Chapter Ten

We made it to the rest stop. It took quite a lot of bickering and yelling, but we made it.

Desolin gave me some money to buy some food from the trader on the side of the road.

We're sitting in a tent, glaring at each other. I accidentally ate some of his bread and now he is furious.

"Look, I'm sorry! I-" He holds up a hand, signaling for me to be quiet. Outside you can hear the slight sound of a knife being drawn and the soft crunch of leaves. Desolin drops his hand down and we both nod.

"I swear! I thought it was mine!" Desolin draws his sword from his bag. "Well, I think you just wanted to eat it out of spite." Clenching my jaw together, I respond. "Oh? I ate it out of spite?" The footsteps are louder, heading to my side of the tent. Picking my ax and knife up, I use them to block my chest in case they tried to stab me from the tent.

"Yes. You did it out of spite and I am positive about it." I can hear a tearing sound as a sword slices through our tent and towards my chest. My ax blocks the sword, causing it to send me back. Getting a small glimpse of the person, they turn away and runoff, hopping onto an elk.

Sitting up, we run out of the tent. You can hear the thud of hooves as the elk runs down the dirt road, fading away into the distance.

"For the gods in heaven, How did he get away?!" Desolin walks around the campsite. Other elves are getting up from their tents. Groaning, Desolin goes back into the tent, collapsing on the floor.

"This is great. We have some out to kill you." Sitting down next to him, I twirl my hair into my finger.

"Why do you do that?" Looking over to Desolin, I shrug. "Why do you bite your lip?" He stops biting his lip and glares at me.

"Whatever, stubborn pig.." Gasping, I hit him hard of the head. "Shut up, overthinking, rigid, penguin!"

"Oh? At least I am focused, realistic, and careful! You're reckless, arrogant, and naïve!" Growling, I turn away from him. "I am not arrogant!" I hear him snort from behind me. "Yes, you are." Glaring at him, I storm out of the tent. Going over to where the ground ends, I sit down on a rock. Jaylin coughs from inside the tent and I hear him rustle about. It is already night, and the moon is just starting to rise. The last of the birds sing; they will fall soon. Perhaps when the moon is full in the sky.

The moon is always beautiful. My mom loved it. I wonder if she can see it now wherever she is.

——————————————————————

In Zion's room, he is almost fully recovered…

————————————————

The weird pull has stopped, but my chest and arms still hurt. I wished I told Cadence, but there is no point to. He couldn't help.

Outside, the small birds sing a soft song over the sound of the waterfall in my room. Everything is so tranquil right now. Never in my life has anything been this clam. I love it.

No one has bothered me since Cadence other than the doctor coming in and giving me medicine to help me recover faster. A lot of my strength has come back already. My sore arms and my chest are preventing me from moving too much, though. If I could move I'd be looking for Lilac or doing my scribe duties. Setril wouldn't let me until he did a full check over me.

Setril is like a father to me. My father wasn't much of a father. Setril though, he is always watching out for me. So is cadence. It's like my father and brother. My family.

Sighing, I cover myself with the blankets at the end of my bed. When Cadence saw the thin blanket, I had and the rough, old bed I slept on, he made the servants get me fresh blankets and a new feathered mattress. Cadence wouldn't let me protest. He just did it.

Wrapping my arms to my chest and take a deep breath, the pain increases. Every time I breathe, it hurts. I should get it checked out by the doctor, but I don't want to. If there's anything wrong with me, I don't want to find it. It'll cause worry for Cadence.

The battle with our region and the southern region isn't going too well either. Soon, the south will be at the outer villages, burning them to the ground in the soldiers' wake. All the villagers have already been evacuated, but still, if the south gets too far up, they will conquer the northern region.

The castle battle council thinks the king wants to take over the four regions. Although the king thinks it's just the regular skirmish in between two powerful regions. He doesn't pay attention a lot to these things.

The war is why the crack showed up now. I know it. The south king wants to take over the realm. But not just ours, the round-ears realm too. If we don't stop him, that is it for both realms.

My eyes close and my brain fills up with the sound of water and birds, my last thoughts fading away…

——————————————————————

In the tent, Jaylin can't help but feel bad…

——————————————————————

"I can't just make assumptions out of people. I mean yeah, sure she can be arrogant and controlling, but that doesn't mean she is all the time." Frowning at my thought, I continue talking to myself. "Should I go apologies? No. Lilac is the one that brought it up.. She called me- I started it didn't I…" Groaning, I stop tossing and turning and get up.

Going over to the cliff, I sit down next to Lilac on the ground.

"Hi." She glances down at me, her face lighting up in the moonlight. "Hey."

"Sorry about calling you stubborn and arrogant." Lilac shrugs. "Your kind of right, I guess. I can be stubborn and arrogant. Mean, I know when something is wrong with my friend but I ignore it because I feel bigger than them…"

"Well, now that that is done.." Standing up, her mouth falls open and she looks at me. "Excuse me? You will leave me, the princess, all alone in the wilderness?" Pointing around us at all the tents and lights, I shrug. "Don't look alone to me. Just scream if you need help." A grin comes onto my face as she looks around.

Walking back towards the tent, I turn around. "Oh, yeah! You're right. I am an over-thinker." Lilac smiles after me and gets up and follows me to the tent.

"You know, I kind of just guessed that."

"Guessed what?"

"That you're an over-thinker. I've never seen you 'overthink' before"

"Oh, trust me, I do." Laying down on the ground, I look up at the white fabric. The hole was patched up by one trader for free, so we don't have to worry about wind. No one saw who Lilac's almost killer was. So we are stuck on that. We aren't even halfway to the front lines, but overall, I guess it's been an okay trip.

"Night, Lilac."

"You better not snore." Laughing at her comment, I close my eyes.

"I don't. Hey, and also, I think I need to tell you some more information tomorrow.."

"Yes!!" Shaking my head, I hear her breathing go soft and deep, mine following after.

——————————————————————

In Candencs' house, he has been thinking ever since his fiance came

——————————————————————

Pacing around my kitchen, I set down my third bowl of soup.

"Who was she talking about? Is it someone I know? How can I save the world from being destroyed? Do I tell someone?" Making myself another bowl of soup, I make my way to my bookshelf. Going through it, I take out a small book and flip it over to a bookmarked page.

Roundears and Elven curses..

Elven curses

There are many types of Elven spells. But not as many curses. To perform curses, you must be good at potion-making. Very few elves can make potions without the help of magic…

"Magic's banned. If it's someone with magic, it won't be anyone who lives in the villages. Maybe someone out in the forest…?" Sighing, I put the book back and sit down on my small couch.

Getting back up, I grab every book that has to do with magic or roundears and go up to the attic, taking out a plank in the wall.

Stuffing the books inside, I walk back down and stare at my bookshelf.

"Just in case anyone tries to get something about magic.." Going back to my chair, I take a small book off of my table that wasn't there before.

Looking around, I make sure no one is hiding or anything before I open it.

"The book of History"

Chapter One