After another day of traveling, Cyrus and Doran found their way to a small village that was surrounded by grassy hills and had a signpost at the entrance of the settlement. The pair walked over to the sign and saw that it read, "Roven". Doran asked if they were in the right place, he had his doubts that there was a guild in a small place like this. Cyrus moved his bag off his shoulder to pull out the piece of paper they got earlier and unfolded it.

"The village of Roven," Cyrus replied. "It should be here." He placed the paper back in his bag and began walking into the village, with Doran following close. As the pair walked passed through the small settlement, they couldn't help but notice how friendly everyone was. They were greeted with either a wave or verbal 'hello'. Being a follower of Velina, Doran was used to this treatment while Cyrus seemed a little awkward to be treated kindly by so many strangers

All the buildings they passed were small houses made of wood and appeared to be well cared for, there were baskets full of crops and buckets of water all around. Leading Doran to believe that there was a water source and crop field hidden behind the hills of the town. A few of the homes had stone chimneys with puffs of smoke coming from them, most likely from the homeowners preparing meals.

As they continued to walk through the village, Cyrus and Doran looked for any buildings that stood out. In the end the only ones that caught their eyes were a small house that had blue smoke coming out of a chimney so large it took up an entire exterior wall, a large house that seemed to be the village leader’s, and a small church that had the same crest as Doran's on the door. Doran paused at the chapel and took a good look at the symbol.

"Well, this is a surprise." Doran said with genuine curiosity. "I didn't think that there would be a branch of the Fioran Church in a small place like this." Cyrus agreed with his friend, most of the time they found a church, it was in a larger town or a city. The roads or villages they often walked through only had small shrines or idols. The discovery of the church aside, the pair’s target location didn’t seem to be in sight and the spearman let out a disappointed sigh.

Cyrus lamented at the fact that there was no sign of the Blue Star Guild and sat down on one of the benches in front of the church, he couldn’t help but feel as though he wasted his friend’s time. This regret was felt each time one of their leads fell flat, and it always stung. Doran sat next to the disappointed man and they both placed their bags at their feet.

"I suppose we were given bad information." Doran sighed, feeling the same disappointment as Cyrus. "What should we do now?" Before Cyrus could respond, they heard the doors to the chapel open and turned their heads.

A woman dressed in a habit and carrying an empty wicker basket walked out of the chapel and noticed the men looking in her direction, she showed a hint of surprise seeing people from outside of her village before giving the pair a friendly smile and approaching them.

"Greetings, sirs." The sister said with a polite bow. "We don't get travelers very often, what brings you gentlemen here?"

Cyrus gave a friendly nod to the freckled woman as Doran stood and bowed back, the woman was happy to see that the out of towners were friendly. “Me and my buddy are actually looking for the Blue Star Guild, we heard that it would be here. But I guess we got the wrong town?”

The young sister chuckled before responding. “Oh no, you certainly have the right place. It isn’t too surprising to hear how you haven’t found their guild hall.” Doran’s eyes grew wide with surprise.

“Wait, so it is here?” The pale skinned man asked, looking around to see if he and his friend missed a sign somewhere. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to point us in the right direction?”

The woman looked between the two men and seemed to ponder whether or not she should help them, one was a follower of Velina as well and the spearman looked kind enough. Not to mention the travelers seemed rather tired, no doubt they’d been on the road for a few months. The sister’s heart felt sorry for the poor souls and figured they couldn’t be that bad and even if they were, the guild was used to dealing with people who gave them trouble.

“I can actually, you can find them-”

The nun’s words were cut off at the sound of a loud squawk of a bird, the three individuals quickly looked to the sky as a red and orange feathered bird dove down from the sky and used two of it’s three legs to grasp either of the men’s bags from the ground before shooting back into the air. Cyrus, Doran, and the nun all stood there for the briefest of moments as they tried to process what just happened. Doran, after his moment, was able to put all his feelings into a single, succinct statement.

"Shit!" The follower of Veliana cried out as he sped off in the same direction the bird was heading. Lucky for him the bird was red, the blue sky was doing it no favors in terms of camouflage.

"Get back here you thieving chicken!" Cyrus also cried out as he followed close behind Doran.

“Wait! That bird is…” The sister’s words trailed off as she called out to the travelers, realizing they weren’t listening to her. The woman turned her freckled face to the sky as she saw the odd colored bird grow smaller as it flew away. “Why is he bothering those two?” She asked herself before deciding to leave the travelers to the bird’s owner and walking out of the village.

The large bird flew high in the air as the annoyed pair chased it past some of the hills and into a heavily forested area outside of the village. As they ducked, weaved, and jumped through the woods, Doran couldn't help but feel embarrassed over the fact that a bird managed to grab their bags right from under their feet. Cyrus was too busy trying to keep an eye on the flying creature while also avoiding being hit in the face with branches, though it was a challenge with how hard the brown haired swordsman threw branches aside and in the path of the spear fighter.

Eventually the treetops covered enough of the sky to the point the travelers lost track of the flying annoyance, they stopped to look around and see if any of the bird's feathers fell to the ground in hopes of tracking it. Realizing that they weren't going to find it at the rate they were going, Doran pulled out his knife and used the small blade to cut into his right thumb. The pale skinned man held out his hand as he let a few drops of blood escape the cut and watch them begin to fall to the forest floor, however the red droplets stopped in midair just before hitting the ground. The drops merged into a single sphere and began to grow, taking the shape of a small robin and perched itself on one of Doran's fingers of his outstretched hand.

"Find it," Doran said quickly and the bird shaped creature flew into the air above the tree line and went in the same direction Cyrus and Doran last saw their target fly. The swordsman covered one of his eyes and saw a hazy bird's eye view of the trees. Cyrus asked if he could see anything. "Yes, but the sun is making it rather difficult to maintain concentration."

Doran did his best to keep his concentration, the sun’s light was always an issue whenever he tried using this skill of his. The man saw the blurry image fly through the air and scan the area for the target, Doran could only hope that they didn’t lose sight of the hawk sized annoyance for too long.

As Cyrus looked at Doran’s irritated face, his attention was drawn to an odd scent in the air. The tanned man sniffed in confusion as he tried to figure out what exactly it was he was smelling, he could tell it was a ways off and what direction it was coming from but other than that he couldn’t tell what it was.

"It's landing in the east now, let's move!" Doran shouted, pulling Cyrus out of his minor investigation before sprinting off in the direction of their target. The spearman paused and looked off in the direction of the familiar scent with a concerned face before turning back to his friend and resuming their pursuit.

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The red bird landed not too far from where Cyrus and Doran lost sight of it and dropped the bags at the feet of the dark skinned elf with a whip and bow who was resting on an old tree stump. The pointed eared man looked down at the bags and brushed his blonde hair out of his face before looking up to see his pet perched on a nearby branch.

"Good boy, Carlyle." The short man said as he picked up one of the bags and opened it up, wanting to inspect what the two travelers were carrying.

He looked down to examine the contents within and saw that there was a folded blanket, two coin purses, a square stone, a piece of dried meat, and a book. The elf guessed the stone was a whetstone and that the meat was the wyvern jerky the pair was eating a few nights prior. The elf looked disgusted at the jerky, audibly noting how he thought people only ate them during war time.

The two coin purses were visibly different, one was clearly full to the point of bursting and had the crest of the Fioran Church stitched to the front, while the second was laughably empty. The blonde elf took both purses and looked within to see that the larger one was filled with mostly silver and gold coins, where the smaller one only had five copper coins. Lastly, he picked up the book and saw that it was a bible for the Fioran religion.

"Is he pretending to be a priest, or is he just a religious fellow in general?" The short individual asked himself as he weighed the fuller bag in his hand.

He returned the purses to the bag and placed it on the stump next to him before picking up the second, this bag was much lighter than the first. Upon opening it, the elf let out audible confusion. The contents within were minimal at best, a balled up blanket, another piece of wyvern jerky, another empty looking coin purse, a slip of paper, and a deck of cards. The coin purse only held three copper coins; the deck of cards were worn and well used, seeing several years of frequent use. Looking at the paper, the elf saw that it was written instructions on how to find the location of the Blue Star Guild via a delivery route. Before he could do anything else, the blonde heard a voice shout at him.

“Ah, you two caught up faster than I thought.” He looked up with a smirk to see Cyrus and Doran staring him down with looks of anger and annoyance.

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Cyrus and Doran stared down the dark elf culprit, he was rather short and slim framed at about five and a half feet tall at most. His attire consisted of what appeared to be scaled mail, leather boots, and thick gloves, the whip at his side and the short bow on his back seemed to be well made. His hair was chin length and was uniquely blonde in color with his pointed ears prominently protruding from under his locks, the golden hair was a sharp contrast to his greyish skin. The smirking elf also wore a belt that had three sturdy pouches attached to it, Doran assumed they were full of throwing weapons.

"Those aren't yours," Cyrus said sternly as he slowly removed his spear from his back. "Give them back and we'll let you go." Cyrus stood in a position that would allow him to quickly lunge forward.

"Speak for yourself," Doran retorted as his birdlike creature perched itself on his shoulder. "After making us chase his pet, I wish to serve this dark elf some divine punishment." Doran drew his sword with his left hand and the polished blade shined in the daylight. The weapon was roughly three feet in length and was more broad than a typical short sword, the blade also had a slight curve to it and a clearly razor sharp edge. Doran stood in a diligent stance with his right hand hanging loose at his side and the tip of his sword pointed at the thief. The dark elf made note of the odd colored bird on the priest’s shoulder, he was confused where it came from but knew he had bigger issues than a new animal.

He sighed in response to Doran’s threat before placing the bag in his hands on the forest floor and moved from his seat.

"And why should I be afraid of either of you?" The elf said as he stood up from his stump and removed the whip from his waist, letting the lengthy lash rest in his hand in it’s coiled state. "Last I checked, the two of you couldn't even handle a bar fight."

The three men all stood in still silence, Carlyle looked down from his branch as though he waited for his master to make a move. Doran and Cyrus held their gaze, one wanting everyone to walk away happy while the other fought the urge to fly the elf right then and there. The blonde tamer gave a small chuckle at the pair’s caution and that was when the first move was made.

The small blood bird shot off of Doran's shoulder towards the elf, it’s shape changed in midair to take the form of a small, red spike. The elf’s eyes went wide with surprise as he saw the odd bird become a flying projectile, Carlyle dove down from its branch in response and swiftly caught the spike with one of it’s large feet and crushed it. The odd creature turned weapon shattered as though it was made of glass and fell to the forest floor as the red haw flew through the air once again.

After pulling himself from his surprise, the elf lashed out his whip at blinding speed with it aimed at Cyrus. Before the spear fighter could react, Doran shot out his free hand and caught the whip as it nearly struck the man’s still calm face. The force from the whip harshly bit into Doran's hand and drops of blood began to escape from his grip, despite this Doran didn’t release the weapon and held it tight as Cyrus shot toward their adversary with a thrust of his spear. The elf quickly sidestepped the thrust, despite the spear's head still being covered, he could tell that the thrust would've done some serious damage if it had connected.

With a quick twist and flick of his still captured whip, the elf was able to rip it from Doran's grip. The action caused the swordsman's injury to worsen as pale skin was ripped from his palm and fingers, the lff gave a smug grin before using the stump as a springboard to hop away and gain some distance from Cyrus. The spearfighter gave a powerful swing of his polearm in response, the blonde man gave two sharp whistles and Carlyle began to dive at the fighter’s face in response.

Cyrus stopped his strike to defend himself from the attacking bird, hoping away from the elf and using his free hand to swat at the feathered assailant. The spear fighter saw flashes of orange and red feathers as he ducked and dodged from the large bird’s dives and pecks, he was impressed at the bird’s actions. It wasn’t just aiming for his eyes, it was going for his neck and ears, Cyrus realized that the elf must have trained the animal to aim for anything fleshy and weak looking. He didn’t want to hurt either the bird or his master, but the tanned man knew he couldn’t hold back too much or he’d lose an eye.

While the bird attacked and Cyrus weighed his options on how to deal with the situation, he heard the sounds of dried leaves and twigs snapping underfoot in an incredibly rapid succession. He could tell whatever was causing the noise was coming close and running circles around the trio, he had to react immediately but the problem was he couldn’t tell where it would come from. Cyrus instinctively ducked down when he perceived the sound of a jump coming behind him, what he saw surprised him. Looking down, he saw a large shadow fly over him and heard the sound of something with great weight landing in front of him. The black haired man quickly looked up to see a large wolf staring back at him with large, fierce eyes and bared fangs.

The wolf was far larger than a normal one that would be normally seen, in fact, it was larger than a horse. The beast's black hair was accompanied with grey streaks running through it and it's claws appeared to be as sharp as blades. Around the massive animal’s neck was a large collar made of metal which, decorated with a chain, a ruby, and a sapphire. It’s body was powerful looking, it’s legs looked as though it could run for days without needing even a moment’s rest. The wolf’s eyes weren’t just fierce, they were intelligent and looked at Cyrus with purpose and intent.

The Spearman barely had a chance to reposition himself before the wolf and Carlyle continued to assault him. “As if the bird wasn’t enough?!” He shouted rhetorically as he and the two animals entered a dance of attacks and dodges.

The swings and snaps of the beast’s fangs and claws were audible and the bird’s dips and dives were hard to follow, it was quite the combination of both speed and power. Whoever this elf was, he sure knew how to train his pets to be one hell of a team. Cyrus took a deep breath and quietly apologized to the animals before preparing to fight back.

"Good girl, Becky." The dark elf said proudly. "You and Carlyle keep him busy-" He was interrupted when he heard the rushing of footsteps coming his way, he turned his head and saw Doran charging at him, his sword ready to strike. The pointed eared man looked visually shocked as he barely dodged the blade, a lock of his hair being cut in the process of the swordsman's strike. "You're still up?!" He unintentionally shrieked in confusion.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Doran responded while continuing his attacks, his short blade flowed flawlessly from one attack to another with full intention of staying close. The brown haired man could tell by the elf's choice in weaponry and his preferred company that he wasn't a close range fighter like he was, Doran had the advantage and used it to the fullest.

The priest swung left, right, up, down, any way he could to keep the elf from getting proper footing for another escape. Upon one of Doran's horizontal swipes, his opponent quickly ducked under the blade and sent a fist into the bridge of Doran's nose. The pale man was caught off guard and felt his eyes wince from the sudden strike.

Stunned, Doran reflexively took a step back while the elf leaped backwards and readied his whip again. He quickly lashed at the religious man multiple times, the leather weapon whistling through the air before sharply snapping and tearing through Doran’s clothes and skin. The swordsman did his best to guard his vital spots with his free hand and dodge but most of the strikes hit so hard that they not only tore through his flesh, they felt like they could cut him to the bone. Each new strike from his opponent caused drops of blood to fly off of him, coating both the whip and the forest floor as his clothes began to be stained.

Despite the pain, Doran held his ground with solid grunts that sounded more like he was annoyed than hurting. The swordsman watched each shift of the elf’s shoulders as he readied a new strike, there was a subtle rhythm he was beginning to understand. The grey skinned tamer sent out one more strike of his whip just as Doran managed to find an opportunity to counter the weapon. His free hand moved just as the tip of the lash was about to reach his shoulder, snatching the lash from the air once again and wrapping it around his bloody hand before holding on tightly.

"You should be dead by this point," the elf grunted, beads of sweat running down his face. Though it wasn’t from exhaustion, it was from his shaken nerves. The whip he was using had anesthetic needles laced within it, normally a single lash is enough to put a person's limb to sleep at the very least. The best he hoped for with the initial injury was for Doran’s arm to be completely limp and his right side going numb. But now, the number of lashes that Doran had taken should have ended his life right then and there. If not from the anesthetics then from the whip itself, he was cut deep on his arms, legs, and sides. The blood loss should have made him fall over, the pain of a whip can kill a man just from the pain alone! But Doran was still standing and moving as though nothing was wrong, as though he was just bit by an annoying insect.

It was at this moment that he remembered seeing Doran remove a spike from his back a few days prior and he was still able to fight, hell he was able to run ahead of Cyrus and keep up with Carlyle, just what was this guy?

The elf turned his head slightly to see that his animals were still fighting Cyrus, with Cyrus quickly thrusting and twirling his spear in defense. The blonde realized he had Carlyle and Becky fighting the wrong opponent, he needed them to deal with this freak of nature. A strong pull caused him to be lurched forward and into the path of one of Doran's attacks, the priest clearly leapt from his position after the pull to get even closer to his target. What happened next was as if it were in slow motion.

The elf managed to dodge the strike enough to avoid any major injury but the tip of the blade was able to cut into his cheek. As the pointed eared thief was falling forward, he heard the whimper of a wolf and the injured squawk of a bird. He quickly looked back to his pets in concern at the exact same time he felt a solid, breathtaking blow was delivered to his side… but not by the swordsman. The blonde saw that his animals were lying motionless on the ground and that Cyrus had just thrown his polearm, sending the spear’s covered head flying and crashing into the dark elf. The amazing amount of force caused him to not only release his whip, leaving it in Doran’s clenched hand, but the slender elf was sent flying off to the side before falling to the grassy floor with a painful skid.

The elf lied on the ground, the wind knocked out of him for a brief moment and a harsh pain took over the entire area that was struck with the black haired man’s amazing throw. He realized that with the amount of power he was just struck with, if the spear's head was uncovered it probably would've pierced clean through his body. The blonde heard the men approaching and saw that the polearm was now laying next to his stunned body. They were both too close for him to pull out his bow fast enough so he had to think on the fly.

He quickly recovered and tried to pick up the spear to use as his own weapon, however he couldn't move it without a great deal of force. He looked at the weapon again and saw that the shaft was made out of metal rather than wood, even so it was incredibly heavy. The entire weapon could only be dragged along the ground with the elf’s strength, he couldn’t even attempt to stand with it and he was stuck in a seated position. The blonde man was baffled that Cyrus was able to swing and throw the weapon so easily, he was lost in his surprise when the sound of a single stomp pulled him out of his thoughts. The elf looked up and saw that Doran had his blade pointed at his face, with Cyrus quickly approaching.

"You lost," Doran soundly said. "Your mistake was underestimating a knight of the church and his comrade." Once he was caught up, Cyrus said to just surrender and things would be a little easier for him. The elf looked up at the two men with a gaze of anger in response.

"You kill Becky and Carlyle and expect me to just give up?" The elf said bitterly. Cyrus paused for a moment in confusion before realizing how the previous scene looked.

"Oh, they're not dead." Cyrus said calmly as he picked up his spear with a reassuring smile. The dark elf looked behind Cyrus and saw his animals slowly picking themselves up, slightly injured but alive. "I don't know about Doran, but I could tell you weren't out to kill us. Otherwise you would’ve told your wolf to do more than just scare me." Doran nodded in agreement and mentioned that he was only going to injure him enough to turn him into the authorities. The beast tamer looked stunned for a moment as Cyrus smelled something odd, it was what he smelled before only now it was stronger and more defined. The spearman finally realized the scent and grabbed Doran’s shoulder

"I smell smoke," Cyrus said in a rushed voice. "There's a fire and it's near the village."

"How?" Doran asked with wide eyes. "All that's around the area are hills."

"I don't know, but we better go help"Cyrus replied. The elf looked shocked, not only because this man was able to sniff something out before his wolf, but for the genuine care the men had.

"You're concerned for the village?" He asked as the two men were about to run off, mostly asking to see if he was reading their intentions right. They nodded and said they didn't want to see innocent people get hurt. The elf stood up with a pained groan and called for his wolf, Becky. This was no time to let a little pain slow him down.

"We'll get there faster if we ride Becky," the tamer said as he mounted the large wolf. "Get on, she can handle the weight!" Doran and Cyrus gave each other a quick look before the former asked the elf a rather simple question.

"Why should we trust the thief that stole our bags and fought us?"

"Because it's my job to protect Roven, now get on!" Cyrus and Doran gave each other another quick look and nod before they got on the beast's back. "Becky, get us to Roven as fast as you can." Becky bolted forward in response. Just as the dark elf said, she was able to run just fine despite two of the three men awkwardly riding on her back.

"Who are you exactly?" Cyrus asked as the wolf quickly weaved through the forest trees, her speed was incredible and he felt the wind rip through his messy hair. The dark elf looked back at Cyrus and gave a response that rang with confidence and pride.

"I'm Silvern of the Blue Star Guild."