•A/N•

Heyyo guys!

So—It's been quite a while since I've last updated any of my books, and I just wanted to let ya know that I'm still alive. This is basically just the prologue from a work of mine called The Elementalists which I've only started recently. haven't published it, however if you guys would really want me to, I could always do so. =)

So yeah, that's pretty much it. Also, I'll be updating The Phoenix's Foundation (Down to it's last 5-6 chapters!!) and Poems sometime soon.

Until then, I hope you guys like this!

~

Prologue

Lullaby

The wind was deafening. It whipped through the cold Autumn night, allowing leaves of red and orange to dance around the ground as two bleak silhouettes made their way through the forest, twisting and turning through the trees until they eventually arrived at a village found towards the edge of the seemingly never ending sea of trees.

This village was where they stopped—a small, quiet town known as Pinewood. Their shoulders, draped with brown cloaks that seemed to blend in with night itself, rose and fell slowly as they struggled to catch their breath.

The first of the two pulled down the hood of her cloak. Underneath the brown fabric was a woman, with dirt smeared across her face and sweat running down her forehead from hours of running. Nevertheless, she was beautiful.

In her arms she carried a bundle wrapped in fine green silk. The woman looked down at it tenderly as soft, high-pitched wails started emerging from the blanket.

"Sh," she said, cradling the baby. "It's alright."

The second of them, a man, pulled his cloak even tighter around him. He feared plenty of things. He feared the dark, for one. And he feared the cold-hearted. Although if there was one thing he seemed to fear the most, it would be being separated from those he truly loved.

He looked down at the baby and stroked it's small head in an attempt to calm it down, although it's crying showed no signs of ceasing anytime soon.

He turned to the woman. "Calm him, Miela."

"We cannot force him to silence." She replied.

"Then sing," the man said. "He listens to your lullabies."

Miela sighed and looked down at her son once more. It was a peculiar kind of pain she felt then. The kind that was beautiful and awful at the same time. Bittersweet, some might say.

"Caelis serazian spianu muxato

Aramealira giwa cocscez.

Majaiendo meracjo senca Terra,

Czo relma asi Aqua.

Wevatoni diusre quolicca Ignis,

Dematu firanetse azeki asi Aura."

I must leave you, she sang, in a language very few knew.

But soon you'll grow up.

One day you'll come to wander around Terra,

And explore the waves of Aqua.

Come and visit Ignis,

Fly around in the skies of Aura.

By the end of her song, the baby was fast asleep with small smile etched on his face.

Miela smiled and hurried to wipe away a tear that had fallen down the side of her face as she handed the baby to her partner.

"Here." She said, carefully dropping her child into his arms. "Take him. I best get going now."

She smiled at him one last time, knowing that there was a chance they'd never see again. It lingered a little longer than a moment, and she sought to keep that one picture in her mind forever—the man she loved carrying her son, both about to depart to a better world than the one she lived in, pain in his eyes and a smile on the little one's face.

Tears streamed down her face, although at this point she didn't care anymore.

"Goodbye." She said, before turning around and vanishing into the night.

The man stared ahead, the distant memory of her voice still present in her head as he clutched their child tighter.

     "Goodbye." He murmured, speaking to nothing but darkness.