Melima...

[Chika]

((This is an Alt of mine. Encouraged to post stories, I decided to share her background with SAGA, hope you enjoy!
Melima is a templar, lvl 70))




The streets were full of life in the city today. Sounds of men and women laughing, chatting happily with each other while running their errands. The nearby pub opened its windows and doors to let in the cool breeze, trying to cool the establishment a little bit.
The sun burned on Melima's skin as she held her mothers hand and hipped on one leg, trying to keep up with her.
That day they went to the market. Melima loved the market! So many people always there, and so many things to see, and do. A full bag with vegetables and fresh fruits on her mother's one arm, and Melima on the other the child was happily singing and skipping on one leg, sometimes changing to the other.
They arrived at the house, and as soon as the door was opened Melima pushes it further open, and runs inside. She climbs on a chair at the kitchen table and looks at her mother, who puts away all the fresh groceries. Melima smiled broad when she got a big glass of chilled lemonade and drinks half of it before she reaches for some parchments on the table, and her pencils.
The tip of her tongue rests on her lips when she draws 3 elfish persons holding each other's hand.
"Look! That's me, and you mama! And there, that is papa. He chops wood!"
The mother smiles and looks at the drawing while they drink their lemonade.

The noises from the opened doors get louder and they seem to be less friendly. Sometimes they hear screams, and it sounds like people are fighting. Melima's mother walks outside to see what's happening and Melima stays inside, humming to herself and finishing her drawing until her mother returns.

It seems like ages, but finally Melima's mother came back into the house. Melima followed her rushing into the bedroom, where she saw her mother putting on some armour and get a big hammer from the corner of the room.
The look in her mother's eyes worried her.
Not a bit, no... Melima got scared. For the first time in her young life she saw fear in her mothers eyes, and she became aware of her own fears. She heard the beating of her heart over the noises outside.
With big golden eyes she searched for something from her mother to comfort her, but her mother kneeled down for her daughter and hugged her tight. She took the little girls face in her hands and spoke with slow words when she began.
"Melima, my daughter, I need you to do exactly as I say now for your life may depend on it my girl"
The words didn't bring her the comfort Melima was looking for so desperately, but still she nodded to her mother when she paused.
Her mother grabbed some blankets and put them beside the bed.
"There is big danger in the city, and we shall have to defend ourselves against it. I will not make it sound better than it is Mel, I need you to hide under the bed and I don't want you to get out of that hiding place until I say so... do you understand me?"
"What's the danger mama?"
The mother bites her lip before she replies.
"Time runs out girl, please do as I said!"
A long kiss is planted on her forehead and she hugs her one last time before she motions her daughter under the bed and covers her with blankets. A chest is moved against the bed to prevent her to be seen, or to come out of her shelter.
With a tiny voice, she hears her mother whisper "stay there until things are safe my girl..."
Right after that she heard her mother close the bedroom door, and the metal of her armoured footsteps on the tiles outside until it seems quiet.
Quiet, were it not for the ongoing screams outside. The screams sounded scared now and sometimes she thinks she hears familiar voices crying out about Tier'dal.
The sounds change.
It changes from screaming to the sound of steel against steel, followed by more screams.
Melima covers her ears and closes her eyes trying to shut out the sounds that scare her so much. She can't breath. The blankets are so warm on her skin, and the air she breaths in is also warm... the blanket itches and she sweats. She feels like she can't bare them on her little arms any more, she feels the urge to throw them off of her, but she stays where she is... 
Stay there until things are safe my girl...
The voice of her mother still echo's in her ears but mix with the ever louder screaming.
Suddenly the door to the bedroom opens.
A female voice in a language she doesn't understand shouts something, and she gets a reply in the same unknown language.
Melima holds her breath, sensing the danger in the presence of these strangers in her parent's bedroom.
The chest beside the bed moves and Melima lays as still as she can, firmly closing her eyes, but her elven hearing too good to miss anything happening in the room. The blanket that covers her face is removed and Melima opens her eyes... staring into a face of a dark, elven woman.
Purple-black eyes stare into golden ones. The woman closes the blanket again with a harsh move, and shouts something to the other person. Right after that she hears the woman leave and close the door behind her. The sound of metal footsteps, and weapons sounds again, mixed with battle cries and screams of fear and pain.
After what seems like ages the sounds fade again. They change back into laughter, but the laughter is not the laughter Melima knew. The voices were in the language she didn't understand, and the voices were dark, it was laughter of victory.
The scared Melima stayed in her shelter. The blanket moved down a bit, giving her a little fresh air to breath. She kept her eyes closed, but not as firmly as she did before. With the fading of the screams her fear of the unknown faded as well. She didn't even try to understand what the dark elf woman want of her when she removed the blanket, and covered her up again. She was too young to understand, and too tired to try. Her eyelids were heavy and tears welled up in them. Silent tears fell on the wooden floor while her mothers voice echoed in her ears again... stay there until things are safe my girl.
Sleep came over her, and took her away to restless dreams.

Hours after that Melima awoke again. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with the back of her hands, trying to figure out where she was she climbed out of her shelter.
Silence.
All around her she heard silence, even the birds didn't try to sing anymore it seemed.
Carefully Melima headed to the door, and opened it. Stay there until things are safe my girl
Would it be safe now? Not able to hear anything, Melima continues her way outside the bedroom. The hall was empty. So was the living room.
"Mama?" On the kitchen floor she finds the drawing of her mama, her papa and her. A footprint shows clearly on the drawing, and Melima tries to wipe it clean with her hand, blurring the picture even more. She folds the drawing and puts it in her pocket before she walks to the door.
Melima opened the front door and looked on the streets. The silence seemed so unreal to her and she slowly steps outside.
Dust sticks to her skin as soon as she walks down the street looking for her parents. Her face soon show black trails of tears that flow over her scared face, trying not to look at the corpses that lay everywhere.
The little girl, too small to truly understand what happened to her family, her city and her life walks further down the street, calling for her mother on every corner, but her only reply is silence.
She walks on, until she reaches the city gate. No guards there to guard the gates, so Melima can pass without anyone stopping her or asking her where she wants to go.
The gate opens easily, she only needs to push against the heavy door and it opens. A new world lies before the child, and carefully Melima takes a step into her new world.



The child wanders until her little legs can't bare her anymore. The sun is setting and the shadows are getting longer and longer in the forest Melima walks through. Her little hand clutches the drawing she took along with her, and sometimes she stopped to look at it, starting the tears over and over. Too tired to take another step the child falls to her knees and crawls to a nearby bush, where she falls asleep. Unaware of the dangers of the dark forest the sleep is surprisingly peaceful, and doesn't wake her until the next morning when a sudden voice breaks the silence of the forest.

"Ey dere, look whot me found ere!"

When Melima opened her eyes, and blinked against the bright light she looked straight in a face hidden behind a black beard. Dark brown eyes looked deep into golden ones, and Melima was dragged from her bush rather rudely on an arm.

"  't be an elf I tell ye! An elf! And it be a young one! Me bets this be one of the dark elves that burned the village down I tell ye!"

Melima looks at the hand that holds her in a painful grip around her arm, and keeps her mouth shut. Soon she was surrounded by 2 bearded men, about her own height but much older than she was. One had a dark face, dark eyes and a black beard, while the other had brownish hair, braids, and blue eyes. They both wielded big axes, and the little girl looked scared at the men that are so threatening close to her. One by one they touched her hair, her fine clothes, her ears, but Melima didn't dare to defend herself.
The black bearded man grinned evilly at her, and spoke to the other one again.

"Think we best handle it right ere an right now"

With those words he grabbed his axe and raised it high in the air.
The sudden voice, sounding like thunder, came from the other man.

"Blackmane! Whot in Brell's name do ye think ye're doin there! Ye put down that axe or ye meet mine, ye hear me?"

In the confusion that followed Melima manages to break loose, and instinctively she runs to where the voice came from.
This, man with friendlier looking eyes than the one with the black beard, had a certain authority over him, which made the other step back in respect when he approached. Melima decided to stay close to that man.

"Ye be too sensitive Hladgunnr" the man with the black beard grinned.
"It's probably cause ye got a little one at that wife of yers, she made yer heart weak".

The man called Hladgunnr grabbed the black-bearded one at the collar and spoke slow, and threatening.

"Ye never.... Ever speak about me wife and son with so little respect again Blackmane or ye will regret it. Now let us go home te see if we find survivors.
This be a Feir'Dal by the way, nay Tier'Dal."

The look in Blackmane's eyes changed and he stepped back nodding. An uncomfortable silence followed this event, and the brown haired man, called Hladgunnr held Melima's arm again in a firm grip, but this time not painful.

"We're honourable dwarves. Behave like that. We go home. "

After this he started marching in a rather fast pace. Melima, who still didn't speak, and wasn't asked a thing during this all followed the leader who held her arm, and Blackmane followed them quietly.

Melima was in deep thoughts. The man called Hladgunnr said they are dwarves. She heard her mother speak about dwarves before, but she has never seen one till this day. Trying to keep up with the pace Melima sometimes looked over her shoulder. Blackmane scared her, but instinctively she felt protected by Hladgunnr, knowing that as long as he was near she would be in no danger of him. For an hour or more they almost ran over the moss-covered path, and when she looked back again she tripped over tree roots that grew over it. Hladgunnr's firm grip kept her on her feet, but when he looked at her, he saw how tired she actually was and turned to Blackmane.

"We take a break here. Nay long, we need te hurry"

After that he sat down and took a flask from his backpack, offering it to Melima first.

"This be water. Ye drink some"

She took it with both hands and drank from it to quench her thirst. The blue eyes had a worried and troubled look in them. Melima, young as she was, saw the pain and her hand reached into her pocket to touch the drawing she still kept with her. Mere seconds after she stopped drinking Hladgunnr took the bottle from her hands, gulped some of the water down and wiped his bearded mouth with the back of his hand. After this he stood up and took Melima's arm again, turning to Blackmane.

"Enough rest, on yer feet we need te move on!"

Without waiting on a response Hladgunnr started marching again. With the village in sight his steps got bigger, and his grip tighter around her little arm.
The men were quiet, obviously scared of what they would find in the village.
When they entered the gate, Melima saw what once had been houses, still smoking and here and there a little fire. Like in her hometown, bodies were everywhere. The only difference was that these were Dwarven bodies, instead of the Feir'Dal bodies that were still vivid in the little girls mind.
Hladgunnr headed straight for one of the houses on the other side of the village, and ran inside, letting go of Melima's arm.
The scream Melima heard would follow her in dreams for the rest of her life.

"NAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!"

Melima dropped to her knees, her face hidden in her hands. Tears ran over her cheeks and she cried hysterically.
Hladgunnr walked back, out of the house and picked Melima from the ground, holding her close.

"Me nay know yer name, me nay know what happened to ye, but me knows me won't be letting ye be scared nay longer, me nay leaving ye alone nay more."


The little girl looked up at the strong dwarf. The tears in her eyes blurred her sight, and Melima blinked a few times before she wiped them away with the back of her hand. Slowly her body and mind calmed down, and Hladgunnr held her close to him, making her feel safe in this awful environment. Completely exhausted from everything she fell asleep in his arms.
The sun burned on their heads. Hladgunnr sat there, on his knees with the sleeping child against his chest. He rocked her and gave her comfort, and when she was tight asleep, he stood up and carried her to the cooler shade of a tree nearby.
Hours later Melima opened her eyes. Confused she looked around and yawned a few times before she noticed the friendly dwarf, just a few feet away from her.

"Ey there lass, good te see ye decided te wake up teday"

Hladgunnr reached beside him, and handed her a flask.

"Ye need te drink a bit lass. Ye got a name?"

Melima sat up, and hugged her knees, resting her chin on them. She just nodded at the dwarves question and accepted gratefully the water flask he offered her.