The twin moons adorned the sky of Gaea like guardian angels, glowing softly as they watched over the world of war. There was, on this world, a picturesque little valley filled with trees so tall it seemed that they could touch the heavens, and a happy little river that chuckled through the center of the whole thing. Also in the center of this little valley, was a picturesque little city, where men and women worked away in peaceful harmony under the light of both sun and moon.
Night or day, when you were in this city you would notice that it had a most peculiar quality about it. Making your way through age-weathered streets and watching the ways in which the people dealt with each other, you would think that this was indeed an old, old town, where the people had lived all their lives and longer. Yet the smells on the air were of fresh tar and thatch, new wood and freshly shaped iron. Almost all of the buildings were new enough that you could still imagine the way such and such a tree must have looked by the patterns on the boards as yet unpainted.
Despite its location in the Valley of Dragons, this new-old village had very little in the way of a protective wall, as if they had nothing to fear from the world at large. They were the People of the Dragon, and they called their land Fanelia.
Their king was yet young, but they loved the ernest young man with a fierceness that was often shocking, looking on him as their collective son as well as their protector and their hero.
Van Fanel. The young king with a strong back and a ready smile, whose wine-red eyes were as sad as his midnight black hair was wild. Those eyes had broken the hearts of many, with no regard for how hardened his or her heart was. And so often after the sun set, you could catch him sitting on the roof, watching the moons with that heartsick gaze, eyes drifting along the path of the Mystic Moon...
Which is where he had been when he fell into an exhausted sleem that night. There would be a minor and momentary panic in the morning when they couldn't find him, but someone would eventually remember his habit of falling asleep on the roof, and his oldest friend Lady Merle would be dispatched to wake him if she hadn't already.
His sleep, especially on the roof where he could see the Mystic Moon, was usually one of great peace, but for some reason this night he found his mind floundering through the darkness, searching for something that was not there. He pulled himself out of it abruptly and sat up, eyes half open to the still darkness of Fanelia's night.
What a figure he cut there! Sitting with his elbow perched on one raised knee with his face turned toward the moons, outlined in glory by the stars. He was slim and boyishly fit, even at twenty-five, with a swordsman's understated but hard muscles. His hair was short and wild, and looked like an empty space between the stars, outlined by the moon. It was an image that captured and broke the hearts of many women young and old alike.
He sat with his head tilted back, drinking in the light of the two moons of Gaea. Perhaps he was. Everyone had heard the story of the Seeress and the White Dragon, and knew that it was that legendary love that made Van's eyes so sad, that drove him to look every night upon the Mystic Moon from which the Seeress had come, as if he were waiting eternally for her.
He wrapped his fingers around the strange stone pendant that he never went without, eyes locked on the Mystic Moon with a lingering sorrow and longing. Sometimes he wished...
He shook himself awake abruptly. He knew, they both knew, that wishing was dangerous, especially here.
The sounds of the night came to him then. The celebration in the city was still going strong, as boisterous as he had expected. And why shouldn't the people of Fanelia celebrate? They had all worked ten long, hard years for what they were celebrating. The new city was finally finished, and tomorrow the trade road would open again. Their beloved king had even managed to wrangle his nobles and treasurers into granting gifts of ready cash and supplies to the tradesfolk so that they could take up their livelihoods once more. The people were full of hope again as they had not been since Van's father and brother had gone so long ago. |
