A Guide to Kingdom Building

The undead knight was overpowering the elf. Holding her by the wrist and pinning her down the cold ground. The monster's tongue slowly licked her face with its slimy and cold tongue. The monster smiled grimly as it spoke.

"Aelf, kaen yaem! (Delicious elf!)" It spoke her language. "Whaer tah faerste? (Where to first?)." The turned knight touched her face with his cold sharp fingers.

The elf tried to struggle but the creature was too strong for her to overpower. She tried to hit it in the crotch but even that couldn't get a reaction from the beast. The Obscuros laughed at her, mocking the elf for her wasted effort.

"Waey kwaenta, lael aelf! (Useless little girl!)" The Obscuros spoke in her father's voice. The man who got her to become a slave.

Suddenly, she felt light-headed. Hearing those words again made her remember every bit of hell she'd went through over her lifetime. She felt her father's hands touching her, a memory she wanted to erase from her being.

The elf recalled how her father brought her to the monastery of the Indicens after her family ripped her tongue out. All because she posed a threat to the order of their clan and possibly the Society which the elves pride themselves with.

She remembered how the head priestess would chain her and tie her by the post, then flogged just because she wasn't able to perform the ceremony properly.

She recalled it all! All the abuses she had throughout her life. She closed her eyes as she slowly succumbed to her fate.

"Yaeng gaerl!(Young girl!)" She heard a familiar voice echoed through the darkness. "Caem haerae! Laet maeh caumb yaer harae! (Come here! Let me comb you're here!)" It was her grandmother sitting on a chair by the window, overlooking at the green forests of Virdia and the golden sunrise.

She was back at her room in the old kingdom. She found the place familiar and nostalgic and realized she was at her grandmother's manor. She looked at her hands, it was small. She touched her face, only to learn it was smaller. She finally looked at herself by the mirror attached at the left corner of the wall and saw her young self.

"Caem, yaeng gaerl." Her grandmother smiled at her.

The sound of her grandmother's voice brought excitement within her that she ran towards her and sat on her lap. Her grandmother caressed her long silky golden hair and combed it using her favorite elkwood comb.

A feeling of sadness and longing suddenly rushed within her. A sadness she didn't understand. A feeling of fear of losing someone close to her. She leapt out of her grandmother's lap and faced her with sad eyes.

"Whaet aes it yaeng chaeld?(What is it young child?)" Her grandmother's soft gaze met with hers. "Did yae haev urum? (Did you have a nightmare?)" She asked.

The elf shook her head, "Nay, abella.(No, grandma)" Tears began to flow from her eyes, and she began to weep not knowing why.

Her grandmother took her hand and carried her by her arms to shush her. "There, there, yaeng chaeld."

As a child, she felt something was strangely different. Her abella whom she loved so much used to disperse all fear with just a hug. But this time it felt different. However, she shrugged it off and went through the day doing the same activities she always did as a child.

She went out to the fields with her grandmother that morning. Then she ran across long stretches of trees in the afternoon where her grandmother taught her archery. They took their lunch near the riverbank and she practice more archery after.

The endless afternoon of non-stop fun and training. She loved all of it. She loved how she would run across the vast trees jumping up and over them while sniping at targets that were randomly placed within the trees. She loved the smell of dirt, moss and leaves as she went through the forest.

She was called Laehtfoot or Lightfoot by her elven peers due to her quickness while navigating the forest. Little did they know, she had always been training herself and pushing herself to her limits.

She saw another target hidden in between the trees. She jumped from one branch to the other before somersaulting just enough for her to see the space in between the target before releasing her arrow. It hit exactly at the red dot. She smiled at her grandma, waving at her while pointing at the target she hit. Her grandmother always taught her to be independent and should learn to defend herself in a young age. This is what admired her about her abella the most.

They went back to her grandmother's estate later that evening. As they went inside the manor, she realized something was off. The manor's door she remembered was made of okre and was dyed in bright gold from pigments of its leaves.

She looked at her grandma, baffled by the color of the door. "Abella, thaes duhr aes raehd? (Grandma, this door is red?)"

"Yae!" She patted her head. "Thaes duhr haed been raehd, alswaes. (This door has always been red.)" She answered.

Suddenly, she felt a deep sense of dream in her stomach. The hairs on her nape stood up. There was terror written all over her face.

She looked at her grandmother once more and realized that something was different with her. Her ears were too pointy from what she could remember. She looked around and heard nothing. There were no chirping critters, no flying fireflies, nothing but an eerie silence.

She shifted herself away from her grandmother.

"Aes thaer a maettaer, chaeld? (What's the matter, child?)" Her grandmother's face began to change.

Her grandmother's face became paler. She took another step back as the lights began to flicker and dim. She then realized this wasn't real. It wasn't anything but a nightmare.

She ran away from the manor as fast as she could. But running proved to be futile, with a single leap, her grandmother caught up to her. She stood there, frozen in fear as her grandmother's visage finally shed off, and the monster appeared. The pale face monster hovered in front of her, opening its maw and reminded her of the gruesome tentacles that lie beneath it.

She stepped back but stumbled as her knees felt weak from fear. The monster let out a deafening screech of laughter before it mauled her younger self.

The elf woke up to a more horrific sight. She didn't know which was worst. Turning back into this horrifying reality or living in a nightmare with her abella evilly manipulated. The monster was already devouring her slowly. The tentacles wrapped around her arms and began to suck on her blood.

That's when she finally understood that the monster wanted her alive as it fed on her. It wanted to taste the fear and desperation in her blood. It wanted to be elated in her despair and greedily suck on the fear that ripened in her dream.

The foul creature toyed with her emotions. It wanted to savor the tasty blood out of her from the despair and fear she had by manipulating her childhood memories. It wanted her to feel safe, twisting her memories to their bidding before unveiling the horror underneath.

She should have known better that something was wrong. It wasn't her grandmother who took her out on those training activities. She was too frail for that! But just being in the presence of her grandmother made her safe and calm.

Her vision began to fade as the monster relentlessly drained her of her life force. She could feel her head swirling again and her body began to feel heavy. She no longer did anything. She didn't make any more struggles. It was already too late for her. She laid there awaiting her demise.

As her life flashed before her, she recalled everything now in real detail.

She remembered running through the forest with her mother. She remembered how her mother would often throw her some stones as she made her way through the branches. Her mother would always tell her to be very vigilant with her surroundings as attacks can come from anywhere. It has always been her mother.

During the night, as everyone in the manor was fast asleep. She would usually sneak into her grandmother's room where her grandmother would be waiting for her to teach her about the secrets of light magic.

She hated every lesson of it as it rendered her exhausted by the morning. However, she loved being with her grandmother and decided to stay no matter how grueling the training was. She recalled a time she asked her grandmother on how to cast the spell without using runes or chants. Although surprised with such an advance-level question, her grandmother answered

"Aet's al aen thae thaeught! Draehw waeth yaer thaeught aend traust! (It's all in the mind. Draw your spell in your mind and fire!)"

As her memory started to fade, a new hope emerged from deep within her. She didn't want to die after all. Not yet. She needed to keep that promise from her grandmother. She will definitely travel the world and find the golden fruit of Maedwin!

With extreme focus and determination, she gathered her remaining strength and began to draw with her mind. She hurriedly looked for the proper symbols as her memory slipped further into the dark. Until finally, her desperation made her recall the last three Aelven runes she read on her grandmother's book.

The same runes that got her life into the downward spiral she was on. But she wanted to live, she had to. By her courage she activated it in her mind.

"Braet. Luxae. Oyue. (Bright Light Oyue)"

Suddenly her body was engulfed in a bright light that came crashing from the sky. The Obscuros feeding her was wiped out in the process in that bright light.