Elixane pulled her hood over her short blonde hair as she shuffled towards the city gates. Hessenham was a city of magnificence. It’s bordering walls towered high, deep green ivy tumbling over its ridge. The royal castle sat atop a steep hill, it’s bailey painted in with houses and empty streets. The night’s air bit at the blonde’s pale skin, but she was not one to shiver. It was dark, and Elixane’s slight blue eyes danced in her torch’s low light.
“Elixane Everett, sent to assist King Ascar and Prince Peter in the search for the princess. I have arrived from the town of Glasshill,”
“Welcome to the city, ma’am,” the warden said, letting her in.
“Father, with all due respect, do you really think this- this- well, for lack of a better word, witch, will find Elizabeth?” The king turned to face his son.
“Peter, you can’t just keep roaming the lands with your only knight in hopes of finding her. This mage is the best chance we’ve got right now,”
“I am sure I have informed you many times that I have not yet managed to find a man who can fulfill all the qualities a man needs to serve his king and country!” Peter lowly growled.
“I am your father and your king and you will not speak to me in that tone!” Ascar snapped back. Peter was very, very near to doing something he’d never even contemplated before. Something that could have been classed as treason were he not the country’s heir.
“Speak to me, boy!”
And that was it.
Peter turned his back on his father, his leader, his king. Before Peter had the chance to walk out of the room, the king grabbed his right wing by its fold. Peter’s extra momentum made the tight grasp become a pull as he let out a yelp of pain.
“Ouch!” The boy cried, retracting his wing. He stormed out of the room, his only knight Arthur chasing after him with a hastened walk.
“Izzy, the mage is due to arrive soon if you wish to meet her,”
“Her?” The brunette asked, inside happy that the king was beginning to respect the opposite gender.
“Apparently so.” Peter replied. Izzy let out a small laugh, grabbing her cloak and heading for the throne room.
With her cloak drape gently around her shoulders, Izzy approached the door of the throne room. One of the guards tapped their spear against the door, and on the king’s accepting call, pulled it open.
“Miss Isabelle,”
“My Lord,” Izzy spoke, giving a small respectful curtsy.
“Nice to meet you, Isabelle.”
“And the same to you, Miss- Uh,”
“Elixane Everett,”
“Ah,” they smiled at each other in comfort at the slightly informal greeting.
The king spoke up. “Please, Miss Everett, let the guards take your cloak,”
A guard stepped forward with a recieving arm out.
“I must warn you that I am at a stage in my life where I look quite different to you, and what you see may shock you.”
“Nonsense. In this room, respect toward my guests is my number one priority,”
Elixane shrugged off her hood.
Silence.
“Told you,”
Two small horns. Rounded, nothing too dangerous. Demonic, sure, but still not exactly scary.
“Are you like- a goat or something?” Izzy asked, holding back a smile. Elixane had trouble keeping her composure, body shaking with laughter as she doubled over.
“Goodness me no! I’m partially a demon.” The blonde haired woman watched the king’s facial expression drop from the formal neutrality into disgust, then back to neutrality.
“Don’t worry yourself too much. I’ve been balanced by God. I am also partially an angel,” The king nodded.
Izzy was a little shocked. She was aware that Swanders were a legend, but to see- even meet one? The creatures were books read to her by her mother when she was much, much younger. How were they real?
“How- How did it happen?” She asked.
“It’s how I was born. I don’t know who my real parents are, so I consider God as my father, and Satan as my mother,”
Elixane felt the floor almost grumble and muttered a nearly inaudible apology in response.
“So demon child, and angel child?”
“Essentially, yes.”
“Miss Isabelle, please show Miss Everett to her quarters”
“Of course, Sire,”
Izzy led Elixane out of the throne room, the latter laying her hood over her hair once again.
Once out of earshot of the guards, Elixane gave a soft chuckle.
“He hates me,”
“I don’t think he does. He simply has a short temper, and a smaller slice of respect than most. Ascar was like that with Peter until he killed a crystal dragon when he was ten. The king hasn’t been proud of the poor boy since. And Peter was horrified of what he’d done, too. Locked himself away for weeks, only Arthur at his side,”
“Good thing I’m here to find Elizabeth- either I’ll get on Ascar’s good side, or get out,”
“Yeah,”
They came to a heavy wooden door, metal hinges painted black.
“Here we are.”
“Thank you. I assume we’ll come across each other again?”
“Oh. Yes. I’ll wake you up with breakfast at eight,”
“Thanks again. Goodbye,” Elixane said, entering the room.
Elixane sighed, gently pulling the door shut behind her.
‘Izzy’s pretty,’
“Father, can’t you just hurry up with the whole gay rights thing?”
“Not right now, kid. Your dad’s having a tantrum about you calling him a woman,”
“It’s not even an insult!” Elixane rolled her eyes. “It’s just so this life will run smoother than last time!”
She exhaled deeply. “Tell him I’m sorry and I love him, and I wish him the most violent torture chamber in Hell,”
“Should’ve told him before,” Elixane laughed a little.
“Just tell him. Also, make him stop being a drama king and do his job,”
“Will do,”
“Love you, father.”
“You too, kid.”
Elixane removed her cloak and hung it on the back of the door, then moved to look through the window. Her horns stared back at her in the reflection as she gently ruffled her hair.
Once again she sighed, picking up a book from her desk and sitting on her bed. She flicked past the introductory pages and beginning chapters to her bookmarked page.
Timber elves.
In this world, myth quickly became reality. Elixane couldn’t begin to figure out how it worked. As many creatures and people she’d located, saved, even killed using intelligence and quick wit, she couldn’t understand how. How life began. As far as anyone she knew of was aware, she was the only one of her kind. She wasn’t a timber elf. No. That was just her research project.
A Swander was what she was. Part angel, part human, part demon. She was a myth, brought to life by whatever- or whoever- ‘s job it was to do so. She just wished she could find out what - or who - that being was.
