Fate or Not

Fate or Not (Prologue)

"Do you believe in fate?" I was asked once by my much loved grandmother. She had gave me the world and all it has to offer since the day I was born. I simply gazed afar, wondering what fate actually encompasses, and then smiled. "Yes, I do." I replied. In the chilling breeze at the back of the garden just behind our house, with the wind slightly brushing through my cheeks, she questioned of the fate I had in mind. And without giving much thought, I gave a slight grin and replied in a casual manner, "meeting you was my fate". That was when i was six.

Up till this day, the conversation we had is still lurking somewhere in the back of my head. I wondered what fate is, is it good, bad or non-existent. One might ask why did I or when did I start questioning its existence, but my answer would be I am not very sure either as I am of myself or even how my grandmother's expression was back then. However, if anyone questions when fate begun to spin a tale for any of us, my answer would probably be from the day since we were born. It probably had it all planned out, how we were characterised, the people we would encounter, the land that we would set foot on, whose family, kins or friends, or even which passersby would become our closest ones.

The story shall unfold on a small island not known to many. To those who have known, it's a small island named Elsaria, a land surrounded by water and home only to fishermen, and visited by sea traders. The income produced by the natives were low, but it met the bare minimum to fed those who were living on the island.

My name is Valiea and I am one of the four children living in one of the huts at the heart of town called Michyrta. There weren't many kids around here and I am the second youngest among them. The oldest would be my brother Alford, 20, and the youngest here would be my newborn neighbour whose only 2 months old, named Jennifer. The remaining kid left that I have yet to introduce is my best childhood friend known as Marcellus, 18. 

Marc loves adventures and ventures the nearby forests as if they were his own backyard, and yes, he does it almost everyday. I was often chidded off for trying to secretly trail behind him, as female here weren't given much of this thing, people call freedom. But, when it was sunset, I would always run towards the usual pathway he always took and await him eagerly. From where he would return back from, I anticipated to hear tales of his new discovery and of his exciting venture. I must admit, he is a really good story teller, and everytime his stories end, I couldn't resist for the next one. Back to the reason why I could not go trailing in the forests with Marc, would be that, being a girl in the town of Elsaria, means taking care of the women duties available such includes the making of meals, laundry as well as the drying of the fishing nets as the men went out for work. An additional note would be that due to the lack of manpower, be it old or young, there's no retirement here, and everyone would have to earn their own feed in order to survive.

It may seem to be a simple fishing village here, however, I have never felt that I belonged to this place. The fishermen and their families who lived here are borned with blonde hair and hazel eyes which were the total opposites from Alford and I. We had black hair and emerald eyes. It often reminded me of how different I was from them, and always gave me the urge to try to remember and find out who I really am. I remembered the time when we were first washed ashore of Elsaria, the fishermen and their families weren't very receptive to us. For months, they showed us the eyes of disdain as well as fear, and warned their children to stay away from what they would call demons. There were afraid of us, but they showed us no care less than anyone would to two lost kids, by provision of food and minimum shelter with some broken pieces of wood and tools to buils by ourselves. However, in time, months, as in many months, they realised that we meant no harm to them and were only two mere kids who were not of aged. This was when they started to interact with us. As much time as they have used to get to know us better, we too were able to slowly let down our guard against them, and let them near, close to our hearts. However, at this point in time, we still didn't know of our true identities.

I was curious and I have tried to research more about myself (asking around and digging through my fragmented memories) but as much as I have tried to, my head refused to give in. The brain crackles as if I have been hit by lightning and always rendered me into a unmoving status. Alford has always been by my side all this while, telling me to give in to time and that not remembering anything would do me no harm either. But I have got to know, there's this urge burning within me, telling me to remember about fate or what's not about fate. The dream I had, my grandmother whose face I could not remember but voice kept resonating within my dream. It seemed to be reminding me almost every night not to fall into a deep slumber and to wake from my hidden memories. As I awoke screaming out to her, asking her to explain her words, Alford would always be gripping my hand tightly by my side, telling me it was all alright, there was nothing to worry about.

"Here, have a cup of milk. It's morning." Alford woke me up from my dream again. I am glad that he was by my side now and back then. I wondered what would I have done, if I were the only one that have wandered onto this island by myself back when I was...14 as I was told by Alford. As far as I remembered he probably had the worst time ever since we landed on this island. Aside from taking care of my injuries, picking up the necessities from the shore and forests nearby, given scary glances from all over the foreign land, threat from the natives, he still had to take suffer from oversized rocks and sarcasm thrown at him by his beloved sister, me, who has lost her memory.

I would definitely have thrown a temper at myself if I were him. But, luckily he did not. Why would I be angry if I were Alford? Because with my memories lost, he was a threat to me. Everything was a threat to me. For weeks, I gripped on to a self-made dagger assembled with rocks and ropes that I managed to find lying on the shore and with it, I would order and demand like a princess for Alford to prepare food and shelter for me (with a lot of distrust, ok, the fact existed that there was totally none of the so called trust) he would always be my taste-tester for the food he gathered as well as the safety tester for the hammocks he was ordered to tie. (Well I may have been bratty about it, but being a girl out in the wild all alone that was all pretty much just self-defense.)

"Valiea!Valieia!" he would always called out to me when it was meal time. However, I had no attachment to the name. The feeling could be described as if anyone were to yell out a random name and you were supposed to respond. I couldn't get used to it at all at first well now too. However, I did felt that "Valiea" sounded interesting. Quite the unique, I would name I would say. But just to say the heartfelt words...which girl wouldn't prefer a prettier name, instead of sounding like a valiant warrior. 

In Elsaria, there's the custom of the coming of age ceremony, unlike other kingdom, countries or similar, the ceremony is held at the age of 17 of the islanders. Although, I am considered as a foreigner who have happened to chance upon this place as luck, they were going to host a coming of age ceremony in celebration of my 17th birthday for me, which will take place in a week. The 17th party would be the one of the grandest parties for the villagers and food preparation will take at least 3 days and night to complete.