The last thing Iro remembered was the blood and screams as his people were butchered by the enemy. Nowhere was safe once they found the hidden city of his people.
And it was the memory of the death and frozen looks that finally woke Iro from his sleep. His eyes shot open to see the clear sky behind the canopy of the forest. The sun was glittering through the parchment-thin leaves as Iro caught sight of a bird flitting through the air.
Iro tore off the branches and vines that had grown over his body. How long have I been asleep?! he thought as he scraped a clump of moss off his arm.
Then he looked around and saw the moss-covered stone around him. Pillars lying on the ground while cracks ran through the old foundations like spiderwebs.
Iro scrambled over to the centre of what was once a huge building with a domed roof of glass. The shards had long since disintegrated, leaving only the skeleton of the structure.
As Iro crawled through the ruins of his home, his hand brushed against something in the dirt. He looked down to see a white branch covered in dirt. Most likely a fragment of a shield, Iro guessed, remembering how his people used the wood of petrified trees. Then his hand rubbed it more and he realised it wasn't wood. It was a bone!
He scraped away the dirt and grass away to reveal more of the skeleton. Maybe he could find a talisman or ring that could help him identify the elf. He uncovered the arms...legs...torso...head...
There! Hanging around the neck was a silver plate in the shape of a dragon scale that rested comfortably in the palm of Iro's palm. And inscribed on the metal in cursive was one word:
Iro
With a shaking hand, Iro turned the plate over. He knew what he was going to see but couldn't tear his eyes away from the name inscribed on the scale:
Fa-lin
"No! Fa-lin!" Iro choked. "No...no, no, no, no, NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Iro clenched the scale in his hand until the five points at the top punctured his skin, causing blood to flow into the earth. Tears flooded from his eyes and he cried and screamed his grief. "Fa-lin! My love! This can't be! Why did it have to be him! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!!"
Iro's screams echoed throughout the forest, scattering the birds and beasts into fleeing. So powerful was his grief, that it even reached the city of Ellesméra. And the elves that lived within.
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Inheritance Fanfic - The Precursor Elf
FanfictionIro is a Precursor Elf, a race that has long slept under the earth of Alagaësia. But when he wakes up, lost in the forests of Du Weldenvarden, he finds that he has been asleep of thousands of years. Just in time for the enemy of his people to return...
