Blight

The child of the selene. The fossegrim. The moonlight path. As the hours went on, all of the things Evangeline heard from Luan ran through her head like a swirling water. Their journey had grown quieter and fallen eventually into an exhausted silence.

Luan trudged along beside Evangeline wordlessly and Melian led the way, checking their path against the stars every short while.

In the distance, Evangeline could see a mountain became clearer and closer with a rising stark. They have passed the path wound through low-hanging trees that grew close together and boughs occasionally intertwined together.

The throbbing pain that she felt from her ankle would not subside no matter how many times she withstood it, she could not bring herself together to speak out about her circumstances right now. Melian would freak out about this and would make a fuss over it.

"You know.." Said Luan. The baritone of his voice pulled Evangeline out from her trance. "We could have take a rest if you won't mind." Said Luan and Evangeline could not help to let out a small chuckle.

"Are you tired, Mr. Winterlight?" Evangeline could see the crinkle formed on his forehead and she caught his icy eyes latched on her ankles.

"I'm not, but...." He trailed off and Evangeline could feel her stomach lurched at the thought of her getting caught by him.

"I'm okay." The sound of the trees rustled stole her attention away. She looked up only to catch sight of shadows moving quickly above them and laughter trailing behind them like mists.

"We should've not come here." Said Melian as they approached the road curved around the hill.

"Why?" Luan demanded.

"These are the places of the wild Erlking." Said Evangeline. "He stays within the wood and often called as a sinister mythical elf."

"Wild Erlking?" Luan echoed in disbelief. "What can he do?"

Evangeline shrugged. "He goes around and kills children who wander in the forest."

"Great. I guess we're safe since we're an adult, don't we?" Asked Luan.

"You could say so." Said Melian who has turned to look at Luan with her arms crossed over her chest. "But that happened a long time ago."

"Now you could say." Evangeline paused. "He can kill us too." She added.

Luan scowled. "You're kidding."

"I'm not." There was an almost imperceptible paused before Evangeline continued. "The Erlking has broken their clan's rules by attacking the adult too. He does this to seek more power."

Still not sure if they were kidding or not, Luan followed Evangeline and Melian walked past through the wood and stopped when small villages came into sight. Here and there were sign of habitation. The crumbled mossy bits of stony walls were visible, wooden fences clearly fitted together without the use of nails. It was dawn when they have passed through the villages.

Luan noticed that every villages they passed through were shuttered, windows broken and empty. It was like it were in the state of apocalypse. However, as they went further into the villages, they saw something else. The first time they saw it, Melian stopped momentarily and exclaimed upon the sight of bones sprawling down the pavement along with signs of pentagram.

"Are these humans' bones?" Melian asked.

Evangeline shrugged. "I'm not sure." She looked around and discovered that small elves were staring at them. They ran up and hid themselves quickly when their eyes clashed with each other.

"Something's wrong." Said Evangeline. Neither Luan nor Melian seemed inclined to argue.

Luan's amber eyes swept over the hiding elves like a tracking searchlight. There were fear and rage swum in their pools of blue eyes. "Whatever it is, it must be bad." Said Luan.

Melian curt a nod. They walked past the hiding small elves and stopped when the grass they would have been walking on had suddenly dissolved under their feet, puffing out black and gold ash around their ankles. They had wandered into the edge of diseased-looking land with bones scattered among the grey vegetation.

"What is this?" Luan demanded. "I did not know the Erlking can do magic. Neither I imagine magic does exist in this world." He added as he looked around in astonishment.

"Magic does exist in this world, Mr. Winterlight." Said Melian. She knelt down, scooping the grey ash; letting it dissolved and slip out from her hand like the sand from the hour glass. "What's with this ash looking sand?" Asked Melian. "I sense a strange spiritual pressure."

"This isn't ordinary sand. It's composed of the crushed bones of the elves and..." Evangeline trailed off. Her eyes wandered on the ghost town across the hill. "Humans."

"Humans?" Luan looked completely stunned.

"Yeah." Said Evangeline.

"Is it some kind of dark ritual?" Luan asked.

Evangeline shook her head. "I don't know but I have never seen any ritual such as this before. The Erlking probably caught the elves and the humans wandered in this forest and repeatedly crushed them until their spirits are broken."

There was a crinkle form on Luan's forehead. It must be hard for him to digest this. Evangeline thought.

"And their bodies crumbled apart burned completely by the flames of his rage." Luan finished in his quite voice.

Evangeline started to feel the ache on her ankles and she bit her bottom lips hardly.

"These villages have become the agony for the elves. No matter how far you go, there was no freedom in here." Said Melian.

"No freedom? You live in the same land as them, right?" Luan demanded in disbelief.

Melian nodded. "Indeed, but we are completely live in a different territory. The elves have their own territory and the Nefillians were not involve in their part of their daily lives. Unless-"

"They evoke a war among us." Evangeline cut Melian off. "As you can see in here, the elves were tormented by agony that may never end, they struggle and crumble away."

"Is there..." Luan paused. For the briefest moment he hesitated. Luan raised his head, "anything that you can do?"

"I'm afraid not." Said Evangeline.

Melian hissed. "Running away from the Erlking was hard enough for us. Now you want us to save them?" Her voice raised an octave. She looked positively demented.

Luan balled his hands into fists and his jaw went rigid. He felt all of his energy drained out from his body. The feeling of uselessness washed over him like the tide in the ocean.

"Melian." Evangeline whispered. "Don't."

Melian whirled around. Her green eyes met with Evangeline's eyes. "But-" There was something in Evangeline's voice - a pleading - that made her to stop from talking.

Evangeline shook her head. "For now." She walked towards Luan and reached for his hands. "Let us make haste away. Hmm?" Her voice softened and Luan finally looked at her.

Melian could see Luan relaxed at the sound of Evangeline's soft voice. All of the color drained from his face went back to normal. His icy eyes gleamed as he looked at Evangeline.

Luan glanced at the sky. "We should get going. Sunrise is probably a few hours from now." He said and he shot Evangeline a grateful look as if to say thank you for calming him down.

"Come," Luan said, turning. "It's probably this way." He headed into the shadows between the trees. Mist clung to the branches, like ropes of white and silver. Leaves rustled softly in the wind above their heads.