Oh, my. I suppose I just told you a few secrets, did I not? Means I’ll have to kill you now.
Hee hee hee. Do not give me that look, intruder. I merely jest. Would you like me to continue?
-
A smile that haunted the Princess’s dreams returned that night. Sandy brown hair waved gently in the ocean breeze, lighting up Bran’s sparkling green eyes. He laughed at Arwen’s horrified expression and gestured widely with one arm. “C’mon Ari, it won’t be too cold!”
“I don’t want to go in,” Arwen had replied in a voice she hardly recognised anymore. “I want to go back to the port town.”
“Hey, you said you wanted to be adventurous, right? This is your chance! Come on, don’t be a cry-baby!”
Indeed, Arwen wanted to be adventurous, but couldn’t it wait until she was older? The endless stretching… vastness, of New King’s Ocean intimidated her. “I don’t even know how to swim,” she admitted.
Bran smiled wider. “I’ll teach you! Come now, let’s-”
Arwen awoke with a jolt. She groaned and lifted her face, half-covered in red marks from the gravel digging into her skin from under the sleeping bag, off of the pathetic excuse for a pillow the bag provided. Around her, Gwyn, Eryk, Cai, and Owen were milling by the extinguished fire, apparently having woken up before her. She sighed and unceremoniously wiggled her way out of the sleeping roll’s cocoon-like structure before joining the boys. “Here, eat.” Cai thrust a small serving of cured meat at her for way of greeting. “We will depart once you’re ready.”
Arwen tiredly took the dry food and took a bite, not even bothering to taste it. “Are you okay?” Gwyn asked with a concerned look. “You look like death.”
“I barely slept,” Arwen replied demurely at the unintended insult. She disliked when someone commented negatively on her appearance, though it was the truth in this situation. The sleeping bag hardly softened the hard, gritty ground beneath her, and the temperature dropped drastically when the fire weakened and died. Compared to the comforts of her bed chambers, this was by far the worst sleeping conditions she had ever experienced. And when she did manage to drift off, she slept in small bouts before some new pain or discomfort awoke her.
“You’ll have to get used to it,” Owen shrugged. “And you will.”
“He is right,” Cai concurred. “We all remember our first time in one of those things. It’s unpleasant, to say the least, but it gets better.”
Arwen didn’t think so, but she kept her grumbling to herself. She ate quietly while the others waited for her. It was unnerving to have four men watch her eating, but she managed to get down the cured meat, water, and nuts that Cai had also given her without embarrassment.
Before they begun to pack up, Arwen decided to tell the group about the Light Gem. She felt only Cai knowing of it would create issues for her in the future should any of them find out she kept secrets. The response after the initial surprise that their companion was carrying an artifact was an uncomfortable shift in their expressions, but she had expected more intense reactions and so didn’t mind.
Surprisingly, Owen was the first to speak when she finished. “I would ask you don’t use that on me, please. I’ve done some things in the past I’d rather not have anyone knowing about.”
“What, like whacking off?” Gwyn joked with a wide grin before deadpanning. “Seriously though, I think we all have our skeletons in our closets.”
“I would ask you also respect the privacy of my memories,” Eryk agreed. “I also particularly fear the ‘speaking with the dead’ aspect of the gemstone.”
Arwen was sorely tempted to gain an insight into the vampire with the Helvetian name, but decided she’d respect his wishes… for now. Besides, what she might see in a vampire’s mind may be something she couldn’t take back, ladened as she was with the intense memories from Cai and her own father. “I won’t use it on any of you without express consent.” Arwen said.
“Good,” Cai clapped loudly. “Now, let’s go. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”
-cut-
The retinue to Princess Arwen of Cyfoeth made easy conversation as they walked. Particularly, Gwyn and Owen appeared to be getting along very well and often joked about with each other often. Arwen remained mostly silent, content just to listen to the ramblings and crass jokes of the young soldiers. Cai was the same, but sometimes joined in on the conversation when it touched upon a topic to his liking. Even Eryk, the vampire with his black overcoat billowing softly in the spring wind, tried to join in on the conversation, but he eventually gave up when his inputs caused awkward silences as the men silently waited for one another to acknowledge the him.
Cai had described the Veins of Wedi as a ‘boring wasteland’, but Arwen was fascinated by the interconnecting streams of thin lava that had long-ago dried up into a static river, forever frozen in suspense. The caws and chirps she had heard last night were revealed to be birds, after all, which watched the group suspiciously from their little platforms of grim earth between the lava rivulets. Almost all of them were black-coloured, with the odd flash of white or blue plumage marring their charcoal form. Interestingly, this black colouration appeared uniform, even among birds who were obviously of differing species. Occasionally, and without any form of warning or reason, a group would take flight and disappear over the distant sand dunes down into the south.
“They’re hunting,” Cai explained to Arwen when she asked. Her curiosity reached its apex when the fifth flock of birds had flown over towards the dunes, for she had no idea why so many birds would want to go unerringly into the same direction. “They rest in the Veins overnight to avoid predators, and will roll around to cover themselves in the dark earth to blend in. During sunrise, they fly towards the New King’s Ocean to bathe and hunt. After washing, their natural blue and white colour is supposed to help them blend into the ocean, though I think their yellow beaks are a dead giveaway.”
“They use the sunrise?” Arwen was somewhat surprised. Within Loel’s history books, the land used to enjoy eternal day continuously, which gave rise to its moniker as the Land of Eternal Light. The endless day abruptly stopped, however, when instances of night, at first reported for a mere half hour but which started to grow over time into the 12 hours they experience today, crept in. If her memory served, the book also speculated that, based upon historic records and writings of their long-lost People of Old, it was around the exact same time that the Light God Lye fell silent and the ever-mysterious Tower nestled deep within the inhospitable Wastes ceased exuding its beacon-like light thought to be the source of Loel’s eternal day. What happened to the Light God? And why did the Tower deactivate? Was the Tower’s light a mere myth? Many tortured themselves over the answer, though neither Arwen nor anyone else could hazard a guess.
“There are winners and losers of the night time we experience today,” Eryk piped up, seemingly eager to share his knowledge. “We have adapted very well to darkness- we base our sleep off of it, after all. These birds and a lot of the animals in Lliwio Plains have learnt to make use of the cycling day and night, too. Unfortunately, a lot of animals struggle to adapt and have experienced dwindling numbers as the years go by.”
“A thousand years isn’t that long for nature to adapt,” Gwyn added, the only one who was slightly amicable towards the vampire. “But we make do.”
Arwen nodded. A thousand years seemed an awful long time, but she didn’t argue the point. Animals were something she always failed to understand in her young schooling years.
Their subsequent silence lasted with bouts of small talk until they reached Lliwio Plains, marking the half-way point of their journey. The ashen and lifeless earth of the Veins rose into an expanse of full, green blades of grass which dotted endlessly across into the dunes in the south and Traeth forest to the east. So thick and tall were the grassy foliage that Arwen couldn’t even see the ground underneath. Thankfully, Tristwch Road cut neatly across the endless plain, meaning there would be no one falling into hidden holes today. When a small thud jolted Arwen out of her pained daydreaming and a small creature shot into the air, she let out a shrill shriek. “What is that?!”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The animal rose high into the sky before unfurling wings easily twice the length of its tiny body whereby it begun to glide gracefully back down into the plains, eventually disappearing into the grass below. “It’s a harmless rabbit.” Eryk laughed at the Princess’s girlish fear of wildlife.
Arwen shot the vampire a nasty look, unappreciative of his laughing at her. Who did he think he was? Still, her curiosity soothed her nerves to the point that she let it slide and instead turned to Cai. “Why does it have wings?”
Cai shrugged, adjusting the heavy bag upon his shoulders. “I have traversed Tristwch countless times, yet I’ve never seen one of them before.”
“Permit me to explain,” the vampire didn’t seem to mind that the Princess had chosen to ask someone else a question to which he obviously knew the answer to. “These are known as Lliwio rabbits. They are small animals that feed off of the grass in the plains. Normal rabbits have strong hind legs used to quickly hop around, but these have adapted to have much stronger muscles which they use to propel themselves upwards and away from predators, where they then use their wings to glide into safety.”
“Right,” Arwen nodded awkwardly. “Uh, thanks.”
“My pleasure.”
It was smooth running after that small incident, however another animal soon beset the small group just hours later, and this particular one was a lot bigger than the rabbit.
The giant beast looked to Arwen as if a deer had stood upon two legs and grew wings. It had beady black eyes were situated upon a head settled upon the buffest body she had ever borne witness to. Its muscles were practically ripping out of its skin. Contrarily, its wings, while large, appeared rather thin and lacking in comparison. It stood gazing not far from the group, which had stopped to assess the possible threat.
“That’s a Hopys.” Cai said uneasily.
“Definitely,” Gwyn agreed. “Though I’ve never seen one so far north before.”
“Is it dangerous?” Arwen asked worriedly. The Hopys had ceased its feeding and was staring intently at the group of humans not so far away. Its beady little eyes seemed hesitant, as if it weren’t quite sure whether to run or to fight.
Cai nodded. “Extremely. They can be somewhat abundant in the plains near the sand dunes and by Continent’s Beach, so we ran into them often on patrol there. They’re aggressive towards humans, fast, and have sharp claws. Not only that, but they are proficient boxers. I once saw a man have his skull caved in after one punch from one of those things. He never stood a chance.”
Arwen’s heart lurched. This was the first real dangerous thing she had ever encountered, and… it was a little cute. Still, her nerves begun to fray and sweat trickled out of her pores as the two parties examined each other. It was only an oversized deer, she reasoned, but the thought of it attacking filled her with dread.
Gwyn stepped forward wielding his lance. “If it charges, stay behind me. I’ll use my reach to keep it away from us.”
After a brief moment, the Hopys came to a decision. To Arwen’s utter shock, the thing began to hop towards them, effortlessly traversing the thick grass with practised ease. She had expected it to get down on all fours and run. When it jumped to about twenty metres from them, the Hopys made use of a muscular tail to balance itself as it came to a stop. Then, in what would’ve been a hilarious display if Arwen weren’t so scared, it squeezed its arms by its chest in a bodybuilder pose, causing its muscles to flex and bulge near out of its skin. “It’s going to attack!” Cai warned. The irises of his eyes turned a milky white when he drew his sword and his skin began to radiate a warm light. The broadsword in his hand burned in white flames as the light mage made use of his radiant magic. “Come at me!”
Arwen stepped back next to Owen, who stood bow in hand ready to notch an arrow if need be.
The Hopys assessed the scene for a moment, before deciding Gwyn was the man to attack. In a blinding burst of speed, it hunched down and began frantically hopping towards the Sentinel, who tensed in anticipation of the oncoming attack. Eryk yelled a warning and ran towards Gwyn to assign aid. As the Hopys burst from the grass and onto the road, a thin white beam shot past its head and into the dirt, causing a small explosion of gravel to fly loudly into the air. Though Cai’s attack missed, the Hopys hesitated enough for Gwyn to time a lunge of his lance towards its mid-section. Arwen held her breathe as the tip of the blade was thrust towards the wild animal.
But, in an impressive display of dexterity, the Hopys jumped backwards, utilising its tail to maintain balance as it swung to the right, causing Gwyn’s attack to miss. The last of the flung gravel fell back onto the road as Eryk finally reached Gwyn’s side. “Don’t approach it!” Gwyn warned. “You may be a vampire but it won’t make a difference if you let the thing get close.”
“I am no more resilient than a human as I am,” Eryk reminded the Sentinel. “But I will keep my distance.”
The Hopys then made another lunge towards Gwyn who jabbed his lance out in response, forcing the animal to abort the attack lest it be impaled. Next to Arwen, Owen nocked an arrow and drew the drawstring backwards. The bow made a weirdly soothing noise as the archer prepared to fire. But the Hopys, be it by instinct or knowledge of Owen’s antics, refused to keep still. It next tried to zig-zag around Gwyn towards Arwen, but Cai intercepted it with a swing of his sword meant to intimidate more than actually hit. Faced with a human radiating a strange glow wielding a sword aflame with white fire, the Hopys reared backwards for a moment, once again using its tail to maintain contact with the ground as it lifted itself.
It was enough. A thwump noise stung Arwen’s left ear as Owen let his arrow fly. In the next instance, the arrow buried itself into the Hopys’s broad chest. Its arm flailed outwards and its head rocked back, caught by surprise by the sudden pain in its torso. Its wings flapped violently, kicking up absurd amounts of gravel and dust and, for a horrifying moment, Arwen thought it was about to take flight. Thankfully, the wings appeared more for show than for any sort of use, as it then swiped viciously with claws as long as Arwen’s fingers before realising the source of its sudden agony couldn’t be killed. Upon sighting the arrow piercing its chest, the Hopys realised it had been outmatched and immediately turned to flee back into the plains, disappearing into the distance among the grass.
Gwyn sighed in relief upon watching it run into the distance. “That could have been bad.”
“Yes,” Cai snuffed his light magic and sheathed his sword. When he turned to Arwen, she saw his white irises, a symptom of his magic use, fade back into his natural brown colour. “Are you okay?”
“I am.” Arwen called back. Owen hooked his bow back onto his back, just above his quiver, and bent down the retrieve the dropped sleeping bags. She let out an unsteady breath and balled her fists to hide her shaking hands. “Are you?”
“Fine.” Cai affirmed. “Vampire, you can put that sword away.”
Eryk appeared to have forgotten about the weapon in his hand, too entranced by watching the Hopys’s retreat to notice. “Right you are,” he immediately sheathed his sword. “Apologies. It was my first time sighting a real-life Hopys and I was quite fascinated.”
Cai scoffed. “Fascinated? The thing would’ve ripped your arms clean off if you let it. Maybe get your head checked, vampire boy.”
“Cai,” Gwyn shook his head, but the knight ignored him to walk back to the bag he discarded next to Arwen. He turned to Eryk instead. “Good work there, you were brave. But next time stay with the Princess.”
Eryk appeared not to appreciate this. For the first time since meeting him, Arwen heard a note of annoyance enter his voice. “Why? I can handle myself, you know.”
“Because our only defence should it get past Cai or me would’ve been Owen, who could hardly fight off a Hopys with a bow at melee. You, however, could engage for a moment while we caught up, if you remained by her side.”
“You are right,” Eryk appeared chagrined. “I was acting without thinking.”
“Typical vampire behaviour.” Cai commented coldly.
A hand on her arm caused Arwen to jump. “You doing okay?” Owen asked her. “You’re shaking.”
“I am fine, just some nerves.” Arwen replied. She looked towards the sleeping bags held in Owen’s hands. “May I hold that for a time?”
Eryk apologised behind her as he bent down to collect the supply bag he carried around. Owen shot the Princess an odd look. “You want to hold the bag? I know I’m thin, but it’s heavy.”
Arwen’s adrenaline fuelled mind snapped. “Just give me the damned bag.”
“Alright,” Owen dragged out the word as he unslung the cylindrical bag from his shoulder. “I know you’re probably feeling useless after that, but really, it’s no bother.”
Arwen grabbed the bag from him and placed the thick strap atop her shoulder. It was heavy, she found, but tenable for now. Her mood, however, was quickly growing unmanageable as anger begun to cloud her thoughts at the archer’s rude remark. “Excuse me? Feeling useless?”
“Owen,” Gwyn remained the voice of reason as he sensed an argument brewing.
The archer ignored him. “Yes, useless. I’m sorry if it hurts, but it’s the truth. We all played a part against the jacked deer, even the damned vampire. You just stood there, mouth agape, like some scared little girl.”
“Owen!” Gwyn scolded “Enough!”
“If you’re going to be a competent member of the military,” Owen continued. “Your performance under stress is going to need to improve… drastically.”
“I was not destined for the military!” Arwen shot back. “And I’m not even meant to fight, right? I’m just here so I can say I served.”
Owen’s eyes narrowed. “You’re here for the wrong reason, then.”
“You try being thrown into the military like I was,” Arwen huffed, her expression hard at the attack on her character. “And see how you react.”
“I was,” Owen reminded her as if she were dumb. “Two years ago, when I was conscripted at sixteen. I had to leave my parents and girlfriend behind to serve in the Kingdom, just like you.”
“Hey, it’s not like we’re off to slaughter a group of Helvetian soldiers. The Princess is not one for fighting and that is why we are here, to protect her.” Gwyn relentlessly defended the Arwen. “So, leave off it.”
“Shall we continue?” Arwen grinded out through gritted teeth. “This bag isn’t getting any lighter, and that wild animal may return.”
“We will want to report the Hopys to the travel shelter,” Cai added. “It’s an unusual and worrying development to find one so close to Tristwch.”
“Alright, we’re not going at each other’s throats, then?” Gwyn asked. “Good. Then we’ll get going.”
And so, they set off.