Dreamcatcher - Nimra Series - BOOK ONE

PRONOUNCATION -  COPYRIGHTED!    Ayla - Eye – Lah Xandious - Zan - dee – us Enelya – Ell – En - Yar Seniya – sen – ee - yar Nefret - Ne-fret Fenella - Fen – Ella Aithne – Are - Nee – ah ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I awoke in a sweat, plagued by the memories I had tried to suppress, to forget that very night I only wished never happened; my world had changed and I became a target of a great and powerful lie. My father, King Xendious had decreed that I was to be found alive or dead for the murder of my mother, Queen Enelya but even after claiming my innocence I was still forced to run and hide away in the great forest, fending for myself and if it wasn’t for Ayla I would have died days after running.  Pushing the wolf fur off me I had to get out of these clothes just to freshen up, sweat and cow hide never mixed well. Dawn was soon to break I had to get ready quickly. Living near a stream was how Ayla and I lived, we had become one with the earth, taking what we needed and given back to the earth when required. Our home was a small cottage tucked away where no one could find it, only if they used our own map. This to us was our sanctuary, we had no idea what was going on in the outside world and we chose not to know. Sometimes we would venture into the city across the Great Plains but that would have to be planned. We were not able to just leave without taking precautions, after all there was a bounty on my head and several assassins waiting for us to make a mistake so they could track us. Leaving Ayla asleep in her bed and wrapping a simple towel around myself, my dagger in one hand and in the other a white bar of soap I left the peacefulness of my home to wash. Echo, Ayla’s grey wolf followed me out. She would always be around one or both of us, I still wasn’t sure how she found us she just appeared one day. Ayla believes she was sent to us by the guardian of the forest Seniya, after all she had been protecting us from day one or at least till I arrived.  There was something magical about being outside just before the sun rose, the gentle hum of the woodland birds sang and the night creature’s returning to their homes to sleep the day away. The stream was just a few minutes’ walk away and you were still able to see the cottage. Echo jumped in first and I slowly eased my body before I began to wash quickly. The pendant around my neck still a beautiful shade of topaz, it had not changed to ruby red since the day Seniya gave it to me, promising me that it would protect me from danger and change colour when someone who wished to do me harm was near.  Time moved a lot differently in the forest, I was unsure of what day it was and how long I had been away, all I knew was the pain I felt for my mother’s death felt like as if it had happened only moments ago. It was a fresh wound that I’m sure would never close. Lost in my train of thoughts I continued to bathe myself, making sure my hair was still as blonde as it had been that night. It was a frightening thought to know I would have been married by now if the events had never happened, I may even be with child. I shuddered at the thought. I never met my suiter, mother had told me he was a lovely man and she had chosen well for me. Was he dead? Did he manage to escape? Or did my father decide to take him under his wing and become his right-hand man? Perhaps it was all planned from the start, my mother’s assassination and my almost death. “Are you going somewhere nice dear Giselle? For you never normally wash this time in the morning.” Ayla said. “Would you rather me stink up the place by smelling like pigs?” “I’m sure the pigs smell a lot nicer than you anyway.” Ayla chuckled as she too joined in the stream, taking the soap out of my hand while I climbed out of the water. “Are we to leave today for the city? We are low on supplies.” I asked. “I think its best if we leave once we’re both dressed, we can get breakfast while we’re there.” “This time though Ayla, try not to cause any fights, we barely got away last time.” I left Ayla to laugh at the memory of the many men she decided to cause a riot with, it was simply over one of the drunken fools tapping her on the behind. I have never seen her draw her blade so quickly in my life as she pinned him to the table in the tavern. The funnier thing was Ayla isn’t a very big woman but she was tough as nails and would easily skin a man alive before he had a chance to fight back. She never told me where she gained her fighting skills only that it was a great challenge for her and she almost died doing it. Returning to my bedroom I dressed in my normal attire, a cotton canvas white blouse, with my leather waist corset, black cotton trousers and knee-high leather boots with gold plates on the knee caps. My green cape was the only real warmth I had, tying my sword, Light-Bringer to my scabbard, swinging my bow and arrows on my back and tucking a dagger into my boot, I was ready. By the time I entered the living quarters of our cottage Ayla was waiting for me wearing mainly black and she had a hooded cloak which she would use to hide her face while she stole from merchants or upper class at the market. If it wasn’t for her stealing, we may have starved by now so even though I didn’t agree with her methods I was grateful to have her.  The track to the city was at least half a day’s walk and we set off at first light. Echo walked ahead of us, obviously her way of protecting us by keeping an eye out but we had not seen another human or creature in these parts for many moons. The only other creature we would come across sometimes would be Lenwe, the Fawn and Seniya’s messenger. He would normally give us some gold coins, a basket full of fresh fruits and anything Seniya may need to give us. Seniya was the forest’s witch, she did the bidding of the great three goddesses of our world and she was the only connection the world had to them.  Before there was Nimra and the Kingdoms we all new, there was nothing but the Goddesses, Guinevere, Nefret, Fenella and Aithne. Guinevere was the oldest of the four and the creator of land, Nefret creator of water, Fenella the creator of air and Aithne the creator of fire. Guinevere wanted to create the world for big and small creatures to live so she created the first humans. Nefret created the mermaids and Fenella created the beautiful birds we see today. Aithne, however, didn’t agree with her sister’s choices and so she created the dragons, demons and mages and the dark power my father now possessed. Aithne’s creations began to threaten what her sisters had created and they decided to banish her and all her creations to the Kingdom of Solum, only the evillest creatures were sent there. We arrived at the city of Crystal Deer just short of the afternoon market, already Ayla was being eyed up by the locals. I always told her it’s because of the breastplate she wore but she continued to wear it, secretly I believed she liked the attention and then causing a huge brawl with people. Using the gold coins, we had left I headed to the bread stall, then to the cloth stall for us to have some new clothing and then finally to the blacksmith to sharpen our blades. The blacksmith had grown a custom to us returning every other fortnight to get them cleaned and sharped, he would always ask me how we even came across such beautiful craftsmanship and we would tell him that they were our fathers when he fought in the great war, of course, this was a lie. “Good afternoon lass, back again I see. I do wonder how you ladies manage to dull these blades so quickly, you must do an awful lot of fighting.” The blacksmith was a short and stumpy man, he looked like he worked a hard job judging by how dirty he always appeared but his nature was lovely and he never gave us any trouble. “It’s all those men out there that do it,” Ayla said while leaning against the doorway picking dirt from underneath her fingernails with her dagger. “I’m not surprised you have to fight them, but I hear you do put them in their place.” “She sure does.” I paused smiling at Ayla. “You wouldn’t happen to know if there has been any of the Kings guards here lately, would you. I’m curious to meet one.” I said with a little smile hoping he wouldn’t suspect anything from me asking. “Fancy marrying one do ya?” “A girl can dream yes, oh to be a wife of a King's guard now that would be ideal.” I could hear Ayla sniggering under her breathe as I imagined meeting a King's guard not to marry him but to simply stick my blade right into his heart. One less guard to worry about then. “I did hear there was a ranger staying up at the inn, tall fellow, I couldn’t make out his face when he showed up here but the locals say he’s been asking about the Princess, wondering if anyone has seen her.” “Ah, and has anyone? I’m sure she would be dead by now, no Princess could survive out here.” I said, trying not to show my worry. Thankfully Seniya’s magic had given me a disguise, only those who I gave permission to see the real me, would. “Well someone mentioned a while ago that they thought they’d seen her in the woods up North while they were out hunting with their boy. But it was most likely a lie, if she was to be anywhere I’m pretty sure she would have been held captive by now or enslaved. That prized beauty wouldn’t be out on her own for long.” “No that is true, after all, she would make any man happy.” This conversation was making me uneasy very quickly and it wasn’t often the Princess was mentioned in the city. No one even spoke about her anymore so seeing this ranger must have brought up lots of questions to everyone as to where she might be. After the blacksmith was finished we handed him his payment and quickly left to head towards the inn, I wanted to see if I could find this ranger myself, ask him questions and see how far he had got to find me. I hoped he wasn’t anywhere close. The Archers Inn was only a few minutes’ walk from the market, deep into the city we went, our hoods up and weapons at the ready should we have any problems along the way. Echo was close behind myself and Ayla like she always was, this meant many of the locals stayed away from us when she was around, after all a large grey wolf as a pet or protector was hard to come by. We were lucky the inn’s owners knew Ayla and would always allow Echo in as long as no fights broke loose and she was not used as a weapon.  The inn was decorated mainly with fur, straw and cold stone, the smell of ale and sweat hit your nostrils as soon as you entered, it was a smell you grew a custom to after a while. Most of the tables were already filled with people, women wandered around as they gave drinks to the men, some sat on the laps of others if you didn’t use to this scene you’d think you walked into a very cheap brothel. Ayla and I took a seat near the back corner, no one batted an eyelid when we sat down, everyone knew each other and we had become one of the locals, everyone knew not to mess with us.  “Did you see him when we came in?” I asked Ayla as a waitress bought over two jugs of ale for us. “He’s sat over by the bar, the blacksmith was right you’d be lucky if you could see his face.” I took a sip of my drink as I scanned the room and sure enough there he was sat bedside’s the bar, his head lowered while he smoked his pipe, he didn’t look that threatening after all and I’m sure we could take him should he start a fight with us. “I’m going to speak to him, keep Echo with you.” Taking my cape off to expose my long red hair and blue eyes, the disguise Seniya placed on me. My hair was naturally blonde and eyes green. Ayla grabbed my arm and pulled me down, concern across her face, no one had noticed by this point and I was hoping no one would even took a second look at me. “Are you crazy? He’s going to wonder why a woman is asking him questions.” “I’ll be fine, he won’t suspect me. You forget Seniya’s powerful spell.” Ayla eased her grip off me and shot me another concerned look mouthing ‘be careful’ as she downed some of her drink. Crossing the inn I gave a stern look at one of the males to my left who looked as if they were going to get up and try and speak to me, everyone knew not to bother with me or Ayla after the last time we were here. If we didn’t cause any problems we could stay as long as we wanted and we planned on keeping it that way. Sitting on a stool by the bar just a few inches away from the ranger I ordered up another jug of ale and waited until I caught his eye, sure enough, it didn’t take long before I could feel his gaze on me. “What’s a pretty thing like you doing in a dump like this?” His voice was husky and deep as if he had smoked all his life. I didn’t bother to look over to him just yet as I didn’t want to act as though I cared he was speaking to me. “What’s a ranger doing so far from his station in a dump like this?” My unamused tone gave the bartender a look of unease, he knew this could play out two ways, the ranger could either get annoyed a woman dare speak to him like that and I knock him down or it could go the nicer way. I’m sure he was hoping for the nice one. “I’m looking for someone.” “The Princess, good luck finding her here mate.” I took a sip of my drink. “She hasn’t been seen for how long now? And I doubt a beautiful girl like her could handle it here.” “How is it you can handle it here then?” He was cheeky and tried to be seductive. “I can hold my own, isn’t that right Robert?” I spoke directly to the bartender this time, he just nodded his head before collecting some empty jugs from the bar and wandering in the back. “He seems frightened of you.” The ranger had now got up from his seat and sat beside me. “You would be too if you knew what I could do.” I was testing my luck here, I knew he could overpower me if he tried, he wouldn’t be able to do it for long but again I didn’t want to cause a scene here. “How did you know I was looking for the Princess?” He asked closing the gap between us even more. “People talk here, a ranger walks into town and everyone knows. You'll have a hard time finding her though, I heard she was in the North woods near Dragons Peek but I could be wrong.” He eased back taking a drag of his pipe before blowing the smoke out into circles some larger than the others. It was then he removed his hood exposing beautiful long black hair with a single silver strip to the right, his eyes were like oceans but became a lot lighter when the candlelight caught them. I stared at him for a few seconds before turning away from his gaze, he was very handsome but had seen many fights, a few scars covered his face and bags surrounded his eyes. “I didn’t quite catch your name…” His voice trailed off as he took a sip of his drink. “That’s because I never gave it to you.” Satisfied I felt that he knew nothing of the Princesses whereabouts I finished my drink and began to leave before I felt his hand grab my arm. I spotted Ayla stand up quickly from the table, I shot her a glance of stay put, he didn’t grab me forcefully and I felt no danger, my pendent not changing colour. This man was not going to do me any harm. “You do look a little like her.” His voice was questioning. “I suggest you remove your hand from me before I break it.” My voice was assertive, the inn grew quiet as everyone stopped to stare at us. This was the first time anyone had laid a hand on me, normally it was Ayla who caused fights, and he was indeed brave. I had already started to bring Light-Bringer out from its holder when he sniggered and let go of me before going back to smoke his pipe. I looked at Ayla as she sat back down keeping her eye on us both. I sat down again ordering up my last ale for the evening. “You do really look like her.” His voice broke the silence. “You’re the first one to say that.” I took another sip of my drink.  “Your friend over there, does she wish to join us?” He asked glancing over to Ayla. “I believe she is waiting for me so we can leave.” “Ah, you best be off then.” I nodded as I took my leave from the table, before turning on my heel to say one final thing to him. “Oh, I suggest you don’t put a hand on me again as I won’t be so kind and stop Ayla from ripping your throat out.” I was threatening as I wanted to make it clear he was not to follow us out. “Enjoy your evening.” Signaling to Ayla she joined me at the front door, handing me my cape, I tossed it on. I didn’t look back at the ranger but I knew his eyes were still fixed on me. Perhaps we would meet again or maybe this was the last time I would see his face, should he venture into the darkness I am sure he would be taken care of by some sort of creature.  Since King Xandious took over Nimra the darkness in the night was far worse then what it was like growing up, evil creatures from Solum were released back to where they came from and this meant anyone wandering alone at night especially in the woods would not be heard from again. Ayla and I had been lucky the last few times we were out at night, we had not come across anything sinister yet and we both didn’t want to chance bumping into something or someone.