Further, I ask that you not put this story on your website without my express permission.  If you haven’t read the other Panthelia stories and the like, you may wish to, though I hope that this story will stand on it’s own.
 

Copyright: Gary McClellan
ashtur_anvangan@yahoo.com
 

Prologue:

  A brilliant orange glow poured over the small meadow in the forest, as the sun rose over the hills.  At one of the meadow stood a lone, ramshackle-seeming shack.  On the porch of the shack stood a lone woman to greet the new day.  She was a small woman, just about 5’ tall, and had short brown hair that was showing streaks of grey.  In one hand she held a ceramic cup, from which she would sip tea, even as her grey eyes absorbed the sites of yet another sunrise.  Over the years, she had taken to the habit of greeting the sunrise in this way, but today was different.  Finally, wordlessly, she turned and strode back into the cabin.

  When she got in, the cabin was shown not to be nearly so ramshackle as it seemed from the outside.  In fact, it was a cozy, comfortable place, and even that did not reveal all the secrets.  The woman set her cup on a wooden counter, and waited for her student to emerge from the bathroom.  Finally, the young woman emerged.  Where the older woman had always been rather plain looking, to be generous, the younger woman was anything but.  She stood a good 5’8” tall, with a slim figure that had filled out over the years into the body of a lovely young woman.  Her shoulder length blonde hair fell to her shoulders in a gentle natural curl.  Her most striking feature though was the slight emerald cast to her eyes.  Not the normal green eyes you see time to time, but a brighter green, that when she was angry or excited would seem to glow of themselves.

  “Wendy, did you want something?” the younger woman asked as she came out and saw her teacher sitting there waiting for her.

  “Yes Robyn…. I do.” Wendy answered in a voice that at the same time sounded like her, and did not.  “It is time.”

  “Time? Time for what?” Robyn asked in confusion.

  “Robyn, it is time for you to go into the world.  Things are beginning to happen, and it is your destiny to take your place in them” Wendy said, in a voice that sounded even less like Wendy than before.

   “Leave? You mean go home??”  Robyn asked as the confusion mounted in her.

   “No… you’ll have to pardon me Robyn… my ‘friend’ is getting pushy again” Wendy said, in her own voice.  “I think that Annerra is trying to tell us that you are supposed to go out into the world.  I’ve known this day would come for some time, and I’ve long since spoken with your parents.  You are 21, and have learned everything that I can teach you.  It’s time to make your way, I’m not sure what’s going to happen.  I don’t think it will be easy, but if all goes well, this world will be a better place.”

  “I… I see Wendy.  I’ll be honest.  I’ve had a feeling for a while that I should be going.”

  That afternoon, Wendy prepared one last lunch for herself and her student.  They hugged, and Wendy gave her some final instructions.  “Robyn… I’m not sure what is going to happen, but for now, find Fred.  He should be somewhere near the village of Lavan.  Just follow the north road until you cross the river, then take the next road north.  Farewell Robyn, and take care of yourself.”  With that, she hugged Robyn, and watched as her charge shouldered her pack and trudged off into the woods.  After Robyn was out of sight, Wendy turned back into her cabin and sat down, a proud smile on her face, balanced by a tear coming out of the corner of her eye.

+++++

Chapter I
 

   The deer stopped and began to look around in the fog shrouded woods, looking for the sound that had seemed to be on the very edge of its perceptions.   With the nervous air that is part of its survival, it searched, but deciding that there was no threat, it cautiously returned its attention to the small bush that was providing it’s morning breakfast.

  About 70 yards away, a man slowly let his breath out. He had nearly lost this prize, who would provide a number of dinners for himself and his parents.  As he crouched behind some shrubs, his form was obscured, but if anyone had seen him in that moment, they would have seen a man who’s appearance was both striking and memorable.  He stood well over 6 feet tall, with powerfully muscled limbs, and golden blonde hair that hung down to his shoulders.  Yet, his most striking feature was his eyes. They shone with a deep gold that matched his hair.  Although he was nearly 40 years old, he did not appear that old, but instead appeared to be at that awkward stage between youth and manhood.

  Smoothly, carefully notched an arrow into his bow, and slowly he drew back and aimed at the buck.  With a swift, practiced motion, he released the arrow, and smiled in satisfaction as it struck home cleanly into his prey, dropping it with one shot.  As the young man covered the yards between himself and his prey, he stopped for a moment, looking up into the air.  He could sense that there was something, a presence, and a power above him, but he couldn’t really tell what it was.  He couldn’t see through the canopy of the trees, but he did see the leaves rustle as if the wind were blowing through them.  He felt a certain dread at that moment, but soon, the sense passed, and he returned to his task.  He pulled his arrow out of the deer, and with deceptive strength, hoisted the deer up onto one shoulder and began to make his way back home.

   As he got back to the small, rustic cabin that he and his parents called home though, he could sense that there was something wrong.  He could hear voices, lots of voices.  His parents had never been much for visitors, and really, they had only ever had two friends visit them on anything resembling a regular basis, the troll, and the redhead.  But, these voices did not belong to them, or to his parents.  What was more, the voices carried a note of anger and menace that the young man wasn’t used to.  The young man set his catch down on the ground, and crept towards the small clearing that held their house.  The sight he saw there was one that would remain burnt into his memory for the rest of his life.

   In the clearing stood a man who in many ways looked much like him, they shared the golden hair, and the piercing golden eyes.  But, the face that the stranger carried was very different.  The face had a hateful, sinister cast to it, and even seeing it frightened the young man beyond words.  However, soon, that face was the last thing he would be looking at, as he saw what laid at the feet of the stranger.   There, a figure with a  bright shock of green hair lay on the ground, in a slowly congealing pool of blood.

  In a fit of blind rage, the young man pulled the bow off of his shoulder, and began to notch an arrow, when a voice rang out in his mind “Hey! Are you completely stoopid! Look around doofus!”

   The young man shook his head, shocked at the sound of the strange voice, but it seemed that no one else had heard it.  As he looked though, he began to see some things that he hadn’t seen before.  The golden-haired stranger was not alone, far from it.  There were at least 8 others with him, not including one other figure.  He saw that two of the strangers held his mother between them, her face a bloody mess, her lip split and her platinum hair contrasting with the blue bruises and red blood that marred her once beautiful face.

  Again, the voice sounded in his head “Now do you see dummy?  All you will manage is to get yourself killed.  If you want to be a dead hero, I guess that’s your right, but if I were you, I’d try to think things through a bit better”.

  As the young man tried to shake the voice out of his head, he looked up, and saw that the strangers were leaving, taking his mother with them.  Before he could do anything, their forms became almost as liquid, as they began to change and grow, and soon, where he had seen 8 men, he saw 8 much larger forms.  Their skin had changed to scales, and their faces had transformed themselves to snouts, and great wings had appeared upon their backs.  They were a riot of colors, blue, black, red, and the one gold.  They were dragons.  Without a word, the pack of dragons lept into the air, with the young man’s mother held in the claws of one of the black ones.

  The young man sat looking at the now deserted clearing in shock and terror, until finally he slowly crawled out, half expecting to be jumped at any moment.  Yet, he soon realized that he was alone. Just him, and the figure left lying on the grass.  He made his way over to the prone form of is father and knelt next to him, his face awash in tears.

   The green haired man looked up, and smiled as he saw his son.  “Elleran… thank the creator, you are safe.  You must go, go and find Fred”.  With those words, Rhoysmere breathed his last, and went to join his father, brother and grandmother in the halls of the sky.  Even as Elleran held his father’s dead form in his arms, it began to dissolve, and only a green mist remained, and that soon floated away on the wind.

   His eyes filled with tears, Elleran slipped into the cabin he had called home for so long, and gathered some food and a few other items, and left, walking into the wider world, wondering what had happened to the one he knew.