SunMoonStars

Chapter One

"Mummy?" a small child asked with a sort of quiver in her voice. "Where are you?" The little five- year-old girl gasped when she walked into the throne room of the court of the Sheedae. Strewn along the floor of the great hall were the bodies of her people. The gravity of the situation was lost on the young child.

She ran over to her mother, who was staring, blank eyed at the ceiling above her, the blood from the sword wound across her waist pooling on the marble floors. Suprisingly enough, the Queen of the Sheedae Clan was still alive. The small princess, Zoay, looked at her mother, and giggled. "Mummy? You silly! Why are you asleep on the floor?"

The faery/elf woman pulled her only child toward her. Zoay stopped laughing. "Mummy-" Queen Brethil sat up slowly and started rocking Zoay. "Shhh. Zoay, it shall be all right, Mummy's here, Zoay." She coughed, then laid back down on the ground, her voice turning formal and important. "Zoay Brethil Anaxarium, my daughter and my heir, begot from my one love, I name you Queen of the Sheedae. With my death, you live." Pulling off a circlet with a blue stone as bright as the Sheedae hair, she placed it on her daughter's head. Then the light faded from the Queen's purple eyes.

Zoay, realizing that she was now alone in the world, let out a cry through the massacred lands.

Out the land of the Sheedae, across the Great Wood, into the realm of Tellic, a civil war tore across the land. The Tellic king and queen had been found in their royal chamber three months before, brutally murdered by unknown persons. The eight-year-old prince was missing from the castle, presumed to have been kidnapped by the murderers. The months went on, and the kingdom finally believed the boy to be dead. In those few months, the former king's two-half cousins had begun competing for the throne and the land became divided between those who wished Lord Gelin to rule and those who preferred the Duke of Hadyl as king.

The boy, however, was not dead. His nurse in the castle, a wise mage who occasionally had the power to See, had felt the end of the House of Mayyowaa. Nyni had raised the young prince and was more a mother to him than the woman who begot him, and she loved him as she loved her own child. So, on the eve of House Mayyowaa's fall, she set her plan to action.

Flying down the stairs, more gracefully than she had when she was a mere maiden, Nyni al'Lee hoped that she was not too late to save the Crown Prince of Tellic. She opened the door into his room and gasped. The eight-year-old lad was alive and glaring defiance at the tall faery assassin before him. Without even bothering to think of the consequences, Nyni used the Forbidden Fire on the faery. She opened her eyes, not even realizing she closed them and saw the charred ground where the assassin once stood. She grabbed the prince around the waist and crept out the room.

"Nyni!" the boy whispered, "where are you taking me? Why are we leaving?"

"Shush, my prince. I have news. People came and killed your par- the king and queen."

"Oh."

Nyni continued running, darting around corners and listening for any footsteps of any more assassins.

"So," the boy whispered a few minutes later, "where are we going?"

"Wayside City. We're going to meet a few old friends of mine. You'll be safe there."

The boy blinked. A few days later, he was in the largest city in the known world, full of crime, nobles, overpriced goods, and thieves. Oh yes, lots of thieves. Some of them were good enough they could steal the mayor blind and he would not so much as blink. And that's where Nyni left him, with Tobias, perhaps one of the greatest thieves ever, and as close to a King as a thief could have. She told Tobias his name was Zarc, and to raise him tough. The hand of Fate was on the poor boy, she thought as she was leaving, the Powers that Be know he'll need it.

The Great Wood was so dark you couldn't even see there was a full moon in the starry sky, A small girl with long pointed ears, pale skin, and the signature ice- blue hair of the almost extinct Sheedae Clan, the last of the faery/elves. Currently, big glossimar faery wings, (which only came out when a Sheedae felt threatened of afraid), fluttered on Zoay's back. And Zoay had never felt so afraid in her whole life. She was alone, she was cold, she was. lost. And she was only five.

She continued walking, tripping on a rock and scrapping her knee. Biting her lip to keep from crying out, she looked around, trying to find something to bandage her knee. (smart thing, isn't she?). She finally just tore off a piece of her skirt and tied it sloppily around her knee, suddenly feeling more tired than she'd ever been before. Curling into a ball and yawning, she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of the blood, death and chaos she had earlier witnessed.

"Fire and ashes, where in all the Powers that Be am I?" Nyni cursed. "Why do these bloody Great Woods have to be so bloody great?!" She hurried down the path, hoping and praying that the Mage Academy was still located around here. She continued running along the path when she noticed something glowing out of the corner of her eye. It was a little girl, glowing the color of the moon. And she was a Sheedae, most definitely by the color of her hair. Noticing the circlet on the child's forehead, she cursed again.

"Damn," she said, picking up the child, "What in the world are you doing out here all alone, little Sheedae princess?" She started rocking the child in a motherly fashion. "Mummy!" the girl cried out in her sleep, "Don't go, please Mummy! Why is everyone on the floor? NO, MUMMY!"

Poor child, Nyni thought in sympathy, the queen must have gotten her family too.

AN: Hola, faithful readers! I'm finally going back and re-vamping this story, html and such. Thanks to all who have reviewed this, and look for works on the next parts and an actuall update in the future- aka, summer. Sorry for kinda abandoning ya'll, but I've been having "issues". My sister died, and I'm in contact with my dad for the first time in my life. Things haven't been fun. But I will start working on this again, promise.