Ilys ignored the pain from her headache as she and Kara walked. She didn’t know if it was coming from her old injury, drinking too much last night, or Kara’s rambling. Regardless, she wished her sister would be quiet.

“-and why in Memoria’s name would drink so much last night? I need you sober and in top condition for this. You can’t help anyone if you’re inebriated,” Kara rambled. “And why didn’t anybody stop you from drinking so much? Alwyn should know better than to give you so much and-”

“Kara, I love you, but please shut up,” Ilys cut her off. “I don’t know why you keep rambling about this.”

The Snow Elf huffed at being interrupted. “Because you drank too much last night when you knew you were going to be traveling all day. I don’t see why you drank your weight in ale.”

“There are a lot of things we don’t see eye to eye on,” Ilys pointed out. “Like this job? We don’t see eye to eye on it.”

“What are you talking about? You agreed to come with me,” Kara said.

The Earth Elf rolled her eyes and gave her sister a small glare. “No, I remember you begging me to go with you. I said no. You decided to pull out the “I’m asking you as your sister” dagger and stab me with it,” she pointed out.

The two of them continued walking in silence. The trees surrounding the road swayed slowly from the gentle breeze. Some still had a little bit of green leaves clinging on while most had turned turned yellow and orange. Now that autumn was here, the roads were lightly covered with fallen leaves and the wind had a slight chill to it. For Kara, the chill felt nice and relaxing to her thanks to her Snow Elf blood keeping her warm. 

But to Ilys, it felt the opposite. Her burn scars felt irritatingly tight and itchy. Like ants were crawling and biting all over her body. Her thick cloak provided some relief from the cold wind, but her fingers twitched and it took all her willpower to not scratch at herself. 

Kara pulled out her map from her satchel that was strapped to her hip and opened it. “Okay, we’ll travel until we reach Stoneheart. We’ll pick up any supplies we need and then keep going until we reach the Wisteria Mist Inn near Dusk Light Forest. It’ll be nighttime when we get there. Mornspark Sepulcher isn’t that far of a walk from the inn.”

“Hurray, more walking,” Ilys muttered as her eyes took in their surroundings. “Hopefully we don’t run into any trouble. I heard that bandits have been robbing everyone traveling to or coming from Stoneheart.”

“You’re not scared of bandits, are you?” Kara asked teasingly as she rolled her map up and put it back in her satchel. “I think we’ll be fine.”

“I know we can handle a few bandits,” Ilys snapped, giving her sister a slight glare. “But there’s been rumors of large groups of them attacking people. Even with our abilities, I don’t think we can take on a group of five let alone ten.”

Before Kara could say something, they heard some shouting up ahead. They walked further up ahead and hid behind a large tree. A Water Elf man was on the ground and looked up at the large human man and a tall Wind Elf man stood in front of him. Not too far from them was a large covered wagon. 

“P-Please don’t hurt me!” the Water Elf begged them. His indigo eyes looked fearfully at the two men standing before him.

The Wind Elf laughed as he pushed his grass-green hair back. “Pathetic. Just give us your gold and maybe we’ll let you live.”

The human male laughed too. “I’m still thinking about that fine young lady in the wagon. She looks like she could be fun,” he said, grinning evilly. 

Ilys looked around the surrounding area to make sure there weren't more bandits around. “I don’t see anyone else,” she whispered. “We can take these two with no problem.” She pulled out one of her throwing knives. “I’ll go first. Watch my back.”

“Be careful,” Kara told her as she readied her staff.

The Stone Elf female smiled and winked at her sister. “I’m always careful, Kara.” She quickly ran to the bandits and threw the knife at the human, hitting his shoulder.

The Wind Elf male gasped in surprise as he saw his partner go down. Ilys saw his veins glow green and aimed his arm towards her. A strong gust of wind blew at her. She managed to create a stone shield using her magic to block some of the blow, but lost her footing and fell back. She hit the ground and felt a sharp, throbbing pain wracking through her head. Everything around became blurry and she heard a head-splitting ringing in her ears. 

Kara formed two ice spikes with her magic and shot them at him. The Wind Elf dodged one, but the other spike skimmed his thigh. She hoped he would stand down but realized he wouldn’t after he readied his bow and shot an arrow at her. It barely missed her and she quickly formed an ice shield in front of her. Kara could barely see over it, but she felt heavy winds being thrown at her and saw her ice shield slowly being chipped away as he continued his assault.

The human male stood up as he pulled the knife out of his shoulder. Grabbing his battle axe, he ran at the stunned Earth Elf.

Ilys's vision cleared and she saw the giant blade coming down. She quickly rolled to the side at the last second. The axe hit the ground, sending dirt and rocks flying. Before he could lift it back up, she pulled out her dagger and stabbed his thigh. The man dropped his weapon and swung his fist at her face. Ilys saw stars when the fist hit her cheek and fell back. She managed to regain enough focus to kick the dagger into the man’s thigh further in, making the man scream in pain and fall to his knees.

Ilys shakily stood up and pulled her other dagger out. She waved her free hand to summon two small stone pillars that wrapped around his wrists and restrained him. The man struggled to get free and cursed as she walked behind him. 

The man gasped as his head was tugged back and felt the dagger pressed against his neck. Fearful hazel eyes looked up at the woman's cold, dark brown eyes. “Please!” he cried out. “Don’t kil-” 

Ilys cut his throat mid-sentence and released him from the restraints. He brought his hands up to his bleeding throat and struggled for air for a few seconds before he stopped breathing.

Kara struggled to keep her shield up as the Wind Elf’s constant attacks weakened the ice blocking them. The bandit sent a powerful gust at her feet where the shield wasn’t strong. Kara gasped as it shattered and left her defenseless. Another strong gust knocked her back into a tree and she felt the pain from the impact spread throughout her body. 

The man readied another arrow and aimed at her as she fell to the ground. “Now I’ve got you.”

Kara’s eyes widened and willed her body to move, but it felt heavy and sluggish. All she could do was look at him in fear. Before he released the arrow, something large knocked him away. Both of them looked in shock as a large stone spike pierced his torso and pinned him to a tree. Kara felt nauseous as she watched blood pour from the wound and his mouth as he struggled to pull the spike out. She had to look away when he stopped moving and hung there lifelessly.

Ilys sighed in relief and walked over to the human man’s body and pulled her dagger out of his thigh. “Well, at least this journey we’re on isn't a boring one,” she said.

Kara sighed too as she stood up and strapped her rod to her back. “Memoria, grant these poor souls mercy, and may they rest in eternal peace,” she prayed.

Ilys snorted as she cleaned off her daggers on the human’s shirt before sheathing them. “Pfft, like they deserve it. They were going to kill an innocent man and woman. Maybe one of the “evil” Incarnates will have fun with their souls first before granting peace.”

“Don’t wish ill will on them,” Kara scolded softly.

“Whatever you say, Priestess Kara,” Ilys replied in a mocking tone. She walked over to the Water Elf man and helped him stand. “You alright, sir?”

He nodded, still looking a little frightened. “Y-Yes ma’am,” he replied shakily. “T-Thank you for s-s-saving u-us.”

“It’s no problem. We’re glad you and your-” Ilys stopped mid-sentence when she saw three pairs of eyes staring at her. She had been expecting a woman since she heard the human man talk about her, but she wasn’t expecting more. Especially young kids. “Oh…I’m sorry you saw that.”

The young woman, who was a Water Elf as well, got out of the wagon with help from the man and the sisters noticed her pregnant belly. It was noticeable, but it wasn’t very large. She smiled reassuringly at them. “There’s no need to apologize,” she told them. “If both of you hadn’t come along, we wouldn’t be alive right now. You saved us. Thank you.” She bowed to Kara and Ilys as best as she could.

Before either of them could say anything, the man bowed as well. “Yes, thank you. You saved my family. I don’t know what I would do if I lost any of them.”

The two little boys jumped out of the wagon. One looked like he was about ten years old while the other one looked like he was about six. Both of them bowed to the sisters. “Thank you,” the older one said.

“Thank you, pretty ladies,” the younger one said and looked up at them with sad dark blue eyes. “We were really scared they were gonna hurt us.”

Kara smiled, kneeling to be at eye level with him. “Don’t worry, you’re safe now. You and your family won’t have to worry about them bothering you.”

“Where are you ladies headed?” the man asked as he and his family straightened up.

“We’re headed to Stoneheart to pick up supplies and then to Wisteria Mist Inn near Dusk Light Forest for the night,” Ilys replied. “We have business there.”

“Please join us,” the man insisted. “We’re on our way to Stoneheart as well. It’ll be a little crowded, but it’ll be quicker than walking.”

Kara and Ilys looked at each other and shrugged. “I like that idea,” Ilys told her. She looked at the man and nodded. “If it’s not too much trouble. We’re happy to accept your offer.”

The man shook his head. “It’s no trouble at all. You saved our lives and it’s the least we could do,” he said and looked up at the sky. “We should make haste if we wish to be there before sunset. Hopefully, the rest of our morning won’t be so…eventful.” He helped his wife and sons get back into the wagon.

“One of us should sit with him in case more bandits appear,” Ilys suggested to her sister.

The Snow Elf female nodded. “I’ll sit with him. You get some rest if you can. Looks like you took a heavy blow.” She could see Ilys’ cheek swelling up and a small cut on it. “I’ll tend to it when we get to the inn.”

Ilys waved her hand. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve taken harder hits, but I’ll probably take a nap.” She took the man’s hand that was offered to her and got in the wagon with his family. She saw a lot of sacks and wooden boxes in there, but it wasn’t as crowded as she thought it would be. The family had set a few blankets and pillows in their little sitting area to make it more comfortable. She sat behind Kara and the younger boy sat next to her while the mother and older boy sat across from them.

They started moving once the man had hold of the two horses’ reins. The Water Elf woman smiled at Ilys. “I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to show you how thankful we are that you two saved us, Miss…?”

“You can call me Ilys,” she replied with a smile and nodded to Kara. “And that’s my sister, Kara.”

“I’m Naida Strong-Hearth,” the woman introduced herself. “That’s my husband Calder. Our oldest son is Zale and that little one next to you is Ronan.”

Ilys looked down at the little boy, who was looking at her and Kara in confusion. “You two don’t look like sisters,” he pointed out innocently.

“Ronan!” Naida called out. Her sapphire blue eyes widened and a flush spread across her light tan skin. “P-Please forgive him.”

The Earth Elf female laughed and waved her hand. “No worries.” She looked down at Ronan and ruffled his navy blue hair. “That’s because we’re adopted. We were raised by the same man, and call ourselves sisters because of it. We also have two brothers. One of them is a Vulpkith and the other one is half Wind Elf and half Jagukin.”

“Wow! Demi-humans live here too?” he asked excitedly. “We’ve only seen elves and humans. Do your brothers have fluffy ears and tails? Can they transform?”

“Ronan, lower your voice,” Naida scolded and looked at Ilys apologetically. “We’re from Cerulean Isle, one of the larger islands in the Azure Archipelago. We didn’t see other races that much out there. Ronan is a little excited to see them.”

Ilys grinned at the little boy. “Maybe I’ll bring my brothers out to visit. We usually go to Stoneheart once a month for business.” She leaned back and massaged her temples, feeling a headache forming and still hearing a light ringing in her ears. “Forgive me, my head is hurting a little. Probably from the punch.”

Naida shook her head and gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. Please get some rest. It’ll be a couple of hours before we get there.”

The Stone Elf female nodded and made herself comfortable. She closed her eyes and hoped her headache was gone when she woke up.