Irma couldn't hear the footsteps of the soldiers over her own panting, but she knew they were coming. Mommy had told her to run as fast as she could when they'd broken through the village's palissade, and she had run.
She didn't know where to run at first, as everything outside of the fields and the village was forbidden to kids. So she'd ran to the fields, and stopped at the end of them, because she was a good girl. And then she'd heard the big man on a horse yell to the soldiers to catch her, and she had panicked and run into the forest.
Sure, she'd never been into the forest alone, but she'd been with her parents and her older brother when he was still a kid and not a grown up. So she knew some paths, but the woods felt oppressive, she was being pursued, and now she was lost, and the soldiers were still after her.
That's when she saw the clearing, and the cliff and the cave and that's when she wished she was actually lost. First, the cave wasn't that far from the village, so she must have backtracked at some point. But the most important part was that the cave was forbidden. Like grown-up forbidden. No one had the right to enter the cave, not her parents, not the mayor, not Old Javier of the temple, not even Lord Esteban and his huge horse who'd come once to the village.
She stopped running, for the second time today, at the entrance of the cave. If the cave was forbidden for everyone, then maybe the soldiers wouldn't follow her inside. But it was really really forbidden. She couldn't go in, could she? A shout of "There she is, lads!", followed by the shapes of soldiers coming out of the woods and into the clearing where the cave entrance was brought her out of her reflexion. She had to choose, face the soldiers she was told to run away from or enter the cave she was forbidden from entering.
When an arrow passed over her head and rebounded on the cliff side, she ran into the cave. They were going to kill her. She had to run, she had to hide, she had to survive them somehow. She ran and ran into the cave, she couldn't see that well, but there was some kind of light that allowed her to run at random into what she felt like an enormous cavern system. The ground was uneven and slippery, but she had the surest footing of her life, never faltering in her run. It was like the stones dried and smoothed themselves when her feet approached, letting her sprint into the darkness.
Even with a sure footing, a 9 year old girl can only run so much in an afternoon. Eventually, Irma came to a stop, out of breath, in what looked like Old Javier's temple, but bigger, and with better pictures on the walls. Once she'd caught her breath, she looked around. The pictures on the walls were the familiar story of the gods, where they vanquished great evils and then disappeared, and out of habit she followed the murals.
That's when she came to the mural of Elvandra, the Archmage of the gods. She'd always wished to be a powerful wizard and crush the enemies of the gods with her magic. She went closer to the sculpture and touched the staff of Elvandra. She really wished she could have such a powerful weapon to protect her village and her family.
Then three things happened in very quick succession. First, she heard the sounds of the soldiers looking for her in the caves. Then the staff she was touching detached from the mural and fell into her hands. It was big and heavy at first, and then it shrunk. It was still bigger than her, about a hand above her head, but she could carry it easily, it wasn't heavy at all, even when it seemed made of carved hard wood and maybe bronze or gold at the top and the bottom. And then she heard the voice.
It was the most wonderful voice, full of strength but caring, a woman's voice that she knew she wasn't really hearing, but whose words she would never forget.
"Raise, child! For being pure of heart and wishing power, not for power's sake, but to help others, I have guided you here and chosen you as my herald in the mortal realm. Carry my staff with you, it will protect you and serve as a symbol of my authority. Keep pure of heart, child, for the world will soon need the power of the heralds, and you are one of them now."