He quickly decided that the best thing to do would be to go where the jungle was at its narrowest, even though that wouldn’t take him directly to Everward. But that was a drawback he would accept because taking a riskier route might end up ultimately slowing him down even more.
With that, Feyrith put his map back in his satchel and rode the quasir along the trees of the jungle, looking for where to take the plunge. Staring into the darkness between the large tree trunks was much more fascinating than intimidating, but Feyrith would have to resist exploring this strange new place for now.
He rode along the jungle for a fairly long time until he reached what he hoped was a good place to cross, and that was when he made the quasir stop and jumped off its back, taking the reins into his hand. First, he would need something to light the way.
“Saris aenra,” he muttered, frowning in concentration as he summoned the familiar ball of light into his hand. He knew it was possible to create a light that would hover above him and make it follow him as he walked, but he had yet to figure out how to do that properly. But this was good enough. The light illuminated the trees well enough, letting him see far enough into the jungle to spot a few vines hanging between the trees, and that was all he needed.
Next to him, the quasir let out a low squawk, staring into the jungle with much less enthusiasm than Feyrith. The elf patted the beast’s side, running his hand over the smooth feathers, knowing that it would at least somewhat calm it down. The last thing he needed was for the quasir to get frightened and run away from him.
Thankfully, after this the beast let itself be led inside without much further convincing. Despite the thickness of the jungle, there was actually enough space for a beast as large as a quasir to easily be able to move around. It hadn’t looked that way from the outside.
Perhaps it would be possible to ride through here. Or maybe the jungle would become less open and become difficult to traverse even on foot. But there was no use worrying about that possibility.
Deciding to go on foot for now, Feyrith led the quasir further inside the jungle. He needed to focus and only go straight as best as he could manage with all of the roots, ferns, and trees in his way. The night sky wasn’t visible at all through the thick treetops, unfortunately, so he couldn’t use it to get a sense of direction. At least his summoned light was strong enough that he could see far and well, so his best option was using the trees to remember which way he was going.
He flinched at a sudden rustle above him, breathing out when he saw bats fly out of sight. They actually seemed smaller than some he’d seen on Aendor, which was somewhat reassuring. But now that the rustling of their wings was gone, Feyrith became incredibly aware of how quiet the jungle was. The only sounds he could hear were his own hammering heart, and the snorting of the quasir who was now absently digging at something with its claws, only to strike with its beak a second later, pulling out a very long, white worm which the quasir proceeded to swallow whole.
Feyrith supposed it was good that at least the quasir wasn’t too nervous anymore, though he hadn’t needed to see that.
He continued on, stepping over everything the jungle tried to throw under his feet. The earthy, fresh scent the entire place gave off seemed to get stronger as he went, though that was hardly a bad thing. The jungle was less humid than he’d thought it would be, which was good, if surprising. Perhaps it was simply because the sun had set, but either way, it was appreciated.
What wasn’t appreciated was the constant silence. Not even insects were making noise, even though Feyrith could see a few on the trunks of trees and crawling on the ground, their shelled forms bigger than Feyrith’s hand shining in the darkness. Feyrith had to resist flinching whenever he heard the leaves crinkle, or a branch snap beneath his boots. It put him on edge.
He kept looking around and behind him to see if there was something waiting to strike, but there was nothing. He’d only seen movement once, and it had been too far and too quick for him to truly make out. Whatever beast it had been had disappeared before Feyrith could even make an opinion whether it posed a threat or not.
Even after what felt like a very long time, there was still no change in the thickness of the jungle, and with Feyrith’s growing apprehension at being here, he finally decided to climb onto the quasir’s back once again. If he could ride through the jungle, there was no reason not to try.
The quasir shifted its weight, watching something on its right with suspicion. Feyrith raised the hand he was still carrying the light in, frowning as he tried to spot whatever had caught the quasir’s attention. He couldn’t see anything except for tall ferns and other plant life, but he could hear something when he focused properly. Something like the creaking of wood? But none of the trees around them were moving.
Feeling his chest tighten, Feyrith nudged the quasir to move, letting it go at a relatively slow pace. It didn’t seem to have much trouble with the roots and rocks on the ground, but there was still no reason to risk it tripping over something and potentially hurting itself. Of course, Feyrith would be able to fix that, but if they were to spend significant time in this jungle, it would be unwise to use his energy on something that could be avoided.
His stomach rumbled as he thought about that, and he grimaced. He truly should have brought something with him to eat, but he hadn’t thought he’d still be traveling at this time. He would just have to put up with his hunger for a while longer, he supposed.
He quickly forgot about that as something in the distance suddenly caught his attention. He frowned into the shadows, trying to make it out. Was that…something glowing? His eyes widened as he quickly realized that two small lights were rapidly approaching him. And a second later, Feyrith could finally see the creature.
It was a tiger. A tiger made of wood. Jagged branches stuck out of its form as it roared and pounced at them. Feyrith barely managed to drag the quasir to the right by the reigns to avoid it as it sprinted around the tiger with a frightened caw.
Feyrith had not thought an indari would be here. Seeing an elemental so close to civilization was very strange in general, but that didn’t matter right now. He pushed the quasir to run faster and not lose sense of the right direction. The beast didn’t protest, galloping at top speed away from the indari roaring behind them. Feyrith threw a look over his shoulder, his eyes growing wide at how close the creature still was. It was running at lightning speed, only slightly slower than the quasir, and he could tell his mount was starting to panic as it tried to run even faster.
Barely able to keep the quasir from changing direction at this point, Feyrith looked back at the indari and its blazing, blue eyes, glaring at it. He knew what to do.
“Kinri se tah!” he yelled, aiming his hand at the creature. The ball of light immediately turned into fire, flowing from his hand and enveloping the creature completely, making it let out a roar and disappearing from sight.
Feyrith didn’t slow the quasir down, though, and neither did the beast itself make any attempts at stopping, continuing to run as fast as it could. Feyrith summoned the light again, letting out a huff. He’d never used this spell with such intensity before, and it had left him tired. But then again, he was exhausted in general.
After a few minutes, he finally pulled on the quasir’s reins, making it dig its claws into the dirt to slow down. Its eyes were wide, and it still looked very scared as it panted and trembled. Feyrith felt a pang of guilt for putting the animal into this position in the first place, but there was no going back. He settled for stroking the side of its neck again and humming to it, which did seem to help at least a little as the quasir’s breathing slowed.
Feyrith wished they could stop for a moment and take a moment to breathe. Not only for the quasir’s sake but also his own. But they needed to leave before something else attacked. It couldn’t be too far away now, anyway.
But before Feyrith could continue, a loud hissing came from the left. And before he managed to figure out what was about to attack hi
m this time, the quasir darted off in a random direction, away from danger. Feeling his heart seize in horror, Feyrith yanked onto the reigns, trying to get the quasir to turn before Feyrith completely lose a sense of which direction to go.
His eyes darted around from tree to tree, trying to find out which creature had frightened the quasir so much. And when he finally spotted it, a while behind them, he frowned in surprise. A large snake with wings? Feyrith didn’t think he’d even heard of that before. At least it didn’t seem to be following anymore, and it quickly disappeared as the quasir continued its breakneck pace.
Feyrith made no attempt to slow it down, hoping that the Goddess would spare him from further encounters with the wildlife.
He kept looking around, his hand raised so he could see as much of his surroundings as possible until he finally caught a glimpse of the twin moons through the thick jungle ceiling of branches and leaves. He breathed out when they practically flew through the last line of the trees, the quasir clearly as excited to leave the jungle as Feyrith was.
It didn’t stop until it got a considerable distance away from the jungle, and once it did, it stomped, making a loud, displeased squawk. Feyrith let out a deep sigh, looking back at the looming, dark jungle they had just left.
Using this route might have been a mistake after all, but it had worked and saved him a lot of time, so he would focus on that. He could see lights in the distance from here, on a wide but not very tall hill surrounded by the now almost familiar grassy fields. That must have been Everward. All he needed to do now was follow the road to get there and hope that nothing would go wrong on this last part of tonight’s journey. He wasn’t sure he could handle more of that without rest.
5
Edwyr got a short moment of blissful oblivion after waking up before remembering what had happened the night before. And his mood immediately soured. The idea of simply forgetting about this and leaving Feyrith to whatever fate befell him was still a tempting option, but Edwyr knew he wouldn’t be able to go about his day with these thoughts constantly annoying him. Besides, he was sure that if he did decide to not go, after all, Lanna and Arbane would convince him otherwise. They had a history of doing that.
Edwyr just hoped they wouldn’t end up regretting this trip.
He got up with a sigh, folding his blanket and walking over to the cupboard to retrieve some bread. He stared at his leather armor in the corner as he chewed on his very simple breakfast, barely able to taste it. But no matter how much he didn’t want to eat right now, he never liked eating on the go, and he knew he would get hungry if he didn’t put something in his stomach now.
Once he was done with the bread he put on a fresh tunic, and picked up the armor, grimacing at it. He wondered if wearing it would make a convincing impression on the Town Elder or not. He could never tell what that woman was thinking, nor could he tell if she liked him or not, but he supposed he only needed her to tolerate him.
Somehow putting on the armor and dealing with all of the various straps was much more insufferable than usual, but Edwyr was done with it fairly quickly anyway, having years of experience at this point. He automatically reached for his bow before deciding to leave that here for now. If the Town Elder didn’t give them her blessing, Edwyr wasn’t leaving, so there would be no reason to bring any weapons. And besides, he would have to go pack essentials still, anyway. Might as well do all of that later.
Sighing again he walked out of his house, immediately greeted by Tempest who let out an excited caw and sprung to her feet, trying to get close enough to check Edwyr’s pockets. Edwyr shook his head, smiling.
“Good to see you have plenty of energy,” he told her, gently pushing her away, which was fairly difficult. Squawkers were very strong animals. Tempest could likely very easily kill a man if she wanted to, though she’d never attacked anyone.
Edwyr, unfortunately, had nothing to give her at the moment, but even if he did, he didn’t think he should. He’d already given her a full head of cabbage yesterday after his unsuccessful search for Feyrith, and he didn’t want to spoil her too much. She’d deserved it yesterday of course, but he didn’t need to overdo it.
Clearly figuring out that he was unwilling to give her anything, Tempest let out a snort and turned around, walking in a circle before laying down again, flicking her ears and fluffing up her feathers. Good, Edwyr could handle her being annoyed with him. He had a harder time not giving in when she got all sad in order to emotionally manipulate him.
He patted her head one last time before heading over to Lanna and Arbane’s house. It was on the other side of Sunwood, but Edwyr didn’t mind the walk. The fresh, morning air was good for his overworked brain. It helped him calm down a little. He was getting worked up over nothing, anyway. The trip was going to take a week at most, and the people of Sunwood knew how to defend themselves in this harsh, unforgiving land. They had built a wall to protect themselves, after all. And it worked, aside from when a creature that could fly or climb attacked them.
So all that was left was his unwillingness to go and help an elf who was likely not even going to appreciate it. Edwyr remembered the surprise in Feyrith’s eyes. The shock that Edwyr had refused to help him, to even listen to him. He had clearly been expecting Edwyr to do his best, despite his lack of magic.
Though it was concerning that Feyrith—that the High Council itself—had been willing to ask someone like Edwyr to help one of their own. They might as well have asked a human to do it, but Edwyr bitterly supposed that that would be going too far.
Oh, how he loathed the Council and everything it represented. But at the very least them thinking humans were useless and unable to defend themselves meant that the Council kept sending elves to help them, so at least there was one good thing that came from this situation.
Once he reached his friends’ house, he knocked on the door as he ran his eyes over the entire house. He hadn’t seen it in a while, now that he thought about it. The three of them tended to spend time together outside of their homes, and given how far Edwyr’s house was from theirs, he didn’t often come here. He felt something akin to regret enter his heart, though he wasn’t going to give that much thought. If Lanna and Arbane wanted him to visit them at their house or wanted to visit his, they would say so. Unlike him, they had no problems tackling these things head-on.
Edwyr always felt awkward when approaching unspoken tensions, but he fully blamed the culture he originated from for it. For all the Council’s talk about how elves were supposed to be beyond emotions and the struggles that came with them, none of it reflected reality. If elves could feel the same way humans did, they were not above any of it. At least that was Edwyr’s hypothesis, which the Council wouldn’t care about, of course.
He pushed these thoughts away as the door swung open, revealing Lanna, who was already fully dressed and armed, with a bow and a quiver with arrows on her back, and her two daggers hanging from her belt. She smiled when she saw Edwyr, though there was still some kind of worry or concern beneath that smile. Edwyr appreciated that she cared, even though it was hard not to get defensive when he saw it. He was perfectly fine.
“We were just about to swing by your place,” she said, walking outside, soon followed by her husband.
“Do we really have to talk to the Elder about this?” Arbane asked as he closed the door, turning to face them with an almost pleading expression. It seemed he wanted to go see her even less than Edwyr himself. But it was the correct, responsible thing to do.
“We really should at least announce we’re planning on leaving for a few days, even if Dagma doesn’t like it.”
If the Elder didn’t approve, Edwyr would likely use that as an excuse not to go, but he didn’t say that. Not yet, at least.
“Fine,” Arbane said, stretching the word out as much as possible in annoyance. “Let’s get it done, then.”
The Elder’s house was in the middle of the town, where the small, cobbled center was. The house was also the biggest
one in Sunwood, having two stories. Because of course it was.
But Edwyr had managed to keep his criticisms to himself so far. It seemed those in power always felt a need to flaunt their position over their subjects, but he also realized that most of the reason he was so bitter towards this fact was the High Council and their impossibly tall, golden towers.
At least the Elder didn’t act arrogant and superior to everyone around her, so Edwyr would continue holding his tongue.
He could very quickly spot the building from afar as they walked towards it, its flat roof sticking out among the sea of houses. And if the tall roof wasn’t enough, the Elder’s house was the only one with a bell on top of it. It was used to warn the inhabitants of Sunwood about an incoming danger, but Edwyr could only remember it being used once.
Not that there wasn’t danger often—unfortunately it was very commonplace—but he, Lanna, and Arbane usually managed to deal with whatever was endangering the town before the threat got serious enough for it to be necessary for that bell to be rung.
Lanna took the lead as they approached the large, ornate door and opened it without bothering to knock. Edwyr knew that there was no reason to do so, as this was a somewhat public place one could enter without announcing themselves, but he couldn’t shake off the instinct to knock anyway.
Humans tended to prefer it, and he’d embarrassed himself a few times already by forgetting about that.
As the door opened, Edwyr’s eyes immediately found the Elder, who was sitting in her chair at the long, large table in the middle of the main room. The table had carvings of animals and beasts in it, and it shocked Edwyr how detailed they were every time he laid his eyes upon them. It was definitely because he didn’t come by here often, but it was still very impressive. Elves used their magic for everything, so the idea of someone creating this by hand was incredibly impressive. Though Edwyr was getting the feeling it was more impressive to him than to the local humans.
The Circles of Magic Page 5
