One-Terg

In the heart of the ancient Elven Woods was the world's only school for the magical and the gifted. Any and all humans who showed signs of extra senses or unnatural abilities were sent there. If a child made her toys dance in the air her parents sent her to the school. If a teenager got angry and started glowing he was sent to the school. If an adult knew things before they happen he went to the school.

 

There were no age limits and there were no cultural problems. Those who were different, who didn't belong to the normal population, didn't normally have it in them to attack others who were like themselves. Oh course, there were some exceptions to that, but there were and always well be exceptions.

 

People called it The School. A large bit of the world was nervous about The School. Some actively hated it and some actively loved it. Most just ignored it and hoped that their children never had to go. The students were taught to not blame them. They were taught that most people got jumpy around things they didn't understand. Most students listened.

 

The School was privately owned by a family of enchanters. The customization work they had been doing for centuries had made them some of the wealthiest families in the world. They didn't charge tuition or entrance fees. They made sure everyone got the best education they can. If a seven-year-old was sent there they took elementary school classes as well as magic classes.

 

The School was a collection of large houses that was once a village made by humans who had befriended the elves who lived in the forest thousands of years ago. Underground hallways connected them. The houses, twelve three story buildings, were made up of rooms for the students and faculty and classrooms. They were color-coded. The white houses were full of classrooms, the black houses were dorms, and the yellow house was the cafeteria. The forest had not been cleared in anyway to make room for the buildings. Instead they were built in natural clearings.

 

The School had been around for centuries, but never had there been a student as powerful as Amirra. She was found wondering around the streets of Brindale, a large city five miles away from the school. She had silver-green eyes and long silver-red hair. She looked human, but at the same time she didn't. What startled people the most when they saw her was that she didn't walk, she floated half-a-foot off the ground. She also couldn't speak English. When the police took her to the station and tried questioning her she looked confused and muttered what the police thought was gibberish. It wasn't until one of The School's teachers arrived that they found that she was speaking Elvish, a long lost language that only a handful of people could read and even fewer could speak. She remembered nothing except her name.

 

The School's teachers guessed that she was around nine years old. They also found that she could not walk. She could float and fly, bu not walk. They worked for months, teaching her basic things that most people took for granted. They found that she was a clever child and was egger to learn anything and everything. They guessed that she was only half Elvish. By that time the next year she was mingling with the other students as if she had been doing it for years. Her sweet personality and ability to get along with anyone made her one of the most popular girls in the school. She ignored it and stills ignores it. Her good friends were the outcasts of student body.

 

Now that you have some understanding of The School and Amirra I can tell you the story I set out to tell.

 

 

 

 

Amirra raced through the near empty halls. She looked down at her watch and saw that she had three minutes to get to class. Her teacher, Mr. Grand, would be furious with her if she was late again.

 

She came to the stairs leading up from the underground passage and decided to stop trying to be normal. Her feet left the ground and she flew through the air in the center of the spiral staircase. She pasted the first two landings quickly, and she forced the double doors open without touching them. She flew down the hall and was in front of her classroom in seconds. She slid inside zoomed to her seat, too fast for anyone to see. She smiled to herself. She arrived with two and a half minutes to spare.

 

She sat alone in the back right hand corner of the room. Though her classmates liked her, none of them were close to her. They all were used to her power for they had grown up with her. Two of the students, new to The School and not used to Amirra, jerked when they sensed her or suddenly noticed her in her seat.

 

One of the students, a boy named James who sat in front of her, turned in his seat and sneered. “Over slept again, huh, Mir?”

 

“Oh, no. I flew into town this morning to hit the mall and lost track of time looking at portable water fountains,” she said with a clam voice and straight face that almost made her classmates believe her. The new students did believe her, in fact. A smile broke her calm visage and she laughed. “What kind of question is that, James? Surely you know better.”

 

Mr. Grand entered then. He looked right at Amirra and said, “I saw that, Miss Elf. You know it unnerves the other students when you fly about.”

 

“There was no one in the halls, sir,” she said quietly. The students smiled and the new ones laughed. Mr. Grand glared at them.

 

“Anyway, I must remind you all that the Honors Class Field Trip is tomorrow. You should dress for hiking and bring your camping gear. You are to meet in the cafeteria clearing at nine o'clock sharp in the morning. Mrs. Morris and I well be you chaperone's. We won't wait for anyone, so don't be late.” He pulled out his remote and turned on the projector. “Now, let us begin. Before humans came into power elves ruled the earth. They ignore the human tribes that wondered the plains and fought amongst themselves in the forests.

 

On the longest night of the year, know to us as the winter solstice and to them as Ever Night, all elves got together in this very wood and celebrated from dusk till dawn. They sang and danced and forgot all about the fights that were pushing them closer and closer to extinction. One year, when the humans were starting to settle in one place a young warrior stood before his people on Ever Night. He forced the elves, then reduced to a few hundred instead of the thousand that had been the normal population, to see the damage the wars had done. He challenged ever tribe's chief. He won against every tribe's chief. He became the King of Elves. His name was Dominic.”

 

A picture appeared on the screen. It was a stone tablet with beautiful, curvy writing on it. The class leaned forward. The elven history was only taught to high school seniors, but only the honors students got to see the only elven ruin or pictures of the few elven tablets that survived the ages. Only two of the students understood what was written on the tablet on the screen.

 

James's gift was that any foreign language he read or heard translated into English. He didn't even see the beautiful elvish writing. He read the title of the tablet aloud. “The Song of Dominic, written by Markus the White.”

 

“Ti Witu ka Dominic, dimger ig Markus ti Uspa.”

 

The class turned to Amirra. Her silver-green gaze was locked on the screen. She continued to read aloud. Her voice, lovely as a song when she spoke English, was the most beautiful thing many of the students had ever heard. One girl, Sara, who hears nature's songs, said later that it reminded her strongly of the songs the flowers sing when the sun shines.

 

“Zinhu min rykin zim husa

du ti fenos ka min mus xfar,

eh amger tusyo sah hasin ny

im valu je rykin umma hudis.

 

Jus zu vikamun mris amdysno

mris xfisso ic human, elf, ku husod.

Jus yimfarkrisd ti id wrys germa

mris krin lasig terg ig terg.

 

Ti krysid gerama treisd mris trigid ja,

lasur amarag treisd mris trayad ja,

ti humen tamvasd ja,

mris vylah dy soos

kof vyshemt kof Cahugvasmer.”

 

The room was silent for several long minutes. All watched Amirra as she whipped her eyes and took deep breaths.

 

“It is so sad,” she said when she was calmer, “that the music is lost. I would give much to be able to sing the song like it was sung all those years ago.”

 

“Yes,” Mr. Grand agreed. “The loss of the elves was a great one that we humans are reminded of every day. We refuse to let ourselves forget what we did to those kind people. They took us in, taught us how to use the magic around us, and we sealed King Dominic in his throne room and killed all the elves we could find. You, Amirra, are the only living elf we know of, even if you are only half elf.”

 

The students, most all of them able to sense great emotion, felt a shift in the air of the room. For a few seconds they all felt a loneliness that took their breath away and put a crushing weight on their hearts. They wondered how anyone could live when such sorrow was flattening them. Then the pain was gone.

 

“You said the elves called the winter solstice Ever Night,” Amirra said to change the subject. “Cahugvasmer translates to Perfect Night, not Ever Night.”

 

Mr. Grand easily fell back into his roll as teacher. “The linguist who first translated this tablet misread cahug, which is perfect and thought it was aky, which means ever. It wasn't until his maid dusted the tablet that he realized his mistake. He tried to fix it in the article he wrote about the tablet, but it was already printed and on it's way to distribution. When he mentioned it in the interviews he gave he was ignored by the public.”

 

James smirked. “Too bad that professor didn't have my power, huh?”

 

“He did,” Mr. Grand said drily.

 

The class laughed and James face flushed in embarrassment. A bell sounded and the students gathered their things.

 

Amirra was the last to leave. She lingered for a few moments, staring at the picture of the tablet on the screen. The writing at the bottom of the tablet was different from the rest. It was an added note, several decades older then the song. She didn't look at Mr. Grand, but read the last snetences in a voice sad enough to break anyone's heart.

 

“Min Gisma tamvasd lem, ugmast lem, mris vakst lem, mris lem xihst ja. Rusgfint, humen, ust jus zasa soky surtig.” She then spoke the words in English. “Our King befriended you, taught you, and protected you, and you betrayed him. Remember, humans, for he will never forget.”

Author's Note

Vila zisa mris vust vylah.
^_^