A Name

As Bright Promise walked south towards the town of Hearth, Archun remained at the doorstep. He slowly sat down, still staring over the horizon in the direction where Bright had walked.

For thousands of years, Archun waited in Rhul for the spirit of Elaria to come back, and here he finally discovers her again in Bright's body. Need it be said, but Bright knew little of her great spirit's history.

A long time ago, before Rhul was created, Elaria lived with her three brothers and sister with their father. They had all been adopted by Eldor, an old man that lived on a secluded mountain top over-looking the ocean, except Aille which was Eldor's blood son. Each of the adopted had mysteriously drifted to the mountain area as small children. Eldor had found each one wandering about different areas around the property.

Elaria wound up sitting in the apple orchard down the mountainside pointed towards the ocean. The night before she must have stopped in the orchard to grab some apples, even though the harvest had not begun yet, and fell asleep afterward.

That season, the orchards had become dry due to drought and grew weak and tired in the humid weather. Usually, the trees held tall during the warm months, especially since not much differed between the warm and cold months except for a cool breeze now and then. But the trees this time slowly recoiled into the ground, as if water directly drained from the tips of every leaf, from every steam, from every branch to the trunk and writhed into the dirt.

After Eldor awoke Elaria in the orchard, the next few days presented a rebirth of growth and a new air among the dilapidated trees. Eldor stood between two of the oldest apple trees in the orchard while spreading his arms to the skyline and spoke to his son Aille, "For this is a great day, a child is received and prosperity reigns on us again!"

Aille later told Archun of his encounter with the lucky girl, that Eldor ended up naming Elaria, for she had no normal name. As Archun remembered, Elaria meant, 'with great light', he assumed Eldor was referring to the growth of the apple orchard whenever she arrived. Later on, he would realize how the name became more of an importance.

Before Elaria arrived, Archun spent his time with Aille when he had time. He lived further down the mountainside where his parents owned a small farm of cows and other livestock. The two contrasted each other sharply. Archun was tall for a young man and had a firm and fit body with light hair on his head. Aille instead was at least a foot shorter than Archun and had a darker complexion, hair and eyes. The brightness of Archun emitted from his body in happiness and social pleasantness; conversely, Aille lived almost alone, even in a house that eventually held two sisters, two brothers and a father all sharing a kitchen. Archun and Aille were relatively the same age, as no one tracked proper 'birth' dates, but how many seasons they had lived through.

It had been approximately the 43 season since Archun could remember when Elaria first smiled up at the tall boy. He remembered how her dark hair gently circumvented her oval face as her bright green eyes reflected every beam of sunlight that hit the inner colors to the outer colors of her iris and back into the world. At that time, Eldor estimated that Elaria was about 38 seasons of experience.

She was shorter than Archun and had a thin pale frame. Her fingers were long and delicate and skilled when planting, as she enjoyed while the sun shone on the grounds of the gardens and orchard.

Merik, Aille's first brother, was an inventor. He came before Elaria and was slightly younger than Aille and Archun. He was a fine friend to have around, even though Archun and he were not as close as Archun and Aille. A smile crept along Archun's face as he remembered when Merik first prompted Elaria to talk to Archun.

"Go meet Archun, Elaria. He would be very pleased to meet you!"

The timid girl walked from behind her older brother to the tall man before her and held her long, thin arms behind her back. She wore a light white linen dress that maneuvered at every sway of her body and her feet remained bare. Elaria bent her head down but kept her eyes fixated on Archun.

"Hello Elaria, I am Archun. How are you?"

She closed her eyes, "I am good this morning. I've already watered the plants and trimmed the bushes."

Laughing slightly at the girl's willingness to work, Archun replied, "And what do you do for fun?"

Almost perplexed, Elaria opened her eyes again a inquired, "What is not fun about taking care of others?"

At this moment, Archun paused and realized that Elaria spoke in all seriousness. From that moment on, he wanted to give that girl more than just chores, even if she did enjoy it.

The sun began to set over Bright Promise's little cottage on top of the orchard's hill which Archun never noticed until now.

"Merik, eh? Without you, I might never had the opportunity for Elaria talk to me, she was too timid!" he laughed to himself. "You were a dear friend to me, I regret knowing that I'll never see you again..." He drifted off once again, almost slipping into the horror near the end of his life that all of them had experience so many years ago. He shook he head slightly, breaking his trance, "Therefore, I want to name the Bishen Dragon after you. Merik will do."

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