Jacob tore his eyes away from the massive tree in front of him and looked around. He could see an entrance to the roots, presumably where they lived. His eyes were also drawn to the covered eating area where Becca was sat.

She wore a simple yet elegant dress. It wasn’t complicated but it fit her well, the simple design accentuating her elven features. Her hair was in a braid and she was practicing water magic. Small swirls of water danced around at her will.

“Whoa,” he breathed to himself, “she’s beautiful.”

Being an elf Becca’s hearing was incredibly good due to the large ears and his voice carried enough that she caught the compliment. Her ears turned red but she did her best to hold a calm face as she sent the water back to the lake.

Turning to the human boy she smiled, “hi Jacob, how do you like our home?”

Jacob closed his mouth as it hung open a little since he had been there, “oh uh, it’s very pretty. I mean the world tree and all this nature.” He was holding back his thoughts that she was just as incredible of a sight as the world tree was.

“Yeah,” she agreed looking around, “when I first came here I thought it was a dream. All the suffering just stopped and my brother and I could be happy.”

Her brother? Jacob looked back at the older elf. Was that her brother? He thought it was her dad. No he was positive he was her dad. “Where’s your brother now? I’d love to meet him.” Jacob offered.

“Oh,” Becca seemed to deflate a little, “he’s patrolling the town to uh, keep him busy. You see he isn’t very fond of humans.”

Jacob could see that, elves far and wide were mostly a slave species. A Free elf was a sitting target to most slave traders.

“I don’t blame him,” Jacob said bitterly, “slavery is disgusting and it’s almost exclusively humans that do it.”

Becca put a hand on his in comfort, “you don’t need to hate humans. I don’t.” She said looking him in the eyes, “some people are bad, some are good. It’s up to us to chose which we will be.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Becca’s words rang true in Jacob’s ears, he chewed on it. Definitely to understand her better and not so she’d keep her hand on his or anything. After a few moments a noise from the woods startled him.

“I got dinner!” Came a voice that originated from a dragonkin, “I hope you like meat!”

“Who’s that?” He asked. Dragonkin were pretty rare, only the stupid rich could afford to have one. Their scales were as valuable as gems.

“That’s Melody,” Becca responded, “she’s like a mom and a big sister to me.”

Jacob watched Melody as she walked up to the waters edge and just simply began to walk across the water. “How is she doing that?” He asked in amazement.

Taylor appeared behind Jacob, the boy having not heard his footsteps, “it’s surface tension,” he explained, “basically if you use water magic and increase the surface tension enough you can just walk on water.”

Jacob jumped a little, “oh gosh,” he exclaimed, “you gotta learn to make some noise or something.”

“Funny, my wife told me the same thing,” Taylor quipped.

Jacob was confused, “what?”

“What?” Taylor asked pretending to not know what he said.

“Hey!” Melody called to Taylor, making him thank her mentally, “should we have the boy do the honors?”

“No,” Taylor said sounding almost offended, “I’ll take care of this, Jacob is a guest and I don’t want him doing any work while he’s here.”

With that Taylor went to prepare the meal and allowed the young couple to get acquainted.

• • •

Atreus stuck around the town as stealthily as he could. Luckily Taylor had taught him some light magic that allowed him to become near invisible. Using that he got near the mayors new building. From what he heard, it wasn’t nearly as nice as the old one that burned down but it was larger than most other buildings.

There were horses outside, and not just a few, but a few dozen. That definitely wasn’t normal. Atreus climbed to the second floor balcony to listen in on where he heard a conversation taking place.

“Do you really need to do this?” Came a female voice.

“Those damned elves frequent here and always seem to have gold,” a gruff voice responded “his highness thinks it may be the man he has been looking for for the last eleven years.”

“But what of the townsfolk?” The female asked.

“What of them?” The male asked coldly, “they’re citizens of the great kingdom and should be proud to be of use to his highness.”

Atreus heard enough, something was happening and it would hurt the people here. He hated humans but he hated those who saw life as disposable even more. He leaped off of the balcony to head to the middle of town and knocked on a random door, dispelling his magic while he was at it.

A burley man in overalls opened the door, “an elf? What are you doing here? Isn’t Jacob supposed to be-“

Atreus cut him off, “no time, soldiers here. Said something about the townsfolk should be proud to be of use to his highness. Get what you need and quietly get as many people out as possible.”

The man clenched his jaw and nodded going inside to grab a jar, his hammer, and the blade Taylor had lent him. He went to go to his neighbor’s to tell them what’s going on when Atreus stopped him.

“Ten minutes,” he said seriously, “that’s all I can promise for sure. If you aren’t out in ten minutes I can’t guarantee your life.”

He then pointed in the direction of Gaia, “head that way, you’ll see a giant tree. We live at its base, go there, it’ll be safe.”

With instructions given Atreus headed back to the mayors building, he was about to both get his hands dirty, and get some payback.