“This is a sign from the gods!” another shouted with a fist held high. “To hell with The Sisterhood and to hell with you!”
“Watch your tongue!” a dark ranger scolded, taking aim at the elf with her bow and arrow while nearby gremlins and trolls were growling at the rebellious elves. “That is your priestess up there! You will show respect to her and our new allies, or else I’ll rip out your traitorous tongue myself!”
“You’re one to talk about being a traitor!” an elf retorted, holding her young daughter close and scowling at the dark rangers nearby who were all drawing their arrows onto the crowd.
The elves of Green Haven glared at each opposing side of their own kin, tension running hot just as the forest that was aflame around them, while Sivil clenched her fist with growing aggravation of everything that was happening. She saw The Sisterhood and her rangers holding steady while the crowd of elves below the tree were on the verge of breaking out into a riot, then noticed one by one all the elves and grunts of The Sisterhood turning their focus towards something to her left, with the dark priestess slowly breathing out in frustration as she knew what that was. Turning her eyes to the side she saw Clover standing on the terrace while staring her down with apparent fury.
“This is all because of you,” Clover snarled, trembling with ire as she felt her temper from everything burning even hotter at the sight of the heartless elf. “Celine’s death. Grace’s disappearance. The Sisterhood killing and torturing our people. This entire nightmare is because of you.”
“Is that… Clover?” an elf whispered.
“Clover?” a ranger softly asked. “Holy shit, is that her?”
“She’s alive,” another praised. “She came back. She came back for us.”
“Are we sure it’s her? How can we be certain it’s really Clover we’re seeing?”
“And to top it all off,” Clover continued, her fists clenched tightly at her sides while her eyes were burning into Sivil’s. “As if that wasn’t enough, as if you haven’t done enough to earn my everlasting hatred, now… because of the hell that you’ve brought into our home… my man could be hurt or even dead as we speak.”
“Your… man?” Sivil asked with a raised eyebrow. “What the hell are you talking about? For fuck’s sake, why are you back? How are you even alive? Why can’t you just stay dead, Clover?”
Clover shook with her rage boiling inside before she let loose a furious roar as she couldn’t contain it any longer, her powerful cry echoing out over the sounds of trees falling and elves screaming within the village around them while mesmerizing the crowd below from the sheer strength of her voice.
“That’s Clover,” a ranger slowly said. “That’s her alright.”
“She’s really back.”
“She sounds pissed.”
“She sounds really pissed.”
“Who is that elf?” an arachne asked.
“Trouble,” a dark ranger cautioned.
“YOU FUCKING WHORE!” Clover raged, her anger easily being felt by the elves below while Sivil became noticeably tense with a small drop of sweat forming on her temple. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO OUR HOME? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO OUR PEOPLE? GOD FUCKING DAMMIT, YOU’RE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS, YOU HORSEFUCKING ASSHOLE!”
“Wow,” a troll slowly said. “That… is one angry elf.”
“Now that’s the sort of fighting spirit we heard you weaklings could possess,” a gremlin chuckled. “Where’s that fire been with the rest of you? Haha!”
“I think she going to pop,” a goblin snickered with a few hops. “Can see her turning red from here. Hee hee, she going to pop.”
“Um, girls?” an arachne pointed out as she noticed all the dark rangers becoming extremely tense. The other monsters stopped laughing and saw the same thing while the elves in the crowd were staring in awe at seeing Clover having finally returned and brandishing her flair of being extremely volatile.
“It’s her,” a child said with a growing smile. “She’s back.”
“Where has she been?” her mother wept. “Goddamn, she took long enough to get here.”
“I never thought I’d be this happy to hear her yelling like that,” another elf commented with a smirk.
“You’re all fucked now,” an elf sneered at The Sisterhood and dark rangers. “You’re all fucking dead now that Clover’s back.”
“She’s not going to take your shit like we’ve been struggling to do,” another added. “Nobody pushes her around and lives to tell the tale. You’re fucking dead now, you goddamned whores.”
“Are you serious?” a troll laughed. “You really think that scrawny little elf up there is any threat to us? So she’s got a pair of lungs in her, so what? What’s she going to do? Yell at us until we run away?”
Sivil watched Clover erupting just as Eden was doing all around them, her eyes glancing to the bow she had holstered and her quiver full of arrows before returning to her face as the elf was showing nothing but fire in her eyes.
“Our people?” Sivil retorted loudly. “You honestly think you have any right to say that? You never gave two shits about us, Clover. You were an outcast from the day you wandered into our grove uninvited. You refused any acknowledgements from our dear late Celine. You turned down any positions of honor or importance she so graciously wanted to give you in our community. And you of all people were the most cold and callous towards the elves here the entire time you stayed in our home. You didn’t even like a single soul here.”
Putting her hand on her hip Sivil smirked at Clover, the blonde elf snarling at her before quickly grabbing her bow in hand.
“And where is our holy artifact?” Sivil demanded. Clover paused as the elf shook her head in disdain. “Our late priestess gave you one fucking job, Clover. One job that she insisted was something only you could do for her. You were to track down a thief who stole her precious treasure, an artifact that blessed our home with good fortune and peaceful years. Even though you blew off every bit of pity she gave you, even though she wanted to believe there was anyone at all inside the icy husk you truly are, even though I begged her to be the one to recover the artifact as I knew failure was not an option, she picked you. So where is it? Where is our divine treasure, Clover?”
“Wait, how did you know it was stolen?” Clover asked, before Sivil quickly waved her off and turned to face the crowd.
“Empty-handed, as I expected! Look around you, Clover! Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. And it’s all your fault!”
“My fault?” Clover exclaimed.
“Without that divine artifact here, without its blessing and protection it offered by the very spirits who entrusted it to us, we’ve been cast out of their favor! The Aquarius Gateway has been destroyed, our source of fresh water gone forever! The Sisterhood, who offered to give us protection and respect in the world, have been met with animosity and resentment from bitter and dysfunctional elves! Celine herself, the one and only elf who believed you were worth a fucking damn, is now dead and buried after a freak accident in her royal chambers! Her daughter, Grace, vanished without a trace, likely having been snatched up by wolves or predators outside her protective home! And Green Haven itself, our lovely home and only pocket of Eden we were fortunate enough to be graced with, is being swallowed up by vengeful spirits with no mercy or remorse!”
Turning to Clover she pointed at her accusingly, the blonde elf stammering some sort of reply as all elves were now watching her closely.
“And it all could have been avoided,” Sivil scowled. “Our home would still be standing, Celine and Grace would be here with us, the alliance between us and The Sisterhood would have been rationally accepted; if only you had done the one thing you were specifically ordered to by Celine. To bring back the divine artifact that protected us all, that ensured our place in the gods’ good graces, that kept everything from descending into anarchy! You failed, Clover! You failed, and now you have the audacity to come back, to place blame on others for your shortcomings, an
d to actually act like you give a damn about our people? You fucking monster, you should be ashamed of being alive! You’re nothing but a mistake! You were the blight that brought death upon your last grove, and now you’ve done it again to ours!”
“I didn’t cause any of this!” Clover tried to protest with. “I wasn’t even here!”
“No, you weren’t! You never have been here for us, Clover! You never have been one of us! You’re nothing but an outcast, that’s all you are, that’s all you’ll ever be! Celine offering a place for you here in our precious forest was the biggest mistake in the history of Green Haven!”
“The biggest mistake was her appointing a fucking warmonger like you as her advisor in the first place!” Clover shouted back as she pointed to Sivil. “You treat everyone as nothing but pawns to your own game, someone who wouldn’t think twice to sacrifice anyone to get what you want in life, and would be so out of her fucking mind to actually bring the likes of The Sisterhood to Green Haven and not expect it to turn into a complete shitshow!”
“I was the best choice for her advisor!” Sivil shot back. “I took the safety and future well-being of our people with nothing but absolute importance! I trained the finest archers Eden has ever seen to ensure our survival! I enforced the strictest training regimens to produce healthy, fit, and superior elves than any other grove! And I saw the alliance with The Sisterhood as our ticket out of the shadows in this world and into a better one, one where we don’t have to submit to the humans to get their seeds, where we don’t have to humiliate ourselves and cower before them just to survive! We’re going to have our shining forests, our pride and recognition, and all the seeds we want from now on, all because of me!”
“You’re completely insane!” Clover cried out. “You sold out our people as slaves and you’re trying to play the part of noble leader in doing so? You fucking bitch!”
“I know what’s best for my people! I know how to treat them to make them stronger, how to ensure we survive in this fucked up world! That’s why I was her advisor! That’s why I’m priestess now! Who are you to stand there and belittle me? You have no ground to stand on and act so high and mighty, like you’re anything special at all. You turned your back on us time and again, you refused to accept anything from Celine or these elves; you didn’t even have one single fucking friend in all of Green Haven! She even offered you, you of all people, command of the royal guard, who I fucking trained and perfected all by myself! And you refused! You never wanted to be part of our community! You never wanted anything to do with us! You never wanted to be here in the first place! Admit it!”
“It’s true, I admit it!” Clover shouted, with Sivil suddenly halting with confusion to that while the elves below questioned what they heard. “I didn’t want that position! I didn’t want that title! I didn’t want that power! I didn’t want to get involved with anyone! I didn’t want any friends or anything, I wanted no part of that at all!”
Taking a few breaths she turned to the elves below, all of them staring at her in speechless bewilderment while the ground rumbled with another tremor hitting the area.
“I was scared,” she called out, her voice cracking slightly. “I was scared of feeling the pain that I felt when I lost my old home, my old priestess, my… everything. I had everything taken from me, ripped out of my chest and thrown to the four fucking winds, and it killed me inside. I couldn’t… I couldn’t go through that again. I couldn’t bear even the thought of getting close to anyone, having them become a part of my life and growing attached to them, and then watching as they too were taken away by the cruel hands of fate. I wasn’t strong enough. I wasn’t strong enough to face that fear.”
“Um… okay…” Sivil slowly said.
“I’m sorry,” Clover continued. “I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough for you then. I’m sorry I pushed you all away like I did. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to knock Sivil’s teeth out for coming back and treating you all so horribly. I was a coward, I was afraid of being hurt, and in doing so I wasn’t there for you all when you needed me.”
“That’s… right?” Sivil unsurely said.
“I may not have been there for you in the past, but dammit, I’m here for you now! The moment I heard what happened to you all I got my ass back here as fast as I was able. I understand I’m the last one any of you wanted to see, I understand you all hate my guts for how I’ve treated you. You can curse my name all you want, you can call me an outcast, and maybe I really am, but still I had to come back and-”
“We never hated you!” an elf suddenly called out. Clover jumped a bit as she saw the elves below smiling at her. “We never thought of you as an outcast. You were part of our family, Clover. You always have been.”
“We’ve been praying to the gods for your return, and it seems they’ve blessed us with a miracle by listening to our pleas.”
“I can’t believe you’re finally back. We’ve been waiting forever for you to return to us.”
“You… have?” Clover asked. “But… but why?”
“Are you kidding?” a child exclaimed. “Because you’re the best, that’s why!”
“The best? No, no I’m not. I’m just-”
“You’re the most amazing archer we’ve ever seen!” an elf declared. “And you’ve been so protective and caring towards us, you were our guardian angel, Clover. Green Haven was never better before you came along.”
“Guardian angel?” Clover stammered while blushing. “Hold on, no I wasn’t. I wasn’t anything like that. I blew everyone off, I never talked to any of you before, and I always kept to myself. How could you not have thought less of me?”
“You saved my daughter’s life,” a mother tearfully said while holding her child close. Clover glanced down to them as the young girl nodded at her. “She’s still alive today thanks to you.”
Clover eyed the young child, her fluffy blonde locks and blue eyes seeming familiar before she remembered where and when she had seen her.
*****
“Mama!” the child screamed, running quickly through the shadowy woods and stumbling against trees and over roots in her haste. Looking back over her shoulder she saw a large bear roaring while crashing through the lumber after her, the grizzly beast closing in as she ran as fast as she could back towards the village.
“Mama! Mama!”
“Chlorece?” her mother called out, standing atop a high terrace of their tree-side dwelling. She quickly searched for the sound of her daughter’s cries before seeing the young child further away along with the bear that was swiftly gaining on her. “CHLORECE! Oh god- Chlorece!”
“Mama!” the child cried as she stumbled over some rocks and through a bush, frantically trying to return home with the bear smashing through a fallen log behind her.
Her mother dashed back inside, grabbed her bow and quiver, then ran back onto the porch and quickly drew an arrow towards the charging bear. Chlorece and the beast weaved around trees and through the shadows, with her mother trying to keep her aim steady on the enraged animal’s head while her heart was thumping hard in her chest. With a sharp inhale the woman fired her arrow, shooting it far and narrowly between trees and branches, before it struck the side of a leaning timber and lodged in place with a whack.
“No!” she screamed, quickly grabbing another arrow and taking aim. Watching her daughter trip and fall to the ground with a frightened wail she jumped with a startle and let loose the next arrow, launching it not even halfway to the bear before it connected with another tree.
“CHLORECE!” the mother shrieked, her hand shakily grabbing another arrow, only to fumble the bolt against her bow’s string and drop it off the deck. She desperately reached out for another, her hands now shaking and unable to properly grasp the arrows in her quiver that she knocked away as she saw the bear charging right towards her screaming daughter.
“NO!” she cried out with all her might, watching in horror as the beast tore through a tree’s flank and roared at the young girl who was n
ow curled into a ball and crying loudly. As the beast prepared to lunge at its prey an arrow streaked through the air with a sharp whistle, striking the bear in the head and dropping it to the ground with a heavy thud. Slowly Chlorece opened her eyes, the sight of the downed bear with an arrow sticking out of its head being seen while leaves slowly drifted down behind it. The mother was rendered speechless, her eyes watching her daughter slowly sitting up and wiping away her tears, before quickly searching around for the second archer. It was then she spotted an elf with long, blonde twintails holding her bow forward in her pose, the archer standing on a rope bridge deeper in the village and much further away from the bear she struck down with a single shot.
“Clover?” the mother breathed out. She watched the blonde elf lower her bow before walking off along the bridge alone, holstering her bow over her shoulder and heading into the village without saying a word. After a moment the mother snapped back to her senses and quickly climbed down the rope ladder from their home, jumping off onto the ground and sprinting over to where she dropped to her knees and held her daughter close in her arms.
“Chlorece, thank the gods you’re still alive!” she sobbed, her daughter still staring at the dead bear while finally catching her breath. “You’re not hurt are you? Are you? Please, say something, my dear.”
“Mama… what happened? Did you do that?”
The child looked back to her mother, seeing her teary-eyed smile while she held her daughter near, the two then turning and seeing Clover walking along a faraway bridge with her twintails flowing behind her.
*****
“Oh, right,” Clover softly said looking down at the young girl she saved that day. “Well… I just… I was only…”
“You saved my baby that day,” the mother praised. “Thank you so much, thank you. Not a day goes by without our prayers going out to you for what you did for us.”
“Um… well… you’re welcome. But I…”
Chronicles of Eden - Act XII Page 19