The Little Crow

Chapter Twenty Two - [Selfishness]

Julian only stopped driving when they switched cars, when they were refueling and finally when they reached a tiny little town called Imanay up in the mountains of Kiryu, the Easternmost province of the Elorian region. They had been driving for hours and by the time they arrived the sun had set and the stars were out, sprinkled all over the ink blue sky. It was nearly midnight.

He pulled up in front of a small inn, and after the General, who was now in the front seat, stepped out of the vehicle, Julian turned towards Thea. "We're here."

Thea fumbled for her things, half asleep but forcing herself to stay awake the whole time because she thought it would be inappropriate for her to sleep after all the trouble she caused, while Julian and the General stayed awake, alternating the driving.

So she got out of the car quickly, not wanting to be any more of a hassle and looked around, seeing the tiny little town and breathing in the crisp, clean air of the mountains. They were at the town square, which had an inn, a general store, bakery, a post office, a bar and a police station all in one area, all circling a lovely little fountain in the middle of it. And that was it. Well, that was all she could see in the darkness of the night, the old cobblestone roads lit only by dim lamps.

She imagined that if you were to follow the roads down in the direction of the shadowy mountains off in the distance, you would probably find all the homes of the people who lived here, though no one was out right now.

They were certainly really, really far away from the city.

She followed the two men up the steps of the inn, and when they entered, they were greeted by an older Elorian woman sitting at the front desk. "Niall!" She exclaimed, making it clear that she knew him.

Niall smiled and when Thea looked at him, she saw the exhaustion plain as day on his face. It made her feel worse, but the woman distracted her by beginning to speak in Old Elorian, the ancient language of Eloria which was barely spoken these days by anyone except for those who lived in rather isolated areas of the land– areas that were largely untouched by the Aiverian occupation.

Even before Eloria was taken over by Aiveria, the language began to fade away in the more urban areas. Nowadays it was almost never heard in areas such as Abureth and Gaila seeing as the Aiverians enforced their own language upon the Elorians after taking over a hundred years ago. Old Elorian was now practically useless, the knowledge of it meaning nothing for any sort of worthwhile career.

Despite her own Elorian pride, Thea herself barely understood the language. All she really knew were words and phrases from lullabies and songs her grandmother used to sing to her. And her brother... he too used to sing her Old Elorian songs, proving he was rather well versed in it thanks to their maternal grandparents who spoke pretty much only that– her mothers family had come from the outskirts of Abureth, after all, her grandfather moving them to the city so they could have a better life.

However, her maternal grandparents were long dead by the time Thea was old enough to learn it and her paternal grandmother, despite being a teacher and then a principal, never thought it significant to teach it to even her own children, let alone her grandchildren.

Now, Old Elorian was a language they taught the basics of for a few years in elementary school so that Elorian's could value their history. But that was it.

Hearing it now, here, was more than enough to make Thea certain that they were literally in the middle of nowhere.

She assumed, as she tried to comprehend what the woman was saying but managing to only pick up on a few phrases, that the woman didn't actually know Niall well. Why would she think he knew the language–