the rustling whispers of trees [solo]

[Vendredi]

Firelis Tvy’ern spent the first seventeen years of his life being reprehensibly irresponsible in all possible ways. Then he met Eduard Whitecloak six months ago, and that seemed to mark the end of some reckless chapter in Fii’s life.

“We’ll help,” Eduard said to the village head, as gently as a shepherd might to a wary lamb.

The village head was an old man of sixty, with wispy white hair and a rail-thin frame. “Thank you,” the old man said, clasping Eduard’s hands. There might have been tears in his eyes. “Thank you.”

Throughout it all, Fii stood quietly behind Eduard’s back, arms crossed, watching the progression of events while feeling half annoyed and half contrite. There were easier ways for gold than going a-hunting on a villager’s whim. Fii would know. Fii was a damned fine purse-cutter, nevermind that one time in Radasanth six months ago, and a walk down the street could net them enough to live on for the next month. Nonetheless, Eduard disapproved of thievery, and that disapproval meant the pair would soon go frolicking into the forest.

Fii pursed his lips and shifted in his stance. The raw gratitude in the village head’s eyes unnerved Fii, and it made him feel small and guilty. He had spent seventeen years traveling in a nomad band of whores and mercenaries. He was used to suspicion and distrust and being libelled against. He was not used to being thanked.

Eduard, though, was a natural. Eduard smiled and stroked the old man’s hand. “It’ll be alright. We’ll find the children. We’ll set out at first light tomorrow.”

Then, the old man did weep.

[Vendredi]

Eduard Whitecloak was a stallion in man’s shape. Fii realized this the first night they met. Tall, broad and powerful, Eduard rippled with unbridled energy beneath a veneer of calm, honor, and good sense.

He’s also a fool, Fii decided sometime between the first and sixth month he had known the other man.

Their meeting went something like this: It was a dark and stormy night. On the streets of Radasanth, Firelis Tvy’ern thought he found an easy target. He had stepped forward to cut the other man’s purse, and then discovered that his target was not so easy after all. Fii spent the rest of that night in a sheriff’s gaol, before his target kindly bailed him out again.

By the next day, they were travelling together. Fii had shamelessly tagged along because he had been alone for six months after leaving home and missed companionship, and Eduard was not the type to say no.

“You should stop thieving,” Eduard had said many times in the ensuing days.

Fii had looked at Eduard then, as he did every time after when the topic came up. It was a look that said no and you poor, self-righteous fool and I do what I want more succinctly than words ever could.

There was a sincerity to Eduard that should have disgusted Fii, and no man had the right to be so damned perfect, and every man who pretended he was perfect must have had a dark and tortured past. Fii did not know Eduard’s history. The man couldn’t be more than twenty. Yet, Fii liked Eduard, because the other man was so quick to apologize and so quick to forgive, and so likeable in so many ways. Fii liked the Eduard, even though every moment spent with Eduard made Fii felt a little more inadequate, a little more wretched, and a little less like himself.

I’m a damned masochist, Fii decided somewhere between the first and the sixth village they had passed through. Damned masochist for sticking with this fool.

[Vendredi]

Later, when they had left the village head’s cottage and were back at the little room they shared at the local inn, Fii cornered Eduard.

“Giant spiders,” Fii said, hands on hips. It wasn’t a question.

“Yes,” Eduard returned, amused. “Scared?”

“Why?” Fii demanded, ignoring the question. His brows were furrowed tight.

“They need our help, Fire.” Eduard sighed, and made for one of the two narrow cots in the room. He sat, picked up his sword, and began polishing it. “They’re desperate, and we can help.”

Fii understood that. Truly, he did. He had felt the somber tones of a funeral march the first day they came upon this village. The village head’s two children stolen away. A number of livestocks. A horse. The blacksmith’s young wife. The villagers were desperate, and they blamed the spiders and beasts in the forest.

Yet, Fii wanted to hear Eduard’s answers. He needed to hear this. This was an argument they have had a dozen times before, and every line of it felt like a familiar old hat. Every time Eduard loped off to answer another desperate plea, Fii had cornered the other man, grilling for the why with a single-minded intensity that scorched his fingers and burnt his heart. The answer was always the same -- because I can, and therefore I shall.

The pendulum of Fii’s mind oscillated, not between the beats of right and wrong, but instead to the rhythm of a song called curiosity. He had left his family and kin because he was seeking answers to questions he could not wrap words around, questions like who am I and why am I and what am I, and Eduard’s utter conviction in doing right offered a stability and a handle on reality that Fii had desperately clawed onto like a drowning man’s only lifeline.

“All right,” Fii muttered, sitting down on the other cot. Damned masochist.

[Vendredi]

Fii was as light as a feather when they set of the next morning. He had woken early, slipped Eduard’s sugar out for salt when they broke fast, and watched amused as Eduard sputtered incoherently at the first sip of that caffe that the other man liked so much. Eduard had swatted at Fii half-heartedly, and then laughed heartily because he saw the amusement in the trick as well.

So slow to anger and so quick to forgive, Fii marvelled.

Later, when they were at the single path leading out of the village and into the forest, they were joined by a hunter and a tracker, both village locals who had volunteered to come along. Rickard and Toman.

“No last names,” Rickard mentioned as they walked. “We’re orphans. The village raised us.”

Rickard led the party down the beaten path, and set a brisk pace for the morning walk. The small village was positioned mere stretches from the forest, The winding road out of the village ran parallel to the fringes of the forest for some ways, before forking off to run down a series of hills and valleys. They would follow the road for a quarter mile, before Toman would lead them into the forest proper.

“That’s where we’ve been seeing a lot more scratch marks and claw prints, lately,” Rickard explained. “We usually don’t see them this close. Something’s been happening in the forests.”

“Delightful,” Fii quipped. Eduard shot him a look. Fii stared back, defiantly, until Eduard turned away.

Rickard made small conversation with Eduard up front. At the back, Fii and Toman walked silently, apart. Fii had glanced at his companion a few times, but Toman always had that same, sullen look. It wasn’t long before Fii became bored enough to twiddle his thumbs and play with his daggers.

[Vendredi]

Toman was a very effective tracker, but not a very friendly one. He had taken the lead as soon as they entered the forest, and scouted far ahead of the main group. At times, a flicker of gray and brown up front -- colors of Toman’s tunic-- was the only thing that signified the youth was still there at all.

They burrowed deeper and deeper into the woods, taking a warped, twisting path that seemed to spiral towards nowhere. Twigs snapped beneath their feet as the forest grew denser. Soon, the foliage hung so thickly that there was no sunlight to be seen. Soon, the silence of the trees surrounding them grew so dense that even Fii had second thoughts about opening his mouth. Soon, the sound of their plodding footsteps was only thing that resounded through the forest.

Fii shivered, and fingered the hilts of his daggers. The twin blades hadn’t been far from his palms since they entered this place. For hours now, he had felt something watching them. Perhaps it was his nerves. Perhaps not. Regardless, the feeling left a itch at the back of his head.

He had heard rumours of the Concordia forests before, and he had brushed those rumours aside. Unnatural, those rumours whispered. Fae. Magic. Danger, those rumours breathed. Superstition, Fii had thought, and walked in anyways.

The rumours failed to mention the deafening silence that seemed to gnaw at a man’s mind. The rumours failed to mention the feeling of being watched all the damned time.

At times, Toman doubled back, and pointed them to a different direction. When he did, he spoke to Rickard only. Never once were his words directed towards Eduard or Fii.

How do they do it? Fii wondered, when Toman dropped back to nudge them slightly to the left. The other three seemed unbothered by the unnerving quiet. How do they stand the darkness? The silence? The loudness of their own damned minds in this silence?

Then Toman was off again, that sullen look on his face. The look made Fii angry. The look said I don’t want to be here and I don’t want you here.

Well. I don’t want to be here either.

[Vendredi]

“That’s it,” Fii growled after the third time Toman had doubled back. “Where’re we going? What’re we looking for?”

He stopped walking and watched his party stop in their tracks as well. They turned to him. Rickard had a brow raised, but Eduard was his despicably calm self. The sullen anger on Toman’s face had taken on a darker turn, and the youth was glaring daggers at Fii.

Fii took a breath, and let it out. “Look. I just --”

He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated by the silence and the darkness and and his own damned nerves. The woods were watching him. He could feel eyes at his back, despite being the slowest and the one bringing up the rear of the group.

Toman was muttering something under his breath.

“It’s too quiet,” Fii pleaded. “And I don’t like not knowing. Where’re we going? Why haven’t we seen anything yet?”

He wasn’t too proud to plead, and today he was learning that he was not so brave in the dark either. His tone seemed to have sparked a light of understanding in Rickard’s eyes.

Rickard smiled a gentle, knowing smile. “Sorry,” the older youth said. “Forgot how unsettling Concordia can be for first timers.”

Now, Rickard sounded positively patronizing, and that made Fii angry as well. Not enough to go howling into the dark or do anything else monumentally foolish, but it was the kind of annoyance that led Fii to be brash and indignant and crudely uncouth.

“I’m not unsettled”, Fii denied, even though he was. It was the principle of the thing. He started walking again.

Rickard fell into steps beside Fii. “See those snapped branches? And the scratches on the trunks?” Rickard pointed to the trees beside them. “Something's been through here recently. Toman’s been looking for those trails. No webs though.” A frown. “ So probably not a spider.”

“Drave pack?” Eduard suggested, flanking Fii’s other side. Even Toman was walking with them now, rounding out the rear.

“Maybe,” Rickard said with a thoughtful frown.

“No,” Toman interjected. “Not a pack. One, or two at most. Not enough damage.”

The conversation fell silent for a beat as they each considered Toman’s words. For a moment, Fii forgot his discomfort and annoyance, and considered Toman seriously. Can’t be more than fourteen, he decided. Impressive.

“That’s why Toman’s the tracker,” Rickard smiled, pleased.

[Vendredi]

“I’m running ahead,” Toman murmured. Then, without waiting for a response, he did just that.

“Shoo and good riddance,” Fii muttered.

The handful of minutes spent walking with Toman was worse than the hours Fii had spent without. At least back then, all Fii had was nerves and silence and a chilling sense of being watched. Now, Fii also had a distinct feeling of being laughed at by some greater power.

“Sorry,” Rickard said, after Toman had taken off. “He’s not the easiest to be around.”

Eduard waved it by with a smile. “It’s alright.”

“Forgiving bastard,” Fii muttered.

Toman was churlish and hostile and surly and glum, and every look he shot Fii pricked at Fii’s temper. Those looks were familiar. Fii knew those looks. Those were the same looks Fii and his kin used to get before being chased out of town for being liars and thieves and charlatans even when they were not, even when they were trying their desperate best to be honest men eking out a feeble living in a foxhole.

You are a thief, some honest part of Fii’s mind supplied, unhelpfully.

“Sorry,” Eduard said, shuffling forward to ditch Fii in the back. “He’s not the easiest to be around.”

“It’s alright,” Rickard said with the same easy smile.

Fii snarled.

[Vendredi]

When Toman scritched, it was a shrill and unholy sound.

The scream echoed through the wood, reverberated through the trees, and sent the previously hidden birds scuttling into the air. Suddenly, the woods came alive with the beating wings of many. Suddenly, silence was the last thing on Fii’s mind.

Rickard had leapt into action, with Eduard shortly behind. They rampaged through the trees, towards the direction where Toman had scrambled off earlier. Fii followed. It wasn’t long before they reached Toman.

“Drave,” Fii whispered, and stopped in his tracks.

In front, Rickard had readied his bow, and Eduard had drawn his sword. Both looked serious. The easy smiles from their earlier jokes had vanished in the face of what laid ahead.

There was a small clearing where Toman laid bleeding on the ground. His left arm looked wrecked, twisted at some obscene angle, while his right arm held a short blade that stayed pointed towards the drave. The blade was trembling. The beast circled Toman slowly, cruelly, with a primal ferocity unrestrained behind gleaming eyes.

“Cover me,” Eduard muttered. Rickard nodded. Then, without another word, Eduard dashed forward.

The beast caught sight of Eduard then, and gnashed its teeth most ferociously. Eduard swiped at it with his sword. It turned away from Toman, and descended upon Eduard instead. Eduard's eyes gleamed, and his mouth were pressed into a hard line. The set of his shoulders spoke of confidence and grim determination.

Eduard could take care of himself. Toman, however, could not. The youth still laid trembling in the same spot, rooted and unable to move.

“Oh hell.”

I’m a fool, Fii thought, before moving forward himself. Quickly, swiftly, he reached Toman, and propped the other youth to a stand. “Can you walk?” he asked, but did not wait for an answer. He was half-dragging, half-carrying Toman away into safety beneath a canopy of trees.

Water from the waterskin to clean the wound, a strip of his own shirt to wipe it clean, and then more strips to bandage the cut. Thankfully, it wasn’t deep. Fii was no healer, but he knew how to clean a wound. He had enough practice cleaning his father’s. “We’ll get it looked at back at the village.”

He didn’t like the other youth, but Fii never wanted Toman dead.

By then, Eduard and Rickard were also done with the beast, and had straggled over. Eduard was scratched, but neither were seriously injured, to which Fii breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thanks,” Toman muttered. It was the first nice thing the other youth had said all day.

[Vendredi]

“We should go back,” Fii said.

“No,” Toman.

Fii muttered unsavory things beneath his breath. Rickard was a better healer, and managed to get Toman’s arm into a makeshift sling. That seemed to have washed all of Toman’s earlier fear away, and the youth no longer trembled at the touch of the wind. The debacle with the drave seemed to have shaken something in Toman. The youth was no longer as sullen. He just became disagreeable in a different way.

“I agree.” Rickard. “We should go back. Your arm’s broken.”

“No,” Toman said again, looking up with all the defiance a fourteen year old could muster. “We’ll go on. I can still walk.”

Oh, hell. Y’edda save me. Was I this annoying at that age? A pause. Yes, some unhelpful part of his mind supplied.

“Fine then,” Fii muttered. “We’ll go on until he break his legs as well.”

Eduard just looked at Fii, exasperated.

[Vendredi]

They did end up going forward. There was something to be said for the obstinacy of a youth in the throes of his rebellious years. Still, Eduard kept Toman close and within sight, and Toman was to be able to continue at the cost of being watched.

The rest of the day continued without accidents, and they chanced upon no other beasts. Yet, that also meant that their clues had been dwindling. By early evening, even the tracks that they had been following had largely disappeared. No spiders. No draves. No sign of the children or the woman that the villagers had lost.

“We’ll rest for today,” Eduard declared, when they reached a cove of trees that looked hardy enough to serve as a shelter. “And continue tomorrow. We’ll head back tomorrow evening if we find nothing else.”

No one argued with him. Not even Toman. Fii was sore to his bones with the amount of walking they had pushed through that day, and was willing to drop down anywhere at this point. With a sigh, he dropped his pack, and sprawled down upon the gnarled roots and green growth right where he stood.

Rickard and Eduard were far more industrious. They moved to scout the area and start a fire. Toman was Toman, and stood to the sides alone.

“So,” Fii started, giving Toman a curious look. “Orphan, hah?”

“Get stuffed,” Toman muttered. And that was the end of that.

[Vendredi]

Rickard made a campfire. They ate the traveller's’ fare in their packs. Dried bread and salted meat, washed down with sips from the waterskin. It was a quiet meal, after which they broke apart to stew in their own thoughts. There was no conversation to be had. For Fii, that meant the silence in his mind and the feeling of eyes on his back were back in force.

Later, when the rest had found their own beds and fallen into sleep, Fii laid twisting and turning, and terribly awake. The grass beneath him felt too sharp, and the roots too gnarled. The night was too dark. His own breathing was too fast. Rickard snored too loudly. Toman did not snore enough. There was no moon above them. The forest was too deathly silent.

He wasn’t sure when he dowsed into a semi-coherent state, and he wasn’t sure what woke him up either.

Perhaps it was the moon that had finally peaked through the foliage to scatter poor smithereens of light upon Fii’s face. Perhaps it was Rickard, whose snoring seemed to have died into a small whimper. Perhaps it was the sound of footsteps, stamping hard and harsh in the faint distance.

Fii awoke to the sound of music and the sight of a faint white light in the distance, shining between the trees. It was a gentle light, soft with kindness and dancing with grace, weaving further and further away into the dark. It was a pleasing and tender music, singing the song of lonely people beneath the moon that plucked at at Fii’s heartstrings, There was a faint shadow following the light, and it looked like the back of a large man.

Eduard?

Fii rubbed his eyes and blinked, and the shadow was gone. The light was fading. The music was fading. He could feel the previous day’s fatigue washing over him. The lids of his eyes threatened to fall.

[Vendredi]

The next morning, Fii woke up to the furious screams of Toman and the quiet placating pleas of Eduard. Rickard was nowhere in sight.

“He’s gone,” Toman keened in distress. “He’s my brother, and he’s gone.”

The forest during the day was no better than the forest at night. There was a smidgen more light. Still, shadows from the foliage covered them well, and there was little light.

Too damned early. Fii stood unsteadily, brushing stray leaves off his back. In front, Toman was pacing circles. The youth could probably start a fire right there, with the way his feet struck the ground as though the ground was his worst enemy.

“Brother?” Fii yawned. Later, Fii would blame his words on weariness and the lack of sleep. “Aren’t you orphans?”

That stopped the pacing. That stopped a lot of thing. Toman stared at Fii, horrified and aghast both.

“You people,” Toman screeched. “You damned foreigners. You don’t care at all.”

Then the youth was off, streaking through the woods like a terrified rabbit or a rapid wolf, tearing through the trees until he disappeared into the darkness.

Fii shot Eduard an sheepish look. “I didn’t handle that one well, did I?”

“You never do,” Eduard said with a weary sigh.

[Vendredi]

As a matter of fact, he hadn’t handled any of this well. Not his interactions with Toman, nor his interactions with anyone else on this trip. He had straggled at the back of the pack, had dragged on his feet, had called for stops and rests, and annoyed the living shit out of Toman (and possibly Eduard and Rickard too, but they were too forbearing to call it out). He hadn’t contributed a thing, was generally useless, and now he had chased their tracker off.

Fii refused to apologize for any of that.

He did, however, feel slightly apologetic.

“We didn’t see Rickard when we woke,” Eduard explained. “Toman panicked.”

They had picked up the pace to follow after Toman. Neither of them were trackers, but Toman left such an obvious trail that it would shame Fii to not pick up on it. They could see his footsteps in the crumbled leaves and the callous break of the occasional branch.

“Rickard said… Rickard said they weren’t like brothers. They were brothers. The village priest found them together when they were babes…”

Fii held his tongue and ploughed on.

[Vendredi]

They found Toman first, and the grave second.

Rather, Toman found the grave, and they found Toman, cold as a statue in front of the grave. The grave was a narrow ditch in the ground, and whoever dug it hadn’t even bothered to put dirt on top of the corpse. The corpse recent enough to still hold shape, but old enough to be rotting beneath the humid summer heat. The fetid smell of rotting flesh drew flies and scavengers both. A leg was entirely gone, and the torso looked half-chewed through. The face, while marred by blots of black and blue, still seemed whole.

Off to the side, Fii vomited out his guts.

“Jolandra,” Toman whispered, still in a state of shock. The boy was trembling again. He squatted, pulling his arms around himself.

“The blacksmith’s wife?” Eduard and his stomach of steel moved forward to investigate.

Toman nodded.

When everything was gone from his stomach -- including acid juice -- Fii fumbled himself to stand, clenching at the bark of a tree for support. The sight of death had always been shocking, and Fii had never grown used to it. It sank him into a chilling cold.

“Murdered,” Eduard said grimly, searching the dead woman’s body. “Strangled. It’s the work of men. Not wild animals.”

[Vendredi]

“Who?” Toman whispered.

There was no answer from Eduard or Fii. The most they could offer Toman -- that Eduard offered him -- was a sympathetic hand on the shoulders. The touch seemed to have opened a floodgate, and Toman wept.

“She liked us.” he said, with tears streaking down his face. “She fed us. She clothed us. She’s the sister we never had. We liked her -- ”

There was nothing they could do but let Toman weep. The sight of tears twisted something in Fii, and he turned his face away. Out of respect for the youth’s privacy, perhaps, or just because he could not stand to see another’s tears.

Suddenly, the annoyances in Fii’s heart melted away. Suddenly, he felt foolish for picking on the other youth. Suddenly, his previous actions seemed so thoughtless, so tactless, so hasty and rash.

Then, out of the corner of Fii’s eyes, something silver flashed.

[Vendredi]

“Danger,” Fii cried, even as the blade flew towards him.

He dodged, but not completely, and the edge of the blade sliced through the skin on his cheeks. Blood dripped from the wound and mixed with sweat. Where sweat met his wound, it stung. With a thud, the blade found itself embedded deep within the trunk of a tree. That seemed to have been a signal for action.

The bandits burst out of the trees in some unknown formation. There were three of them. Two men and a dwarf. They were ragged, dirty creatures that had spent too long along and too long in the woods. They were gaunt. The wildness of the woods were in their eyes.

The men had falchions and throwing knives. The dwarf had a battle axe.

They charged recklessly and together, but by then Eduard had gathered his wits and moved forward to meet their strikes with his sword. The clang of iron meeting steel rang through the woods. Behind, Toman scrambled for safety with his broken arm.

Good, Fii thought, as he drew his own daggers as well. One less thing to worry about.

The three were focused on Eduard, who was strong enough by himself to take on three men and win. That gave Fii the opening to scattle and sneak. Fii took advantage of that. He moved quietly, carefully, hiding himself in the shadows until he was close. Eduard, by now, was breathing a little heavier, and was bleeding in several places. Yet, he seemed unworried, and did not stop.

With a savagery that he did not feel, Fii plunged his dagger into the back of one man. The man gave a shuddering scream and fell to his knees. Fii pulled his dagger out. Blood flew relentlessly. One down, two to go.

Then, Eduard dispatched the dwarf with a quick slight of feet and the flat back of his sword. The sword found its target in the dwarf’s hard skull, and the dwarf fell with a grunt. Two down, one to go. The pair turned their attention on the last man standing.

“Ahh!”

He cried out, involuntarily. The arrow that found itself deep on Fii’s arm was a surprise. Fii’s head shot up, surveying the woods, while Eduard engaged the third man. Adrenaline seemed to have numbed the pain and cleared Fii’s mind, narrowing his focus to here and now and--

Another arrow flew through the air. Fiid ducked. The arrow landed mere inches away from Fii. Behind him, Eduard had dispatched the third with a mighty roar.

“Rickard,” Fii whispered, catching sight of the brown and green between the trees that had turned tail to run.

Eduard leapt forward, dashing to follow. Fii breathed, now feeling the pain in his arm. Dizziness and pain and an empty stomach were hitting him hard.

[Vendredi]

Eduard came back with Rickard, a broken bow, and an empty quiver. By then, Toman had reappeared, and was helping Fii bind the three bandits with vines and belt and spare ropes. With one working arm each, they made for a peculiar pair and a funny sight.

Awkwardness and incomprehension reigned when Toman caught sight of Rickard, Eyes widening, Toman stared in distress. “Why?”

Now, it was Rickard’s turn to be sullen, to be quiet, to be unwieldy. He sat on the ground, leg crossed, and back facing the group. Eduard had bound Rickard’s hards with his own bowstrings. The bandits and Rickard all would be brought back to the village, for justice.

“You killed her,” Toman accused, drawing closer to his brother, until they were so close that Toman was practically in the other man’s face. “You did.”

“I did,” Rickard growled, and that made Toman jump back. “Should have poisoned you lot in your sleep as well.”

“You’re my brother,” Toman cried. “Jolandra was like our sister.”

The story that spilled out of Rickard’s lips was not a pretty one, nor was it an easily forgivable one. It left Fii queasy in the stomach.

For their father, Rickard had said, because they weren’t orphans at all. They were bastards of the village head a decade and a half ago. “Mistakes of that damned old fool. That’s all we are.”

“I found the bandits. I parleyed with them. I joined them.” A smile. "I fed them, and I brought them a woman."

It was a way to get back at the old man and a way out of the village that spiraled into something bigger after the death of the blacksmith’s wife, until he had no choice but to carry on. “I am destined for greater things than dying in this fucking village.”

(But his words were so bitter that it tasted like dust).

[Vendredi]

When Fii was cleaning his own wound later, Eduard sat with him.

“Men,” Fii muttered, tearing up more cloth for bandages. He had forced Rickard to pull the arrow out of his arm earlier. “I don’t understand them.”

“You’re one yourself,” Eduard smiled that easy, accepting smile.

Fii considered that while bandaging his own arms. Toman was at the back, watching their captives, watching Rickard in particular. The anger between those siblings were so palpable that Fii could almost taste it from ten feet away.

“I am,” Fii admitted eventually, testing the lift of his arm. It hurt. He squirmed. “Sometimes I wish I weren’t.” He didn’t make a very good man, anyways.

The eyes following him in the forest seemed to have disappeared. Yet, Concordia was dark and large, and sometimes Fii could still feel something at the peripherals of his eyes, at the edge of his consciousness. As he spoke his last words, a spark of white light appeared and danced in the distance. Fii looked up. It disappeared a second later.

“Did you see that?” Fii whispered. “It’s the same as last night.”

Eduard looked at him with uncomprehending eyes, but Fii thought he saw something distant in those eyes. “Saw what?”

[Vendredi]

“Thank you,” the old man cried.

They were back in the village, and the local sheriff had taken charge of the bandits and Rickard both. The journey back had been a quiet affair. Toman was lost in his own thoughts, and Fii was disquieted by the flash of light.

Toman ran off soon after with a gruff thanks, trotting behind the sheriff. “I’ll show them where Jolandra is,” he said when he left. “Her family would want to know.”

The village head thanked them profusely, hands clasping Eduard’s tight. The scene was familiar. There was raw gratitude in the old man’s eyes, but this time it was tinged with a hint of sorrow.

Fii stood at the back, arms crossed, looked at the old man curiously. This is their father. This is the man who would not recognize his own children.

There was judgement in Fii, but he did not voice it. That was not his place, nor did he care enough to. The motivations of men were a mystery, and who knew what reasons this one had? Fii was a curious sort, but he was not obnoxious about it.

What Fii did voice, though, was this: “Wait. Didn’t you say that there were two children lost? We didn’t find their bones.”

The old man’s face took on a sheen of white, and Fii could feel the beginnings of a wail. Eduard opened his mouth in surprise, and closed it. Then, without warning, Eduard turned and ran. “I’ll find them,” he shouted as he moved.

Fii cursed beneath his breath. He shouldn't have opened his mouth. He should follow. He would follow. Annoying, brainless man. And I'm a goddamned masochist.



Complete. To continue in another chapter.

I apologize for quality. This was quite rushed. 5k+ words in 12 hours!

[Philomel]

Name of Judgement: The Rustling Whispers of Trees (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?29905-the-rustling-whispers-of-trees-solo/page2)
Judgement Type: Workshop submission
Participant: Vendredi

Vendredi (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?17657-Vendredi)receives:
- 3640 EXP
- 182 GP

These scores include the 3x Althanas Day special EXP awards.

[Logan]

EXP and GP Added.

Vendredi achieves level 2!!! Congrats!