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Chapter One

A small sliver of moonlight shone through the peaks of the treetops. There was a deep mist in the air. All was silent. Tirtza stood alert. The woods of Nightbrook had always been a peaceful place at night, but never as silent as it was now. She sensed something was wrong. Her wolf, Akiko, stood beside her and sniffed the air. A sudden movement aroused her, and she bolted. Tirtza followed close behind. A broad shadow rustled in the trees. She cautiously pulled her bow out and readied an arrow. The shadow disappeared. She slowly set down her bow.
The slight smell of smoke touched her nose. She whipped her head around and stared in terror at the burning village before her. Her village, her home, her very place of birth, was burning to the ground. Instinctively, Akiko grasped Tirtza’s hand softly in her mouth.
Knowing Tirtza would be in danger if she didn’t move, Akiko pulled as hard as she could without hurting her. Akiko had been given to Tirtza when she was little, just learning to work with animals, as a guardian. Since then Akiko had been faithful in protecting her. That was eight years ago. She was sixteen now.
Tirtza was numb. She couldn’t move. She suddenly became aware that she could not feel Akiko’s mouth grasping her hand. Slowly, her senses started to fade. Within a few minutes she could not feel, hear, smell, or see anything, but she knew she had fallen to the ground, letting the toxic fumes consume her. She lay there for what seemed like hours. She woke up sweating. In her own room.
“Tirtza!” said a familiar voice as the door swung open, proceeding to hit the wall. “You were tossing and turning all night. Are you okay?” It was David. Her room mate, and her biggest crush ever since she was 10. He was a tall elf with a lean build, like she was. He had soft brown hair with slight curls and deep blue eyes the shape of almonds. It was his duty as well to protect her since her father died in the terrible war years ago. She sat up, in a daze, confused at what had happened. That dream! She realized. I’ve been having it for the past month now! What does it mean?! “Y-yeah, I’m okay.” She finally replied. David cautiously said, “A-anyways...We’re going to training today, You’d better get up.” Damn! I totally forgot! She thought. “What time is it?!” She fretted. “Almost 8. Training starts at 8:30.” With that, Tirtza dashed out of the room, Akiko following close behind.
Shadowmist village was a small and peaceful place, just like the surrounding woods of Nightbrook, located in Northern Azshera, in their territory. Alleris, the High Elf leader, ruled in the capital, Sererion, located also in Northern Azshera. The population mostly consisted of the tranquil forest elves, only attacked when provoked. The elves of Azshera worshipped The Tree of Life, a sacred tree just on the outskirts of Shadowmist. The tree supported all life to the elves, and if it was ever to be broken, the elves would suffer terrible hardships. Shadowmist was a very old village. It had survived many wars against the opposing Orc faction. They were heavy set, barbaric orcs; their territory in Southern and Eastern Azshera. Their capital was in the Southern area, in Dustshard Valley, a desolate and hot desert, ideal for the barbaric race to live. Their leader was a cold, heartless orc, Theruhn.
Tirtza walked alongside David and Akiko, her long legs unsteady. She was a tall elf, like David, with mysterious brown eyes and waist-length charcoal hair. Her lean build made it easy for her to stealth through the forest and run quickly. She was a very mysterious person, and did not reveal much about herself to people that she didn’t know. Her strong compassion for animals got her into the top hunter training class, to train and befriend the strongest of beasts.
They finally got to the training grounds, and met up with Taura, her trainer. Shooting targets were all around the area, making her certain that she would be practicing archery today.
“Ah, Tirtza, good to see you.” Taura said serenely. Tirtza looked up to Taura as her mentor. She was about 12 years her senior, and was the top hunter in Shadowmist. She had deep tanned skin tone and short, bobbed, brown hair. Her wardrobe consisted of mostly leather from animals they needed to kill during the depression a few years ago during the war. They didn’t ideally kill beasts much, as they were one of their greatest allies against the Orcs.
“Good Morning, Taura.” She bowed respectfully. Taura replied, “Are you ready for training today? We’re doing archery today. You brought your bow, right?”
“Of course. It’s right--” Tirtza paused. She could’ve sworn she picked up her bow when she left home. She looked frantically to David, who shrugged, then Akiko, who looked down guiltily, whined, and lied down. She sighed, smiled wryly, and bent down to pet Akiko gently. She knew what had happened. Akiko had a bad habit of chewing up Eucalyptus, which is why Tirtza preferred an Oak bow instead. The Eucalyptus bow was a makeshift one; as her old one broke in battle, and they did not have enough supplies to fix or make another. Taura snickered and handed Tirtza a new bow, smiling. “Er...Thanks. Sorry for the trouble.” She said, apologetically. “No problem, we’re always prepared for that. You don’t know how many times it’s happened before.” Taura said, laughing. “Shall we get started?”

Chapter 3

“We have to do something!” David yelled through the swelling flames. Tirtza was not listening. She was staring in bewilderment at the burning tree, the tree that contained the power to decide between their life, and a terrible suffering death. She hyperventilated, unsure of what to do. Petrified with fear, she didn’t dare move. She began to feel dizzy. David stared for a minute, and then swept her off her feet to carry her back to the village. Akiko followed, whining.
Tirtza found her voice. “T-the Orcs...!” She choked. The smoke was constricting her throat, making it even harder to talk. David opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a loud crackle coming from behind them. He whipped his head around to see a tree falling right on them. He had no time to even think before someone pushed them out of the way.
“Taura!” David shouted. She had saved them, but only temporarily.
“I heard about you guys going missing. We need to get back to the village.” He had no time to thank her. They sprinted to the village. Tirtza could hear David and Taura conversing.
“How did you guys get here?” Taura inquired.
“Tirtza went for a midnight walk...It was raining, so I wanted to go with her. We got pretty far, but the rain began to fall harder, so we stayed in a dense underbrush during the night. When we were about to leave, Akiko had gone missing, but Tirtza heard her howling. She ran over to there, and there was the Tree of Life...On fire.”
By the time they had reached the village, it was too late. It was up in flames, the villagers fleeing. Some had collapsed, dying on the ground. The madness had already begun. Tirtza came to her senses. She realized that the dream she had been having for so many months had come true, right in front of her own eyes. David asked if she was okay, and when she nodded, he set her down. She looked down to see Taura, her mentor, her hero, on the ground, suffering.
“G-go to Sererion...” She coughed through the flames.
“Alleris will know what to do...”
“But...What about you?” Tirtza choked, tears welling up in her eyes.
“I’ll be okay. Trust me.” She smiled weakly.
“Get out of here, save yourselves. You may be our only hope.”
Tirtza realized that David’s arm was on her shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.” He said. She nodded, motioned for Akiko to come, and they ran out through the smoldering village together.
Sererion was a ways away from the woods of Nightbrook. If they were to reach it in time, they would have to run most of the way. Once you passed Nightbrook, one would have to go through a series of complicated paths through Duskshallow Marsh, which was Orc territory. The territories were scattered around Azshera, but mostly close to their capitals. The Elves and Orcs were hostile toward each other; There were no exceptions to be friendly with one another.
It would be difficult to get there, being that the flight master of Nightbrook, controlling where the Elves would go through giant owl travel, was killed in the fire. Neither Tirtza, nor David had a way of getting there on their own other than foot. It would be quite awhile until they reached it. Possibly even two days.
The awkward trio hastily made their way through Nightbrook, and halted at the border of Duskshallow. Tirtza could make out the faint outline of Orcish guards. She pondered what to do for awhile, and turned to David. He looked determined to find a way to get through. He suddenly grabbed her wrist and started to sprint.
“David, what are you doing?!” Tirtza whispered sharply.
“Don’t worry. We’ll be okay.”
“But the Orcs-”
“Shh-You don’t want them to hear you.”
David was naturally a fast runner. Tirtza was as well, but not nearly as fast as him. She somehow managed to keep up with him, though, especially because of the peril they would be in if she slowed down at all. They were half past the guards. Tirtza tripped while trying to run.
“Dammit...” She said.
“Tirtza. Are you okay?” David held out his hand to help her up, when a guard grunted loudly, triggering another guard to turn around, and another one, and so on. Before they could turn to flee, a large group of guards was standing before them, bloodthirsty and ready to kill.
Tirtza struggled desperately to get to her feet, but fell once more. David helped her up, but as soon as she got to her feet, she collapsed again. She trembled to face her enemies. Their eyes were piercing with hatred toward them. They obviously hated the elves far more than the elves hated them. Akiko leaped in front of Tirtza, snarling angrily. The burly orc in the front shouted something in a different language, not understandable to elves. They began to charge. Akiko was quick to react. She sprang onto the arm of what seemed to be the leader. She took him down effortlessly, but as soon as she did, another orc appeared to lead the group. Tirtza decided it wasn’t worth Akiko’s life. She whistled to her, and Akiko reluctantly retreated back to Tirtza. The orcs glared at them and stalked away, as if they, too, did not think it was worth it to fight.
David attempted once more to help Tirtza up, but it was no use.
“I think my ankle is sprained...” She looked up at David.
“It’ll be okay. I’ll carry you to a safe place.” David looked down at her, and Tirtza’s heart raced once more.
By the time they had gotten to a safe site, it was dusk already. David gingerly set Tirtza down in a bed of leaves. He was a master at first aid, so Tirtza didn’t worry. A light rain had again begun to fall down on the marsh. She hoped there would be no storm tonight. David looked at her ankle, and felt around it to check for sprains. Tirtza winced.
“It’s sprained, alright.” He sighed. “I’ll find a tourniquet of some sort and wrap it up.”
Tirtza lay in the bed of leaves for a few minutes before David returned. When he returned, he was holding a bolt of linen cloth in his right hand. Tirtza silently questioned where he got it from.
“I found it in a backpack.” He explained. “It’s in surprisingly good shape. I think it was from an orc that got lost.” He gently wrapped her ankle up with the linen and tied it in a tight knot. She couldn’t help but realize that he was blushing again.
“Get some rest. We’ve got a long journey ahead of us.”