I flitted my fingers and light flooded the tiny space. I took a quick inventory in the light: the seal on my wardrobe intact, my drawings still scattered appropriately across the floor, a stash of cheese on the table beside my bed, and my mother’s pendant hanging from a woven leather chain above my pillow shooting refracted beams across the bed. I smiled.
I scanned quickly through the pages I'd brought home from the library, trying to find some order. I hadn’t even considered there might be missing pages, but I sorted what I had as best I could, sitting rigidly while anxiously reading through each page. The first pages contained a detailed description of the writer including his lineages and how he came upon the information. He was apparently a record keeper for the Grand Council and was responsible for copying scrolls and adding new information for each of the northern clans from their various local libraries.
Some of the information was sketchy: gossip from the neighboring fairy guild about strange activities and reports from travelers about deserted villages. Or maybe not deserted, one description seemed to imply the village was not only empty of elves, but empty of all evidence it had ever been inhabited. There were maps of the mountains and forests, showing each village and town.
The next pages were a copy of the record keeper’s report to Grand Council about his findings. And his horrible conclusion. There were definitely missing pages here, but something dreadful had happened for certain. His official report should have been factual and serious but the description was loaded with superstition and fear. Even his script became shaky as it reached the final word… "Extinction". Something had wiped out the entire region? All the northern clans were gone according to his account.
The last pages were lists of clan members in order of family names. There must have been thousands, but still pages were missing… F… G… L… N… V…
As I reached the end, I took a deep breath. I had gotten so involved in the terrified man’s story and page after page of family names, I had forgotten why I was reading in the first place. I sighed. Of course, the pages with the V names were missing. I suddenly felt guilty for the selfishness of the thought while looking over such loss but I waved it away and tucked the pages under my mattress. I lay back on the bed and, looking up at my mother’s pendant, slowly closed my eyes, trying to remember…
I could see her face, beautiful and far from ordinary. Her gentle smile. Her long hair waving loosely around her shoulders, moving slightly with the wind. She wore an elaborate white dress with bell sleeves and a low-cut neck. Her pendant hung there. It started to refract light but there was only darkness around my vision of her. The wind picked up and her dark hair began to whip back away from her face. She was smiling, glorious now, her arms outstretched. The pendant started to glow and the darkness cracked. The wind was howling, screaming. Everyone was running, running away and screaming. I could barely see now for the wind. Or maybe something was covering my face. I screamed but the sound was lost. I tried again, but suddenly I was mute. Blind, mute and still. And yet I knew everyone was dying. Running and screaming and dying. I was overcome, my ears, my chest felt like they would burst.
I jerked upright in bed, gasping. I might have been screaming. My ears were ringing. There was something wet on my face. Tears? No, blood. My nose was bleeding. It took a minute to get my bearings. My bed sheets were a tangle and my clothes were disheveled. Must have been a dream. I had fallen asleep looking at my mother’s pendant, trying to remember her, and somehow combined it with the disaster I had read of the northern clans. Just a dream.
I sat shaken, struggling to collect myself. I reached up and removed the pendant from the hook. I squeezed it in my hand. It felt good there, like a connection. I slid the leather chain over my head and pulled the pendant down to rest on my chest. It felt right there and I knew I should have been wearing it all along. As I let go, I realized I had blood on my hands from my nose and decided to go ahead and clean up for the day.