Infinitesimal: A Tale of Dragons and Daring Deeds

Chapter 7: In Order

Cael hugged Lou tightly. She kept a strong grip on Cookie's reigns and made sure to avoid any holes in the dirt. Apparently, Cael did not trust Lou's steering anymore. She could hardly blame him, she had been quite out of it lately.

Cael put his head on Lou's shoulder and stared holes into the back of the elves' heads. Their thin ears twitched with every one of Cael's blinks. Cookie paced carefully behind the deer and kept each one of her hoofprints inside the one in front of her.

Lou couldn't be happier. It's not always that one gets to follow elves right into their main camp. She felt like the hero of some fantasy tale. Her scythe, dramatic and blaring fading sunlight off of it, and her demeanor. She held her nose high in the sky like the knights from the Capital, Cattail Rue. Lou almost giggled. What a lucky girl she is.

The path the four of them were on got slowly denser. Trees loomed over their heads and Lou felt the need duck whenever a branch got too low. Cookie was a good foot taller than the deer, and Lou noticed more and more as the trees started flicking her and Cael in the forehead.

Cael cleared his throat very loudly. The two watched the Amethellan's ears twitch. Cael scooted closer into Lou and smirked. He cleared his throat again, louder, and Amethellan perked up. He laughed. Loudly.

Amethellan turned around, scaring Maekera out of their pretty black hair. Her deer stomped angrily. It almost seemed like the deer was a part of Amethellan. Amethellan and her deer stepped closer and closer still until the deer seemed to be challenging Cookie, and Amethellan to Lou.

Lou spread a smile wide across her face. "Yes?"

"Why does your companion raise his voice so? It is aggravating me and my little Gau!"

"Gau?" Cael asked. "As in, squirrel?"

Amethellan's face turned beat red. Gau shook her head. "I forget you have an dwarir speaker in your midst!"

Lou chuckled. "I apologise for Cael. He can be infuriating, but he means well. I assure you. He only wanted to ask you something."

Amethellan turned her head to Cael. "Then what is it, boy? You seem far too immature for your age."

"I'm twenty cycles, you're only Amethellan. I'm your senior." Cael stuck his tongue out at her. He made extra emphasis on the "n" in her name.

Lou raise her shoulder and knocked Cael's jaw. "Don't be rude," she said, although she agreed that Amethellan was acting like their superior. She didn't know what a cycle was and needed to ask Cael about it later.

"Nevermind it!" Amethellan fumed. "What is it that you want?"

"Would you mind terribly if Lou and I walked the ground instead of on our horse? Cookie is too tall for this overgrowth." Cael said evenly. How he could go from a bickering twelve-year-old to someone so mature never ceased to amaze Lou.

Maekera turned to the two humans. "Dwarir-speaker, although I do assume you mean well, no ku'ra can touch the ground of this area without the approval of the clan leader."

Cael huffed. He'd just have to keep getting his head smacked by branches until they make it into camp. Lou liked to see him with his confident side shot down, it made him seem less like a trope from some fantasy novel and more like a real person.

Cael got slapped three or four more times before the branches seemed to all have already snapped off. Lou pointed one out and said "Look, Cael, you're not alone in your irrational tallness!"

Amethellan laughed, and Maekera held a hand up to their mouth.

"I feel like I'm being attacked," Cael muttered under his breath.