The Endless Forest

Noria let out a sigh in resignation. The filth had mostly been washed away, but she still felt dirty. I stink too… She glanced over to Lorem who was pretending the smell didn’t bother him.

“We’ll get you back to the manor so you can take a proper bath,” he said.

“Yeah… That was the plan.” She slumped her shoulders, feeling entirely defeated. I really don’t want to do that again.

Lorem gave her a warm smile, reaching out and putting his arm around her. Realizing what he was doing, she tried to pull away.

“Lorem! I’m filth–”

“So am I,” he responded. “I’ve been training all morning. We both need a bath, so who cares?”

She felt her cheeks flush. “But–” She couldn’t think of an excuse.

Lorem suddenly came to a stop. “Say Noria, what are you planning on doing this afternoon? You’re finished with your duties for the day, right?”

She nodded. “I was planning to work more on those notes.”

“I see.” The sound of disappointment in his voice caused her to look up at him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, seeing that he looked conflicted.

His expression quickly returned back to his normal, happy self. “Oh, nothing. I was–”

“Lorem, I can tell. Something is bothering you, what is it?” She gave him a serious look and waited for him to speak.

“I'm fine, honestly.” He pulled her closer to him. “I just want to spend time with you, is all.”

Blushing more from the extra contact, she fought her emotions and tried to keep her composure. “What do you mean? We have, haven’t we?”

For the briefest of moments, she saw him conflicted with emotions before he spoke. “Sort of– I mean, I know you've been occupied with those notes. They’re important, but…” He sighed, letting his real feelings slip through. “I just want to spend time with you.”

“I have? I guess so…” A few memories flashed through her mind. One in particular was of her sitting down in the library and going over a difficult section of the tome. Lorem was leaning against the wall, watching her, waiting for her.

She couldn’t remember his expression but something else became obvious to her. He had been standing there the entire time! He never left…and I was there well into the night! Gods, was he waiting for me to finish just so we could talk?

She had to know.

“Hey Lorem? The other night… How long were you waiting for me?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure. A few hours–”

Noria’s heart felt like it was being squeezed, she hadn’t realized how engrossed she’d been with the tome. She truly felt ashamed.

“Lorem… I’m so sorry!” She blurted out, feeling the weight of her mistake. “We can do anything you want! I…” Tears began to run down her cheeks.

I’m really screwing this up, she thought to herself.

He turned to stand before her and pulled her into his embrace. “Noria, it’s okay–”

“It’s not!” she shouted, her voice muffled by his shirt. Noria opened her mouth to continue but instead she let out a yelp.

Lorem suddenly lifted her up and stared into her eyes. “I love you, you know? I don’t care what we do, I just want to be with you.” He kissed her.

Stunned, it took her a moment to realize Lorem had set her back down. He had a dumb grin as she slowly regained her wits.

“We’re out in the open! Y-you can’t just do that!” she stammered as she quickly scanned their surroundings. They were standing out in the open, practically in the center of the clearing. Her heart was racing.

He shrugged and gave her a wink. “No one was looking, I checked. But even if someone was, let them.”

“Still! You…” she trailed off, realizing she was in no position to chastise him.

Lorem held out a hand for her and gestured towards the manor with the other. She hesitated but eventually took it. They set back off, holding hands…

“Maybe I can help you with the notes?” Lorem suggested after a couple of minutes. They were nearly to the manor but had decided to go through the front door, not wanting to deal with Chef in the kitchen.

Noria gave it a thought before shaking her head, no. “The problem is deciphering the hand writing… This, Yarnel, has the worst I’ve ever seen, and I learned how to read my mother’s. There isn’t really much that you could do to help there, I’m afraid…”

“Then perhaps we can just go for a walk? Those… What were those flowers called again?” he asked, glancing down at her.

“Shadegales? Is that what you are referring to?”

“Yes! That’s it. They were beautiful, I wouldn’t mind going to see them again…”

She pondered the idea. “We could, I wouldn’t mind but…we should be careful. Solanna told me the other day that there were several unstable regions nearby. The kobolds apparently hunt in them, but it isn’t safe.”

“We’ll be fine, you forget I was a caravan guard. We frequently traveled through those regions. There isn’t anything in them that I couldn’t handle, even with my bare fists.” Lorem jokingly flexed his free arm and showed off his muscles.

Noria stopped dead in her tracks, they had just rounded the corner of the manor. “You did?! I didn’t know that!”

“Oh. It wasn’t that bad, we knew what we were doing. Besides, most things there won’t attack you… Immediately anyways,” he said, trying to reassure her. “Dire wolves and shadow panthers are the biggest threat for the most part. But I’ve killed my fair share of them.”

The mention of shadow panthers sent a shiver down her spine. They were big black cats that hunted at night, using the darkness to prey on their unsuspecting victims.

It’s said they could disappear into the shadows… Noria didn’t know for sure, but she had heard plenty of stories about them.

“I see…” she stuttered, swallowing a lump. “Still, I think we should be careful… I’ve never had to deal with either before… Well, not including the wolves the kobolds have.”

Lorem laughed. “Don’t worry, I will keep you safe and we can avoid any unstable regions. It’s not like they are hard to spot.”

She shakily nodded her head and they continued to the front of the house. Opening the door, they stepped in.

“Well… I need to bathe first but–”

“There you two are!” Solanna shouted, coming down the hall from the kitchen. She stopped a few feet away and wrinkled her nose.

“Don’t say it! I already know,” Noria muttered, seeing Solanna’s expression. “I’m about to clean up.”

The other woman nodded in understanding. “Don’t worry, I’m right there with you. But you’ll have to wait though, my poor brother is in there washing blood and entrails off…”

“What happened?” Lorem asked, beating Noria.

“He was learning how to butcher an elk…”

Noria blinked. “What?”

Solanna shook her head, her expression was a mixture of concern and uncertainty. “Don’t worry about it, that isn’t why I’m here. I was looking for you two… Eri came and told us that Felix wants to see us in front of the hatchery. She said to get cleaned up and be ready in an hour.”

Noria furrowed her brow in confusion. “What’s going on? More lessons?” We really haven’t had that many…

“I don’t think so. The way Eri looked, I think something happened.”

That doesn’t sound good…

The other elven woman shrugged. “I don’t know what’s going on, but my brother raced out of the kitchen afterwards.”

Noria looked between her and Lorem before letting out a sigh. “I guess this means we’ll have to put our walk on hold…”

Lorem patted her back. “It’s okay, I’m sure we’ll have time later…”

It took all Felix had to keep standing still and waiting outside the hatchery. His anxiety was starting to get to him and the longer he waited, the more he was beginning to doubt himself.

Thankfully, he wasn’t alone.

Unfortunately, it was Eri and she was looking exactly how he felt.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “You don’t have to be–”

“I’m fine!” she shouted, cutting him off. She quickly realized what she did and apologized. “Sorry, I’m just…concerned.”

Felix nodded, doing his best to keep his expression neutral. “I know, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned myself. But this is my decision, you don’t have to be here.”

She straightened herself. “I should be here– I want to be here, no matter what happens. And if… If something does happen, then I can be ready with healing magic.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. Did she forget I was able to use healing magic as well? Although… Could I do that again?

He shook his head, now wasn’t the time to worry about that. Besides, there’s another problem…

“Remember, we can’t use healing magic on him.” He came up to her and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. ”You’re more than welcome to be here. I just wanted to make sure you knew you didn’t have to be.”

He felt her shoulders sag under his grip.

“I know,” she said after a moment. “But… He’s not the only one I’m worried about.” She threw a glance towards the hatchery.

“How is Watcher?” Felix asked. He could’ve talked to Zira and found out that way, but he felt he needed to keep Eri talking.

“Kyrith says he’s come out of his stupor– Well, that wasn’t his exact words, but that’s how I would describe it.” She gave him a half-hearted smile, slowly regaining her composure.

She is so much stronger than me… “That’s good, we can worry about him after we’re done with the eggs.”

“I hope so, he honestly scared me back there. It was like he went mad…” she said after a moment.

Felix winced at that. “The sad thing is, I think I understood what he meant. He was talking about Fea. Somehow, she was guiding him.”

She gave him a disconcerting look. “D-does she do that to you as well?”

He chuckled and shook his head, no. “I’ve heard her speak to me, but I thought it was because she’s a part of my soul. Now, though? I’m not so sure…”

Eri quickly looked away, clearly unsure how to take that news. Truthfully, he still hadn’t decided himself. Especially since Aluin claims it is just a figment of my imagination… He’s wrong, he’s got to be wrong.

Feeling his emotions become turbulent, he couldn’t take it any longer.

“Hey,” Felix quickly pulled her into a hug, startling her. However, she didn’t resist and leaned into him. “Let’s just focus on one thing at a time, okay?”

She nodded and wrapped her arms around him.

Nothing more was said between them. They merely held each other until a distant noise pulled them back into reality. Separating, they both looked out towards the manor. In the distance, one of the elves was approaching them.

Yedril, by the looks of it.

“Well, it looks like we won’t be waiting for too much longer,” he commented as he raised his hand and waved to the approaching elf.

“I suppose not,” she agreed.

They waited for several minutes while Yedril made his way to them. During that time, they both worked on properly composing themselves…

“You’re early,” Felix joked and forced a smile as the elf got close enough.

“I am, but I wanted to talk with you,” Yedril said with resolve. His shoulders were squared, his brows furrowed, and he stood as straight as possible.

Uh-oh… “Sure… We have some time before the others show up. What did you want to discuss?”

The elf glanced over to Eri before looking back at him. “I have come to a decision. I know that you have been hesitating on us hatching the eggs. And I know it’s because of me…”

Felix saw Yedril start to tremble. He’s trying to act brave, he realized.

“…But I wanted to tell you it’s fine. Y-you can… I mean… I’m fine with–” Yedril was almost shaking now, his facade crumbling down. He tried to pretend to clear his throat. “W-what I’m trying to say is–”

I can’t let him finish that sentence!

“Stop!” Felix shouted, startling everyone including himself. He waited a moment before he spoke again.

“Yedril, I think I know what you are going to say. That you’re somehow okay with sitting out? Don’t, please… Just don’t answer that, don’t finish your sentence.”

He took a deep breath, letting his thoughts form properly before he continued. “This is my fault, you’ve done nothing wrong. It’s true that I have hesitated, and it’s true it's because of you…

“But, that was wrong of me. I’ve realized my mistake.”

Felix approached him and pulled him into a hug, much like he did with Eri. Yedril was breathing heavily, as if trying not to cry.

“Listen, I’m sorry.” He let go of the elf and took a step back. “I’m correcting that mistake now.”

“Today, you will be imprinted.” He let a real smile escape.

“Today, we start the hatching process.”