My parents woke up early, before sunrise, making sure to pack the bare minimum necessities that they could carry on their back while we travelled. Taking the opportunity to do so, I also added some things to my bag. It would be nice to finally wear my own clothes instead of taking things from the closets of the emptied Elven village. Although they weren't using them anymore, it always felt unnatural to be taking things from the other homes and wearing them.
My mother let us sleep through most of it though, knowing we were tired from the long journey to the village. I knew that she suspected there was more to us appearing at their doorstep than I let on. Although I had told them about how I was worried for their safety, I hadn't explicitly mentioned the letters and what had transpired between Blasius and I hours earlier.
When we finally left, the sun was just rising. Although it was worrisome that we would get caught, my parents knew the town well and they knew how to avoid people as we left. Once outside of the town, we Blasius led us through forests and long grasses, places it would be more difficult for us to be seen.
❦❦❦
"He's so tall!" Gracia gushed. My face begun to tint red as I looked ahead of me, where Blasius walked, leading us back to the Elven village. For the previous two hours my sisters had done nothing but gossip together about Blasius. It's not as if I didn't agree with everything they were saying, but I knew it was a direct ploy to embarrass me. Plus, he was close enough to hear, which made it even more awkward!
"Don't forget handsome," Sibila teased.
"What do you know about handsome? You're nine!" I muttered, hoping he hasn't heard any of the things my sisters have said about him since we left home.
"What are we supposed to think? You return home with a man and we find you sleeping with him in the morning? Sounds like love to me! You're eighteen now, too, an adult," my other sister, Floria, added.
"I didn't think she'd get a husband before you did, Floria," Gracia mocked.
"He's not my husband," I moaned, covering my face with both of my hands, thoroughly embarrassed. Although I was thankful to be back with my family, this was the only downfall. The endless teasing. I sped up, walking beside Blasius in order to attempt to get away from their comments. With the way Blasius looks at me, doing his best to hide a smirk, I knew he had heard everything they had said.
"You know, we actually wanted to come looking for you," my dad mentioned. "We had been conversing with people from the town, they wanted to go against King Taelman with us."
"If it weren't for you showing up on our doorstep, we would have done it. I couldn't even sleep at night knowing my daughter was locked up somewhere," my mother teared up as she spoke. My father put one hand on her back, rubbing it to soothe her as her voice trailed off.
"How many people were interested?" Blasius asked.
"Almost everyone from the church was willing to help us," dad replied.
"Well, the town is quite small," I added.
"There are at least 50 members of the church!"
"Dad, that's small." He shrugged as if to say 'not to me,' and the conversation died down from there.
Blasius had a look of thought on his face. His dark eyebrows were furrowed, as if drafting a plan in his mind about how that could help us. Until a few days ago when Blasius, Menas, Silva, and I were sat at the dining table, we hadn't exactly thought much about how exactly we would get back at the King. But maybe knowing that there would be people to assist us allowed him to reflect more.
Fifty people wouldn't do it, though. Our only hope was to find more people.
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When we finally returned home, we were greeted by a slightly confused Silva and Menas. I eagerly introduced my parents and sisters to Menas and Silva, although they already knew of them from my earlier stories of getting locked up. My mother thanked them for being so kind, despite me being human unlike them. Silva laughed that off, reminding me of the positive attitude she's had since I first met her. I smiled at the thought, amazed by how far we've come in the last few months.
Seeing as my family had spent the past four or five hours carrying items on their backs, the first thing we did was get them situated in the house beside ours. I helped my family unpack their belongings and arrange their new beds. When everything was organized, we reconvened in the house I shared with my friends.
That left me, once again, to recount the story of why my family was here. Because I didn't explain the situation to my family either, I went into detail about the letters and even retrieved them from the bedside table for everyone to look at. I told everyone of how I wanted to help them, save them from whoever was hurting them. I told them about when Blasius found me, sans wolf-Blasius jumping on me and pinning me to the ground, but besides that, it was a perfectly detailed narration of the events that had unfolded last night.
When I finished, I remembered the reason Silva and Menas had left as well. Momentarily, it had completely slipped my mind, I even forget they had left at all, with everything going on. Silva recounted their journey as well.
The two of them had visited a few different nearby villages which seemed completely deserted, but luckily enough, were all occupied by large refuge camps. They met with leaders of multiple groups camping in the deep woods outside of their villages where it was no longer safe. Most of them had just managed to escape the King's men when the villages were being raided and had been working solely on survival for the last few months. But, they were willing to partake in battle if needed, if that would mean the return of their people and that they could safely return to their villages.
However, there was a large catch. With only focussing on survival, came a lack of resources. The refuge camps held only food, clothing, first aid, and other necessary supplies. On top of that, only just enough for the members of their camp and no extras. That meant no weapons and no critical first aid supplies that would be needed for battle. So, their catch? The supplies would need to be provided to them if they were to participate.
That left one issue: we would need to find both of those things if we wanted to convince people to join us. Which I knew would prove to be a much more difficult task than we would've thought it out to be.