Dawn- An age of Darkness

I jumped awake up and it was morning. I looked around and everyone was in the midst of cleaning up. They stopped in their tracks and stared. "Oh, no worries. Just a nightmare." I smiled. I might have frightened them a bit.

"Look, dude. There's no need to hide it. We all have our demons." Dick for once, tried to be sincere. It still got ruined by his next words though. "Why don't you clean yourself up? How about a shower? I saw a pond nearby. Maybe we could even shower together!"

I sighed. He was the same pervert he was yesterday. "I'll pass."

Lianne was behind me. She looked at me with a lot of confusion. I couldn't really blame her though. She didn't even know the name of the girl I just screamed the name of.

"Someone, you knew?"

"Yeah knew…." I didn't want to think about it.

"I see."

The conversation didn't go anywhere and we resumed our journey. Things went smooth for the next couple of hours. 

"We should be close to the edge by the evening." Lianne was basically up in the trees. Just what was up with Elves and trees?

"You mean we have to spend another night here? I don't want more fruits! I want meat!" Dick started dashing. It kind of made me chuckle. I did the same thing when I first came here. 

We picked up pace and navigated with good speed. Lianne led the way and we followed. We had more bread for lunch and the day came to an end near the border. 

I never thought I'd be willingly sleep in a forest of all places.

We could have camped outside of the forest but in that case, we'd have to account for the monsters. Everything about this forest was the opposite of what I thought to be the norm. Maybe I was the weird one? Probably not.

  "You're not going to wear the pendant?" Lianne was making new arrows. 

The pendant was in the little pouch on my waist. I brought it out. It was made out of some sort of silver and yet, not exactly like silver. It shined a lot more than silver. "I don't know. Where would I even wear this?" It had weird patterns and kind of looked beautiful.

"How about-" Lianne came rather close to me. Honestly, at this point, I was used to our little interactions. "This?"

My hair was flowing freely this whole time. But now, she tied it and made a small comb. And the pendant hung from the back of the comb. I had no idea what sort of fashion this was, really.

"You look beautiful!" Dick was squirming around, as usual. Anything with a good face was beautiful to him, so also as usual, I just ignored him.

Servesta gave me a thumbs up. I gave him a thumbs-up as well. I had no idea where this was going. 

"Is there any point with having this?" Why did people wear pendants anyway?

"Who knows? I've lived a long time but I never really got any gifts from her." Lianne flashed a smile and looked at me with awe. I guess she was referring to the demigod.

Come to think of it, the empress also had this sort of hairstyle. 

This doesn't happen to be…?

No wonder.

"Wait, how old are you?" Of course, I was curious. 

Lianne smiled and looked away. She never gave me an answer.

We had dinner and another night ended without any trouble. I didn't have any nightmares. 

***

This time I had to bid farewell to Lianne. She'd been a great help but I couldn't rely on her forever. I couldn't burden her to that extent.

I knew that but I still didn't say anything to her and she didn't say anything either. That was kind of odd too. She was supposed to head back when we neared the border but she never went back. At first, I thought it might have to do with the fatigue and she'd return the next day- namely today. But half-deads didn't necessarily need sleep and that was their specialty.

Something wasn't right and I had to address that. "Lianne? Weren't you going back as we cross the border?"

"Yes, but I thought I'd accompany you a little further. And we haven't even reached the border by a long shot. You do realize we own the next country as in, Helsing, right? Well, at least we're ruling it despite the ongoing war." She was speaking as though it was obvious.

I was as confused as someone playing chess for the first time. "What do you mean own? I thought it was a neutral country and wasn't it supposed to be something both men and elves wanted?"

"Technically, the war is still ongoing but we're the ones running it from the shadows and that's why this break. Of course, men know it too, but at this point, they can't do anything about it." She smiled and moved on ahead. "Well, now you know why."

Is it me or are elves the bad guys?

"Hey! Don't ignore me…"

She still did. The other guys moved around as well. No one protested. Did my thoughts even matter? 

I suddenly remembered the contents of that book I read way back when. 

When elves are cornered they could be worse than demons. I didn't know how true that was, but one thing was for certain, elves couldn't be trusted casually. 

I sighed and tried to persuade her some more. "You know, whoever teams up with me, always ends up hurt. Sometimes dead even. So maybe-"

"You do realize you said that exact same thing when we met too right?" She was annoyed. Her eyes narrowed and I had to take a step back.

Why was she getting mad? Shouldn't it have been the opposite?

Dick flung his arms around me. "You don't say stuff like that! You should say 'I'll protect you even if it costs my life!" It was like he was painting the sky with his hands. 

I elbowed his stomach and he fell on the ground writhing. 

"Next time, there would be a hole there."

The very next second he started chuckling and got up.

I was more angry than necessary. I'd have to re-evaluate my trust towards Lianne. 

***

We were out of the forest. I saw the fresh sky in months. There were some clouds in the horizon but they were mostly white. The sun shined and my eyes hurt when I looked up. Maybe looking straight at the sun was a bad idea.

"We should come across a village before the evening." Lianne still led the way. She was basically the leader of the group. We only lagged behind. The only one who looked like nothing had happened at all was the demon and he was carrying all our bags too. How sturdy was this guy?

Over the course of the last few days, my high opinion of Lianne changed drastically. I still didn't know whether I could trust her or not. But since she'd saved my life again and again I leaned more on the trusting side. 

But then again every time she looked at me so longingly, I felt weird. Like really weird. How many times did I have to remind her, I wasn't her mother?

Sigh!

***

Our lunch took place exactly when the sun was right above our heads. It was midday. For the first time in a month, I had meat. "Ah! Living is really great!"

Words were pouring out of my mouth but I didn't really know what I was saying. The roasted bird in my mouth had all my attention. Who cared about language comprehension anyway?

"Chew your food at least. What's the difference between you and Biteria?" Lianne sighed and mentored me in every step. Was she my mother or something?

Biteria and I were in sync. We ate everything; more like devoured while the others couldn't even finish half of theirs. 

"Chew at least!"

What are you, my mom? Even my mom didn't use to say stuff like that you know!

  Of course, I didn't have the guts to say that out loud. "Anyway, now that we're out in the open again, it's okay for me to remove this, right?" Being a woman had its perks but I liked my original self. 

"Actaully-"

"I don't like that look on your face." My heartbeat rose, sweat poured and I gulped. Lianne was about to say something outrageous, I knew it in my bones.

"Helsing is part of our empire as well. And there are elves there. So I don't think-"

I sighed and looked down. "I get it." She just wanted to see more of this face, no doubt.

Looks like I won't be able to get this off anytime soon.

Dick's silent giggling didn't really help me feel better either. At least I had Biteria, who was still trying to bite me despite everything.. I made sure to not feed her meat, so I guess this was just her revenge.