Shadow Dancer: Fall of Kingdoms

Chapter 2

Ryuu scooped up a stray sword from the snow and kept a wary eye on the man. She was unsure of how he would react to having a strange woman with a tail standing so near to him and she wanted to be prepared if he attacked her. Much to her surprise, he simply flopped onto his back, sending a plume of snow up to hover for an instant in the gloomy air before slowly drifting down to dust his light colored cloak. Had he passed out? She looked harder at the gash in his side, the bloodstain larger than it had been before. His cloak was covered with dark splatters, and there was even a bloody hand print on his left shoulder. She watched his chest rise and fall rapidly as he caught his breath. She took a hesitant step closer, her confiscated weapon at the ready.

“Uh,” she hedged. “Are you alright?”

He cracked a single gold eye at her, the sparkling light behind it momentary taking her breath away. His broad grin matched that brightness perfectly. They were the complete opposite of what had burned in the soldier’s gaze.

“I'm alive, if that's what you're asking,” He said in an almost joking tone and he took a slow, deep breath. “It hurts too much for me to be dead. If not for you, I wouldn't have to worry about pain, though, and for that I thank you.”

He was an odd one, but she felt the corners of her mouth turn up in the barest hint of a smile none the less. She liked that quality in his eyes. It matched her brother's. His voice had the slightest musical quality in its vowels. The liquid flow of words like water over stone that brought to mind visions of dappled sunlight and warm moss was the cadence of an accent that only belonged to those who hailed from the Elvin kingdom of Sylvania in the south. Her curiosity peeked at the melody of it. What was he doing so far north, and in the Sha'han Mountains, no less? He didn't have the damp earth and cinnamon scent of an elf. In fact, his scent was almost minty. He certainly didn't look like an elf, either. Oh, his build was long and athletic enough, but his raven hair, gold eyes, and small round ears were features more common to humans and not ones she had ever heard of an elf possessing. Perhaps he was half elf? The soldiers smelled human. She gave the man a wider smile as she walked over to where she'd dropped her bow, retrieving it from the snow.

“You're welcome,” she whispered in Elvin. Rajnish, Ryuu's brother, used to travel the world and learned almost all of the major languages and most of the minor ones. He always taught her that being able to communicate with others was an important skill, and so, from a young age he had taught her all that he knew. She found that speaking languages was almost as fascinating as writing them. It was amazing that dark squiggles on a paper, or seemingly random sounds from the throat, could convey things as unexplainable as feelings, could carry meaning that others could understand as easily as breathing. All of the languages she'd learned were beautiful in their own right, but Elvin was at the top of her list of favorites, second only to Draken. She watched the man out of the corner of her eye as he jerked up into a sitting position to stare at her in surprise, displacing even more snow.

“You can speak Elvin?” he questioned in an almost excited rush. It was odd hearing the words in a voice other than her brother's, but it was no less elegant. By the smooth continuance free of any hesitation or mispronunciation, she knew he had to have at least lived with the elves for quite some time. She shrugged at him self-consciously as she dusted the sparkling powder from the smooth length of her bow.

“A little,” she replied, making a conscious effort to slow the words to sound a little less natural. “My brother is teaching me. He's a lot better than I am.”

“Amazing,” he breathed under his breath. Then to her he said, “I never thought I'd run into someone who could speak my native tongue. It's somehow...relieving.”