The Quest

Chapter I

This is my new story, so I hope you enjoy it. I know I said that it would be private for a week before, but I don't know how to do that (if you do, it would be really great if you could comment and tell me how to!!! I like to keep promises and reward the people who fan me, and this is how!)

Chapter I

Anamaia sat down gingerly, the wooden bench creaking beneath her slight weight. She froze terrified as the ancient tree’s branches swayed overhead in the wind. Once she was certain nobody was coming, she settled down to wait. As the minutes ticked by, she gazed up at the stars, her eyes tracing each and every one of the constellations that were visible in between the rustling leaves as the stars blinked in the night, but never moving a muscle, her ears tuned in to the noises of the wood  – she had done this many times before and it would hardly be conducive to her plans to be caught that night.

                As she sat beneath the gnarled tree, she closed her eyes and listened to the noises surrounding her. She was a creature of Gaea, one of her own creations, and she never felt alone if she could hear nature’s noises; they engulfed her, encasing her in their cocoon, and she heard everything. She heard the wind, sighing as it wandered through the trees, she heard all the creatures, a steady hum in the background as they slept or the calls and conversations of the nocturnal scavengers, and she heard the footsteps, soft as only a Gaean’s could be, but there to be heard nonetheless. Her eyes snapped open and Anamaia tensed up, ready to run or to fight, she could feel the adrenaline coursing through her veins, and she adjusted her footing imperceptibly so that she could spring off the bench at any moment.

                “Calm down Bainya, I mean no harm,” came the voice from behind her. Anamaia dared not look round, for fear of being recognized.

                “You startled me Duine; I was not expecting any visitor at such a time.” Anamaia said, with icy politeness, mastering her voice and not letting it show any trace of her fear.

                “Nor was I expecting to stumble upon one of my own so far from the Gaean Forests. Unless,” here the voice paused momentarily, “my senses deceive me, and you are not Gaean, merely… versed in our ways,” the stranger let the last words hang in the air, like a taut thread as he padded around her back and came to face Anamaia.

                Anamaia let out a mirthless laugh. “Ha! Surely you yourself are no true Gaean if you ever contemplated not trusting your senses; Gaea gave them to us for a reason, did she not?”

                He, because it was a man, albeit more fair than many Gaeans, with silver blond hair loosely held back by a leather band around his head, high aristocratic cheekbones which were sharp enough to cut yourself on and piercing steel grey eyes which seemed to shine in the dim light, he laughed its ringing sound akin to bells tinkling. “Yes, you are correct Bainya. Mother Gaea gifted us these senses, so that we would never fail her, but far from the Gaean Forests, one becomes meyrbaill. And also, I was just… checking.”

                “Checking?” Anamaia asked warily, tensing up again, ready to spring. Abruptly she changed the subject asking “What brings you so far from home Duine?”

                “Oh I am not so far from home Bainya,” he said, using the polite address patronisingly. “I live in Deheyol. I was enlisted to help find someone. A Gaean from Sifalath.”

                “But you are still beyond the Eirabail Mountains. What happened to them?”

                “The Bainya fell out with her mother and fled, but her Taighlai have a lot of power and her mother fears for her life. Also, the daughter has an important task which was gifted to her by Gaea, but she doesn’t know yet, because no Duine has found her. So if you see her, we would be extremely grateful. After all, you are one of the only Duine this far south, and into the Meyrbatailte.”