Lady Olive awoke shaking in a cold sweat. With her guard, Nathaniel rushing to her side.
Olive was a village lord. And being a village lord in this world was not the most luxurious job. For Lady Olive it was even more dangerous, as she was the first magical woman to lead a village. Which put her and myself in a lot dangerous positions.
Because of her position as lord her nights were quite often plagued with terrors of her seemingly inevitable failure. However, she had many friends in her village to help lift her spirits on her darkest days.
"Oli are you alright? I heard you scream, was it another nightmare?" Nathaniel, her trusted guard and close friend questioned her, as he burst into her room concerned.
"Yes it was, but I'm ok. Thank you Nathaniel."
"No problem, just doing my job as your guard."
"Hey, while you're here, would you like to join me for breakfast, Issa won't mind having an extra person."
"That would be nice."
Olive, Nathaniel, and Olive's house maid, Issa, enjoyed a quaint breakfast, and simply enjoyed each other's company.
Though the three would soon discover that quiet and cheerful moments like these would become scarce and to be appreciated.
After they finished their breakfast, and Issa had cleaned up. Olive opened up about her most recent night terror.
She explained there being fire and the feeling of hopelessness that she had experienced. But what scared both of them the most was The King's appearance in her dream. Particularly his taunts as he stood over her.
"The King has never been in your dreams before, do you think this means something?"
"I'm not sure, but it terrifies me to think that this could be more than just a dream."
"You know what, you're probably just really stressed. You should probably take some time off to relax."
"Maybe."
Unfortunately Olive's fears would be recognized. This dream was not just a manifestation of her worry and stress, but a warning of her seemingly inevitable future.
As their conversation came to an end, Olive's head guard, and my close friend, Luka, came running into the house struggling to catch his breath, "Olive-come quick-Modesy-attack-help!"
These were the only words Luka could manage to string together in his frazzled state. The two managed to decipher his message, and all three of them hurried into town.
They entered the guard quarters only to see a terrifying sight. A beautiful child, Modesty, lay on a table with a stab wound in her chest. Her brother, Credence, sat beside her, playing with her mass of red hair. Issa was sat in the corner uncontrollably sobbing.
Olive silently stood in the door for a moment, taking in the scene. The bloody gash in the young girls chest, her brother red, puffy blue eyes in his worried face, and Luka frantically tending to the distraught Issa.
After the initial look of shock left her face, Olive asked, "What Happened." In a surprisingly calm tone. Everyone looked down and sat in silence. Not wanting to share the details of the traumatic story that lead up to this moment. Finally, Issa's voice rang through the silence, "After I cleaned up from breakfast, I met up with Modesty in the forest, to accompany her while she was flower picking. But we were attacked by one of The King's guards. They stabbed her and ran. And I-I..." Her words were taken over by her uncontrollable sobbing.
Issa's sobbing was brought on by the unbearable guilt she was feeling in this moment. She had gone with Modesty to make sure that nothing bad would happen to her. She wishes she had done more to prevent this accident. However, whilst she was swimming in her guilt she was unable to see that nothing she could've done would have make this situation any better.
The man who attacked Modesty, The King, was a vile man. Though his title is The King, he is only the leader of the most powerful village in our region. Which he felt was reason enough to name himself The King. He despises anyone with any sort of magical ability. Born or learnt. This hatred was born out of fear. Fear of losing his power. He encourages his guards to attack any magic users that they come across, and threatens any villages who try to oppose him. Anyone who doesn't do his bidding meets a very swift end.
All of a sudden Modesty stirred, and began to writhe in pain. At the sight of this Credence began howling. Nathaniel, aggravated by the events exclaimed, "THE KING WILL PAY FOR THIS! How dare he attack an innocent child."
"The King has always been a despicable man, he and his followers are controlled by fear. Though this does not excuse or justify their actions, we are in no position to retaliate. So I must asked you to calm down." Luka quickly added.
As Nathaniel began to calm down, Issa asked a very crucial question, "Can you do something to help her Olive? I can't bare to see such a sweet child in so much pain."
Olive didn't respond. Instead she silently walked up to the table that Modesty had been sloppily placed on. She looked tenderly into the little witch's terrified, emerald green eyes and soothingly whispered, "you're going to be ok." As she prepared to perform her magic.
Olive's magic is very unique, as she is the only person to have such spectacular abilities. She was born with magical abilities, like myself. However most born with magic can only perform one specific type of magic, like healing. Mine is a little bit more complicated than that, but my abilities aren't important right now. Olive's abilities allow her to perform magic of any kind. Healing and protection magic being her favourites. Her powers are a beautiful gift, given to a beautiful person. However sometimes her gift is more like a curse.
As Olive cast her healing spell there was pure silence in and out of the room, everything was still. A blinding light shone through the wound in the young witch's chest. As the wound closed the light began to diminish. Once the light had all faded Modesty immediately sat up and hugged Olive right,"Thank you, Thank you, thank you."
The young girl was sobbing tears of pure joy and gratitude. Olive gently hugged her back, weakened from casting such a powerful spell. Olive then quietly whispered in Modesty's ear, "Anything for you, sweet child."
As they separated, Credence launched himself into his sibling's arms, both ecstatic that everything was alright again. Nathaniel took advantage of the joyful moment and quietly gave Olive a cheeky comment, "You know, after all this drama I wouldn't mind a hug like that from you. What'd you say, can your brave night get a hug?"
"In your dreams Nathaniel. In. Your. Dreams." Olive respond, playfully elbowing him in the ribs. Luka saw this interaction, and acting off of his instant jealousy, cleverly stole Olive's attention for himself, "Nathaniel, sorry to cut this joyous moment short. But I need you to be back on patrol."
"Sure thing Luka." He turned to Olive, "Until,we meet again my love." He smiled cheekily kissing her on the hand. Olive burst out laughing as he bumped into the doorframe on his way out.
As Luka watches her laugh he couldn't help but smile. A soft rose colour filled his cheeks. Issa noticed this and gave him a short yet insightful piece of advice, "Go get her,"
Those three words gave Luka the courage to ask her this question, "M'lady Olive would you mind accompanying me on a hike up Griffin's Point?"
"Why that would be wonderous kind sir." She joked, going into a fit of giggles, "There's no need to be so formal Luka you're my best friend."
This time Luka had to turn away to hide his bright red face. The two walked just past the outskirts of town, to scale the mountain which the town was names after, Griffin Point.
The mountain Griffin's Point got its name as it used to be a nesting spot for Griffins, before they went extinct. When the founders of the town Griffin point found the legendary mountain they found that the land around had extremely fertile soil, and built a town named after the mountain. However, they heard the name of the mountain wrong, and so when they named the town the 's' on the end of Griffin's was cut off.
The mountain top had now become a rather beautiful spot, speckled with wild flowers, and over looked the village below.
When the two reached the top they found a spot to sit amongst some vibrant red flowers. In this moment Olive immediately burst into tears. Partially caused from the exhaustion of using her magic, and climbing the mountain. But also from her fear of her dream the night before.
"Oli are you alright?"
"I just wanted everyone to be safe. I'm scared of letting them all down."
"You know you can trust me if you want to talk about."
She looked up at him and nodded her head, managing to smile slightly. She softly began talking about her most recent night terror. Luka carefully listened to her story, and comforted her when she struggled to find words between sobs.
Once she had finished her story, the two sat in silence for hours. The only sound being the soft sounds of her sobbing. Luka sat there with his best friend, distraught in his arms. At some point he reached over and plucked a red flower from the ground, weaved it gently through her hair and whispered, "Red really compliments your eyes. You should wear it more often." Olive giggled, wiping the last tears off of her face.
"I didn't know you were such a flirt." He stuttered, his face going a vibrant red again. Olive noticed his embarrassment and reassured him, "It's ok you're a lot smoother than Nathaniel." Luka didn't know why but for some reason this statement gave him a sense of accomplishment, as if Olive favoured him above anyone else. And he spent the rest of the day joking around with her.
Unfortunately as the sun began to colour the sky, I came over to join them, "Well if it isn't my favourite lord and favourite guard."
"Penelope!" They both rejoiced, smothering me in a tight embrace. Little did they know that I knew of the terrible times ahead.