SECRETS OF ELVENDALE II

CHAPTER XIV

"OK, we know that it's not only Azari that has lost her fire magic— where do we go from here?"

Farran asked the group, as they paced worriedly around the living room. Upon the coffee table was a large scroll with names written in bold ink. The Earth elf was currently sitting down on the couches, twirling a pen in hand as he brainstormed.

Currently, the only things on the scroll were neat swirls of names— the names of the fire elves that they knew lost their magic. The curving runes of 'Azari, Johnny, Vuur' were circled with hasty ink strokes, with thin arrows pointing to one large, blank circle. The cause of the magic loss.

"How about... we do a little survey amongst the fire elves to see if anyone else has lost their magic?" Emily asked, sweeping a strand of stray hair back as she leaned forward to inspect the scroll. She squinted at the unfamiliar script, pointing at the scroll as she looked confusedly at Farran.

"Um- not to sound weird or anything, but what is this, uh, swooped curvy thing you're drawing here?" She asked quizzically, and Aida's tinkling laugh soon followed her question. She batted her hand in the air, giving a tiny snort. "Don't be silly, Emily, those are obviously runes- oh."

Aira bit her lip, and looked sheepishly at Emily before apologising. "Sorry, Emily, sometimes I forget you're human... haha!" The friends giggled in response, and the ones who were pacing took a seat next to Emily. Naida leaned forward, pointing a single, slender finger atop the A rune. "These are runes— I can't think of anything to describe it, as I don't know what humans use to spell words, but they're quite simple once you get the hang of it!"

Emily lifted the scroll up, letting the light shine through it. After a few seconds of inspecting, she pointed to another rune. "What is this rune, then? How do you use it to spell? I have so many questions!" Emily quipped, and looked at the scroll again. She groaned as she placed the scroll down again, sinking into the soft couch. "You know what? You guys can just translate everything for me, and then I'll learn it in my free time. Yeah, that will work."

"It's not that hard, so we can definitely teach you when we have more time!" Azari said, patting Emily's shoulder in comfort. It had been so long that they had been friends with Emily, they often forgot that she was not from their world. It should have come to no surprise, really, that she couldn't read runes.

"Yeah, we can start with the two classifications of runes-" Farran started, but was quickly cut off by the door suddenly swinging open hard, and following it a crash of a familiar figure into their living room's hardwood flooring. A mop of olive green hair could be seen on the figure's head, and soon, the figure managed to struggle up, groaning.

"Cronan! You're here!" Azari brightened. "Come, let me help you up!"

Azari flexed her muscles as she stomped over to the limp body of Cronan sitting on their floor, dazed, and lifted his arms, dragging him up like a rag doll. Soon enough, the elf was on two feet, albeit miffed that he was manhandled by Azari.

The elf stumbled to the couches before collapsing on them, and a muffled "Hi.." could be heard from under the covers.

"So, I'm back... any new developments?" Cronan asked, once he managed to get up into a proper position on the couch.

"Well, a lot has happened, but first, we need to address why you entered the treehouse crashing through our doors." Emily fixed a glare at Cronan, who shrunk away in fright. Emily could be menacingly scary when she wanted to, especially with her signature questioning tilt of her head, and the cold glint in her stare.

"We-ell.... You could say that Ashwing tumbled down outside, and threw me off her back by accident, thereby crashing me in through your doors?"

An unholy screech of anger, despair, and shock followed that.