Once she got bored with annoying the feline Kali pulled her legs up and sat atop the cage with her legs crossed, remaining forever outside of the animal's reach.

She looked over the three elves, one male and two female with one of the latter being noticeably young. Elves barely aged once they turned twenty, appearing identical up until they reached their fifth century of life, so this elf had to be under that, around 10 or so if Kali had to guess.

The child had long straight pink hair reaching her thin waist, Kali felt a slight pang in her hair as she took in just how malnourished the girl was. She barely had any flesh on her arms, her ribs showed and her thighs were only as thick as Kali's biceps.

All three had a similar complexion, their skin was closer to Kali's than Vorgnar but they had a healthy tan to their skin. The woman looked a bit better but she was also showing signs of having a distinct lack of food for a while, she had wavy ginger hair that was matted with sweat and mud from wherever the bandits collected the poor woman.

She turned her gaze onto the final one, the man, he looked to be around thirty by human standards so he must be above five centuries old, unlike the woman who looked to be of similar age as Kali. He had rather short hair of a similar ginger color as the woman which made Kali suspect that the two might be siblings, or father and daughter, he might be centuries older than her.

Kali's curious gaze went over the legs of all three of them. While Winter Elves were ambush predators of the mountains the Autumn Elves lived originally on open plains and hunted by exhausting large animals and overwhelming them.

They could run faster than most animals even at level 0 without any essence boosting their natural capabilities and they didn't have the light constitution Kali had, instead their legs were naturally enhanced by their magic and essence.

From what she read in history books, long ago they had martial arts focusing on devastating kicks that could rend giants apart and shatter boulders with ease. She knew they deteriorated after the Corvus Empire conquered their lands but she still hoped she could meet one of those famous fighters one day.

Some could still be alive, though they'd probably hate me.

Her grandfather who ruled during the conquest still held a severe grudge against the Autumn Elves for their treachery in the ancient civil war so he refused to grant refuge to them when the humans started hunting them down like animals.

Once her father took the throne he let the refugees in but by that time it was far too late for most of them, some escaped but most hated her kind with a passion and remained in their hidden villages instead of accepting their help.

Now that she thought it all through she was getting a bit nervous about all of this, what if they hate her just because of what she is or if they attack her? She started anxiously fidgeting with her knife as her gaze flickered between the tree elves.

"What got you so worked up?" asked Vorgnar with a raised eyebrow.

"Won't they hate me?" she asked absently, "They are Autumn Elves, you know. They should hate me."

"Why?" he asked curiously, didn't this man learn history? He probably didn't if he really was a captive prior to their meeting.

"Huh," he looked thoughtful after she gave him a quick summary of the history between their races, obviously avoiding mentioning that the big bad King whose decree resulted in the death of tens if not hundreds of thousands of them, was her grandfather.

"We will see I guess," he shrugged and returned to watching the sleeping elves.

Kali groaned in annoyance, was this all he managed to come up with after she took the effort to explain the situation to him?

Rude.

She laid back on top of the cage, staring at the moldy wood making up the ceiling of the place.

She decided to distract herself from her worries with something productive instead so she let herself sink into meditation as she got back to polishing her mana control. One could never be too good at mana control as it directly correlated with casting speed and even a fraction of a second could mean the difference between life and death.

Her worries resurfaced periodically but she stomped them down ruthlessly and got back to practice, ah, nice. I can do two blobs of mana now and forming both into orbs is easy, now...and now they are spinning. Just like my head will spin off my shoulder if they manage to kill me after waking up. Fuck. Peaceful thoughts... mana orbs...focus on how nice they are orbiting each other like that.

Despite her constantly drifting focus she managed to make some progress, it wouldn't have much of an effect on her casting speed yet but just the fact that she could hold onto two separate orbs of mana while spinning both as they orbited each other was already a satisfying accomplishment for her.

Her attention was drawn to the young girl as she heard her heart rate fluctuating and her breathing grow quicker. She would be waking up soon, Kali would have liked to help, heal them from whatever drug the humans used to keep them sedated but she didn't know any Spells for that.

She jumped off of her cage and went closer to the sleeping girl, thinking back on it now they could have pulled them out of their cages instead of leaving them inside even if Vorgnar shredded one end of them off.

"Can you help me get her out of there?" She looked back at him, staring into his wolf-like golden eyes.

He just nodded and walked up to the cage and gently pulled the little elf out of her cage, Kali pulled a piece of cloth from her spatial storage and laid it down on the ground. Vorgnar laid the small girl atop it and Kali crouched down next to the girl.

Being as young as she was the small elf was more cute than beautiful as most grown elves were, Kali imagined her cheeks would be chubby were it not for the malnutrition. Kali got increasingly more nervous as the girl started moving in her sleep, with small twitches in her arms at first, and then she started turning on her side.

Kali reached over to hold the girl's hand but stopped midway, she wasn't sure if that would be appropriate. She has never cared for children, she hasn't met elves younger than her for that matter. She had maids that were around her age but all of them were a bit older and it was their job to care for her, not the other way around.

She pulled her arm back awkwardly and watched the girl who seemed to be having a nightmare while kneeling next to her. She started hearing the woman and the man starting to wake too, their breathing and heartbeat both started approaching the level she associated with awake people.

The first one to stir was still the pink-haired girl, her ocean-blue eyes opened sluggishly and she blinked up at the ceiling. Kali just watched her as she seemed to be in a daze still, finally, their gaze interlocked.

"Hi," said Kali after a moment of silence, "how do you feel?"

"F-*cough*" the girl started, "Fine."

"Drink this," Kali summoned a flask of water from her storage, just now realizing how parched the girl must have been.

The girl snatched the flask out of her hold and gulped it down quickly, holding it with trembling arms as she did so. Once she was done she sighed and passed it back to Kali.

"Thanks," she said quietly, "who are you?"

"Kalitra, but you can call me Kali," she smiled at the young elf, "and this is my ... companion Vorgnar." She motioned towards the large man still leaning on a cage a few meters away.

The small girl visibly flinched when she noticed the bearlike man staring at her and grabbed ahold of Kali's jacket for comfort.

"Don't worry," Kali said, trying to sound calming, "he is the one that freed you three."

"Huh?" the girl looked around with a frown until her gaze found the prone form of the ginger elves.

"You know them?" Kali asked gently as she watched the girl stare at them.

She just shook her head, making her long pink locks fly about.

"Um," Kali glanced back at Vorgnar, "You know what kind of food we could give her?" she asked as she swept her gaze over the frail body of the girl.

"I'd say something natural and nutritious," the man crossed his arms, "We could get berries, nuts and maybe eggs out here that could work but they'd need something filling to get better."

Kali felt the girl's grip tighten on her jacket, her fingers trembling under the force of it.

"Let's wait for the other two before going foraging," she said, "I still have some berries, would you like some?" she asked the child trembling under the effort just sitting put on her. She must have been her for far longer than the others, or she was malnourished already when they caught her.

"Mhm," the girl nodded as she looked up at Kali with those soulful eyes that the Autumn Elves were known for. Their hair colors ranged from ginger to pink and sometimes even dirty blonde but the deep blue eyes were a staple.

Kali held her arm out, palm facing up. Closed in and summoned a handful of berries inside before opening it up again which caused the girl to gasp.

"Wow," she didn't stay awed for long as she stuffed her cheeks full of the various berries Kali already tested for poison. Thankfully her bracelet could heal her from that too, it was more like returning her body to the perfectly healthy image that it knows that real healing and a perfect body doesn't have poison in it.

"WHO ARE YOU?" shouted a hoarse voice from behind Kali, making her flinch and droop her ears. She was so absorbed in giving the little munchkin berries and nuts that she didn't even notice the female elf waking up behind her until the shout.

She noticed Vorgnar finally remove himself from the cage and head over to pacify the woman, hopefully, it was he who wanted to save them, why am I the one taking care of this girl anyway?

Try as she might, every look at the frail girl who was less than half her age made her heart crack a little. She dropped berries from time to time as her fingers trembled and the food slipped out of them, this in turn made the child tear up silently.

Kali had to stop her from just eating the dirty berries and conjured up a bit of water to wash them.

"We've eliminated the bandits in the camp," she heard Vorgnar start to explain to the frantic woman, "You are free, we aren't here to hurt you."

Her attention was somewhat pulled towards the still-sleeping man, and her ears twitched a little. Interesting, if I didn't feel him starting to wake I'd have thought he was sleeping for real.

As soon as she heard the woman scream the man's breathing hitched for a moment before both his heartbeat and breathing steadied into a rhythm that perfectly mimicked what it was back when he was slumbering deeply.

"I'm sorry but that's all I had," she said to the dejected girl, "will you be alright until we get more food for you?"

The girl nodded sluggishly which made Kali smile.

"The other one is awake too," she said as she rose to her feet, she stared down at the older elf. He had better survival instincts than the female at least, it was prudent to learn whatever he could before he engaged strangers like her and Vorgnar.

He glanced back at her, then at the elf on the floor. By now he's managed to calm down the woman somewhat as she was just asking various questions about where and when they were until Kali interrupted them.

The woman glanced at her, Kali saw her eyes widening as the woman stared into her icy blue eyes then she gasped as she took in the rest of her form. That might be a problem, she wasn't sure why she was surprised but the thought that she recognized her or what she was didn't bode well.

"I'm Kalitra," she decided to say, "Nice to meet you...?"

"Ah," the woman said, snapping out of her embarrassing staring, "Selene, yes, nice to meet you too!"

Kali smiled at the flustered woman before turning her gaze at the similar-looking elf still looking like he was sleeping like a log.

"You sure he's awake?" Vorgnar asked with a frown, his own senses probably telling him what her own were.

"Well, if he didn't suddenly fall into a deep sleep right after Miss Selene here awoke even the dead with her scream then he is," she said with a smirk, enjoying the way the woman squirmed at her jab, "You know him? You look quite alike."

"Uhm," the woman glanced at the man and gasped, Kali was tempted to believe this was the first time since she awoke that she noticed him, "BROTHER!" she launched herself at the fake-sleeping man, knocking the air out of him as she pulled him up into a hug and swung him around.

Well even if he wasn't awake before, now he is.

"Sel, let me down," the man was shouting over his sister's ramblings.

"Ah, did you come to save me? did they catch you too? are you alright? is mother okay? how did they catch you? why did you come after me? Are you stupid?" the woman wasn't paying attention to him though.

Vorgnar let out a sound somewhere between a grunt and an annoyed growl as he stood imperiously with his arms crossed and his feet tapping.

The woman stiffened as her eyes zeroed in on the veritable mountain of a man but she was still holding her sibling, leaving his legs to hang in the air as she squeezed the breath out of him.

"Sel," he squeezed out, "...air...please."

"Oh," she let him go and the man collapsed onto his knees, hacking and coughing, "...sorry."

Kali watched on with an amused smile, this woman sort of reminded her of Ly'Riel. Her sister tended to be the same sort of cheerful airhead around her though she knew she was a terrifying battlemage when they were together she was just a bundle of energy.

Her smile fell away as the guilt started setting in, I wouldn't have met her again for centuries anyway so why am I feeling like this?

The man rose to his feet and dusted off his clothes, which were the same coarse brown material Kali's were made of. He looked over the other people in the room, most likely tying the voices to faces and just like his sister, the man widened his eyes as he looked at Kali. He hid it quickly and if Kali wasn't looking for it she might have missed it.

"I am Virendel Swiftsream and I thank you for saving me and my sister," he said as he lowered himself into a bow.

"What about her though?" Kali asked with a frown, motioning towards the pink-haired girl looking at all that was happening with curious eyes, "Wasn't she with you two?"

"Ah," the man looked at the young girl carefully which made her crawl behind Kali to hide, "I'm afraid I don't know her." he shook his head apologetically.

"Me neither," said Selene, injecting herself back into the conversation.

Kali crouched and made eye contact with the girl, "Can I ask you what your name is?" she asked gently.

"Alexis," the girl murmured.

"Lexy then," Kali smiled, "Do you have anywhere to return to? Parents maybe?"

That was the wrong thing to ask, Kali realised with a start as the girl teared up and started sobbing uncontrollably. She instinctually pulled the girl into a hug, staying careful not to hurt her frail body.

"It's alright," Kali whispered as she felt the girl grip her clothes as she cried, "It's alright."

"Didn't know winter elves could show compassion," she heard Selene whisper to her brother to which he just shushed her.

She almost forgot Vorgnar was there until he started distracting the siblings with questions about whether they'd like assistance in returning to their homes and how far that'd be.

"Th-*sniff* they didn't," she heard the girl say between silent sobs, "want me."

Kali tightened her hold on the small girl, almost forgetting not to use too much of her strength. Elves were supposedly very social and even if not they were viciously loyal to their family and kin. Kali's parents were outliers in winter elven society, the father who sold her daughter's hand in marriage and the mother who refused to raise her.

The girl's pained whisper hit far too close to home with Kali, her father had some excuses for being as loathsome as he was. Saving the kingdom and securing the alliance were sound excuses if she ever heard any, not that she cared about his excuses.

What could drive a normal elf to abandon their child though? Kali could guess but all she came up with was a lack of food or something similar.

"They said I'm a monster," the girl stopped sobbing by now, only silent tears running down her cheeks, "they said only monsters have ears like me, but you have them too right? Are you a monster like me?"

The girl asked those disturbing questions with eyes filled with hope, she wants me to say yes.

Kali's thoughts were in turmoil and all of her previous ideas went down the drain, just what the hell have they put this child through?