Chapter 9

An iron tipped arrow stained reddish green, soared through the trees, traveling a good 50 yards before sinking itself into the hard muscle of a troll’s abdomen. This did little to faze the beast, but it did manage to piss it off. I took off to the small but deep creek nearby.

Despite my head start, I heard branches snapping and bushes being crushed underfoot as it wildly chased me through the woods. I heard the twang of a bow to my right and took the signal to suddenly veer hard to the left. I deftly ran across the fallen log we’d stretched across the creek beforehand and jumped onto the opposite bank.

The troll had given up on chasing me across the river and was instead charging toward Isayah’s position. A second arrow besides mine was protruding out of its right thigh. I nocked my next arrow and let it loose before the troll could reach Isayah.

This one struck the back of its shoulder and hit hard enough to make it stagger forward, which was a feat in and of itself. The creatures were a good 10-12 feet tall and had enough strength to tear a young tree straight out from its roots.

I hollered past the troll, “Isayah! It’s your turn!” The troll glanced over at my shout and I saw the hooded figure of Isayah leap out from his hiding spot and plunge his sword into the side of its neck. The troll roared in fury and snatched at Isayah, who had already tumbled off and was running toward me.

Isayah dodged the hand by a hair and shot across the river to this bank. Another of my arrows was already flying into the troll’s face but it blocked the projectile with its forearm. Then, with fast as lightning movement, the troll tore a large boulder from the ground and sent it catapulting toward my head. Isayah shoved me out of the way and the rock smashed into the bank beside me, the impact flinging dirt and wet sand everywhere.

“Thanks!” We both scrambled to our feet and crawled up the bank back into the tree cover. The troll tried to follow us over the makeshift bridge but didn’t have the balance to make it across. It slipped and fell into the river with a massive splash of water. We sent some arrows into it for good measure and it finally crawled its way on our side of the river.

We continued exchanging hit and run volleys with the troll until both of us had only one or two arrows left. The constant barrage of rocks and fallen trees had laid waste to the surroundings.

In the end, the troll was affected by the poison and collapsed. It wasn’t hard to finish up after that. We collected the arrows that didn’t break and Isayah yanked his sword out of the troll.

“These things have always been a pain in the ass.” Isayah stood up with a groan, “We didn’t have trolls back where we used to live.” He finished wiping his sword on the troll matted fur, “Though I guess trolls are better than humans.” He grinned at me.

“Don’t even start with that,” I cringed inwardly at my actions back then. I know I was too young to really know better, but I almost permanently ruined my relationship with my only family. “I already said all that was my mistake. I won’t do it again.”

Isayah sat down on the corpse and looked me over. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

I sat down on a nice rock to strap in for a lecture, “Then what did you mean?”

“I am not mad at you for stopping me back then. I wasn’t thinking properly and in the end, I shouldn’t have been so irrational.” I cocked my head, unsure if I believed him or not. Seeing this, he added, “I think that what you did was mighty stupid, but you did right. Adventurers have always been closer to our kind than the rest of the mortals. I don’t know whether it is because of their respect for our abilities, or their lack of connection to the mortals’ politics. But I do remember some of the people that helped our tribe hide when the edict first came out.”

This was the first time I was hearing this. I had thought that even now, all mortals hated us, but I suppose there is always a bigger picture. Isayah clapped his hands. “We should go deal with the other troll, we still have a whole list of hunting marks to get through today. We’ll continue this talk later.”

“Okay.” I applied another coat of poison to our weapons and we went to work.

~~~~

The day dragged on and I found myself regretting my procrastination. Isayah seemed like he felt the same. It was growing dark by the time we found ourselves heading back to the lodge.

We walked along the darkening path and chatted about various things. I wanted to know more about the adventurers that had helped our people. Isayah responded passionately and spoke about them with respect. Our tribe's survival was mainly due to a single adventurer named Percival Faldon.

Percival was a human adventurer that was part of the frontline in the war against The Demon, though the humans referred to him as the Archmage. Isayah told me that he met him on the battlefield when he was fighting under Tauriel, my father. Isayah told me about how Percival used incredibly powerful Blade Arua, as well as being a mage. Percival was close friends with my father and mother and they often fought the Archmage’s forces together.

When the Mortal Council, the leaders of the many different races, declared a bounty on the elves, Percival was the most outspoken one who refuted it. Percival was a noble in the first place, so he was stripped of his title when he opposed the new law.

Percival then gathered the other mortals who also felt that the edict was unjust and smuggled hundreds, if not thousands of elves out of the prisons and execution camps. The story made me wonder what kind of person he really was. Though I won’t ever find out because Percival, as well as many of the other rebels, were eventually captured and executed.

We reached home as the last of the twilight turned into night. We stomped inside, relieving ourselves of our muddy boots and outer garments at the entrance.

I could tell Isayah was tired, so I said, “I’ll prepare dinner since you made breakfast.”

Isayah shrugged with a, “Thanks, I’ll go warm up a bath, you can jump in after me.” I nodded and got to cooking. We used a firewood stove during the warm months.

Despite living in the back-end of nowhere, Isayah and I were always careful with our meals. We made sure to get all the proper nutrition we needed and we also grew a variety of herb seasonings and spices. Tonight, I decided to prepare a hot pot as we were both in need of regaining our energy. Besides, we could store leftovers for a few days as this lodge had a cellar that was easy to keep cool.

I tossed a large amount of ham, potatoes, carrots, onions, and a dab of cream to soften the texture. Though, I boiled the potatoes and carrots for a short while first to make sure they would cook properly in the main pot.

I heard the sound of splashing water upstairs and the thought of a hot bath drew me in. I had to force myself to focus on cooking so I wouldn’t burn anything. Before long, Isayah came back down and sat on one of the two rocking chairs near the barren fireplace so he could finish drying his hair.

“The water is still warm, I’ll finish dinner, so you should hurry.”

“Alright, it is just simmering, I’ll be back down before it’s done.” I trudged upstairs, my sore legs complaining with each step. The bathwater felt good enough for me to nearly nod off, but I wiped down my skin and dressed in some clean clothes. A few minutes later, we had set up at the table to finally eat.

“Thank you for the meal,” We said to no one in particular and we dug in.

I asked what had been on my mind for a while, “Do you think there are still people like Percival out there? I mean, people who would actually help us if it came to it.”

Isayah spoke while he was eating, “I don’t know, what do you think about it, did those human kids seem like that to you?” I thought for a moment, the guy’s name and face were a bit foggy, but I remember the girl, Astrid.

From what I could tell she wasn’t super straightforward, but she didn’t seem like she disliked that I was an elf. Plus, it’s not like there are any signs of the Empire being on the hunt for us, so they probably didn’t rat us out.

I shrugged, “I’m not sure, but I bet if we got to know people like them better, they might.”

Isayah stopped chewing to say, “Well, that there is the problem. Most mortals would just as soon cut our throats as talk to us. So I’d say it’s a bit hard to ‘get to know them’ as you say.”

“Yeah… Though you could always get to know them before they knew you were an elf.”

“That could work, assuming you managed it, but didn’t the literal first person you met find you out?” He raised an eyebrow at me to emphasize this point.

I made a face, “What do you mean, she thought I was a half-elf!” Isayah burst out laughing and I joined in. The mood lifted away my fatigue and left a warm feeling in my belly. This was much better than getting drunk.

KNOCK KNOCK!!

Isayah and I both stopped laughing.