Once, in an almost unknown place very far away from Arcas, a human girl came into the world, an absolute crying mess. Her parents, Uther and Alana Haugen, decided to name her Branwen, something her mother had made up on the spot. Branwen remained an only child throughout the rest of her life.
Uther and Alana lived in an isolated area, rather far from most of their family and friends. They farmed all of their food on their own and mostly kept to themselves, but they would occasionally travel to the nearest village to buy clothes, tools, etc. However, on the day of Branwen’s 5th birthday, her parents decided to buy something new for her. It was a book that her father read to hear that very same night, as neither she nor her mother could read. A book composed of many stories, all of them about things the small girl had never thought of before. Brave and admirable knights saving the damsel in distress, the dragon who sought a friend and with kindness made millions of them, the little boy who fought the giant. Every story had its own meaning and its own message, and something lit up inside of the lonely girl’s heart.
A spark that had been hiding.
From that day forth, she started going outside in different places and started exploring the little place she lived in. Unfortunately, her parents wouldn’t allow her to wander off too far from the cottage they lived in, and thus Branwen couldn’t wander the places she wanted to wander. But no matter how limited her home was, the spark in her heart never died. But in order to keep all of these adventures she craved, she created a fantasy inside her head, a place she’d wander off to whenever she could, a place where the good guys always had a happy ending and the villains always ended up somewhere far away from them. It was her safe place, her own little world. That book her parents had bought her became her most prized possession, even when she got other books on her other birthdays. The girl got even more adventurous as she started hearing of all the different kinds of people and creatures actually existed in the real world, such as elves and dwarves. Growing up she became a girl of a curious and fighting spirit, she hated to lose and was very competitive, but kind nonetheless. However, her whole life was about to change in one conversation.
One day, the little family was eating dinner a few weeks after Branwen’s 20th birthday. They sat in silence, but it didn’t last too long as her father spoke up:
“ It appears that Lornan kid ran away, unsurprisingly. He didn’t even say goodbye to anyone except Ellenia.”
Alana looked at her husband, an expression of very slight confusion on her face.
“Didn’ yeh say somethin’ ‘bout the kid bein’ curious ‘bout the father? Maybe he ran away fer that reason?” She asked while twirling the tips of her hair, a thing she did when she was pondering over something.
Branwen looked between her parents, face scrunched up in confusion, but the tone behind her next words was of pure curiosity:
“Who’s this Lornan? I ain’t heard of him before an’ suddenly yehr talkin’ about him.”
Uther and Alana shared a look, contemplating about whether or not to tell their only child about her cousin. A few minutes passed when nobody spoke, although Branwen was glaring intensely at her parents. Even more time flew by when Alana parted her lips:
“Yeh know aunt Ellenia, right darlin’? Well, jus’ a few years prior to yehr birth she had a son. No one knew of ‘im until he was born, and the story behind ‘im is quite special. Yeh see, a group of elves was passin’ through ‘er village one day, and one of ‘em managed to seduce ‘er. But once he found out she was pregnant, the whole group left and left ‘er there to raise the child on ‘er own. As he grew up, none of the village members accepted ‘im, but Ellenia tried to raise ‘im the best she could. An’ yeh heard of the reason we think he ran away.”
The brunette stared at her ginger mother, she didn’t know what to say. Not only hadn’t she known of a cousin, but a half-elf as well. She knew that half-elves were hugely disliked by the church, so why would her aunt allow herself to be seduced by the likes of an elf? Then it clicked.
“Don’t elves ‘ave a hard time repopulatin’ because of the curse?”
“Indeed, it is truly a miracle that Ellenia managed to get a child. In fact, I think she knew that if she slept with the elf she’d have a very low chance of getting a child.” Uther suddenly said after being quiet during the whole conversation, startling the two women. Nothing else was said after that
This whole ordeal with Lornan was very interesting to Branwen, as she had never met a half-elf. She could feel the urge to seek for him grow stronger and stronger for each passing moment, curious about his special race and situation. Not only that, but seeking for him was a good excuse to further explore the world that she craved to understand. The next day, Branwen decided to visit Ellenia to ask about Lornan. She packed her things and said goodbye to her parents, but didn’t tell them about her plans.
Once she arrived at Ellenias home she was told that Lornan had most probably traveled to Rodenburg in Arcas. And thus, her adventure began as she headed to a faraway land, unaware of the future events that would soon greet her.
