Tales of Elandria

Chapter Two

Home

Shiloh woke to a well-lit room. Looking down, she found herself lying on a clean and comfortable bed. Fresh bandages covered most of her body, her tattered tunic having been replaced with a new one. The clean fabric hugged her tired skin, warming her in a way she had forgotten was possible. Her head felt light and fuzzy with medicine.

She tried to sit but felt a hand gently press her back into her bed. Looking up she saw the man, Lapoul, standing next to an older woman whom she did not recognize. The woman smiled warmly at Shiloh.

“Hello, and welcome back,” she said softly. “You have been asleep for three sunsets, my dear. You must have really been through something,” she continued with genuine concern. “Tell me, what is your name?” the woman asked, kindness enveloping every word.

“Shiloh…my name is Shiloh. Where am I?” she groaned, attempting once more to sit up. A great pain in her chest caused her to double over and collapse back onto the bed. Her head was pounding, and the room began to spin.

“You have several broken ribs, luv. And quite a bit of bruising. Please do us both a favor and lie back. We are having a meal prepared for you now, you must be famished”, The kind stranger said, fussing over the blankets unnecessarily.

At the mention of a meal, a great noise erupted from Shiloh’s empty gut. Hunger pangs danced inside her, and her mouth began to water. It had been half of a lunar cycle since she had eaten anything substantial, and what little she ate would likely have made the average person frightfully ill.

“You asked where you are,” the kind stranger started. “Well dear, you are amongst friends, I assure you. We live here on the edge of Elandria and tend to the outlands. My name is Gennie. This place is simply called Home. Since the extinction of the Gypsy people, the land has grown ill. There is a void here where their magic once aided in the coming of spring. We haven't been blessed with warm weather in quite some time." Gennie looked away sadly, there was an air of sorrow with her words and her eyes shined with the knowledge of a tragic tale.

The harsh words began to sink into Shiloh’s consciousness. “The extinction of the Gypsies?!” she exclaimed, sitting upright this time, despite her injuries. “How is that possible?” she asked, tears swimming in her violet eyes. Shiloh searched the healer's kind face for any hint of falsity and was devastated to see no such indication.

Her mother and father, and darling little sister... gone? It was not possible. Her people had a resilience that was interwoven into the very fabric of their spirit -- how had they been bested? Shiloh could not breathe.

The only thing that had kept her alive during those dark days in captivity was the knowledge that she would one day feel the comforting embrace of her mother. Inside her, the smallest spark of hope; the one that she had protected with her life: the hope for her family’s reunion, died at last. A coldness spread throughout Shiloh and a slight collection of tears fell silently from the corners of her eyes. Shiloh was truly alone.

“What… what happened?” she stammered through her soft sobs.

The physician looked at her with confusion. How long has this woman been out of touch with the world? she thought. And where could she have been to not know of such a monumental happening?!

“The extermination of Gypsy magic left a measurable scar upon the land,” Genny started, slowly. “This threw the seasons of the Earth into a chaotic cycle. Summer comes rarely, as winter and autumn dominate the land. There is no telling when the cold will subside, but the people of Home believe that one day, a hero will emerge and restore order to the seasons, bringing light back into this ever-darkening world,” she said gently to Shiloh.

Extermination. The word echoed in Shiloh’s mind as she felt an icy emptiness permeate her soul. Grief washed over her.

"Tell me dear, where did you come from?" Gennie asked her, suspicion creeping into her soft tone. "Everyone in Elandria knows of the curse."

"I have been a prisoner for a very long time," Shiloh confided in a whisper. "The one who took me... is an enormously powerful monster. He looks like a regular man, but he is the evilest creature to walk the Earth," she continued, clearing her throat to speak louder. "He took me when I was eleven. It’s been..." Shiloh trembled as she reflected on all the years she had spent in captivity. She couldn’t put it into words, but it had been seven endless years.

Gennie was clearly disturbed but Shiloh knew that she needed to continue. "There are three entities that share his body, and that body's name is Gorgahl," she said. Her voice was quiet again, barely above a whisper. "In his human form, he is charming and attractive, with long black hair that he ties up with string. His ears are pierced and adorned with various medallions, all of them imbued with magical intention, they captivate common people as he talks with them and places them under his charming spell. " Shiloh's voice was shaking as she spoke, fear lingering in the spaces between her words.

“When his other personalities wake, his body changes: it twists and morphs into a new form. There’s Keldor; he’s at least eight feet tall and thin as a whisper with long, white hair. His body is black as night and he has these eyes..." Shiloh shuddered as she mentioned them. "They are completely white. He gets into your mind and finds everything you have ever been afraid of. Then he locks you inside an endless loop of your own nightmares." Shiloh's expression was difficult to read but Gennie could tell she was in pain.

"I'm so sorry, luv, you shouldn't have gone through that. You are so young," she said to Shiloh, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. The kind physician was trying to imagine the terrible things that were being described to her. Shiloh shook the memory of Keldor from her mind, smiling slightly as Gennie’s presence began to feel maternal.

“I wish that was the worst of it,” Shiloh said, half laughing despite herself. “There is a third monster, Maldrake. He’s almost as tall as Keldor, but he’s double the width. His body is covered in greasy skin, and... his teeth are all rotted out of his head. Gorgahl's teeth are rotten, even when he’s Gorgahl... but Maldrake’s are so much worse, he has green stuff growing on his teeth.” Shiloh gagged slightly as she remembered the details of her kidnapper.

“Gorgahl uses his power to take children,” she continued. “He learned it from a witch when he was a boy. He takes magic from the children and consumes it, and then he’s granted their power. His magic is different though, its perverted, and it runs out fast.”

Both Gennie and Lapoul stood at the end of the bed, hanging on her words.

She continued: "I think that some of the children didn’t have any magic, because they would just die... but kids like us..." Her voice began to trail off. Shiloh suddenly remembered what Gennie had said about the Gypsies and felt an overwhelming surge of grief and rage, followed by adrenaline.

Unintentionally she summoned a powerful aura of healing, and miraculously, her injuries were mended in an instant. Jumping up from the bed she began to undo all the bandages, throwing the soiled pieces haphazardly from her healed body. Gennie turned to Lapoul, bewilderment in her eyes. Lapoul simply fainted, crumpling to the floor at the foot of the now empty bed; next to the bandages.

“I... I can’t…” Shiloh stammered. “I have to get out of here! You are wrong! I have to find them!” She screamed.

“Miss, please!” Gennie exclaimed as Shiloh bumped into the table of medical tools situated at the side of her bed.

“Please, just slow down!” Gennie shouted at Shiloh, panic overriding her once-gentle tone. “A Gypsy… my dear, you cannot leave, not yet; it isn’t safe for you out there!”

Shiloh stopped in her tracks but did not turn around. The room was quiet for a moment while Gennie and Shiloh paused. There was not a single moment that she could recall in the last seven years that would be remotely considered "safe", and yet still here she stood. She stopped and thought of her predicament. She was in a place she had never been, and she had just learned that she could very well be the last living Gypsy in the world. Beyond that, she had been unconscious for days. Gorgahl would be searching for her. Gennie was right. Shiloh was not safe, and although she did not know it before, her mission had failed before she had ever escaped her prison.

Mulling her choices over silently, she stared past the realities of the room; permitting her mind to drift to the secret image she had fabricated during the harder nights in captivity, of her reunion with her family. She stood there, absorbed in the moment that would never come to pass, and then allowed it to dissipate. If this woman, Gennie, had the grace within her to not only save Shiloh’s life for the present, but also desired to keep her alive for the foreseeable future, perhaps she could heed the warning being provided to her now.

“Give me time to share with you what dangers lurk in the shadows here, that is all I ask,” stated the physician, nervously. Gennie was acting as though she feared what was to come of the strange young woman if she were to walk away before knowing the truth. Shiloh turned slowly around, careful to quell the intensity of her emotions, as she did not want to unintentionally manifest an aura that would harm those close to her.

That was, after all, how she managed to secure her unexpected escape only days before. In those final moments leading up to her freedom, Shiloh was laying at the feet of Gorgahl on a cold concrete floor, stained with blood and human waste. She was starving, bruised and freshly tortured; half alive. The thought of succumbing to her injuries crossed her mind and she flirted with the idea of leaving this world and all its cruelty behind.

As she imagined the end of her life, an unexpected wave of anguish and devastation left her body like a sonic boom, reverberating off the walls of her prison and knocking Gorgahl out cold. After the blast settled, she picked herself up off the floor and looked from his battered body to the gaping door. He never leaves it open, Shiloh thought. She had only moments to act.

She turned around to see that the concussive blast had also caused her fellow captives to lose consciousness, and the stillness of the air around seemed to strangle her. She knelt, attempting to rouse one of the youngest boys, but as she touched his body, she felt only the absence of a spirit within his cooling, lifeless body.

He was gone.

Frantically she checked the two other children, though she knew what she would find, as the angles at which their bodies had landed seemed grotesque, to say the least. They were gone as well. Regret swelled inside her; remorse and guilt roiled up and spilled over her cheeks in hot, fierce tears. She did not understand how or why that magic had self-manifested, but the time for contemplation was far from that moment.

Shiloh shook herself to the present. She was now standing extremely near the unconscious body of Lapoul and could not help but feel a slight dose of pride despite her concerns; that the simple act of healing her injuries had caused this man to lose his nerve.

“Alright then,” Shiloh said, “What is it that you need to tell me?”

The nurse looked around. She cast a nervous glance to the door and then spoke extremely low. “Not here. Come, let us get that meal and I'll tell you everything.”

Shiloh’s stomach gave another tremendous call for sustenance and her mouth watered expectantly.

"Thank you, so much, for your kindness. I genuinely appreciate you," Shiloh said warmly, her strength slowly fading as her body once more became aware of its dire need for nutrition.