He was in his tunic and trousers, but barefooted, standing in the middle of the dark forest. A glimpse of silver in his peripheral vision caused him to turn and cautiously approach. He felt no fear, just curiosity. The breeze rustled the leaves in the trees above and whistled through the grass as it waves like a moving sea.
It sounded like someone was sobbing quietly from behind the tree. Tsugi carefully approached and saw a silver haired child around his age hunched down on the ground. It was curled into a ball and crying. Since all the elves had this graceful beauty to them, Tsugi couldn’t figure out if it was a boy or a girl.
‘Why is there an elven child alone here?’ Tsugi knelt down next to the child and placed a hand on its shoulder, causing it to flinch, but it didn’t look up, it only sobbed and tensed more.
Why are you crying?” The child just kept sobbing and didn’t say a word. “Are you lost? You want me to help you find your way back?” The child shook its head fiercely. “It’s not safe to be out here by yourself though. Is it okay if I stay with you?” The child didn’t utter a word, but the sobs had quieted.
Tsugi sat down beside it and leaned his back against the tree. “I don’t know what’s wrong, but it’s okay. Things will get better sooner or later.” He placed a hand on the child’s back causing it to flinch just like how he did back then. He thought back to Mare’s comforting words to him, when he was going through a tough time. “It’s okay to be afraid sometimes. You just have to be brave and stand up to it. There will be times, when it's so hard, that you feel like you can never do it, but sometimes, just taking that one step is all it takes, to take another and another. Then soon enough, you will have faced your fear.”
Tsugi lightly rubbed the child’s back in an attempt to soothe it. “It’s okay to cry sometimes. I know one day you will find your smile and your laughter, and it will make the world a better place.”
“Where’d you go, you little shit?!”
Tsugi kicked awake and sat straight up glancing around the room with his hands held up in fists. He was back on the couch in the inn by the fireplace. Yamo and Volgan were snoring away in their beds. Tsugi was drenched in sweat and his body ached. He plopped back down onto the couch and exhaled tirelessly. He rubbed his face and winced in pain. Pressing a hand to his stinging cheek, he pulled it away and saw a line of blood across his hand.
‘Did I scratch myself when I woke up from the nightmare?’ Tsugi pondered quietly to himself. Confused, he walked over to the tub, washed his hands and dabbed at the cut on his face, wincing every now and then. He returned to the couch and stepped on something sending shooting pains up his leg. He hopped on one foot and landed on the couch, grunting quietly, as not to wake Yamo and Volgan. Propping his foot onto his knee, he pulled out a sharp rock from under his foot and tossed it into the fire.
Upon inspecting his foot, it didn’t bleed, but he found that his foot was really dirty, like he had been walking barefoot outside. He quickly put that foot down and lifted the other one, and it too was dirty.
‘Maybe I just forgot to wash my feet when I bathed.’ Tsugi thought long and hard, but he just couldn’t remember if he did or not. ‘Yeah, I’m pretty sure I just forgot.’
He went to wash his feet and pushed his thoughts aside before laying back down on the couch. He listened to the crackling of the fire, letting it soothingly hypnotize him and he slowly drifted off to sleep.
The uncomfortable, uninviting atmosphere sent them promptly on their way the next morning, leaving shortly after breakfast. Everywhere they went they were greeted with sneers, glares, and mumbles of arrogant attitudes.
Only when they entered the forest, away from peering eyes, did the atmosphere thin out and they could finally breathe.
“Talk about a thick atmosphere.” Volgan whistled loudly, clicking his tongue at the horse to keep moving. “It was so thick you could practically slice through it and serve it like a pie.”
“Yep. That’s elves for you.” Yamo stretched his stiff neck.
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“Was the bed not comfortable or something?” Volgan yawned and stretched his arms into the air, his whole body vibrated intensely before he dropped his arms back down.
“It was too comfortable.” Yamo chuckled and rubbed his neck. “You okay Enron?”
Tsugi was lost in thought and didn’t hear Yamo calling for him.
Yamo turned to look at him and waved his hand in front of Tsugi’s dazed face. Tsugi blinked wildly and broke out of his reverie. “What?”
"Are you okay?" Yamo laughed and shook his head, grinning at Tsugi. "You've seemed to be a little lost all morning. I told you to sleep in the bed and not the couch."
"No, it's not that, I'm fine. The couch was actually very comfortable. I just had a weird dream."
"Did you want to talk about it?"
"No." Tsugi shook his head and kept his eyes on the road. He didn't even know how he would begin to explain it.
They rode through the forest in silence. Before long, they reached the edge of the forest and traveled alongside it, riding through the cliff that dropped to the raging river down below. Across the river in the distance was an enchanting castle built into the jaw dropping mountains. Stairs that descended forever led from the Castle gates, and wound down to the base of the mountains where it met the valley of trees, and grasslands filled with blooming flowers.
It was truly as beautiful as the elves, holding up to its name, Tarathiel Kingdom of Elves, meaning ‘Last Enchantment’.
This was a place Tsugi read about in his books. It was one of the places he wanted to go see for himself. Now that he was here, it was even more beautiful than he had ever imagined. The sight was so beautiful, it was like staring into the indigo sky as the sun sets upon the horizon.
“Let’s reset here for today.” Yamo had noticed Tsugi’s amazement of the sight that was to die for. After setting camp, Tsugi left to sit at the precipice of the cliff and dangled his feet off the edge, swinging them to and fro. He soaked up the breathtaking view, engraving it into his mind, for he never wanted to forget it.
“Gorgeous isn’t it?” Yamo stood next to Tsugi and shared the view with him. “Too bad, this is as close as we can get to it.” He sat down next to Tsugi and handed him a potato.
“How come?” Tsugi stared at the potato and smiled genuinely, remembering how he had shared a potato with Mare. He would’ve never thought about it, but for the first time, he seemed to have missed home, or at least the people that made it feel like home.
“The elves would never allow us to get that close. We, as outsiders, are only permitted to travel the route that leads us through, not around.”
“Oh well, this view is satisfying enough.” Tsugi took a bite out of the potato and stared at the castle as lanterns were slowly lit throughout it with the setting sun, painting hues of fiery purple across the sky.
“Go get some shuteye.” Yamo stuffed the last piece of potato in his mouth.
“But, it's not even that late yet.” Tsugi whined like a rebellious child refusing to go to bed. The child that he had been suppressing was starting to come out a little more with the absence of his father.
“Yes, but I already know you’ll probably toss and turn for a while before even falling asleep. You are still growing, you need all the rest you can get at the moment. We should be out of here by tomorrow night, if not then the following morning.”
“That soon? Is the Elven territory not that vast?”
“The Elven Territory is very big, this is just the only area that we are allowed through. Think of it like we are merely cutting across the corner of the map.”
“Then how do people know about the territory being big then?”
“There was once an elf that had fallen in love with a human. When he left, he was branded as a traitor because he disclosed a detailed map to the humans. That’s why they are very cautious about humans infiltrating their lands.”
“Are there really people who are stupid enough to do that though?”
Yamo scoffed loudly, “Believe it or not, there are stupid people like that. Honestly, I don’t have much hope for the human race either. Actually any race. There are very few people I find that I actually like and enjoy the company of. And I travel a lot, so believe me when I say there are very few.”
“How long have you been a mercenary?”
“Eh…” He looked up at the corner of his eye and shifted side to side. “I don’t know actually. A long time.” He laughed and scratched at his chin.
“Why’d you become a mercenary?”
“At first I wanted to learn how to kill people, now it’s just…something I do that I enjoy sometimes.”
“Why’d you want to kill people?”
“It’s late and that’s a long story. We can leave that question for another day.” He put on a wistful smile that told Tsugi he didn’t want to talk about it. “Go to bed bud.” Yamo ruffled Tsugi’s hair and patted his back, sending him off to sleep.