Rea

Outside of the Dark Elf Village

55th of Cycle 2, 1015

“Let’s move,” Lola said when she returned at nightfall with a long vine wrapped loosely around her arm. We approached the wall that she had designated as our infiltration point earlier. She climbed up and let down the vine, signaling for us to follow her lead.

“Ladies first,” Jack motioned for me to go ahead of him.

“You just want to stare at her ass, don’t you, Jack,” Rory said.

“Jeez mate, you didn’t have to go telling her that, did you?”

I glared at him.

“Alright, fine, sometimes the man has to take the lead, I guess,” Jack muttered as he grabbed onto the vine and started climbing up. Rory followed soon after him, and I was last up the wall.

“You three sure took your time down there,” Lola mused, “Now we jump.”

“Jump?” I asked, terrified at the prospect.

“The fall isn’t too far down, and Jack can heal you if you snap your ankle or something,” She said casually before jumping off. Rory and Jack followed her example, but when I looked down and saw the drop, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Why are they treating this like it’s not a big deal?

I looked both ways on the wall, hoping to find some other way to get down, but instead, I saw a guard approaching me in the distance. I gulped and got a running start before leaping off the wall. The wind blew against my face, and I felt a rush of adrenaline as I plummeted down towards the floor and closed my eyes in fear.

A few seconds later, when I realized that I should’ve hit the ground by now, I opened my eyes to see that I was floating a few feet off the ground. Lola burst into laughter.

“Did you think we were all just going to jump down a 30-foot drop?” She asked. “I cast a wind spell to slow our fall down, but you should’ve seen the terrified look on your face. It was hilarious.”

“Do we have time to be messing around? What if we get caught?” I asked, upset.

“You’re right, sorry,” She was still laughing a little. She pulled a blue stone out of her pocket and carved some runes onto it, which made it glow. “Show me the path,” She said, and the stone disappeared.

“Follow me. Our targets are close.”

Dave

Dark Elf Village

55th of Cycle 2, 1015

Matilda led us to a shady part of the village. The buildings were crumbling, the roads were uneven, the people were wearing rags, and the stench of cheap alcohol filled the air.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Matilda?” Jason took the words right out of my mouth.

“Stop trying to jinx it, Jason. If anything, these people are more trustworthy than the guards in this village.”

“If you say so…”

“Just stay close and let me do the talking when we get there,” She said.

After a short walk through the area, we arrived at a dimly lit walkway that was broader than an alley today but narrower than the roads in the village. We approached a shadowy figure that was leaning on the wall.

“Did you bring the stuff?” He asked when we got close.

“Yeah, now what about your end of the bargain?” Matilda responded.

“The boss agreed to train you personally for the next few weeks if you give us what you promised. I hope you understand that I need to verify the goods.”

Are we selling drugs right now?

Matilda nodded at Jason, and he pulled a piece of paper out of his bag. He walked over to the figure when I suddenly had an all too familiar alert hit me in the head. My Dangersense was going off, and that can only mean one thing. “Get down!” I yelled as I tackled Jason. A volley of arrows flew over us as we tumbled onto the floor.

I looked up and saw that the shadowy figure hadn’t reacted in time, and he fell over with a couple of arrows sticking out of his chest. Thankfully, Matilda had dodged the volley and was running towards us. Jason and I scrambled to our feet as she ran past us, into a nearby alleyway. We followed closely behind.

In the alleyway stood a large, imposing elf wearing heavy armor and holding a white shield. Matilda drew two daggers and engaged him. There was no way to help her in the narrow alleyway, so I turned to run back but stopped in horror when I saw an elf staring at me with a drawn bow.

“They don’t know anything! You don’t have to kill them!” Jason called out from behind me.

“I’m sorry, Jason, but they’re loose ends. You should’ve thought about this when you involved them in your betrayal,” The elf said coldly before firing an arrow at me. I tried to dodge it with my vision skill, but a gust of wind curved it towards me like a heat-seeking missile. My eyes instinctively closed in anticipation of the pain.

But there was no pain, and when I opened my eyes, I saw Jason’s figure standing in front of me with an arrow pierced straight through his torso. He fell to his knees as blood dripped down his back. “I swear to you,” He said weakly. “They don’t… know… anything.” He slumped over onto the ground.

“You fucking killed him!” A voice shouted in horror from behind the elf.

“Jack!” The murderer yelled, and a fourth elf entered the alleyway. “Can you heal him?”

“I can, but guards are closing in on us as we speak. I think our targets were followed.”

“Rory, pick him up. We can find someplace quiet to heal him before we get out.”

“What about these two?” The heavily armored man asked in a scarily deep voice from behind me. I turned around and saw that he was holding Matilda by the throat. Her daggers were on the floor, and she was struggling to get his arm off, but he didn’t budge.

“Leave them to the guards, let’s get out of here.”

The armored elf dropped Matilda onto the floor and she started gasping for air, then he shoved me to the side and picked Jason up. The group disappeared into the night within seconds.

I stood there frozen. What just happened? Why couldn’t I do anything? Am I so weak that I wasn’t even a threat to them?

The questions floating around my head stopped as Matilda pulled me by my hand deeper into the alleyway. “We need to run, Dave.”

We ran. We left Jason behind and just ran away.