ELO

  Bree saw blood on Faelorn's shoulder and quickly stood horrified. The flesh had been torn by the claws of some horrible creature. The wound was deep with dried blood covering his entire arm. He winced with pain when he tried to raise his arm. Not saying a word, Bree examined the wound then quickly went into Faelorn's house and rummaged through her sling. Bree was glad that she had picked so many herbs when they had made yesterdays trek into the woods. She had picked lion's wort, a golden herb that grew in the shade of the trees. Her grandmother used it for her arthritis, as it had a mild numbing effect. Bree filled the teacup with lionswort and set it aside. Plucking a smooth stone from the ground, she dropped it into the tea kettle and boiled it. When the stone was disinfected, she pulled it out and used it to crush the lionswort into a salve. Faelorn watched her, curious his eyes black as night. He did not look human but only half. Something was wrong; he stared at her like a wild animal, his breathing was hard. Cael hopped up onto her shoulder, the fae was shaking with nerves. When Bree came close, Faelorn hissed, showing fangs. Cael scolded Faelorn, who turned away ashamed. Bree gave him a stern glance; he looked the way an injured animal did when backed in the corner. She took the salve, and without fear, she smeared her ointment onto his open wound, Faelorn groaned with a tense effort his face contorted, and his body shook. He shrunk, and the half horns dissipated into his head. His eyes became regular, and Bree stared in amazement as his wound sealed itself.

  Faelorn trembled in pain. He cried, "God, it burns; how did you know? It's harder for me to transform when I'm in pain." Bree shrugged, lion's wort healed wounds, but she was amazed that he healed instantly. Faelorn looked sheepishly. "I-I-I heal fast." he stared at her for a long moment. He said, "Your not afraid of me when I look like a beast?" Bree took out her journal, shaking her head. She asked, whispering, "What happened?" Faelorn began helping himself to Elo's leftovers, which had been kept warm by the firepit's embers. He said,"A bereaved was stalking us. It must have sensed your grief; I found it and drove it away." Bree scrawled messily into her scroll, " You didn't kill it?" Faelorn shook his head. "The creature should die from the injury I gave it, but I will have to keep an eye out for it. If it returns, it will not escape me again." Bree sat, feeling guilty she had been the reason the bereaved had attacked, she wrote. "I'm sorry."

  Faelorn read her words and shook his head. "It isn't your fault, that is why the King has granted you protection. The white deer here are sacred, and they are the souls that need rest and time to get over their lives before they pass on. The bereaved hunt grieving souls in hopes of turning them into more bereaved." Bree frowned, what a horrible fate that something or someone would prey on a person's regrets and sadness. Faelorn stuttered nervously as Bree wiped the salve from his now sealed wounds.

  "B-B-Bree I was wondering. Last night was difficult. I'm afraid my outburst ruined it. Would you like to see the elven runes before Elo takes you back home?"

  Bree suddenly brightened and furiously nodded, smiling. Faelorn looked at Cael, who was still seated on Bree's shoulder. "See Cael, I told you she would," Cael grinned and leaped onto Bree's head, hugging her face. Elo woke yawning loudly; she greeted Faelorn sniffing the salve in Bree"s teacup. She said. "well, you could have woken me to help. I heard that last bit about visiting the elven ruins," Elo shifted back to her human form. "Come help me pick breakfast." She lead the group back into Faelorn's garden. She said, "These berries are in season. I say we pick a bunch and then head out to the elven runes. Though we should go home before nightfall. Bakura might get nervous if we've been gone for too long; it's not safe to be gone from the herd for more than a few days." Elo took Bree's empty sling and began filling it with luscious purple berries. "These are my favorite, their always best this time of year, they tend to get sour in winter and shrivel. They'd make an excellent jam." Bree helped fill the sling until it was bountiful with berries. Faelorn extinguished the fire and cleaned camp as the two women ate handfuls of berries. Cael tried to leap into the sling, but Elo pushed him out. She growled at the little fae,"Get out you, pick your own berries." Bree smiled and offered him a handful. Smugly, he sneered at Elo and took a seat on Bree's shoulder. Elo rolled her eyes, watching as the fae ate ravenously. "Your two soft on him." Bree hid a smile and patted Cael's head gently. He quickly finished the berries that Bree had given him. Patting his fat belly, he hopped onto Faelorn's shoulders, then burrowed into the forest guardians nest of vines and dreadlocks. Faelorn whistled at the women, gesturing them to follow him. Elo complained, "Oh, we're coming, you loon." He waited impatiently under an oak tree. "The ruins are north of my camp; if we get separated, we meet here, alright?"

  Bree nodded, enthralled at visiting the elven ruins. Elo met Faelorn's eyes, she asked her voice a harsh whisper. "Are we going to be safe?"

  Faelorn nodded, "I wounded that bereaved; your safest with me anyways. I have eyes everywhere. The trees keep watch for me; they even tell me what's happening at the spring."

  Elo made a face, "You and your bloody trees." She looked at Bree, "Are you sure you want this love? We can go back to the spring." Bree shook her head, mouthing, "Let's go!"

  Elo smiled, "Alright, it's decided then, lead the way, Faelorn!"

  They headed up the trail, eating berries as Faelorn talked about his boyhood. "When I was a boy, Joltrun would take me to the ruins. It's how I learned to talk to the trees." Bree grinned, thrilled. Elo snorted, unimpressed, then loudly proclaimed, "who would want to talk to a tree? That's daft." Faelorn popped a berry in his mouth as he walked the trail.

  He said, "I told you earlier the trees are my lookouts. They tell me everything that happens in my forest. Sometimes if I'm too far away, they can even carry me across the wood faster than a bird can fly." Elo laughed, "now you are daft. I know these woods are brimming with magic, but trees cant walk or carry people." Faelorn rolled his eyes. "You hardly ever travel this far out. Elo, how would you know."

  "well, I suppose I don't; if Bree wasn't so taken by the fae, I suppose I would spend my days minding the others and racing you," She snorted. The most positively naughty look crossed the deer's face as she sprang away, giggling. She called, "The last one to the ruins is a rotten pumpkin!"

  Elo shot off like a streak of white lightning. Faelorn annoyed, turned to Bree. "W-w-would you mind riding on my shoulders! I really hate it when she thinks that she can outrun me by catching me off guard." Bree nodded nervously as Faelorn transformed and lowered his deer-like neck to the ground. His voice was a vicious snarl, "Now, let us show Elo what fast means."

  Bree would have screamed with delight if she hadn't been so terrified.

  Faelorn galloped through the woods. He was faster than Elo but moved with less grace and care. Bree was jostled in every which direction. Faelorn's vines clung to her, holding her in place as she rode on his back. Without the vines, Bree was confident that she would have been sent flying to her death. Breathless, she held onto Faelorn's neck as he rocketed on all fours through the woods. He bounced off trees and over creeks, traveling forward, and Bree saw that he was closing in on a white streak that was Elo. The doe giggled breathlessly as she challenged him, galloping as he chased her.

  Faelorn surged past Elo as fast as he could, leaping ahead of her and sliding on all fours as he attempted to stop. Elo snorted, landing gracefully next to Faelorn. She exclaimed, "well, it's not fair, you only won by a nose!" Elo gasped for breath throwing herself on to the forest floor.

  She said, "if only my brothers and sisters could see me now, they would be envious to their toes! I'm as fast as the wind!." Faelorn grunted, breathing hard. The vines around his body gently placed Bree on the ground. She was shaking with adrenaline. Faelorn pawed at Elo playfully. He teased "you should know better than to distract me with your new friend, I'll beat you every time." Elo snorted at him, "you didn't beat me the first time." Faelorn smirked, "that's only because I let you win." Bree was shaky, she had butterflies in her stomach, and her face was flushed with excitement. She sat dow
n as they all caught their breath. Elo stood, asking, "Do you think that daft elf is there." Faelorn shrugged, "I don't know, sometimes I can find him, and other times he's gone, time is like that." Bree excited furiously scrawled and showed Faelorn her question, "Elf? there are real elves here!" Elo snorted, "well, I hope he's not here; I don't like him; he'd ruin everything." Faelorn glared at Elo in disagreement. "His name is Tharin, and he perfectly...agreeable." Bree shoved her paper in Faelorn’s face, desperate for an answer.

  Faelorn smiled, amused. " Sometimes there is an elf, but other times he doesn't seem to be there. He a powerful sage and the only elf living in this realm." Bree followed Faelorn as Elo pranced around them in circles. The doe added, "Well I hope he’s not there. The ruins are lovely. I think Bree will appreciate it since she's new to this realm." Faelorn pushed the foliage aside so that Bree could see down into a mountainous valley. There she could see ancient spires and crumbling buildings. She started looking at Faelorn in wonder. He said, "It's the elves' city, it's a millennium old, and the elves long left. Once you step through, you are stepping into another world. A few steps in, and you'll feel the barrier, you be in another time to." Bree stared, barely comprehending, Faelorn grinned " The forest leads to many different forests, and they all lead back to the forest of lost souls. Some parts of the forests are experiencing different times, places, and seasons. Different worlds, some with magic and some without." She stared at him in wonder, and he stuttered suddenly nervous "s...s...sometimes Tharin is in the ruins and other times he isn't. He is unique in that his space fluctuates in time and space." He turned to lead the way down a trail then onto crumbling stone steps. "Watch yourself, Bree, it's a long fall. But I'll make sure to catch you."

  She stared up at him. He seemed more confident around the fae than with people. Whenever he was alone with her, he seemed to shrink, and his stutter became more prominent. Bree walked down the hill and to the ruins. She suddenly felt chilly, and the air broke around her for a moment. She blinked, surprised, the sun had changed positions. It was now dusk even though it had been late morning only moments ago. The sky was purple, and the weather felt distinctly chilly. She shivered in wonder, Elo whispered as she passed her, "Its only magic, darling, you'll get used to it." Bree was glad that she traveled lightly; Elo trotted ahead, calling out she said, "My nan used to tell me stories of the elves' city, they called it Isaulteria." Faelorn shrugged "this place had many names before the elves left. Too many to count when I think of it." Bree walked mouth agape in wonder. Old tapestries still hung half-rotted, and she could see images of dragons and other mystical beast threaded proudly into the fabric.

  The buildings appeared to be forsaken and derelict. Their architecture was fantastical in form. It was the glass murals that decorated the sides of buildings that took her interest the most. Walls of elves fighting, dragons, birds, and elegant, repeating patterns dazzled her eyes. The glass mosaics of pink and blue, gold, and green animals decorated the sides of the buildings—magical creatures where immortalized against and amid glass grasslands of spirals arranged on tall, beautiful, elegant buildings. Bree stared and stared, her eyes huge on her face, her heart pounding. In her mind, she whispered to her late grandmother. "It was all real, grandma, the stories that your father told you, they were all true."

  Faelorn lead the way. "I should check if my friend is here. We might be at the right time, at least it feels familiar." Dwarfed by the aqueducts that towered overhead even more so by the spires. Bree held her breath; this place in its prime must have been magnificent. The buildings were long overgrown, and they passed through the remains of a long rotten wagon. Oddly enough, most of the plant life had not overtaken the city as she would have expected. Birds did roost in the buildings numerously, and a few fat doves startled as they passed. In the center of the long-abandoned city, a large dome-shaped building, greeted Bree's eyes. Faelorn lead the way heading swiftly towards the castle. Elo sprang over rubble, glancing back at Bree, who was struggling to keep up. She could hardly take her eyes off all the buildings staring open-mouthed, and she tripped over her own two feet. Elo giggled, prancing around her, "I'll carry you." Bree whispered in Elo's ear, concerned that she would be off on a wild ride once again, "please go slow." Elo flicked her ears, annoyed, "alright...fine. You two-leggers are so boring sometimes." Bree clung to Elo's neck as she trotted close to Faelorn, who now stood in front of the dome-shaped building. "I think I hear him, stay here don't stray far. I will go inside, he doesn't take kindly to strangers, and I don't want to set off any of his spells."

  Elo impatiently stamped when Faelorn disappeared "well, that's just rude." Bree hugged Elo's warm neck, the city felt empty, and there was a still sadness in it; as if it held on to profound grief. Birds fluttered overhead, and Bree chewed some berries from her bag. After a while longer, she slid from Elo's back, stretching her cramped legs. She looked wordlessly at Elo, who kicked her long legs. "I hate it when he just disappears. Hey, where are you going?"

  Bree wandered down the cobblestone's street. Some of the buildings were broken. It was if they had collapsed under their own weight—most of the premises were wonderfully intact. Bree followed the path traveling inside one of the open buildings. Other than the hundreds of roosting birds, the buildings looked as if somehow, someone upkept them despite age. She felt pulled by some force. A deep instinct spoke to her gut. Elo followed, calling."We shouldn't stray far, Faelorn's probably opened the door already." Bree stopped and stared before her. The main building wall had been collapsed, and inside the rubble; Bree saw something that haunted her nightmares. Bree felt chills run up her arm.

  A machine lay in the rubble; its eight spider-like arms and bulbous head were crushed beneath the stone building.

  Bree was cold, the sounds of her village echoed around her. Machines hissed as she hid beneath the rubble of a collapsed hut. The mechanical abomination spotted her and attempted to grab her. Bree dodged, unable to scream. The machine's eyes whirred and blinked, scanning the smoke for her, it's metallic face grinning like a predator. Bree ran; she had to warn her grandmother. She had to get out of the village. Bree sprinted her bow and arrows slamming into her back as she ran from the burning huts. Screaming villagers ran in different directions. Those that were relatives were unrecognizable in the chaos. Some people tried to escape; others tried to rescue trapped relatives from beneath the collapsed huts' rubble. Machines grabbed people, slavers shouting orders as they hunted villagers. Bree ran towards her brother's burning hut; she could hear children screaming. She approached drawing her weapon; inside the hut's confines, she saw a pair of deadly glowing red eyes. Bree was helplessly trapped in her own memory.

  Elo was whispering to her, gently holding her in her arms. She had shed her white deerskin, Bree was sobbing wildly crying into Elo's chest. Faelorn approached from the buildings. He said, "What happened?"

  Faelorn hurried to her side, and she buried herself in Elo's arms. Faelorn couldn't get a word from her. Cael hopped from Faelorn's shoulder to Bree's. He patted her face gently as she hid it in her hands. Elo scooped her up, carrying her from the collapsed building.

  It was a long time until Elo could get a word from her. After an hour, she finally wrote down in her journal what had set her off. Cael made soft cooing sounds at her, cuddling her neck and patting it softly. "They killed my family, they took me and made me a slave." Faelorn read the words aloud. He hissed, "who did it? Was that the men that took you into my woods?"

  She blinked back through swollen red eyes and shook her head and wrote shaking. "The slavers, they rode machines like that, they sold me into slavery, then I was bought by the man that would be my master. You killed him when you rescued me." Elo wiped Bree's eyes and her own. Faelorn was a shadow in the corner of the room vines covered his body, he had changed from his human form. He said, "Elo, I'm going to speak with Tharin; when you two are ready, please bring her into the library."

  He left moving swiftly, his beastly face unreadable, refusing to
look at Bree. In her blurred vision, his eyes looked like two empty black pits. It scared her, but when she tried to clear her eyes and get a better look, he was gone. Elo softly hugged her calming her down.

  "Elo," she whispered softly, her voice so silent that Elo's supernatural hearing had to strain.

  Bree whispered, her throat burning, "I'm sorry. I cry too much." Elo took a deep breath, "Everyone struggles, darling; it's part of why life is so hard. It ain't your fault none of it, that thing just scared you. You should stop apologizing, crying is normal. Shit happens, darling."

  Bree nodded, and Elo perked up. "Well, your eyes are only a little red now, let's go meet that dreaded elf. Maybe he'll cheer you right up since you like fae so much." Bree followed her padding down the street. She listening to Elo's footsteps as they changed to the hallow sounds of soft deer footfalls against the cobblestone.

  Chapter 10

  The library's high wooden doors greeted Bree's eyes. They were made of polished redwood with great brass lion doorknockers. Elegant elvish incantations were carved around the doorway; Bree ran her fingers on the elvish text fascinated. Her pain was forgotten; she stared at the writing with eyes still puffy from crying. Cael clung to her neck, hugging her for comfort. Bree gingerly followed Elo, who nosed the door. The doe pushed her way in with her head. Faelorn had left it cracked just enough for them to narrowly squeeze through.

  Elo glanced around, "I've only been here once before, I'm not a fan of books. No one in my family knows how to read. That's only for priests and learned noblemen." Bree had been impressed with the elvish city and its beautiful spires. The elegant glass murals had been breathtaking to observe. However, it was the library that she thought was simply magnificent. Books in mint condition lined the walls for six stories. Artifacts decorated floating shelves, and glass orbs floated reflecting rainbow-colored light. Bree shivered, and Elo hissed. "I hate magic, that's the devil's work. That's why I don't like the elves, pagans they are, the lot of them d9ancing and singing to the moon." Bree shot Elo a looked, she stamped her hoof suddenly embarrassed. "Sorry, its a habit from when I was alive. I suppose I'm a hypocrite, being a talking deer and all." she chuckled, "open mouth insert hoof."