Alder sat in the early morning looking out over Grey Stone. It's stark walls and high citadel jutted out of the earth in a magnificent, and mildly disgusting sort of way.
It was a rare moment for him, to sit and reflect. Something about his life up to that point, of constant moving and training, left his mind full... too full for remembrance, for grief and pain...
But it came through in small batches at times, as it did then. Not a crying sort of grief, but a bleak melancholy... A kind of foggy depression that one only experiences when looking back on a trauma far too great to ever truly cope with.
He wrapped his arms, man arms strong and huge, around his legs. An outsider seeing him would see then he was only a child, a small boy who looked sadly in the distance.
Times had changed him... so much so that Alder rarely understood who he was at any given moment. An odd thing to have at such a young age... But his trauma had aged him. He was forced to...
Grey stone... He had experienced so much in those walls. He learned more there than he did in his small village, about how the world works of course, but more so about people...
They didn't matter...
He had seen so many unlucky kids his age die from starvation, or get abducted, or vanish... So many beggars and peasants alike that caught some ailment or disease and was gone in a flash..
It was normal, an everyday occurrence... Death... Pain... Once upon a time it would have bothered him. But that time had long since passed... A corpse in the street was common, and life moved on around it, until a grave keeper came to take it away...
That was the way the world moved, the way people treated each other... money and power were all that separated peasants and Kings.. a good life was never free.
"Huh, ugly isn't it?... those walls?..." a familiar voice said. Alder looked up to see Fenian walking up to him. The hooded boy sat down next to him and looked off in the distance.
"It sure is. Shit hole really..." Alder said, "But you know... it wasn't all bad, I had you two at least. Thank you, Fenian.. I know you didn't trust me at first"
"Haha" the young elf replied, "yeah... I've never told you about my past have I?.."
Alder turned to look Fenian in the eye. "No you haven't". He waited to see if he would offer up anything before asking.
"Well... My story is the same as most the people in this world isn't it? Tragedy, a shitty back story... Just like you and Laelia... It doesn't really matter. I just have to focus on the future, can't let the past keep me down..."
"I like that" Alder replied, "That's right... We just have to move forward, together.. It's been a rough year, and I'm sure for you two a rough life in general.. Well, I guess we are criminals now. We should wake them up, get a move on."
"Right..." Fenian said, almost sadly. He stared off at Greystone with an odd longing that Alder caught out of the corner of his eye.
"Oh Alder... how did you get away? What happened?"
Alder hugged his legs tighter and looked at the burnt spot on his shirt, where the wound had already healed, "By luck I'd say..."
"Ha, you have the best luck of anyone I know if that's true... I doubt that's all there is to it" Fenian replied, looking at the circular black spot on his shirt with a questioning stare.
Alder stood and moved to walk away. He never mentioned the tome to his friends, or why he trained... He didn't want to trouble them or drag them into anything. "Guess I already have..." he sighed. He sure as mana didn't bring up the mage.
Looking back over the city he felt a swelling of fear and urgency, of loss and gratitude... So many emotions swirling that he sighed and turned away.
He and Fenian stopped talking then, as if the two had reached the limits of what they had to talk about. They were both quiet, reserved, and rarely had a conversation between them... But they shared a connection anyway, of trust and respect, of comrades on the same battlefront, fighting the same fight...
They woke the other two up and Alder was very wary of the teenage adventurer, but knew that his two friends wouldn't have camped with him if he had been anything but kind and trustworthy... They knew how to tell if someone was good or bad. You had to if you lived in the streets and wanted to survive past a day or two.
"Aah, Alder!" Laelia said as she saw him, jumping up from a peaceful sleep by a dying fire. She had grass in her matted hair and a large smile on her face. She punched him hard in the arm and said, "next time give us a heads up! What in the world happened to you! Your shirt!" She stopped, studying his 'wound'...
She frowned and sighed, but couldn't hide the fact she was glad he was okay. She introduced him then to the adventurer, saying, "Aah this is Julius, a D rank adventurer! He let us camp with him and is only a few years older than us."
"Nice to meet you" Alder said, unsure of the motive of the lad, not wanting to trust him so easy.
"Aah charmed!" Julius said, extending a gloved hand. Alder shook it and looked into the warm smile of a boy who clearly had never seen a hard day in his life.
"So you are the friend they were waiting for? Glad you could get acquainted again!" He said with the inflection of a noble. It sent shivers down Alder's spine and brought back pained memories.. he shoved them down..
"That's right. Aah thank you for watching over them. Umm, we have to go. I don't want to drag you into my mess..." He replied to the adventurer, not giving any details but implying urgency and danger.
The boy was oblivious.
"Oh not at all! There is nothing to be afraid of with me here, I'll see you down the road! I've finished my mission here, so we can accompany each other." He was carefree in his tone, and Alder wondered whether he should bring up the mage and the prison, but thought not of it. It wouldn't do any good if they adventurer was some law above all else asshole and decided to turn them in, so he kept silent... Silent as the boy shuffled his feet and packed slowly, and his friends seemed none the wiser.
He took them aside separately at one point and urged them to go faster, that they were in danger, but when asked for specifics he didn't feel like he could tell them. It would be too much, he would have to spill everything about his training and all that... Not that he didn't trust them, he just didn't want to bring them further into danger...
The day dragged on in an eery calm. The birds chirped in the trees of late summer, full of green with just a tinge of orange. Fall was coming, and the air itself seemed a little less hot and humid, as if it carried the life of autumn, whispering on the ear of passerby of what was to come...
Alder didn't care about the weather. He cared not for the trees or the blue sky, as Laelia would so often stop to mention a squirrel or rabbit, he had his thoughts elsewhere. In the fear of being caught, in putting his friends in danger selfishly... He regretted asking them to leave with him. It felt like a mistake.
Laelia was so caught up in the beauty of nature though that at times it brought a smile to his face. The city girl she was knew very little of wildlife. Her memories beyond the walls of GreyStone being that of a long distant and younger past, of scattered remembrances, most of which involved some trauma... Best left to rest.
"Look at that! A stag!" She yelled out, pointing into the woods. No sooner had she spoken out that the 10 point beast took off into the wood. She frowned and Julius laughed, "not going to see much wildlife if you keep on with that yelling" he teased.
Alder chuckled himself while Fenian didn't seem to be paying attention at all. He had a far off gaze from under his hood as he looked into the woods...
Being an Elf it wasn't hard for Alder to guess why. They were people of the wood, benders and shapers of nature itself. Magically gifted to such an extent that most were feared by humans and the best of whom fled to the mage's guild, hiding behind robes and pageantry.
Most people though didn't mind elves, and as long as they kept to themselves no one cared whether they lived amongst them or not... That is, except for the blond haired ones... The Vei'no...
A bloody history there that Alder knew very little about himself, and didn't dare pry from Fenian...
A half day past, hour after hour of Alder looking over his shoulder while his companions idly chattered. Julius talking himself up to be some grand adventurer when he had only killed a few slimes. Though kind he was full of himself.. Conceited really...
Fenian didn't seem to care for him, rather, care about anything through his stoic expression and quiet demeanor. Laelia was the most talkative besides Julius and the two spent most of the time talking about this and that, the world at large or what spooky monsters lay waiting in the wood...
Alder at one point talked to Julius about his workout routine as the boy seemed very curious about his muscles, which were impossible to hide or miss...
He kept it plain and to the point...
He had other things to worry about on that empty road, namely sounds... distant sounds...
It was like a stampede coming from behind that was unmistakably the pattering of hooves on the pavement, coming fast and hard in great numbers...
He knew then. Knew that the gentle smile of Laelia and the lazy trip to wherever the name of Mana was taking them was over... done...
The others couldn't hear it. He knew that. His senses were sharper. Two to three times moreso since the goblin lords, and it told him that a mile or two back were the cavalry. He could even make out the clinking of armor...
It could be nothing but given the gravity of what he did to the mage and that the whole city was after him, it wasn't hard to discern they were coming for him...
He stopped his companions, and looked Laelia and Fenian in the eyes, a hint of sadness as he spoke, "I can't go any further with you two... I haven't been honest with you. There is a mage after me, and it is best you go on without me.. Live a good life, become adventurers, get married or go explore. I have to go, I can't drag you anymore into this.. I wouldn't forgive myself"
They seemed stunned and confused, but Alder already had tears in his eyes as he turned away from them. He couldn't bear to hear their pleas for him not to go or to escape with them, that everything would be okay...
It wouldn't be... they were weak, and more than anything he was too weak to protect them. The thought resurfaced that if he ever wanted anything in life he had to be strong enough to hold onto it... To not let anyone take it away...
Laelia cried out for him and he even heard the quieter holler of Fenian behind him, running his way, but he was faster... Much faster... They couldn't catch him if they tried And was gone in a flash, sprinting towards the thunderous chorus of hooves in the distance. A siren's song that called him in to crash on the shores...