Quest of Revenge

Quest of Revenge

Chapter One

"Hide in the trapdoor, Mirri. Now!"

Mirri huddled in the corner of the small, bare room as the three cloaked figures entered the room, talking quietly with her parents. She had felt it again; that cold, dreaded feeling she felt when something bad was going to happen. It had happened too much recently; more than normal, anyway. Mirri began to think that her parents were doing something wrong of some sort.

Mirri was eight years old at the time. She had long brownish-gold hair and emerald green eyes. She was quiet and secretive, and wasn’t a very good joker, but she had fun with her friends in the small town she lived in, in that period of time when the Medieval times had just begun. She loved her town, and the town was a very good one. She grew up in her town, and had become very attached to the people in it. There was one unusual thing about her, though: She had very long, pointy ears. And that was because she was an elf.

She wasn’t a normal elf, either. There were two countries that were only Elven countries: Hylia and Silvermoon. Silvermoon was the High Elves’ country; Hylia was the Dark Elves’ country. Mirri lived in Silvermoon, and her parents were the heads of her town. And both countries were on Pandora.

Pandora was a planet in a different galaxy than our Earth. But otherwise it was nearly the same. There were five continents: North Priam, South Priam, Chimerian, the Caston Peninsula, and Graia. North Priam and South Priam were positioned were North America and South America would be; Chimerian was China, Russia, the European countries and the surrounding countries, the Caston Peninsula was where the Arabian Peninsula would be, and Graia was a large peninsula that struck out in a curving way beneath Chimerian. Pandora had a strange equator line; the top was cold and the bottom was hot. Where our equator was, it was a very warm temperature; it stayed the same the entire way down, except at where the South Pole would be, then it got scorchingly hot.

Pandora could obviously support life. It was almost like a parallel Earth in physical ways. But the races, countries, ways of ruling, and all political stuff were almost completely different. And the races weren’t all exactly human. The Pandora humans called themselves Pandorians; and then there were other races. There were Elves, of course, and there were Gerds. Gerds were all red-haired, had large, golden eyes, and were almost completely woman. Their political matters and such were, anyway. Any boys that were born were either sent away to a new country or kept as servants. Only one boy every hundred years would be allowed to stay, and he was their ruler.

But then there were also Zimphs, dwarves, Gomgums, and Dishi. Zimphs were aquatic people; they were like evolved fish. They had the bodies of a man, and the head was the same shape, but their bodies were covered with blue, shining scales, and off the ends of their heads were long tails. They had fins on the backs of their legs and arms. Their eyes were a beautiful blue, except that it was just dark blue: no visible pupils or whiteness of their eyes were there, unless you peered closely. Zimphs had to live in water, but could come on land for short periods of time.

Gongums were strange, rock-like creatures that could roll into a ball. The animal that came closest to it were turtles, but even they were far off. Their backs were rock-like, and they ate rocks, too. Their skin was brown, and they were completely round except for their arms and legs, which were very skinny. Their eyes were much like the Zimph’s eyes, except they were brown instead. And the Gomgums had a large smile on all the time, and short, stubby noses. A little bit of hair grew at the top of their head.

Dishi people were probably the most unusual, because they were all the height of ten-year-old children, and were made of wood. They had golden, glowing eyes, and were shaped just like humans, except that they were obviously much smaller. They had no visible noses, and their mouths were large, gaping holes that could easily spit rocks and such far in case of attack. Since they were made of wood, except inside they had a few animal parts, people around the world mistreated them, especially by Pandorians.

There was not much to say about Dwarves. They were all short, sturdy, and stocky, and they mostly lived in colder, rockier areas than tropical forests or large fields. They were always strong, and had interesting tools to spread around the world.

Elves were very secretive and unearthly. Most were unnaturally tall, and all had long, pointy ears. Elves normally kept to themselves. Most countries of other races and such traded with other races and countries; the Elves rarely traded at all. Elves were superb warriors, however; and they were especially good with being spies.

And all the people of Pandora believed in four gods: Zeus, Mars, Hera, and Isis. They worshipped their own choices of the gods. Mirri’s town especially believed in Hera. The people did good things for the temple every day, and on one day of the week they would worship them entirely, like the Sabbath. Mirri’s family was a very pious one.

Pandora was a very confusing world, with wars happening often here and there. Gerds were mostly thieves and caused many wars; there was pollution in the waters so the Zimphs were often upset; and the Elves chose to fight whenever some country crossed the threshold of their country into the Elves’. And the Elves were especially horrible when someone tried to chop down their trees. And, when a really large problem came, the entire planet was in utter chaos. So, the people who looked after the planet were the Guardians.

There were seven Guardians: light, shadow, wind, water, forest, fire, and spirit. They each had magical powers to help the planet, and each was given a type of magic due to their category. The Guardians were not supposed to always interfere with wars, but when things got horrible, they had to lend a magical hand. The reason why was because there was otherwise hardly any magic at all that was spread throughout Pandora. However, the Guardians had not appeared for a long time. People began to think they were mere legends, and finally almost all the people considered them to be a mere myth. Only Dishis still believed in them; but since everyone looked down upon them, there wasn’t much heard about them…

Mirri quietly, stealthily, climbed down through the trapdoor in her three-roomed house. It was used as a hideout long ago when the Pandorians had been enraged at the Elves and were attacking their towns. Mirri slipped through the door and peered up through the floorboards to overhear what the cloaked people were saying.

These people had repeatedly visited Mirri’s town, Nicho, over the past three years. Mirri had noticed them, since they stood out from the Elven crowd; you could see every unearthly Elven face and ears, but you couldn’t see these people’s faces.

"Sir and madam," one of the cloaked figures hissed menacingly, "we seem to recall loaning you much gold and silver, and you still have not repaid it."

"We will have the money soon," replied Mirri’s father, and when Mirri searched through his voice for that encouraging sound she always heard when he spoke, she found she could not hear it.

"We were told that we would be paid this precise day," snapped back the hissing voice. "Your entire town owes us. And you know the price for not paying on time."

"Please," begged Mirri’s mother, "we will have the money very shortly, just a couple of months—"

"A couple of months is not soon enough!" hissed back the figure seethingly. Something red glinted from underneath the hood. "Give me all the money you have now. If you do not have enough, then we shall punish you."

Mirri was quite sure that her parents didn’t know what exactly was "enough," but they searched through their house for the money they kept hidden everywhere. Mirri, looking through the cracks, saw her parents taking all the money, even Mirri’s own personal money and the money they were saving to buy a new house.

Mirri saw her parents giving them all the money. The cloaked figures examined all the gold and silver, and then the hissing voice said:

"This is not enough."

And then it happened. Mirri saw her parents die right before their eyes; the figures had removed their cloaks, and they were all three women with red hair. They slashed at Mirri’s parents, and while Mirri was still shocked from the horrible quickness of everything, the three women rummaged through their house; they grabbed all items that were of value, and smashed down other items and furniture. All three lit torches and began lighting the wooden furniture.

And then Mirri came to her senses. She snapped awake; she stopped mourning and regained herself. She crawled along underneath the suddenly roaring fire above her, and the snaps and crackles of wood burning and falling apart; Mirri heard the three women dashing out of the burning house and then she heard other noises: screaming, fires roaring, shouts and yells, and horse sounds. Mirri crawled to where the escape door was, the heat that had suddenly erupted making her feel sleepy, until a flame jumped out and licked her arm.

Mirri dashed out the escape door beneath the small wooden house and looked around at her Elven village. Forest surrounded their town, since Elven towns were normally hidden in deep forests, away from other races.

The houses around Mirri were burning; even the temple of Hera was being burned down. Mirri saw that there were more women running around; and she knew that they were all Gerd women.

Mirri ran towards the forest and hid up in a tree to watch the horrible scene. Her friends, family, people she didn’t know, and old people and children were being burned to death. Mirri couldn’t stand watching, but she had to. She didn’t know what else she could do.

Mirri saw her friend, Mica, running and tripping from flames. But she felt horrible, because Mica was blind.

Mica kept calling Mirri’s name, and his father’s name. He came to a stop beneath a small roof that was at the entrance to the bar. It was lighted with fire.

"Mica!" Mirri screamed. "Mica, move!" Mirri jumped down from her tree and began sprinting to him.

Mica’s long ears pricked up. "Mirri!" he shouted desperately. "Mirri, where are—"

But then the fiery roof above him began to collapse; and suddenly he was buried beneath the flames.

"No!" Mirri screamed. "Mica!" Mirri stopped dead from running and began to weep. Then she ran before the burning temple.

"What did he do wrong, huh? What did he do wrong?!" Mirri screamed up at it. "I wish you gods up there would do something…" Then, trying to suppress the sudden sobs that lurched out of her, she took a good look around at the town.

Flames were everywhere; in the dark of the night it shone out like fiery hell. Mirri saw unprepared and unsuspecting Elves that were still alive running around frantically; she saw Gerd women capturing some, and killing others.

Mirri didn’t care when Gerd women rode up on horseback, shouting at each other in their language and surrounding Mirri.

Mirri recognized their leader. She wore red, and had her hair in a high ponytail, held with a big ruby. She wore a very small red tube top and pants that were tight at the hips, went baggy as it got lower and went tight again at the ankles. Her clothes were made of silk. She peered at Mirri; then the Gerd women roughly tied her up and took her back to other Elves tied up in the middle of the village.

Mirri did not know what was going on, except she knew that the Gerd women were looking for people to capture in their war; they also wanted money. Almost every single Gerd woman was either a pirate or a thief. Their entire country was a country that was designed only to steal and bring back. They had a small political ideal; their leader organized attacks and looting and stealing. Their country was nicknamed as "the war country," because they always started almost every single war.

Mirri glanced around at the Elves that had been captured. They were all looking solemn and grim, and almost every single one of them was a boy in their mid-twenties. There was another girl, like Mirri, but Mirri did not know her.

Mirri looked around warily. A strand of hair got in her face, and when she reached up to brush it out, one of the Gerd women violently swatted at her hand.

They were standing in the center of the town, next to the well and a small tree. There were flames and burning buildings all around, except for at the entrance, which was a stone archway. Beyond it was a small dirt path into open woods.

Suddenly, there was a whoosh of wind, and sand from around the well flew into the Gerd’s faces. All of them cringed and covered their eyes. Mirri glanced around at the solemn Elves at her sides; all of them seemed alert, and not one of them had sand in their eyes.

Mirri looked at the girl her age; she glanced back at Mirri. Mirri simply nodded her head; then they both ran forward and kicked down two of the Gerds; then all the other Elves that had been captured (which was about twenty—there were about fifty Gerds) ran forward and began knocking down the Gerds and untied the ropes around their wrists. Each Gerd carried a curved sword, so some of the Elves grabbed the swords before the fallen Gerds could get up.

But the other Gerds were too fast for them to escape. Quickly, all the other Gerds surrounded them, each curved sword unsheathed, and the leader walked forward.

"You Elves may be clever," she said, mockingly, "but you’re just not fast for the Aveil Clan." Aveil, for that was the leader’s name, cast her eyes over every one of them. When her eyes met with Mirri’s, Mirri knew that she was the one that had killed her parents personally. And she was the cause of destroying her life, too.

Mirri’s eyes flashed with an enraged look in them as Aveil cast her merciless eyes across Mirri. Aveil looked over everyone, then came back and looked at the other girl Mirri’s age.

Aveil looked her up and down, then said loudly, "She doesn’t look very healthy. You may kill her."

"No!" screamed the girl. The other Elves all looked extremely wary. Three of the Gerd women moved forward; and as one of them raised a sword to the girl’s neck, a sudden blast of wind blew more sand into the women’s faces. But the strange thing was, was that it only hit the Gerd’s eyes again.

The girl’s nerve broke. She threw her hands up to the sword, and the blade cut through the rope. Then, her adrenaline started rushing, and she leaped behind her and began running towards the trees.

"After her!" screamed Aveil. "When you catch her, kill her!" Four Gerd women got on horseback to chase after the girl, but Mirri knew they wouldn’t get very far on horseback, because the trees grew very close together and the girl probably knew the forest very well.

Mirri breathed a sigh of relief. The girl would probably get away safely and warn neighboring villages about what the Gerds had done.

Mirri understood what was going on, of course, and she knew this type of thing was perfectly normal. Gerds were one of the most dominant countries, because all Gerds had only one country to themselves completely. People in them were made up of clans, and their history is a tarnished, bloody one. The most powerful countries on Pandora were a human country Charn, the Gerd country Caprona, and Azeron, another human country. Silvermoon was another powerful country, just not as strong as the others. The dominant countries tended to need certain things, and the Gerds, the most untrustworthy, low-life people you might ever meet, resorted to stealing many things from other countries that had things they needed—like Silvermoon, for example.

Mirri quickly learned that the Gerds needed people for a war they were having. They obviously lent a lot of money to Mirri’s town, and they had planned that they would come sooner than they could get all the money back to be paid. They would either use the Elves they had captured to fight in their wars or sell them into slavery for money.

But this was the type of thing that always seemed to happen to somebody else.

Mirri gulped. She had a feeling that she would be sold.

The Gerds, or the Aveil Clan, or the thieves, rounded up the Elves again, and they pushed them up and onto a large cart that had appeared from the entryway, towed by six horses, each with a Gerd on their backs. Aveil mounted her horse, turned to glance back at all the Elves, and led the way down the path and through the entry gate.

Mirri turned around, and watched the town she had grown up in, the town she loved, being burned down to ashes. She watched her friends’ houses being burned, probably along with her friends; she saw her family’s houses, burned; and she saw her own house burning, her parents lying dead inside.

The last thing Mirri saw before they disappeared through the forest was the tall Temple of Hera that stood on top of the hill overlooking the city, burning, the statue of Hera looking still and silent as the flames roared around it, and that was when Mirri decided that she needed revenge.