From Iron and Ruin

Stars of Aldwynn

Unedited.

Chapter 20: Stars of Aldwynn.

The days we spent waiting for the Legion to arrive to Aldwynn were busy. To these Keep Elves, we had become honoured Aldwynn Elves. 

I loved those days. The rigid routine in our days. Rising at the crack of dawn. Training before the day's heat became too strong. Under the blistering sun and biting, gritty wind, my winter's skin freckled.

The Aldwynn Elves were free with their suggestions about keeping our skin healthy, especially after I forgot to cover my face one day, only to wake up the next with a burnt face. Kohen loved the sun and couldn't be kept from it, lounging in sun spots like a cat. There were times were my mood dropped suddenly, and I felt guilty - so guilty—for laughing with these Elves like I had once laughed with the Dratlan Elves.

But I pushed through. When would I get to experience Aldwynn again? When we were not in Aldwynn, we were travelling the expanse of the Scorched Plains, hunting down Nirani.

The Legion finally arrived on a cool day. The skies were dark and as Layerhiel and I sparred out by the old red-stone pillars in front of Aldwynn. He and I had become good friends—as if bonded by the differences that set us apart from the rest. My friends could be sympathetic to my struggles, but they could never truly understand what it was like to live as a Half-Blood in a purist society.

We heard them before we saw them. The sound of iron-shod hooves striking the stony path and reverberating off the high-stone walls of the Aldwynn stone valley, horses neighing and the low and distant murmur of voices.

Layerhiel struck me hard as I paused at the noise.

"Focus," Matthaeus barked at me. "Your attention shifts quicker than Kohen's!"

"I wonder what's distracting Shiny today?" Gwen questioned loudly as she examined one of the red-stone pillars.

"Fine," I returned my attention to Layerhiel, striking quick. The Keep Elf danced back, his eyes alight. I was barefoot on the uneven stone and was clad in the loose-flowing fabric that they chose when they did not wear armour. It was cuffed at the ankles and wrists, but it had taken me a while to get used to not being swaddled in fur and leather.

Layerhiel and I kept fighting until a procession of horses rounded the grand, sweeping corner into Aldwynn.

"You're a strong fighter, Birchwood, but I won this round." Layerhiel conceded.

"You were born to fight in the sun," I examined the staff. "And I was born to fight in the snow, when ice pulls at my heels when I turn, or my fingers stiffen as everything around me freezes."

"Excuses!" Gwen snorted.

I smiled. "You are right, Gwen. Well done, Layerhiel."

"Perhaps one day I will travel to the Elven lands." Layerhiel turned wistful. "I want to look upon the great towering trees of Veusthyal and hear how the trees talk. Farianne has always described it with such love."

"If you ever come that far, ride out to Adotlan. We will welcome you with open arms."

Leading the procession of Legion soldiers was a stallion with a burning coat. The Legion Captain stopped before us, looking particularly disgruntled as he dismounted. I paused as Kohen rushed past me, taking in the long, broad-shouldered figure of the man I had not seen in weeks and examining the tight line of his jaw and the heavy intensity of his dark eyes that swept so critically over the gathering Keep Elves.

Imagine if Mahon had arrived to Dratlan that day. How would he have looked at my home?

"You've finally arrived," Kohen gushed. "Welcome, Mahon to the red-blood walls of Aldwynn."