Still a Child

[Alice]

A young girl with pure white hair stands before a tree and talks to herself.

“Why is Malinne being this way? Where are all my friends? Why can’t I just be home again with my sisters, Alive and well…?” She looks around as if seeking the answers then looks up to the stars barely shining through the clouded atmosphere. “Why are you going to do this to me? I’m just me! Sure I’ve grown a little, but I’m still the same girl well known and loved in my village! Why can’t things be the same?”

She was correct to say she had grown taller. She was no longer confused for a halfling and was now just a short human. A tear trickles down her cheek and she looks away from the sky in frustration. With a short growl she lifts the heavy and weathered war axe given to her by Malinne and starts striking at the tree angrily. “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!” she strikes so hard that a clear sap flows like blood down the tree’s bark. She continues to swing her axe until the tree nearly topples over. She pauses for a moment to wipe the sweat and tears from her face then lifts her weapon high into the air for the inevitable final blow when an unexpected hand grabs her left arm preventing her from finishing off the tree.

She pulls away in disgust and turns abruptly to meet the fiend.“Who are… you?” Her expression goes calm when she’s the person’s face.

“It doesn’t matter who I am, child. You think this is the way to be? You’ve been through too much to act this way? What is wrong with you?” Says a familiar voice.

“Malinne… I, I’m sorry…” she tries too pull away slightly from Malinne’s grasp.

“Don’t say my name, don’t look at me! Who do you think you are?” There is an obvious change in her tone.

“Malinne?” Alice tries harder to pull from her grasp. “You’re scaring me…”

“Coward! How do you expect anyone to have anything to do with you? I hope I never have to see your despicable face again… In fact I’ll take care of that right now.” she reaches with her free hand into her leather bag and begins to pull out a long knife.

“What are you doing? Malinne?” Alice asks beginning to panic. She struggles even harder to get away but Malinne’s hand only tightens around her arm causing her fair skin to tear where inhuman claws meet flesh. “Please… don’t do this!” She tries to use her other hand to swing the axe at Malinne but the weight is too much for her weaker arm and she clumsily dislocates her shoulder instead. Along with a cry in pain, she drops the axe to the ground where it lands with a disappointing thud. “Help! Somebody help me!”

Malinne just laughs and looks into Alice’s frightened eyes. With a smile she slowly lifts the blade of her knife to her neck. “Don’t be afraid, this will all just take a second. Your neck is so small you know…”

Alice suddenly felt four feet tall again and completely forgot about the friendship that she and Malinne shared. The memories were now painful and she swallowed nervously but didn’t look away from Malinne as she knew what was coming.

Suddenly Malinne smiles and Alice screams as she see's the gleam of fangs from behind her familiar lips. “No! Don’t! What’s happened to you?” She doesn’t give up the struggle even as the knife begins to tear a the surface of her skin. “Help! Help me!” She closes her eyes tightly knowing she will not get away. However, to her surprise she suddenly feels Malinne’s hand free her arm and the knife fall from her neck. She swings her arms before her despite the pain of her shoulder and continues this way a moment before opening her eyes. She looks around in the darkness and all has fallen quiet. The tree had indeed fallen over and her war axe lay peacefully at her feet.

"Was it a dream?" Alice asked herself before checking her arm and neck for any damage. To her surprise the claw marks remained on her arm and a stream of blood gracefully trickled down her neck and chest. "What is going on here?" her eyes go wide before then roll in the back of her head as she faints; her limp body falling behind her in the soft dirt.

[Dair Essel]

Dair on one of his usual walks. He had his lute strapped to his back and a apple in his pocket and was eating another. While he was walking he heard someone scream for help, at first he did not recognize what was being shouted but when he heard it again there was no doubt. Dair spit the chunk of apple out of his mouth and tossed away the apple in his hand and started running towards the noise. As he neared the sound of the screaming Dair saw a figure off in the woods, but paying it no mind he continued forward when he saw a small figure faint to the ground. As he got closer he saw that it wasnt a halfling as he had once thought but a small human with blood running down.

Dair looked around surveying the sight, he found no trace of an attacker but he did see an axe next to a felled tree. Dair set his lute against the felled tree along with the axe and turned back to the small human. He grabbed the human by her shoulders and propped her upright against the tree stump. Using the blade of the war axe Dair cut some cloth off his already ragged shirt and started to wipe the blood off of the humans arm and neck. Knowing very little in the arts of healing Dair cut more strips out of his shirt and bound the wounds as best as he knew how. As he had done the most he could do Dair was getting ready to leave when he realized whatever had attacked this human might still be back and that he could not carry the human to safety. Dair sat next to the human and picked up his lute and started to play some cords hoping that it would deter the attacker, bring some help, and above all keep his spirits up.

[Alice]

Alice hears the music and almost sits up in fear. But feeling safe she dozes off again before even opening her eyes to meet the new presence. It isn't long in her sleep before the pleasant sounds are drowned out by shallow dreams of the events that occured while she was away from Illarion. Any passerby could hear the meaningless words escape her lips as she spoke in her sleep of her mixed memories.

"No... Malinne... Wait..." she muttered weakly. "Damn them, why? Will you? Don't go!"

She shudders as the pain in her shoulder almost wakes her up. She is completely unaware of her whereabouts and as she has been lately because she's been slowly but surely drifting into a world of insanity.

"Why did you... But you're dead... Is that what happened?"

Alice is running from a demon more terrifying than those that destroyed her home and killed her family. In more abundance than the ones she ran into on the island she ended up on not so long ago.

"I'm here for Malinne. I'm here to help her find her roots. I don't care what happens Malinne. Don't worry, even if... I don't care. I just want to help you."

She never knew exactly what it was that they had found in their search. She just knew that she lost Malinne. It changed her and then it killed her. The demons took her just as they were escaping. She only knew she would never see Malinne again and that she was still just a child for not understanding anything despite the experience. Though her hair had already turned white from the trauma she barely escaped in her home, she was still naive for not understanding, and for not accepting the changes.

A comforting voice spoke to her as her dream ended and before she came to. "You're afraid. There is no need to be. All your questions will be answered soon enough no matter how long that is." The female voice was unfamiliar yet it made her calm in her dream while she killed skeletons as she was escaping from a long tunnel. At the end of the tunnel there was a light and it gradually came closer and closer. She saw Luthien's face just as she approached the end but it was too bright and she could barely climb into the boat that she and Luthien had escaped in. Her eyes saw everything in a soft blur and she looked back to the cave where Malinne was to remain. She held back her feelings and showed no remorse at the time. She was in shock and had no idea what was going on. She couldn't accept it. She wouldn't accept Malinne's death.

She looks up and her eyes meet the sun directly, waking her from her dream.

Alice sees the halfling and doesn't say a word as she looks around her familiar surroundings. The sun is directly above them and its rays send a soothing warmth over her skin. She notices the blood has been washed away and her wounds were now scabbed and no longer bleeding.

"Who are you?" Alice asks finally.

[Dair Essel]

Dair listen in mix feelings of relief and fear as the small human starts to talk in her sleep, relief that she is still alive but fear from the words the words that she has spoken in the night. He continues to play his lute long into the night and the early morning. Not once falling asleep or stopping the music. It is his comfort.

As the human asks who he is Dair breaks out of the revirie he was in while playing the music.

"I am Dair" replies Dair.

"What or who attacked you? And are you hungry?" says Dair as he pulls an apple from his pocket offering it to the human.

[Alice]

"Hi, I'm Alice." she replies suddenly more cheerful despite her pain. She gives a lively smile and with an unexpected hyperness she hops to her feet. "Hmm... A ghost attacked me. One that looked like an old friend. She had long claws and sharp teeth. She was scary and hurt me but she is gone now... I wonder what got into her." Alice pauses for a moment to think. "I'm not very hungry, but thanks for the offer." she politely refuses the apple. "Besides I've got plenty of ham, zombie guts and bones to last me a while."

She carefully lifts her axe and begins to walk off.

"Thanks you again Dair, I will not forget your kindness. For now I have some business to attend to. Farewell!" Pretending not to notcie the halfling's confused expression, Alice looks back and waves a gesture of farewell hoping she was successful in masking the fear instilled to her the night before.

"Malinne..." she says quietly under her breath. "You are not my friend anymore. I will kill you if I see you again." she clenches her fist and winces as a shock of pain slowly flows up and down her arm. "I will be better than you!"

[Dair Essel]

The story that Alice said confounded Dair to know end but before he could get a word out she had gone. So Dair packed up his lute, took out an apple and started to wander away looking for a place to sleep.