What Humans Can Do (Prologue)

         Have you ever thought about history? About all of the wars that we fought, invasions that happened, and countries that have collapsed? What if some wars ended differently? Stopping some wars from ever even happening? How would the world be different? How would you be different? Would you even be here?
         This is the story of how one person can change a small village, and even the outcome of a war. It begins in a different universe, in a world where dragons, werewolves, and faeries exist; a world where humans are the bottom of the food chain and are struggling to live, waging a seemingly lost war.
         In this world, in a country-side castle, lives a warlock. In this castle resides slaves who work for the warlock, and among these slaves is a young girl named Eliona, and with her, we finally begin this story.


         You would think that living in a gigantic castle in a beautiful land would be the perfect life, and it would be, if I had owned it. I am a slave to the person, the warlock, who owns it. Amus, the name of the warlock, was an awful glutton of a man, who stuck stuck in the past, in his 'glory days', from when he was world-renown. Now he acts like the leader of the world, but really, he's only the leader of my life, same for the other slaves he owns.

         It was only dawn and everyone was already awake, save for His Royal Laziness. I had already done my morning chores and now I was in the kitchen with Edith, one of the only people I talk to in this god-forsaken place, and the person who took care of me when I came here as a child. She is an old oracle woman, with a kind, wrinkly face and smiling eyes. Amus uses her to tell his future regarding his fortunes and allows her to roam freely around the house. I was peeling potatoes in the kitchen with Edith on a stool sitting in front of me.

         "You know, you don't have to be here. You should go back to bed, it's too early" I told Edith, finishing the potato I had been peeling, throwing it in a bin.

         "Nonsense! I'm not so old that can't wake up early every now and then!" Edith declared, lightly hitting the back of my head as I grabbed another potato. I straightened up and smiled, rubbing the back of my head.

         "Of course not, I'm just saying you don't have to watch me peel potatoes! I don't want to bore you, and plus I'm gonna be here for a while, so its a waste to try and wait for me to be finished." I gestured to the three boxes of potatoes I had left to peel. There were probably at least a hundred potatoes in those boxes.

         "It'll go by faster if you have a partner." Edith says and stands, going to the towards the knife rack and picks up a knife. She comes back over to me and the boxes, bending to get a potato and plopping back down in her chair. As she peels, I look intently at Edith.

         Edith was, as I said before, an old oracle woman with a kind face and smiling eyes. What I didn't say before was that she had bandages all over her body from self-inflicted wounds; wounds that take forever to heal and with new bandages on her body everyday. I should probably explain that she was a blood oracle, meaning that blood had to flow in order for her to be able to tell the future. She usually used the blood of the person with whom she was trying to see their future, but if she were to use her own blood as well, her vision would be much stronger than with only their blood.

         I was so deep in my thoughts that I didn't notice I had cut my finger until I felt that Edith was holding that hand in a death grip.

         "Ouch, Edith! Your grip is hurting me more than the cut." Attempting at a joke probably was the only thing I could do to mask the pain, but when I saw that Edith's face was was pale as a sheet and that she was slightly trembling, I stopped. I grabbed onto her arm with my free hand.

         "Edith, what is it? What's wrong?"

         She let go of my hand, her eyes looking directly into mine, but her mind was somewhere else. Her face slowly become wiped clean of emotion and her eyes fluttered shut, and then she was out. She started to fall to the ground but before she could I caught her.

         "Edith! Edith, wake up! Edith!" I laid her on the ground and tried gently shaking her. My heart was racing. Was she dead?! I checked her pulse. She was still breathing, thank the gods. What in the world, she must have had a vision, but what was it?

         Just then, the chef came into the kitchen, no doubt to start cooking Amus's breakfast. When he saw Edith on the ground, his jaw dropped. He looked from me to her, his eyes showing his fear of me, and his concern for Edith. He thought I did something to Edith. I would never do anything to Edith, but he didn't know that. I never talked to the other slaves, or really anyone else in this place, so he's going to assume I tried to kill her, or something.

         "Help! Help! Someone is attacking the oracle woman! Someone help!" The chief ran from the kitchen and started hollering down the halls, trying to get the attention of the guards. I didn't know what to do; I was frozen on the spot. I knew he would do it, but it still surprised me. I looked down at Edith; she was breathing and she seemed alright, but I didn't want to leave her. I had to ask what it was that she saw.

         The sound of thundering footsteps came from down the hall, and I knew I didn't have much time until the guards would get here. I looked up at the sound and started to raise, but was stopped when I felt someone grab my arm. It was Edith, she's awake! I looked down, a relieved smile and my face, which was immediately wiped off when I saw the look in her eyes. She had a sort of resigned look in her eyes, and before my eyes, she seemed to age another ten years.

         "Edith..." My eyes searched hers as I trailed off. She was looking at me like I was the grim reaper coming to take her soul, and she had already accepted her fate. Why was she looking at me like this? What had she seen me doing?

         The sound of their footsteps was getting louder, but I couldn't move, couldn't take my eyes away from hers. She looked like she had just handed over her soul, and it seemed like she was giving it to me.

         "Eliona, go. Leave before they get here. When it comes night time, come to my chambers. I need to talk to you in private."