Chapter 2

The next morning, Elvenia and Grandma Elodie went to the townsquare. Elvenia was dressed in a black dress with her ginger hair pinned up. They linked arms as Grandma gasped. "Oh, dearest, look at that butterfly. Back in my day, they weren't nearly as friendly..."

"Anything you say." Elvenia looked ahead, spotting Soleil. He must be making an announcement about the blackened buckshot, she realized. In the gathering crowd of folks, she also saw Linden and Sparrow. "Come on, Grandma Elodie!" She tugged on her wrist, pulling her forward.

"Last night, there was a buckshot spotted," Soleil declared, his eyes sunken. "As you know, hunting season has been dry because of the lack of deer. However, the deer that was found seemed to be infected by a blackened plague. A beautiful creature became a monster, crooked and awful. We have determined the cause of this."

Elvenia moved closer towards Linden and Sparrow. "It was the Lamia Folks who cursed the creations of Rowan, our God." Soleil's statement made Elvenia stop in her tracks as she froze. The Lamia Folks, the monsters created by Nyoka, the Snake Goddess...

"Rowan, why? Rowan, why now?" Grandma's hand shook as she clutched Elvenia. "Oh, Elya, my daughter, this is not good. Not good at all." Elvenia looked at her leader, dismayed.

Linden's hand shot up. Of course, she was always curious. "Buckshots aren't the only animals that are harder to hunt these days. What about jackalopes? Do they also get infected?" The folks murmured in agreement.

Soleil put up his hands. "Please, we do not have all the answers."

Sparrow also put up his hand. "Our people are starving, there's been less to eat. Also, if these animals are getting blackened, what if it hurts our river? The Naim River is our main source of water."

"I promise, we will ensure that the Lamia Folks will pay. They can not decide to just hurt our lands and pretend they are not spreading their monstrosity." Soleil raised his chin. Elvenia wanted to agree, but she had been the first to spot the blackened deer. Lamia Folks have snake-like traits and powers and their gaze can turn others to stone, but not into plagued, crooked creatures.

Elvenia raised her hand. "W-What if it wasn't the Lamia Folks?"

Heads were turned and it felt as if eyes were crawling all over her skin. Shit. Maybe she shouldn't have said anything. Soleil, even one of the kindest people in all of the Elowen Forest, looked displeased. "Then what caused that buckshot such pain, Miss Foster?"

Elvenia's hands went slick with sweat. "Erm, I don't know-"

"We will continue to investigate, but until then, we advise that no one should go near the Peregrine Border, it's too dangerous to even go near Naga." Soleil walked away, many others following after him, peppering him with questions.

"This is unfortunate," Grandma Elodie commented gravely. Elvenia tried to speak, but her eyes were fixated on her ex-friends, Linden and Sparrow. They whispered to each other before walking away.

She clenched her fists as someone caught her eye. Ramarisk Doğa stood with his mother, Mrs. Doğa, speaking about Soleil's announcement. He was brown-skinned with dark brown eyes that Elvenia remembered staring into lovingly. He spotted her and frowned, focusing back on his mother.

Elvenia's heart faltered as she tugged on Grandma's hand. "Let's go home, it's pointless to do anything when there are dangers outside." Ramarisk was Elvenia's ex-lover, they had a secret relationship three years ago when Elvenia was fifteen. But Elvenia was always known as the Cursed Mistake of Rowan, she couldn't sprout plants properly or other gifts blessed by their God.

Elvenia Foster must be a mistake forged by Rowan, they would whisper. Such a shame, she would have boys chasing after her with that beauty, but no powers meant no suitors. Eventually, after Mother went missing and Father hung himself in the Fosters' cottage, Ramarisk broke under social pressure.

"Go talk to that boy," Grandma told Elvenia. "Did I ever tell you about your father? Ah, you shoulda' seen his face when you started growing that fiery red hair of yours. It runs in the family, Elya."

Grandpa Cyrus had died when Mother was just a little girl, but Elvenia could imagine he would sit in a rocking chair next to Grandma Elodie and argue about what time to go fishing for garyns.

"Okay, Grandma," Elvenia said as they started to head back home. A part of her wanted to go to Ramarisk and ask if he ever meant to hurt her. Their relationship...it felt like a mockery to him. He was always embarrassed to mention Elvenia's name. Even before his parents forbid him to love Elvenia, their love was complicated.

For the rest of the day, they did odd jobs around the Foster cottage. Grandma Elodie yelled at Elvenia to grab the overflowing pot of water, nearly burning her. In the late evening, Elvenia still heard the rocking chair scratching the wooden floorboards. Grandma was rambling on and on about how Grandpa Cyrus loved fishing, but he had gotten ill and stopped going to the Naim River.

"Ah, Cyrus would have wanted to die by that river," Grandma chuckled.

"Mhm," Elvenia said, bringing over a pot of budding flowers. She pressed her hand on the petals, taking deep breaths. Come one, powers, she pleaded. Work, don't let me be some mistake...

She was disappointed when nothing came to life. It didn't make sense, all creations of Rowan were meant to create life through nature, dubbed as Rowan's beauty. Elvenia curled up on the floor, clutching her knees.

"Oh, dearest, don't cry."

"I'm not going to cry," she protested. "I'm just sad."

"And why is that, Elvenia?" Finally, Grandma Elodie called Elvenia by her actual name. Elvenia wrung her hands, toying with the promise ring that Ramarisk had given her. She still didn't know why she kept it.

"I don't have earthy powers, all Rhoswen Folks have these abilities and I'm the only one who doesn't have them!" she cried out, shutting her brown eyes. "It's horrible, Grandma, I am an outcast."

The old lady frowned. "You are not."

"They hiss 'Cursed Mistake of Rowan' for a reason. I was a mistake, a deformed being of our God's creation. I'm not normal, I'm fucking cursed." Normally, Grandma Elodie would have scolded her for cussing, but she leaned back on her rocking chair, scratching the floorboards.

"Are you certain your curse is just a gift in disguise? Perhaps even Rowan's blessing."

"How could being so powerless and useless be a gift? Much less a blessing?"

"The Gods work in strange ways, my dearest."

The Gods don't give a shit, Grandma Elodie.

━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━

Elvenia had gone to bed, a loft under the staircase with a comfy mattress with a blanket knit by Grandma. Their cottage was crammed, the upstairs consisted of Grandma Elodie's bedroom and her parents' room. It may have been more comfortable to sleep there, but it was also the room where her father killed himself.

It was Elvenia who had found him, it was horrible. She had gone up to his room after hearing a THUD, finding Father tied up with a rope to the ceiling. There was bruising and swelling around his neck and his eyes were void of life. There had been a note that said, 'She was never mine' and Elvenia didn't get to read any more of the suicide note before Grandma ran in.

For many nights, Elvenia debated what her father's note meant. She was never mine. It was after Mother went missing, a tragic time. Did Mother and Father have a falling out? Or worse, an affair?

Suddenly, there was banging at the cottage's door. Elvenia sat up so quickly that she hit her head on the staircase. As she crawled out of the loft, still rubbing her sore head, Grandma Elodie came running down the stairs.

"Don't those damn folks know it's past midnight?" Grandma demanded.

"I'll answer the door," Elvenia offered, walking slowly to the foyer, yawning. She opened the door, revealing Soleil and other Rhoswen officials. "S-Soleil? Gods above, this is insane-"

"Sorry for the disturbance, but there's been a certain...message written outside your home spot. You may want to step outside to see this," Soleil said, looking worried. Grandma Elodie grabbed a shawl, wrapping it around her body as Elvenia gaped. What's going on? She wondered as they were led outside.

All of a sudden, Elvenia's blood ran cold. The large and tall tree that was outside the Foster cottage, the one that Linden and Sparrow loved sitting under, was cut down. The tree's bark was on the grass and there was a chilling message written in blood;

Ñâim Is Gøiñg Tø Røt

"It's written in Rhoswenish," Grandma gasped, covering her mouth. "Oi, our tree-no, no! It's been growing outside our cottage since Elya was born-" She sobbed. "Oh, Rowan, why? Who would do s-something like this?"

Elvenia was frozen in place, feeling as if Mother's disappearance and Father's suicide were coming back to haunt her. Oddities like the blackened buckshot were awful, but this was extreme. Outside the cottage, she realized. Her cottage.

Soleil grimaced. "With the newfound infection of animals around Naim, we predict there will be a famine. Less and less animals are showing up, they are presumingly dead or... well, worse off."

Worse off, which meant the black plague that Elvenia had witnessed not too long ago, she pursed her lips, gritting her teeth. "Who wrote?" Of course, she knew that no one knew, but she was so angry and terrified.

Angry at the person who did this. Terrified for the safety of Grandma Elodie.

"What d-does 'Naim is going to rot' mean?" Grandma Elodie shuddered, pulling Elvenia closer to her. She melted in her grandma's embrace, feeling the tears ebb away. "Oh, for the love of Rowan, this isn't the Lamia Folks, is it?"

"I doubt they'd cross the Peregrine Border," Elvenia added.

"But they would be the ones who'd do this," someone said. It was Mr. Lorne, narrowing his eyes at the sight of the blood. "We need to find out whose blood that is, Soleil."

Soleil sighed before turning to Elvenia. "Get your grandma back in bed, it's going to be a long night." She nodded, swinging an arm around Grandma Elodie's shoulder. Elvenia Foster had a feeling that this was only the start of Naim's end.

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