If the transition from last chapter to this chapter feels a little bit odd, that’s because I decided to change it after I already uploaded last week’s chapter. I debated going back and editing last week’s chapter on the website but ultimately decided to leave it up as is. In the final version, Eliana won’t offer up to tell her story until the gang is out of the immediate danger of the forest. Thanks for your understanding and enjoy this week’s chapter!
Cobal was about to get up to make tea before Eliana waved him back. “It’s too long of a story to tell here, if I promise to tell you everything when we get back to town, can you wait a day?”
Cobal nodded. “That might be best.” He looked at Mana. “Besides, you still need to rest.”
Mana chuckled. She was visibly still shaken up from everything that had happened. “I suppose you’re right.”
Eliana smiled. “There you have it, let the ladies sleep and properly keep watch over us,” she said to Cobal.
“I’ll protect you both with my life,” Cobal replied somewhat jokingly.
Eliana let out a long sigh. “My prince,” she joked before laying down while laughing. “Good night.”
Both Eliana and Mana were asleep pretty quickly after and the night’s watch went by without a hitch. In the morning they made their way back to town. Grac would stay in a small camp they set up for him near town. Walking him into Tormir in the middle of the day would probably cause a commotion, with all the rumors of strange creatures in the forest. An eastern town like Marsolin would be more accepting of his people, so he would stay out of sight for now. Grac assured them that it was okay, since he was used to sleeping in the woods. He was perfectly comfortable here, now that he was no longer being held captive. He did urge the party to not wait too long with continuing their journey as he was worried about his wife. After Cobal promised him they’d leave the next day, they separated and the trio walked back into town.
After checking in at the inn, they were informed about the nearby hot springs. It turns out that the closest one was an hour walk away, a little bit in the direction they just came from, but further west than they had been. They avoided that area initially because the elevation was much faster there. At the base of the steep mountain was a small hot spring that was frequently used by travelers. While getting food to get some extra energy for the short trek to the hot springs, Cobal informed the innkeeper about their run-in with the bandits. He told them that they probably wouldn’t have to worry anymore. When the innkeeper asked about the strange creature Cobal lied and said it was a trick that the bandits were playing with shadows and sticks holding up fabric. There were no creatures there, just creative bandits. The innkeeper didn’t seem to fully believe everything, but he thanked Cobal either way. After getting something to eat, the trio made their way out there, finding it with ease. There was a pretty well traveled trail that led there, even though it seemed like it had been a few days at least since someone last walked the trail. And indeed, when they came to the hot springs it was abandoned. The steaming water was very welcoming and there was a nice area where they could all sit in the water, while still having some privacy due to rocks and plants separating them.
“Well then, I suppose it’s time for me to share my story,” Eliana said once everyone was properly relaxed. Cobal sat on a rock with everything below his shoulders submerged in the pleasant warm water. Mana and Eliana were behind him, but close enough that he could still hear them well. “It’s a long story and it’s best if we start at the beginning, so let’s do just that.
I was born over 700 years ago. I spent my youth in a seaside town to the far north. We were a peaceful city and that bored me. So I went out to see at a young age. I traveled aboard a ship for a few years, then stayed in town for a few. Then I would get on a different ship and work there for a while. The reason I was always drawn to the ocean was that my people are sea folk. We belong to an ancient species of sea elves.” Eliana paused for a moment. “Now, we don’t really have much in common with your common elves, and I don’t even think our species are related, at least not more than elves and humans are related. But when humans found us and learned about our long lifespan and seafaring abilities they assumed we were related to elves since we were too tall to be dwarves. Humans can often be simple folk.” She laughed. “On one of my journeys, I had a group of strange people on my ship. Among this group were two names that’ll be familiar to you. One was the previous hero, Might. The other was Dionil. He was already an old fart back then and when you all told me you met him I was surprised. I assumed he died years ago. We traveled as a group for a while, but after Might was killed we kind of grew apart. I stayed in contact with both Dionil and Sarjan for a while, but never really talked to the rest of the group after that. I regret that now, both Milin and Savrina are likely long dead, they weren’t blessed with mine, Dionil’s and Sarjan’s lifespans. Maybe forty or fifty years after we all split, I went on an adventure. I joined a ship captained by a then friend of mine. We sailed up the river all the way to Sakrijan, a city on the edge of the Feral Wildlands. I believe it’s gone now, but that has nothing to do with the story I’m telling right now. We docked our ship there and continued on land. All in all there were seventeen of us, and we prepared well for the trip. There was supposed to be a temple to Aquana that was a nine day travel from where we entered the uncharted territory. That was our goal. Rumors said it held a blueprint of a very powerful ship. The first three days went fine, we traveled for most of the day and set up camp at night. We had enough people to rotate watches efficiently and spirits were high. On day four we had our first casualty. A very poisonous plant with sharp thorns was hidden among the regular shrubbery and within minutes, Kaisir was no longer breathing. I can still see his face in my nightmares. The blood all pooling under his skin, eventually causing his skin to tear and blood to start almost boiling out of his face as he cried in pain. Our captain stabbed him in the heart to stop his suffering.” Eliana fell silent once more. Cobal couldn’t blame her. He heard soldiers talk about war before, and seeing someone die was apparently very traumatic. He had killed people now, and although it was probably a different feeling, he still knew things he didn’t know in the past. After what was maybe a minute of silence, Eliana continued. “Several of us said we should turn around and rethink this mission, but the majority of us wanted to press on, myself included. We held a vote and the result was clear. So after laying Kaisir to rest we continued on. Two days later we managed to reach Tas’Irkan, the Irkan village that Grac is from. We were hesitantly welcomed in and stayed for a day to get our bearings. They even helped us restock on food and drink and although we were still shook from the loss of one of our own, we regained our composure and continued on. We gave the village elder some of our treasure as a thanks for helping us out, and we knew we were closing in on our goal. The village elder said that he knew of a strange temple deeper in the forest but he was a little bit confused about our map since the temple he knew wasn’t to Aquana and didn’t match up with the location we knew. We assumed that maybe his information was wrong, or he was thinking of a different temple. We should have rethought our plans there, as this was our second warning to abandon this mission. But we were young and reckless and we ignored the obvious signs. We’d made it this far, after all, so we were almost there. Turning back now would just feel like a waste.”
The sound of the water was the only sound that filled the area for a while. Cobal realized he was holding his breath listening to this story. He grew up hearing about the Feral Wildlands and how dangerous they were. They encountered strange creatures and cultists on their way to and from Milinia and he figured it was just a place that people didn’t go to. Now he met someone who lived there and he heard Eliana talk about several days worth of travel into the dangerous region. It was really changing the way he saw the Wildlands. They were still a dangerous region, and he could hear from the way Eliana was telling the story that this wasn’t going to end well, but the fact that she managed to travel several days through the area and return was definitely something Cobal would have deemed impossible a year ago. Perhaps there was more to it. There were entire villages after all. While Cobal was thinking about all this, Eliana continued her story. “The jungle got denser after we left Tas’Irkan. We had three people who were stung by strange looking insects and although things were looking scary for a while, they seemed to recover from their illness after two days. They definitely lost some weight in the process and the entire mission felt more grim than ever. We traveled through a part of the jungle that was almost completely enveloped in fungi and after debating it for a while we decided that our only real option was to go around it. The fumes from strange fungi would likely be dangerous and there were so many that we’d never seen before or even heard of that it simply wouldn’t be worth the risk. So we diverted from our original path. The stars in the sky were still visible through the canopy but none of us were very experienced with traveling through unfamiliar jungles. On sea we were experts, but here we could only hope we knew enough to not lose our way. By the time we got to the eleventh day, we came across the strangest sight so far. There, sitting on the forest floor, was the remains of a ship made out of bone. We were completely baffled by the sight of it and set up our camp a little ways back the way we came to discuss what we should do. There was no sign of life anywhere around the ship, besides normal things like bugs and birds. What I mean to say is, although there seemed to be no people or strange creatures around, it also wasn’t eerily abandoned to the point that it was something to be completely avoided. Curiosity got the better of us and we sent out a party of six to go and explore the ship.” Eliana got up and out of the water. She sat down on the stone ledge, only dangling her legs in the water. “It’s too hot for me to stay in the water constantly, I’m getting a bit lightheaded. She looked at Cobal. “Is this the first time you’re hearing a story about someone going to the Feral Wildlands?”
Cobal looked up at her. He expected her to cut a more imposing figure sitting there, but after listening to her voice slowly getting more shaky throughout the story, he was starting to see her for who she really was. Mana had called her a theater kid and Cobal hadn’t fully understood how deeply accurate that description was. Eliana was just a regular woman doing her best to convince everyone she was much more ruthless and powerful than she actually was. There was a fear in her eyes that she couldn’t hide even by pretending to be nonchalant and taking a physically higher position. Cobal wondered what Mana was thinking right now, but she was still on the other side of the rock dividing the two hot springs and he couldn’t see her face.
“To answer your question, I’ve heard stories of people going to the Feral Wildlands, but I haven’t heard any stories of people coming back okay.”
“Well, none of us came back okay either, so that does fit with the rest of what you know. Eliana looked down at Mana. “What are you thinking, you have such a difficult look on your eyes.”
“I was just thinking how brave it is of you to speak so openly about such trauma.”
Such a simple sentence to leave Mana’s mouth, but Cobal saw the tears immediately shoot into Eliana’s eyes. Cobal respectfully looked away as Eliana recovered. “Well, let’s continue the story,” she said.
Opal Kaharis 