I tilted my head just a little. That was an odd question. After all, what are any of us? "Des is a Islee." Ravon rolled her eyes at the prince. It was also strange for her to ask, hadn't she seen me fly away after kissing the princes outside of the shield? Well if she was smart enough to be afraid of me now maybe it was for the best. I couldn't help but feel a little sad about it, but my demon didn't care at all.
To my surprise Ravon then came over and sat right next to me. I had to move a little over so we didn't touch. That caused my demon to growl at me, we had no reason to be giving way to a lesser. I blocked out the tirade.
I had ruined Ravon's life by showing up here. It wasn't really my fault, Ravon knew that and so did I but it didn't make me feel any better about it. Ravon was a lady even if she had followed the prince into the academy. She was trying to do the best with what was expected of her and the prince had not made that easy. Now all the elves probably knew what I was because of that second punch she had gotten in. Yet here she sat, not afraid of me. I was beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with the elves. Something made me want to take Ravon's hand. I wasn't sure what the instinct was but I was sure it wasn't the demon.
Ravon didn't pull away when I set my hand on top of her's. Her plans for her life were in pieces, she needed a strong man to keep her house from falling apart. The prince would have joined her house back to the monarchy. Which would keep her people from starving when her father died. Their production had been waning over the years. It was getting harder and harder to trade for what they needed. Then her father had had the nerve to have a girl instead of a son to take over.
It was a vague story mostly impressions, it was more than I wanted to know really. I already knew that if the roles had been reversed I would have attacked me too. I didn't really care about the responsibility she felt. I wanted her to be happy and not to lose control to another male that thought too much about himself. The only man that would be able to work with her is the one bonded to her. Otherwise no matter what one side of her relationship will have more power over the other side and that would never work. I didn't know how to find her missing half, her bond, her equal, but I let the train of thought continue. The thought of what I wanted not for me but for Ravon reached out into the world around me.
It felt like I was flying over the elven forest. It was bigger than it looked from the forest edge. Elves had more resources in their woods than the Islee in their desert but I prefer my heat to be dry. I could feel Ravon with me in this fight, she was more than a little puzzled by what was going on. She didn't try to pull away from me though.
The trees seemed to grow taller as the flight dropped lower. Dodging the trunks felt wonderful, like I had been doing this my whole life. The flight stopped on an upper branch overlooking a shop. The people that lived here were poor, they had exactly what they needed and not a drop more. A man about Ravon's age stepped out onto the branch, he had a hammer and a bow on his back. The man was built for an elf and if he knew how to smith which the smoke for the shop suggested the muscle would be needed. He wasn't wearing rags but they were definitely work clothes. He started out along the limb not looking up. I wondered what had brought him out of his house this late at night. I followed and felt Ravon come along for the ride. The man had cut his hair short, and his back rippled when he moved. A breeze ran through the leaves but it didn't cause him to slow now that he was moving. He stopped just short of the shield boundary and hopped the last few feet down to the ground. He pulled out his bow leaving his hammer on his back. I wondered why he had brought it with him, there wasn't likely to be any workable metal out here. Though two of my crystal weapons were hammers, so I knew they could be used for other work than just the forage.
He knocked an arrow, his eyes narrow as he looked around. The ground was not a safe place to be in the forest. Even the Islee knew that there were large deer and elk on the forest floor. Which were hunted by predators big enough to take them down. The predators didn't consider elves worth the effort when they were up in trees but on the floor they were easy snacks. The man quickly but quietly moved along the ground. The trees started to bother me as I moved to watch the man move through them. He was careful not to touch the roots that stuck up out of the ground. He walked up to a tree and re holstered his bow. He was breathing hard but not from the exercise. He was afraid of something. Wrapping a cloth that looked a lot like the face covers the Islee wore, around his nose and mouth he carefully un-holstered the hammer.
He pulled back and swung the hammer with all his strength. The tree vibrated causing dust to float into the air. I felt Ravon tense beside me, she hadn't known what the man was doing until he hit the tree. He had to jump out of the way of roots that had started to pull themselves up out of the ground. They were moving much faster than any plant I had ever seen before. The man moved with a grace that seemed strange on such a big person. When he got his feet on solid ground he hit the same spot on the tree again.
I could hear groaning and splintering in the trunk. The tree seemed to try and spin but the elf kept up with the turn still dodging and jumping over roots. He struck a third time. The tree exploded. The top crashing down, everything within two miles of the tree had to have heard that. The roots didn't stop moving, they seemed to be having a harder time finding the elf but he had been careful not to let any of the fast moving roots touch him. He jumped up on the fallen trunk, Ravon got more tense not less. I had thought the dangerous part must be over.
As soon as his feet hit the tree the branches started to sway. They looked like they were reaching for the man. He pulled a knife from his belt and stabbed it down into the tree. Sap started to pour out of the trunk. I thought that was weird because there had not been sap when the tree had exploded. The man was working as quickly as he could. He would hit the branches with the hammer when they got too close. He was careful not to hit the trunk again. He filled as many jars as he could with the sap while the tree tried to fight him off. The tree started to slow and the man stopped hitting the branches with his hammer, instead moving to cut off the limbs. He was getting a lot of sap collected this way and he was bundling the branches together. He strung them on his back as he collected the jars of sap. He was careful not to cover his bow or hammer. The roots were still very much trying to kill him. The trees around him seemed to be looming down at him.
He clearly still wasn't safe. He finished collecting his prizes then ran down the length of the trunk. He dropped back onto the forest floor. I could tell he was tired from the fight but he had to get back into the treetops. Starting back the way he had come, he switched the hammer out for the bow again.
I saw the predator but I had no way to tell the elf of its presence. It looked like a giant lion, big enough for a person to ride without having to lift their legs. Long teeth exposed as it tasted the air and the smell of the elf. The sounds of the tree must have gotten the creature's attention. It crouched down watching the elf as it moved through the underbrush.
I felt Ravon jerk like she wanted to pull away when the cat pounced on the elf. The branches tied to his back saved his life as the claws didn't break them on contact. He rolled over onto the branches and the dust on his clothes from when he had hit the tree blew up into the creature's face. It coughed and hacked backing up from the elf. The elf scrambled away from the cat. My vision dropped lower so that I was at head height with the elf. He stopped and pulled his bow, like he could see me.
I heard Ravon gasp. There was a scar down the man's right cheek, clearly this had not been the first time the man had done this. That wasn't why Ravon had gasped, the wild elf was her bond. She had seen him now and she knew even without actually meeting him that he was what she needed. What would help her not have to worry every waking moment of her life. He would be hard to explain, he wasn't a noble. She doesn't really care, what she did care about was the lion shaking itself off behind the elf.
Keep moving. The elf blinked like he had heard it. He tilted his head enough to see the cat, that was all the motivation he needed. I didn't follow the man as he disappeared into the woods. The cat looked over at me. I wondered if I had a real form, as the cat sniffed at me. Then turned and disappeared into the underbrush.
I removed my hand from Ravon's. Nothing in the room had changed. I was getting very thirsty. I stood up, "I have to eat before catching up with my new unit." I announced that like I thought someone cared. "Ravon." She blinked at me, she had been lost in thought. I turned and started for the hallway door.
The prince stepped in beside me, "You cannot come with me." He probably thought I was crazy saying I needed to eat in a dining hall but heading out instead of staying to eat.
I almost stopped when the prince smiled, "I know but I can at least see you to the edge."
Ravon had followed a few moments behind me. She went with us to the steps of the palace. From there she went to find the man I had shown her. As the prince and I walked the main path. Elves had started to wake up for the day, even though the sunrise was still a couple of hours away. The guards and wizards that had heard what I was from people who could not lie followed us as we walked. I was a little surprised that they didn't keep trying to attack me as we walked along the paths. The palace shield didn't go beyond the building, so they could have hurt me attacking me once the palace couldn't stop them.
The prince bowed when we got to the boundary maker of the shield. "See you next break."
I wasn't sure how to respond to a prince bowing so I ignored it, for now. "If we are both still alive by then." He smiled at me again, nodded then turned and headed back the way he had come. We both had jobs to do after all. I took a step and him and all the other people disappeared beyond the shield.