Tales of the Lost and the Wilds [on hold]

The Captured Prince

Loud screeches and the panic-struck flapping of wings disturbed the silence in the Verithal passage. I crouched on the soaring pinnacle of rocks at the outskirts of my village and closed my eyes, listening closely for sounds carried by the wind.

There was a scuffle up ahead. Our hunters ambushing a soldier. The singing of blades. A startled horse's neigh and hooves trampling on the soil. Familiar voices yell.

Familiar, save for one.

I concentrated on the unfamiliar, trying to single out the one unknown voice in the fray. A man. He slurred his words like someone had struck him. I couldn't decipher what he tried to say or his language. One human? Possibly a scout. They had grown bolder the past few months, venturing further into our territory.

If this was a human, it was very close to our village now. Some of our council members had already spoken of the need to pack up and move even deeper into the woods. But Rhadoron, the leader of the hunters, insisted we couldn't lose more ground and had to make our stand here.

"Farun? What are you hearing? Is it a human?"

A woman's voice pierced my ears with a sharp, stabbing pain. I gasped and snapped out of my trance. The sudden assault on my senses disorientated me for a moment, but as my vision cleared, I looked into my sister's wide, grey eyes. She was perched beside me on the Listening Rocks.

I scowled, my ears still ringing. "Lysira, how many times do I have to tell you? Do not jump me when I'm in a trance. Even the feathering of wind through the grass and the trickle of water are loud, let alone your yelling."

Lysira smiled sheepishly, twirling a strand of dark brown hair around her finger. "Sorry, I was just curious," she said. "So, what was it?"

I sighed and turned to the road leading into the forest ahead. "A human. A scout, I think. Bad news."

"Really? Here? At our little village?"

"It would hardly be surprising now, would it?" I bit. "We cultivate much of our food. Destroy the supply, and we won't be able to support the hunters at the front."

"So, you truly think it's a human?" Lysira pressed a hand to her forehead to shield her eyes as she gazed at the road as well. "We should go take a look."

"What?" I wrinkled my nose. "Why would you want to go see a human? It's dead by now. As it should be."

Lysira prodded me in the ribs. "Come on, where's your sense of adventure?" she teased me. "Aren't you a little curious if they're as ugly and filled with warts as our uncle claimed?"

"No." I crossed my arms. "The only good human is a dead one, and the only reason to see their faces is to put an arrow through it."

Lysira rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't be such mudbug. Let's go check it out."

I didn't bother fighting my sister as she pulled me down with her. Lysira was incredibly pigheaded and if she wanted something, there was little I or anyone else could do to talk her out of it. But I did mutter half-hearted protests under my breath as we stepped onto the road together.

I looked over my shoulder. I had no intention of brazenly asking our hunters about the human they were fighting. Lysira, on the other hand, was shameless. If I left her alone, she'd probably make a fool of herself in front of them.

"I'm going back," I declared. "What's with your sudden curiosity about our enemy, anyway?"

Lysira raised a brow. "Oh, I'm the curious one, am I? I wasn't the one sitting on the Listening Rocks, spying on the hunters."