As Noctis said I kept walking towards the direction of the gate. I found a stream nearby and filled my water sack. Hunting and killing wild animals and roasting them over a fire gave me enough nutrition to keep going.
On the third day I found a beaten down carriage with four dead human corpses around it. Were they attacked by mana beasts or something? But that though quickly vanished once saw the clean cults made by some form of blade and traces of fire magic. Was it an elven mage?
Anyways I took whatever supplies I could from it and continued with my path barely sleeping. This went on for days without incident, but there was one problem the excruciating, almost unbearable pain in my mana core that came and went erratically often made me stop and grab my chest in a futile attempt to suppress the pain.
Finally on the seventh day I heard voices conversing, one female and one extremely familiar male.
"...talking all weird again like some old man" the female said with an irritated expression.
"Better than being a crybaby that can't even pee by herself without me nearby with my eyes closed and ears shut" the male said with an amused expression.
The girl had long gunmetal grey hair with a pair of gleaming almond shaped teal eyes, a perky nose and rosy lips with fair creamy skin seemed to radiate innate beauty from.
The male had an all to familiar pair of ocean blue eyes and a mop of auburn hair falling till his ears.
Before the girl could respond to his comment I yelled, "ARTHUR! YOUR ALIVE!"
He froze before turning towards me, a shocked expression on his face which soon changed to relief and happiness.
He then did something I would've never seen coming, he ran towards me and hugged me.
"Fayden, thank god when Sylvia told she couldn't locate or see you I expected the worst."
"Hey now, I ain't dying that easily" I chuckled and returned the hug.
After releasing me from the hug he introduced us, "Tess this is my twin brother Fayden Leywin, Fayden this is Tessia Eralith I saved her from a group of slave traders" he whispered that last part to me.
"Hello Tessia, pleased to meet you, I hope my idiot of a brother didn't cause you too many problems" I say courteously all the while ignoring the indignant 'hey' from my brother.
"H-hello, its nice to meet the brother Art talked about so much" at this i raised an eyebrow for two reasons, one: she calls Arthur by his nickname, two: Arthur talked about me. Well I'll just ask him later then.
I nodded towards her before turning to Arthur again, "So Art how do you plan on going home?"
"I dunno, what were you planning to do" he responded.
"Well I thought I'd appeal to their humanity....err elvenity?" I shrugged at him.
He just facepalmed and sighed, "Come on lets at least get her home before planning further." I hummed in agreement.
So we kept walking with an awkward tension, this elven girl was a real introvert wasn't she.
It was at dusk we found our destination, when I lost all sense of direction. Damn this accursed fog. Tessia turned to Arthur with an expression of happiness and exclaimed, "We're here".
She grabbed Arthur's hand and pulled him towards the green teleport gate inside the tree, we landed softly finally at our destination, the city of Elenoir.
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Pristine.
That's what I'd use to describe the city of elves. Their jade buildings were smooth and flawless as if they were carved out of a single, gigantic stone. Even more the trees which seemed to intertwine with the buildings gave it a more organic ambience.
The entire ground consisted of soft moss with the only paved portions being the main roads and narrow sidewalks. The dense overgrowth of trees forming a canopy of shade, one would think this would make the city dark and cold but that was hardly the case with hundreds of floating orbs of light, situated in every nook and cranny, provided a warm luminescent glow to the city.
A shadow whizzing in front of us shook me off my stupor. A group of guards came into existence in front of us, these elven warriors had a somewhat dignified air around them, dressed in black suits with green trimmings and golden shoulder pads on their left shoulder. All had a rapier strapped to their waists. I also noticed that they had no aura around them so either their mana cores were of high enough level that I couldn't sense them or they had extreme control over their mana so that not a but leaked out. All in all they were quite impressive.
The guards ignored us and kneeled in front of Tessia, "We welcome back the royal princess!"
Huh, so you found yourself a princess to escort , Arthur you sly dog...is what I'd normally think but upon seeing the confused expression on Arthur's face, he probably heard it for the first time as well
"You may rise" she spat out coldly, well damn I didn't see that coming.
They stood up still with their right hand crossed over their chest. The knight at the front spoke, "Princess, we arrived as soon as we were notified of the royal gate being activated, The King and Queen-" he was cut off by a cry coming from nearby.
"My baby! Tessia, you're okay! Oh, my baby!"
Charging towards us were the apparent King and Queen of Elenoir.
The king had a tall built body, emerald eyes, pressed lips and short military style hair, wearing a loose but decorated robe.
While the King had a dignified and regal appearance, the Queen was simply breathtaking. Even being past her prime she was still beautiful. Rounded light blue eyes contrasted her lush pink lips with curled silver hair reaching her back.
Tears were flowing down the Queens face while the king had a tense expression visibly restraining tears.
Arthur pushed Tessia towards her parents, who started to sob on her shoulders after embracing her.
An old man arrived last with pure white hair tied in the back, a clean shaven face and a gaze that could kill someone twice over. Although his eyes did soften a bit upon seeing Tessia.
They took quite some time to settle down, meanwhile the guards were glaring daggers at us and the elder was staring at us curiously. Well someone doesn't like us.
Finally the King got up and spoke hoarsely, "As the King of Elenoir and the father of Tessia, I must apologize for this unsightly appearance of mine and more importantly, I wish to thank you for escorting my daughter back home safely, please accompany us to our home so that you may rest. Afterwards, you can tell us what exactly happened." his tone was gentle enough but his eyes ,although red with tears, confirmed that it was more of an order than an offer.