Dave

Dark Elf Village

55th of Cycle 2, 1015

The plan had three simple steps. Step one, Matilda asks one of her friends to make a report to the guards, which indicates the location of four elite high elf spies hiding in the village. This step was complete, so we moved on to the second step, waiting. We secured a vantage point that overlooked the abandoned building where Jason was held captive, and we crouched down to avoid detection.

After a few minutes, twenty guards approached the building for a raid but stopped abruptly when a volley of arrows launched at them. Most of them were able to avoid or block it, but a few weren’t so lucky as they fell to the floor, dead. The remaining archers in the guard regiment began returning fire towards the assailant, who was a single high elf. It was the one who shot Jason.

Matilda clenched her fists and tried to move towards the battle, but I pulled her back, “Calm down,” I said. “We have to wait for that giant fellow to join the fight, then we can safely sneak into the house.”

She wasn’t happy with my words, but she crouched back down.

Then the giant fellow in question joined the fight with a flash of blinding white light. He took on an angelic form with large golden wings and a halo as he charged at the guards with a roaring yell.

The white light acted as a signal for us as we hopped down from our vantage point and sprinted towards the abandoned building. I activated my stealth skill, and I think Matilda used one as well since I couldn’t see her as clearly anymore. The fighters were too engrossed in the battle to notice us, so we entered the building without any issues. Jason was sprawled out on a table inside, and his wound had already healed.

Everything is going smoothly.

I had to jinx it, of course, and my dangersense activated as an arrow flew at me. I sidestepped it with fleet-footed and shot back at my assailant, who hid behind a wall. Matilda drew her daggers and charged at them, only to be stopped by some kind of invisible barrier.

The second elf was also hiding behind the wall and was chanting in some unknown language. That makes four elves in total that we know the positions of, so I abandoned all ideas of fighting and ran to Jason. I think the elves behind the wall noticed what I was doing, but Matilda parried any arrows that they fired in my direction. I put Jason’s limp body on my back and said, “Phase three is a go,” before leaving out the door.

The scenery outside was absolute carnage. Reinforcements had arrived for the dark elves, but the angel-winged giant refused to go down. He bashed guard after guard with his bloody mace, and beams of light finished off any who got knocked down. Heat-seeking arrows guided by the wind slaughtered the dark elves like farm animals, and cries of terror rang out from those smart enough to run away.

All this death is on my hands.

I couldn’t bear to look at it anymore, so I made my way towards our designated rendezvous point. The walk was long, and my legs were shaking from the added weight Jason provided. Right before I reached my destination, I felt some movement on my back, and I heard a voice that I hadn’t heard in a long time.

“Dave? Where are we?” Jason asked weakly.

“We’re in the village, but we’re running away. Can you walk?”

“I think so,” He said, and I put him down. He wobbled for a bit and almost fell over, so I grabbed him and put his arm around my shoulder.

“I’ll explain everything soon. Just focus on walking right now.”

I felt a wave of relief wash over me when we arrived near the wall, and I saw Matilda waiting for us. “Jason, you’re awake!” She said excitedly before blushing a little and calming down. “Drink this.” She handed him a green vial.

“How did you get here before us?” I asked as Jason downed the bottle of suspicious liquid.

“The two inside were much weaker than the ones outside, so I left a clone to deal with them. I’ll know when it dies,” She said.

Jason suddenly regained his strength and stopped leaning on me. “I’m not sure what’s going on right now, but I take it you two saved me. Thank you.”

His words made me feel warm in my stomach. “You’re welcome.”

“Let’s move. The sooner we leave, the more of a head start we will get,” Matilda said as she led us into a secret tunnel.

When we emerged through the other side of the tunnel, we were back in the nostalgic jungle. Low hanging vines stretched across the trees that surrounded us in every direction, and I finally felt safe. I wonder how long ago I started thinking that a jungle is safer than a walled-off city.

I took a deep breath, “Where do we go from here? I didn’t expect the plan to get this far, so I didn’t think about what to do next.”

“We go north,” Jason said. “Just as we were before we came to this cursed village. Then we leave this jungle behind and make our way to the capital.”

“I like the sound of that. A quiet life in the capital seems fitting after everything we’ve been through.” Matilda was smiling for the first time in a while.

I wanted to remind Jason that I couldn’t leave the jungle until I killed the silver panther, but I didn’t. That’s a problem I made for myself, and I’m not going to rope these two into it. They have a dream, and I want to do everything I can to make it come true.