Only you and I [Kratos and me]

Christine peered down at corner of kingdom from her large balcony. A small smile played on her lips as she spied to teens, most likely castle servants holding hands and laughing like they had just broken the law.

Christine's room was located in the northeast room of the castle, which she couldn't have loved more because it gave her a clear view of the front of her kingdom and also the side. She sighed as leaned over and propped and elbow on the railing to rest her head in her hand. She envied those kids, they had what she wanted, or at least, that's how it seamed. She wanted someone to laugh with, someone of her choice and actual liking. Her sister,... had it worse then her, she had been betrothed since early childhood. She still had the chance of perhaps getting to choice her partner, perhaps. However, she knew that the perhaps was definitely not something to go on about. Regardless of what Christine did, or was, she was still a princess, and her father's daughter, she had considered herself lucky that he had let her do what she's wanted all of the years that he has.

Another sigh escaped the brunette's lips and she pushed herself off of the railing and onto her feet to stand up straight, she had heard her door open. Turning around, she smiled to greet the man whom she knew so well. As they reached each other both of their smiles grew, "Christine, my dear," her father spoke softly and dropped a hand down to rest on his daughter's head. "Yes?" She looked into his light green eyes with false question, she had already known what was coming. "I wish you wouldn't go tonight,...." A sigh came again, "Father,,... I know, but,... its not the first time I've done something like this,.... you know I'll be alright." Christine tried to sound patient, but in truth she disliked when he did this to her, it always made her feel guilty because she knew he was concerned out of love. "Yes, well,....it's just that,..." He trailed off into nothing and simply stared at Christine in silence. "My, you've grown," he said it almost sadly, but Christine had to repress the urge to roll her eyes. She wore a smile, "But,...I have been eighteen for almost a year already, I've been growing." "I know," his answer was short and with that, he turned to leave, only stopping at her door to add, "Your sisters were married before eighteen,..... it's soon time for you to get married, Christine. You can't escape it anymore."

As the door closed she stood there frozen, it had been a shock, frightening the thought of that again. Her father had mentioned it before, but he had sounded so serious this time, and she was getting older. Christine bit her lip and shook her head out of her thoughts, she had to get ready for her mission.

The elves, a unique race that ended up more superior then anything on this planet, for every five decades that passed in human years, an elf would age one year in appearance meaning an elf of the age 1000 human years, was only twenty in physical appearance, This aging system was just one of the things that were different about them compared to humans, It was one passed by the ancient gods that they believed in. Gems and certain crystals held their power and could only truly be unlocked by elves who had practice the mystical ways of the elders, to tap into such power though took plentiful energy and each and everything done with even a hint of magic introduced had to be carefully controlled or the caster or controller as some called them.. would lose control.. and their life could be ended if they overused their possible energy... Each elf had their own unique amount, and they were about as similar as a finger print, they could be defined in groups.. but could never be identical.

The humans began to become jealous of the elves, and after many years of plotting and scheming came up with something that would cause the treaty between the two races to break but would hopefully try to make them more equal. Yet they then decided to steal one of the sacred jewels, the particular one was the most powerful and was delivered to the earth by an ancients prophecy telling of a large rock of fire crashing into the earth, the scar and destruction left behind a symbol of the power the ancients had sent down for the ultimate race. Stealing such a thing brought bad misfortune for the race, and without it the cities were starting to tremble, as it was the true power that kept the land safe. A small group had been dispatched from the main settlement, in hope to retrieve the sacred jewel and forgiveness would possibly occur if no action or words were used on account of retrieval. Their would be chances were the elves would offer the humans redemption yet being the stubborn race that humans were.. no matter how good the offer they would most likely decline.

In this little group that was dispatched, members of the monastery had joined the heavily armored guards and the villagers who wanted to see the return of the jewel, the key figure of the group was the prince of the elves. His name Seth Alcarina. Being of royal blood unlocked much more possibilities and meant direct access to the power that was binded to an elves blood although like any other elf, they had to learn to control their usage and made sure to not overuse their amount of energy that they could use otherwise the soul would shatter. Humans were not the only race who felt desire and greed, as they only wanted things they had access to... but some elves wanted access to divine power.. and direct access to the ancients.. yet upon trying such thing... their existence became nothing when power overloaded their soul breaking it into billions of pieces that were then shattered and sent into the sky as a reminded to all elves what would happen if such a thing were to occur... these pieces were then later named stars by humans who believed they could tell the future from such things, which was partially correct.. but they were better at telling the past.

For quite a while now this small group had entered the forest of Finarca, which eventually let to Phiraphori, The desert of the lost souls, most who entered would eventually become lost.. the lucky ones made it the the main human settlement, Nara Narkep, which translated to the land of the simple. Which to the elves seemed rather correct, many stories existed about humans and their upcoming, some say they were brought by another god, others stated that they had evolved from monkeys, which could have explained how they went to barbaric states and then developed into what they were these days. The main settlement consisted of what some would deem a fortress, yet to the elves it was just a simple design that had been stolen from them, the only thing the human had not been able to try and copy of the elves, were their true cites. These consisted of buildings made out of crystals and raw materials, much rarer then any one metal alone on the planets surface let alone its core. Such cities were vast and powerful housing most of the elves in just one city. Only two true elven cities existed... the main city was Cheliriphea of were the young prince of the age 950 came from.

Seth had been leading this group for countless days now, and it had been about two weeks of traveling so far and they had finally made it to Phiraphori, once they crossed the ocean of sand they would finally make it to Nara Narkep... were they would retrieve the stone in any way possible, once the journeying into the desert began the monks began to slowly die off, the lack of water and exhaustion kicking in. Unlike a warrior they did not have the will of iron, meaning once something was to happen... It was part of destiny and to stop it would be to alter everything and start creating disasters. This was something the elves believed in rather strongly. The monks were meant to guide them mostly through the desert yet only the strongest were surviving so far. This desert on the other hand to the soldiers was nothing, it was of no hassle to cross as they were determined to do such a thing, Usually such a thing would get them lost since such an attitude was foolish if they started leading the group. But that was why Seth was their.. to keep everyone under control and make sure the strongest of monks were able to guide them. They still had days to travel since this journey was on foot, horses would have sped it up dramatically yet such a thing was not possible to arrange upon leaving.

Seth sighed as they walked, their pace was quick yet slow. He was the pure example of the perfect elf, flawless facial features, with medium long brown hair which reached down to his shoulders. It was part of the family tradition to have that length during the younger ages of adulthood and tradition was something he followed. Apart from his hair, his blue sapphire eyes held much wisdom of the ancients, their power partially surging through him as he was blessed by them at birth a symbol existed on his back as a birthmark stating such a fact. His clothes were very noble and sturdy, the armor that went over the top royal chainmail, it was light and cooling in the sun, and held much strength his prime possession was his sword crafted from pure crystal, it was unbreakable.. and was a part of him like his soul.. it was inseparable from him.. and if it was to be taken.. it would return to him instantly, causing the thief to be surged with a taste of its power. His body although agile and rather dexterous was rather fit and strong, yet strength was not something he craved and neither was power, that was what made him different from the usual.. and made him a born leader that would be a benefit to the group as a whole and not just himself, they continued to travel, a lack of conversation occurred between them. Little did they know once they would reach the deserts end, that they would meet a group of humans.. who were a little more hostile then planned.