Rodias used his savings to buy a small house that was isolated from civilization, and it had a small field that they could use to grow food on.
After buying some food, vegetable seeds, and some tools for farming, his money pouch was completely empty.
One night, when everyone was asleep, he sneaked Tasha and the baby outside.
They then got on a horse and rode to their new home.
The ride was pretty long, but luckily, they had packed some food and Valindra just drank Tasha's breast milk, so they managed to get there safely.
After a day of traveling, they arrived at their new home.
It was a one-story wooden house, but it had two bedrooms and a living room with a built-in kitchen, so it wasn't a bad place to live in. The only reason Rodias managed to buy it for a decent price was because it was so isolated.
The house was furnished, so all they had to do was put their stuff inside, and they could start living there.
Every day, Tasha would take care of Valindra, and Rodias would take care of the field.
This went on for a year, and one day another miracle happened to their family.
"Waahh!"
This time a boy was born, and they were overjoyed because they had another member in their family now.
They named him Perennar after the word "perennial," which meant to endure for a long time.
Tasha and Rodias wanted Perennar to live a long life, protecting his older sister.
---
Their lives were simple, but because they had each other, they were never bored, and soon thirteen years passed.
For adult elves, thirteen years was a short amount of time, but not for Valindra and Perennar, who were still growing up.
Valindra, who was now fourteen, was playing on a swing that her father had made for her and Perennar.
She didn't know that her real father wasn't Rodias, but Tasha didn't want her to know, so Valindra grew up thinking that Rodias was her real father.
Tasha told her that she had silver hair because of a rare mutation, and Valindra always accepted that fact.
Perennar was pushing his older sister from behind to make her swing higher while they were laughing.
Their parents were taking care of the field next to them, and every once in a while, they would look over and smile at their kids.
Tasha had long thrown away the ring that the emperor had given her, and Rodias gave her a wooden ring that she now happily wore to show that they were married.
Their cabin in the woods was isolated from any roads, so they have never met any other people since moving there, but that would change today.
"Hello!"
An old man with torn-up clothes and bloody wounds walked up to their cabin as he kept waving his hand and shouting.
Tasha immediately went to grab the children and go hide them away, while Rodias went to the old man.
"Hello sir. What brings you here?"
Walking up to him, Rodias noticed the man's wounds.
"A monster attacked me, and I already killed it, but it left me with these terrible wounds. I wandered about in this forest thinking that I would die, but then I found this cabin."
The man finished telling his story and then looked at Rodias with pleading eyes.
"Can you help me, please?"
Rodias was a little unwilling because he was scared that the emperor might find them, but he had a soft heart, so he decided to bandage the old man up before sending him away.
"Okay. Come inside."
He entered the cabin, noticing that his wife had hidden herself and the children in the cellar that was beneath their house.
"Weren't there other people?"
The old man looked around because he could swear that he had seen a woman and two children, but they were gone now.
"We don't want any problems, sir, so let me heal you up and then go away, please."
Refusing to answer, Rodias gestured for the old man to sit down.
"Okay, thank you."
Sitting down on a chair, the old man nodded and let himself be bandaged.
He was starting to get suspicious of the family living there, but he didn't want to pry, so he remained silent.
While he was being bandaged, the old man had nothing else to do, so he just looked around without moving his head, and in the corner of the room he spotted a beautiful dress that only royals could afford to wear.
It was a dress that Tasha had run away with from the palace, and the old man remembered that the emperor executed multiple elf guards after it was discovered that one of his wives had run away.
The emperor thought of his wives like trophies, and he was furious when he found out that someone had touched one of them.
The old man then remembered that there was a juicy bounty for anyone that brought information to the emperor, and the old man also thought about how his family needed food for the winter.
After bandaging the man up and saving his life, Rodias sent him away.
Once he saw him walk into the forest, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"You can come out now."
He turned to the kitchen floor, and a wooden hatch opened up.
Tasha and the kids left the hatch that led to their cellar.
"Thank God that it wasn't anyone from the royal palace…"
Tasha whispered to Rodias, and he nodded his head.
He was also extremely relieved because he thought that the emperor had found out about his wife's disappearance and sent out people to find her.
"Who was that mom?"
Valindra tugged on her mother's dress.
"A hunter that had been hurt, so your dad treated him, but he won't be coming back."
Patting Valindra's head, Tasha answered her.
"Okay. So can we go play on the swing now?"
Hearing that it was just a stranger, Valindra quickly lost interest in that topic and she wanted to continue playing with her brother.
"Yes darling."
When Valindra heard her mom say that it was okay to go outside now, she grabbed her brother's hand, and they went to play on the swing again.
Tasha and Rodias also went to tend to their field again, and soon the sun left the sky, so they all went to sleep.
---
BANG BANG BANG
Tasha and Rodias were woken up in the middle of the night because someone was loudly banging on their door.
Rodias quickly got out of bed, and peeking out of the window, he saw guards with weapons and torches in front of their door.
He guessed that the old man, whom he had saved by bandaging him and closing his wounds, had reported him to the guards that were now here to kill his family for going against the emperor.
"Oh no… Quick hide the children!"
Rodias and Tasha rushed into the other bedroom, waking Valindra up.
"Mom?"
Valindra, who was still sleepy, looked at her mother, who was panicking while looking around.
"Shush, darling. Please be quiet and don't talk, okay?"
She didn't know what was going on, but Valindra nodded her head.
Rodias looked around the room, but his eyebrows quickly furrowed.
He then looked at Valindra and whispered to her.
"Darling, where is Perennar?"
"He went to pee. He asked me to go with him, but I told him to be a big boy and go alone."
Valindra whispered back to her dad, and her parents' faces turned white.
If he went to the toilet, then that meant he went outside because their toilet was a small wooden hut outside their house.
Suddenly, they heard a shout.
"WE HAVE YOUR KID SO COME OUT OR HE WILL DIE!"
"MOMMY! DADDY! HELP!"
Hearing Perennar shouting outside, Tasha almost fainted, and Rodias bit his lower lip.
He then grabbed Valindra and ran to hide her.
Putting her in the cellar, he told her to stay there while being as quiet as possible.
Rodias also wanted to hide his wife, but she stopped him.
"They came for me, so if I hide too, then they will find Valindra."
Hearing that, Rodias nodded with a frown.
He knew this, but he wanted to prevent his wife's death at any cost.
Rodias wished that the emperor would be satisfied with his life, but he knew that the emperor wasn't a kind person.
Taking her hand, he kissed her, and Tasha could feel the metallic taste of blood coming from his lips after he had bit them so much that they bled.
"I love you."
"I love you more."
She smiled at him, and they walked to the front door together.
Opening it, they saw an armored soldier holding a sword to their son's throat.
"I am here, so please let him go!"
Tasha pointed at herself and shouted.
Seeing them finally come outside, one of the guards who had a better-looking sword stepped forward.
"The emperor has ordered us to kill his wife, who has dared to run away, and if there is a man with her, we are to kill him too."
Looking at the young boy, the head guard frowned.
He also had another order, and he knew that he had to do what he was told; otherwise, his family would die because he dared to defy the emperor's orders, but he still found it disgusting.
"…And if we find a child that doesn't have silver hair… He is to be executed immediately."
His voice tainted with anger and disgust, the guard voiced out what he was ordered to do.
"NO! He hasn't done anything wrong!"
The head guard clenched his teeth when he heard Tasha's cries and saw her scared expression with tears leaving her eyes.
'Do you think I don't know that?! But if I don't do this, he will go after my wife and two daughters…'
Not answering her, the head guard continued to curse the emperor in his head.
Some of the guards used to be Rodias's friends, but now they were supposed to kill him. So, when the head guard told the guards to start the execution, they hesitated.
Rodias used their moment of hesitation to jump on the one guard that was holding his son.
Trying to free Perennar by punching the guard, Rodias felt how his fist hit the hard metal of the guard's helmet, shattering his knuckles, and the guard didn't even flinch.
SLASH
One of the guards slashed Rodias's back, but that didn't kill him, so they had to slash him five more times until he finally stopped moving.
SLASH SPLURT
The guard that was holding the boy then moved his sword, slashing the boy's throat open and dropping him.
THUD
Perrenar's body slowly fell to the ground as the light in his eyes was slowly extinguished.
"NOOOO!!! YOU BASTARDS!!!"
Tasha screamed at them, but she was powerless to change anything.
She could only watch as her husband and son lay in front of her, covered in their own blood.
Her mind went blank, and she accepted that there was no way for her to live.
The only thing she was glad about was that her daughter, Valindra, didn't have to see any of this.
A guard stepped forward and grabbed her shoulder, forcing Tasha to kneel down.
She lowered her head and looked behind her, seeing the inside of the house through the open front door.
There, Tasha saw that the hatch was slightly open, and a young girl with sky-blue eyes was watching everything. Her pupils were shaking, and tears were rolling down her cheeks.
SWISH
But before Tasha could react, a cold blade cut the air above her, and with one swift strike, her head was severed.
Valindra witnessed how her kind father struggled to defend himself but ultimately succumbed to multiple sword strikes.
She saw how her brave brother, who always talked about becoming strong enough to protect her, had his throat cut open.
And then she witnessed how her mother was decapitated while staring her in the eyes.
Valindra was too shocked to notice that the guards had entered the house after they noticed that Tasha had looked behind her in her final moments.
They then lifted the slightly open hatch and found the shivering Valindra, whose face was covered with tears and snot.
The cellar that she was hiding in was dark, and the guards weren't able to discern her royal hair color, so they assumed that her hair was golden.
So one of the guards clenched his teeth and raised his sword, preparing to kill the last member of the family.
"Wait!"
But suddenly, the head guard stopped him.
When the moonlight came in through the window and lit up Valindra's hair, his eyes widened as he looked at the scared Valindra.
Opening his shaky lips, the head guard spoke with a voice that was filled with disbelief.
"S- She has silver hair... This girl is the emperor's daughter!"