FSE

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Gale, a tall, lean, muscular grey wolf crouched in the shadows of the bushes as he stalked his target. He pulled a poisoned tipped arrow from the makeshift quiver on his back and loosed it onto his bowstring. The elf he had been watching had his back turned to him, his shield and armor making it hard to find an opening for the arrow to penetrate.

The elf turned, pointing to something in the woods as he spoke casually with another elf guard. Gale smiled as he saw the opening; under the elf's arm where there was a gap in between the plates of shining armor. He pulled back on the string and took aim. He let out a whistle that sounded more like a birds call before he let the string go and the arrow whizzed through the air.

The elf gaged as the arrow penetrated deep into his side before he fell lifelessly on the ground. The second elf hardly had time to react when another arrow was shot from somewhere else and landed right in between the elf's eyes.

Gale smiled and crawled out from his hiding place onto the dirt track that lead right to a large door in a wall. He looked to see the height of the wall and guessed it to be at least eighty or a hundred feet tall, and most likely twenty feet thick. Impenetrable; they say about this will, but Gale and his comrade were here to prove just the opposite.

The title Mary's Sanctuary hung above the massive gate in elegant writing, but Gale didn't even so much as look as he walked quietly towards the front. Another wolf man emerged from the bushes and joined up with Gale, nodding to give him the okay to open the door. Gale knocked on the large wooden gate and heard as his companion loose an arrow and took aim, waiting for the door to open.

Slowly, the large gate began to open and an elven head popped out. He only had enough time to gasp before the arrow had plunged deep into his skull has he dropped like a rock. Gale quickly hopped inside, taking two knives from his belt and hurling them at the two nearest guardsmen while his comrade shot down the last elf with another arrow.

Once the area was clear, Gale looked around the torch lit hall. on the other side of the large hall was another door, leading right into the edge of the city within, and to his left was another door, likely leading to the guards break room.

Gale made his way to the door to the break room and put his triangular ear up to the wood, listening for any movement inside....

It was quiet...

Slowly, he pushed on the door and crept inside, finding himself in a room with a lit lantern on the center of a small, circular table in the middle of the room. Cards and dice littered the surface of the table, along with a few mugs of half drank ale. To the far end of the room were a few wooden beds, likely where the guards would take whores or prostitutes to keep them "company" during the night or evening. Gale could smell the stale evidence of sex still lingering in the air. Right next to the door hung two hooded cloaks from a peg sticking out from the brick wall. He snatched the fabrics and looked one last time around the room, to see if he missed anything.

He closed the door and shook his head to his partner, tossing one of the dark cloaks to him. They made their way to the door to the city as they pulled the cloaks over their faces and weapons. Gale held his breath as he opened the door. On the other side, Gale could already see the bustling of the city as people off different races passed by. Elves, orcs, humans, nymphs and dwarves all scurried across the cobblestone streets carrying on their own agendas. Two elven guards were stationed on either side of Gale and his partner, but they didn't seem to pay their intruders any attention.

Gale and his partner slipped in easily with the moving crowed down the street. He looked up over the houses and buildings to see the magnificent structure of a dark blue and grey castle sitting in the heart of the city. He smiled inwardly as he started walking in that direction.

~*~

Elson sighed as he looked down at the business of the city below. He missed going outside to enjoy the sunlight and flowers, a childish hindrance, he knew, but still he longed to be out. This castle felt more like a prison than a home, but he knew he had to be here, he had to be safe and away from all dangers. If not...

Elson shook his head as he turned away from the window. It doesn't matter anyway, he told himself. I'm needed here, not out there...

Elson strode up to his mirror and looked at himself. A thin, pail skinned human looked back. His deep ocean eyes sparkling in the sunlit room along with the gold-threaded tunic he wore. It was a simple tunic, eggshell color with gold hems in the large sleeves. It hugged his upper torso and waist, but drooped down to his knees below his hips. Thin, green vines had been woven into the sides, shoulders, and around the waist in a belt-like fashion. The vines didn't bare any berries, or leaves or flowers, but were alive, even with no soil or water to connect with.

Elson looked up to his hair. Golden blond hair had been braided back in several small and larger weaves around his head. Some were held back behind his ear while others dropped in front of his eyes. Two large braids holding most of his hair were tied back behind his head. Random, unbraided locks streamed down from his head and stopped around his jawline. Vines had also been woven into his hair, alive as well and carrying no extra life with it.

He looked back into his eyes and watched as they changed from a deep ocean blue, into a dark, woodsy green. He then looked down to the back of his hand. His skin seemed to twinkle with a blue tint, reflecting the sun as well as his eyes. Smoothly curved tattoos danced across his arm down to his palm. The same tattoo was all over his body under his garments, marking him forever as a freak...

Elson stepped away from the mirror and reached down to fix his tight pants under his tunic. "Elson!" a muffled voice called from the door on the other side of the room. "Come down, the doctor is here to see you!"

He rolled his eyes and he made his way to the door. On the other side was his sister; Aroline, a beautiful black haired lady. She smiled when she saw him, but Elson paid her no attention.

"Oh, come now," she said, playfully tapping him on the shoulder. "She's here to try and help you get better!"

"I'm not sick!" Elson's pace quickened as he walked down the hall and to the staircase. He skipped steps and he descended into a large foyer at the bottom. Huge, towering windows littered the wall to his right, and paintings of past relatives dominated the wall on his left. Further down the hall, in between the front door on the right, and an ascending staircase to the left stood his mother and father with the doctor lady standing next to them.

"Hello your majesty," the doctor greeted in a slight curtsy as he approached. Elson bowed in respect (or habit, he wasn't sure which one yet) and stood to face her. Neither one of them said something for a long moment, until the doctor forced a cough. "Well, should we get started?"

"Be my guest..." Elson mumbled. His mother and father started explaining that there was something wrong with Elson's blood and the things that would sometimes happen.

The doctor nodded and pulled a syringe out of a bag that she carried. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Elson warned as he rolled up his sleeve and presented his arm to the women. She waved him off, disregarding his warning as she plunged the needle into his skin. As soon as the shot contacted with Elson's vain, a strong wave pulsed from Elson, throwing everyone near him back several feet and leaving blue sparkles to flitter around him.

"I told you," he said, looking to the baffled doctor and turning to his parents. "Nothing is going to work."

With that, Elson spun on his heel and made his way back to his room.

~*~

Seventeen years ago.

Elson looked at the pictures on his father's book. In the picture was the drawing of a dark chamber with nothing in it except for a deep blue light sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the cave. "Is that what you're going to look for, father?" the boy asked.

His father nodded and smiled. "That is what I'm going to find and THAT, is what I'm going to heal the world with." He said, patting Elson on the head.

"Is the world sick?" he asked, setting the book down onto his father's desk.

"More then you know, son... more then you know."

~*~

Fifteen years ago.

Elson ran from the open area as his sister continued to count. He looked around for a place to hide. He trampled through his mother's garden, dashing around trees in hopes of finding something suitable to hide in. He stopped when a small hole in the base of a tree caught his eye. He hesitated for a moment before he crawled inside. It was only just big enough for him to squeeze into and listened as his sister finished; "Ready or not, here I come!"

Elson giggled as he snuggled himself into the burrow. He sat back and heard the sound of a loud snap as the ground beneath him seemed to loosen up. He froze for a moment before the ground gave away and he was falling down a slide of dirt. He accumulated many scrapes and cuts on his way down from the roots and twigs that poked out of the dirt until he was flung into the air and landed on the hard stone ground.

It took him a moment to catch his breath and pull himself up, tears stinging his eyes and cheeks and he looked around with blurry vision. "Hello?" he sobbed.

There was no reply. He stood up and began to limp forward. "Hello?" he called again, but still no reply. He trudged on for a few minutes until he reached a wall. Light seeped through a large crack, big enough for him to fit through. He thought about it and looked back to where he had just come from, then back to the crack. He sniffed as he pushed himself through the crack.

With a bit of effort, Elson found himself at the entrance to a large cavern, lit only by a dim blue glowing of something suspended in the air in the middle of the room. He realized that he had seen this place in his father's books and smiled. "I found it!" He cheered. "I found what father was looking for!"

With renewed vigor, Elson quickly made his way up to the pedestal where the blue light hovered over. As he drew nearer, Elson saw that the light was actually made of blue and white looking sand that danced around slowly in a spiral. "I should bring it back to him," he reaching for it. "He'll be so proud of me!"

As his fingers came in contact with the blue sand, the light exploded and sent Elson on his back and knocking him out.

When Elson awoke, he found himself in the middle of his mother's garden and Aroline's voice in the distance. "Ready or not," she called. "Here I come!"

Elson bolted upright as he remembered that he had found the object that his father was looking. He stood up and dashed to the tree where he had found the cave, but when he got there and looked inside of the hole, all he could see was solid ground.

Elson was confused, he placed his hands on the ground inside of the tree and pressed, bouncing himself of the ground several times, but the ground wouldn't break. "You're supposed to be hiding!" Aroline said from behind him. "What are you doing in that hole?"

Elson noticed his arms and hands and didn't feel any pain. The scrapes that he had gotten were gone. Elson withdrew himself out of the hole and looked at Aroline, then shook his head. "Nothing, just... thought I saw something..."

~*~

Elson looked out his window to the dark sleeping city below. Lit windows could be seen randomly throughout the buildings, while others remained dark and motionless. He turned and made his way to his bed. He picked up his satchel from the plush surface and threw it over his shoulder. He walked back to his window and opened it wide, letting a chill refreshing breeze flooded the room.

He stood and balanced himself on the windowpane as he looked down to the street below, hundreds of feet below. Elson looked back momentarily before he flung himself out of the window. He didn't fall very far until his feet landed on the soft, uneven ground of a floating, blue sparkling dust cloud. He regained his balance and stood motionlessly as the cloud descended him to the ground below.

He landed right outside the inner wall encircling the castle, the cloud disbursing into the night in all directions. Elson smiled as he looked around. It felt good to be outside again. He breathed in, letting the fresh air fill his lungs before he let it all out and started walking.

The buildings around the castle looked so much nicer up close. The streets were clean and swept away of any would-be litter. The moon illuminated his path as he walked aimlessly through the streets. Though everything seemed peaceful and quiet, Elson couldn't shake the feeling that he was being fallowed. He looked over his shoulder and around corners, paranoid that someone might pop out at him at any given moment, but nothing did.

Elson wondered around for the better of an hour before he thought it might be best to head back to the castle. He began walking and weaving around buildings on his way back home, the feeling of being fallowed still clenched his stomach. He could see the inner walls from where he stood and was near it when movement in the shadows caught his eye.

Elson turned around and scanned the area. "H-hello?" he called, but no one answered. More movement danced around in the dark alleys around him. Elson backed away nervously, feeling the power start to migrate to his palm and ready to defend himself.

The movement stopped for a moment, leaving Elson to look around and wonder where they went before something came flying at him from an alleyway. He flicked the projectile away with the sparkling dust that had accumulated around his hand. Another projectile landed right in front of him. He looked down to see a strangely made arrow, unlike any he's seen before.

Another arrow flew from somewhere else in the shadows, then another from another location. Elson was having a hard time trying to deflect them all, backing away as he steadily lost ground.

One of the arrows got through his defenses and cut his arm, just barely missing. Elson winced as he tried to parry the other attacks, but his vision was becoming blurry. His arm turned numb, and suddenly, he couldn't use the power through that arm. The numbness traveled through his entire body in a matter of seconds as he collapsed to the ground.

Elson watched as one of the figures emerged from the shadows as he made his way towards him. Elson lifted his hand to the attacker, and concentrated hard, sending a thin spear of the blue dust. The cloaked man was hurled back as he was impaled with the sparkling dust. Right before Elson blacked out, he heard the cry of another intruder.

He closed his eyes and went to sleep...