“If it isn’t an intruder, making himself comfy in my house,” the owner of the voice asks, the knife pressing itself against my skin even harder. This is bad. She may just decide to slit my throat for the sheer fun of it, assuming that I’ll just wake up in my room tomorrow!

Just then, the lady of the house comes in, apparently taking in the situation in a heartbeat, puts down the piping hot cup made from clay and says, “Terra Star, you are being rude to our visitor. Let him go this instant.”

So this is Terra then, huh? John could’ve mentioned that she was a maniac!

“Moo-oom! I’m trying to be intimidating here! You’re ruining my—“
“I have not raised a child that exerts violence needlessly.”

Terra lets go of me and I find a sigh of relief escaping my throat. My heart is pounding like crazy and I can feel the blood rushing through my head. I guess my pokerface still needs a lot of work.

“Mom, seriously, I am a dark elf! Harbinger of destruction! I have a reputation to uphold!”
“Not in this house you don’t. In these walls, you are neither ‘the hero that ended the war by defeating the ancient evil’ nor are you ‘darkness incarnate’, nor do you have a reputation to uphold. You are my daughter whom I raised for 100 years. And I did not raise a ruffian.”
Terra walks to the front and slams the knife which, upon closer inspection, could only have cut butter, on the table. That girl really had me fooled. I had no doubt that she was going to cut my throat and leave me to bleed out on this very chair. Why, I even saw my life pass by me...well, the last few days, at least. Not much else to see beyond that.

Speaking of closer inspection, Terra is actually an attractive young woman, however in a vastly different way than both her mother and sister and...anyone else I’ve met in this town. Unlike the stereotypical light hair and blue eyes that seem to be dominant in these circles, she has brown hair and green eyes. If the elven society is anything like the human society, she certainly can’t have had it easy during her childhood. With her short, disheveled hair and her rather slim build, she has a boyish charm and there is a sense of danger about her. I can see both boys and girls alike being into her no problem.

“So, what’s the deal with you? What brings you here?” Terra asks.
“Manners, Terra. Can you not see that he is still shaking? Let him calm down first.”
“Mom, he’s been ogling me from head to toe. He’s just fine.”
Dang, she’s perceptive. I think I can see why John thought she could know something.

I get up from my chair, straighten my wrinkled clothes, clear my throat and extend my hand, “I’m sorry, I think we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. I am…”
Terra doesn’t take my hand, but sits down on the table pulls out an apple from seemingly nowhere and takes a bite. She couldn’t have made it more obvious that she doesn’t care about me if she tried.
I lower my hand again whilst the ‘mother’, whose name I don’t even know, shoots Terra a terrifying gaze that sends chills down my spine, however Terra skillfully ignores it. A hundred years old? Having saved the world? Seems to me like I’m talking to a rebellious teenager and their mom.

“I know who you are,” she suddenly says, half of her bite stashed into her cheek. The first time I see actual food in this wacky world, and it’s used for expressing utter disinterest in what’s going on.
“You’re that detective that’s been going around, trying to figure out what happened in the twilight wing. And you probably heard from ol’ John that we’ve been around for about as long as he is and that we like to keep our ear on the ground.”
...okay, she either knows John super well or has some sort of clairvoyant ability.

It takes me a moment to react and Terra asks, “Well?”
I sit back down and reply, “Yes. May I ask where you heard about all this?”
“Eh, it’s a small world,” she retorts with a throwaway gesture, “People talk. Not like there’s much else to do. The body that won’t wake is the most exiting thing to happen in here in the past 20 years. Since they opened the bar below, in fact.”
“...I see. Well, do you have any information to share?”
“...yes, and no. No, I don’t know who killed her. But she’s been a strange one, to say the least.”
“So you knew her?”
“Briefly. Tried to set me up for a Girl-On-Girl with Gaia, spouting some nonsense like ‘It’d be soooo hot, like the forbidden love between cousins’. As if I was related to her! She’s from an entirely different world! The only thing we have in common is that we both had someone called ‘Sigma’ in our lives!”
“...pardon my intrusion, but...did you say that this ‘Gaia’ knew your father?” the mother suddenly intervenes. Apparently she doesn’t really get out much.
“Apparently her father worked with a man called Sigma a bunch of years in the past. But from what I heard, she had a twisted idea about...well, everything really. I told her off, of course.”

Hmm...something about her testimony strikes me as ‘off’. Like there’s something she’s not telling me. It’s hardly more than a feeling, but I’d be a fool to just disregard it.
“...it’s gotten somewhat stuffy in here,” I proclaim, getting up again, “...I think I would like to go for a walk. Would you do me the honors of accompanying me, Miss...Star, I believe was it?”
“Eh, not like I’ve got anything better to do,” Terra quickly agrees, much to my surprise.
“But...but your tea,” Mrs. Star argues, but Terra is quick to tell her off, “Jeez, it’s not like I’m going to eat him, mom. And don’t you worry about him doing anything to me either. I can handle it.”
...yeah, if anything she should worry about her doing anything to me...I would do well to stay clear of the forest during our walk. Though, considering what I’ve learned, would anyone in this village even help me? Or would they rather side with Terra? I know the walk to let her talk to me without her mother hovering over her shoulder was my idea, but suddenly I feel uneasy.

I sure hope I don’t end up regretting this.