CHAPTER 14

As Elrieden sighed as he looked upon the pile of documents present on his desk. He had to look through all of these tax documents to make sure that everyone had paid their share, but he could not help but groan in irritation. Why did he have to do this? Couldn’t they just have hired a clerk to do this for him? He wanted to continue his sulking, until he looked at the clock.

It was past noon! The playdate was coming closer and closer and he was far from completing this monumental task!

He quickly called upon his son Nero, who was training in the yard beside his office. Leaning back in his chair, he interrupted his training with a yell.

“Nero! I need you to get Fern, and start preparing for the playdate that is coming up! I still have a lot of work to do, so I can’t do it at the moment.”

Nero stopped his training only to shout back at his father with an annoyed tone: “Can’t I just continue training? I don’t want to deal with those little kids, and besides, I was going to have some fun with the guys later.”

Ellith could only sigh as muttered something under his breath concerning ‘that damned child’, before shouting back to him: “I will pay you five silver if you do it. The playdate won’t even last till sundown, so you will still have enough time to go drink with your pals. Now get your arse inside and help. Oh and call Fern, he can help, and he will be going to the playdate. He will most likely be hanging out at the village square.”

Nero quickly answered his father, as he was very tempted at the prospect of coin: “Okay dad, I will go get him, and after that we will set up the playdate.”

He said as he quickly sped away, the fatigue from the training seemingly vanishing into thin air as he made his way towards the town square at top speed.

On the way there, he met several people, the eldest son of the Ulindil family, Ifrit, and the Theandor family. Their son seemed awfully pale, but he did not mind it as he had a task to perform.

Well, he wanted to continue, but he was quickly stopped by the father of the Theandor family.

“Oh, if it isn’t Nero! How have you been?” He said with a cheerful voice.

Nero slowed down a bit as he was addressed, and grinded to a halt next to the family.

“Hello mister Theandor, it is good to see you. I have been well, thank you.” He said with a polite voice before turning to Daelyn.

“And this must be little Daelyn, right? He seems kind of pale.”

Lyvia could only smile as she said: “Yes, he had quite a rough morning. We will first be heading home and letting him recover a bit. Can you tell Ellith that we will be coming to the playdate, but at a later time? We would like him to get some sleep first.”

Nero politely smiled, before saying: “Of course, I will relay the message. Goodbye.”

He quickly sped off to get his little brother, that damned kid never focused on training, only hanging out with his friends and causing trouble. As Nero finally arrived at the town square, he found his little brother and his group of friends sitting on the benches next to the bakery.

Nero was about to head over to them as he gazed upon the town square, it looked as beautiful as always. While most houses were up in the trees, the shops and such were almost always located on the ground, within the safety of some basic walls in the village. The town square of Elrieden looked beautiful.

The square was surrounded by three large trees to which the walls were connected. These trees were adorned with watch posts in them and even some basic battlements. The walls were made out of a hardened type of bark, which is customary in most villages since it is quite hard, and it doesn’t require stone or some other expensive building material to build.

While the walls were made out of wood, the gate was made out of wooden planks reinforced with steel. This was quite hard to break through as the planks were also reinforced with nature magic, causing the already uncommonly hard planks to become even denser and stronger.

The buildings around the town square were either houses of minor nobles that had some lands in nearby areas, or were the shops and houses of craftsmen. These houses normally had a foundation made from stone, but the rest was constructed out of wood. While it was cheaper to live in the trees, it brought more revenue to be situated along the town square or at least on the ground, and trees also had the bad habit of echoing everything throughout the forest. For a blacksmith, this could be quite annoying as the complains of the neighbours would pile up.

The crown piece of the whole square was the fountain, it was a beautiful three layered fountain with some engravings on it. It was said that the fountain operates on one of the brands made by the original founder of Elrieden, others say that it was powered by an ancient enchantment. While these rumours were enjoyable, Nero knew that the fountain worked on the concept of water traveling downwards and then using gravity to have it propel itself upwards because of the difference in elevation, and pressure.

Despite knowing that, Nero still thought it was a beautiful fountain as it seemed to be a masterpiece in such a small town.

Nero quickly snapped out of his stupor and walked over to his brother, as he arrived he said with an indifferent and demanding voice: “Fern, I came to get you. The playdate is going to be later in the afternoon, and you need to help organising it.”

His little brother sighed at hearing this: “Why do I have to do that? Dad was going to organize it, right? Besides, I don’t need a playdate. I already have friends.”

Nero’s expression turned to one of annoyance as he responded to him with a demanding and irritated voice: “You don’t get a say in this, get your arse moving, you’re going to help whether you like it or not. That is the least you can do for the family.”

Fern’s expression turned to anger, but he did not voice it. Instead he obeyed his brother, and followed him towards his home. He knew of his faults, but his brother did not have to rub it in, besides this playdate was stupid. He already had friends, and his father would organize everything, so why did he have to help! Those stupid little brats, can’t they just organize their own things and not drag him into it! Those little babies better not act up, otherwise he might just hit those little shits.

Thoughts of annoyance raged through his head as he reached his home, and even as he was preparing the playdate, he had not left that irritation behind. Only as his friends started to show up was he able to calm down, he would simply continue having fun at his home during the playdate.

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As the playdate was being prepared, the Theandor family had reached their home. Grey opened the door to let Lyvia and Daelyn through. Daelyn was quickly put to bed to rest a bit, and Lyvia and Grey started cooking. They wanted to have Daelyn eat something as soon as he woke up, and they themselves were starving from the events that had transpired in the morning.

As they sat at the table, they ate their food in silent, they finished their meal and washed the dishes in silence, the house was like a calm oasis, until the silence was broken.

Lyvia could no longer continue this silence, and said with a hopeful voice: “We should start to get ready for the playdate, Daelyn won’t be out for much longer, he never needed that much sleep.”

Grey sat at the kitchen table and said with a loud voice: “We’re going to need to tell him what he can and can’t do, right? We can’t let him accidentally use his magic, especially with the Tyrrith family close.”

“I know, I know. We will talk to him about it when he wakes up. The playdate will end at around 5 o’clock in the afternoon, so we still have plenty of time. Besides, he doesn’t even know how to use it now, so no worries.” Replied Lyvia with a cheerful voice.

Grey could only sigh before saying with a heavy tone: “You don’t know that. Daelyn has been reading about magic since he was practically born, he might know more about his magic than we do. I’m not saying that he is able to, but he might be able to, and we need to take care of that risk. If he is bored at the playdate and decides to explore his magic in the middle of the room, under everyone’s eyes, it could become quite ugly.”

Lyvia could only laugh at her husband’s anecdote: “Yeah, because that wouldn’t get the Tyrrith family to think not all humans are bad. I will tell him as soon as he wakes up, so don’t worry. You just start getting ready for it, bring some toys he likes, and maybe some books if he is really bored. Oh! Don’t forget the book about the hero Alberricht, he loves that.”

Grey could only smile at his wife’s instructions: “I’m on it.”

As Lyvia saw Grey quickly gather the multiple kinds of toys, she was about to head over to Daelyn to check up on his condition, until she heard a knock on the door.

Lyvia turned around only to hear another knock on the door. She walked with quick steps towards the door as she did not know who could possibly be here at this time. They were quite isolated after all, with only a few neighbours close by, and they wouldn’t visit someone without an invitation or a notification of some kind.

As she opened the door, she saw three dark elves. One with a beautiful purple coloured dress, a smaller girl with the same purple dress in her size, and a slightly larger girl with a leather vest and a skirt reaching to her ankles coloured a light yellow.

Lyvia formed a smile on her face as she saw the three dark elves.

“Oh hey Celeria! How have you been! Are these two little girls yours?”

Celeria could only smile as she had such a warm welcome from her friend, and quickly answered: “Yes, these two are my daughters. Come on, introduce yourselves.”

The bigger of the two girls stepped forward and introduced herself with a brisk yet cute voice: “Hello, my name is Ania, I’m six years old. Nice to meet you!”

Lyvia was adored by the small girl, and was about to tell them to come in when the other girl spoke up with a soft and nervous voice: “H-hello, I’m Ayda. I heard a boy named Daelyn lives here?”

Lyvia was even more adored as she heard the small girl speak, and she asked for Daelyn! Lyvia was completely smitten by the girl, and a quick scene of a marriage between Daelyn and the cute girl flashed before her eyes, before she returned to reality and welcomed them.

“Welcome you three, I will get you something to drink. Grey is preparing for the playdate at the moment and Daelyn is asleep, so it will just be the four of us.”

Hearing this, the girl sulked a little bit, but quickly followed behind the other two as they sat at the kitchen table. As Lyvia brought them some tea, Grey entered the room with a bag filled with toys and a few books.

“Oh! Celeria! It’s been too long! And who might these two girls be?”

They didn’t have to reintroduce themselves as Lyvia did it for them.

“These two little girls are her daughters, the bigger one is Ania, and the smaller one is Ayda. Don’t you know Ania from her guard patrols?”

Grey was in thought for a moment, trying to remember something, before his face brightened up and he, with an enthusiastic voice, said: ‘Oh yeah! The little girl that was joining the guards on their patrols, I remember that! She insisted every time that she wanted to join, and as she was turned down, she still followed them! The guards took her on patrols in the end, and she performed splendidly!”

You could see the expression of Ania change from curiosity, originating from the home of the Theandor’s, to embarrassment as she was forced to remember that. While little Ania was embarrassed, Celeria was proud of her daughter’s achievements, and puffed her chest a little bit. Sadly, there was not much that could be puffed.

As the conversation between the four of them ensued, little Ayda slipped away from the table.

She looked around the house, until she saw what she was looking for. A room with one bed in it. She only had to walk several steps to reach the door, and as she looked into the room, she was perplexed. She was looking directly at the creature lying in the bed, and it wasn’t a dark elf! Its skin was pale, almost white, and its hair was very dark. It was almost the complete opposite of a dark elf.

As she let out a yelp of surprise and fell backwards on her behind, the conversation at the table abruptly halted as Grey and Lyvia made their way over towards Ayda. They heard her yelp, and she was staring directly into Daelyn’s room. Lyvia quickly entered the room and scanned for any more cockroaches to stomp, however she found none.

Grey followed just a step behind her, but his examination of the room was finished just as quickly as Lyvia, and while she walked over to Daelyn to make sure he was okay, Grey concerned himself with Ayda.

He got on one knee and asked with soft and calming voice: “What’s wrong Ayda? Why did you let out a yelp? Did you see a monster?”

Ayda quickly scrambled to her feet, and hid behind Grey. She only pointed at the bed Daelyn was lying in, she tried to say something, but she could only manage to mumble something under her breath, as she seemed to be stricken with fear.

Lyvia had seen her point towards Daelyn, and quickly removed the blanket from the bed.

The only thing that they could see was Daelyn. They saw no insects, no threats, nothing. Both Grey and Lyvia were surprised by this, and turned towards Ayda for answers.

Grey once again asked with a soft and calming tone: “Why did you yelp Ayda?”

The little girl was now even more unable to form a sentence as she saw the two dark elves stood next to the unknown creature. She could only point with her finger towards it as she could not muster any words.

Grey understood, and laughed with a relieved tone in his voice.

“Hahaha, she is scared of Daelyn.”

Lyvia showed a relieved expression but quickly corrected her husband.

“Don’t laugh at her. She has never seen a human! The first time you saw one, you hid under your father’s alchemy table! It took us an hour and two bars of chocolate to get you out!”

Grey stopped his laughing at hearing her remark, but both Grey and Lyvia could hear a sound coming from the kitchen. A stifled laugh, and as Grey turned around, he found that it belonged to Celeria.

Before they could continue their little charade, they heard Ania’s voice.

“Daelyn? Is that the name you have given that creature? Is it one of those vile humans that terrorise others?” She said with a fearful and nervous voice.

Celeria quickly turned her attention towards her daughter and said with a stern voice: “Where did you learn that kind of language young lady! Humans are not vile creatures, how did you come to think that?”

Ania turned towards Celeria, she held her ground, and answered her with a truthful yet slightly nervous tone: “I-I heard it from Minos, he said that his father hates humans. He agrees with him, and thinks that all humans should die for what they have done!”

Celeria’s expression was one of understanding and fury. She sought to correct her daughters mistake, but as she was about to answer her, Daelyn suddenly stood behind little Ayda.

The whole room’s attention shifted towards Daelyn, as he stood next to Grey with a just out of bed look, and a sleepy expression on his face. He stood there in the clothes he had on this morning, hemp pants, a small leather vest, and a linen shirt.

As they all looked at him, they could only hear him say once sentence as he stepped out of his room, he let out a yawn and said with a sleepy tone: “Good morning.”