"The Echoes of Elaria"
The sun had just begun to dip beneath the horizon, casting golden streaks across the vast plains of Elaria. Dust floated lazily in the warm air, and a quiet wind carried the faint scent of lavender from the distant hills. For most, this land was home—predictable, steady, and familiar. But for Kael, it was a cage.
He had spent all twenty-three years of his life in the village of Renn, nestled between two sleepy hills and surrounded by forests too dense to venture far into. The villagers loved their routines: rising at dawn, tending to crops, mending fences, sharing meals, and repeating it all the next day. But Kael felt a constant restlessness inside him, as though a voice from far beyond the woods was whispering his name.
"You'll inherit the farm one day," his father always said. "You'll marry a good girl, raise children, and grow old under the same roof where you were born."
