The sun came up a bit earlier today, a testament to the changing seasons. When I woke up, I crawled down the ladder to find that Isayah had fallen asleep in his chair. He had faced it towards the door and he even had a pair of curved swords sheathed in his lap. The noise from the wobbling ladder woke him up.

“I’m sorry I woke you up.” I had hoped I’d be able to sneak out and do my chores before talking to him.

Isayah stared at me for a while before finally responding, “You’re going to take me to the humans you found.” He reached over to the table and threw me a spare coat.

I eyed him suspiciously, “What are you going to do to them?”

He eyed me right back, “I’m going to find out why they are in the mountains, and then I’ll kill them.”

“Brother! They said they were just hunting for their village. You can’t kill them, they didn’t even come with bad intentions.” I knew Isayah hated humans, but I still couldn’t believe his first thought would be to simply kill them off. I searched my mind for some excuse to warrant peaceful actions. “What about the other villagers, they might come looking for them if they don't come back.”

Isayah scoffed, “Nonsense, people are killed by monsters far more often than you think.” He got up from his chair and pulled a bow down from the top of the pantry, along with a quiver of arrows.

He opened the door and turned his head back one final time. “Now, I want no more objections, you will lead me to where you found them, and you’ll help me deal with them. Or, I can just follow your tracks and find them anyway, but you’ll be chopping wood until Fall.”

We both paused, waiting for me to answer, but I couldn’t find the words. Isayah shrugged, “I’ll be on your trail if you change your mind, if not, then the wood near the shed better be chopped up by the time I get back.” He slammed the door shut and started into the forest.

I wasn’t sure what I should do, I doubt there was an easy way to convince him. Maybe if I mediated a talk then Isayah would see that not all humans are bad. Either way, it would be bad if I was late to the party, so I put my coat on and headed out after him.

~~~~

Where the hell did he go!? I continued running up the steep mountain trail but I still haven’t caught up to Isayah. I only left a few minutes after him, was he joking about letting me change my mind? The way only got worse as the snow got deeper. I had to hurry, Isayah would probably kill them sooner rather than later.

I went all the way to the cave at a sprint, getting a sense of deja vu from the day before. The cave came into view without once seeing any tracks from Isayah. I slowed down and approached the cave, boots crunching the hard icy snow. It looked the same as before, but it seemed eerie somehow.

Suddenly, a hand shot out of my peripheral and grasped my shoulder hard. Who?

The hand wrapped around to cover my mouth and I was thrown up against a tree. I began to reach for my knife but my assailant had me pinned. I saw Isayah in front of me with a finger to his lips. I immediately understood that it meant to stay as quiet as possible.

I nodded and he slowly let go, he whispered, “Your friends must have ratted you out already.” He pulled me prone and threw his white fur cloak over the both of us. I looked out of the peephole Isayah left open and saw what he was talking about. There were a half dozen saddled horses a hundred meters or so away from the cave. Of course, I wasn’t so naive that I believed the owners of the beasts meant no harm. But that still didn’t prove Astrid guilty of outing me.

We waited in silence for what seemed like an eternity before Isayah tensed up beside me. There were several men that exited the cave, they were heavily armed with swords, axes, crossbows, you name it. The last ones to exit were Astrid and Devin, who I guess had woken up. Still though, he shouldn’t be able to walk already. The reason for that showed itself in the form of an older man with heavy robes and a tall bejeweled staff.

I recognized him as a mage, I’ve seen some drawings of them before. Interestly enough, even though I can use magic, I can’t really call myself a mage. Anyone can learn how to use magic, but the difference is that mages have an inborn ability to condense the mana from the outside world into their bodies while others are only able to use the mana already inside them. Certainly, a talented mage could heal someone on the brink of death. Though all things considered, Devin wasn’t in too bad of shape after I helped.

Isaiah spoke once more in very soft words, “Try to mask your magic. I’d rather not fight with a mage right now.” It was one of the first things Isayah taught me when I was little, so I’m pretty good at it.

We were too far away to hear anything that was being said but it definitely wasn’t a happy reunion. The armed men seemed to be trying to convince Astrid to go with them.

“We need to get out of here. I’m going to cause a distraction and as soon as I start, I want you to go back to the house and pack some essentials.” I stared at him in the dim light under the cloak, did he really mean to move entirely?

I kept my voice low and asked, “Are we going to run away?” Isayah grimaced at the term run away, I doubt he liked to think of it that way.

I didn’t want to leave though, this mountain was my home, and we had to leave just because of a few strangers? That was unacceptable.

~~~~

Isayah slipped out of his hiding spot and left the young elf Elias. He had a job to do. Isayah stayed behind trees and snow drifts, bolting from cover to cover until he was on the other side of the party, opposite to where he’d started. He began his work as the argument from the humans was growing louder.

“Miss Astrid, your father has had enough of your bullshit. This isn’t even the first time you’ve run away and this time you almost got Devin killed. It has gone too far” The mage had grabbed the girl by the shoulders and was shaking her. “You must come to your senses and become the woman your father thinks you are.”

The girl was red faced and indignant, “What does it matter if I have a little fun every once in a while. It’s not like father gives a shit if I come back or not, he only sent you people because he didn’t want a scandal.” She wrenched herself out of the mage’s grip and pushed away from him.

Isayah was finished preparing. Far away, at several points around the mountain, large snow covered obelisks began to heat up. This was known as a ritual, different from a simple spell, it required an enormous amount of preparation, but it could potentially produce magic equal in magnitude to what a mage could do. Isayah had placed a few dozen totem poles throughout the mountain and they’d been collecting mana ever since a few months ago.

Magic energy made the air turn electric, building greater substance as the spell gathered power. The totems weren’t perfect, so precision was not in Isayah’s cards. The mage’s eyes widened just as the sky darkened almost instantaneously. The sky became filled with heavy gray clouds and the clap of thunder queued a sudden downpour of icy rain and hail. The wind began to shriek across the forest and the tall pines whipped back and forth.

As soon as Isayah saw Elias running down the trail, he began his second phase. Isayah knew Elias would hate him if he knew he’d killed those kids, that’s why he sent him away.

Isayah became much like a wraith, running through the slushy snow, the rain covering up any noise he made. Two soldiers had run down to their horses in an attempt to calm them down, effectively separating them from the group. Despite being early in the morning, it was dark as if it were night, and so of course, they didn’t see the elf coming.

Isayah pulled his two swords from his baldric and sped towards them. He sprung from the dark and ran a sword though the side of the nearest man. Isayah jerked the man around his center of balance, causing the body to fall free of the sword and finished the spin by silencing the second soldier with a slash to the throat. Both bodies splashed to the ground and Isayah then made quick work of the horses, killing them each in one blow.

Running further towards the cave, the humans had gone back in to avoid the storm, he spotted a sentry at the entrance. He pulled one of his throwing knives from its place near his armpit and let it loose. His aim was true and the guard fell to his knees, clutching his throat. These soldiers must not be very well trained. The storm ritual would only last for about 20 minutes, so he hurried to the edge of the cave.

Normally, he would just send a bunch of fire into the crevice and smoke them out, but with the mage being in there, it was unlikely to work. He stepped into the cave and noticed faint fire light from within. He sidled up to the wall and peaked his head in slightly.

“Show yourself,” The mage spoke. He probably set an alarm spell. Isayah stepped out of the dark.

“Mage, I heard your kind has an extra life, care to help me with a little experiment.” Isayah glanced around the cavern and noticed the mage was the only one here. They probably expected an ambush. The storm wasn’t very natural in the end.

The mage spoke up again, “I never thought I’d run into an elf this far in the mountains.”

“Well, this is my home, you should’ve sent a letter, maybe I could…” Isayah cut himself off by closing the distance between himself and the mage.

“Drunikk Salum!” The sword meant to cleave the mage’s head from his shoulders met with the rock hard magic coating his flesh. “Freyda Youk!” Air pressure shot from the tip of the mage’s staff and threw Isayah into the cave wall. Just before impact, Isayah cast his own magic armor and slammed into the rock. Isayah had long ago mastered chantless magic and it once again proved life saving. Still though, between activating the storm ritual and this, his mana levels were pretty low.

The mage cast another spell and ice materialized into sharpened spears, launched as soon as they formed. Ice, even magic ice, was rather fragile, so Isayah sliced through them instead of trying to dodge inside the tight space.

“You’re an agile little elf aren’t you, why won’t you just die!” Over a dozen spears suddenly formed at once, all of them being launched at slightly different angles to make cutting through them virtually impossible. But that was all he needed.

Isayah used his remaining mana to wrap himself in wind and dashed around the edge of the cavern. The mage laughed, “Fool, you think it’ll be that easy!” More spears formed around him and began a continuous stream of attacks, barely missing and crashing into the wall. “I’m not going to run out of mana you know, I am a mage! Born into magic, you don’t stand a chance! You pathetic el…” The mage suddenly found it difficult to continue speaking when a thin curved, elven blade made itself at home in the side of his neck.

Isayah had thrown one of his swords in the opposite direction when he’d first casted wind magic. All he had to do was keep the mage from noticing the small amount of magic guiding the sword in a deadly arc. Isayah stepped up to the dying mage to give some advice to the fool. “You should have kept your mage armor on, or are you only able to cast one spell at a time?” It was a pointless question, as an answer never came.