Origin by Samantha Smith

Keroc with you to protect you as well. He will signal me in the event of danger and will protect you with his life.”
    “I don’t want to stay here. I want to go with you to see my uncle? I need to see that he is alright,” she said, tears of sorrow running down her face.
    “I’m sorry, but you are much safer here. I will be back as quickly as I can.”
    Ayron jumped up on Gerrack. Before he urged the big war horse forward, he took one last look down at the sobbing girl. “What is your name?”
    “Elwyn..., my name is Elwyn.”
    With his head reeling, Ayron urged his horse into a gallop and raced back toward the village square. The past hour seemed like a strange nightmare. His head began to hurt as he considered what he knew. A man he thought long dead reappears and is raising a young female elf. Her hair is an exact match to Rhianna’s, his brother’s dead wife. Her eyes are violet, a trait never before seen outside the royal bloodline of Silvendil. Her eyes were even darker violet than his; more like his grandmother Lady Silvenna’s. This young elf was also named for his father. But Rhianna had no elven blood in her, which made it improbable if not impossible that the child was hers. Ayron knew that any child produced by Rhianna and Azavon should have appeared human, with only a few outward signs of an elven heritage. So who was this child, and how did she come to be?
    On the other hand, if he looked beyond the inconsistencies in Elwyn’s appearance and considered the possibility that Rhianna hadn’t died, it raised another whole list of issues. Why did she run away from Findara and his brother? What caused her to feel desperate enough to undertake such a long and arduous trip so late in her pregnancy? Was there anyone actually buried in the grave in Findara so lovingly tended by his brother these last sixteen seasons? If there was someone buried in the grave, who was it and how had he or she died? If Rhianna had truly run away to her brother Rhys and given birth to Elwyn here in Tarlon, there would have had to have been a conspiracy involving more than one person in the court at Findara. So, who were the traitors and were they still serving as his brother’s trusted advisors?
    Ayron made up his mind right then and there that he was not leaving this place until he learned everything that Rhys knew about the past. He realized that his old friend probably held the only clues to sorting out this mystery. It was critical that he be kept alive, both for the sake of their former friendship, and the mystery that threatened to rock the land of Silvendil with its answers. As he and Gerrack drew close to the village square, his military training kicked in and he turned his mind away from what he didn’t know, and focused on creating a plan to get both Rhys and Elwyn to safety.

Chapter 5 – Shattered Realities
    E lwyn, still numb with shock, sagged against an old gnarled tree trunk as she watched the tall stranger ride off on his big black stallion and head back towards the village square. Although she wanted nothing more than to run after him, she’d given her word and was determined to try to keep it. Every nerve in her body was screaming. Her mind raced in confusion and disbelief. The events of the past hour were beginning to catch up with her. The events she’d witnessed were way too farfetched for her to comprehend, and even more difficult to believe. Grief mingled with confusion and fear as she prayed that her uncle still lived. Clayre was the most talented healer she’d ever seen, but her uncle’s wound looked very grave and Elwyn was afraid that it might possibly be beyond even Clayre’s skills.
    She could hear, but not see the commotion and confusion that still gripped the small village. At the stranger’s suggestion, the men from her village tied colored scarves around their necks so that they wouldn’t be mistaken for the enemy. Several of these men were running and shouting as they attempted to aid