The Outcast Elf

Prologue

[enjoy this book! All chapters and parts are edited, but you may be subject to a few typos here and there but I've polished the storyline for you new readers c:]

It was early; the morning sky still held the slice of the creamy moon, still held freckles of stars. She had the rest of the day to do what she wished, for Lord Elrond had released her from her daily duties.

Her boots softly clipped the mossy path, her eyes searching the horizon. Clouds were turning red, orange, scarlet. Sunrises were her favorite.

She was now walking alongside a stream, the water gurgling down with a gentle flow. A staircase approached, where she took dainty steps down. Until the last three that is, where she purposely stomped her feet as if she were human. She heard the words of her mother: "Aerethiel, stop that racket! You sound like a bumbling dwarf!" And so she'd stop with a quiet giggle.

Reaching a fork in the path, she branched off into the forest, descending down the mountain even further. The damp scent of earth and dew-speckled pine needles was heavy. Moss offered a pad of cushion on the ground, muffling her footsteps even more. Birds swooped and dove down around her, chirping and twittering.

But then they went silent. Aerethiel listened.

The sounds of distant yells and growls and clangs of metal upon metal echoed through the trees.

She resisted the urge to turn back. A putrid scent filled her nose, heavy and tainted with blood and something else she barely recognized.

Her legs moved and worked into a sprint. Soon she was flying towards her village, ferns whipping at her waist and legs. Branches snapped on her shins, cedar leaves whipping her cheeks.

Then she stopped in her tracks. Her village was run rampant with... horrible creatures wielding horrible weapons. They were slaughtering her neighbors, her friends.

She could have sworn she had never seen a thing like that. But... they looked... familiar. She couldn't place a name.

Her eyes widened and her hand clamped around her mouth to suppress a cry. She willed herself to gather courage.

She stayed hidden in the ferns, gathering her wits and her breath.

Then her fingers clamped around a rock. Fury and panic began to cloud her rational thinking.

A creature lumbered around, throwing carts and trampling them.

Aerethiel threw the rock.

It clanged against its misshapen helmet and created a fair dent. The creature froze and a growl ripped through its throat, then slowly turned to face the woods.

Her panic spread and she bolted. She sprinted around the outskirts of the village, very well aware of what was chasing after her. She was running for her home, the one place where she was always safe.

The creature was gaining.

Aerethiel felt tears of fear seep from her eyes and down her face as she ran. She couldn't outrun it for long.

But then she saw it--her refuge.

Home.

She could hear the monster's loud thuds of footsteps coming closer and closer. The tips of the trees turned golden with sunlight. She urged herself to run faster.

Faster. Faster.

She reached the small path leading up to her door. But the door... The door was splintered open, a hole gaping and beckoning for her.

What had done this? What had--

Grunts and hisses coming from the fast approaching monster filled her ears. Aerethiel crawled through the hole in the door, her knees getting cut up and her golden hair getting caught in knots on the rough wood.