I sat on a stool up in my loft room as Matilda cut my hair shorter to fall right under my chin. It took forever with her dull scissors and with my hair so long. It had fallen half way down my back and most of the time I kept it in a braid or in a bun so it was more manageable. I watched platinum blond locks fall to the floor and felt my head grow lighter and enjoyed the feeling of it falling away. When she was done an hour later, she handed me a mirror and began sweeping the hair away. I ran my free hand through it surprised by how light it was and how it framed my face. I barely recognized the girl staring back at me.
Once finished getting rid of my cut hair, she had me undress and help me put my corset on. My breath caught in my throat as it always did when I was forced to wear this restraining death trap until I remembered how to breathe. I turned around and put on the simple, white undershirt that was loose with long sleeves and then put the dark blue over shirt over that, which was more slimming and covered most of the white except for the neck and right at the elbows on the inside. It fell right above my knees. I then pulled on my riding breeches and my boots and took my belt holding a dagger and long sword that had been meant for my brother, but was now mine. Matilda fixed my hair again and had me look in the full length mirror. I looked good and fierce in the new clothes Matilda had made for me and a smile crossed my lips.
"Thank you, Matilda."
"Sir Roaland waits for you out in the stables with the rest of your supplies," she said, bowing.
I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her waist. "I will miss you, Matilda."
She hugged me back and when she released me, I saw small tears in her eyes.
"Sir Roaland has asked Riana to be your hand maid at the castle," she said.
Riana was around my age and Matilda's only daughter, who looked probably how she did when she was younger, but with a sturdier build since she tended the fields unlike her mother.
"Thank you," I whispered and then left before she made me cry with her kindness for I knew my father had asked instead of just telling Matilda. I had only met Riana once before and she seemed quiet. Hopefully we would get along.
I climbed down the ladder and went out to the stable to see my riding horse, Caspian, ready to go with his tack and my saddle bags on him. He was a courser breed- required for all guardians for they were an agile and sturdy breed. He was a beautiful sight in my shiny tack and his gray and black splotched coat and jet black mane and tail with his long fur socks. He was pawing the ground impatiently.
"Ready to go, Eve?" asked my father already in the saddle of his own horse.
Riana was on one of our pack horses and smiled, bowing her head in respect.
"Aye," grabbing the stool and climbing into Caspian's saddle, giving him a gentle nudge to start the beginning of my three day journey. My father was soon at my side and Riana on the other.
"I think Caspian thought you were never coming," said my father lightly. "He was pawing at the door when I came out to get him ready."
I laughed. Caspian had so much energy that I had a morning ride with him almost every day and had to leave him out in the field until dusk or he was known to break his stall door. He was powerful, but a gentle beast.
"That does sound like him. Surprised you got him to stay in the stable while you waited on me, with as stir crazy as he gets."
My father chuckled. "It's called two apples, a carrot and some oats."
I laughed as well. "You're going to make him fat if you spoil him as you do, Papa."
Riana laughed quietly and we fell silent for a while and I fell into the gentle rhythm of Caspian's sway and the sound of his hooves hitting the moist path underneath me. It was easy to get used to and I looked at my surroundings. I had never been off our land before and to see the mountains in the distance made me giddy for adventure.
"Eveline, you've met Riana before correct?" asked my father after a while.
"Aye," I said, smiling over at her. "Thank you for being willing to join me on this adventure."
She flushed and nodded. "You are welcome, Lady Eveline."
I did remember the quiet field hand that was on my left, but I knew barely anything about her for I didn't have much time to talk with my father's help or time to myself, except my early morning ride on Caspian. For the last month, I had to just leave Caspian in the field all day for I had no time for a luxury ride with the harvest going on.
As we came to the top of a hill a few hours away from home, the mountains were more clearly visible.
"Papa, what's the myth behind the making of the mountains?" I asked.
From the corner of my eye, I saw my father smile.
"Well, long ago, when our kind was just starting out, there was a rock giant and an ice dragon. The dragon, Crystilian, asked of her friend, Reytor, the giant, to help her make a domain for her for she enjoyed the feeling of the thinner air. Reytor hit the ground with his fist with such force that the beginning of the mountain range began. Crystilian liked what Reytor had done, but wanted them higher so Reytor hit the ground with his mighty fist again. The peaks grew higher and spread wider. When Crystilian was happy, she blew her mighty cold on the tops making snow appear on the peaks. This is how the Crystilian mountain range was said to come to be. Some believe that she is still there – the first ice dragon and the queen dragon of her domain."
"Is that why the capital is called Reytor, Papa?" I asked.
"Aye, Eve."
I thought for a moment. "What happened to Reytor if Crystilian is still alive, Papa?"
"The rock giants have traveled far into the forest of the Dark Hills for people feared them and they are a race that prefers to live alone."
Riana looked out as mystified by her surroundings as I was. My father was a great storyteller and enjoyed relating the myths of the beginning of our land, but he always had to tell them when mother wasn't around for she said the myths were for heathens that didn't believe in the hand of the almighty. I believed the myths. How else had the dark bloods come into existence?
We rode on with my father telling fables the whole ride till we stopped for the night in a clearing just to the side of the road. I helped him build the fire and Riana helped warm the food as my father and I set work to taking the saddles off the horses and hobbling them so they couldn't go too far. After we ate, I took first watch and whittled by the firelight as I listened to the noises of the night. I heard the far off howl of a wolf ... or perhaps one of those Halfling demon wolves. Halflings were a race that was created when lesser demons had taken form as wild animals-wolves, dragons, and mountain lions-- and had slept with one and had produced offspring that were neither human nor the animal they tended to look like. I had always wanted to see one. The dragon Halflings were the rarest for dragons themselves were rare. As I sat there carving, I heard the snap of a twig behind me and I rose, gently guiding my sword out of its sheath.
"Who's there?" I whispered.
Bandits were known to roam these forests and I wasn't going to be their victim today. From behind a tree I saw the gleaming yellow of a wolf, but it was too tall to be just a normal wolf. It had to be a wolf Halfling.
"Wanderers are not welcome here," growled a female voice.
I stood with my sword raised in the attack stance my father had shown me.
"We mean you no harm. We are just resting for a few hours and then will continue our journey."
She walked forward and I saw her more clearly in the firelight. She looked practically human except for the brown ears on top of her head and her canines being slightly extended. She also had a tail, but she was dressed in human clothes with a long bow thrown over her back and held a quiver. Her hair was light brown and messed up by twigs and mud. She had scratches all over her face and arms with some dried blood here and there. I was taken by surprise that a Halfling wolf had stumbled into my camp.
"Are you hurt?" I asked when she didn't say anything.
She took another skeptical step forward.
"You can stay if you give me some of your food," she said.
I could tell she was hungry and to sit and talk with this Halfling for my watch would help me stay awake.
"Very well," I said, putting my sword back in its sheath and making a gesture that she was welcome.
She sat down, relaxing against my saddle bags and picked up the piece of wood I was whittling.
I grabbed some of the stew that Riana had made and poured it into a bowl and also grabbing a chunk of bread and a wooden spoon, handing it to my guest who took it and tipped the bowl into her mouth. I handed her my flask of ale and that was gone just as greedily as she shoved all the bread all into her mouth.
"More," she said, with her voice muffled by the bread.
I took the bowl and gave her more. Now, in the full firelight, I could see that her clothes hung off her and that she was very thin with her boots worn.
"What is your name?" I asked after she finished the second bowl.
"Sasha," she said simply, resting back against my saddle bags more placing her arms behind her head. "You?"
I was still in awe of actually not just seeing a Halfling, but being in the presence of one as well.
"Eveline, but my friends call me Eve."
She nodded. "Thank you for the food. Game is hard to come by."
I smiled, sitting down facing her. "It is fine."
She sighed happily, stretching.
"What are you running from?" I asked.
Her eyes shot open and she looked me over skeptically.
"Why do you care? You wouldn't understand the ways of Halflings wolves."
"I know enough to know you run in packs and that some allow you not to marry the people you love, but rather what is good for the pack."
She huffed. "That is why I run."
She was close to my age or perhaps younger. Usually it was two years before we started even courting, much less marrying.
"But you are ... what ... ten?"
She laughed. "The running must make me look older. I'm only eight- almost nine."
No reason she was running.
"Eight?"
"Aye," she said. "I'm younger than I look."
"As I see."
"To where do you wander?" she asked.
"To the capital city."
"Reytor?" she asked.
"Aye. Why?"
"May I travel with you? I wish to seek refuge there."
I saw no reason why she couldn't. My father had said that since I was a half angel, I would be able to pick up on demons and their spawn, but why hadn't I picked up on this Halfling?
"I don't see why not, but you will have to go in on the other side – the bigger second circle that keeps your kind separate from the humans and Beautiful Bloods."
She looked at me skeptically. "They keep my kind separate?"
"Halflings, lesser demons, greater demons, werewolves, and vampires," I said.
"What of the elves, fairies and angels?" she asked.
"Those are allowed among humans. We're seen as Beautiful Bloods."
She huffed. "There's always an elite race."
I didn't know what to say to that. With being more than human, I had never thought of myself as higher than another race, but it was true that we kept the Dark Bloods as lesser citizens. I moved over to her, offering her my horse blanket before grabbing my cloak and waking up my father and falling asleep. I guess he didn't notice our visitor.