A long and Dangerous Road By Sally Rolfe A crescent moon hung low in the night sky, casting its pale light across the land below, and leeching the colour from everything it touched. A figure moved silently through the heavily wooded forest, keeping to the shadows. An orange glow up ahead indicated a camp of some kind and the woman paused in the darkness, smiling to herself. She had finally found what she was looking for. Her dark purple hair swayed in the light breeze, brushing softly against her intricately decorated armour. She could hear scattered thoughts from the humans in the camp, but the distance between them too great to make any sense of them. If she focused her own mind and channelled her telepathic gift, she would hear everything they thought but she was weary from her long journey. Now, finally, she had reached the end of her search. Soon she would complete her task and fulfil her quest. Moving closer, the incoherent thoughts of the human men began to weave together into more stable images in her mind. Views of strange lands and formidable cities flashed across her inner sight, as she settled herself down onto the damp earth a few feet from the group of men; an invisible hunter stalking her prey. Sorting through the random thoughts she was receiving, the beautiful Moran Elf suddenly held her breath and focused on a man sat apart from his companions. Summoning strength from the energies of the Earth beneath her, Moriesha looked directly at the loner, concentrating until she had tuned out all thoughts but his. The hazy image of a woman formed in her mind and the Elf fought for control, determined not to force the thoughts from the mind of the weaker human. The image solidified slowly; green eyes contrasted against the pale skin of the woman, a slender face framed by a luscious mane of pale purple hair. Moriesha’s lips curved into a slight smile at the vision in her mind; it appeared that Rhiania, her little sister, had grown into a beautiful woman while they had been separated. Not that there had been any doubt of that; she was a princess of Morania after all. More images of Rhiania flowed from the mind of the man a few feet away, growing more disturbing as the minutes ticked by. Pain laced through her as Moriesha was forced to watch scenes of torture inflicted upon her sweet sister. The telepathic bond she had forged was too strong to break without damaging the fragile human mind, and so she had no choice but to witness the atrocities done to her kin, as the man remembered them. After what seemed like an eternity, the human finally drifted off to sleep and the bond slowly dissolved, leaving Moriesha alone with her agony. From what she had seen during the bonding, Rhiania had been brutally treated until she had been sold to a slave trader. The human’s memories told the Elf that he didn’t know her fate after that. However, those same thoughts told her that he, and his companions, had been part of the party who had attacked the Royal Palace of Morania, slaughtering everyone inside except a helpless child, snatched from the arms of her dying mother. The battle-hardened warrior clearly remembered that day, ten years before; the day she had returned home to the kingdom of Morania. Having spent several years training with Lenisha, High Queen of the Elves of the Light, the young warrior had been eager to share her experiences with her kin. She had known they would be proud of her, especially as Lenisha herself had chosen the young Moran warrior to become her personal bodyguard. The young princess had been eager to take the role, knowing it was unlikely she would have to take the crown of her people for several hundred years. The sight that had greeted her when she entered her home had been indelibly imprinted on her mind forever. Her kin lay dead throughout the palace, and her little sister was missing. Those who had survived the massacre told her that the humans who had taken Rhiania, the only other member of the royal bloodline, had ridden north, towards the human city of Diaban. After gaining the blessing of Lenisha, the young warrior, now Queen of Morania, had begun her quest to find the sole member of her family still living. Her journey had taken ten long years, and had finally led her here. With a sad look on her face, Moriesha got to her feet and stepped into the circle of light from the fire. She made no effort to hide the sounds of her passage, emerging from the shadows beside the loner. Drawing both of her finely crafted swords, her expression became vaguely disgusted as the humans woke from their slumber, grasping their inferior weapons in fear. Their expressions told her they knew exactly who she was, and what the outcome of the inevitable fight would be. As the men rushed towards her, the Warrior Queen raised her weapons and made ready for battle, knowing her quest to find her lost kin was far from over...