Tales of the Lost and the Wilds [on hold]

Midnight Tryst

The prisoner's words lingered in my mind long after I left him.

Obviously, I hadn't given the human the chance to finish his story. To poison my mind any further. To imply there was any we at all between him and me. The only one in trouble here was the human, any human, really, who dared to trespass in our woods. For his insolence, I'd immediately thrown the human back into his prison, locked the door, and left.

Yet, it appeared he had managed to poison my mind all the same because I was still thinking about him.

How did he have the audacity to accuse us of these blood crimes in the first place? All he'd said was nonsense, of course, but... I still wanted to know what made him say it. I wasn't going back to ask, however. I could already imagine the smugness on the human's face when I came crawling back for answers. No way.

One thing was for certain, however: the prisoner had thoroughly ruined my nightly rest. He could look forward to me being even less patient with him in the morning.

Night had fallen hours ago, and I was still lying on my back, staring a the ceiling of my room with a racing heart. Eventually, I gave up on trying to sleep and got up from my bed. I tiptoed into the hallway, carefully avoiding all the wooden planks underfoot that I knew squeaked.

It seemed I wasn't the only one with the idea of sneaking out tonight, however. Walking past my sister's room, I noticed the door was open a crack. Moonlight shone into the hallway through the opening.

With a frown, I slinked to her room and pushed the door open further to peek inside. There was a bump in her bed, but it clearly wasn't Lysira. I didn't hear any breathing coming from under the sheets.

Still, to make sure, I went into the room and pulled the covers away. A bunch of pillows piled up meticulously to make it look like her. The oldest trick in the book.

Where could she have gone? She wouldn't be so bold as sneak to the human prisoner in the middle of the night, would she? ... Shit, I actually wouldn't put that past her. She'd been so eager to see him for some reason.

I resumed my way outside, biting my tongue to stop myself from cursing under my breath. For a moment, I considered waking my parents, or even our village's Elder to let them know Lysira was gone. But I wouldn't yet. It looked like my sister had left her room herself voluntarily. And contrary to what my dear sister always seemed to think, I wasn't out to spoil her fun. On the contrary, she had a way of making me do things I didn't want to do. Seemed like I was going back to the barn and the human after all.

Great. Couldn't wait.

I slipped out of the house and stepped into the dark. The forest during the night sounded very different than during the day. Instead of birds singing, there were crickets chirping. When I closed my eyes and concentrated, I heard the soft humming of fireflies near the lake.

I wished I could sit by the lake, listen to nature's symphony, and watch the little lights dance on the water. That never failed to calm me and lull me to sleep. Unfortunately, I had to go to an unsightly mistake of nature and snatch my sister out of his claws instead.

I walked on the meandering dirt path leading to the barn. But then I picked up footsteps in the distance in the Verithal passage. My heart drummed in my chest. More humans, here to free their wicked prince after all? I had believed the prince had spoken the truth when he said nobody would come for him, if only because he was so obnoxious. I could never take his words at face value. I knew I couldn't damn it, yet I foolishly had.

As I closed my eyes to focus, however, I realised the footsteps were leading away from the village. There was also only one person taking careful, light steps. An elf sneaking out, not a human sneaking in.