by Nicole Sloan
I can feel myself getting embarrassed as the heat passes through my cheeks. I wish they would quit telling everyone that I’m here to save their planet. I just want to find the Yazen gem so we can go back home, not start a large-scale conflict.
“Son, I apologize for being rude; you’re welcome here anytime. Zac, are you going to help us claim our world back?” Luriss asks me.
Alex, Jenn, and I are all standing there staring at each other. We have no idea what is going on. Did they just bring us here to show us off? I don’t understand how I’m supposed to help them claim their world back.
“I’ll try my best to help you out, but to be honest I have no idea what you mean. We’ve traveled here from Earth, and now we’re on a mission to find the Yazen gem so we can activate the portal and go home,” I tell him. I see two small children walk up behind Luriss and Deree.
“These are our children, Wensley and Middy,” Luriss introduces us. Wensley looks older than Middy. He has a smaller nose, but has dark curly hair. He has loose brown pants and a white vest on. Middy is shorter than Wensley with a bigger nose, but she has lighter brown hair, in pigtails, with a pink dress on.
“Daddy, is he the one who will fight the Dark-skinned people?” Middy asks her father.
“Yes indeed, but both of you go back inside while we talk to these nice people,” he tells them. They run back inside, cheering the whole time.
I hope we leave soon. I’m tired of everyone thinking that I’m someone special and this is quite awkward. I don’t understand what they want me to do. It’s not like I have magical abilities where a snap of my fingers and everything is solved. I don’t even know how I’m going to get the Yazen gem back. I don’t even know if we’ll ever go home. It’s starting to get late and I wonder if we’ll be heading back to Deeproot Forest and be able to make it back in time.
“We’re not going to take up much of your time; we just came by to introduce Zac and his friends to you. We have to head back home to get ready for our trade tomorrow with the Dwarves. Do you need any supplies?” Narissa asks.
“We are doing okay for now, but thank you for asking. We definitely hope to see you again soon. We would like to get to know you better, Zac, if you could please visit us again. Safe travels,” Luriss says.
I’m glad that our trip is over. It’s nice to see what else exists here on Yazen. We have about an hour and a half walk back to the forest and it’s a quiet walk; no one is really talking. Alex’s admiring his bow as he walks and Jenn looks like she’s very tired and bored. Drakoe and Narissa travel well together and seem to know their way around pretty well.
Once we get back, Alex and Jenn stay outside and eat with the Wood Elves. I head straight back to my room. I’m starting to miss home, and I wonder if I’m ever going to see my grandpa again. What if we can’t find any way of getting the Yazen gem? What if I can’t get my friends back to their families? The stay with the elves here has been a nice distraction from that fact, but I’m starting to worry a little. I can’t help but think of home and I pull out the last two breakfast bars that I have and eat them for dinner.
I decide to go ahead and go to bed early because I want to go and watch the Wood Elves trade with the Dwarves. That night I dream that I’m all alone stuck in the portal. I feel like I’m on a roller coaster nonstop. I wake myself up screaming from the dream.
“Are you okay? What happened?” asks Alex. He has rolled over to check on me.
“I’m okay. I’m sorry for waking you; it was just a bad dream,” I say to him. Jenn must be in a deep sleep because she did not even stir.
I fall back asleep pretty quickly and before I know it Laderic’s waking us up.
“Good morning, I just wanted to let you know that your chores today are going to be different than normal. I’m going to have you help me gather all of the supplies that we need to take for our trade with the Dwarves. It should be for fun and a new exciting experience for you guys,” Laderic says.
“Am I allowed to bring some of my own items to trade with the Dwarves?” Jenn asks.
“You can bring a few things with you, but I’m not sure if they will trade with you or not. Let’s give it a try,” Laderic tells her.
All of us look through our stuff and grab a few things that we would like to trade just in case we see something that we would like. And we head down and help everyone start stocking supplies in the wagons. They end up with four wagons full of items for their trade. Two of the wagons are filled with food, and the other two are filled with mostly leather clothes and wooden sculptures.
Once we get everything packed, we sit down and eat some eggs for breakfast. We eat rather quickly and then we head out to the trading post. It’s about a three-hour walk until we finally get there. We have beaten the Dwarves there, so we begin to set everything up so it’s easy to look at.
Not long after, however, the Dwarves show up. They have four wagons full of items plus an additional two empty wagons to fill with supplies they get. I wonder why we did not bring any empty wagons.
The Dwarves are short, similar to the Halflings but just a bit taller overall, but they are very dirty and ugly. I notice most of them have beards and wear metal hard hats.
“It’s a pleasure to see you Ovvar, Vondek, Dolgar, and Felldar. How are Morreen, Azbela, and Erla doing?” Laderic asks.
“They’re doing well, thank you for asking. Did you bring us some freshly grown food?” Ovvar asks while looking in our wagons. Then he sees Alex, Jenn, and I. “What are these creatures that you brought?” he says in a distressed voice.
“They’re friends of ours, and they’re staying with us for a while. This is Zac and with him came the Unicorn once again; it seems to have chosen him. They brought a few of their items and wanted to know if they were allowed to trade as well?” Laderic says while examining their wagons.
“Oh, really, interesting. Zac was your name? Unicorn bound, huh?” Ovvar asks while looking me up and down. I haven’t seen the Unicorn around us for a while, yet I’m still introduced as being associated with the Unicorn instead of being travelers from Earth.
“Nice to meet you, too. These are my friends Alex and Jenn. We brought a few of our items from Earth and were wondering if you are interested in trading with us,” I say to him.
Jenn starts to pull out her wallet and shows Ovvar a dollar bill. Ovvar takes it and begins to appraise it. His eyes light up, he has a crooked smile, and he looks at Jenn and I, “I will take you up on your offer, I think we should do some trading.”
Jenn begins jumping up and down in excitement. She runs over to clothing, looking for something more fashionable, I’m assuming. Alex heads over to the weapons and armor. I decide to look for some more clothes and maybe get a weapon or two.
As we are looking through the items, we hear a loud thumping noise. “What’s that noise?” I ask. It almost sounds like a herd of horses running. Drakoe and Ovvar both look around to see where the noise is coming from.
“The Dark Elves are coming, we have to hide,” Drakoe yells. I have no idea where I should hide. I just see everyone scatter in different directions while leaving their merchandise there.
I run into the a few trees off to the side with Alex and Jenn. We decide to climb up a tree. Alex goes first, and then I help Jenn step up onto my back while Alex pulls her up into the tree. I climb up behind them with their help. We sit quietly and wait as I watch Drakoe, Calina, and Laderic hide behind some rocks. The Dwarves hide inside some bushes. I notice that Narissa never ran away; she’s hiding near the wagons.
I see a huge group of Dark Elves come riding in on horses, and there looks to be around 30 of them. They ride into the trade center and stop, surrounding the wagons. I watch as some of them get off their horses while the others stay mounted. Narissa’s hiding underneath one of the wagons that we brought.
I overhear one of the Dark Elves talking, “Well, well, well, what do we have here? Look at all of these supplies just sitting here with no one around. This must be o
ur contribution for letting these pathetic creatures stay on our planet. Let’s start hooking these wagons up to cart back to the castle. I wonder where everyone has gone.” He’s walking toward the forest, looking around. We’re all trying to be as quiet as possible.
The Dark Elves have dark black- and purple-colored skin, and they all wear different types of black clothing with chain mesh armor. A few of the Dark Elves have gold trim on their armor and most of them have white hair, and the others have black hair.
The Dark Elves begin to attach the wagons to their horses and prepare to take the merchandise. I can’t believe no one is going to stop them! They’re going to take everything. I watch as Narissa crawls on the ground, trying to stay hidden under the wagon.
“Look at what we have here … a guest,” one of the Dark Elves shouts out while pulling Narissa out from under the wagon. I see Laderic, Drakoe, and Calina all start to reach for their bows.
“Look … she’s one of the special ones with the tattoos,” one of the Dark Elves says. I notice Narissa is grabbing her emerald necklace while trying to break free and her tattoos begin to light up faintly.
“Oh no you don’t,” another Dark Elf replies and rips her emerald necklace off of her, putting it into his pocket.
“I think we’re going to take you with us; we could use you to do some work for us,” the Dark Elf says while laughing. They begin to tie Narissa up with some rope and throw her in the wagon. The entire time, she’s fighting and screaming for our help. I can’t take it anymore. If no one else is going to help her, then I am.
I jump out of the tree and begin to run forward toward Narissa while getting my bow ready to fire. I hear footsteps behind me, but I don’t want to take my attention off of Narissa. Drakoe and Laderic fly past me toward the Dark Elves.
We’re so close, getting ready to open fire when out of nowhere a brightly glowing purple dome-like shield covers all of the Dark Elves, the wagons, and Narissa with it. As I run into it, it knocks me back and I fall down hard.
I have never seen such magic before; how are they able to do this? What is this thing and how can we get through? Where are they taking Narissa? What will they do to her? My mind is racing, looking for answers.
I look at her helplessly through the shield; she looks so scared and I can’t help her. My heart feels as if it’s breaking. I pound on the glowing shield, trying to get through to her. The Dark Elves laugh and mimic me. I fall to the ground and let my emotions take over, and tears fall from the corners of my eyes.
“Why are they taking Narissa? Will she be okay? Don’t you have magic that you can use against them?” I blurt out tons of questions in frustration.
“We have to let them take her; we will all die if we try to go against them,” Laderic replies.
Laderic and Drakoe pick me up from my underarms and drag me back to the others. I hear a noise coming from behind us. I turn to see what it is and it’s the Unicorn. How convenient for it to show up now. If I am this so-called chosen one, why can’t I break through that shield and save Narissa?
The Unicorn walks over to me and pushes against me, using its head to push me down. I know it’s not the Unicorn’s fault for my anger, but I can’t help but feel frustration.
Laderic and Drakoe walk over to Calina, Alex, and Jenn to give me my space with the Unicorn. I look over to where Narissa is and see all of the Dark Elves looking at me, some of them with their mouths wide open. I guess they have never seen the Unicorn before.
They quickly continue gathering the wagons up and take everything with them. A few moments later, they’re gone.
“I need you to help me get Narissa back. I have to make some kind of plan to save her. Will you please help me?” I beg the Unicorn. It reacts in a way that makes it seem like it understands me and it nods its head yes.
“I have to go back so I can get prepared to get Narissa back. I’ll need you to go with me to save her when I’m ready,” I ask the Unicorn and again it acknowledges me.
“I’ll whistle or signal to you somehow when I’m ready to leave. Please stay close by and listen for my whistle,” I say while holding the Unicorn’s nose. It nudges my hand and then runs off.
I walk over to the others and notice they’re with the Dwarves now. I guess now the Dwarves believe I’m some chosen one as well. They’re staring at me the same way the Dark Elves were. I wish I knew exactly what I was supposed to do.
“So where are they taking her? Who are they exactly? Why did they take all of your supplies and what do we do now?” I ask them as my mind’s racing full of questions.
“Those were the Dark Elves; they work for their Dark Lords that have taken over Yazen some time ago. Every so often, they’ll raid our homes and take our supplies or kidnap our friends and family to hold as slaves. We have no control over them, as their magical powers overpower all of us,” Laderic says while holding his hand on my shoulder.
“We have no chance fighting against them. They’re taking her to their castle on the other side of the mountain ridge. They call their land the Dreadlands and we can’t do much now, except cope with our losses,” Laderic says sadly.
“Those Dark Elves have been raiding our homes for years now. It is so upsetting watching our hard work just be destroyed or stolen; you never quite get over it,” Ovvar says.
“I think we will be having more problems with the Dark Elves, sooner rather than later. They noticed that Zac is bound to the Unicorn, which they’ll report to their Dark Lords. I think we’ll be having a fight on our hands soon,” Drakoe says.
“I think we should call everyone together and plan an attack against them when they’re not expecting it. It would give us a fair advantage against them, having the element of surprise and the numbers. If we all come together we may be able to beat them and save your family and friends. What do you think?” I ask them. I look over at Alex and Jenn and their faces look unhappy. I know they don’t want to go to war but I want to save Narissa. Plus while we’re there, we can take back the Yazen gem so we can go back home.
“That is just suicide for us all. Don’t you care about the lives that would be lost in an assault like that? Hundreds would die! Why would you even suggest something like that?” Calina practically shouts at me.
“If I’m really Unicorn-bound then that must mean something. You keep saying I’m your savior and that I will bring things back to the way they were before. Well, if that’s the case, then I think that we can do this. But we all have to come together. If we don’t, then we may not be strong enough and we’ll lose. The more of us, the better chance we have of defeating the Dark Elves. I’m going with or without you either way, however. I’m going to save Narissa,” I shout at them. I can’t believe she doesn’t want to even try to save her sister. I would do anything for my family or friends.
“The Unicorn doesn’t just come to anyone; it appears alongside the person who will help us when we need it most. I think we should go with the boy; he is the best chance we’ve had in a while. We may be able to take our planet back and live in peace once again,” Ovvar says while standing with his kin, considering me.
“If you can truly get everyone together to rally behind you, Zac, then it sounds like a plan to me. I want to get Narissa back, and I know Dad will say the same,” Laderic says while nodding in agreement.
“Do you need us to go as well? It sounds like you’re starting a war, Zac,” Jenn asks. I can tell she is not thrilled.
“I really need both of you to go. It’s our only way of getting the Yazen gem back and probably the only way we can ever go home. I know you don’t want to stay here forever, am I right?” I ask her. She probably knows that I played off her missing home in order to get her to agree with me, but she nods her head in agreement even then.
“I’m with you, Zac. I’m ready to use my bow and if we can get back home, maybe in time before the next school year starts, then all the better,” Alex says.
“We would have to pool our resources to help us win this bat
tle. Can we all do that?” I ask the Wood Elves and Dwarves at the same time.
“I think we can come to an agreement. We have plenty of weapons, shields, and armor but not the manpower to use them all,” Vondek shares.
“We have some supplies that I’m sure we can share as well,” Laderic chimes in. I’m glad that we’re all in agreement. I didn’t think it would work so easily, but we still have a lot of recruiting to do. We’d have to get the other Wood Elves, dwarves, Halflings, Centaurs and Fauns to help us. We need as many people as we can get.
“Let’s all split up and try get as many people as we can to help us. Drakoe, will you and the Dwarves here go try and recruit more of the Dwarves and the Halflings? The rest of us will visit Last Hope and Deeproot to try to recruit the other Wood Elves, Centaurs and Fauns,” I plan out, trying to split us up to get everyone together sooner.
“Yes, that’s fine with me. I’ll join Ovvar and his kin. The Halflings and I hold a pretty deep friendship and think I may be able to get them to join us. They care for Narissa and will be very unsettled to find that she was kidnapped,” Drakoe says.
“Alright lads, that sounds like a plan. Let’s all meet up in front of our home, the Great Forge, and we’ll outfit ourselves up there. Have everyone else bring any supplies that they can with them,” Ovvar says.
We’ve come to an agreement and we split up soon after to recruit as many as we can. I hope Narissa is safe and that they don’t hurt her. I never thought that being bound to the Unicorn meant much to me but it seemed to have worked pretty well in my favor today.