Chapter 105: Red Scorch

Aturs, Year of Severus, 15, I.R., the 33rd day of Fall, Arenfall

------------------------

"Orphella, come closer." The child's gentle smile was inviting her to approach closer. "Do not be afraid, Orphella. I mean no harm."

The elf hesitantly moved forward towards the child who reached out to her. The elf felt something strange from the child, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She stopped just by the child's arms reach and asked.

"How did you know my name?" She blurted out. The elf's eyes opened wide; her mouth ajar as she realized a voice was coming out of her. She covered her mouth and tried to runaway but the shock from hearing a voice coming out of her after a long time was unbearable. Her knees shook in fear and bewilderment, she stumbled down as tears fell from her eyes.

The little child approached her and reached out for her hand, "Are you alright—"

"DON'T COME NEAR ME!" She swiped the child's hand and crawled away from her. "W-WHO ARE YOU?!W-WHAT IS THIS?!" The voice felt foreign coming out from her. Regardless of the voice's sweetness and softness coming out of her, it felt like it was from someone else.

"W-wh…at have you done to me?!" Tears began to flow down her cheeks as she tried to find some answers. The voice was off-putting. It was confusing her so much she bit her lip and refused to open her mouth.

She did her best to stave away the child from her, but she seemed to be too strong for her. She tried slapping the hand away, but it wouldn't budge. The only thing the elf could do was close her eyes and pray for her goddess protection.

She felt the child's soft and tiny hand touch her forehead. She opened her eyes and saw the child's comely, yet otherworldly face. All of the sudden a surge of warm, pale blue light began to emit from the child's hand and directly into her body.

All her fears and confusion melted as the warm light flowed from within her. She slowly calmed down as the light continued to spread through her body. The light felt like a warm mother's embrace calming a crying child.

"I apologize if I have scared you, Orphella." The child said. "It wasn't my intention to surprise you like that." She smiled.

"W-whose voice is this?" The elf asked. "W-who…are…you?"

The child squatted and patted her head. "That's your voice. Well, supposedly your voice." She smiled. "For now, I won't tell you who am I. But know this, you have known me already for quite a long time."

The child slowly faded from her sight. She began to become transparent, letting things behind her more visible as she faded.

"I wanted to talk to you some more, but I really need to sleep." The child smiled. "I would like to thank you for keeping me alive all these years. You are one of the few ones who knew and appreciate my name. Thank you." The child finally faded, and she was left alone inside the beautiful blue paradise.

"Elf?" The beastman's voice echoed from the blue hazy sky. "Elf…are you alright." Suddenly the ground shook. The pave road crumbled and the pale blue light died as she fell into the darkness.

The elf opened her eyes and saw the silhouette of a man standing right in front of her. The figure blocked the sun shinning directly on her face. It took her another moment to focus her eyesight and realized it was indeed the beastman kneeling in front of her.

"Are you alright?" The beastman asked again as he held her by the shoulders.

She tried to open her mouth, but no voice came up, rather it was just a grunt. She felt disappointed and relieved at the same time. It was an overwhelming feeling of ambivalence.

"A-are…you—crying?" The beastman's worried face affected her.

She felt a trickle running down her cheek. The elf immediately touched her cheek and saw the teardrop dampen her finger. She immediate wiped it with her palm and shook her head.

"I wasn't crying." She signed. "The sun was just shinning too much it irritated my eye." She deliberately lied about it. She never wanted the worrywart beastman overthink things.

The beastman hurriedly untied his drinking gourd from his waste and offered it to her. "H-here…have some water…to…uummmm…" He was obviously running out of words and opted to sign the drinking part.

It was a regular occurrence every time the beastman tried to converse with her, he always ended up stuttering or running out of words to say. It was a very unmanly sight the elf thought. In their culture men where always dignified, they knew how to behave themselves in a crowd and knew how to control their emotion so well, they show no hint of it when with others.

But there was something charming about it—there was a kind of charmabout her friends' little quirks. The beastman reached out his hand to her. She recalled the child's  gesturehad once again. The elf felt a different vibe from that mysterious child. Her aura felt light and almost…godly. She shook the idea out of her head and took the beastman's cold and clammy hand.  They went back to the camp later with some mushrooms that she picked along the way and the games the beastman caught.

It was already past highnoon and there was still no sign of both the dwarf and the human. Apparently, 132…Adaloun opted to go with the dwarf after that heavy conversation they had last night. She helped prepare the food they stacked for the entire day.

They cooked the rabbits in an open spit for lunch and the wild ducks into a stew with grilled capsicum bells, onions and sweet tomatoes for the evening. After cooking, she hung the mushrooms outside their tent to air dry and be used for tomorrow's breakfast.

Sometime later, she went and cleaned the new hides they skinned from the rabbits. It was already in the highest level of Andenoon when she finished cleaning the rabbit skins. She stretched it out and left it to dry outside the tent. From a distance, she saw the beastman hesitantly walking towards her. She noticed his jittery quips as if there was something, he was hiding from her, but she ignored it.

She went inside the tent and laid on her bed trying to past the time thinking about her dream or better yet get some well-needed nap. As she moved to the side, she felt something bulging from her side pocket. It felt hard and round. She tried ignoring it but for some reason, the object began to burn her skin.

She immediately pulled out the object from her pocket and saw the red burning crystal that she found inside the moon-shy mushroom. She threw the crystal to the floor as it left a small burnt mark on her palm. The scorching crystal glowed a bright red light before fading away like there was nothing.

The elf stared at the crystal and then stared at the burnt skin on her palm. Suddenly, the wound began to glow and the formed a swirling line on her palm.

She looked at the crystal once more and heard it calling her, asking her to raise her hand and call it back to her. She tried to stop herself from doing it, but something inside of her couldn't resist the crystal's call. Her hand reached out by itself towards the shimmering crystal.

The crystal flew into her hand just as the beastman went inside the tent. She immediately hid her hand inside her pocket and acted as if startled to see him come inside the tent. The beastman hesitated as he saw her with a look of surprise in her face.

"Oh dear!" He exclaimed as he tried to exit immediately from the room. He hid himself between the flaps and only popped out his head as he tried to converse with her. "Ummm…I…aahhh…I'm s-sorry. I…d-didn't mean to startle you."

"No, you didn't." She signed. "I was just having a weird dream." She lied again.

"Oh…Ummm…" The beastman scratched his head as he emerged from the flaps. "S-sorry to hear that. Umm..well…ughhh.." The poor guy still couldn't make his sentences in front of her. He was looking at the ground the entire time as he looked for possibly something to say.

She knew how shy the beastman was, but this was just beyond her patience, "Is there something that you want?" She asked.

The beastman looked at her, his ears wiggled as he nodded. He tried to compose himself and cleared his throat to at least get his mind to work, "Uhmm…the dwarf and ummm…A-adaloun had returned and we've been summoned to the tent…ummm… to Lord Preston-heim's tent." He said.

The elf got out of bed and nodded to him. She hated those tent meetings. It was so intense and most likely; someone was going to have to do a task for the Principalia. She hated it, the elf just wanted to be free from their grasp.

The crystal heated up once more, but this time she could hear the child's voice inside her head.

"Go! They need you there." The voice inside her head said.

She was terrified hearing the child's voice inside her head, but at the same time, it was comforting. The sweet voice relaxed her mind and quelled her surfacing anger. She stood up from her bed and signed to the beastman.

"Lead the way."