Dave

Fallen Jungle

12th of Cycle 3, 1015

Crow led the way toward the village. I had a few burning questions on my mind, but the death glares I’d get from Aura every so often stopped me from asking any of them.

After a long and unnecessarily uncomfortable walk, we arrived at a familiar set of tall wooden gates, atop which stood an entourage of guards with their bows drawn.

“Identify yourselves, or we will fire!” One of them shouted.

“Cmon lads, you can’t seriously have forgotten us. We’ve only been gone, what? A couple of months?” Crow yelled back.

“I’ll give you to the count of three—” The guard started, but a whack to the back of his head stopped him.

“Open the gates!” Called a more heavily armored, boss-type guard. He leaped off the wall and landed in front of our group with a thud. The moment his tired eyes met with mine, his fury erupted like an active volcano as he roared out, “You! How dare you show your face here again!”

My brief moment of terror was quelled by the sight of Crow’s figure standing between us. “Stand down, Edward. He’s with us.”

“He’s… with you? Have you lost your mind? Do you have any idea what he’s done?”

“I’m aware.”

“You should understand very clearly then. Step aside, I’m going to execute him here and now.”

Crow let out a sigh. “Look, Edward, it’s been a long walk, and while I am upset with you, it’s not to the point where I’d want to kill you. So I’ll ask you politely one last time. Stand down.”

“No. I won’t let you in until you hand that boy over.”

The rising tensions gave way to feelings of uncertainty and doubt, but apparently, the atmosphere didn’t affect Aura since she stepped between the two and grabbed Edward by the shoulders. “Where’s Finn?”

It took Edward a while to respond, and it was clear that her sudden question had caught him off guard. “He should be in the training yard today.”

She released Edward’s shoulders and waltzed through the gates. No one seemed to care much about her sudden outburst, but it certainly helped relieve some of the tension, and Crow took the opportunity to de-escalate the situation. “Let’s not do anything rash, Edward. We can talk this out inside, like men.”

Edward didn’t seem too happy about it, but he obliged and led us through the gates. He separated Crow and me from the rest of the group and brought us to a walled-off room.

In the center of the room was a table with one chair on each side of it. Unsurprisingly, I was the one left without a seat.

“Well, here we are,” Edward said as he sat down. “Care to explain why you brought that conniving bastard back here?”

“I’ve heard his side of the story for the events in the village, and I think he’s innocent. Also, watch what you say about him, would you? He saved our lives, so he deserves some respect.”

“Please elaborate.”

Crow gave a short explanation of the past month to Edward, making sure to heavily alter the story, to the point where I was painted as some kind of righteous hero of justice.

After some deep thought and consideration, Edward stood up. “I get why you trust him now, Crow, but he’s still labeled as a criminal in our village.”

“You’re the guard captain, aren’t you? Can’t you do something about that?”

“Not a chance. Ever since that day, people have lost all their faith in the guards. If we add corruption to the list of things they have against us… In the worst case, we’d have a small-scale civil war on our hands.”

“It’s no wonder they’ve lost their faith in you. You let a bunch of high elves go wild in our home. How’d you let that happen under your watch?” Edward shifted his gaze to the side in guilt, and Crow shook his head. “We can talk about that later. What do we do now?”

“What are his plans?” Edward asked, pointing to me.

I felt like I had been left out of the conversation enough by this point, so I decided to speak for myself. “I’d like to stay here for a while, get some training, and go back to the jungle.”

“What do you plan to do with the training?”

“Hunt the silver panther.”

Edward was taken aback. “You can’t be serious.”

He looked over at Crow for confirmation, but Crow just shrugged and said, “First time I’m hearing it, but I believe it. Dave’s not right in the head, so it’s only natural he’d want to hunt a mythical creature.”

Oi. What’s with that reasoning?

“I guess you’re right. He does seem a little off upstairs.”

I’m standing right in front of you, Edward.

“In any case, if he wants to stay, trial by jury is unavoidable.”

“What are the chances I get charged as guilty?”

Edward looked up at the ceiling and scratched his chin. “That’s a tough one. They might just execute you to keep the villagers happy, but you do have the entirety of the elites backing you, so I’d say your chances are pretty good.”

My life is on the line, and my chances are ‘pretty good.’

That didn’t make me feel at ease, but I’d come this far already. I didn’t want to turn back.

Just as I was about to voice my decision, the door swung open, and a group of armored elves stormed into the room. Crow stood in their path.

“We’re here under orders from the lord to escort this boy to his manor. Getting in our way is akin to treason.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve committed treason…” Crow muttered. “Well, whatever. Let’s get going, Dave.”

With that, we left the interrogation room, and made our way toward the manor. It was built into the wall at the rear end of the village, and it blended in with the stone behind it.

Strange design choice, but I’m no architect, so I won’t judge.

The interior was a lot more modest than I expected, especially considering this man was the lord of a village. There weren’t any statues, paintings, or furniture, and I had to wonder if their finances were running tight.

After heading up a set of stairs, Crow and I were waved into a room occupied only by a single chair and desk. The chair turned around slowly, revealing a dark elf man dressed in what I can only assume was meant to be formal attire. His clothing was a collection of patched together animal pelts, which made him look like a homeless person, so it took some effort to hold my laughter back.

“So you’ve come. I don’t remember asking for you, Crow, but I’ll let it slide.” He shifted his gaze back to me. “Surely you know why I’ve summoned you, human.”

“I do.”

“Very good. Your trial will be held publicly, two days from now. Until then Crow will keep you under surveillance at all times. Any objections?”

I looked over to Crow to check if anything was wrong, but he gave me a nod, so I replied, “No objections, sir.”

“Great, then we’re done here. Get out of my office. Your human filth is dirtying the floors.”

Before I could even process those words, Crow grabbed me by the shirt and dragged me outside. A wise move on his part since I probably would’ve said something unnecessary if given the chance.

Still, two days was not a lot of time to work with, and I had a lot of work to do. First and foremost, I had to acquaint myself with the general procedure and conduct of dark elf trials. Next, I had to…

“Hey, Dave,” Crow said with a carefree look on his face. “I’ve got this keg of frost mead at my house that I’ve been saving for a few years now. What’d you say we have a drink and relax?”

“I’m going to fight off a death sentence in two days. Two days, Crow! Is this really the time to be drinking mead?"

“A little alcohol will ease your mind…”

…

“I guess a drink or two can’t hurt.”

Crow invited the rest of the group to his house, so we had a small celebration for their successful return home.

13th of Cycle 3, 1015

It was only when I woke up that I realized Aura hadn’t come to the party last night. She’d been acting strange the whole day yesterday, and I wanted to talk to her at least once before the trial happened, so I asked Crow to help me find her.

On the way to her house, I asked Crow some questions about dark elf trials, and from what I was able to deduce, they were pretty similar to human trials. Things were looking up.

That was until a grumpy Aura greeted me with a door slam.

“Hey!” I called out. “I might die tomorrow, you know? Isn’t there anything you want to say to me?”

After a few seconds, the door creaked open, and I took that as my invitation inside. I followed her to the dining room, where two plates of breakfast had been laid out.

“Sibling?” I asked in an attempt to start a conversation.

“Yeah, a little brother. He’ll be late for guard duty unless he gets up soon.”

Guard duty.

Her little brother is a guard.

“So that’s why you were so…” I tried to think of a word to describe her demeanor toward me, but she gave me a glance that read ‘I dare you to finish that sentence,’ so I quit while I was ahead.

She let out a sigh. “Sorry. I was worried, and I took it out on you. I don’t think this whole situation is your fault in the first place, so rest assured, I’ll do what I can in the trial tomorrow.”

“Thanks. That means a lot.”

“You saved my life, this much is natural. Now get out of here before my brother wakes up.”

“I don’t get to meet the family yet?”

“Hopefully, you never will.”

I left her house with a warm feeling in my heart. A weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and I felt like everything was finally going well.

Despite my optimistic mood, most of the villagers either spat or swore when I walked past them, so I made my way to Crow’s house as fast as I could.

After a brief strategy discussion for tomorrow’s trial, Crow and I spent the rest of the day lazing around.

A day like this was a nice change of pace, but while my body was relaxing, my mind was racing. I drank some frost mead just to calm myself down.

Death was a very real possibility. Everything I’ve accomplished up until now, all my dreams and aspirations, everything hinged upon the decision of a group of strangers.

I gulped down some more mead and got into bed. Hopefully, I’d be able to get some sleep.