Helping (Mage) Hand
"I, Im Lucas Felwinter."
She puts her finger to her lip and bites it while she thinks.
"That man said your father was an elf, but I have never heard of an elf around here except me."
I give her some more information that I usually dont like sharing, but I have never seen another elf besides my father so here I go.
"Well, he died when I was very young, He taught me how to hunt, and archery, he made me who I am."
She smiles lightly and warms her hands by rubbing them together and then she gives me her 10 cents of information.
"He must have been a ranger, then he taught you the rules of the hunt, and the creed."
She adds
"Hunt through Attrition"
"Hunt through Attrition"
Our voices echo together.
She smiles even brighter.
"Im sure we will get out of this."
I say, with as much hope as I have left.
She continues frowning, to lighten the mood I ask another question.
"Whats your deal with cows?"
"That, was something the guards made up to get the village against me, I was passing through the forest looking for rare herbs and they came after me."
Damn, Felt is a piece of shit. When I get my hands on his and the mayors throat there wont be any mercy left for me to give.
I look solemnly at the ground and juggle my water flask.
"We elves are far and few in all lands, if we do get sold its not to worry as we should be in good hands"
Me and her know what she just said was untrue, she would in best case scenario be a prostitute or slave and I would be a labor slave or be forced into black market fighting.
I look around for some sign of escape but find none.
While we wait to get put in carts and sold I reflect on my life a little bit.
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"Now son, when we see a deer, hold your breath and pull the string back slowly, then aim and shoot."
Father tells me, I put my bow on my back and nod to him.
We leave town and wave our hands at the farmers as we enter the forest.
The woods are made up of large cedars and there are many boulders and other natural formations, bright green grass hits our boots, all I can see is my fathers long bright green and blonde hair as we walk.
My mind wanders across the surroundings, its very beautiful.
My father stops and so do I.
He crouches down next to me and points left.
There stands an elk, fully grown and with huge antlers that could rip an average man in half.
I stand up as tall as possible and pull back my bow, the string anchors to a little groove above my nose and I let go, the arrow flies forward and hits the elk, wich was about 25 yards away, in the head.
It screams and starts running frantically.
"Paw paw, I didnt get it!"
He chuckles lightly and pats my head.
"You got it Lucas, we just have to find him now."
I smile with a childish hope that nothing could taint and we walk slowly, hints of blood cover grass and various leaves.
We come up on a clearing and see the elk heaving with unsteady breaths with an arrow hanging out of its head.
"Finish what you started son."
"Yes..Paw Paw."
I say solemnly, I take out my hunting dagger and then I aproach the animal, it looks at me, it doesn't have any anger, any malice, it looks at me and tells me this is how the world works, Now kill me and use me to be happy, its eyes tell me that it forgives me for what I have done to it.
I brush its hair with the back of hand and take the knife to its throat, with a quick motion I slice and its throat sprays blood on the ground.
Father quickly cuts the urine sacs on its legs and he then easily picks up the humongous animal on his shoulder and begins walking home.
We walk for about 20 more minutes and we finally get home, Soldiers are waiting for us at our shack.
Father drops the elk and takes out his bow, the soldiers come running at us weapons drawn.
Then-
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"Hey, Elves, wake up."
I open my eyes from my dream and look up to see a blue robed man with a short whitebeard staring down on us.
Before I can say anything a blue light encircles the lock and after a few seconds it unlatches.
Lilinette looks up and gets ready to leave with no questions, I guess we are that hopeless to follow a random old man who did a a little magic trick.
We speedwalk down the halls of the dungeon, the wizard holds an orb of light in his hands as we walk.
"Who are you"
I ask.
No reply
"Where are you taking us?"
No Reply.
"Why are you doing this?"
No reply.
We finally reach a hatch and the oldman opens it up revealing a hidden staircase, we run up it, well the oldman floats up.
We reach the top, a room with herbs and potions strewn about, a desk with stacks of papers and dozens of shelves of books.
He stands in silence for a few moments as we catch our breaths and then he speaks.
"We will leave at once to a carriage where we will venture to northern Astrea and then I must end something, something that should not have ever started, and you will aid me in my quest. I will say this only once, If that guard pansy and mayor attempt to intervene they will face the price."
Without a breath he grabs me and Lilinette and
A mana circle appears at our feet, we get sucked up in a vortex and are transported to the outer walls.
A carriage with a wingless drake pulling it appears infront of us.
We quickly enter it, the wizard is about to cast the spell to set us off but a figure comes running at us.
"ELRIK YOU DAMN TRAITOR"
Felt comes running.
"I have a debt to repay"
Elrik says these few words as mana wraps around Felts head.
"Kill him Lucas, take his life essence."
I stumble off the cart and cant help but remember all the times Felt sent me on errands, beat me and sent his guards to steal my things and jump me.
I wrap my hands around his neck and twist.
"You had this coming you Shitface"
A loud gurgling comes from Felts mouth, a light yellow energy flows from him into my body.
I feel extremely powerful, atleast at the level of a high rank copper adventurer.
I re-enter the carriage, of course Lilinette just turned her head to the whole scene.
The drake begins stomping forward .
[A/N Pov going back to MC 1 next chap.]