Aven was awoken in the night by someone shaking her shoulder. She groaned softly, and then her eyes shot open when that same someone covered her mouth to muffle the noise. Immediately wide awake and very alert, Aven rolled onto her side and came face to face with Eldrin. Slowly, the elf moved his hand from her mouth and held his finger to her lips, indicating she needed to be quiet.
The girl nodded in response, and jerked her eyes around in a circle, trying to ask what was going on without talking. The elf looked amused, but thankfully seemed to get the message. With the speed of a drunken inch worm, he moved his finger to point at the mouth of the cave.
Aven turned her eyes to see what he was pointing at, and almost cried out in alarm. Three creatures were sitting by a fire, slumped into each other, bottles hanging from their hands. Even in the little light available, Aven could make out the tips of their pointed ears, and golden earrings dangling from their ear lobes. Only one species had pointed ears, dressed in green, and wore golden earrings. And, of course, that meant that there were three, intoxicated and unconscious elves, in the front of their cave. That, of course, was never a good thing when one was not wishing to draw unnessecary attention to themselves.
What are we going to do? Aven mouthed at Eldrin. She didn't dare make any noise, fearing that the elves would hear her. It was entirely possible that the noise she already had made could have woken them, and she was lucky it hadn't. Elves' razor sharp hearing was advantageous at times, and extremely annoying at others.
Eldrin just slowly shook his head, mimed sleeping, and nodded at her. He was telling her to go back to sleep. Aven didn't like that idea, but she supposed that unconscious elves would do no harm to her if she ignored them.
Aven forced herself to lay back down slowly and quietly, and then close her eyes. She might not truly be able to sleep, but she could certainly feign it. She'd gotten good at doing that when she learned that it got her out of doing early morning chores. Her parents knew that most of the time when they came in the room and she looked to be asleep, she wasn't, but that was only because half the time she'd started laughing before they left. Now, in a situation that could be life or death, she was certain that she wouldn't laugh and smile when someone tried to call her jib.
As she waited for the elves to wake up, Aven felt stress unveil into her chest. She wondered why the elves had even come to the cave, as most of their species seemed to think themselves too good for Ashanko. At least, that was what she had always heard.
– –
In the end, it was Berkem who woke the elves. He'd been sleeping soundly, neither Eldrin or Mae daring to wake him for fear that he may start when they did so. Sadly, that was exactly what happened.
Berkem must have had a nightmare, or something of the sort, because he woke with a sonorous yell, rocketing upright and snatching his axe off of the floor. In seconds, their drunken elf guests were also shooting to their feet, weapons at the ready and faces contorted into furious snarls. "Imposters!" One hissed loudly, twirling his weapon between his fingers.
They closed together, backs pressed against each other, entirely ready for a fight. Aven grabbed her sword and pulled herself to her feet as well, figuring that there was no longer any purpose in pretending to sleep. Eldrin emerged from the shadows, his face hidden in the darkened depths of the cave, and Mae dropped from the rocky shelf atop the cave's entrance, silhoutted by the light and gripping her weapons menacingly.
One of the drunk elves held out his weapon in a challenge, pointing it directly at Eldrin, and slurred, "Leave now, or leave never!"
Eldrin frowned at the elf, "You're embarrassing yourself," He warned his fellow creature with a cocked eyebrow, "Why don't you guys just go, seeing as we were here first, and we don't have to speak of this?"
Another of the elves, the third one, snarled furiously at Eldrin. "You can't tell us what to do!" He spat, clearly a lot more sober than his friend. "Who do you think you are, scum?"
Eldrin's expression darkened, "Ever heard of the name Eldrin Grove?" He responded, his voice growing cold.
Sensing his anger, Aven shifted uncomfortably. She shot a glance at Berkem, who was standing stock-still with his eyebrows risen so far up his face that they disappeared into his hair. In any other circumstances, the sight of his comical expression would have sent her into an endless fit of laughter. But, at that moment, Aven wasn't laughing.
As far as she knew, her group could probably beat the elves and drive them off. After all, there were four of them, and two of the elves were, at the least, extremely tipsy. Surely, they couldn't pose much of a threat. But she'd learned not to underestimate creatures, and elves were among the list that had proved to be much more powerful than she'd imagined. There was a definite possibility that she was doing it again, and underestimating her enemy.
"Eldrin Grove?" The words of the elf that had spoken first drew Aven back to the present. She shook her head slightly to clear it, startled when she looked up and saw that the most sober of the elves, the one that had really, truly challenged Eldrin, was staring straight at her. As she met his eyes, a sick, worrying grin spread across his face.
"The very same," Eldrin confirmed, nodding at the creature. "So I suggest you leave us here, and be on your merry way."
"I think not," Aven was still staring into the eyes of the elf when he spoke, startling her. She barely had time to register his words before he was lunging at her.
Aven seemed to see everything in slow motion, watching as the elf leaped into the air on his toe, drawing his sword with the speed of a snail. At the same time, however, she seemed to realize something in real time. Moving as fast as she could, Aven lunged for her sword. The elf still seemed to be hanging in midair when she pulled the sword from its sheathe and whirled around just in time to lock blades with the creature.
His eyes went wide. As Aven struggled against him, pushing her sword against his twin knives as powerfully as she could, he seemed to be stuck in cement. Her speed had obviously shocked him just as much as it had shocked her, but she wasn't dwelling on what she'd just done. Seeing nothing but her oppponent in front of her, Aven struggled forward on her toes as powerfully as she could. The elf was stronger than her, but she had the advantage of her mind being totally there and entirely on track.
And then, suddenly, Eldrin's bow was slamming into the elf's side, knocking him out of the way. Aven suddenly noticed the sharpened end on the bow, like it could also be used as a knife. Alarm thrilled through her body, almost as if the weapon was pointed at her, but she ignored the sensation as best she could. Eldrin was protecting her, not hurting her. Aven drew herself back into the present and focused on the fight before her, silently cheering her friend on. She was grateful for his help, despite Berkem and Mae already locked in battle with the other two elves.
Eldrin used his bow like a curved spear, jabbing repeatedly at the other elf to drive him back. He obviously wasn't aiming to kill the elf, but the clench in his jaw clearly meant that he was very angry. Once again, Aven was grateful that the emotion was not directed at her. Eldrin being on her side, and not against her side, was a very good benefit.
As she watched the fight unfold in front of her, Eldrin appeared to be in control of the battle for a long time. But suddenly, the girl found herself face to face with her enemy again. Her eyes widened in shock, she wasn't sure when she had lost herself in her thoughts, but clearly she had. Barely able to raise her sword in time, Aven stumbled back with the momentum of the elf's strike, struggling to regain both her momentum and focus.
In seconds, Eldrin was right beside her, knocking the elf away from her again. But Aven didn't want to stand and watch her friends get hurt anymore. Without a single thought on her mind about what could happen to her, Aven lunged fearlessly into the fight beside Eldrin.
Sword swinging and instincts kicking in, Aven helped Eldrin drive the imposter elf back as powerfully as she could. Chronicle felt natural in her hands, like an extension of her arm. He wasn't too heavy, but not so light that she couldn't control him. He was perfect, like he'd been made just for her.
Aven felt pure power radiating through her body. She'd never fought with a sword before, but Chronicle almost seemed to be doing the work for her. Her weapon glided through the air, slicing across the elf's clothes and ripping his shirt. Aven didn't want to hurt him, that wasn't her goal, she just wanted to scare him away from hurting her or her friend.
Apparently, she was good at her job. The elf retreated quickly, his steps faster and more lithe than she could follow but Eldrin kept pace with him easily. At the sight of one of their companions being overpowered, the other two elves started to back up cautiously.
Slowly, Berkem, Mae, Aven, and Eldrin, pushed the group out of the cave. Eldrin's face was so calm that Aven could immediately tell that he was exploding with anger inside, and Mae's expression was contorted into a furious, and very justified snarl.
"Get away from our camp, go!" She yelled as loudly as she could, waving her weapons at the elf in front of her as the creature began to retreat even further.
The lead elf, the one Aven and Eldrin had fought, offered them a twisted grin that sent shivers up Aven's spine. "We'll be reporting this," He warned them in his sickly calm voice.
Aven barely had a chance to blink before the creatures were gone again, retreating into the rising dawn with not a sound. She clenched her jaw, sheathing her sword with a bit more menace than she intended. She'd wanted to tell the elves that she was in the right, not them, but there wasn't any chance to anymore.
"I didn't like them, either," Berkem said when he saw her expression. His own face was sour, as if he'd just eaten something with a vile taste. "But they're gone now."
Aven just nodded, still too angry at the imposters to say anything else. She felt that her mood was not usual, but she didn't seem to mind it, either. The anger was her fuel, her power. She drew strength from it, found her purpose in it.
Eldrin must have caught the look in her eyes, because he waved a hand in front of her face. "Don't let your anger be your advocate, Aven. It will get you into dangerous trouble."
He was right, the girl knew. Most of the time, that seemed to be the truth. Eldrin was much wiser than the rest of them combined, his years surpassing the rest of them and his training as well. She forced herself to take deep breaths and relax, pushing her anger out of the way, yearning for its blazing fire to die down. She was lucky that she had experience controlling her emotions, experience which she used as well as she could.
There was silence for a few moments, Aven finally allowed her shoulders to droop in exhaustion. When she had been in the fight, in the moment, she hadn't been thinking of how tired she was. But all she wanted to do was curl up and sleep all of a sudden. Her body shook, especially her forearms and fists, and her sword felt heavy against her waist. Her legs tingled when she took a faulty step forward, shading her eyes against the morning sun to see if she could spot the fleeing elves. She couldn't.
"Should we continue?" Mae asked Eldrin, turing to the male elf with a somber expression. "There's a chance we could beat them to the Kingdom of Leaves on horseback, if we rode as fast as we could the whole way and made no stops."
Eldrin shook his head, "No, there isn't. I suspect that they have horses nearby, I heard a few out in the prairie last night. And you know as well as I do that drunk elves always move faster than sober ones. Let's continue, but at a normal pace."
"But won't the elves tell your border guards, so we won't be let in?" Aven protested. She agreed with Mae, any chance at all was a chance worth taking in her eyes.
"No, I don't think they'll tell anyone," Eldrin responded casually.
"Why not?" Aven asked, confused.
The elf cast her an amused grin, his ear twitching and eyes glowing, "Because they were supposed to be on border guard last night, and alchohol is forbidden to soldiers on duty by penalty of suspension from the kingdom."
At his words, Mae seemed to realize that he was right. She gave a jolly, whole-hearted laugh, and nodded. "You're exactly right, Eldrin, as usual. I'd forgotten about that rule."
"You get kicked out of your kingdom if you drink on duty?" Berkem asked, and then chuckled deeply. "We wouldn't have many dwarven warriors left if that rule was true for us."
Eldrin cast him a warm look, "That's because dwarves aren't hardly affected by alchohol. The same is not true with elves, as you have just seen. It takes less than a finger to send us over the edge."
It was Aven's turn to laugh a bit at that. Even humans had better drinking ability than elves, though it was known far and wide that elves weren't all that good at taking shots. She'd read once that drinking alchohol outside of a bar or saloon was illegal because elves had a habit of spilling secrets under influence.
Aven pulled herself back to the present before she delved too deeply into her thoughts, and then looked at the sky again. If they wanted to make good time, they would have to get going quickly. "Will we reach the elven border by today?" Aven asked.
"No," Mae shook her head, "Not today and probably not tomorrow. We have two very large rivers to cross and many leagues of prairie as well." The elf shot a pointed look at the peasant girl, "These next few days will be the last easy leg of our journey. It's likely that the elves won't let us in because of the company of a human and a dwarf. They'll be too suspicious, anywhose. We'll likely have to work our way over the goblin's country.
"If we do travel through goblin's country, it will be the most dangerous and terrifying thing you have ever seen, Aven Knight. I hope you understand that."
Aven felt sheepish under the she-elf's gaze, even though she hadn't done anything wrong. She had studied maps of Cordelia before, and knew that after goblin country, called the Deep Caverns after a supposed lair that sat underneath the Deep Mountains in the center of their territory, there was the Land of Archives, and Edhem. They wouldn't touch the Land of Archives, instead going straight through the Deep Caverns into Edhem. So, if they didn't touch the Kingdom of Leaves, Ashanko would be the last sane, remotely safe place for any of them.
Suppressing a shudder of anticipation and anxiety, Aven walked out of the cave to where the group had tied their horses and grabbed her saddle from beside Cinder. She slung it over her horse's back, strapping it down, and then patted the creature's mane. He whinied, nosing her shoulder, and then stamped his foot.
Aven giggled slightly, booped him on the nose, and walked back to where she'd slept the night before. She pulled her bedroll and other items off of the ground and packed them up neatly, before carrying them over to Cinder and connecting them all to his saddle. She was glad her horse was so strong that he didn't even seem to be burdened by the items he was forced to carry. In matter of fact, she didn't think he'd lost even a bit of speed with the extra weight.
"I kind of think you're an elvish horse, Cinder," Aven whispered in his ear, stroking his mane and then grabbing her saddle horn and pulling herself up. She was finally conditioned to riding all day, everyday, and no longer was so sore when she woke up in the morning. It was a great relief to her.
Cinder didn't move as Aven mounted, politely standing stock still until she was settled, and then lifting his head and flicking his ears back alertly. He was waiting for a command from her. She patted his neck, and ran the heel of her boot against the saddlebag, checking for an oddly shaped lump also known as the Red Dagger.
Around the rest of the camp, everyone else was mountain their horses. The embers of the fire were doused in cold water, and then scattered around. After the bedrolls had been removed from the ground, and Eldrin had wiped away the footprints with an old broom, the place almost seemed to look like a long abandoned camp than one that had just been used.
"Was this a southern miner's camp?" Berkem's voice made Aven turn her head to him. He was already mounted on his horse, his reins in one hand and the saddle horn in the other.
"Yes," Eldrin replied. "I believe so. I found it by a marker on the side of the hill, at least."
Aven had heard of southern miners. Originally, the legend went that a few dwarves decided that it was too cold in the Exiled Mountains and decided to travel south, mining and selling precious ores along the way. Eventually, when they returned to the moutains and told their story, others went and followed their route. Soon enough a trading route had begun between every nation and the dwarves, where the dwarves shared their precious artifacts and the other species gave them their own versions. Eventually, a whole colony of dwarves had ended up moving south. It was lucky, because after they left a dragon destroyed almost the entire land of the Exiled Mountains, killing all but two northern dwarves. The colony and the nothern dwarves eventually rejoined in the Land of Archives, creating the colony they worked in at the present day.
"Southern dwarves haven't been around for a hundred years, right?" Aven asked, trying to recall all of her history.
Eldrin shot her a look, "More or less, closer to seventy-five, though." He lifted the reins of his horse and turned her around, "Shall we get going?"
"I was just thinking the same thing, we're wasting daylight," Mae mounted her own steed just as Eldrin spoke. "Ready, everyone?"
"Yes," Aven nudged Cinder into a trot, Berkem doing the same to his own and falling in step beside her.
Eldrin led his horse out in front of them and trotted her up a hill where he sat upon her for a moment, silhoutted in the light and as rigid as a pole. He stared into the distance for a long moment, until the rest of the group reached him. Mae leaned over and muttered something into his ear, but he just brushed her aside easily. Clearly, whatever she'd said hadn't been of much concern to him.
Then, without another word to the rest of them, Eldrin kicked his horse into a lope and raced down the hill. Aven fell in step beside him, knowing that Cinder enjoyed stretching his muscles. He was much faster than the rest of the horses, but he was patient with keeping pace with them. Aven figured it had something to do with the fact that he seemed to be so smug when they trotted. As if he were telling them, I don't have to expend so much energy because this is basically a walk for me!
The meadow in front of them, lit by the morning light, glowed like liquid gold. It seemed to practically be on fire, with how bright it was, but the sight was beautiful. Aven felt so small, surrounded on all sides by the tall, blowing grasses, with the vast orange and pink morning sky spreading over her head as the last stars disappeared under the rising light.
The ground under Cinder's feet was firm and strong, which was not surprising seeing as how thousands of very tough roots were holding it down as best they could. The plants around Aven rose all the way to her waist, ranging in color from golden brown to soft purple. Sweet smelling flowers were mixed in along the way, creating a fragrant aroma that seeped into Aven's clothes and left her saddlebag and her horse smelling like fresh meadow. She certainly didn't protest against that, she was well aware that a bath was necessary for all of them. Well, maybe not the elves.
There was little wind as Eldrin slowed the line back down to a trot, which Aven was glad of. She'd heard before that the Highland winds could sometimes be so strong that they could knock an unsuspecting rider off of her horse easily. Some of the stories she'd heard around the inn had made her very timid of high winds, for good reason.
But the light breeze, and the soft warmth of the morning sun, and the beautiful scene before her made a combination that Aven doubted she would ever get to experience again. She wished she had a sketchbook, or even a small leaf of paper, to capture her sight. She'd never been a good artist, but sometimes it didn't matter the art quality so long as she rememebered that morning. Aven knew that she never wanted to forget it, at least.
"What rivers are we going to cross?" Aven asked Eldrin as she pulled herself up beside him and rested one hand comfortably on her saddle horn. She didn't feel the need to really pay attention to Cinder's steering, she knew he'd keep her on track. He was, after all, a very trusty horse.
"The Ashanko Twins," He replied, not missing a beat.
Aven paused at that, "Don't the Ashanko Twins feed into Ivory Lake?" Ivory Lake was well known for being supposedly haunted.
Sensing her unease immediately, Eldrin chuckled dryly. "One of them, yes. The other goes to Ashanko Village, it used to feed the moat around the city but I think it's mostly dried up now. You won't have to worry about Ivory Lake, we're crossing the rivers very close to where they originate. I'm heading for a gap in the elvish border where I know most of the elves that patrol. With some persuasion, I bet they'll let us in."
At his words, Aven felt relief. Mae had been very firm to convince her that humans and dwarves would not be allowed through the elvish border, but Eldrin seemed to be less convinced. Aven believed him more, seeing as how he obviously had more contacts and connections than Mae did. After all, he was a highly ranked elvish noble.
Suddenly, a thought occured to Aven that she hadn't realized before. "Eldrin? Will this quest ruin your reputation?" She asked him.
"Yes," He replied, his eyes focusing on the horizon for a moment, before he turned them back to her. They had lost their amusement, almost becoming unaturally cold in that second. "Why do you ask?"
Aven frowned at him, feeling instantly guilty. She was, after all, part of the reason he was even on the quest. "Why would you agree, then?"
"Why would I agree to what?" Eldrin kept his eyes on her still, but Aven was not able to read them. Behind them, Mae and Berkem were engaged in conversation, but she ignored them.
"Why would you agree to going on the quest?" Aven inquired. "I mean, if you knew it would ruin your reputation..."
"Oh," Eldrin offered her a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I agreed to go on the quest because it was the right thing to do, the same reason you chose, Aven Knight."
"Even if it would ruin your reputation? What happens to you afterward?" Aven fretted. She was feeling incredibly guilty for taking up his offer to go and kill Balthier Stone suddenly.
Eldrin seemed to be amused by her question. "I agreed to the quest because it was the right thing to do, Aven, I already said that. And sometimes the right thing to do is not the easy thing, or the one we want to. But that doesn't mean that we have an excuse for not doing it. I haven't worried about what's going to happen to me after this is all over because I'm not afraid," He explained.
"But is doing the right thing worth risking everything you live for, including your life?" Aven protested.
Eldrin seemed to get angry at her question for a moment, but the expressin in his eyes died down after a moment. "Listen to me, Aven Knight," He told her, his voice deadly serious. "Doing the right thing to do is worth more than my life, and everything I've lived for. Besides, if you're not living for the right thing to do, then what are you living for?"
Aven sat up straighter on her horse and considered the elf's words. The idea of giving everything up for this quest because it was the right thing hadn't occured to her at that moment. She'd figured, up until that moment, that everything would be the same when she came back. When she came back, not if she came back. But suddenly, in her eyes, there was a serious chance that she was wrong.
Maybe she wouldn't come back.