Morning turns to night frightfully fast when all you do is walk, the stony hills around us are broken up by frequent groves of trees that are gathered around small ponds between the hills. Dancing deer occasionally dip down to drink by the ponds, where a few ambushers sit in wait.

As I watch, a massive, scaled monster dives out of the water, snapping its long jaws around the leg of a deer and dragging it down into the water. Even as we leave it behind, the splashing struggles continue to echo from the stone hills surrounding us.

Off to the side, on a distant hill, a swarm of fox-sized, black monsters take down a goat the size of a bear.

“Are you going okay, Syr? Not too tired, are you?” Adeleya asks, forcing a smile through her heaving breaths.

“I’m good,” I say, shaking my head firmly. “Syr is strong.”

“Are you sure you aren’t getting a blister on your foot or anything? Maybe the bag is getting a bit heavy, and you need a moment to breathe?”

“Nope. Syr can keep going,” I reply, and Lothar glances back at us with a quiet chuckle. Did I say something wrong?

“We can’t stop here,” Theo says from the front of the group. “Adeleya, up front. When the sunlight’s gone use your light magic.”

Adeleya groans and pulls away from me, standing up in the front with Theo, leaving me with Nadia and Lothar as it starts to get dark.

“Why aren’t we stopping to camp?” I ask Nadia, stepping a little further away from Lothar.

Adeleya is already channelling some kind of light magic through her staff as the sun dips down the horizon’s edge. I can’t see too far ahead of us because of all the hills, but it looks to me that this all just goes on forever.

“Normally we wouldn’t risk travel of a night,” Nadia says. “But there are two reasons we’re pushing on to the village today. First of all, it’s dangerous to camp out here, some of the monsters that call this place home would swarm us if we stop moving for a few hours.”

“Second,” Lothar says, looking down at me. “People’s lives are at risk. We stopped early yesterday to search for them, but it’s apparent that if they’re still around we’re not going to find them on our own. The town is only a little further ahead, we’ll rest the night there and give the locals word that the bandits are gone and that there are some surviving villagers lost in the wild.”

Lothar scans the darkening landscape as he explains it to me. He never lets me get too close and his hand is constantly ready to draw. What can I do to get him to trust me?

“How are you with the dark?” Nadia asks.

“The night isn’t so bad,” I tell her, although I usually hide when night comes. The worst of the night’s predators are the wolven, and they were mostly nice to me. At least they were nice enough not to treat me like food, which means that they like me rather a lot.

Nadia rubs her brow in thought as she runs her hands along her spear, looking about for any enemies that might sneak up on us while we seem distracted.

“Have you strengthened your senses, too?” She asks.

“Strengthened my senses?”

“A variety of strengthening magic. It isn’t uncommon but not everyone has an affinity for it.”

“Syr… sorry. I haven’t tried it.

I flex my æther veins, exploring different shapes of my strengthening magic. Directing the flow into different parts of my body, I try to summon it as magic in my eyes but the æther just pops out into the thin air, not quite turning to proper magic.

“It didn’t work,” I grumble trying to get the magic working in my ears and nose, to the same lacking effect. But then, it’s the same as when I was learning healing magic, I just have to keep trying. Twisting the flows in all sorts of different shapes until something works.

“Is there some sort of chant I should learn?” I ask, remembering the lessons from yesterday.

“A chant?” Nadia asks, “Adeleya, do you know any chants for sense strengthening?”

“Eh? Ah, no. And the village is just ahead,” Adeleya calls back to us.

“They’re likely to be on guard for bandits. Syr, keep your weapons away,” Theo says, his voice deep and commanding. Even being away from people for so long, I can feel the weight in his voice, not unlike that of a wolven’s growl.

“I will be careful,” I say, speaking slowly and properly.

In a few minutes, we encounter the guards that she’d spoken of. The men and women, mostly human, gather at the edge of Adeleya’s light, armed with farming tools and the stray rusted sword or makeshift spear. They have worse equipment than the bandits, and from the way their weapons are trembling, they’re much worse at fighting too.

“Halt!” A woman calls out from the darkness ahead, “Wait… Aren’t you those mercs?”

The other villagers lower their weapons with a relieved sigh, but she remains tense, as if ready to pounce on us. She walks closer and looks among our numbers, searching our faces. Her eyes stick on me a moment longer than the others, but she keeps searching, even with so few faces to look between.

“I’m Evelyn, but I’m afraid that there’s little time for pleasantries. Come inside, I have much to ask.”

“Before that, we should ease your concerns. The bandits are dead. Stay on guard for any that may have strayed, but I doubt that will be too much of an issue,” Theo tells them in a deep, reassuring tone, quickly getting the woman’s attention.

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“That’s… Forgive me for my doubts, but there were many more bandits than your own number. That and…” She trails off.

“There were, but due to certain circumstances, the bandits were dealt with before we even arrived. We simply confirmed their fates.”

“Is that so… well, you have done us well in the past, so I see no need to doubt you,” Evelyn says quietly, bowing her head sadly, as the rest begin to raise a cheer. “Was there any… was anyone else with you? Survivors?”

“Not with us, no. Some survivors escaped from the bandits before our arrival. Two women and a young man. We hoped that they would have beaten us here… they haven’t arrived, then?”

The woman’s brow wrinkles, “No, they haven’t… We’ll get everyone out there searching for them right now.”

“I’m afraid that we need to rest for the night, and I suggest that you do the same. People will die if they search these hills in the night. Rest, and be ready, we’ll help coordinate a search at first light.”

“I can search in the night, I have good eyes,” she replies. “If we can’t survive the night, then what about them?”

“Evelyn.” An older man steps up to her side, pulling her back. “Trust the mercs, they do this sort of thing for a living. We’ll wait until morning.”

She shakes her head stomping toward the town, her fists formed tight at her sides. She pauses, a little away from the light before turning back to us, and her armed ‘guards’.

“Lue and Adom. You’re on guard, everyone else, get some rest. We’ll be searching for them at first light.”

She then turns back to face us as she leads us in, “I’ll find you a place to rest. Considering the circumstances, we have plenty of homes to spare…”

“About that.” Theo steps in close to her as we walk into the gates and the armed men and women run ahead to give the town the good news, and the bad. “We have a young elf with us who’s been in the wild for a while, could you…?”

“Ah, yes, yes. There’s an elvish family here who won’t hesitate to take her in.”

“Wait, you’re not planning on leaving her here, are you?” Adeleya speaks up, “I can’t agree with that.”

“Well, that’s… I’d like for her to choose as she likes. I won’t keep her from following us back to Snowspring, but she should spend some time with her own people too. I don’t want her to leap into being a merc just because we were the first people to find her in the wilds.”

Adeleya grunts a brief response too quiet to hear.

“Do you have anything to add?” Theo asks.

She ignores him and walks back to grab me by the hand.

“Do I not count as an elf?” Nadia asks, but for some reason, no one gives her an answer.

The town is filled with cheering as we arrive, but also quite a bit of crying. I don’t know the story of these people, but it seems like the bandits were killing their families too, trying to burn their homes down.

Evelyn rushes through town, arriving at a small elvish home after a short walk through the dark streets. This one building is made just like those from my memory, but here it stands apart from those around it. Every home apart here is square and sharp apart from this one, and the memories it brings back to me just stir at the pains in my chest.

“You’re coming back?” I ask of Adeleya as the elvish couple come out to greet us. I don’t want to go with them.

“I’ll come back for you, but you should try and get along with these folk. You’ve got to make more friends than just us.” She hugs me close before continuing in a whisper, “Don’t let them know about your special magic.”

I nod, pressing my lips together tightly, and blinking away the tears in my eyes. “Am I in the way…?”

“No… well I guess, maybe you would be. We haven’t worked together in a fight yet.” She twists her mouth, but I don’t know what that’s supposed to express. “If you want to stay with us, you can. For tonight though, you should stay here.”

Before I can get her to change her mind, she turns to leave, “Well then, we’ll be off.” She waves with her back turned, “Come yell if you need us, we’ll definitely come to find you before we leave town…”

Then don’t leave me here!

I want to shout, but I know it’ll just make them like me even less.

A cold breeze flows through the street as the rest of their team wave their goodbye to me.

“Hello.” The elves try to get my attention, speaking gently as they approach. They’re acting like me when I’m trying to befriend a small animal like a fox or a rabbit.

Theo said that I can’t use my sword, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t defend myself, or run away.

“It is late, are you hungry? Or would you rather rest?”

“Syr… will rest.”

“Very well.” The woman leads me inside, beyond the empty main room and into a side room where a small figure is already resting underneath a thick blanket.

“Anna,” the woman says.

“Hngu?” The blanket makes a strange sound.

“This young lady will be staying with us for the night, could you share your room?” She asks as she leads me in.

“Huh?” The blankets sit up, and a girl about my own age sits up.

“I’ll leave you to rest. You two get along,” She says, handing me a blanket before leaving. “And Anna, take care of our visitor tomorrow morning, your father and I must assist the village in the search for some survivors.”

“Uh-huh,” Comes the half-hearted reply.

“Respond properly.”

Yes, and maybe take notice that I’m here, too. That would be nice.

“Yes, mother.” The reply is made with as much effort as earlier, forcing a sigh from the woman.

I sit down in the corner with the scratchy blanket in my hands. This reminds me of my childhood. The bad parts of it.

The hard ground isn’t as comfortable as bear fur, and the blanket is decidedly worse. Even under the cover, I can’t feel any real warmth. It’s cold here, but a different kind of cold to what I’m used to.

Adeleya, you traitor. Why aren’t you here with me? Nadia, too. I thought we were getting to be friends.

“…You will come back… won’t you?” I close my lips, normal people don’t talk to themselves. The other elvish girl is already looking at me, but she turns back to face the ceiling when I stare back at her.

“Anna?” I ask, “Is that your name?”

“Yes, and you are?”

“Syr is Syr,” I respond.

Wait that was weird, wasn’t it? No one else says their own name like this, I should stop. Now she’s looking at me all weirdly. Does she think I’m strange? She keeps looking back at the ceiling when our eyes meet.

“Can I come closer?” I ask.

She hesitates but nods anyway. Good enough for me.

I pull my scratchy blanket over and lay down right beside her, close enough to feel a little of her warmth. When I lean in close enough for our skin to touch, she pulls away from me.

“Why are you here?” She asks me, facing the other wall while I face her back.

“Syr… is going to join the mercs, but they left me here tonight. Just for tonight.”

“The mercs? You can fight?”

“I can fight bears, and deer, and other things, too,” I tell her proudly.

“Mama… My parents won’t let me learn to fight. Back when I was a kid, I wanted to play with stick swords like the others, but they didn’t let me.”

“Ah, when I was a kid my parents didn’t want me fighting, either,” I say, remembering mother scolding me.

“What happened to them?”

“They’re gone. They’re dead.”

“Lots of people in this town died, too,” she says. “Where do you live if you don’t have parents?”

“I lived in a tiny cave before, but now I don’t really live anywhere.”

“Whoa,” Anna turns back to me, her eyes shining in the darkness, “Are you truly an elf, just like me?”

“Yes?” Am I? What makes an elf, an elf? “My parents were elves, and… and pointy ears.” I grab her hand and put it over my ear. She struggles a little bit, so I let her hand go.

“Elves don’t…” She begins, pulling away from me, “Elves don’t touch people like that. Humans do that, and dwarves, and norkit too, I guess.”

“Why? Hugging and holding hands is warm and comforting.”

“But… elves don’t…”

“Hold my hand,” I offer. “It makes the world feel less lonely.”

She hesitantly takes my hand but pulls away again a moment later like a skittish little rabbit.

As the night deepens, we talk about all sorts of different things. She asks what it’s like living in the wild, but she makes upset noises when I tell her about the bugs that I had to eat.

Even when Anna finally gets to sleep, I can’t close my eyes. If I fall asleep, I’ll end up alone in the cold, dark, silence again. So, I listen to the distant sounds of people sleeping, and the slight whistle from Anna as she breaths in her sleep.