“How’s it going today, Sol?” Tagen asks, walking in the door. He watches her move her hands quickly and efficiently, wrapping cording around an arrow shaft holding the arrowhead on tight. She flips it over to work on the fletching, fitting each vivid green feather into the grooves she made earlier. While working, she has an agitated look on her face, with a scowl mixed in every minute or so. He clears his throat to get her attention again, but with no luck. He walks up to her tapping her shoulder instead.

“Oh, hi. How long have you been here?” She asks, turning around.

“I tried to get your attention earlier, but you seemed to be in your own little world there. Are you okay?”

“Yea, I’m okay. Just not a fan of being stuck in here. I know I can be helping more if I could move again.”

“You’ll be better soon, the healer said you need to be careful though, otherwise it will only take longer for you to get back on your feet.”

“I know Dad, but it’s still hard to sit still for so long. I can’t even train to calm my nerves.”

“What’s bothering you? We can try to talk about it. It always made your mom feel better.” He sits down next to her at the table and starts to help with the next arrow.

“I don’t know, I’m not really one for talking about my feelings.”

“I know, but don't you think it’s better than letting them fester inside you?”

“Yea, I suppose it couldn’t hurt to try.” She says, sighing.

“So, tell me what’s bothering you. I’m all ears.”

“Well, you already know that I’m going crazy not being able to train or move at all. And I feel like I'm useless, because I can barely do anything other than fixing some old weapons that needed help before the fire, and now need even more.” She works the cording around the arrow again and isn't happy with how it came out. Undoing it, she starts again.

“Tell me about how you ended up in the Meeting Hall to begin with, you never told me what happened.”

“Two other warriors and I were headed to the docks to try and cut them off before they got any closer and I heard a scream from the Meeting Hall, it sounded like Alsia. So I left the others and went to help her. When I got there, it was already burning, so I went to get her out as fast as I could, and before I knew it, I got stuck under one of the burning beams. She tried to get help, but a Viking found me first,” she pauses, still upset that she had to take help from one of them. “He didn't seem to care that I'm an elf, he even checked to see how injured I was.” She sets down the arrow and stares at the table, lost in her thoughts.

“I wonder why he would do that,” Tagen urges her on to keep talking.

“I don't know, I even tried to get him to fight me, but he wouldn't let me. But I’ll find him again and then I’ll fight him.” She gets more and more frustrated thinking about that night. She pulls one of her long red braids over her shoulder and starts to undo it and then re-braid it again.

“I can see it’s really bothering you, you have the same nervous quirk as your mom. She would braid her hair over and over again when she was anxious about something.”

“It is, but that’s not even all of it. After I talked to the healer, I found Caeda crying next to me talking about something going missing. She was in pieces about it, and I’ve never seen her that way. They must have taken something important. Do you know what it could be they took? I saw some of them running by with a big sack, that must be it.” She looks up at him expecting him to have all the answers. Instead, she’s met with confusion on his face.

“Is she sure that they took it? And she wasn't just mistaken?” His face falling as he realizes what actually happened that night.

“What’s wrong dad? What did they take?” She’s never seen her dad like this, she tries to get an answer from him, but he’s past talking to. She reaches for him but he’s already standing and moving toward the door.

“I’m sorry, I’ll explain later. I have to go.” He leaves in a hurry, heading toward the barn where Caeda was last.

Inside there are only a few elves left resting on the beds. Most have been able to go home and recover there. Tagen looks around hoping to see Caeda lying in one of the beds somewhere. His eyes land on a small figure shaking under a blanket.

“Caeda, is that you?” He reaches for the blanket to see who it is, but they pull away, tucking into themselves further.

“Go away, nothing matters anymore,” The voice is rough and hushed, right on the edge of breaking.

“What do you mean? Did they really take it? We can still get it back from them.” He lifts the blanket to see her. She’s only a shell of her former self, all the light and warmth that used to shine from her eyes is now gone.

“No, we can’t. They took it, and the village is now doomed. It's not even safe for anyone to leave to get it back,” her voice gets quieter and quieter as she goes on. Tagen turns away thinking of what they could do.

Solvi sits, thinking about her dad's reaction when she told him about the Vikings taking something. She knows she could help if she wasn’t so injured. If only she was able to move again, then she would go and get the lost item back. Maybe once she is healed, she can start training again and go out hunt them down. She had heard rumors before about a sacred item being held in safety by the Elders, but she never learned what it was. She could try to go talk to them, but they’ve always been secretive about it in the past.

She looks over to her brother and sister playing in the grass outside the window, not a care in the world. Also not aware of how much danger the village was in a few days before.

“Fulwn, could you come here and help me with something?” Shouting out the window, she calls her brother. She writes a brief message on a spare piece of paper nearby.

“Okay, can Imras help too?” He runs through the door, with Imras close behind.

“If she wants to, sure. I need you to go to the Elders and give them a message for me.”

“Ooh, like a secret mission?” Fulwn’s face lights up at the idea.

“Exactly. Take this note and deliver it to the Elders, I know you can do it.” Fulwn and Imras look at each other and smile, then bound out the door with Solvi’s note in their hand.