Chapter 1: Peacefulness Shattered

Janet had been alone for what seemed an eternity, now. She was bathing in a secluded cove on the seashore, having just recently returned from a hunting trip of a couple of days. She was playing with a couple of dolphins that had found their way through the narrow gap at the mouth of the cove. She had always gotten along with all animals, whether mammal, bird, or reptile ... they always seemed to like her very much.

She had now been living on her own in the wild for nearly three years by this time, toughened up against the weather and terrain, the hardship of this way of life she had chosen after the murder of her beloved family, when she was nearly sixteen.

Most of the animals around this cove where she was staying helped her, bringing her food when she couldn’t get some for herself, providing what companionship she had, in return for her help when they needed it, such as tending the wounded. This companionship, however, could not replace human company. She could understand them, quite often, and they nearly always understood her, but this did not abate her desire for true conversation.

She had been in the woods when the incident occurred; gather herbs, fruits, nuts, and checking the snares that she had scattered around the edge of the clearing.

Her family on her mother’s side was known to be extremely long-lived. They had always lived apart from other commoners ... in fear of what others might believe of them. Because the other commoners were fearful of Janet’s family, and might just do something rash.

Janet had once gone into the nearest town, to see what it was like, when she was only nine years old. The rumors about her family that she heard there were atrocious, causing her great fear and anguish. It was believed that they associated with demons, and worse.

When she brought this to her parents’ attention, she was firmly told never to go into town alone again. Then, in a deft, startling move, her mother had pushed her hair back behind her ears, revealing something Janet had never seen before. Her mother’s ears were not round at the top, as her father’s were, but rather, came to a very definite point. Samantha, her mother, explained that she usually kept her ears hidden, covered by her hair, and what small powers of illusion she had. She also said that Janet herself might have a few of these features from their elvish ancestry, especially seeing as she seemed to have inherited nearly pure blood, apparent in the way animals really took to her, as well as her innate abilities in wood lore. At least, Janet’s mother thought, even hoped, that it was elvish blood that was running through her daughter’s veins. Her prior lover, though elvish, had claimed dragon blood in his ancestry as well.

The human part of her own blood had been dominant for the first eighteen years of her life. Then, in a night of strange, feverish dreams, and nerve-wracking pain she went through the Awakening. The immortal, elvish blood in her veins gained ascendancy over the mortal, human blood. When she’d woken up the next morning, her hair had gone from raven black to a strange mix of gold and silver strands in her black locks. Her ears had become pointed. Her eyes turned from blue to jet-black and she found she could see as well in the dark as she could in daylight, if in a different spectrum.

She hoped the Awakening would be easier for Janet, if it happened at all. She did not really know how to warn Janet, and, unfortunately, never had the chance.

The sun was going down. The dolphins headed back out to sea, and Janet swam back to shore, where she had a quick meal, then went to bed, as it had been a long two days of hunting, and the swim and play with the dolphins had finally tired her to the point where she hoped the nightmares wouldn’t return.