The rest of the night was spent without incidents.

At the morning, I was awakened by the general sounds of the rousing campsite. Well… as much as one could call it morning, while being hundreds of meters underground. It doesn’t really make a difference in my eyes, but the dwarfs seem to notice it, just as easily as I can point out the sunlight coloring the horizon at dawn while being on the surface.

I nestled closer to the warmth beside me, in an attempt to close off the familiar sounds of packing dwarfs, which was becoming impossible to ignore. There were definite negatives to having such a sharp hearing as an elf.

While I leaned closer to said warmth, a gentle chuckle appeared above my head. The next thing I knew was the rough sensation of a hand shuffling through my hair.

“Someone have gotten quite bold after a single night, I see.” — Aria’s voice whispered into my ear teasingly, causing my eyelids to snap open in sudden realisation. I could only stare up at the smirking woman as I was forced to understand that instead of her hugging me, it was now me who was hugging her greedily, snuggling into her side like some shameless cat.

I drowsily let up my embrace, while trying to blink away my embarrassment and failing spectacularly. Which resulted in another amused chuckle from the older elf. Instead of continuing to fight a losing battle, I looked up again and smiled at her bashfully. What else could I do in such an absurd situation? It was time to swim with the punches!

My reaction seemed to appease Aria as she gently began to smoothen out my black locks, instead of further entangling them. I gladly accepted the help, as I was still unused to treat a long hair with the necessary attention. Not even mentioning that I didn’t even have a proper comb on my person.

We both sat up in the sleeping bag. I was sitting in front of Aria while she sat closely behind me, combing through my hair with her fingers. It was some sort of habit on her part. After all, she clearly enjoyed doing it for me. I could see it by the gentle smile and the light aura surrounding her. I wondered about that and realized that it must have reminded her to the time she spent with her daughters. If I remember correctly, she mentioned that she already raised two daughters. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that; I mean, me reminding her to her daughters of all things.

“Good girl.” — She said, after tying my hair up in a single long braid that fell down over my back, reaching as far as my waist.

I couldn’t help but feel a sense of discomfort, because of the way I was treated… Like, like a girl, even if I was one. I was ready to admit the truth. I am utterly confused by the responses of my body and my personal feelings. It was turning into an undecipherable mix of opposing emotions, and I didn’t have the mental strength, especially after the recent days, to try to understand it.

I had to let loose on the reins for now if I didn’t want to go mad.

Therefore, I pushed aside those feelings and thoughts, as it would only ruin my mood. Instead, I looked around the small tent, searching for Camilla’s familiar form, but the girl was not present. Then, I finally remembered last night, and our short meeting with Emrum and the others.

I have immediately realized where Camilla must have gone; the girl was clearly looking for her comrades, the group of mercenaries she traveled with. I felt a similar urge to visit Emrum and talk about what happened in the time we spent separated. Aside from that, I also wanted to get my staff back and potentially apologize for Aria’s snark. Regarding my staff, I still felt powerless without its comforting presence. The stupid thing indeed became an extension of my body, a lot faster than I could realistically anticipate.

Still, thinking about it, it was only natural. How many people became addicted to their mobile phone back in my original world? I mean, phones couldn’t even help you to cast ridiculously powerful magic.

“Whatever is on your mind, Selora, it is not the right time.” — Aria’s voice sounded behind me, waking me from my thoughts. When my attention focused on the older elf, she continued. — “We have slept in, I didn’t want to wake you unless absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, that also means that now we don’t have much time on our hands before we continue our travel towards the dwarven capital.”

She paused, waiting for my reaction and when there wasn’t any, she continued with a sigh. — “You should visit the loo, eat something, then help with taking down the camp. Based on the nearby conversations that I overheard, we are supposed to head out in an hour or so.”

In just an hour? Well, we must have indeed overslept quite a bit, then. To my genuine surprise, aside from some annoying muscle soreness and the occasionally spiking pain in my feet, I was relatively fine. What I mean is that I expected a lot worse.

I blinked, looking down at my elven body with a thoughtful gaze.

Honestly, I wholeheartedly expected to have to struggle with such bagatelle actions as sitting up in my sleeping bag this morning. Yet, to my disbelief, here I was with moderate to heavy soreness in my body and the occasional pain in my feet, all that after that insane run we pulled off yesterday.

Is this how it felt to be young?

Before my thoughts could go down further in that direction, I felt a gentle tap on the middle of my forehead. — “Stop staring into thin air and get ready for the road. We do not have time for your antics.”

I nodded hastily and started to pull on my boots, feeling the slight weight of my newly braided hair between my shoulder-blades.

Alas, I stopped when I noticed the ridiculously sized and partially burst blisters on the bottom of my feet. I swallowed back the rising disgust and instead closed my eyes, preparing to cast my favorite healing spell.

I whispered the familiar incantation in the corner of the tent, as I didn’t want to alert Aria with my injured feet. — “By the power of light, entrusted upon me through my holy patron. I Selora command mine wound, heal!” — The reassuring warmth coursed through my body with a slow intensity, traveling from my chest through my right arm and finally exiting my body as tentative tendrils of light manifesting at the tip of my fingers.

I stared at the sight of purely manifested magic literally at the tip of my fingers. It was a sight that I will never quite get used to, the undistilled wonder at the sight of a miracle appearing at my command was not something one can simply get used to. Maybe if I didn’t live previously in a world where magic did not exist, or at least I did not know about its existence.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“What are you doing?” — Appeared Aria’s voice right above me, and I instinctively looked up to meet her gaze, that was already focused on the slowly pulsing light that by now entirely engulf my palm.

Yep… it was doomed from the start to hide such a flashy spell from her in such a small place as this tent was.

“Err… I, my feet are a bit hurt so…” — It was then that Aria’s gaze turned from the spell to the bottom of my naked feet, resulting in a horrified gasp.

I winced at the sound, entirely expecting her reaction. — “You stupid girl, why didn’t you mention this yesterday? We should have treated it immediately. Now there is a chance that it already became infected!” — She scolded me with a paling expression that was starting to scare me.

“Uh? I mean, it’s fine… I will just heal it with this spell. I have done it many times already.” — That said, my palm was starting to get hot from the accumulating light magic, therefore I slowly hovered it above my injured feet until it finally touched it.

There it was, the now familiar sensation of itchiness mixed together with ticklish, prickling, sometimes numb and occasionally painful irritation.

Both me and Aria, watched as the healing energy coursed through my feet, traveling in circular motion from the point of touch. Leaving behind freshly healed smooth pink skin in place of the alarming blisters.

I lifted my hand from my left feet and repeated the action with my other one. When done, I carefully cut off the mana stream that was feeding the spell, and the golden glow of light slowly faded from my palm.

I chuckled happily, picking up a large piece of scarred dead skin that fell off thanks to my abnormally quickened healing rate and showed it to Aria. — “See? It’s fine now! No need to worry.”

I smiled up at Aria, who was looking at the effects of the magic with a pale expression. I noticed her fingers gently grazing along that scar on her neck, and I blurted out. — “Are you alright?”

She jolted out of her stupor and turned her gaze back to me. She was clearly uncomfortable with the sudden traumatic reminder of yesterday’s incident, but she quickly covered it up. Instead, she pinched my cheek and told me. — “Since you have time to worry about me, why don’t you start to worry about yourself? Foolish elfling! Aren’t you a friend of dwarfs? Why don’t you get a pair of socks from them? Not wearing one is the main reason you get such nasty blistering on your feet.”

That… that’s actually not a bad idea…

It took a few more minutes, but when I was ready and about to exit the tent, Aria called after me one more time, while being in the middle of putting on her own armor.

“Oh, and tell that human friend of yours to get back and help out with the packing, at least if you see her moping around. She left an hour ago, and I didn’t hear of her since then.” — I nodded to that as well and finally left the tent.

~oOo~

When I stepped out of the tent, I was welcomed by the sight of bustling dwarfs in the middle of taking down their tents and packing up their things.

I took a quick glance around to orient myself, then went to the direction of the loo, which I was familiar with since yesterday. I indeed needed to relieve myself.

After finishing my business, I went on a wild hunt to find something edible. My search led to the middle section of the camp. I could still sense the lingering scent of recently cooked food circulating in the air. I decided to follow my nose and soon found myself in an open field between the tents. There were a bunch of blankets and sleeping bags thrown around the small clearing, where people sat in small groups talking animatedly with their companions.

The occasional rambunctious cheers of laughter could be heard over the general murmuring of the people. What was more important for me at the moment was the bowl of food held in their hands. I looked around and noticed a pair of enormous cauldrons and a short line of people standing in front of each of them.

I decided to head over there, following the people’s example. I barely stepped into the line when a grumpy-looking dwarf stepped up to me and pushed an empty bowl into my arms. I instinctively took a hold of the bowl, and before I could ask anything, the man also dropped a crudely carved wooden spoon into the empty bowl. With the same momentum, he turned around and left.

I stared after him for a few seconds, then shrugged my shoulders and focused on the quickly advancing line. In a few minutes, my patience was rewarded with a bowlful of lukewarm stew, then I was quickly shooed away to not hold up the line.

I found myself standing in the middle of the clearing filled with happily eating dwarfs. I turned around, looking for anyone familiar. Unfortunately, I didn’t seem to recognize anybody among the dwarfs and the occasional human sitting among them. Just when I was about to give up, at the far edge of the clearing I spotted the familiar form of Camilla hunched over herself, in the company of Emrum of all people.

I cheered internally and headed towards the two.

When I got closer to them, I quickly became aware of the heavy atmosphere that surrounded the two. My smile faltered when my gaze met with Emrum’s, who was the first to notice my arrival. His eyes glinted with the now familiar relief that I saw in him at our recent brief meeting. There were still dark shadows under his eyes, and it was obvious that his joy at seeing me was heavily overshadowed by the present predicament.

I gently stepped closer to the two.

It was then that Camilla also noticed my presence. She looked up at me with a startled realization, and I could see her dark green eyes reddened with fresh tear stains running down her cheeks.

I felt a knot forming in my throat as we stared at each other, unsure how to react or what to say. In this silent pause, I quickly put two to two, realizing what might have caused my new friend to end up like this. There was only one option that could serve as a proper explanation, and after I looked through most of the refugees without finding any familiar figure aside from Emrum and Camilla, the probability of that possibility was extremely high.

I took a deep breath, walking closer to my friend and sitting down next to her. I put down the bowl, my appetite already forgotten as the cold reality of this world once again reminded me how close we truly brushed with death. I offered a hesitant hug to Camilla, which she immediately accepted, leaning into my side as silent sobs traversed through her body.

“They… my friends are…” — She began explaining her pain between her silent sobs. I squeezed her shoulders, telling her that I have already figured it out.

“Shhh… I know, it’s going to be alright.” — I said the words in a vague attempt to comfort Camilla, while knowing all too well that my words were not the entire truth. They left an uncomfortable aftertaste in my mouth and I felt my years of life experience weighing down on my mind, forcing me to add another sentence. — “It will never be the same again, but you will survive, you must.”

We sat there in sober silence, while the rest of the camp roused around us. The occasional chuckles and relieved laughter coming from the happy survivors of the dark elf ambush lingered around us as a distant reminder that life always goes on, no-matter what terrible things may happen.

~oOo~

The rest of our travel towards the dwarven capital was uneventful, if incredibly tiring. Unlike my expectations, we have indeed started our travel in the morning, just as intended. Turns out that dwarfs were a lot tougher than I gave them credit for, and just as stubborn. Seeing how some of the heavily injured dwarfs forced themselves to travel in their current condition, I went along and readily offered my healing arts as a way to heal, but at least partially heal their worst injuries. While most of them were wary at first, with the help of Emrum’s assurances, they eventually accepted my help.

It was a long journey, filled with dangers, but it was finally behind us. All those thoughts were pushed into the back of my head as we neared the awe-inspiring sight of a towering metal gate, filling out the entire tunnel surrounded by fortifications and a lot of heavily armed dwarfs.

Emrum’s eyes glinted with pride as he gazed upon the enormous gates.

“Bal Dorahl, the outer bastion of the northern kingdom of the twin kingdoms. You can see the interlocked crowns molded into the gate itself. Bless the stone… it’s so good to see it again!”

There was a wave of joyful relief traveling through our company at the sight of the gate.

Another dwarf shouted from the forefront of our traveling formation. — “Riders are coming to welcome us from the garrison! We are safe!”

There was another ripple of relief and elevation from our tired group.