Chapter 1
“This was the calm I so craved. My cabin hidden deep within the woods away from the chaos of the greed and pain of the world. Some would call me selfish for not saving the world but no one could imagine of the repercussions that would come after if I had even attempted.” Rosea’s mind wandered as she sat in the doorway watching the grass in the meadow sway by to and fro. She got up and stretched out her arms from her lazy day as she heard the kettle whistle for her attention to take it off the heat. She closes the door behind her.
She then heard the wind chimes clinging against each other but there was no wind. She took the kettle off the stove and closed her eyes to focus on any sound of movement. She heard light footsteps on her wooden porch slightly creaking with each step. She counted the steps it took to reach the door. The intruder was one more step before opening the door. The door was still closed, this did not ease Rosea as this intruder was building up the nerve to enter. The door then burst open and a gush of wind rushed through the room and Rosea immediately knew who the intruder was.
She reached down to her ankle and grabbed the dagger from its sheath threw it across the room and it caught the invisible intruder’s cloak following a thump on the ground. The intruder revealed himself. He was a Whist elementra. His icy white hair and sky blue eyes gave him away. His uniform was white and embroiled with silver edgings. He was trying desperately to tug his cloak away from the dagger before Rosea grabbed his shirt and punched him on the left eye. The intruder stared into her ocean blue eyes that burned with anger.
“What are you doing here sneaking around?” as Rosea shook the Whist trying to wake him from the blow.
“Was that really necessary?” as he mumbled trying to look through the one eye that was not throbbing with pain.
“Answer me!” Rosea demanded worrying it might already be too late.
“I heard there was a Flamma elementra in the woods and I am in need of their help” he stated trying to talk through the throbbing pain in his eye.
Rosea dropped the Whist feeling disappointed with herself for being so careless. She took the dagger out of the wall and threw it on the dining room table. She sat down and placed her head in her hands.
The Whist clumsily got up holding his eye and remarked “My name is Charl and I did come looking for help but clearly I came to the wrong place”.
Rosea looked up annoyed “You know making such an entrance would startle anyone”.
“Being of the wind element it is mandatory to make an entrance” the Whist announced with the little amount of pride he had left from the encounter.
Rosea rolled her eyes and sighed “not the modest type are you, now what is it that you need?”
Charl was surprised but still annoyed about the blow to his face. He walked over to the table watching her with mistrust. He sat across from her keeping his distance. Rosea knew she had to leave and hide again and even the thought of it made her sick.
“So what is your name, I told you mine” he asked arrogantly.
“Let us just keep it Ignatious” she sternly replied while rubbing her forehead trying to relieve some stress.
“Oh so you are not giving out any sort of identity except what you are capable of,” he chortled trying to get some reaction out of her. Rosea became increasingly more annoyed but she could not divulge anything about herself and maybe she had already said too much of what type of Flamma she was.
“Yes I am the type that can fly anything else you want to know?” she snapped trying to give an indication that she is not in the mood for any more questions.
Charl chuckled knowing the answer to his next question “What is your name?”
Rosea stood up and opened the front door waving her hand to escort him out.
Charl noticed knowing another slip up will have him thrown out.
“Okay Ignatious we will keep it that, now to the problem at hand”.
Rosea sighed and closed the door reluctantly.
He sat back and was silent for a moment trying to find the right words.
“The Whist Kingdom is dying, there are diseases running rampant, the trees and plants are withering away, it’s as if death just walked by and decided to stay”. Charl’s funny disposition faded away as he told his story. Rosea could see the hurt as she knew the pain of watching everything you care for slowly being taken away from you and there is nothing you can do about it. She took a seat next to Charl and she noticed how hard it was for him to ask for help.
She sighed knowing what the problem might be.
“Look I can help and it sounds to me that you might have a rogue elementra who is gouging”.
Charl immediately straightened up and faced Rosea.
“But that is forbidden and the last known rogue was Frone the former Flamma king”.
Rosea clenched her fists so tight her knuckles turned white. She bit back bitter tears as she remembered her father of whom she loved being slowly driven into madness and paranoia which eventually lead him to absorb the energy from nature and not returning any of it which is known by all four kingdoms as gouging. She had to go out and get some air. She knelt on the grass just feeling it brush between her fingers and the tears roll down her face
“Why is this happening I don’t want to feel this right now”.
Charl stood up and followed Rosea up to the porch.
“Did I say something wrong?”
Rosea did not even hear Charl. Her body slowly became engulfed with blue flames and an almost skin like black armor with blue lit patterns swirling covered her body and face just leaving her eyes glowing the same colour as the flames. The branded Flamma mark on her wrist began to brighten as a blue light as she absorbed the energy from nature. Charl was mesmerized by the flames as they slowly waved out from Rosea’s body. Rosea stood up and looked up to the sky as the wind made her cheeks cold from her tears. She shot up to the sky with great force that even Charl fell back and had to grab the frame of the porch to hold his ground. Being between the clouds and surrounded by the gentle air almost made the pain go away.
“It’s beautiful isn’t it” as Charl asked with crossed arms slowly approaching Rosea. She turned to Charl with an ache in her eyes.
“You are the first person I have spoken to after four years and the first time I meet an elementra I hit them in the face.”
Charl lowered his head and chuckled.
"Well guess first impressions are not everything.”
“Frone was my father and he was a great man but the usual evils of the world such as greed and pride took over with a slow decent to madness and paranoia added,” Rosea sighed.
Charl could not believe what he had just heard.
“Do you mean to tell me you are the missing princess of the Flamma Kingdom the one that the entire Flamma Kingdom has been searching for?” Rosea hung her head and turned away.
Charl felt his anger slowly rising as what he was about to say.
“Do you have any idea how the other three Kingdoms have had to fight off the Flammas especially the new King Eric who had the audacity to accuse us of what we might have done to you such as kidnap and or murder!”.
Rosea rushed to Charl and spoke through her teeth.
“That is a lie… he forced me out of my home, killed my mother, fed my father’s insanity with horrific ideas which eventually led to him being a vulnerable mess within one of the locked rooms of the palace”.
Charl felt as though that all the blood had drained out of his body with the ferocity coming out from Rosea.
“What made you leave?” as he gained the courage to ask another question.
Rosea backed away and took a deep breath to calm down.
“Eric gave me an ultimatum that I either marry him or he will lock my mother and father in the dungeon, absorb all their energy and make me watch until they were empty husks.” She looked up to try and relieve the pressure.
Charl could see how the wounds in her soul were tearing up and bleeding of all the memories and he empathized with her.
“I am sorry you had to go through all that pain, how did you escape?”
Rosea uttered.
“I- agreed but my mother knew Eric’s true intensions and we knew he had the Kingdom already. He was one of my father’s advisers and he took advantage of my father who was already out of his mind and manipulated him into abdicating his position as king and handing the throne over to him.” Charl placed his hand on Rosea’s shoulder. She relaxed at his touch.
He softly asked “let us go back and we will figure out what to do from there”. She turned her head and nodded. They slowly flew down taking their time as they felt the gentle and healing breeze on their faces.
