I blinked, peering outside, hand on the doorknob. I hadn’t seen the world in a while. It was glowing.
I brushed my flaming red hair out of my face, swishing it back, wishing I wasn’t about to go through with it. Reluctantly, I slid my melee into my left hand – my strong hand – and I set out, my favorite tan boots grazing the ground, the green and red necklace around my neck.
I passed the creek by my house for the last time for a sip of water among the greenery and ogled at my reflection, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. At twenty-one years old, I was gangly, stick-like. My green eyes glittered. My face was pale in the orange glow of Sunstrider, pale because I hadn’t left the house in six years.
I looked alone, just like everyone else.
My land, Quel’Thalas, was overtaken by Sunstrider years ago. My blood elf ancestors were willed over to evil by his force. Now someone else – The Monster – is penetrating our land, our land where blood elves used to run free in the day and night elves celebrated into the twilight.
“Good luck, Firella,” a neighbor whispered from a window solemnly as I passed by.
Ever since I could remember, children were forced to stay inside to avoid The Monster, watching the eternal summers of Sunstrider through covered windows.
I walked the unfamiliar path toward the white and scarlet Sunstride tower as shrubbery bloomed and hills rolled around me, drenched in a perpetual sunset.
I thought of my fiance Joquar’s blue eyes and how they’d glisten in the sun, and how my pet minidragon Verouge would have frolicked in the gorgeous weather, green and red tail flitting. He was lost now. They both were. I took a breath and looked toward the center.
She stood in front of the Sunstrider, clad in red, black and yellow robes, powdery blonde hair in a high ponytail.
“Magistrix Erona. My name is – ”
“I hope you are ready to get to work, because there is much for you to do here on Sunstrider Isle.” She cut me off curtly, gesturing to the rolling hills of pasture overlooking the sea.
I nodded, taking her scroll.
She told me I’d have to murder five blue minidragons.
My heart stopped. Verouge, I thought, insides churning. I wondered why I had to do it; she turned away before she could tell me.
I told myself it might be the only way I’d ever get out of Sunstrider to find Joquar.
My melee went to work, brandishing itself this way and that frantically. The dragons – flashes of blue and white – bit at me, yellow eyes clenched, wings stiff. Sharp blood spurts erupted throughout my face; gashes formed on my arms. But within thirty seconds each, every one became mine.
I took the glistening eye from the last one and put it in my rucksack, and my eyes caught the tail of the minidragon I had just slain.
It was green and red.
I had killed my friend.
I staggered away from the paved path and the greenery as lynxes and minidragons dabbled around me. Yes, The Monster was a threat. But the bigger threat was turning into a fearful coward with a coldhearted soul, ready and willing to murder without real cause.
I knew what I had to do. It was time to get out. Time to find Joquar.
Panting, clutching my rucksack, I ran toward the North Sea. I had to get to the city.