Elwen the Conquered

‘Ahghmmnn…. Why is it so… bright? I’m trying… to sleep…’

Elwen turned over, hoping to block out the little bit of light that was seeping through the covers.

When she did, she was met with a wall of light that came crashing over her.

‘Waah!... What? I-Is it already morning?’

She stared at the window, light pouring through the crack in the curtains. She felt a smile grow on her face as she threw off her sleepiness.

It was finally morning! The festival was starting today!

She quickly threw the covers completely off herself and jumped out of bed. Glancing over at Varian’s bed, she saw that he was already up. Looking around the room, she saw that he was already out of the room, too.

He was probably in the bathroom. His bag of holding was on the desk; he wouldn’t leave it behind if he were going out of the inn.

‘He could have at least left a note…’

She was a little mad that he didn’t tell her that he was leaving. But at the same time, she did enjoy sleeping in. Maybe he was just out for a little bit and wasn’t planning on being gone for long?

She walked over to the desk and started fishing her clothes out of the bag. Today, she wanted to wear the lilac dress she got back in Rielton. She hadn’t gotten many opportunities to wear it yet, as they were doing a lot of traveling, so she thought it would be a good time to wear it.

Once she found the dress in the bag, she pulled it out and held it up. Looking it over, she muttered her love of the dress to herself.

‘It’s so pretty…’

The dress was white at the top and flowed into a pastel lilac at the skirt. It looked like petals from a flower, where the white at the top was close to the bulb and the purple at the tips of the petals. There was also a lot of fancy lace covering the upper portion of the dress, adding a wonderful texture to it.

Varian told her that it looked good on her when she wore it last. She was a little disappointed with his lackluster response, but she was still glad that he liked it.

She decided that she would put her hair into a loose braid to help keep it out of her face. They would be moving around a lot today, so she didn’t want to be bothered by it. Putting in a ponytail like she normally did just didn’t seem good enough though.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have any shoes to match the dress, she only had her boots. They didn’t match the dress, but they were all she had. It was a shame, but at least they were comfortable.

If she had a set of white heels or something similar, they would match the dress well, but they would also give her blisters with how much they were going to be walking. At least she would avoid that with the boots.

Rummaging around in the bag, she found the rest of the things she needed to start the day, including a certain set of items she would not disclose the color of to anyone. They may have been white, but there was no reason for anyone to know that except her. Laying her dress on the bed and placing those items on the skirt, she folded the dress to hide the unmentionables.

This would ensure that no one would see them and get any funny ideas about stealing them while she was walking to the bathroom. She only had one bottle and two bars, so it would be a problem if they were stolen. How could she clean herself without shampoo and soap? She absolutely loved the faint fragrance that came from them, although she wished it was stronger.

Picking up the bundle, she walked to the door. Varian might be in the bathroom, but there were two, so hopefully the other would be open. She reached out for the door handle, humming a little tune.

‘Wait,’ She paused, ‘aren’t I forgetting something?’

It took a moment for her to remember what she was missing.

‘I forgot underwear. Silly me!’

She returned to the bag and grabbed a clean pair of what she was missing and headed out of the room.

She found the other bathroom open, so she quickly claimed it for herself.

A short while later, she emerged from the room ready for the day’s activities. She didn’t have any perfume or anything, so she hoped that the natural scent from the soap would be enough. She wanted to be her best today, and a good scent was an important part of a good appearance. Despite not having a good mirror to check, she was confident in the rest of her appearance.

She returned to the room, putting her pajamas in her dirty clothes bag and returning it to the bag of holding. They would have to do the laundry later, but she didn’t want to worry about it now. Washing clothes by hand was harder than she thought, she wished they had a washing machine.

She heard the door open behind her, Varian emerging from behind it, already wearing his armor, although without the metal plates.

“Good morning,” he said, smiling when he saw her, “did you sleep well?”

“Good morning,” she responded, “I did.”

“Are you ready to go?” He asked.

“Huh? What do you mean? Go where? Aren’t we having breakfast?” Elwen was confused. Weren’t they going to eat breakfast and then head to the festival? The inn’s food was really good, and she was looking forward to having it again.

“There’s a little café that I was planning on going to. I’ve heard it’s yummy.” He responded, a little amused at her reaction.

“Really!” Elwen’s confusion quickly turned into excitement at the prospect of having delicious café food for breakfast.

“Yes,” Varian reaffirmed as he let out a little chuckle, “really. Are you ready?”

“Yes!” Elwen responded, “Let’s go!”

After a rather long-seeming walk, they arrived at the café. It was a quaint building, just off main street, sitting on the edge of a small hill overlooking the city. There was a paved platform surrounding the café, just wide enough to fit a few small tables with comfortable walking room between them. The building was a light cream color, with darker wood framing. The foundation was surrounded by a decorative layer of earthy red bricks, slightly brighter than the platform surrounding it. There were several windows, each with a line of vibrant flowers hanging from the bottom. The windows all had wooden shutters, opened all the way to let light in.

The café didn’t seem to be busy, Elwen couldn’t see anyone sitting outside or at any of the windows. If it weren’t for an “open” sign on the door, she would have thought the place was closed. The two made their way to the door, which was a beautifully decorated single door, with a shiny brass handle.

They entered the establishment and were quickly greeted by a woman in a maid's dress.

“Good morning! I’ll be right with you!” She said, as she quickly went behind a counter and through a door. When she reappeared, she swiftly walked over to them.

“Hello! I’m Katlin, and I’ll be helping you today. Would you like to sit inside or outside?” She asked as she gave them a kind smile.

“Inside,” Varian responded. It was a little cool out, and while he thought it was fine, he didn’t want Elwen getting cold.

“Right this way, sir.” The woman directed them while turning and leading them to a table. The inside of the café was empty, aside from them. Apparently, it was a slow morning. Maybe everyone was sleeping in or preparing for the festival? It didn’t technically start until noon.

The maid led them to a table with a window on the other side of the café, in a small hallway, one with an incredible view of a big garden, which was just on the other side of the hill. There were a variety of decorations along the wall, beautiful landscape paintings, flowers in delicately painted clay pots, and various wall-mounted sculptures. It wouldn’t be surprising if the café charged extra just to have the tables along this hallway. The woman definitely knew which seats were the best.

They sat down, and the lady left them with menus, returning to the counter. She could still see them, as the counter was on the opposite wall from the hallway. Without any other customers, she didn’t have anything to do, but she wanted to give them room. In her eyes, they made a pretty cute couple.

Elwen looked at the menu, trying to decide what she wanted. There were a lot of good options, although she had trouble deciding. There weren’t any pictures, so it was hard to imagine what the menu items were. They sounded good, but she just couldn’t decide what she wanted.

“What are you getting?” She asked Varian.

“I think I’ll get an omelet. Oh, but the eggs-benedict comes with sausage, maybe I’ll get that…” he responded, still perusing the menu.

‘Those aren’t sweet…’ Elwen silently complained as she puffed out her cheeks. What was the point of going to a café if you weren’t going to get something sweet? He could have gotten eggs at the inn.

After a few minutes, the waitress returned, carrying a tray with cups of water and a notepad.

“So, how is the lovely couple doing? Are you ready to order?” She asked, smiling as she looked at the two and put the water in front of them.

“Yes, I think we’re ready,” Varian said as he put his menu down.

“C-couple! W-what are you t-talking about?” Elwen spat out, her face instantly turning a bright red.

“Aww. He hasn’t given you a ring yet?” the waitress teased. Clearly, from her reaction, they were a new couple. It would be fun to tease her more, but she had to be careful not to go too far and make them uncomfortable.

“Why not?” She turned her attention to Varian. She didn’t get a reaction out of him, so it might be more fun to rope him into it.

“Well, we are on our way to Marsburg…” He started.

“Oh! I heard they have really good jewelers there. Are you on your way to the big city just to pick out a ring and propose? How sweet!” The waitress interrupted, gushing at the thought.

“Well, I suppose it is technically a ring,” Varian responded, a little annoyed that he was interrupted, but still amused at the maid’s antics.

“What do you mean?” The maid asked, tilting her head slightly.

“Well, it is ring-shaped, it just won’t go around her finger,” Varian explained as he sipped on his water.

“Huh?” The maid questioned. He didn’t elaborate, so she curiously looked over at Elwen, who was covering her bright red face with her hands. ‘won’t go around her finger…’ the waitress repeated in her head and her eyes glossed over Elwen’s head, ending on her neck.

The maid jolted up as she came to a sudden realization and her own face turned a bright red shade. She quickly took out her notepad and buried her face in it.

“W-what would you like to order?” She asked in a quiet voice.

“I’ll have the three-egg omelet, with sausage, and she’ll have the pancakes with apples and strawberries,” Varian smirked as he successfully turned the tables on the maid.

“I’ll be right back with your order!” She quickly said as she scampered away.

Varian continued to simply sip his water, content to simply wait for Elwen to calm down. He hadn’t expected the maid to start teasing them, but Elwen’s reaction made it worth it. There was only so much he could do to get those expressions out of her. Sometimes, other people could be useful in teasing them out of her.

After a few minutes, the maid returned with their food and quickly darted off as soon as it was on the table. Elwen, seeing her pancakes arrive, finally perked up. They were two massive pancakes, stacked on top of each other, that covered almost the entire plate. Baked apples and strawberries covered the top pancake, topped with whipped cream and a little bit of syrup. She quickly dug in.

They chatted while they ate about what they wanted to see during the festival, what they were doing while they were apart, and other mundane things. Eventually, the waitress came back and deposited the bill, and they paid. They left the café content with their meal.

When they had left in the morning, there weren’t too many out. But now, the streets were rather busy, filled with festival goers and sightseers. Most were heading to the right, towards the main square. Taking Elwen’s hand, Varian led her to the left. They were heading elsewhere, to the wall, for now. As a special opportunity during the festival, the guards opened a small section on top of the wall for the festivalgoers.

Varian planned to take her there, it would be a good place to start sightseeing. There was also the added benefit that they could visit all of the stalls on main street on their way. The better stalls were probably closer to the square, where the greatest number of people would gather for the games and festivities there.

The streets were covered in colorful decorations, many of which weren’t there yesterday, and Elwen hadn’t noticed earlier, partly due to her excitement at the prospect of pastries and partly because she was still groggy. It was as if the townspeople put up just a few decorations earlier to tease the fact that the festival was starting soon. In reality, they just put up the things that were hard to put up ahead of time, until the morning of the festival, where they put up the rest.

Lines of little flags and tufts of color crisscrossed the street. Long ribbons dangled in between the flags, just barely out of reach of the travelers underneath. Wreaths adorned the doors along the road, woven of golden stalks, with little fruits adorning the surface.

Elwen marveled at all of the quilts hanging out of windows. Most depicted scenes of harvest, or feasting. Some had images of animals, others were just pretty patterns. Some of the houses even had multiple, featuring different patterns and images. They looked like they would have taken dozens of hours to make each, the townspeople must have spent weeks or even months preparing them. Or maybe they just reused the same ones each year? But they all looked unworn and undamaged, like they were new.

She especially enjoyed the decorations on the street lamps. They covered the glass surrounding the unlit fire with colored paper. She imagined that they would look quite pretty once the fire was lit, although for now, she was enjoying the decoration on the lamp post itself. Ribbons, similar to the ones hanging from the flag lines, wrapped around the post. On each of the posts, there were two ribbons, each of a different color. Most were red or yellow, but she also saw some that had brown or even white ribbons. Little bells also hung from a narrow platform at the top of the post, just underneath the lamplight.

They continued down the street, passing by street stalls. The most popular thing to sell was food, although there were also a few stalls that sold crafts of various sorts. Elwen wasn’t very hungry, as they had just eaten breakfast, but one particular stall caught her attention, and she suddenly wanted to buy some of the stall’s wares.

The stall was selling long sticks of sweet bread, fried in oil and covered in crystalized honey and cinnamon. They reminded her of churros, although they seemed to be a little thicker and shorter. Regardless, she urged Varian to get some. He grumbled a little about just eating, but she insisted that she always had room for sweets.

The two continued down the street, one happily munching on the treat, and the other unsure of whether he wanted to actually eat it, or just give it to her when she finished hers. Elwen happily took it, after ensuring several times that he really didn’t want it, finding just the one not filling her craving.

It was about an hour or so later of meandering that they finally arrived at the wall, where there was a little opening that led to the top. The door had a guard at either side of it, making sure no suspicious people went up the tower. Even though it was open to the public today, the wall was still a secure military area.

After they went inside, Elwen was met with a narrow staircase running along the wall, slowly spiraling up. It was rather steep, as it had to cover a lot of height over a relatively small circle. There was a handrail nailed into the side of the wall, to help people keep their balance as they climbed the stairs. The stairs themselves were stone, and to her, they looked a little slippery. She didn’t want to fall, so she nervously took hold of the handrail as she began her ascent.

She felt Varian step up behind her, just a step behind her. He took up a position ready to catch her if she did fall, which she was thankful for.

“I’m not that clumsy…” Although she was happy that he was providing a safety cushion, she was embarrassed that he didn’t trust her to walk up a set of stairs, even if they were narrow and slippery.

His only response was to raise his eyebrow at her.

She hurriedly turned back around and resumed her ascent. He could stay there if he wanted to, but she wasn’t going to need it.

A few minutes later, they came to a platform. There were two doors opposite of each other on either side of her, both open, and a continuation of the staircase in front of her. There was a guard stationed on the staircase, preventing anyone from continuing up the tower.

“Enjoy your time on the wall!” The guard called to them as they stepped out onto the platform.

“We will,” Varian said, stopping next to her.

“Which way do you want to go?” He asked her.

It didn’t matter to her, they were both the same, right?

“Um… let’s go to the left!” She had to pick a direction, so she just picked the one that looked like there were fewer people on.

Walking through the door, Elwen was amazed at the sight.

She didn’t realize the city was so huge! They weren’t very high up, but they could just about see everything in the city.

She had fun trying to find the library and the inn they were staying at, as those were the places she was most familiar with. Neither took very long, as the library was a very distinct building, and the inn was on the street that they came from, so she just had to follow it back until she found the building.

“It’s beautiful…” She muttered, looking down at the city. The colorful decorations they had passed while walking to the wall meshed beautifully together to create a painting-like view of the city. It was most colorful along main street, where most of the festival was occurring, but the color was not lacking in the rest of the city either. It was as if every household in the city put up their own decorations to contribute to a wonderful mosaic.

“It is,” Varian responded. “Look at the castle, they even decorated it.”

Looking up, Elwen saw where he was pointing. A large castle, tucked away behind another, smaller wall, boasted similar decorations to the houses they had passed earlier, they were just larger. And far greater in number.

There were long streaks of color draped from every window in the castle, reaching down to the window beneath them. It created an effect that made them look like they were woven as one huge tapestry. Every tower in the castle had a set of long, narrow flags on it, flowing in the wind. They were in the same colors as she had seen wrapped around each of the lampposts. She couldn’t see the door to the castle, but she was sure the lord had a magnificent wreath adorning it as well.

Of course, the castle wasn’t the only thing to see from up there. They also could see a large arboretum, running just along the outside of the wall that contained the castle.

“Do you think we can go there?” Elwen asked, pointing it out to him.

“No, that’s the local lord’s garden. It’s close to the public. But we can still admire it from here.” He explained, remembering his conversation with the innkeeper earlier.

“Aw, that’s too bad.” She was hoping to take a closer look. From here, she could see little steams of color, which she imagined were large flowerbeds.

After a few more minutes of admiring the view, the two went back down the stairs. They traced their steps back, walking all the way to the main square. There, they took part in the many carnival games that were set up.

They had a lot of fun, but they didn’t win any games until Elwen saw a stone bear medallion necklace. She was instantly enamored with it, and Varian knew that he had to win it. The gamekeeper gave a big grin as he pocketed the money.

The game was a milk-bottle toppling game, although it used large wooden blocks of various shapes and a wooden ball. In this version of the game, the player was supposed to knock over the milk-bottle-shaped block while leaving other blocks standing. With his superior strength, he was able to throw the ball hard enough that he could rather easily knock over the bottles, but he had a lot of trouble leaving the other ones up. After many tries, and many payments to the gamekeeper, he finally managed to knock down the bottles without touching the other blocks and won the game. He probably paid several times the cost of the necklace, but he did win.

After helping Elwen put on the necklace, they continued playing games until it was time for the parade. After finding a place to stand on main street, they waited for the parade to pass them. The parade was fun to watch, although there weren’t any floats or balloons, which they were a little disappointed in. Still, there were a lot of people in colorful clothes and costumes. There were even a number of knights who participated, clad in their shiny armor and riding on large horses.

As it started to get dark, they headed to the Oakenwood Restaurant to finish their day. It was an exquisite high-class restaurant, one they certainly wouldn’t fit in at if they weren’t in their private room. They enjoyed their meal there, although Elwen thought that she liked the cozy atmosphere of the café better.

Elwen enjoyed the day, and slept very soundly that night.