Home, What Must Be Left Behind

It was roughly midnight. Virtually no clouds hung above and lamplight bathed an inconspicuous dirt road surrounded by a forest on the outskirts of a still bustling small town of Lightrim. Elaina was walking home from her meeting with Moria while thinking of her younger days and on the many advices of her father that she'd had drilled into her head.

Elaina had been walking for around an hour when she arrived at a decently large, two-story, traditional Japanese house on a clear-cut plot carved out of the forest on her right and with a simple wooden mailbox at its front. As she approached she saw and recognized a familiar face sleeping, apparently somewhat disturbed, while sitting in a rocking chair on the old, slightly mossy wood porch.

What remained of The old man's hair was pure white, messily trimmed beard and all, and he had a face full of wrinkles. He wore a loose purple haori over no shirt with matching purple hakama

"Uncle, I'm home..." she called with slightly playful familiarity.

"Huh!?" He was tense when he was roused from his sleep, Elaina knew he often had nightmares of the things he'd seen on the seas as a pirate in his youth before he retired. In this instance she did something normal for her and roused him from what she perceived was one of these nightmares. "*pant*pant*... Oh, Elaina, it's just you,"

He adjusted his posture in the chair and looked at his niece with inspecting eyes, after assessing that her mood was off he said "You seem awfly chipper about sumpn', what's up?"

"Moria asked me out on a date..."

"..."

"..."

"I know for a fact yer lying"

Elaina pouted and mumbled dejectedly "I thought it was funny"

He interjected, "But I could also see a shred of truth there, so let me guess, he invited you to sail the seas with him?"

Still, dejected Elaina said as she walked towards the front door "Yeah, I need to make the final preparations in the coming days, and I also need to ask dad to arrange my parting ceremony,"

Her uncle replied "Little bro ain't up right now. If ya want I could tell him in the mornin if ya don't wanna wake up early."

As she opened the door, Elaina glanced back at him and said with a smile "Thanks uncle Vik, that would be a big help." She went in and just before she closed the door Vik got in a "good night sweet pea"

Elaina looked around to see if any of her younger siblings were spying on that conversation and her eyes didn't fail her.

Elaina walked to her left and into the corner reaching quickly to grab the figure of a child out of the darkness and pull him into her arms.

"Now what do we have here," she asked playfully "cause it looks to me like a little swordsman who's up way past his bedtime." It was the youngest of her three brothers, with his ashen hair, pale skin, and pinkish-red eyes, the twelve-year-old Price.

Price looked down a bit ashamed by his sister's insight blowing his cover. Elaina giggled audibly and, after she was done teasing Price, started making her way to the staircase to the second-floor bedrooms so as to put her brother to bed.

One the way Price looked up at his sister and asked her for himself "Are you really going out to sea?"

Elaine frowned, eyes honest and forward and as she started walking up the stairs she replied "Yes..."

After a pause, as she came out into the upstairs hallway Elaina added "It was a hard choice to make, I can barely bear to leave this life behind."

It was only a few words but Price was on the verge of tears

"But I have something that I aspire to do, that I want with all my heart and I can't find it if I stay here."

And just before she opened her brother's shared bedroom she looked her brother in the eyes and asked softly, "If you truly want something you do what it takes to find it, right?"

Elaina opened the door and walked to Price's bed, carefully avoiding her other sleeping brothers before gently placing Price in bed and tucking him in. She whispered to him "Don't worry, I won't be gone for at least another week and a half. For now, just rest, and I'll see you in the morning." She gently smiled at him once more before tip-toeing out of the room and retiring to her own bedroom.

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As Elaina drifted quickly into peaceful sleep she had a dream that she could only describe as odd.

From her point of view, she was simply floating through a void. Looking down yielded nothing, not even a body, but this blackness was then disrupted by a spotlight that shined on two animals. A small albino bat with a scar on its side and a simple raven. They were mostly still until another light shone on a spot behind them from Elaina's view. Beneath the far light was a mannequin imitating a man with present albeit colorless facial features wearing an ornate crown that was slowly slipping from its head. The mannequin's facial expression was a grin a bit like Moria's but without his sharp teeth. As the light flicked on, the bat and the raven turned their heads to watch in awe.

When the crown finally fell to the ground half of it broke into many pieces but the other remained relatively undamaged. A few seconds passed and the mannequin started crumbling to dust and blowing away in a wind that Elaina couldn't feel.

The bat started to walk towards the fallen crown and a second later the raven followed when suddenly there was a rumbling that stopped them in their tracks. Just then, the jaw of a massive animal with black whiskers and lined with azure scales reached down from the darkness above which obscured its body, and snapped down, enveloping the animals before the lights abruptly disappeared and Elaina's view was cloaked once again in darkness.

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Elaina woke up in a cold sweat and with a headache. She'd had dreams like that before that took the form of a fable acted out by animals as if a stage play but this was the first in while to have such an intense moment, because of its familiarity she thought nothing of it but because of the presence of those animals that so thoroughly resembled her and her planned captain she figured she should tell uncle Vik.

As Elaina sat up from her tatami bed and started stretching her arms, the door of the room slid open as the voice of an older woman called out to the young woman "Elaina are you going to get up any ti... oh, you're already up!" she exclaimed with surprise.

"Yes mother," Elaina responded, turning her head to meet the eyes of the beautiful, dark haired woman in a white, blossom pattern kimono "I just had an odd dream that got a little intense."

"Anything that you want to talk about with me?"

"It has to do with my coming voyage so I think I'll seek uncle's council on this one."

"Your upcoming voyage? Oh, did Moria finally give you his invitation?"

"Yep," Elaina replied with satisfaction in her tone "I need to tell dad to make arrangements today."

"Well go ahead and get ready then, you should see him and then see if you can help onion boy get supplies in order."

"I will. Thanks, mom."