Vaidlar: Origins

Elynissa and Gwynala walked the forest path, the fallen leaves of cool autumn creating a soft floor over which they traveled upon bare feet. Their entourage of four male elven warriors, picked from among the senators elite squad, kept a respectful distance, two ahead, two behind. The warriors tread silently, alert to any change in their environment. Elynissa grimaced at their presence. They were no needed. None of the damnable humans would make it past the elven forest's borders!

With a mighty roar, twelve humans were upon them. They came too fast, seeming to appear out of nowhere. They carried long swords and wore studded leather armor. Two of the guards went down immediately, one with a sword in his gut, the other loosing his head. Gwynala screamed and feinted. This seemed to amuse the human warriors, and as eight of the twelve occupied the two remaining elven warriors, the other four closed in around the two women. One grabbed Elynissa from behind as another came at her and ripped her fine, silky wrap from her. The man holding her moved his beefy, calloused hands up across her belly to her bared breasts. Elynissa shrieked and struggled futilely, the steel studs in the armor of the man holding her digging painfully into her back. She tried to kick the man in front of her, but her caught her legs and the one holding her dropped her to the ground. Glancing wildly about, she saw the last elven warrior go down under a shower of blows from the two humans attacking him. Five of the humans lay dead or injured. Gwynala lay unconscious, smothered by a half clothed human brute. In shock she ripped her eyes away and up. Up to a bug, smelly, sweaty body descending upon her, lust burning in his ugly round eyes. Reflexively, she brought her knee up and it contacted the man's groin with a sicking slap. The brute bellowed and cursed, rolling away, only to be replaced by another that grabbed her lags and pulled her to him, pinning her under him, then pinning her arms over her head with one hand. As the beast began to take his pleasure, an intense pain filled her body, and then it faded as she fell into a merciful feint.

Elynissa awoke in a soft bed, thin veils falling around the edges, obscuring the view of the rest of the room. How had she gotten here? Why did she ache all over? She thought back, trying to remember where she had been. She had been in the forest with Gwynala. They were going for a walk. She had forced the Senator to let her go out. A flash of memory: an elven warrior going down under flashing crimson blades. Elynissa caught her breath. "No...," she moaned, "no...!" Another flash. Gwynala, splayed on the ground under a human brute. "No," she moaned louder. She tried to stop remembering, but a third recollection seeped into her mind, infiltrating every sense. She could feel him. He was all over her, violating her. "No!" she screamed, thrashing in bed, her eyes jolting open, not wanting to remember anymore. As the after image slowly faded, she heard light, running footsteps. The right veil was pulled back and a young elven maiden stood there, suddenly unsure of what to do next, of how to ease her mistresses misery. The maiden, looking flustered, began to try to sooth Elynissa, speaking quietly, telling her everything would be fine. Ameranda, Elynissa thought, Ameranda's her name. Focusing her thoughts on the soft elven words, letting them wrap he up and protect her, she sank into a restless sleep, Ameranda silently standing watch over her.

Elynissa spent a week in bed, attended by her servants. Senator Toranno brought one of the best clerics in the city to set her three broken ribs and accelerate her healing with his appeals to Mishakal, the goddess of healing.

After she healed, Elynissa spent all her time at home, only going out as far as the gardens. Senator Toranno gave her everything he could, but it wasn't enough. She had lost interest in life. She knew people talked, people she had before thought to be close friends. Now they regarded her with pity and distaste, her soul tainted by human violation. She avoided social occasions and became a recluse. A couple months after the raid, she was found to be pregnant. At first she and the Senator dared to hope it was theirs for they had been hoping for a child to come of their union, but soon after their hopes were shattered into horror when they found that the child would be half human, a product of her rape. Toranno swore upon all the humans he had killed in the war, and all that he would kill, vengeance would be served.

Before the raid that had destroyed Elynissa's life, Toranno had regularly gone out with elven raiding parties to harass the humans that had settled along the north and north-west border of the elven forest, encroaching on elven domain. Now he began again with a new, intense energy, trying to relieve his frustration by taking as many human lives as possible.

They decided to have the child and raise it to be a great warrior, to fight against the human invasions. Perhaps in this way, justice would be done. So were the origins of Vaidlar.

Copyright Oct 15, 1995