Chapter 3: The Boy in the Roots

This boy is so strange, Ella thought, staring at the body that had displaced her from her bed. Ever since she had dragged him back two days ago, he had been unconscious. Nothing seemed to wake him.

He was human or so she thought. He had the typical features of one at least. He lacked the pointy ears of the elves, the short and bulky stature of the dwarves, or any of the other trademarks of demi-humans. Nevertheless, he was different.

His hair was rather long for a boy, compared to those she knew. It hid his ears and drooped down, partially covering the center of his face. Despite its length it was smooth, without any tangles that Ella thought plagued all people with longer hair.

Although the clean style was quite unique, it was the color that truly confused her. She had never seen hair in such a pale grey. Well, not on someone so young. The elders in the village all had hair in various shades of white or grey, but they were all in their fifties or sixties. The boy seemed like he couldn't be any older than 17. Not to mention, that if she looked really closely, his hair, although it was very faint, almost seemed to glow a shade of blue.

The more significant difference was what he was wearing. The one-piece suit was unlike anything she had seen. It was as though someone had sewn together a full outfit; boots, pants, shirt, and even gloves. However, there were no seams where the pieces should have been stitched together.

The whole thing appeared to be made of a low-quality fabric that had been loosely woven creating small holes in between each of the extremely thin strands of thread. Contrary to Ella's belief, the threads were in fact quite durable.

The fabric was a deep black color and covered most of his body. It made the clothes seem quite empty, void of any creative expression. The expanse was broken by some small dark grey boxes each surrounded by light grey fabric which served only to break the monotone color scheme.

Each of the boxes were relatively small and contoured to his body. They seemed to be made of a durable material but lacked the shine and texture of metal. That made Ella very curious as to their composition and purpose. Due to their strategic placement around the boy's joints, she assumed that they were meant as some sort of armor. Although, everything about him seemed so strange, so she assumed her guess was way off.

In addition to the boxes, the boy seemed to be wearing a belt, but upon closer inspection, it was unattached to the one-piece and served only to carry a small pouch and holder. Ella tried to open both of them, but to no avail. Despite using all her strength, they remained shut and the boy unconscious.

"Its so weird," Ella thought out loud. "He is the same one from my dream."

The dream Ella was referring to happened about a month ago. In her dream, she was looking up at the stars admiring the slight twinkle. There was a deafening bang as the sky lit up with a raging ball of fire. She was rooted to the ground forced to stare at the sky fire before the scene suddenly switched to a forest. She assumed she was in the one to the south of the village.

Before her stood a very large tree. It must have been the largest and oldest oak, at least for miles around. Her body started to move towards the tree, climbing the massive mound of tangled roots. When she reached the base of the tree, there she saw the face of a boy before waking up in a cold sweat.

The dream was so realistic, it felt as though it had actually happened, causing it to stick with Ella, playing on loop as she went about her life. Although days and nights passed, the dream was always in a corner of her mind until it started coming to pass.

It seemed like a normal evening as Ella stared into the depths of the night sky. The various stars twinkling, so far up there, gave her a sense of amazement and wonder.

That night she saw a new star, streaking across the sky, when suddenly, with a loud bang, the sky fire engulfed the new star. Ella had been going over her dream so many times, there was no way she would mistake it.

She turned and rushed towards the forest, sprinting through the underbrush, along a narrow self-made trail. Ella burst into the clearing surrounding the big tree and was already gasping for air. Despite her exhaustion, she rushed up the roots of the tree. As she approached the base of the tree, a group of roots began to shift revealing the body of the boy.