Our communication was interrupted when her face cramped, and she hugged her stomach. I had missed the fact that eating after stasis might put strain on internal organs. That was what I could guess, at least. Luckily, she did not throw up or anything, so I simply gave her a piece of thin spird hide to cover herself, and she curled up under the fur. For a while, I could hear some distressed grunts and painful breathing, but after a while she quieted down.
When I checked, Eala was asleep. I did not have an opportunity to broach the subject of her companions’ death, but I hoped that she would be strong enough by the time she learned about that. I sighed. I also noticed, that ever since I found the elves, I began to sigh a lot.
---
While waiting for Eala to wake up, I walked around. I still did not feel even a hint of tiredness. The feeling was refreshing, but I could not get mentally used to it. Psychological clock conflicted wholeheartedly with biological one. As I approached the dead elves laid out on the other side of the pyramid’s entrance, I saw that the jewels they wore on their necks had lost their luster. Originally vibrant and multicoloured, now the gems were dull and murky, like unpolished pieces of grey quartz.
Another odd thing that I noticed, was that none wore helmets. Eala had her owl-visor helmet, but none of her companions had one. Not wearing a helmet might be stylish and look good in books and movies, but is generally a shortcut towards unexpected invasive lobotomy with lethal consequences. Considering the fact that nobody wore miniskirts, tights and chainmail bikinis, I doubted they would be so dumb as to ignore head protection. I added another question to the long list “Ask at first opportunity” I had in the back of my mind and turned by sight towards the jungle below. Some trees limited my range of vision, so I climbed several gigantic terraces that formed the pyramid until I reached the level slightly above the highest treetops.
I stood and tried to feel at least some sign of living animals, but except the presence of microorganisms there was nothing. No birds in the sky, no centipedes on the ground. Nothing. But another thing I had time to notice was the horizon. The horizon that did not curve as it should. As far as I could see, the horizon in the distance was as flat as a board. Which would mean, that either I was on a planet so gigantic that even my telescope-grade eyesight could not detect the curvature, or this world was flat. Of course, there are some mythical mentions of flat worlds. For very early ancient Egyptians Earth was flat, and ancient Chinese went as far as imagining a square Earth. Not to mention Narnia, early Arda, Discworld and whatever people have come up with for entertainment and money making purposes. Feeling distressed with my worldviews being challenged on fundamental levels, I returned to the sleeping elf. I sat near the fire, keeping it burning and listened to her silent breathing.
---
Red sun in the sky did not move. I did not move either. Only occasional strand of wind bent a wisp of flame, with wood being constantly consumed and turned into coal and then scattering into ashes. I spent time watching the flames and arranging my thoughts until Eala began to toss around. It seemed that she was feeling hot. Considering the jungle around and constant sunshine, it was more surprising that I was feeling fine wearing thick hide clothes, armor and cloak, than that she felt hot under thick fur pelt. I walked over and carefully dragged the pelt off her. While I did my best to not disturb her, she woke up.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
When she raised her upper body, I could not refrain from a chuckle. Who could have guessed that elves can get bed hair? As if she had forgotten where she was, Eala looked around. Hearing my chuckle, she looked at me, and slightly shuddered when met my gaze. On a positive side, she did not panic this time. Instead, she probed her hair and rubbed her face.
With a flick of her wrist, she formed a fist-sized ball of water above her hands and used it to wash her face. She also splashed some water on her white hair, and used fingers to straighten the strands. I could feel some power emanating from her actions, but it was so quick and felt natural, so I did not manage to understand the process at all. At least, I was pretty sure it was magic. True magic, that sparkled my interest. While I was fascinated about magic, Eala absent-mindedly reached towards her waist, but there was only the thin, but strong cloth jacket she used to wear under her armor.
Seeing her confusion, I looked around searching for her armor that I had removed when trying to revive her. Finally spotting it behind the campfire, I grabbed it and the belt that was originally on her waist over the armor. I had not paid attention to it at the beginning as I was in a hurry to remove it, but now I noticed that the belt had several flat leather bags attached to it. That made it look a lot like toolbelt. Well, they were having some sort of exploration in the pyramid, weren’t they?
---
While I was picking up the belt, I heard Eala moving behind me. I turned around and saw her standing. She was recovering really quickly, considering how weak she was previously. She looked thoughtful as she stared into the fire. I approached her, and when she looked at me, handed her the belt. Motioning for her to sit, I sat cross-legged nearby and picked up some of the dry meat. Considering the time that had passed, I judged that the broth I had boiled earlier was no good, so I threw it into the forest, cup and all.
Eala retrieved a thin haircomb with no handle from one of the pouches of her belt. She carefully combed her hair, occasionally using her magic to create some water to help with the task. It seemed that the magic action was instinctive, as she was clearly thinking about something else. After she finished with hair, she accepted some meat I handed to her and slowly nibbled it. I did not say anything, and she seemed to be absorbed in her thoughts, so silence reigned in the area.
I had no idea about what occupied her thoughts until I noticed that while she slowly chewed her piece of meat, her other hand occasionally brushed past the jewel on her throat. Now guessing what she was pondering about, I looked closely at the jewel. It had actually changed too, from multicoloured magnificence to onyx-black sombreness.
Eala slowly finished her piece of meat, but instead of drinking the water she could create herself, she picked up a cup I left near her. That was interesting fact, which I added to the list of things I wished to enquire about.
After finishing her water, she took a deep breath and slowly breathed out. After a moment of hesitation, she closed her eyes and with a quick, decisive movement, ripped off the jewel hanging from her neck. Tightly clutching the jewel in her hands, she slowly opened her eyes. And then, unclenched her fist that held the jewel. Seeing the black, lifeless jewel on her palm, something mixed between a groan, hiccup and a cry escaped her throat.
Eala sat and watched the jewel in her hands, cradling it like a priceless piece of fragile glass. Her long and narrow ears twitched together with her shoulders, meanwhile clear drops running from her eyes slowly became pink, and then turned red. She did not close her eyes, even as red, bloody liquid flooded them before running down her snow white face and dripped down, into her lap and onto the black jewel she held on to.