“Oh, poor little Nesnan Orphan!” Eydeth exclaimed placing his hands on his cheeks dramatically. “No one wants her now that her parents are dead, not even her friends. She has to go live with that old lizard!”
Some children would laugh hysterically at these comments, but others became disgusted.
“What’s wrong with you!” a small girl with auburn hair said one day. “How’d you like it if your mom and dad died and people made fun of you?”
Jahrra, who’d been blasted with a sickening wave of anger and hurt from Eydeth’s comments, stood gaping at the girl. No one, besides Gieaun and Scede of course, had ever stood up for her before. As grateful as she was, she couldn’t help feeling sorry for the girl. She and her brother were new students this year and they hadn’t yet learned the pecking order at the schoolhouse yet.
Eydeth just sneered at the comment and said, “You’d better be careful what you say Rhudedth or you’ll be joining the Nesnan and her two loser friends.”
The girl simply crossed her arms and scowled, obviously not wanting to cause a scene but determined to show Eydeth she wasn’t afraid of his threats.
The girl called Rhudedth walked away with her brother to the other side of the yard, and Eydeth, gratefully, forgot about Jahrra and her friends. The three of them climbed up into their oak tree and listened blandly to what Ellysian was saying across the yard. It turned out that she and Eydeth could trace their pure elf ancestry back just three generations, and she had no problem blaring it in her whiny voice for all to hear.
“My father,” she piped obnoxiously, “is the grandson of a very important pure elfin noble who lives in the east.”
She then began strutting about the yard like an overstuffed peacock, shouting out orders and demanding that every student do as she said. Eydeth was no better. He acted as one of her guards, making absolutely sure that the “queen” got her way.
“Bow before the Queen!” the young boy would snarl.
“Queen Ellysian’s” tour of the yard continued with Eydeth keeping everyone in line. Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede laughed into their hands wildly, trying not to make a sound as the children following Ellysian scattered about the meadow, desperately looking for them as she screamed, “Find the evil Nesnan and her traitorous friends!”
Luckily, Ellysian and Eydeth grew tired of this after a few weeks as the other students became less inclined to do their bidding. Once again, to her great relief, Jahrra became invisible, an outcast both inside and outside of school. Anytime she saw one of her classmates in town or at Lake Ossar, they gave her a wary look and quickly moved away as if avoiding a rabid animal.
Jahrra knew that this was mostly because of the twins’ influence, but she wondered if some of it had to do with her constant depression. She tried hard to be the person she was before her mother and father died, but most of the time she was withdrawn and morose, as if she had a raincloud following her around all the time.
The crimson and gold of fall faded into shades of grays and blues, and Jahrra found herself dreading the approaching winter. The Harvest Festival and Solsticetide crept by and Hroombra, Kaihmen, Nuhra, Gieaun and Scede were careful of what they said around her during this dark time of the year. Jahrra’s ninth birthday passed pleasantly, but her improvement of spirit suddenly began slowing down and came to a standstill when the first anniversary of her parents’ deaths arrived.
Jahrra spent that day alone, looking out over the edge of the Great Sloping Hill, allowing the sun’s distant warmth to flood over her. She thought of her parents and wondered how she’d survived this first year without them, but she already knew why.
In the end it was because of a familiar figure, not in her daily life, but in her dreams. Jahrra used the day’s quiet somber mood to recall the strange dreams that had haunted her for nearly a year, dreams that she kept fiercely to herself. During the months following that tragic week, Jahrra had woken regularly in the night, crying uncontrollably. Hroombra had stood outside her door, his great head looking dark and menacing as he did his best to calm her, wishing he could do more than just whisper comforting words.
Jahrra appreciated Hroombra’s kindness, but she longed to work the dreams out on her own. What had they meant? She sighed deeply and shut her eyes, remembering how they started and how they’d progressed. At first, the dreams would wake her in a burst of terror and grief, but over the months following the tragedy, they began to change.
The dream would always begin the same; a pleasant scene of Abdhe and Lynhi walking down a beach with her, swinging her from her arms between them. At first the blue sky was decorated with a few puffy, pale gray clouds being pushed along by a warm breeze. But soon the sky turned dark and those clouds became black and churned like thick smoke. A fierce wind would pick up and the air would turn cold.
A great beast would emerge from the angry clouds, overwhelm them and pluck Lynhi and Abdhe from the beach. It was a horrible, demon-like monster larger than even Hroombra. It had great horns and a skull-like face and its horrible, bone-thin body was covered in what looked like rotten, burned leather stretched so tightly it appeared to be on the verge of tearing. It had great claws instead of hands and feet, and its massive tail wrapped around the cold, gray sand of the beach. When it moved, the pounding of its steps surpassed the sound of the whipping waves and the roiling sky, and its stench, akin to a week-old battlefield, was enough to make her collapse. It was the most horrible thing Jahrra had ever seen and it filled her with a dread that froze her blood and melted her nerves.
As time passed and the nightmare became more familiar, Jahrra came to know at what point to expect the monster. She tried desperately to warn her parents early in the dream, but it was no use. They always stayed by her side, walking along as if it were a sunny, cheery day. No matter how much Jahrra pulled on them, the monster always came and took them.
This carried on for several weeks, but one day her dream changed. Instead of waking up after her parents were taken, Jahrra would remain in the dark, crying. Just when she thought she would die of sorrow right there on the cold beach, a light would begin shining far off in the distance. At first, Jahrra woke up just as the light began to grow, but gradually the dream became longer and the light became brighter, transforming the stormy beach into a misty orchard.
It only took Jahrra a minute the first time this happened to realize that this was her recurring dream of the misty woods and the hooded green figure. At first, the hooded man would only arrive after Abdhe and Lynhi were taken, but as time went on the man became a witness to the horrifying scene that played over and over in Jahrra’s dreams. It was as if her two dreams were growing closer to one another and overlapping.
The hardest nights were the nights when the cloaked being would stand by and watch her nightmare unfold. He stood with his great arms crossed, like some horrible master watching in wicked approval as the monster swooped down for Abdhe and Lynhi. Jahrra would cry out desperately for him to help her, but no matter how much she cried and begged, he did not move and he would not help her. He only stood solemnly in the distance, his head covered and his face hidden in shadow, watching noiselessly and motionlessly as the wind whipped his cloak around like an emerald banner.