Through The Waterfall

The Beginning

At the dawn of our world, it was ruled over by five beings of pure chaos. All elemental beings were trapped in one world, living sad and chaotic lives of death. Thousands of years went by in this wasteland of suffering, until The Beings Of Light arose. They were a small group of beings with the most extreme of all elemental magic, bent on overthrowing their chaotic rulers. Their plan succeeded, and they imprisoned their overlords in a realm, together crafting a ward to insure they would never escape. They then crafted the thirteen elemental realms for all of the inhabitants of our worlds to live. Twelve of the elementals became the guardians of the realms, but the Guardian of Fate chose a simpler life.

A foggy memory filled Alisa's head. A scene in early spring. She was five years old, playing in the dirt with her closest friend Jack while their parents talked. Jackson ran off chasing a butterfly and had told Alisa to wait. She glanced at the tall figure she knew as her father, and then to the woman he spoke to. She was thin with a set of long arms  and wiry light brown hair that fell upon her caramel colored shoulders. Jack soon sprinted back with a disappointed look on his face.

"Lose it?" She said, with him nodding in response. He plopped down and drew what seemed to be a butterfly. Slowly, a quiet noise grew louder, sounding almost like a voice- 

"Wake up Alisa, its morning."

The noise was her mothers sweet voice, calling for her. Alisa glanced at the clock; it was 7:03. The sun shone through her window next to her bed, paired with the sound of a birds song. She got up from her bed and stretched, her hands almost hitting the slanted ceiling of her room. Half-asleep, she sauntered to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Now imagine if a child with no skill in art whatsoever colored in a cloud orange in a coloring book, which is basically what her hair looked like every morning due to being the owner of extremely curly hair and being a very rough sleeper.

"Alisa! Alisa, could you grab a bucket of water from the well, please?" Alisa's mother,  said to her daughter.

"Sure thing mum!" Alisa said as she was just leaving the bathroom after attempting to tame that gnarled beast of hair she had inherited. As she walked through the hallway towards the stairs, she passed the door to her father's old private study. The knob was beginning to collect dust, as not a single hand had grazed its surface in almost a year. As she kept walking she reached the stairwell. The wall to her left was covered with pictures. Her old dog, her first day of school, and a family photo from the year before. There was a curly orange-haired girl with ocean-blue eyes and a smile that could make a man who has lost it all feel a glimmer of happiness. Above her a man with a strong figure, and crisp dark blue eyes, and orange locks. On her other side, the strong figure of her mother. Rich mahogany hair, Leaf-green eyes. A tender smile. As she continued down the stairwell, she got to the base floor of the house. Her mother was busy working on her transcripts, even with a loss of motivation. As quietly as possible, Alisa grabbed the water bucket from under a pine wood table and sneaked out the door. Her feet braced the stone pathway surrounded by bushes, leading to the well. As she is tied the rough rope to the sleek metal handle of the bucket, she heard a dreadful cry, like none she has heard before.

She had heard many sounds from the woods surrounding her home, but all unlike this. In a mix of fear and curiosity, she followed the sound. As she strayed from the path, trudging through bushells, she laid her eyes upon a mystifying sight. A creature larger then a horse, with shimmering black scales. A.. dragon? She thought. Her hand glided along the smooth scales, her eyes eventually falling upon a bloody gash in this creature's wing. She knew a basic way to tend to wounds, as when her father first taught her how to use a sword, her mother had also taught her what to do if she got cut. Alisa was compelled to help this creature in such an awful state, as she understood how it felt to be alone, and in pain far too well. Alisa clambered over to the well and grabbed the bucket of water. She sprinted back to the creature's side, and used the corner of her jacket to wash the gash. It winced in pain, but stayed still. "What could've happened to you? Poor..giant scary..thing." She whispered to herself. Alisa was never one to question strange things, but this time she was more of in shock. The creature hesitantly tried to stand, but Alisa stopped it. 

"You mustn't move," she said. The creature seemingly nodded its head as if it understood. 

"I'll be right back, ok? Just remember, you mustn't move" She said, before grabbing the bucket of water and slowly returning to the path back to her house. As she entered the house, she could hear an audible cry. 

"Mum? Mum, are you alright?" she said. She hazily tossed the bucket onto the floor, and raced upstairs. The sound came from her mother's room. "Mum?" she bolted past her bedroom door, and into her mother's room to find her mother laying on the floor, sobbing.

"Oh... Sweetie..." Her mother said between breaths, as a tear fell down her cheek.

"I'm so sorry... I just-"

"It's ok" Alisa said.

Her mother was sprawled out on the floor of her room, letters her father had sent them strewn about the floor. He would travel the world every summer, sending them heartfelt letters almost every day. Alisa And her mother stayed back so Alisa could stay in school. But he had always made it back for holidays and birthdays. And he always had the best presents, made the best meals, and read the most soothing of stories. 

 He had been dead for a year now.

 A car crash. No body was ever found. It was abrupt, he was traveling home for some time off from his travels. the only thing they could recover from the car was a suitcase with a letter from Alisa that she had wrote when she was seven.

"I'm so sorry sweetie..." said her mother.

Alisa wrapped her arms around her mother and reassured her. This was common. Alisa's mother never fully recovered from her father's death, and it had seemed like the once vibrant and ever joyous woman she knew had been trapped in a version of herself, rendering her almost unrecognizable. But it would go away. It always did.

Alisa grabbed some gauze from the bathroom, along with a towel and some of that stuff you put on wounds. She quietly walked down the stairwell and trudged out the door. Once she was outside, she fastened into a sprint. She found the creature as she had left it.

"Please don't try to resist, i'm only trying to help"

She lifted the injured wing onto her leg and let it rest there.

"This will sting," she said, and the  creature grimaced as she dabbed at the wound with the towel.

"What happened to you?" She said. The creature made a raspy noise. It seemed to be listening to her. She covered the hole in its wing in the gauze.

"Ok now, slowly," She was trying to help it to its feet. It stood, and slowly turned its head towards her. Its eyes where a velvet red, which stood out from the jet-black scales covering its head.

"Thank you.." It said in a quiet raspy voice. Alisa was stunned. This was the first time a creature had spoken to her!

"Do.. Do you have a.. Name?" She said, hesitantly.

" Draco..." It said. After saying that, it tried to move closer to her, but stopped and winced in pain.

"I'm Alisa. Alisa Wood," She said "What.. What are you doing here? And what happened to you, and your ..er.. wing?"

"It's a very long story.. Please, help me to the spring." Nearby was a freshwater spring. It had alway been there. She very carefully helped him to its edge, and looked in the water, only for something fermilliar to catch her eye.