Fire dances in moonlight, and willow vines drift by a tinge. The three sit in their camp on the outskirts, right near the open village mine.

Aleena cries in Lyrian's arms as he holds her, comforting her. Faylin pokes the fire with a stick, and the three sit in silence, except for Aleena's tears.

The carriage that Faylin bought earlier is hooked up to her horse, and all the rest of their horses tied to a willow.

Buildings are not far and within sight of the back of camp. Faylin looks over her shoulder at the village. One of the townsmen walks up to Faylin, "3000 coin as a thanks from the entire village. Thank you." The man hands Faylin some coin.

Faylin takes it and smiles. "You're welcome. Thank you for this. And thank you for the carriage."

"Osney crafted it for you didn't he?" the townsman says.

"Yes but I still owed him money," Faylin drops her head in sadness.

"After what you did, he would've had you keep the rest." The person leaves with a bow, and Faylin watches with satisfaction knowing she did the right thing.

Aleena is still in tears. Lyrian comforts her with an arm around her shoulder and she leans. Faylin sits down to join Aleena, putting a hand on her shoulder to help ease her emotional distress.

"I'm sorry," Faylin says to Aleena. Lyrian tightens around Aleena, nudging her closer.

"She killed the whole clan," she cries on Lyrian's shoulder, burying her face.

"We will make things right, I promise," Lyrian comforts with more rubbing and pats. "Who is the beastmaster anyway?"

"I don't know," Faylin replies. "But we need to find them."

"She has a mapusaurus, a pack of them. We can't face her, they're killing machines, monsters," Lyrian says with a sigh of worry. "I just got done reading, they're sauropod killers. They take down gigantic long necks. How in the world do you think we can take something like that down?"

Aleena wipes her eyes and sniffs, "I have to go back to my clan and find out what happened." She stands up eager for action, facing the two.

"There's also a neighboring clan, and they might be able to help us. I also should do a check on the wildlife that lives around. I have so much to do but you don't have to go. You've already done enough for me. Thank you," she looks back down and wipes a tear filled with guilt.

Faylin grabs her hand and smiles, "Aleena, you're my friend, and I won't let you face this alone. I will do whatever I can to help you find the beastmaster. I know you'd help me with my shop as you are now. And I promise, once we're done mining, we'll go straight to your clan to find out what happened. That's what friends are for."

"Faylin is right, we're not going to abandon you, we'll always be your friends. And your family," Lyrian smiles. "And we'll help you stop the beastmaster. No one is going to stop us, no monster, no human, no elf."

"We'll always have each other's back, right?" Aleena looks down but with a small amount of bittersweetness, "I gotta admit, I don't exactly have anyone else anymore."

"Then we'll always be there for each other, and for the people that need our help, right?" Lyrian gleams with happiness.

Faylin smiles to her, "we'll never abandon each other."

"We're like a family," Lyrian replies. The three sit upon a rock in a moment of silence. The nearby willow tree vines are hanging down with a squirrel running up the trunk to hide, and Aleena notices no wind. Nature gives off sadness in her eyes and there are no calls in the wilds around.

Faylin thinks, holding her chin and notes.

"We're not like a family, we are a family," she replies to Lyrian with a finger in the air.

Aleena breaks her thought but appreciates their comfort and concern. She gets up from the rock and faces the two with an intent in mind, "I need to mourn with the trees. Faylin, you should gather some ore from the mine. I might be able to convince the red leaf clan to let you use their crafting tools. I don't know how much that would help, or if they even have a forge but you might to be able to use something."

"I would really appreciate that, Aleena," she widens her eyes in shock of her offer.

"Us wood elves use wood from the trees of course. But our warrior hunters do need metal from time to time. When we get there, I'll ask."

Faylin nods with merriment that Aleena is finally coming around.

"Aleena, what was your clan name?" Lyrian asks.

"Aeirwood. Clan Aeirwood was mine. And the neighboring clan is The Red Leaf clan. Of course if Valery said was true, there is no more Aeirwood clan," Aleena sees the murky waters around the swamp, the nature around in sadness. Wind blows her hair and she clasps her fingers together, "nature, please protect me as I go to my birth clan."

Faylin nods, "okay, well, let's go mine Lyrian. We'll meet Aleena back at camp and sleep for the night after that. And Aleena can do her regular rituals and prayers while we're gone."

"Agreed," Lyrian gets up from his seat and moves over to the mine cart sticking out from the small entrance.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Lyrian holds a lantern as they enter the cave, Faylin grabs a laying pickaxe and throws it into the mine cart to push.

Small tunnels are made of moist rock and mud with the sound of a water drop leaking into a puddle. Some algae and moss grows painting the walls but slowly diminishes as they walk deeper. Some crevices let them know where the area has been dug up by villagers.

As they go deeper, they come to a more rich mining cavern.

Open caves with a bit of ore sticks out of the wall, "wow, look at all these," all the different ores brings Faylin to shock. She excitingly points around, "there's iron, tin, and gallium. Oh I want that gallium!"

She grabs a pickaxe and begins pick at the ore but Lyrian nudges her back to clear the area.

"Here Fay, let me," he holds his claw gauntlets to her, "give me some room."

Lyrian moves his hand with his eyes following a path. Stone spikes open up the walls, taking chunks of rocks. Ore rock of bauxite and crystal clear cassiterite roll in a pile at his leather boots, partially covered by the green trim of his robe.

He dusts off an ore sample for Faylin with a couple of brushes of his hand and holds up the orange clay looking rock, "here you go, Fay, some gallium. It's bauxite ore, meaning you can sell the rest of the minerals in this. There's some tin ore too I think."

"Thank you, this is going to help a ton," Faylin says with a hint of hope. "Let's go in deeper to get some more iron, and coal."

The duo ventures deeper into the cave. They had put their ore inside of the cart and push it along it's creaking wheels of the track.

"You know, I never thought I'd make friends with a wood elf like Aleena. I always thought they would just attack us on sight," Faylin says, strolling along with the cart.

"Really, you thought all elves are just violent people? I thought the same of dwarves when I was growing up, because they'd be all gruff and dirty," he chuckles, looking at her. "But then I saw one who helped my mother. I saw the dwarf give her money to help our family, so I was wrong about all dwarves."

"Yeah, I guess I am wrong. I mean, there is still a lot of hatred towards humans, but not all humans are like that. I guess I judged Aleena too early." Faylin sighs, "but there is still a lot of humans I hate, even though I'm a human. Like Valery and her gang of mercenaries."

"Aleena still does hate humans. But at least she won't just attack them."

"Let's hope so, I mean, we can only help her so much."

Lyrian's voice deepens in defense, "well, if you don't want to come, I'll still help Aleena myself."

"No, Lyrian, that's not what I'm saying, I want to help, but Aleena can only learn so much about humans. She's broken and probably blind to some things. And what will happen if we do defeat the dinosaurs and the beastmaster? What comes of her interactions with humans then? You saw her anger towards Valery."

"Maybe that was just because she killed her clan. Or helped killed her clan," He shrugs and sighs.

"I know, Lyrian, and we're going to do whatever we can to avenge her clan, and her elder," Faylin looks at the cave, and sees the light of the entrance, "Let's just gather some iron and coal. It's getting late."

Lyrian puts a hand on her shoulder, "Aleena won't betray us. You saw her clan before, they even gave us a bit of their hospitality."

They come across a small vein of iron on the bottom wall, easy to gather.

Faylin picks up a pickaxe, and starts swinging away at the wall with momentum over her head, "you know, Aleena isn't too bad to talk to." She grunts and continues, "she is a lot different than I thought. And she's really nice. I think I can see us becoming really good friends." She mines more ore from the wall, and looks to Lyrian. He's smiling, and she can't help but smile back.

"Maybe I'll try and learn more elvish from her, so I can understand her better," she chuckles, mining the rest of the iron.

"I'd love to see you speaking in elvish. It's a beautiful language. My mom would sometimes speak in elvish to me, but it's hard for me to pronounce it," Lyrian tells her.

"Oh, really? You don't remember much of it?"

"I remember a little. I know some words and phrases, but nothing much more than that." He sighs, and smiles again, "it's been so long since I've seen my mom. I can still remember how she'd hold me and sing to me, and I can still see her smile when I was little."

"You miss your mom, don't you?" she leans her arm on the cooling moist wall. A sad smile displays to her best friend. She feels his sadness.

"I do miss my mom," he replies.

"And you said she lived in Aigeia?" She tilts her head in curiosity. Her face glows in the torchlight.

"Yeah, last I heard, she lived there. It's pretty close to my dad's home city but I guess she left." Lyrian focuses his attention on seeing more ore in a patch of darkness.

"So, why did she leave Aigeia? Did she move to Legin? Where's Aigeia?"

"No, she didn't. She left because of some disagreement. And Aigeia is on an island, it's pretty far south. Legin is farther north than Aigeia."

"If you ever want to visit her, we can go after helping Aleena with her clan issues," Faylin responds.

"I don't know where she lives, but maybe I could find her."

"We will you mamas boy," Faylin nudges him.

"Hey," Lyrian shoves lightly, "I'm not a mama's boy."

"You are too," She chuckles. "Or at least you were when you were younger." She laughs more. "But seriously, we can find your mom sometime."

Lyrian breaks off another pitch black rock ore of iron and let's it fall, "I'm glad I met you when we were younger. It's good to be independent as a mage but it is quite lonely at times."

Faylin is feeling a small warm fuzziness in her chest, "I'm glad I met you too."

Then she snickers, "but you're still the reason why we don't have an apothecary in our village." She hugs the iron ore and hauls it to the cart, continuing their work.

"Hey, it's not my fault other mages misjudge my house for a magical item shop," he chuckles as he continues to shatter the rest of the smaller ores left. "Besides, I'm not a salesman, I take care our Earth. I'm partially the reason how your minerals are made anyway."

Faylin beams with delight, "much like Aleena takes care of animals and plants huh?"

Lyrian smiles to himself thinking of Aleena's beautiful nurturing, "yeah I guess. Maybe that's why I admire her ability to survive. I sort of do the same in my meditations, don't I? And I like being out in nature, it's simple."

Once Faylin drops another ore in, she slouches over the edge of the metal cart and takes a second of physical relief. The blend of ore in the bucket of the cart, it makes her think of her next worry. Pain of her commissions bring her to back home to a stressful feeling.

"Lyrian?" she gets his attention and his mood shifts, "what if I can't make it. My deadline I mean. I have 20 soldiers to make weapons and armor for. The ore will be enough, but Aleena is kind of slowing me down. All this stuff with nature and dinosaurs."

Faylin starts to worry of her reputation back home, how her shop might fall to unfinished work and broken promises.

Lyrian takes a moment to think, "you have a roof over your head for the next month and three thousand gold, yes? And you're gathering ore for your next set of crafts."

"But the noble..."

"But nobody, we'll get it done in time. Don't worry about it. Aleena is helping you find a forge isn't she?" Lyrian asks with a raised eyebrow.

"I guess, I still have to haul it back home in time," she argues.

Lyrian sighs, "you know, it wouldn't hurt to work on your survival skills too Faylin. You don't have to be perfect, but, seriously. It would be for your health."

Faylin drops another ore in with a grunt, "maybe."

Lyrian's shoulders settles down and he furrows his brows in worry feeling empathy towards her, a sign of one ear out the other.

----------------------------------------

Aleena Mourns

image [https://i.imgur.com/3znmjcw.png]

----------------------------------------

Faylin Finally Finds Gallium in Bauxite Ore

image [https://i.imgur.com/NIOqL81.png]