There’s not much to tell about the next morning. Ellie was once again woken by sunshine through the window, only this time she was being restrained by a sleeping elf. Afina had started hugging Ellie at some point in the night, just tight enough to make it hard to get away.

This time, Chevias had woken up first. He briskly shook Afina awake and herded the girls down to breakfast, clearly anxious to get moving. As it turns out, Ellie was correct in her theory from last night’s dinner; today’s breakfast was rice porridge, as she suspected it was every day.

There wasn’t much talk as they left the inn. Mr. Haysham practically slammed the door behind them as soon as Afina’s heel left the doorstep.

The walk out of town was silent, as was the first several minutes after they entered the forest. Ellie was a bit amazed at how utterly identical it was from the forest and road she had been on two days ago. The trees were wide and their branches spread out far, covering most of the wide dirt road with dappled shadows. She could hear insects buzzing, birds twittering, and leaves rustling in the breeze from either side. Aside from that, the only sounds were her’s and Afina’s footsteps as they crunched the dirt.

After a while she considered trying to talk to Chevias, but…she decided against it. He seemed on edge and kept flicking his eyes back and forth between the trees, and the tip of his tail was twitching like she’d seen some cats do when they’re agitated. So instead she fell back and struck up a conversation with Afina.

“So…where are you from?”

Afina looked away from the forest and at Ellie, “Oh! Um…I’m from a place called Shadeshal. What about you?”

“Flatrend.”

“Wait…you’re from Flatrend? Aren’t we going to Flatrend?”

“Yes….”

“How did you end up so far from home?! Where are your parents, why are they letting you travel around with that th-” she cut herself off to glance at Chevias, “…that witch?”

“That’s ah, kind of a long story. You see, about three days ago, I woke up on a farm past Tyman. Apparently I’d been asleep there for three days, and I have no idea how I got there!”

“You mean you don’t remember?! Not at all?” Afina looked extremely concerned and pointed to her head, “Is that what you got that bandage from?”

Ellie reached up and rubbed at the gauze that was still wrapped around her skull, having forgotten it was there with all the chaos. She couldn’t see it, but she was sure that by now it was filthy. “Yes, it seems so. The woman who found me said I must’ve busted my head on a rock. There’s a bump on my head to prove it.”

Ellie gently tapped the lump and was relieved to find that the hard lump had softened up and was only slightly painful now. “It hurt like crazy when I first woke up with it, but it doesn’t hurt much now.”

“If it really is better, you should take that ratty thing off. It makes you look like you escaped from an asylum.”

Ellie did just that, unwrapping the gauze from her head and breathing in as the air hit the suffocated skin. She fidgeted with it for a moment, not sure what to do with it, before Afina grabbed it and threw it into the bushes nearby.

“It’s not nice to litter.”

“It’s just a dirty bandage. If rain doesn’t destroy it then a goblin will pick it up.”

“True…anyway, what’s Shadeshal like?”

“Oh, just like any other small village I suppose. It’s not some fancy place like Innercirc.”

“You’ve been to Innercirc?”

“No, but I’ve met several people from there. In fact I….” Afina trailed of a bit before picking back up, “…I have a cousin from there. We don’t talk much, but he’s told me a bit about it.”

“Really? What’s it like?” Ellie was excited to hear about it. She had heard stories of elves before, but they were usually from The Ring like Afina, not The Deep Forest.

“I know it’s high up in the trees. Supposedly the ground of The Deep Forest is pretty much a huge swamp. No sunlight reaches through the tree tops, so everyone has to use blueweed for light. That’s a kind of bioluminescent moss.”

“Bio-what?”

“Bioluminescent. That means it glows in the dark. It’s actually one of the few things The Deep Forest exports. One of the older families in Shadeshal deals in weaving it into dresses.”

“You can make dresses out of it?!”

“Well, they’re almost always wedding dresses though. There’s plenty of blueweed around, but because the process of turning it into cloth is really hard, clothes made from it are really expensive. Most families have an heirloom one that gets passed down.”

“Does your family have one?”

“Yes! Though I’ve only seen it once, at my cousin’s wedding. I was amazed at how beautiful it was! It shone like moon light and had a veil as delicate as a spider’s web.”

“Wow! So you’ll get to wear it when you get married?”

“Well…yes, I guess I will.” Afina seemed to sour at the turn of the conversation and decided to change the topic. “Anyways, I don’t know much about Innercirc cause I’ve no interest in the goings on there. They may be the elven capital in Noelvah, but their laws are usually only concern the well-to-do and hoity-toity types.”

“Hoity-what?”

From there Afina launched into a tirade that reminded Ellie of one’s her father would sometimes go into. And just like those two to three hour long rambles, the contents of this one went completely over her young head. She could really only listen and nod as Afina complained about unfair taxes, misappropriation of funds, and lack of protection from the Elven Empire.

“The imperial family just doesn’t care about us in The Ring! All they care about is lining their pockets with trade and keeping their relationships with the U.D.O and Crown intact. Only major export cities have paved roads or anything resembling a police force. A few years back there was this huge pack of wolves tearing up farms and overrunning hunting groups. There were over a hundred of them! My father was so scared they’d try to eat our horses that he locked them up tight for two months, which means we went for two months without making any deliveries! And that means two months with barely enough scraps to feed ourselves! But Father said that we just couldn’t risk losing the horses, or we’d be in even bigger trouble.”

She huffed angrily, “He’s such a coward. Anyways, all the people of Shadeshal and the neighboring villages got together and petitioned the Empire to send some soldiers, or hunters, or ANYONE to get rid of the wolves. And you know what their response was?”

Ellie ventured a guess, “Soldiers…?”

“Silence. They never answered us. We waited for two months for an answer, or at least a message saying that our petition was lost in a kriptop attack. But we never got anything. In the end we had to beg a passing witch to handle it.”

Her expression became dour, “I didn’t see her myself, but apparently she was really rude about it. She only accepted out request in return for four horses and a wagon of raw blueweed. Do you have any idea how much that cost?! I don’t think she even wanted it; she just took it to spite us!”

Ellie heard Chevias snicker from the front. So he’d been listening to them after all.

Ellie assumed Afina didn’t hear it considering she just plowed on. The elf sighed and tucked some of her frizzy hair behind her elongated ear, “Suppose it was worth it though. The wolves were gone in three days. Every last one of them. Anyways, we never did get any word back from the Empire on that matter. And that’s not even close to the worst. I remember when I was little and the corn crops started dying….”

And so Afina went on and on, talking about various misfortunes that the villages in The Ring had suffered with no help from the Elven Empire. To be honest, Ellie was more impressed at the sheer bad luck they seemed to suffer than anything else. In just the sixteen years that Afina had been alive, Shadeshal had suffered from a variety of bandit attacks, goblin infestations, blights on crops and animals, and even one horrific epidemic. Afina confessed that she herself had almost died during this epidemic.

“I caught it just before some doctor in Pinesmort made a cure for it. I was on my deathbed by the time the cure got to Shadeshal. My parents were arranging for my funeral! Thankfully the cure took in time and I recovered.” She put her hand over her chest and sighed deeply, “It was awful. Every breath burned and when I wasn’t having a fever dream I was delirious. Towards the end I thought my father was a kriptop and tried to fight him off while he was just trying to wipe my forehead.”

Ellie shook her head, “I can’t imagine that. The worst I’ve ever had was a cold….”

“I really can’t imagine it. I’ve never been sick.”

Afina and Ellie snapped their attention to Chevias, who was visibly more relaxed and apparently decided to try and join the conversation. Afina had a very noticeably annoyed expression, “What? Impossible. Everyone’s been sick.”

“Not me.” Chevias fell back to walk in line with them, standing to Ellie’s left. “Not even a cold.”

Afina’s eyes narrowed and her lip curled up in disgust, “That’s about as natural as those teeth of yours.”

Chevias seemed to have a retort to that, but snapped his jaw shut and glared off to the side of the road, his tail flicking in agitation again. Afina’s gaze traveled down towards it, “I’ve been meaning to ask. What’s with the tail? ”

“What do you mean?”

“I think I’d have heard of witches having tails if that was a normal thing. Is it…real?”

Chevias rolled his eyes, “No, it’s not. It’s just a belt that moves a lot in the breeze.”

Afina wasn’t very amused. “Oh, so if I gave it a good yank it would just pop right off then, wouldn’t it?” She made a grab for it and the tail swiped away and behind Chevias so fast there was an audible swish.

“Don’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“It’s uhh…kinda…dangerous….”

Ellie turned to look at him, “What?”

Chevias seemed nervous, but he brought his tail back around and held it up. He twitched the tip around until the furry tuft at the end split. Ellie had to squint for a moment before she could tell what she was looking at. Within the fur of that tuft, something black and slim stood stiffly upwards, something that was slightly shiny and tapered at the end.

Afina leap a foot back, stopping and gapping, “IS THAT A KNIFE?!”

Ellie’s gaze shot back to the tail, realizing that the thing on the end did indeed look a lot like a knife. It was slim like a dagger and double edged, and though Ellie couldn’t tell exactly what it was made of, it looked sharp as any blade of steel. Chevias shrugged, “Kind of? You ever hear of a scorpion? It’s a bug with a long tail with a barb at the end like a bee. This is kinda like that except mine’s more of a blade than a stinger.”

Afina rubbed her hands over her arms feverishly, “You mean that’s a part of you?! It’s attached?! Oh Spirits, I almost grabbed that!”

His eyes narrowed, “Yeah, that’s exactly why I’m telling you. I can’t tell you how many kids have sliced open their hands ‘cause they grabbed it on a dare. Why do you think I bothered hiding it in town?”

Afina noticed Ellie’s alarmed expression, “Did you know about that?” She shook her head quickly and Afina turned back on Chevias, noticeably meeker than before, “You didn’t tell her? What if she had grabbed it?! With that bump on her head and bruise on her leg she doesn’t need a slice on the hand!”

He waved his hand absentmindedly, “Please. She was so scared of me at first I don’t she’d have come near me if she had to. And after that she was too polite. Right Ellie?”

She was a bit caught off guard by the question, but she nodded, “I mean, I thought about it, but it seemed rude.”

Afina seemed at a loss for words. She just glared at his tail and chewed on her knuckle nervously, which was now back to hovering around just above the ground, its fluffy tuft covering up a deadly weapon. Finally she groaned and mumbled, “…Fucking witches.”

Chevias bristled, “Hey! There’s a kid here!”

Ellie didn’t know what exactly that word meant, but she knew it was one of those swear words that her mother would’ve tanned her hide if she said it. Which she found extremely unfair. It seemed there was a whole list of words that she’d get hit for saying, but her brothers and dad could say the same word and just get a stern glare. After one such occasion that Ellie had accused her brother Nick of being a ‘jackass’ (she knew that that one was a bad word for a mean person), she had argued with her mom about her punishment. Ellie had lost that argument, because her mom always won fights, but Ellie hadn’t been able to pry a better reason other than ‘swearing isn’t lady-like’ out of her.

Afina rolled her eyes, “Whatever. Lesson learned, I won’t grab your tail. Can we just get moving already?”

She crossed her arms and waited for Chevias to start moving. She didn’t seem to want her back to him. After another quick look at Ellie, Chevias reassumed his position at the head of the party and the other two followed silently. Afina was now very quiet, keeping her arms crossed and her eyes trained on Chevias. Or, more specifically, on Chevias’ tail. Ellie thought about telling Afina that the tail was probably the least dangerous part about him, remembering his claws, but decided against it.

Ellie supposed she should’ve had a similar reaction to Afina’s. The revelation that Chevias could’ve slit her throat at any moment from about ten feet away was startling, but she honestly couldn’t imagine him doing that at this point. And despite his less than enthusiastic reaction to Afina, Ellie didn’t think he would honestly want to or try to hurt her either. More than anything, her fear of him had chipped away a bit more and her curiosity was peaked.

In any case, Afina was clearly not in a mood to talk anymore. But even though Chevias was a little tense, most likely due to Afina’s boring stare, he was definitely in a better state than this morning. So Ellie trotted up to him and asked the only thing she could think of at the moment, “Can I touch your tail?”

His eyes widened and she heard Afina gasp a bit. He looked confused, “…I’d rather you didn’t.”

“Please? I promise I’ll be careful.”

“The last time a kid asked me that, he yanked it so hard he dislocated a joint.” He shuddered at the memory, “Needless to say, I don’t like people touching it.”

“Why would he do that?!”

He shrugged and rolled his eyes, “Who knows. He was a seven or so year old orc, so he probably didn’t mean to hurt me. And he was real sorry about it after.”

“I see. So where did this happen?”

“Oh, that’s a long story….”

“I think you should know by now that I love long stories.”