Ren

    Renhold Fher watched the odd pair left the inn. One a cloaked figure, the other a little snow white beast girl in rags. The one wearing the black cloak was obviously drunk, since he ordered two large cups of ale. He swayed slightly and followed the little wolf girl outside.

    Ren took a sip of beer from his wooden mug.

    At age 17, Ren was rather tall. He had short dirty blonde hair, with a slight green tinge and dark brown eyes. His elven ears were rather short, shorter than most elves. Some people had even suggested he might be half sprite, but of course, he was not. He was tall, with thin but muscled arms and a narrow jaw with- imaginary -stubble.

    Ren liked to think himself as one of those warriors from the tales his grandfather used to tell him. A mighty knight that slayed dragons, saved princesses and protected the weak from evil. Those kinds of heros, ones that got the girl and saved the day.

    He had set out for a journey from his small village, trying to make a name for himself. So far his deeds were helping an old lady find her kidnaped dog, that had actually just run away. The last, and greatest of his deeds, saving a village’s crops from a horde of evil gophers.

    That last one was rather interesting. As the gophers were 2 feet long and, on their hind legs, could stand up. They were something that neither the villagers, nor Ren could not call anything else but oversized varmen. They had been quite insistent on attacking the village’s cabbage crops, burrowing into the ground and munching on the cabbage.

    It had taken Ren an entire day of digging up their nest and cutting them into bits to save the crops. To say the least, he ended up ruining the crop fields, but on the upside the village had a new abundance of mutant gopher meat. They had chased him out of the village after that.

    Having traveled from one side of Evrite to the border by hitching rides on wagons.He found himself in the humble town of Saria. It was close to the border wall that cut the elves off from the humans.

    Ren wasn't like most elves, in the fact he saw that elves were no better than any other race. Maybe even less so. He thought, sure, a lot of elves hate dwarves and humans, but that didn't mean he had to. He didn't even know why, there was no point, maybe from past wars, like a ancestral grudge or something?

    He was planning to leave the country to the humans land, for adventure, riches and fame. He knew that he could make a name for himself there, even if most of the humans would hate him. He believed he could make a good name for himself, maybe even change some minds about elves.

    Ren looked around, there were two other adventurers at his table. He didn't know them personally, but they, too, were wearing thick iron armor like him. Unlike him, one had a giant sword strapped to his back and the other a short sword and shield.

    Ren, himself, had a iron glaive that looked like a sword but had a long curve and was stuck on a pole. It had cost him a lot, but he had quite a bit of money on him. Er, had money. Now all he had were a few coppers, enough to pay for his drink. He knew he needed some money if he wanted to continue on his journey.

    Getting up, he walked to the bar and paid for the drink. While he was walking to the door, he noticed an announcement board next to the door. It was covered in papers nailed to the thick wood.

    Thinking he might be able to find a low paying job, he stopped to inspect it. He scanned it over, looking at all the job offerings. One merchant wanted some warriors to help guard his caravan as he went to the capital city, Valcrest. That one looked promising.

  Reaching for the paper, Ren noticed the one next to it. It was a wanted poster. What caught his eye was the picture. It was of a man with a sword on his back and wearing a black hood that obscured his face.

  It was the man with the little wolf girl. Ren scanned the words scribbled above the picture. The words dangerous, murder, dead or alive and King are what stuck in his head. He had learned how to read from his father, the village chief. He couldn't write well though.

  The first thought that popped into his head was, ‘It's the man in the hood!’

  He remembered that the little wolf beast girl looked scared of the stranger.

  Then the second thought being, ‘By the gods! That little girl is in danger! A damsel in distress! Fear not fair maiden, I shall save you!’

  He completely ignored the giant sum of money on the man's head, for he had not read that far.

  Ren shot through the door like a bullet from a dwarven gun. He swiftly opened the dark wood door, running out into the cobbled street. He scanned the sidewalks on either side of the road, houses and other buildings lined the sidewalk. The sun was just setting, painting a rusty color over the town.

  He looked up the road, seeing a cloaked figure with a little wolf girl turn the corner. Ren quickly followed them, running. But then he thought of something and stopped to a stroll.

  It would be best to catch the kidnapper off guard, so he would follow them and wait for an opening to attack. Hopefully the cloaked man would leave town soon, so Ren could surprise attack him in the woods.

  So Ren spent the rest of the day tailing the cloaked kidnaper. First the kidnaper had went into a supply and weapons shop, after a while he exited with the little beast girl and walked around town. Weirdly, neither the girl, nor her kidnaper, said a single word to each other. The cloaked man went into an inn with the white wolf girl. There they stayed, for the entire night.

  To say the least Ren was unhappy, for the fact he had to stay out all night watching the inn and for the second that it rained.

  Sitting there in the rain, he was very tempted to just barge into the inn and attack the man while he was sleeping. But he knew the guards would still arrest him, even if he caught a kidnaper and saved a little girl. He had staked himself out across the road from the inn, under a overhang from the house behind him.

  He nearly fell asleep a couple times, he fell asleep once, but ended up face first in a puddle in the cobbled road.

  Just when the sun broke over the horizon, did Ren’s quarry leave the inn. The wolf girl followed silently behind him, she was no longer dressed in the dirty clothes from before. Now wearing a clean white shirt, baggy brown pants, and fur boots. A brown cloak over her shoulders, hiding her tail, she kept the hood down though.

  The little girl was thin and pale. With long white hair and two wolven ears atop her head. She would be a beautiful woman in the future, if Ren could save her.

  He waited for them to turn the corner, then he followed them. He tailed them to a tavern, where they got breakfast, then left. Then he carefully followed them through the streets of the town, eventually, after some time following them, they left the town.

  The cloaked murderer and kidnaper had left towards the direction of the elven capital, Valcrest. It was about a two day walk, one on horseback.

  Ren stayed back, hiding in the shadow of the gate, till they were a good distance away. He then started to follow them, but went through the woods on the right side of the road.

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  The woods were comprised of thick foliage, and giant oak trees. Ren had a hard time getting through all the brush, but he forced his way through nonetheless, keeping the road in sight.

  He followed them, trying to get ahead of them. Eventually, he felt he had gotten a good distance in front of them, and hunkered down in a bush at the side of the road for an ambush.

Lost

    Lost was having, decidedly, a great day. He was making good time on his travel to the capital, even though he had no idea where it was. There he should be able to, hopefully, if it ever was possible, talk to the king. He knew the king had put the bounty up on his head, but hopefully he would understand that it was a misunderstanding, hopefully.

    He watched the right side of the road, as the elf in the shadows of the forest failed to move stealthily ahead of them. He had noticed that the elf was following them after they left the weapon shop with a dagger and new clothes for Fen. How could he not? The man was a tall elf in rusted armor carrying a glaive.

    This elf was most likely a bounty hunter, because he had gear, but not good gear. Wearing a rusted iron chest piece, with a glaive on his back.

    The elf had so far only been following them. Lost had stayed awake the entire night, on guard incase he busted the door down. Eventually he had realized that the elf wasn't going to attack them in the inn, so he had just meditated while Fen slept.

    Meditation was an interesting thing, it allowed the meditating person to let their body rest, while their mind worked. He had spent the rest of the night refining magic and storing it in his body. He was slowly expanding his capacity for magic, but for now he was limited to a few simple spells a day.

    Lost had planned to see if the Bounty Hunter would meet them on the road, and attack them. Hopefully getting more info about where the capital was.

    Fen had her ears trained to the forest, where the elf was failing at sneaking past them.

    “Hey, kid. Stop here,” Lost said, putting his hand on her shoulder. They stopped, watching as the armored elf slowly trampled his away ahead of them.

    “Is… he going to attack us?” Fen said, looking up at Lost. He only shrugged and watched as the elf stopped about twenty meters ahead of them.

    “I think we should humor him,” Lost said, starting to walk again. Fen followed a little ways behind him.

    Lost kept walking forward, acting like he hadn't noticed the elf. Right when he was a couple meters away from where the bounty hunter was hidden, did he reveal himself. The elf jumped out of the bush shouting a, “Ha!”

    Lost stopped, Fen crashing into him from behind. He regained his feet after a second, and looked back at Fen. She just shrugged and mouthed an apology. Turning his attention back to the elf, he waited.

    “Evil fiend! Release the fair maiden and I will let you live!” The bounty hunter said, brandishing his glaive.

    Lost’s eyebrows rose, he wasn't expecting this. From what he had gathered from Fen, most elves treated her badly, calling her a dirty mutt and other things. But this, this was an elf calling her a ’fair maiden’.

  “Excuse me?” Lost said politely.

  “You heard me, kidnaper! If you release the girl I won't kill you,” said the elven bounty hunter who was seemed to fancy himself a knight.

  “Who said I was a kidnaper?” Lost asked the knight.

  Now the elf seemed slightly taken aback, but he still pointed his glaive at Lost’s chest. “You are a wanted criminal, and that little girl behind you seems afraid of you.”

  Lost let out a laugh, “I’m sorry, but you seem to be mistaken. I may be a bad person, but i'm not a kidnaper. This kid,” he pointed at Fen, “Decided that she wanted to follow me.”

  The elven knight lowered his glaive, his expression unsure. Then he brought it back up, “You lie!”

  The knight charged toward Lost. Lost gently pushed Fen to the side of the road, saying that everything would be fine.

  The elf was about to thrust his glaive into Lost’s chest, using his momentum. Lost quickly sidestepped it at the last possible moment, using magic to enhance his speed. The elf followed his spear, momentum carrying him past Lost. Sticking out his leg, Lost tripped the knight.

  He landed face first in the dirt road, geting a mouth full of dust. Scrambling up, the knight had a look of shock at Lost’s speed. Then he let out a roar of rage and charged at Lost again. This time going for a downward slice. Lost quickly stepped forward, grabbed the pole of the glaive. He then swiftly pushed it up, giving the elf no room to attack.

  Lost kicked the elf in the chest with his heavy boot, sending him stumbling backwards. Lost was mildly surprised he was still standing from his magic strengthened kick, obviously there was more to this knight than appeared.

  “Argh! I’m warning you fiend, release the maiden and I won't use my full power against you,” The elven Knight said, going in for another attack. Lost easily dodged it, and punched the elf in the side, where his old metal armor did not protect. It wasn't meant to be a fatal blow, but that didn't mean it wouldn't leave a bruise, like all of Lost’s attacks so far.

  Lost jumped back, out of reach from the elf’s glaive. He didn't want to use his sword, because he didn't want to kill the dude. He would most assuredly not survive an attack from Lost if he used his sword. From what Lost thought, this was a big misunderstanding, then again he was kinda having fun.

  The Knight and Lost fought for a while, so far the Knight had yet to hit Lost, while Lost landed non fatal blows on him. The elf was starting to get annoyed now, obviously frustrated. They both were panting, each staring at the other.

  “So be it! I warned you!” The Knight shouted at Lost, he pointed his glaive at the sky in one hand.

  Lost’s eyes widened in surprise at the feeling of magic being used. First, the clouds in the sky started to darken, swirling above the two of them. The Knight was breathing heavily, staring daggers into Lost.

  “I invoke the power of the storm! Smite my enemy O’ mighty gods!” The elf chanted, then he brought his glaive down, leveling it at Lost.

  Barely having enough time to react, Lost pulled out his sword, blocking above his head and infusing his body with mana. A quick flash of lightning cracked down on top of Lost, followed by a ear splitting boom.

  A jolt of white hot pain flared through Lost’s arms, traveling through his body and causing it to stop. Lost collapsed, smoke twisting up off of him.

  He tried to scream from the pain, but his jaw was locked in place. The guy was a magic user! Albeit that was a powerful spell, but it was crudely done. For the spell was not well controlled, Lost lay in a smoking crater, an entire part of the road missing. If he had acted faster, maybe he wouldn't be in so much pain, but hey, at least he was alive.

  His ears were ringing, but he could make out the cries of Fen. She came running down the still smoking slope of the crater, crouching over him. She had tears streaming down her face. Grabbing onto the back of his cloak, she heaved him over. He looked into her eyes, trying to give her a reassuring gaze, but his eyes wouldn't focus.

  That's when sound came rushing back. The first thing he heard was the Lightning user talking. “Wow! He survived that!?”

  The Knight appeared over the lip of the crater, standing over Fen, looking down at Lost.

  Lost forced his convulsing muscles to calm down, regaining control of his body. But he held still, staring into Fen’s dark green eyes.  He whispered, “Remember what I told you, kid?”

Ren

  Ren leveled his glaive at the kidnaper, releasing his power. A bolt of lightning cracked down swiftly, landing right on top of the cloaked man. A boom followed shortly after, disorientating Ren and he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen.

  He hadn't expected it to be so powerful. Everytime he had done it before, it just more or less zapped something with a small bolt of white lightning, but this time, it was far more powerful. He didn't feel sorry for killing the kidnaper, the man was an evil doer after all.

  Ren, regaining his senses, turned to the little wolf girl with a big grin plastered over his face. “Fear not fair maiden, you are safe now!”

  She screamed, tears streaming down her face. She ran to the edge of the smoking crater in the road, nearly tripping down the incline.

  Ren stared puzzled, why was she crying? Maybe it was just tears of joy. He slowly walked to the edge of the crater looking down. There lay the cloaked kidnaper, smoke twisting up from him, unconscious. Ren could only think of one thing, and he blurted it out, “Wow! He survived that?!”

  The wolf beast girl abruptly stopped crying as she realized she was safe, or so he thought. She then held still, and Ren slid down the edge of the crater. He put a hand on the little girl’s shoulder, about to reassure her that she was safe, but she turned around, jutting her hand in his face.

  A bright flash of light went off. Blinding him, he roared in pain, stumbling back. After a little bit, he sent some of his Power to his eyes, stopping the pain. Ren forced them open, looking down at the wolf girl in shock. She had attacked him?!

  Then, too late, he noticed the cloaked figure was gone from where he lay.

  “Behind you, idiot.” Said a chilling voice, Ren slowly turned around. There stood a pale, thin boy. His hood pulled back, he held his blade over his left shoulder, then swiftly brought the pummel of it into Ren’s face.

  Pain exploded across the side of Ren’s face and he fell to the ground, vision fading into unconsciousness.