The sun's rays were radiating through the entrance of the cave, its snug, comforting, warm gaze enveloping Nathalie's body and easing the pain from her wounds. Birds sang their lullabies, ever gently overshadowing the feeling of a dark evil with fraudulent optimism, seeping into the cave by the hole left by Nathalie's entrance above. The light from the lanterns was outshone by the sun's radiance; golden, elegant, bright lighting winning against a mellow one. The lanterns were placed on rusted iron pegs; they creaked and moaned with every gust of wind that managed to enter, swaying and causing their kind fire to flicker inside. The cave was smoothly carved out, a detail Nathalie had not picked out, the walls were smooth and dry; it seemed they were covered with planks of mahogany wood, their reddish-brown hue shone in the sun, a reflection of their colour dancing on the ground. "Such beauty." Nathalie pondered to herself… The chamber Nathalie was in had a pile of charcoal shoved to the darkest corner of the cave; she accidentally kicked the pile and lifted its contents far into the air, a cough followed by mild choking echoed through the narrow area of the cave. "Could this be a hideout?" Nathalie thought, curiously.
Nathalie gradually started to lift herself into a seated position, ignoring the pain that stung her shoulder like dozens of needles pricking every single wound that the creature scarred her with. A sudden army of arctic cold wind blasted itself into the cave, Nathalie's first instinct was to tilt her head away; the golden halo drawn on the ground was obliterating every single punch of frozen particles that was being hurled towards her. Noticing this she focuses her gaze back at the entrance and witnesses a vigorous, twirling, column of wind lurching closer towards the cave. A fair amount of time had passed, the golden circle devastating every single gust of wind with effortless ease. Little by little, the column started to decrease in size and dissipated in a large blast of wind, furiously and hastily trying to get rid of its last calamitous gusts.
A masculine figure emerged from the column and had revealed themself, unbeknownst, to Nathalie. The figure didn't seem aggressive, as more boyish features filled their physique. Course, blonde hair in a curtain bob would have covered their face, however the last squall of wind had pushed it back: a smooth, not too chiselled jawline was present, the light brown skin tone exaggerated the dark brown eyes stained with blotches of emerald green; the hands were veiny yet the arms were quite nicely defined and very well-built; the figure was only wearing a vest and dark trousers. The chest was an average size and overall the boyish man seemed no threat to Nathalie.
Wanting to greet the figure, Nathalie successfully lifted her physically drained body up from the ground and started to limp towards the man, politeness was everything of course. She reached the sunlight and presented herself, a hot mess, to the man. "Hello-" Nathalie tried to blurt out before being interrupted by the man.
"What are you doing in my hideout? How did you get in?" He demanded. A defensive stance had initiated its presence in the man.
"Long story but I fell from the top of the cave down into your chamber, I met quite an unpleasant sight but I managed to deter it." Nathalie explained to the man. "Also, don't worry I'm strong enough magically so the stains of war magic are not affecting me. Hopefully you are the same." Continued Nathalie, reassuring the man, successfully causing him to lessen his defensive stance, but not completely.
"Yes, I can withstand its trance… By the way, you didn't see this "unpleasant sight" steal anything did you? I have a couple hidden crates of food I could share with you but I can't if this figure stole them." A tone of curiosity accompanied the man's voice and Nathalie believed the man to have calmed down.
"No, I don't believe corpses of frozen flesh and blood have the mental capacity to steal, however it did manage speech… I can't exactly reassure you, so I guess we should take a look at your crates." Nathalie replied, worry tainted her voice as she remembered. The man viewed her in a shocking way, his face seemed to be twisted with interest and fear. His eyes fixed their gaze onto Nathalie's wounds.
"Are you alright?" He surrendered his stance and walked towards Nathalie taking into account her wounds. He quickly gave voice to another suggestion: "I think I have some supplies for wounds as well, I can clean it and prepare it. If there aren't any supplies I'll go look around here for some antiseptic plants." He managed a smile.
She smiled back and the man rushed past her and ripped open 3 or 4 planks revealing a space full of open wooden crates. Nathalie carefully crept closer to see the contents: apples, oranges, potatoes in one crate and in the other: fresh hunks of meat and fresh cuts of fish fillets, there were a couple more crates present, he tore the covers from the box revealing plant leaves used for medicinal practises and handmade bandages. "He seems to be pretty good at this." Nathalie, impressed, thought to herself. A cool, gentle draft was present from the hidden space. A light blue sparkle twinkling on the ceiling of the compartment was present, Nathalie crept closer and saw the symbol for cool air, commonly used by professional hunters to keep their food supplies fresh for longer. No wonder he was this good, however Nathalie didn't sense a wall of magic protecting this hideout from the urchins, a common word for the good turned bad by the tainting magic, this wasn't usual for single person settlements or settlements in general.
"How do you protect this hideout from the urchins?" Nathalie asked.
Continuing to rummage through the crates the man answered: "It's a hideout, I specifically made it inconspicuous by placing it in a cave where the entrance is narrow and looks like a normal crack in the wall. The lanterns are specifically positioned so that the light doesn't shimmer through the gap. Also, if I created a protection wall like the other settlements then whenever an urchin walks into it it will light up and alert its presence to other urchins; they can still use magic you know?" He retorted.
Nathalie looked at him in awe, he was quite intelligent: "I never thought about the wall having any disadvantages…" Nathalie deliberated.
After disarranging the contents of his crates, the man found the specific items that he needed to treat Nathalie's wounds: a couple of apple mint leaves and a roll of well-made bandages. He applied them to Nathalie's shoulder and chanted in a different language, a similar one which Nathalie heard the creature speaking, however the words spoken were ones of healing and soothing.
Wanting to present to the man that she knew this language, she announced her knowledge in the form of "What is your name?" As she had consequently forgotten to be polite whilst trying to relax the man from his protective posture.
"Elfric." He replied after hearing her speak the 'tongue'. "So you also know the forbidden speak. Didn't think we were going to be allies." Elfric continued.
"Elfric, 'Elf King', that is a nice name; yes I do know this language but I don't know of the origins of this knowledge" Replied Nathalie, continuing: "Are you good with a bow and arrow?" Nathalie managed a slight smile.
"Look at me." He demanded. Nathalie looked over and saw his eyes better than she did when she was in the cave's shadow. His eyes were emerald green and brown as she had spotted; however there were golden freckles dotted around his eyes, a rare sight to see especially when most elves are supposedly dead lying in graves marked with tombstones signifying a noble death in war.
Astonished, Nathalie looked at the man and he placed his hand gently and with care on the shoulder that wasn't hurt and smiled a genuine one to calm Nathalie; her face was one of worry and fear. "Any existing elves are being actively hunted down by the urchins, no one knows why." She caringly, yet worried, stated.
She felt a desire to protect Elfric as she felt guilty with the loss of her dear friend. She couldn't protect her and save her from the death-defying sorcerer.
The sun was now almost midday; Nathalie retreated into the cool chamber lit by the lanterns and Elfric prepared a fire with a slab of meat and raw vegetables on a large leaf acting as a makeshift plate, Elfric took a bunch of firewood and chanted to set it on a gentle fire; he began to cook the vegetables and the meat on the leaf. A sweet aroma soon filled the air, Nathalie was able to identify the leaf as a backwood leaf; it reminded her of Anastasia's cooking, she always cooked with fragrant smelling spices and exotic leaves from all over the land. As Elfric cooked, Nathalie stared at the hole above her, birds were now gliding through the air, the wind ruffling their soft feathers. One gradually fell down through the hole. A memory from Nathalie's childhood told her what to do; she grabbed the feather and wished upon the feather, a sweet wish - as sweet as the air filling her lungs - then, she chanted a spell of gentle wind and traced the symbol with her finger in the air, the feather ascended upwards and was picked up by the wind above. Then she yawned and fell into a gentle slumber: "Maybe I'll take a nap to pass the time." She thought.
A few hours later, Nathalie gets woken up by the shouting of men and the screaming of children. The children in particular cause a ringing sensation to resonate in her fragile ears. She stands up and releases the lock she placed on her eyes; fire, death, shouting; all of this was scattered around her, a baby dead, toddlers dead, their mothers… Also dead. Their faces looked similar.
Nathalie searched around for Elfric but he was nowhere to be seen.
A man on fire starts to sprint towards Nathalie, from the deep depths of the forest guarded by an army of oak trees, and scream past her into a large reservoir of cold water behind. To Nathalie, this place looked eerily familiar, where had she seen this place before.
Nathalie started to retrace the man's steps, delving into the forest and carefully retracing every single step that was printed on the mud of the forest floor. It seemed to have rained a substantial amount as puddles had formed into lakes.
A couple minutes had passed and finally, Nathalie reached what she was looking for… Her settlement.
Fire had ravaged the town's houses and there were more dead bodies here, some ignited, some not. The village roofs started to collapse one after another as the wave of heat continued to decimate the town. Not far in the distance, Nathalie found the perpetrator, it was the same man that had appeared in the city not far from her settlement. He had rings of fire orbiting him at quick speeds and every movement of his hands caused the rings to launch out and slash the surviving people, if there were any, and lay waste to the humble abodes of the many sweet people that Nathalie had once had friendships with. Then a swift moment of realisation hit her, they were all dead. The people that laid dead on the waterlogged ground were her friends. She knelt down in despair and started to ball her eyes out. Tear after tear raced down her cheek. Then everything fell to darkness.
She fell and she continued to plummet until she hit the ground with a large "Boof!" However, nothing hurt and she opened her eyes to reveal herself back in the cave, safe from the event that just ensued.
Fear had circulated itself fully around Nathalie's body and the adrenaline was now causing her to panic. She raced outside of the cave, squeezing through the tight entrance, and witnessed the real horror. In the distance, there was a fire raging near the mountain Dernag. Nathalie's settlement was no more and she knew that. She fell to the ground and stayed there while clouds of thick, dark grey smoke started to cover the blue canvas that once had the painting of the glorious sun, now… It was no more.
Rage, strong and feisty, had overcome her.
"Murder. Murder. Kill Elfric. Come now, kill him dear child. You are strong, you need no man to help you. Kill him. Murder him. Let death embrace him." A voice started to chant inside Nathalie's mind. Nathalie was growling through her teeth and she started to resemble a wild wolf, drool started to drip down her chin and her eyes became wrinkled into an aggressive form.
Unknown to Nathalie, Elfric witnessed her 'changing' and started to race towards her and spoke words of prevention and healing, as well as rest. Nathalie quickly fell into another deep slumber. However, this time her mind did not reveal any trauma-filled dreams.
Quiet. No voice, only quiet silence filled the dark abyss in Nathalie's mind…
She had resumed her normal state, no rage was filling her caring heart now…