lead bully's eye, and she walked over. "I know, this must be the dog house because why else would you be here," she snarled, stomping on Selene's hair. Selene let out a pitiful cry as her head was yanked back, banging her head against the floor.
'Not again-' A thought barely flicked through Selene's mind before it went blank - the bully ground her foot into the floor, making Selene's scalp erupt in pain. Selene quickly pulled her hair back before the bully could jump on the now-dusty raven locks.
"H-hey Amy," she whispered angrily under her breath. She didn't have the courage to say much more, but she managed to mouth the rest. "I-it hurts..."
Amy, who was brushing the imaginary dirt from her polished black shoes, turned her head menacingly. "What was that, midget? Did you bark something?"
One of Amy's followers who was watching from behind piped up. "But Amy, midgets can't bark, I don't think."
Amy whipped around and shot her an infuriated glare. "I was saying that she was a dog, but it looks like you are one too, you brainless idiot!"
The other follower was confused. "So, is she a midget, a dog, or a brainless idiot?"
"AAAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH SHE'S ALL OF THEM! YOU'RE ALL MIDGETS, DOGS AND BRAINLESS IDIOTS!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" Amy screamed as she stomped out of the library, not forgetting to throw Selene an evil look before she left.
The cronies hurried to keep up with their leader, one of them muttering, "She forgot the Oxford comma."
Selene stayed on the floor and stared at their backs as they were leaving. Why was everyone so mean to her? Especially Amy, she didn't even do anything to upset the rich schoolgirl. They picked on her every single day, finding new ways to make her life just plain unpleasant. Tears pooled in the corners of Selene's kaleidoscope lavender eyes. She just wants to have friends...
Never mind that. Books were her friends. Books could never betray her; they would always have new stories and adventures to sweep her away from her sad life and into another world. One day, maybe she really could become a hero-
Her thoughts were interrupted by a glint that caught the corner of her vision. She turned her head, but it disappeared again. Selene squinted hard, and turned her head again, and the point of light appeared again, only to fade as she moved her head the tiniest bit to the right. After a long time of squinting, staring, and shuffling around, Selene finally managed to pinpoint the location of the sparkly thing. By this time, her neck was already stiff to the point of crackling, and her eyes twitched sporadically from the strain. Exhausted, she shot out a hand in desperation, before the pinpoint of light could disappear again.
Immediately she yelped and drew her hand back again. There was a pinprick of blood right at the center of her palm, the small bead of red growing as her hand started to throb in pain. She quickly looked for the object that did this, and sure enough, the glimmer of light belonged to a golden brooch peeking out from under a bookshelf. Selene drew closer and picked it up.
The shape was somewhere between a rectangle and an oval, the sides cutting cleanly and effortlessly into a perfect geometric outline. A giant polished amber sat right in the middle of the brooch. There might have been a pinprick of something incredibly miniscule at the center of the amber, but it was too dark and dusty for Selene to tell.
If she'd cleaned the smudge marks off the face of the brooch, though, and held it under a light, she would've thought that it looked like blood.
But Selene was too busy tending to her palm. She looked in her pockets for a piece of fabric, eventually finding a strip of white cloth she was planning to use as a bookmark. After wrapping her palm up, she picked up her things, dusted off her scruffy dress, and made her way into the musty depths of the library once more.
Selene had just walked past the farthest end of the oldest, most rickety bookshelf in the entire library, tucked away at the very back like some sort of foreboding impasse daring all those who ventured near to pick a tome. Step by step, she shuffled in a trance to a particularly dingy, moth eaten, falling-apart book that just... seemed to call out to her.
She had only been looking for fantasy series, or books about the farthest edges of the world which she someday hoped to visit. This book, however, didn't seem to be any of the above. If anything, it was too decrepit to even be deciphered. The words on the pages had long faded into the now-brown, mothwing thin pages. However, the moment Selene touched the book, a golden light seemed to emanate starting from the ragged spine. It traveled throughout the pages, seeping into the numerous creases like a plant ravenously soaking up water after a long drought. Golden ink, pure like sunlight, fused into the barely-there words and made them glow bright enough to light up Selene's pupils.
Selene gasped slightly. A small, imperceptible movement caught her eye. Did one of the letters just shiver? She scanned the page once more for the miniscule movement. There it was again - this time, the letter shook once and directly leaped off the page. Then, it was like a dam had burst. The rest of the letters peeled themselves off the pages and leaped into the air like stars released from capture. They danced and fluttered around Selene in a tornado of light, bathing her delicate frame in an otherworldly, golden glow.
Selene was stunned into silence. Her mouth hung slightly open, and she didn't think to close it until after her finger had been gently sparked, having reaching out to touch the flurry of letters around her. The danced around her and encased her in a shower of light, but just as Selene came to her senses, they froze. It was like someone had stopped time - Selene's heart also momentarily froze with them. Then, without warning, the glowing letters rushed towards her. They were too quick for her to react; the next time Selene opened her eyes, her mother was standing over her worriedly.
"Selene, honey, are you okay? Are you feeling better? Don't get up yet, your body is still recovering." Her mother quickly reached out a hand to support her back, which was suddenly aching tremendously. Now that she thought about it, her entire body exploded with pain, and she fell back limp onto her thinly padded bed.
"Selene! Is everything alright?" Her father interjected, concerned.
"Corrin, does she look alright? Don't say anything stupid and get me a basin of hot water," her mother scolded, the annoyance in her voice masking the tension. "Selene, just lay back down. Have some ginger tea while your father gets the hot water ready."
Selene weakly groaned an affirmation before laying back down. "W-what happened?"
The care and concern in Aleena's face morphed incredulity. "That's exactly what we want to know, dear. What happened that Cam came rushing back, carrying you over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes? When we first saw you, your whole body was covered in strange red marks - we were so worried, your father hasn't been able to sleep since you got back."
"Since I got back?" Selene croaked. "H-how long...?"
Aleena sighed. "Oh, honey. It's been two days."
Selene nodded blankly. Suddenly, her eyes flew open. "Two days?!" She abruptly tried to sit up but flopped back down before her mother could push her. The pain rendered her speechless for a couple seconds as she struggled for breath. "W-what about school?"
Aleena sighed again. "We sent a mail to the headmaster that you suffered an injury and were unable to make it to the commencement. Don't worry, though. The teachers there will catch you up on whatever you missed." She put on a reassuring smile.
Selene frowned but nodded. At this point, there was nothing else she could do. What happened, anyways? Those floating letters suddenly rushed at her and...
Her mother said that she was covered in red marks shortly afterwards. Did that mean that the floating letters attacked her and left some type of imprint? Did they go inside of her or just bounce off?
What were those floating letters anyways? She didn't give it a second thought until she realized the absurdity of the situation. Did it make any sense for the words of a book to peel right of the pages and throw themselves at her? Was this all an elaborate hallucination caused by her overindulgence of fantasy novels?
But those marks on her skin proved otherwise. Selene tilted her neck slightly to see the rest of her body. The pale flesh on her arms was slightly mottled, the faint traces of red starting to disappear and leave pink aftermarks. She frowned again. Physically, she didn't feel any different - other than feeling like an angry mule stomped on her.
This matter could only be investigated later, after she recovered and went to school. For the time being, she would carry on with her life, as if nothing had happened.
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The Von Aschwood manor rose imposingly in the night, melting into the grim indigo sky. Rain had just began to drizzle down from the menacing clouds above, and the only sound around for miles was the gentle, intermittent tapping of rain on the window panes.
Suddenly, a crash interrupted the gloomy silence. It was coming from inside the house, and if a passerby were to sneak closer, around the vines of purple-black roses that snaked up the turrets, they would see a horrific sight. A young girl was hurled across the room into a decorative armor display. The metal armor clamored as it fell to the floor, drowning out her muffled groan. Then, a woman's piercing voice cut through the air.
"You stupid rat! Didn't I tell you a thousand times not to lose that pendant? It's the most crucial part of the plan, and you still managed to lose it? All this luxury must be rotting your brain, otherwise how could you have trashed the most important heirloom this family owns! You're an absolute failure, don't even think about calling me your mother ever again! I would rather die than be related to a stupid roach like you!"
The woman stomped over, apparently not satisfied with verbally venting her fury. She grabbed a decorative sword, still in its bejeweled scabbard, and swung it at the girl. The young girl had just extracted herself from under twice her weight's worth of metal, and she didn't look up fast enough to see the club-like scabbard heading towards her face.
An ugly thwack reverberated throughout the empty main hall. The echoes weren't enough to conceal the girl's shocked exclamation as she was knocked to the floor once again. Blood flowed down from the side of her face; it looked like some of the gems had cut her cheek. The mother sneered once and raised the now-stained scabbard again. Seeing this, the girl curled up on the floor, too tired to resist. Her wavy golden hair tumbled down her back, attempting to shield her from the heavy storm of blows she received. Naturally, it didn't work. By the time the mother stalked out of the room, stretching her neck and soldiers after the strain, the girl was nothing more than a bloody pile of bruises on the floor.
As the mother exited, she paused at the doorway for a moment. She turned her head and spat in the girl's direction, spitting, "Don't you dare come back until you find that pendant, rat."
As she lay on the floor, all alone, the girl looked up at the vaulted ceiling. It was as beautiful as ever, she supposed. It was laid with multicolored tiles that flashed gloomy rainbows across her bloody cheek with the unnatural lightning. The purples and greens complemented the smattering of bruises across her arms. She took a breath, her rib cage shuddering pitifully.
Living was torture. She just wanted to sink into the floor, to wash away with the blood that was pooling up around her. Waves of pain stabbed at her mind until she could no longer hold on. She couldn't pass out, though. She would wait there, experiencing every moment in brutal clarity until the maids came and found her again.
As the battered girl lay there mangled on the floor, one face popped into her mind. Curtainlike, raven blue hair framing melancholically purple eyes. Eyes that held an inexplicably dazed and innocent air. Lying on the floor, the girl snarled. Those lavender irises were burned into the her mind and taunted her mercilessly.
