Before, when Elias and Erik traveled between the villages, they had taken breaks in between. They took their horse at a slow trot, but now they were racing for their lives. Erik doesn't look back but makes Elias take his own reigns, and both push their horses to their limit.
"Father, what happened? Why do the beastmen want to kill us?"
Erik looks at his son, managing to hear his question despite the wind blowing between them.
"Just keep riding Elias. They might send more, and our horses might not be able to outrun them."
Elias and Erik kept on riding their horses until they started to see the signs that they were nearing their village. Both father and son keep riding their horses until they were in the village, and their horses were foaming at the mouth.
Erik relieved they had made back to their village, let out a sigh. A crowd formed around them, but the veteran men of their village knew something was wrong. It wasn't just anyone that could give their chief a scar on his eye as he carried now. The men realizing something was off told their women and children to go indoors.
Elias looking out into the crowd could even see Esther shooing her children away. The one with dirty blonde hair and blue-green eyes ran away from his mother into the woods. Esther looked at him but let him runoff and continued shooing her other children. Looking at Esther Elias felt weird; he could feel a type of energy that was shooting off her that he hadn't seen before. Elias realized that he must be hallucinating. He had a long day but something off, it was as if he was something more than he was before.
Erik seeing Elias daydreaming, snapped him out of it, "go home to your mother now the men, and I must talk now."
Elias looked at Erik, "are we going to war, father."
"We might be Elias." The look on his father's face was gloomy
Elias decided to walk home, and the men started to gather around Erik.
It was already dark Elias, and his father had been riding for hours without a break. Elias and Erik were exhausted. Elias walked home through the forest, a short cut that he traveled before. As he was walking, he hears a soft wail. Elias happened to have excellent night vision, so he was able to see a boy with tears streaming down his face leaning against a tree. The dirty blonde haired boy heard the crunching of leaves as Elias walked closer to him.
The boy looked Elias and felt a wave of sudden anger he had to take out on someone. "What do want fairy."
Elias looked at the boy and was about to turn around and leave. Then he saw that the boy was deeply bruised on his face and even had a black eye. Elias looked at the boy and asked, "What's your name?"
The boy looked at Elias still angry but was surprised by Elias ignoring his anger and so answered his question, "My name is Niklaus. And why would a fairy like you want to know?"
Elias ignored Klaus calling him fairy and introduced himself and said, "My name is Elias. I think we could be good friends. I think you could use one Klaus."
Klaus realized he didn't want to be alone but was curious, "Why do you want to be my friend even though I called you a fairy."
Elias looked at Klaus and smiled, "Because it looked like you needed one."
Klaus and Elias talked for a long time until Elias realized it was way past midnight, and his parents would begin to worry about him. Elias seeing Klaus, didn't want to be alone asked him if he wanted to sleepover at his house. Elias brought Klaus home and snuck him into his room while his mother was trying her best to hug him to death. Elias gave Klaus his extra bedroll so he could sleep on the floor.
Klaus looked at Elias like a strange creature he had met in the Forrest. "Elias, I don't know why you're so nice to me, but thank you for your kindness."
Elias just waved away Klaus's thankfulness and fell on to his bed, falling asleep instantly.