"Sleeping again? So soon?"
"What?" I asked the voice I couldn't find. It was too dark to see and it sounded like it came from every direction.
"You were asleep mere hours ago, were you not? Are you taking a nap in the middle of the day? Do you not have a job to do?" They sounded strangely... punch-able. Posh, maybe.
"I'm not asleep. We wouldn't be having this conversation if I were."
"Well, aren't you adorable. No, sweetheart. Think back to where you just were."
"What I..." I trailed off to think. Where was I? How did I get here? Why am I here? "Oh yeah." I thought out loud. "I was falling down a cliff and I-" The voice started laughing hysterically.
"You are not napping! You are unconscious from a fall? Oh, if we are lucky you will have hit your head hard enough to die. Do tell me you feel tired!"
"Uh... Should I feel tired?"
"Of course! Well, you should if you are dying. Normally you cannot tire in a dream, but if you were to be losing blood or something... That would be most delightful! Truly!"
"Err... No. I feel just fine. Wide awake." What's this guys problem?
"Ah, well, that is unfortunate."
"For you, I'm guessing."
"Oh no no, my friend! For you as well!" They laughed again, a little quieter than the last. It almost sounded like a pity laugh. "If you were to die now then the pain we will have to put you through will not happen. You could die only knowing the pain of failure. But you will have to die later. By our hands, of course. I really do feel sorry for you, honey. If I could force fate to choose another, I would. Someone so young and new to the world should not have to endure what the future holds."
It was my turn to laugh. "Thanks, but no thanks. I don't need your pity. I've known my destiny since I could comprehend it. I'm more prepared than anyone else could be. My life has been devoted to this! And you won't be able to stop me! Whoever you are!"
"Tsk tsk tsk." A figure made up of thin whips of honey colored smoke and short lines made of shadows appeared in front of me. "Even if in the end we cannot stop you, it won't stop us from making the attempts we will make. And there will be many. Until you succeed or die and possibly even after you succeed, we will not stop. And after every attempt you will feel more pain. Physical, emotional, or otherwise. So, as a m- member of my organization, I pity you."
"You want to knows what I think?" I asked with half confidence, masked in full false confidence.
"Please, enlighten me."
"You're just trying to scare me. Is this one of your attempts? Because it didn't hurt at all, so you're wrong about one thing."
"No. This is merely a warning a warning I thought appropriate to give a child. Our-"
"I'm not a child. I've outlived some elves born the same time as me." They sighed at that.
"You are child to us and to most of your own kind." A few wisps of smoke moved up toward my face. I imagined it was meant to be like a hand being put up to tell me to hold my tongue. "And as I was saying; Our first attempt was your dream when the moon was last up."
Thinking back now, that did leave some pain. Or a lot. But I would never tell them that, so I stayed silent with a shrug. "Goodbye, Lukaal. I do wish you would change your mind." With those last words the smoke vanished and I was left in the dark.
"More like bad-bye." I grumbled to myself. Yes, I know it was a terrible comeback, but I'm "still a child to them" so what do they expect.
***
I awoke to the sound of coughing before coming to realize that it was me. It felt like swallowed tons of sand. Judging by my surroundings, I probably did.
It looks like that cliff was a blunt border between lush greenery and an arid desert. Looking up at the cliff I did notice how as my eyes skimmed the slope it gradually faded. Trees grew slanted near the top, grass and dark fertile soil were replaced with large rocks and dry, pale dirt, and it all eventually faded into ground that was almost sand-like.
How did I ever survive that fall? Wait... We. How did we survive that?
I wasn't sure how it took me this long to see, but the elf named Ze-dric, if i remember that right, was under me. I cursed at myself before pushing off of him. He was out but breathing. Breathing surprisingly steady for almost dying.
Or still in the process of dying. Every part of him that wasn't covered in a protective undershirt had gashes. His grayish blood seeped into his clothes and I could barely tell the difference between it and his hair.
I stood, ignoring the pain in my limbs, and looked around frantically. To our luck there was a small opening in the face of the cliff. Hopefully it was a large enough cave for the both of us. Hopefully he weighs less than he looks.
I grabbed both his arms near the bottom. They felt pretty light weight at first, to my relief. I tugged on them with all my might. With every ounce of strength I had left despite the pain it put my sore body through.
He didn't budge. I told myself he had at least moved an inch, so I tried again. Nothing. I tried pulling him in different ways, hoping I would get some extra leverage somehow. I didn't.
"What the hell? You look like a beanpole! The least you could do is be weigh like one." I grumbled before planting myself on the ground next to him. How can I do this? We can't stay out in the open like this. And it's the least I could do for him since he did save my life.
I looked skyward to think better, taking in the darkening blue hues. The sun was now just above the horizon. The beautiful orange and purples threatened to leave us in the cold and dark.
Just how long was I out? All day? I glanced at Ze-dric and focused too hard on his wounds. A lot the blood was dried over and nasty looking. If they're not taken care of soon they'd probably get infected.
I flicked my eyes over to the small pools of blood under him as they became harder to see. The sunlight was leaving us quickly, and there no way to tell just how much blood the dry ground absorbed. This isn't good.
The moment there was only moonlight left for me I felt an energy course through me. What was I thinking? I can't just sit here until we both die. I have to get to that cave. I have to bring him with me and I have to care for this idiots wounds.
I stood again, letting the renewed adrenaline coursing through me take me over as I grabbed him again. I yanked as hard as I could and be came with me much easier than I expected. I fell to the ground after and had completely pulled him into my lap.
I cheered at myself for a moment. I apparently don't even know my own strength when I'm determined. I got him to the cave in no time. And we both fit!
The crack lead to a larger cave big enough for him, me, and maybe three or four others. If I could see it would be perfect.
"I think I could start a fire..." I thought out loud again, moving to do that as I spoke.
Once that was started up I pulled the first aid bag from my "inventory" and went to work. It was simple to take care of the wounds everywhere but his head. The color of his hair didn't help me as I looked for where he bled, of course. Thick, tightly curled, burgundy strands got in the way. After cleaning I just wrapped a bandage around his entire head.
He wasn't normal looking, that's for sure. I could best explain his features as feline-like. His cheekbones were higher than what's normal for a forest elf. Although, still, his rounded nose definitely fit his race. His jaw curved in halfway up to his ears and back out again, just enough to draw your attention to the beauty mark just at the bottom of his chin and to his ears. Which stuck straight up, like they're meant to, but it didn't help him with not looking like a feline.
"Huh?" Speaking of his ears, there's green smudge there. I went to quickly wipe it away with my thumb, only to have it smear more. "Err..." I tried again and the same thing happened. I think it may have taken me a few moments too long to see that I wasn't wiping it away because I was wiping his skin away.
Looking at my thumb, I saw makeup that looked almost white in contrast to my own. "Okay, yeah, now that can't be normal. I know that." I began wiping more away until both his ears were clean of makeup. Both tips were green and gradually faded back into fair peach.
It scared me a little. I don't know why. I'm used to things that aren't normal. I'm not normal even amongst my fellow Typeless. But something about that one thing startled me. Left me uneasy and I racked my brain for hours after to figure out why.
I never did.
***
"I am beginning to think you have no real motivation to finish your quest, child."
"Can't an elf get some sleep?"
"Were you not asleep before? We spoke less than a few hours ago."
"Sleep without someone assaulting my dreams with their presence."
"I was merely curious to why you are resting again."
"Okay, look, I slept all day. I had nothing else to do so I decided to fix my schedule. I don't want to be tired during the day and traveling at night is a no go."
"Surprising to hear that last part from someone like you."
"How is it surprising? Everyone knows that night equals dark, dark equals harder to see, harder to see equals death. I'm not an Aquatic Elf underwater, or a Luna, nor am I of The Forest. I can't see in the dark. And I can't manipulate light like a Sun Elf. Though, that'd be super cool."
"Oh! Oh my! You are not aware, are you?"
"Of what?"
"Oh, this does make everything so much simpler! How unfortunate for you."
"Hey! Tell me what I don't know!" I held my hands into fists. I swore I could feel my knuckles turn lighter.
"I cannot. My apologies. Goodbye." They paused for a second but spoke before I could reply. "Two more things. Do not trust that forest elf. And do try to sleep less often. The next time I will have no choice."
I woke up without the opportunity to ask what they meant.