I could never be afraid of dragons. Look how cute they are!

Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Iais’i
Current Date: December 18, 2618

Character: Elyanor
Race: Iais’ian – Water Tribe
Age: 31
Current residence: Tianal, Minhir
 

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How quickly time passes. How is it that it feels still just like yesterday that I was holding this bundle of once babbling energy in my arms? Just as he used to babble constantly, it feels as though half of his life has now been spent in near silence. It worries me but I blame the sickness that took hold of him when he was so young. I miss my chattery son, but I know that he still is there with me, with us. That it was matters.

In a few more years, I will see that he joins us when we go to see my brother in the middle-lands. It will have been years since I have last seen him and it feels right that Dio meets Loki; they are family and, years further down the road, they may have to keep in touch. I think that keeping water and jungle linked is a good thing.

A year ago, Dio came to me, asking for a pet. I was startled, to say the least. Up until this point, he had been just doing his own thing, learning what he needed to from us and from the others but otherwise not really asking for anything at all.

At first, I told myself that I would ensure he would get the pet he wanted but as he hadn’t told me what he’d wished for, not at first, I didn’t know what to expect. We already had the big cats that roamed nearby, though they were mostly part of the so-called family of the animal caretakers and their companions. Had Dio told me he wanted one, I would have tried for something on that front.

But no, instead, when he told me, a few days later, that he had found just what he wanted, I went with him. He didn’t need to take my hand. He didn’t need to beg me to follow him. I followed him as he went just a short distance into the jungle, and we came upon a tiny little lizard that had been sunning itself on a large leaf.

I asked him if he truly was certain that this was what he wanted; these were slippery little ones, and I personally did not think I would have been able to tell it apart from others if it were to run off; he told me that this was what he wanted. I reminded him that in a few years’ time, it likely would get very big and this sweet, wonderful boy told me that he wasn’t afraid. That they were just the cutest things, and he wouldn’t let it hurt him, not down the road. He would take care of it, feed it, even make an enclosure of sorts for it—which seemed a bit of an out-there idea for me as these lizards can get in and out of places as they like—but I told him that I would speak to his father about it.

Speaking to Roderick about it was easy and he agreed that it could be a learning experience. Dio’s eyes went just so very bright when I told him that he could take care of the little lizard. A dragon, he called it. I’m not sure where he picked up the word from, though I know that I grew up with the mention of dragons when I was growing up. Big sea creatures that were spoken of in myths that lived in the water were what dragons were to me. I don’t remember ever talking about them myself, though.

Since then, Dio has been more or less everywhere with his pet-dragon, and it just makes me smile. It has gone from being a tiny little thing that fits in his palm to now being about half the length of his arm when you don’t take its tail into consideration. Soon, this thing will be big enough that others will likely be wary of Dio and yet, I can’t find myself minding.

If this lizard, that he sees as a dragon, makes him happy? Then I’m all for that. If it makes him feel safe in some ways? I’m happy for that as well. I hear him talking softly to it when he’s in his room. His words are still short, and he doesn’t speak in full sentences, but he speaks ever softly to it, and it warms my heart. I miss hearing him speak and it still bothers me that whatever happened to him did.

In my heart of heart, there is something unsettled. I cannot understand that the sickness would change him as much as it did; there are days when I feel there has to be something else, but I can only give it time. I feel that, eventually, if there is something to be told, Dio will be open to us and tell us about it.

Final Word Count: 817

Why didn’t you ever tell me that you were actually my bodyguard? More importantly, how did it take me this long to figure it out?

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Iais’i
Characters: Elyanor
Race: Iais’ian – Water Tribe
Age: 29
Current residence: Tianal, Minhir
Final Word Count: 780 words
 

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I didn’t know what to make of him when he first showed up. I mean, word had been sent out that someone would be coming for me. My father had already set me up for my second wedding since the first had failed so miserably. To be wed but remain untouched on the night of that union only to be woken up the next morning to a commotion about how he had fled with one of the slave boys still remains with me.

So I don’t know that I can be blamed for my behaviour when I first saw him and when he accompanied me on the very long walk back to the jungles. A place I had never seen before. A place I never imagined I would see. The first union had been one between two tribes on the water, so this was so very different. The humidity was different, the air felt different, everything was strange and a different colour.

I tried not to act out with him while we were walking from my home and family and to the jungle. He wasn’t the one I had to blame for this long trek, and he certainly wasn’t the one I had to blame for this new potential union.

One of the things I hadn’t expected, however, was to find him still outside my door when we were finally settled, just the day prior to the union. I suppose they must have been waiting for us to get there to get things going as I had about a day to myself before preparations happened. He was outside my door every time and the sight of him made something flutter in me. Something I starkly ignored. I was set to marry one of the royals and I certainly didn’t want my heart trying to lean onto the idea of this handsome one who was only at my door because it was his duty.

I had not imagined him a hunter when he showed up. Though the delightful build of him could have placed him as having a few different roles within their tribes, I still thought he was more a guard than a hunter and through our whole trip there, I found myself never once questioning the skills he did possess when it came to finding and, yes, hunting for the food we might have required.

Leave it to me to have been too focused on my upcoming union to realize that he was more than a simple guard. Things have changed since; of course. It would have been foolish to truly expect otherwise. My heart aches when he has to be away for more than a day. I think I would fall into a pit of despair if he were to leave my life. I still would hold strong for my son and the still gentle affection of my husband. We may not share a bed—and have not in years—but we still are united and are friends. Our son needs to know that his parents are more than simple strangers to one another. We may not warm one another’s bed—I leave that to Set—but we still spend plenty of time together as we need to.

What to say of my wonderful hunter, however? With passing time, he found his way past my defences, and I would not change it for the world. His presence at my side has made me discover so many things that I had not thought possible. My heart still flutters every time at the sight of him and I would want no other at my side in his place.

Looking back, I can’t help but shake my head at my own mostly aloof behaviour from all of those years ago. How he must have thought me at least perhaps a little spoiled to be acting how I was as we walked through water, some sand, and jungle territory.

I still do remember the morning when I was finishing up getting ready, how I did ask him to help me with the lacing of the dress I was wearing. I claimed that the servant girls would have likely ripped it for their inability to handle the delicate lacing that had come from my people but, truth be told, I might have done it mainly to feel his fingers on my skin.

A woman has to find small, pleasurable moments in the little things in life. After all, I was truly expecting an evening that would lead to another failed union. Now, well now I’m just quite pleased with my life, even though I do still worry for my beautiful albeit quiet son.

I can see you trying to convince me that this is a bad idea, but I think that means it’s definitely good.

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Iais’i
Characters: Elyanor
Race: Iais’ian – Water Tribe
Age: 29
Final Word Count: 754 words
 

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I don’t remember much from my childhood. I mean, besides staring out quietly while boys, more than girls, would run about, playing while they could, as though they were aware that, before too long, they too would be too old for fun and they would join the older kids and the adults—possibly all adults in their eyes—in the bigger world.

In a way, I don’t know that I longed to play with them, my mother certainly didn’t try to get me to play, she was too busy answering to Father and trying to stay out of his way, and my father, well, I admit that I never saw much of him, he much preferred to spend time with my brother. Though that might just be for the best, really.

So I spent what free hours I had just staring out and along the garden that none but us and certain rare others were meant to access, watching boys running about, playing touch and go, and chasing land birds. I saw plenty of little events taking place just there, not very far from my gazing spot. It wasn’t exactly hard to reach this garden though others were warned that it was off-limits, but the braver of the boys would come and play nearby, as though dared by others and I’m sure that more than one of these very boys have tried, in their playful youth, to either convince their friends that they should come near the gardens because it was totally the best play spot even though my father wanted none of them nearby.

While some of these boys possibly were trying to convince their friends in one direction, the others were trying to convince them that their idea was a very bad one because the punishment for being caught near us was a pretty bad one—my father had often threatened to have boys lashed if he found them playing near and yet, as far as I’ve ever seen, not once did he bother—it required too much effort.

For every boy wanting to play nearby, others didn’t want to and that probably led them to some childhood arguments. I look back now and I wonder what that must have been like, to be able to mostly play as you might have wanted, to have as much freedom as you’d have desired. It’s not something I ever gave much thought to and, with my life as it is now, I don’t really think there’s much of a point to thinking back about things of the past.

I never thought I’d live this long. I remember how just so many times my mother would remind me that when I was old enough to become a woman, I would be paired with a royal man somewhere and I would give him all the heir he might want.

It did happen, but nearly eight years after I had become a woman. I don’t know why my father waited this long to send me off, I didn’t bother asking him. I did give my husband a child, a beautiful son who used to be so full of energy that, at times, it was hard to keep track of him but over the last few years, he’s gotten so quiet, skittish around foods. I’ve tried, to no avail, to find out what the source of this is but I’ve yet to find anything. I will not stop until I find the source of this.

His quietness has gone on too long and I want nothing more than for my beautiful Dionysos to go back to playfully running around, discovering the jungle that surrounds us, laughing. I miss his laughter terribly. The person who has changed him will see no end to the wrath of a scorned mother. I don’t care how long it takes; I don’t care if it consumes me until there is nothing left. I will find the reason and I will destroy it.

I wonder if my mother ever felt this way. Then again, after my brother was born, she seemed content enough to merely do as our father was telling her to, so it’s somewhat hard to know, or even imagine, that she might have felt this way. I remember looking into her eyes and wondering what was going on in her mind, she was such a sealed scroll.

I’ve tried not to be that way with Dio; I just hope that he knows he can tell me anything he might need to.

Love will hurt us.

 
Timeline/World: Iais’i
Characters: Elyanor
Race: Iais’ian – Water Tribe
Age: 27
Final Word Count: 637 words
 

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Some people, young and old alike, seem to think that they are more knowledgeable about the world that surrounds us than they truly are. They believe they know everything there is to know and they are so, just so, so wrong.

My mother was one of these people. I don’t know that she gave the same speech to my brother as she did me. It seems unlikely since I was never expected to achieve much in this life, beyond being a proper wife and a child bearer. I am a good mother, I may likely not be able to bear another child—though it could be a surprising turn of events if I allowed it—and I am as good a wife as I can be. A friendly wife.

Except, I am so much more than this, really.

Mother believes that love is a lie. Love is an illusion that you will yourself to believe in because you would otherwise lose your mind, always fighting with yourself over the fact that you feel nothing but perhaps loathing for the man you were paired with for life. I never asked to know what she thought of Father, I was never very close to him either since he preferred to focus on Ultan and that was fine by me.

It was a hard moment when I was sent away, I thought I never again would see him but we’ve managed to keep in touch. The replies are far and few in between but we still keep in touch and we meet once a year. That is the only thing I ask of my brother. That we meet once a year and that he remains a better ruler than our father ever was.

Mother, bless her soul, would say that love, in all of its illusory glory, would hurt us; that if we believed in love enough, it would turn to something ugly and tear us to pieces. I beg to differ. I believe in love. I know that it is more than a simple illusion. I know that I do not love my husband in the way that a wife usually should, but I do love him as a friend and I know that I am the same to him. It might be a strange thing to admit, but it’s true. I don’t know how many, forced to marry as we have, could say the same.

There is another, however. One that I do not hide from the man whose life I was tied to. He knows of this and he allows me the freedom to do as I will, so long as our son is well taken care of and Dionysos comes first, that will never change. I worry about how quiet he has become but I’m doing what I can as far as that is concerned.

This man, however, this hunter, this one… he has my heart. I think he might have had my heart from the moment he first met me, not that knew this but it feels as though that is the truth, in the end. I don’t know that I want to believe in things happening for a reason but at times, it feels as though this is the case here. There was a reason why he was the one sent to pick me up. The one who helped me while I was ill, the one now at my side.

Maybe love will hurt us, but if it does, it will have been because it was meant to. I don’t know that it will happen but I believe that we will be all right. One day following the next, one step, then another. That is all that can be done with this life we live. The future cannot be predicted, though many have tried.

That sort of attitude is what gets you in trouble.

Timeline/World: Iais’i
Characters: Elyanor
Race: Iais’ian – Water Tribe
Age: 25
Final Word Count: 509 words

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Father was not a violent man but he had his temper and he was strict. At least, with me I know he was strict though I don’t know that he was quite as so with my brother though I assume that is the case. He was raising royals, after all. One he would ship off to another royal to seal another deal somewhere, a cease-fire or another peace treaty and the other, he was raising to take over the throne.

One of the phrases I remember Mother whispering to me at night, while she was tucking me in, was that my attitude would get me into a world of trouble. I couldn’t begin to understand why. I wasn’t trying to get in trouble but I was always a little strong-headed, I asked questions, I wondered, I poked at things, I just wanted to learn. I didn’t understand, back then, that this was behaviour that was seen as ‘troublesome’ for women by a lot of men.

Thankfully, the man I was shipped off to marry, far away from home, doesn’t really abide by these frames of thoughts and I found myself more than a little glad. I was homesick, I missed the sound of the water as it came to crash into the cliff side of our home and I missed my brother. That I was allowed a little more freedom helped me settle in. What also helped me settle in is that while I am now indeed married and mother to a beautiful five-year-old child, my husband has little desire to share my bed. He would rather share his bed with his dancer, his little sand companion and I am more than fine with that since it gives me a chance to spend some of my nights and free time with a lover of my own, a man my husband is aware of and comfortable with. There are no games of hide and seek between us.

I think that we’re good friends, in a way. We raise our son together, we give him the love and knowledge he needs though he’s gotten quiet lately and it worries me. For so long he was such a bright-eyed chattering little jungle bird but now he’s quiet and withdrawn. His eyes still brighten up when he learns with us but he’s otherwise subdued and I have no idea why; no amount of gentle prodding to understand why has gotten us anywhere.

I imagine that in time, he’ll open up about whatever has caused this change but I won’t push him any harder than I already have, I should know how that feels, I was pushed so hard to act like someone I wasn’t that it had the absolute opposite effect on me. Soon, I think we should take him to meet my brother and his son, though the travelling is long and I don’t know that it would be safe, this is a discussion I will have with my husband and we’ll come to a decision together.