Chapter 9: Ancient Hatred

Ardent jolted upright.

"Lla- gah!" he yelled, gripping his pounding head. Breathing heavily, he fumbled for his helmet and stared until it finally swam into focus. Likely it had saved his life; the thing was entirely buckled inwards on one side. Shame it was well-nigh unusable now, there'd be no chance repairing that kind of damage here.

From somewhere nearby, Kurgren groaned in pain. Ardent forgot the helmet and struggled to his knees. He spotted his friend collapsed on tree; his gambeson splattered with dried blood. On all fours, Ardent made his way to the tree and - ignoring the fuzzy patches hovering in his line of sight - quested for as much mana as his shaking limbs could muster.

Ardent carefully channelled his healing. Realigning the bone fragments and muscle fibres like a puzzle while they slowly reattached, making sure it healed properly, before the bullet popped out as the wound seals, followed by taking a large cloth he has on his belt to sling Kurgren's healing arm. And by the time he finished he had all but sagged into a faint on his knees.

"How's the head?" Kurgren whispered as his skin knitted and closed, leaving no trace but a discomforting phantom pain.

Ardent managed to grin, his eyes screwed shut.

"Complaining like the rest of me." His voice was so hoarse that speaking was agony in his throat. And yet...

"What happened?"

"She happened," Kurgren replies, pointing towards the camp.

Ardent looks up and see what he meant.

The woman is an Elf, a race with dusky brown skin who stands an average four to five and a half feet tall, with ears four inches long tapered to triangle-like points that flexed like a cat. With slitted, cat-like, pupils and green markings on their body, most notably a triangle on each cheek. With their women being known to be pear-shaped, their large, shapely hips and legs a sharp contrast to their lithe frame.

She stands at five foot two and wore a dark green gambeson that reaches to her upper-thighs with two baldrics which holds four pistols and a musket on her back, on her waist is a belt that holsters a pair of the strange guns she wielded, small vials filled with a crystal, a knife and a thigh bag with her legs clad in knee-high boots and green stockings that reaches around her mid-thighs with added gambeson padding.

Both then walks out of the forest to thank their savior, who was examining the hole in her cloak, before she immediately pulled out a pistol and aimed it at them.

They then instinctively raise their hands. And she relaxed her grip when they heard a loud bellow.

"DROP THE GUN KNIFE-EARS!"

They then see Erhardt wielding one of the bandits pistol, with a bullet hole in his armor but no blood, his left finger inches away from the trigger and the barrel aiming at the Elf's head.

Erhardt gritted his teeth.

"Are you deaf bird-bones? I said DROP THE FUCKING GUN!"

Ardent stepped forward "Erhardt stop! She is the one who saved us!"

"Is that your reason to trust her? Because she came out of nowhere, in the middle of a damn forest to suddenly save our asses? KRISHELT!" Erhardt retorted.

The Elf piped up "I will explain everything and put my gun down if the Dwarf drops his."

Tension is in the air as Ardent tries to quietly convince Erhardt to lower the gun as Kurgren watched. Before Erhardt sighs and lowers his pistol as the Elf holster hers.

The Elf then puts her hands behind her head and replied.

"My name is Solaina Sato. And as for the sudden rescue I had followed the half-Orc and Human since Pirium upon sighting the orb and was silently following them since."

Erhardt sputters in anger before Louise pops out of a bush and see the commotion.

She then walks up to Solaina and bring up her hands "Thanks for coming to our aid. As one of my prediction saw."

The rest gapes in shock before Erhardt yells "So our 'savior' is a goddamn knife-ear."

Louise rolls her eyes "Yes."

Solaina then chuckles "I guess it's true that fooling a sorcerer of prophecies is an impossible task so might I join your band."

"Of course." Ardent replies. And so did Louise.

Kurgren grinded his teeth. She likely has some ulterior motive, since she stalked him since Pirium, and can backstab them when their use is up. And yet the skills she displayed, her shooting and stealth, meant that she can likely help. And accept, but makes a plan for when that inevitable betrayal comes.

"NO!"

Erhardt bellowing voice broke the silence, so loud it caused the birds to scatter.

"I will not accept a race of knife-eared bastards who had enslaved and murdered my people!"

Ardent raised his voice "She had saved us earlier and you're against this over a conflict that happened ages ago!"

"A Dwarf never forgets whether favor or grudge! Her people had done a great crime in enslaving, murdering, and raping our ancestors. Remember the bloody conquest they did to 'uplift' not just us but the eight others. Or the war incited by the mad king Oberon!"

Solaina then retorted.

"As if your people weren't better! What about the battle of Salkoy and the genocide of Caynori where your people did the same atrocities to us, even if they were children, or the reparation they gave nearly bringing my people to poverty!"

Erhardt growls and raised his pistol to her head, Kurgren and Louise recoiled while Ardent raised his shield.

"Don't lie and twist history you damn bitch! A Dwarf will never break their honor to do such acts! And your people had it coming for they had done to mine."

Something about what Erhardt said felt wrong Kurgren though. The common, if slightly embellished, history told by the bards, and the books Kurgren was able to read, had mentioned the Dwarves doing the same. Even saying their marauding was no different, or even worse, to what the Elves had done.

Ardent steps forward, shield brace and hand gripping his sword ready to be unsheathed.

"If you don't agree with this deal then you have every right to leave."

Erhardt hand briefly shook, breathing through clenched teeth, before lowering his pistol and looked to Louise.

"Do you want to leave?"

Louise shakes her head.

"If you must leave then I won't hold it against you. But I must accompany them."

Erhardt sighed in frustration then uncock his pistol.

"If that's so then I will follow. For I will not tarnish my contract nor honour."

Ardent sighed in relief and lowers his shield.

"Then I am glad we manage to come to an agreement."

They then begin to scavengethe camp, finding the rest of Erhardt and Louise equipment and their mounts, astallion and pony which the both of them had named Dwight and Jack, and half abarrel of paper cartridges, food, water, and six muskets and pistols before returning back to their camp with the bandit leader, coincidentally the one Kurgren had knocked unconscious.