Lianne, Amra, and Faolin had been traveling north for hours. They had just taken small breaks here and there, to conserve the horses' energies. The weather was dry and the wind was gradually picking up, sending dust flying in the air.

They were just passing a vast plain when they suddenly saw a pond in the distance. It hadn't rained in a while and the whole scenery was bare, so seeing water was a real surprise.

They rode closer to the pond and got off their horses. Amra went to the edge of the pond and smelled the water, to determine if it was drinkable. The water was clear and there was no distinct odor. Amra tasted it, and when it seemed fine, they all pulled their horses on the shore and let them drink. The horses had been galloping for some time and they were thirsty.

"This place is full of surprises, isn't it?" Amra said while looking at the pond curiously.

"How is this here?" Lianne asked puzzled. It was in the middle of nowhere and everything was so dry that the pond seemed like a miracle.

"It is clear that you have never been this far," Faolin said to them with a small smirk, looking through the surroundings. Then he stopped, spotting something on the other side of the pond.

Faolin walked around the pond and knelt next to the remains of a campfire. The fire had burned out already, but the embers still glowed, indicating that it had been extinguished recently.

"Someone has been here," Faolin said as he took a charred piece of red wood from the extinguished fire into his hand and smelled it. He sniffed, and then stopped, his brows furrowing.

"Is something wrong?" Lianne asked.

"I know this smell. Elves have been camping here," Faolin said as he dropped the wood back to the ground.

"How do you know that?" Amra asked.

"This is a repellent. Our people use it in fires to keep away the wildlife," Faolin answered firmly before quietening down. He wiped his hand on his trousers to get the charcoal stains off. "What were they doing here?" he asked, lost in his thoughts.

"Is it rare for elves to be this far north?" Lianne asked Faolin.

"No, but I am not sure what they were doing here," he answered as he got up and looked around.

Multiple tracks lead away from the remains of the campfire. The tracks looked as if people had been running. Their footprints were deep in the fairly soft ground around the pond, indicating that whoever had been there, had left fast.

"They were not alone," Faolin said while inspecting the tracks that lead toward the west.

"Oh, what's that?" Amra asked, seeing something glinting in the pond. She walked to the edge and reached out, wetting the tips of her boots while lifting a helmet from the water.

"Is this from the elves?" Amra asked as she backed away and inspected the helmet curiously. It was just a plain ordinary helmet, but the sign in front of it caught her attention. It looked familiar.

As soon as Faolin saw what Amra had fished out of the water, he briskly walked to her and took the helmet. "No, this is not from them. This..." he started saying before stopping, looking at the helmet carefully. He trailed his finger on the sign in front of it as he was thinking. "They were attacked," he said with a deep breath.

That's when Amra gasped, realizing something. She grabbed a small pouch from her belt and took out the brooch she had bought from the black market outside Windermore. The sign on the helmet looked just like the brooch, a six-legged beetle with black eyes and a crimson coloured carapace.

"How?" Faolin immediately let out a sigh, quickly snatching the brooch from Amra. He inspected it carefully, a surprised look in his eyes as if he was seeing something totally unexpected.

"Where did you get this?" Faolin asked.

"From the market outside Windermore," Amra replied. "Why?"

"Do you know what it is?" Lianne asked curiously.

Faolin looked at the brooch, inspecting it closely, his brows furrowed in a deep frown. He was deep in thought, his eyes scanning the beetle closely as if he tried to determine what it was. Then he let out a hesitant sigh. "It is the sign of Yugtrass."

"Yugtrass?" Lianne and Amra both said at the same time, looking at Faolin surprised, waiting for an explanation. That was a name they hadn't expected to hear.

For a moment Faolin was silent as if he was pondering. He glanced at Lianne and Amra before giving the brooch back to Amra and dropping the helmet on the ground. He lifted his hands to his chest and started unbuttoning his vest. He opened the top button before he stopped hesitantly.

"I am going to show you something. I do not know how else to tell you," he said while continuing on unbuttoning his vest, his expression darkening the further he got. He opened each button carefully and slowly as if he didn't want to get to the end.

After Faolin had unbuttoned his vest, he lifted up his shirt underneath, all the way to his neck. Markings of winding branches continued all the way down from his chin to his stomach and beyond.

Faolin pulled the fabric aside, showing them his bare side. More of the winding branches circled on his side, and on top of his ribcage was a marking different from the rest. It resembled Amra's brooch. It was a beetle, its legs spread as if it was climbing up Faolin's ribs. It had slight wear, so it wasn't new.

As Lianne and Amra leaned closer to inspect the marking, Faolin looked away, his gaze distant. "Why do you have the mark of Yugtrass?" Lianne asked, frowning. She was puzzled about it.

Faolin hesitated. His eyes scoured the surroundings as if he was trying to find the right words. Then he finally spoke. "It is a symbol of an alliance of sorts."

"Alliance? What kind of alliance?" Amra asked thoroughly baffled.

Faolin scoffed as if her question was childish. "No. It is more like a bond. A servant to a master."

Lianne looked at Faolin, lost for words. The marking on his side suddenly seemed sinister, making Lianne avert her eyes. "Are you a servant of Yugtrass?" she hesitantly asked.

For many, Yugtrass was something they worshipped, but not a god. He was more like an image of something that one desired. In most of the stories, Yugtrass was evil. Many had claimed to see him as a normal man, but many said that he was like a god, living somewhere between the earth and the skies.

Faolin started pulling his shirt down again, covering up his skin. "I used to be, but more out of necessity," he said while buttoning up his vest. "I have been away from him for a long time now, but the bond is still there."

"But how did you end up with him in the first place?" Amra asked, listening to Faolin unbelieving.

Faolin took a couple of steps while straightening out his clothes. "I was stupid enough to do something that I should not have, ready to risk everything. I could say it was a debt," he explained, glancing at Lianne and Amra, his voice empty.

"What did you do?" Lianne asked, wanting to know more.

Faolin averted his gaze again, taking in a deep breath while closing his eyes. He was starting to speak but suddenly stopped himself, quickly opening his eyes as if he just remembered something. He turned to look at Lianne with a pleading look in his eyes. "I am sorry, I will answer your questions later. Now we need to find out what happened to these people. It seemed that they were attacked," he said while pointing at the tracks on the ground.

"If we hurry, we can catch them. They cannot be far," Faolin still added with a small bow of his head.

"Of course," Lianne said, letting the curiosity inside her die out. She would get the answers later. Now they needed to help him and the people.

They all quickly got on their horses and followed the tracks. Faolin took the lead, trying to look for any signs that indicated where the elves had gone. Lianne and Amra followed right behind, trusting him to know where to go.

Faolin kept a keen eye on the ground as they rode ahead, and before long they started hearing noises and shouts coming from nearby. Faolin quickly urged his horse to move faster, losing the tracks and following the sounds now.

They soon entered a small clearing where a couple of unarmed elves were surrounded by four men wearing similar helmets that Amra had found from the pond. The men were closing in on the elves as if they were prey, their weapons ready.

Faolin didn't even blink an eye before he rode straight in the middle of it all. Lianne and Amra stopped their horses a bit further away, to try to assess the situation before rushing in.

Faolin rode to the elves and jumped off his horse while it was still moving. He landed gracefully as his horse continued on ahead, away from the danger. "Move to the side!" Faolin yelled at the elves, who quickly moved further, out of harm's way.

Faolin took out his bow and arrow and instantly shot at one of the men. As the arrow hit the man straight in his side, he fell down, blood gushing from the wound. The others immediately stopped, surprised to see someone interrupting their fight. They all turned their watchful eyes towards Faolin, readying their weapons.

Lianne and Amra glanced at each other further away. There were three against one. "I'm going in. You stay here," Amra said to Lianne, who instantly tried to protest. "No buts, you know you can't."

"Fine," Lianne said reluctantly as Amra took off on her horse.

Amra rode closer and got off her horse. She unsheathed her knife and joined Faolin in the fight. She quickly rounded up on one of the men, attacking him with a fast strike. The knife just scraped the man's chest, drawing a small trace of blood as the man barely evaded the hit. Amra slashed again, trying for a better strike, but the man blocked the hit with his weapon, at the same time creating an opening. Amra kicked his stomach with all her strength, making the man stumble backward.

"Leave, so I do not have to kill you!" Faolin yelled at the rest of the men, but they made no effort to leave. Instead, one of the men charged at Faolin, who evaded the attack agilely and hit the man on his back with his elbow. The man stumbled forwards and ended up face-first on the ground.

"You are fools!" Faolin yelled while he took out an arrow and shot it at the other man, who raised his hands instinctively to block it.

The arrow punctured the man's forearm and he howled in pain, blood bursting from the wound. "I'm going to kill you!" he bellowed as he yanked the arrow from his bloody arm and started to charge at Faolin. At the same time, the fallen man got up and readied his weapon behind Faolin's back.

Lianne watched the fight from a distance. She knew she had to do something. Amra was fighting elsewhere and the elves were no use in a battle. They were unarmed and looked as if they rarely saw a fight.

Lianne closed her eyes and took a deep breath, steadying her heart rate. She concentrated on her energy, feeling a small wave of warmth surge through her, the remains of Faolin's arrow trying to keep her blood still. Lianne felt a pang in her heart and a stinging in her veins as if her body and his magic were trying to repel each other.

Lianne exhaled, letting everything out as she conjured a ball of energy to her hands. She used every bit of strength she had and flung it with all her might at the man creeping up behind Faolin. Lianne's magic hit the man straight in his chest, sending him flying backward.

Faolin shot at the man charging at him when the other man flew further away. He instantly glanced at Lianne, who was still sitting on her horse, holding her hand on her heart.

As soon as Lianne realized that Faolin was looking at her, she shrugged and smiled, as if she had no idea where that magic had come from.

Faolin smirked at Lianne and then ran to the man who was now on the ground. He took a rope from his belt and tied the man up easily.

There were now two men left. One of them was still fighting Amra, his clothes already splotched with red stains as Amra's sharp knife scraped the man's side again. He was bigger, but Amra was faster.

"Retreat!" the other man yelled and immediately started running away, realizing that the situation had changed to their disadvantage. One of them was already dead and one was tied up.

The man fighting Amra started backing away, and she made no move to stop him. Faolin lowered his bow and watched as both of the men quickly hurried out of their sight. Lianne knew that they didn't want to kill just because they could. It was more important to get the elves to safety.

When the men were running away, everything seemed to calm down. Lianne rode to the others and got off her horse. One of the men was now laying in a puddle of blood, and the other one tied up, yelling and cursing at Faolin, who eventually stuck something in his mouth to keep him quiet.

The elves, who had been standing on the sidelines, approached Faolin. "I am Raeran. Thank you for helping us," An older looking elf introduced himself and bowed his head as a sign of gratitude. Behind Raeran, a male and a female elf also bowed their heads low.

Raeran turned to Lianne and Amra and smiled at them with a little nod. His white, almost transparent hair reached all the way to his lower back and his friendly eyes showed a level of peacefulness that was rarely seen anywhere.

Faolin introduced himself, Lianne, and Amra before focusing on the elves. "What happened here?"

"Our village is close by. We came for the water when these men attacked us. We are not used to fighting so we tried to run," Raeran explained, his voice a bit shaky.

"Then we arrived just in time," Amra said with a delighted voice.

"Indeed," Raeran agreed and bowed deeply again. "Our village is close by. As a thank you for your help, please, do join us as our guests. We will offer you a warm meal," he suggested.

Faolin glanced at Lianne and Amra as if the decision was theirs to make. Both of them immediately nodded. They wouldn't decline a warm meal and a nice place to rest.

"Of course," Lianne said to Raeran with a smile.

"Thank you. It is our pleasure," Raeran replied with a nod as the other elves got ready to leave, picking up their belongings and starting to head out towards their village. They didn't have horses so they were leading the way on foot.

Faolin tied his new prisoner to his horse and blindfolded him, even if the man still tried to struggle free. Faolin mounted and snapped on the reins, forcing the man to run after him. He stumbled but kept his balance, moving forward with his eyes covered.

"Why are you taking him along?" Lianne asked as they followed the elves to their village.

"I am going to have a little talk with this one," Faolin answered, slightly hastening up his speed so that the prisoner had to jog along.