"Of the life that perish
I pray he finds peace
So in next life he may relish
Of the love of God at least"
A young man with conspicuous red hair walks in great strides as he mixes among the people. He shoves away the elves on his way hurrying himself to arrive at the open plaza where the princess should be making her appearance. As he proceeds forward, he hears the beautiful singing of a bard getting louder and louder, thus telling him that he is getting near.
"Of the life that perish
I pray she finds peace
So in next life she may relish
Of the love of God at least"
The bard repeats, replacing the pronoun with a 'she' telling of the same story but with a different protagonist. A young woman looks at Poruna, a favored bard, in her singing. As an elf recently finding refuge here in the Dark Forest, she barely knows anyone unlike the initial Lorekleim Elves and the Beyronald survivors who mainly consists of the population.
"Paradise we find
Comes the tide, we ride
Ou~r fate we bind
And with time, we bide
O~ur bones we grind
Mi~ne tears I cried
No longer we hide
My heart never died"
The young woman's blonde hair mixes with the crowd blending her presence with the common people. For some reason, she finds herself at peace. Such festivities are not uncommon to her, because every village sort to have one albeit might have its discrepancies if compared to others.
For elves, the 'festivities' itself have great meanings.
Dahlia, the young elf, though belonging to a far western forest and has no acquaintances here in particular finds herself a sense of belonging among the elves of the Dark Forest.
"My dear elves. Today is the day of resurrection. And with the authority that our King, his majesty, allows me, I declare this a holy night!"
It is the deep of the night yet so many stars above greet them.
Dahlia listens to the princess with rapt attention finding herself to be full of curiosity about the princess. It is the first time Dahlia will be seeing the Elf Princess. She has been here since summer, and only now does she have a chance to gaze upon the royal elf.
Standing on the podium of solid boulders stacking together, the elf princess stands upright with authority.
Dahlia exclaims in her heart how young the princess is. Though Dahlia is not so old either, she is tall enough to qualify as an adult, however, the princess is barely over half of her height. Putting it nicely, Dahlia is a quarter taller than the princess. "So cute, and small… So the royal elves are like dwarves, huh? But more like cute dwarves instead… Amazing…"
Suddenly bumping her out of nowhere is a red-haired elf. "Ouch," Dahlia directs an annoyed look at the red-hair feeling her shoulder a bit hurt. Dahlia rubs her hurting shoulder realizing the red-haired elf has quite an aggressive aura on him. "Oi, tomato head!" Dahlia calls to the red-haired.
However, the red-haired elf didn't stop. Cocking his elbow, the red-haired elf throws something into a parabola squarely hitting the princess on the face. It is a rotten egg. The smell is so pungent Dahlia can smell it from where she stands.
The guarding elves, the Einherjars serving as public peacekeepers immediately acts on the threat. Drawing their short bows, they aim for the hostile culprit, however before even they inflict harm, someone one-ups them by making her move first.
Dahlia with swift steps kicks the red-haired elf in his calf and immediately strangles him in a chokehold. At the sight of the commotion, the elves gathering around them hurriedly disperses.
"You ungrateful bastard!" Dahlia reprimands the red-haired elf while she is choking the red-haired elf's life out of him. "Do not disrespect the princess! She gave us a place! She gave us a chance to live! Not like cattle! Not like some beasts, but as kin!"
The red-haired elf goes red either in fury or a lack of air. With sudden strength coming from his waist, he lifts Dahlia and dives down head first. Midair, the red-haired elf forcefully pries Dahlia's slim arms and performs a clean throw.
Dahlia lands on the cold solid ground with her back in pain.
"Don't mess with me!" The red-haired elf shouts.
Only now did Dahlia realizes that red hair is crying. Teardrops land on Dahlia's cheeks as red hair's face winces in pain while his face is parallel to hers.
The Einherjars who are about to act on the hostile red-haired elf hesitatingly withdraw their bows as the princess signals them to do so.
Tears stream down his cheeks, the red-haired elf is in pain. While it might not be visible, Dahlia can tell that he is hurting. Dahlia remains lying on the ground finding herself in paralysis by the emotional turmoil of the offender.
The red-haired elf explodes with emotion.
"You are a tyrant! Your injustice must not go unpunished! You killed my little sister! It is unfair! If only we have enough food and coals that winter… If only… If only… I hate this! She just wants to sleep, to rest, so I let her… But she never woke up again… She is gone forever…"
His words are strangely coherent yet he is a mess. Red hair doesn't know that his face is intimately adjacent to Dahlia's as his eyes are closed reluctant to open them.
Dahlia finding the distance between them just right head-butts the red hair.
"Ouch," Red hair instinctively reacts to the pain while retreating backward, his face becoming more of a mess. Dahlia grabs red hair by his collar and severely reprimands him. "Do you hear yourself?"
"You!" Angry, and wanting to retaliate, he pushes Dahlia away.
Dahlia not wanting to lose approaches red hair separating them a single step in between. "It is the winter that killed your little sister, so why are you blaming her Highness? I am not from here, but I know when I should be thankful!"
Clearly, Dahlia has a story of her own. She has her journey, struggles, and own experiences unique to her perspective. As an elf from the western region, she finds the red-haired elf to be a baffling existence. The elves are many good things and being 'thankful' and 'hopeful' are just a few traits they possess.
"Thank you, miss… But you don't have to interfere…"
Interrupting the drama between the two is the princess, Kara's, calm voice.
The crowd maintains a passive stance as they watch the ongoings.
Kara remaining on her podium of boulders addresses the crowd solemnly. "It has been only a year, and while that is not a long time for us elves, it is a fact that we had new additions in our community so they must not know of the stories— of how I deprived our kind a chance of survival.
"I do not wish to open old wounds, but we must find closure. After all, it is unfair. However, only the Elf King can punish me… either with lifetime imprisonment, dismembering, and even death… Even I cannot impart judgment to my own not because I wouldn't, but because I could not."
At the mention of punishment, she plainly reveals the truth. Who can harm the Elf Princess? It is because Kara's life is not just her own, but all of the elves.
"As a form of repentance, I can only do this…" So, instead of waiting for punishment, Kara can only seek forgiveness through repentance. Using her index and thumb fingers, she pulls out her nails from her pinky in both hands.
This causes the crowd to yelp at the disgusting blood that drenches the green dress she is wearing.
Cruelty is a method, and Kara clearly demonstrates it firsthand. Finding herself suddenly weak from the pain, she uses her teeth to remove the nails from the ring finger, then the middle finger, then the index finger, and finally the thumb's finger.
Kara spits out the nails, and what remains from the tip of her fingers is a bloody print. She almost faints from the pain but she persists. Her willpower is just that incredible. But as conniving as the Elf King is, she actually has a trick.
There is a semi-paralytic mushroom that induces hallucination. Kara easily perseveres through the hallucination and is manageably able to perform as she intends to. The red-haired elf is unforeseeable, but that doesn't change things. It is in her plans all along to repent like this.
The gritty sight of her removing her fingernails are something to behold. The crowd is immensely silent.
"Prepare the feast!" She announces leaving those who are in a stupor to collect themselves. Returning to a luxurious tree house in partition and just above the open plaza, Kara finds Yirlung waiting for her there.
"Your Highness, please…" Yirlung takes out one of the earliest prototypes of Life Potion of Allenwood. "This should fix you up…"
"No," Kara rejects the gesture." It must stay like this so that I can show my resolve. We elves to every individual is special. You saw that, didn't you… They are quite amazing, don't you think so too?" Kara comments in excitement as she recalls the pair of elves.
"That aside, we should enjoy this…" Kara seats by the window, and from beside her are the sleeping Elf King. Yirlung just stands idly in silence by their sides.
Kara's green dress has bits of blood in them, but instead of ruining her childish beauty, it only adds a unique charm of maturity to her.
Suddenly, the night sky lights up verdant green announcing the end of the 4th light of the 3rd cycle. A stream of green decorates the starry night sky like swaying leaves of grass. This marks the start of a new spring and the end of a harsh winter.
"Is this what his majesty refers to as… New Year?" She ponders to herself.
Kara silently wishes the sleeping King beside her a happy new year.