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The hunt

She could hear the baying of the hounds even through the screeching winds of the storm. The child had been running for it seemed like days over the harsh moors, covered in gray half rotted dead trees and other things best not known. Her mother was some where up ahead struggling as she carried her baby brother.

Once again, she stumbled over a dead root in the mud, tearing her already much rendered gown. Mud caked her white face, hands and legs -- she had long since stop trying to remove it from embedding into her skin. She had stop caring when her father --- dry tears sprang to her blacken eyes at the thought. He had tried to protect them all. He had stood his ground so that his wife and children could have a chance and run to safety. What safety was there was upon the Fey claimed moors -- none.

She had looked back over her shoulder just when the vampiric Fey lord in one great cold sweep of his huge hunting scythe, struck him down. Her noble father who always had a smile for his children, who had been so gentle and kind to all he ruled. A man who had never raised his hand in anger. He had stood his ground in defiance of the hunter and now they were alone running from the hunter and his hellish dogs.

Her mother gasped out in a anguish filled cry as she fell, her leg cruelly twisted under a shifting dead branch. The child ran the final steps to her mother’s side. In one quick grasp their hands met and all was said in those final seconds. She looked down at her brother’s very still cold face and knew that he had been dead for hours. Without a word, her mother reached out with her mind and gathered the raw earth force energies about them. Her hands grasping deep into the rotting mud as they became a conduit to the raw powers lying with in. The storm grew quiet as its energy too began to be sucked up into the final woman’s last act for her daughter.

The hunter paused as he sensed the change in the storms power. The Fey lord smiled a wicked evil grin -- his hungry dagger sharp teeth flashing in the night air – he knew that the prey had gone to ground and would soon be his to devour. His pace quickened as the though of taking the two females made him shiver with anticipation.

Slowly a few feet before the child a upright disc of gray and green mist began to spin in the air. Faster it when as the mother increased the draw of the magical earth forces. The raw power started to rush through her trying to pull her apart as it slammed into the rapidly spinning disc. Her mother was dying as the raw force striped her body and spirit to ribbons.

The girl wanted to scream out – stop – she could not stand loose another parent. She would rather die than be alone. The child gripped the front of her mother’s torn mud covered dress. She tried to stop it all as her mother’s eyes started to glow gold. All at once, the woman who had been her mother looked down calmly at the child. A slight flicker of emotion crossed the woman’s face as she reached up and cruelly grabbed the child’s arm, flung her toward the disc.

A small amount of the raw earth power that was flowing through her mother was directed up the woman's arm, giving force to thrusting the child into the swirling disc. The child’s mind became numb as the power crushed her into the disc’s misty warbling surface.  She felt her body being torn apart as the disc took her into its gray-green folds. Then both the disc and child were gone, leaving only the woman behind trapped in the moor.

The woman allowed the raw power to still flow into her even though the disc was now gone. There was now only her poor body to absorb the ever growing flow – it was beyond stopping making her into a living battery. A faint smile crossed the woman’s lips, she could make a stand like her husband and stop the hunter in his tracks. This one final last loving act she could give to her daughter. Soon, she would join her husband and their small son and the thought filled her with resolution. If only the hunter would not realize the danger -- until it was too late.

The hunter finally saw her just a few yards away, the woman -- her leg was caught and mangled tangled in the fork of a felled dead branch. She looked dead but he could feel the flutter of life still within her body -- he would love this kill. Her eyes were closed and her hands buried into the soft muddy earth next to her. The hunter thought she had fainted in pain and fear at the approaching of his over powering present. He approached readying his magically razor sharp scythe to strike -- it was still covered with the thick clotted blood of her husband.

The Fey hunter was only a few feet from her when suddenly he knew something was very wrong. His nostrils flared as the burning smell of bottled raw energy reached him. Before he could react, the woman's eyes shot opened. Her eyes were two holes of liquid gold flaming with power and rage. She brought up one hand still covered in the black mud over her white skin and with one mental command she released all the raw power she had gathered to herself directly into the hunter’s body. He was dead and ash before the last of the energy burned through her body on its rush to be free. Before death finally claimed her, she felt the warm embrace of her husband and son as the darkness enveloped her...

Air’rel felt her body being pulled apart as it passed through the portal. Better to die this way that at the hands of the hunter, she thought to herself. It seems to take years or was it just a few minutes before she saw light rushing up towards her. She knew by the feel of the portal her mother had sent the child to her elder brother's home. Normally it took several adults to command and control a portal – her mother had done it all by herself -- Air’rel knew her mother was dead as the portal closed about the child.

Suddenly there was a blast of hot red gases in front of her; some outside force had breached the portal. Air’rel helpless watch the path to her uncle's grow dark and vanish as this new force took a hold of the portal. Her body was racked by pain as everything became too much for the young child – she fell into the blackness and felt no more.

The Times of Trouble was upon the world of Toril. Gods openly fought each other and walked the mortal lands. Magic became unreliable as it sputter, like a dying flame burning any who tried to use it. The gods did not in the slightest notice a small white hair, skin female child tumble onto the forest floor from an angry red mist filled disc that abruptly flashed into being disgorging the child and vanishing as if it had never been. They were too much involved in their own worries to let a unknown child bother their designs. No one knew at that moment a wildcard has just been played.

So enters the female child Air'rel Fai'Hosin the Narl'eru' to the world of Forgotten Realms and can anything be the same afterwards?

More to come.

Email address: Jazelle@adelphia.net