Feel the wind blowing on your face,
Taste the water clear,
Steal the day and all this space,
Waste not any time but here.
Yonder does the time now go,
Care not whether it stays,
Wander long, to and fro,
Where it ends it stays.
Mountains tall across the land,
Valleys low and cutting,
Fountains trickling in the sand,
Galleys proud and strutting.
Home to where the heart lays beating,
Far, far over the western hills,
Roam where the land and sea are meeting,
Star and moon thy burden fills.
Here you will find her, child of lore,
Eyes of sea, hair of gold,
Near the Oak that Nature bore,
Lies she, with fortune yet untold.
Jaax stopped reading and took a step back. Jahrra stared at the wall, her eyes streaming. She wondered why he didn’t continue; the words seemed to go on forever. She also didn’t know what to think of what he’d just read. For so long she had wanted to know what those words had said, for so long, but now it seemed so unimportant. So much had happened today and her mind wasn’t ready to decipher such obscure riddles.
Jahrra stood silent for a long time. Finally, Jaax spoke aloud, making her jump a little.
“That is the Great Prophecy of the Oracles, the very words that an unknown scribe took down long ago when the Crimson King’s reign was young. It is the prophecy that foretells of a savior of Ethoes, someone to overthrow the Tyrant’s terrible evil. You have heard of this prophecy before?”
It was half a statement, half a question. Jahrra nodded her head numbly.
“Denaeh once told us about it. Every year, around Sobledthe, she would tell us tales of old, and one year she told us this tale. She never told us those exact words, but she spoke of a human child. A girl.” Jahrra gazed up at Jaax, a hint of desperation in her eyes. “Why do you tell me this now, what does this have to do with what has happened? What does it have to do with me?”
Jaax looked down at her and took a deep, uneasy breath. Perhaps if circumstances were different, if she didn’t have this recent pain to distract her, Jahrra would have puzzled it out by now. But it was no wonder she couldn’t think straight. He could hardly think straight.
Jaax swallowed. “I’ll tell you this then: the prophecy tells of a human child that will be found, a child whose destiny it will be to defeat the Tyrant King and his immortal accomplice, the god Ciarrohn. Many believe that when the Crimson King and Ciarrohn are defeated, the curses they dealt out will be lifted, including the curse on the Tanaan and this castle we now stand within.”
Jaax shifted his weight uncomfortably before continuing on.
“You see, human beings became extinct when the Tanaan dragons were created; it was their punishment for resisting the Crimson King and Ciarrohn. Hroombra, I am sure, has told you this before. The Tanaan dragons descend from the original humans who suffered this curse.
“The Tanaan were among many races who hoped for their world to return to peace, but they had no idea they would be waiting for so long. Some of the Tanaan moved on and accepted their place among the dragons, just as the other races of Ethoes accepted that the Crimson King was now their ruler. But some of them still wait to this day for the prophecy to be fulfilled.”
Jaax took another deep breath, and continued as calmly as his voice allowed him, “Hroombra and I searched many years for this child, waiting and listening for any word of such a girl. We knew that the human race no longer existed, but we also knew that if a human girl was found, then she would be the one we’d been looking for, the one to change the world.”
Jaax paused and let Jahrra absorb all that she was hearing. Jahrra blinked up at him as a chill wind swept past them both. She had no idea that Hroombra and Jaax had been looking for the child of the prophecy.
“Is that where you’ve been all these years?” Jahrra asked wearily, shivering in the cold. “Away looking for this girl?”
The young dragon smiled gently despite his recent sorrow, and this time his smile contained none of its usual smugness.
“No, Jahrra,” he said quietly, patiently, carefully. “You see, I found that girl long ago, a little over seventeen years ago, in fact.”
He paused and watched her reaction, allowing her to place the pieces of the puzzle together on her own. He watched as the realization slowly filled her the way a newly lit candle wick spreads light throughout a room. Suddenly, Jahrra’s storm-blue eyes flashed with the knowledge of the truth.
“The peoples of Ethoes are waiting for a new hope,” Jaax said gently. “You, Jahrra, are their new hope.”
Jahrra felt a strange, cool sensation prickle throughout her entire body. Her head was spinning and her heart was pounding. Too much had happened this day and her brain couldn’t grasp this unbelievable revelation. He makes it sound like I . . . Jahrra shook her head, refusing to even consider the possibility, refusing to acknowledge what Jaax was indeed telling her. Finally she found the strength to talk.
“What?” her voice was harsh with disbelief.
“Jahrra, you’re the human girl I’ve spent so much of my life looking for. You are the child of whom the prophecy foretold.”
He curled his lip grimly, looking weary and just as overwhelmed as Jahrra felt.
“No, no, I couldn’t be! I’m not human!” Jahrra said, her voice growing shrill. “I’m Nesnan, a simple Nesnan orphan from Oescienne!”
Jahrra was backing away from Jaax now, her eyes darting around as if she were looking for a place to run.
“Yes, Jahrra, ‘Far, far over the western hills, Roam where the land and sea are meeting’, I found you in Crie, in the Saem Hills, the western hills in the northern-most part of Oescienne.”
“I still don’t believe you!” Jahrra shouted, growing angry as the panic rose up inside of her.
“‘Eyes of sea, hair of gold, Near the Oak that Nature bore’. Jahrra, you were found by a tribe of elves under the Sacred Oak of Ethoes. You were barely a newborn when I came for you, and the elves told me you had blue eyes when they found you. You were only a week old, and only humans, pure-blooded humans, have blue eyes when they are born. Hroombra and I only kept the truth from you for your own safety. You had to believe that you were Nesnan, it was the only way to keep you safe from the Tyrant’s knowledge!”