By the next morning’s light, Respen woke up in a startled manner, in his own bed, in his own room. He began to wonder if it was all just a bad dream. As he left his room and walked toward the kitchen, he heard loud munching sounds coming from the table in the kitchen. When he entered it, he saw Felix sitting in a chair at the table, back in his clothes but with his silver armor lying on the floor next to him, and he was chewing on a strip of elk jerky from an almost empty burlap bag in front of him on the table. Soon Felix felt Respen’s eyes on him, and he stared back, his eyes widened and halted his munching.
“What the hell?! Why is there a human in my home?!” Respen asked aloud as searched for his now missing hidden knife that was usually in his back pocket.
“Jeez, you don’t remember me? The man you tried to poison then stab in his sleep yesterday?” Felix inquired sarcastically.
“Don’t you make fun of me, human!” Respen shouted and chose to just use his bare hands to beat this human out of his house.
But before he could lay a finger on Felix, Liesa snuck up from behind and smacked the metal part of her shovel into the back of his head, instantly knocking him out again and he fell face first to the floor with a loud thud.
“Well that seemed cold,” Felix tried to sound like he was cracking a joke to lighten the mood, know what the poor winter elf girl had already been through in just one day.
“Just finish eating, and don’t eat all of it,” Liesa callously said back to him, “I don’t want Respen to starve while I’m gone, plus I’m gonna need some rations for my journey.”
“Hold on, where are you heading?” Felix looked confused with a mouthful of jerky.
“I’m going to go end the current war between elves and humans.”
“Wow,” Felix swallowed a big bite of dried meats. “I had no idea a country bumpkin like yourself could be the diplomacy type.” He quipped.
“This war has been a lot more complicated than you’d think,” Liesa shot back.
“So where are you gonna start? Do you have a plan?”
Liesa began rummaging around the kitchen cupboards for small rations and even took what was left inside the jerky bag in front of Felix on the table as she told him, “I just need to figure out where the remaining amulets are. I’m sure once they are together in one place, there must be some sort of reset on the curse spell.”
“Wait I’m totally lost here, did you say amulets?” Felix asked with both of his hands raised in a surrendering gesture, “What do amulets have to do with this war?”
“I don’t have time to explain it to you,” Liesa practically yelled, her composure reaching its limit as she threw her knapsack over one shoulder and her strapped her bow on the other, “Oh, now that I think of it, I should leave a note for Respen so he’ll know not to come looking for me.” She set her knapsack down on the floor and grabbed some parchment and a writing quill from atop the fireplace’s mantle in the nearby living room. Returning to the kitchen table, she began to write her thoughts as thoroughly as she could:
Dear Respen,
I know I have a lot to explain in such a short time, so I’ll try to make it brief. For starters, you’ll notice that Sillavana has passed away because you stabbed her, but I know it was not your fault so I don’t blame you. Her grave is right outside for when you want to pay your respects. Secondly, I have embarked on a journey to end the war between human and elves. I don’t know when I’ll be back, but I promise I will, so please keep faith that I’ll be okay. Also, I had to take some weapons and rations from our emergency supply for my journey. Please don’t be mad.
Thank you for everything,
Liesa
Once she finished, she left the note plain to see on the table, grabbed her knapsack again and made her way toward the front door. Then she got annoyed by Felix’s constant and noisy munching as he was still devouring the food in her cabin. “Jeez, do you think you could slow down over there?” she said out of frustration, “You sound like a pig eating slop.”
“Hey, for your information, I hadn’t eaten a thing in days before I met you. Not to mention you’re grandfather tried to poison me last night,” Felix complained.
She shrugged and said, “He’s not my grandfather, but whatever. I’m going to pay my respects outside, then I’m gone. You should leave here, too, unless you want to provoke Respen again.”
“What makes you think I’ll stay here?” Felix said.
Liesa made a “Pssshh!” sound like she was annoyed and then turned to head outside.
During the last few hours before the sunrise, the storm from the previous night had already passed, and Liesa had dug a grave for Sillavana. She dug and dug and dug deeply into the several feet of snow before she hit the ground, and her violent stirring emotions were what allowed her to dig through the frozen dirt to make a proper burial hole six feet deep. Then she gingerly placed the corpse into this hole and covered it back up with dirt and snow. A large rock and an elvish religious cross made out of tree branches tied together with twine was positioned at the head of the grave, which was mere feet away from the left side of the cabin.
Liesa stood at the foot of the grave with her hands folded in a praying gesture. Her eyes were closed and she prayed to the Gods that Sillavana may rest peacefully. She desperately held back her tears. She had to be strong.
It didn’t take long for her to sense Felix’s presence standing behind her, and she asked him in a coldhearted tone, which was unlike her, “How long are you going to stand there? Or did you think I wouldn’t notice?” She didn’t turn her head back to face him, and she narrowed her eyes as though she was annoyed.
Felix had already put his dented armor and blood-stained red cloak back on by the time he stood at the corner of the cabin. Merely several paces behind Liesa, he was leaning his elbow on the outer wall of the cabin. His other hand rested firmly on the hilt of his sword tucked away in its sheath that was strapped to his hip. He didn’t say a word at first, not wanting to disturb her grieving, which proved inevitable. Eventually he sighed out loud and told her, “So, I’m guessing you don’t actually have a plan as to how we are going to—”
“I’m sorry, did you say ‘we’?” Liesa interrupted.
“Well, yeah. What makes you think you can handle a journey like that by yourself?” Felix took his elbow off the cabin and took a couple steps forward. He continued, “I saw how you barely stood your own against those elven soldiers yesterday. If you ask me, you’ve got long ways to go from being able to go on a real, high-stakes adventure.”
“What makes you think I’ll have you along in the first place?” Liesa asked, “We’re quite deep in elven territory right now. There’s no way I can focus on my objective and keep you safe at the same time.”
“Says the girl whom I had to save multiple times in less than one day,” Felix said right to her face.
“I don’t have time for this,” Liesa stepped around the grave and began to tread her feet through nearly forty inches of snow on the ground, making her way away from Felix.
He followed her after a few seconds. Both of them trekked through the surrounding woods, zigzagging between the tall pine trees. Liesa heard Felix’s metal boots crunching in the snow behind her. He wasn’t even trying to be sneaky about his presence. He made his own footprints trailing after her.
When they were about a hundred paces away from the cabin, Liesa took the amulet out of her pocket and hung it around her neck while still walking forward. Instantaneously, she heard thousands of agonizing screams from ancient voices ringing in her head. She didn’t dare take off the amulet, though. She assumed she’d just have to get used to it.
Another two or three hundred paces forward, and the clanking of Felix’s armor as he moved was starting to get on her nerves. She eventually said to him, “Hey, if you’re going to follow me, could it kill you to be quieter, at the very least?”
“You think I like having to lug steel armor like this on me at all times?” Felix said.
“Like it’ll keep you safe anyway,” Liesa quipped, “There’s a huge hole on your chest. Or have you forgotten?”
“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” Felix said in a calmer tone, “How is it that you’re so much more different than the other elves?”
“If you don’t like how I act, I could gladly change it up and try to kill you like the others, if that’s what you’re suggesting,” Liesa angrily said, “We are at war, after all. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Hmm, does it have anything to do with what that Lieutenant said about you the other day? A curse, that you were kissed by Death or whatever?”
Liesa stopped right in her tracks. But it wasn’t his words that made her tense up. They had reached a trail in the woods that led to the nearest town. Even though it was covered in snow, Liesa could make out the recent tracks of at least several people having come through here.
Felix walked up until he was standing side-by-side with Liesa. “What is it?” he asked.
He got his answer almost immediately when they both heard a rustling in the tree branches above them. It was only for a brief moment, but it was also when knives and arrows shot down at them from said high branches. They came at them in all directions as they had become surrounded.
Felix deflected almost every knife and arrow flying at him and Liesa by unsheathing his sword and swinging it around all in one fleeting motion. Liesa ducked down out of the line of fire, but she ended up with an arrowhead wedged in her boot. It wasn’t that deeply penetrated into her skin, but it still hurt to put weight on it.
Out of the corner of her eye, as she looked up at where their attackers were positioned, she saw another winter elf crouched on a branch. Their eyes met, and he made a quick swiping motion with his thumb across his own throat. He also had a creepy toothy grin that seemed too big. That was all she needed to see to know that they were in danger all over again.
“Damn it! I thought we’d be safe out here,” Liesa cried as she struggled to rapidly remove the arrow from her leg, shimmying it back and forth while tugging.
“Oh, so now it’s ‘we’, huh?” Felix inquired while he frantically looked in every direction around them to find the enemies. “A minute ago, you were going on and on about how you were going to do it all yourself.”
“Shut up!”
ns216.73.216.208da2
and then Add to home screen.