Chapter 1.

“Githa?Githa? Come on, we don’t have time for this.” Marc Altard called out in the middle of the woods, he was there to gather some firewood with his younger sister of twelve who love playing hide and seek with him and as expected he didn’t get any response from her.

All of a sudden, he heard her screaming from a distance. “Aaahhh!”

Instantly, he dropped the sticks he had already gathered and headed in the direction of the call to find out what had happened to her. “I’m coming Githa.”

“Whoa…” he exclaimed in shock as he saw the strange beast which was before his sister. The beast had the head, tail, and feet of a bull and the body of a human. It was something he hadn't seen before.

So he pulled his sister behind him, picked up a stick and started swinging it to scare the beast away, but it kept coming close to them. “Run Githa, run.”

“I can’t,” she replied because there were two others of the same beast behind them, and these ones had an axe each.

Suddenly, two arrows flew from nowhere and killed the ones with a weapon, and a man covered in hood jumped on the first one from a tree and slit its throat with his dagger.

“Thank you so much sir, we owe you our lives.” Marc thanked the man, expecting a response but there was none. Instead the stranger walked around them, taking out his arrows from the dead beasts. So he added. “May I know to whom we owe our lives?”

After putting back the arrow into his quiver, he answered. “It is not important who I am. You should be bothered about learning how to fight so you can protect your sister.” His response was because he saw the manner in which Marc swung the stick and could tell that he doesn’t know how to fight which was strange to him, because he couldn’t see why someone that old would be in the woods without a weapon and the skill of combat.

As he was about to walk away from them, Githa who was curious to see the face of who just saved them, dragged off his hood and exclaimed in shock after seeing his pointy ears. “You are an elf?”

“Hey.” He scolds her as he covers his head again with the hood. “You should stay close to your brother next time and stop wandering off.”

“You are a long way from home, may I know why? Maybe I could be of help.” Marc said knowing that the elves do not come that far into the realm of men.

The elf looked steadily at Marc as he read what kind of person he was. Discovering that he would not stop until an answer was given, he said. “I am looking for a woman named Thola, can you help me find her? I guess no.”

“Does she have a last name? Or something else you know about her.” Marc asked again.

The elf didn’t expect that question from him, because he had been asking after the woman for some time now, and no one seems to have useful information for him. “I don’t know her last name, but I was told she lives in Freytown, but no one knows her there.”

“Maybe that is because she doesn’t stay there anymore. I can take you to her if only you tell me your name and why she is so important to you.”

“Marc, you can’t be serious.” Githa whispered to him because the person in question was their mother.

“My name is Berilan Ethren, and I need her help to find my brother.”

“Your brother?” Marc asked and he nodded, so he became confused. “My mother’s name is Thola and she once lived in Freytown.”

Hearing this, a lot of thoughts began to fly across Berilan’s heart that he couldn’t hold back his words. “You can’t be eighteen years?”

“Hell no, I’m twenty one.”

“Then you need to take me to your brother.”

“Marc is my only brother.” Githa said even though she was yet to understand where the elf was heading with those words.

“Please, I need to see your mother.” Berilan begged.

At this point, Marc was already having a change of heart concerning taking the elf to meet his mother because she can’t be the Thola he was looking for, but since he owed Berilan his life, he figured that was the only way he could repay that debt and it would cost him nothing, so he said. “Come with me.” And they head out of the woods.

*****

Coming close to a cabin not too far from the woods, Githa ran ahead of them as she saw her mother walking in front of their home.

“There you are?” Thola embraced her. “What kept you so long and where are the woods you went to gather for the fire?” She added as she noticed Marc was returning empty handed.

“Mother,” Marc saluted with a huge smile.

“What happened and who is this you’ve brought home?” Thola asked Marc.

Then Berilan uncovered his face, “My name is Berilan Ethren.”

“Ethren?” Thola repeated because the name was familiar to her, adding to this, she could see his elfish nature from his ears.

Her manner of response was clear to both her children that she was the Thola Berilan had come looking for, and as such they became confused due to what Berilan told them in the words.

“Yes my lady. You knew my father, Calaudra Ethren.”

“What are you here? And how did you find me?” Thola asked because she had moved from Freytown to avoid being found.

“I was asked by my father to find my brother, your son.”

“After all these years? It’s been twenty two years since he abandoned us.” Thola said as tears filled her eyes.

Berilan and Marc looked at each other as they heard how long it had been. They instantly knew what they were to each other even before Thola could confirm it.

“Marc,” Thola stuttered.

But Marc, knowing what she was going to say, instantly took off. He didn’t want to hear it, because all his life, he was made to believe that his father was dead.

Tears rolled down Thola’s face because she knew how Marc felt at that moment, and that he may never forgive her for lying to him all these years.

“Let me go after him.” Berilan said to Thola and Githa and then ran after Marc at once.