Author's Preface
Year 759 Draenü Rise
"Rhea..." He locks onto her intense glare, just as unwavering with a hidden shimmer of outrage in the sparkle of his blue eyes. Even though his infectious grin vanishes, there is no proof that he will tell her the full truth. But just the way he corrects her outcry meant that he isn’t fooling around. This time...what he is going to relay will hold weight.
She shrinks underneath the fierceness, even moving her face away. It isn’t often he will reprimand her unless it had something to do with her form in their last sparring. Her father rarely gets offended over her being slightly disrespectful towards his retelling. She thought there was never a time that he will be strict, her mother is the type to always reel them away from trouble.
He clears his throat, decreasing his level of fierceness and replacing it with this neutral expression that she can't wholeheartedly recognize. Whatever it is, this is eating him alive or he won’t be keeping his smile away. "The World Sages were a group that kept the cycle of life safe from deviation. The responsibility will always be chosen by the skill that a sage would be born in this life. You had mana mages becoming the next sages of Manuk. Alchemist becoming the next sages of Chemuk. And finally, the witch or wizard that takes up the mantle of Anukrin's sage. Each sage's responsibility is to oversee their sector and never interrupt each other's work unless the balance is dependent on it. One foolish mana sage saw differently."
This is a new story; the last one involved the crushing consequences of two immortal lovers. This one started differently, and just as she claims earlier on her father is not the type to deviate from the details. No matter how silly he may get. Her whole body moves enough to face him, just like when she was a small child, she still beams at him expectantly. Excited like many times over. It’s a rather dull and simple life in the jungle. With just the three of them keeping each other company, there really isn't a lot going on. A life that is very sheltered is a rather boring and restrictive life. Anything that seems new will always bring this behavior from her. "What happened?"
"The fire-sage thought it wise to reignite the punishment long overdue. The arcane sage has some involvement in the death of the fire sage's family, so...he takes it upon himself to confront the other sage, and a war ensues soon after. Mortal-kind were already at odds ends over the legitimacy of families. You had families fighting to exist only to perish in the cracks of the earth. Others took his chance to create the Chimeric Empire of today. The war devastated all mage kinds, the sages and even the land itself. The All-Mage War."
"Then what happened to the sage after the war, papa?" She leans in close, all attention on her father. Her excited features did not match any of his energy, he sank into the story like it truly belonged to him. As if this is a life that is his to relive, but just like a lot of her old man's stories, they are never clear enough for her to suspect anything. He isn’t going to make sure that she understood this time either, the smile on his face riddle with the guilt that weighs it down. Those blue eyes lost the luster of a man with a carefree spirit. "The fire sage renounced mana from his enemies, couldn't live with the guilt of all the death and destruction. He went into hiding and the world righted on its own eventually."
Rhea didn't catch at the significant hints. Not even the slouch of his shoulders or the clenching of his fists proves to her anything. To her, he is just avoiding giving her a straight answer. Her pout returns, too dense to understand this new story too. "Papa! How does that have anything to do with you?"
"Rhea. Nolan."
In the outline of the jungle trees and thick green vines, hid a very peculiar house that is made of dark cooled magma and stone. It stood on stilts, high to keep it from drowning in the mudslides during the monsoon season. The only way to enter it is through a ladder that descends the center of its belly, no window in sight. Though Rhea knew that it is very capable to have one. It is where they live, it is where her mother came out from and marches right over to have just the right amount of distance to call for them.
Her mother is this beautiful, dark, ' wild ' woman even though her wildness only goes as far as the leather wraps around her body like a dress and the red tigrou fur that decorates her shoulders. Her skin is darker than Rhea by two shades and glistens underneath the moonlight, shaping the prominent definition of muscles toned from the life of a tree climbing native. The brown hair is curly to the point it hugs her scalp, which is adorned with a loosely gemmed head band. These curls kept short for her daily excursion. She is taller than Rhea, just about two inches shorter than her life partner. Her eyes are these deep hazels tint that match perfectly with the leaves of the trees, she is a beauty that can be mistaken for the same as the maidens of Nolan's silliest of stories. And the high strong personality that keeps two very free-spirited individuals in their place. She is already sporting her best scowl that pushes out her plump bottom lip, "What are you both trying to do? Go home before the bugs eat your fluids dry."
"Ah! My fiesty beautiful Lindiwe! The moon crossing is out again...come sit with us" Nolan's earlier expression vanishes as soon as this woman came into view. Exchanging it with the mask of a cheerful man, only this time the skin around his cheek pinks. This is always the outcome of a hopeless romantic. Her mother will never be swayed when she is this perturbed and his charms barely pierces the prickliness. Tonight, it is no different whether it had significance or not and her mother will make sure to remind her father without hesitation.
"You can watch it from the window just like the last few times." She rolls her eyes, stomping her way back to their house. "Come. The bugs be damned. I want my child and mate to stay fat."
"Understood...Your mother is right, Rhea...I will tell you more tomorrow" He pats her on the head then roll onto his heavily abused slippers made of vines and dried leaves. Rhea grumbles as she follows his lead, his no answer really did irk her. She will love to shake it out of him someday. However, he didn't leave her with absolutely nothing. When her mother is far enough to be out of earshot, he said this as plain as day. "You are more powerful than any sage, my dear fire cub..."
Rhea picks her head up from all the moping, watching the straightness of his back as he hobbles on after her annoyed mother. They exchange a small verbal back and forth, with a few notable hand waves from her mother to her father trying to appease her with a little shoulder to shoulder bump. That shoulder bump led to his hand being ' misplaced ' just on the center of her back, which from the looks of it, is not rejected by her mother. As her mother mention once before, “love is not something you get to control or choose. Neither is it something a person should reject when it is so fragile and fleeting once you do.” Rhea's parents loved each other so much and openly, with enough love left over to share with their daughter. To show her a world lacking hate.
Rhea had only ever known a world of love for most of her life, and she may have playfully dismissed it as a naïve child. However, there is nothing she will rather have to replace it.
She had taken everything in this world for granted. Her father with an infinite amount of knowledge and his unexplained back story. Her mother's beautiful singing voice and her strange upbringing as the chieftain's youngest daughter.
All that will be taken from Rhea.... with a few simple poison-tipped arrows powered by the hatred of a disgruntled chieftain.
Bonus Art
