Kingdom's fate

Rocky beginnings

As the group trekked up the jagged landscape, the trees swayed and sighed in the ghastly wind. But from afar, you'd almost think they were tiny ants, in the vast valley of a plethora of gruesome creatures.

"The ogres are beginning to stir," Aelfric told the centaur, knowing Leaf would've already realised considering the elves' excellent hearing. 

However, Leaf seemed to be distracted, attempting to take aim at a nearby unsuspecting deer. After all, they hadn't eaten in almost a full day, and would need to replenish themselves before getting into yet another fight.

Telasius set up a small campfire in a cave, as to not draw any attention from unwanted visitors and cracked open a bottle of wine.

"Cheers!" Leaf grinned whilst clinking glasses with the centaur.

The prince seemed to be in another world, sat outside the cave's entrance pensively watching the sun drift below the mountain they had spent all day climbing. He knew there was danger coming, and feared for his friend who had never even heard of adventures like these outside of the books in libraries. He had already got himself seriously injured, what if it happened again?

"Aelfric? Are you okay, mellon nin?" Leaf asked with a concerned look on his face, placing himself down on a smooth boulder next to Aelfric.

"I'm fine. I just need to think of a plan," the prince muttered, tying his silky hair into a long braid. "You should convince Telasius to get some rest."

Unlike most beings, elves did not need to sleep at night. However, the centaur was stubbornly insisting that falling asleep would only make him less alert for any suprise attacks.

Eventually, he did fall asleep and Leaf sharpened his blade whilst Aelfric studied the map he had brought from his father's library. His father had most likely set out a hunt to look for him, he thought. Regardless, this did not affect the prince, who still felt some resent from their last conversation. After all, that was what started this whole journey.

"Prince boy, look out!" Telasius yelled abruptly to the distracted elf.

He pulled out his bow and arrow and saw a cluster of ogres groggily making their way to the cave holding pitch forks and spears.

Aelfric realised what he needed to do. 

"Run," he commanded.

"But surely we must fight?" Leaf asked, clearly puzzled.

"Just trust me. You too, Telasius."

The centaur looked doubtful but followed the elves up onto the hills above where they were in plain sight of the creatures.

 "So now what?" Leaf frowned, still not sure what the prince was doing.

"With a high ground advantage, we can shoot them without getting too close. I can't risk any more..." he paused to stare into his friend's eyes."... accidents happening."

"I appreciate the sentiment, but I can take care of myself thank you very much."

"Really? So we had to carry you all the way to that town for fun?"

"You really think you're all that bu-" Leaf began to retort before Telasius interrupted them.

"You two's arguing is going to get us killed. Look, the ogres are already starting to climb up. Try to shoot them off."

Normally, the elf would have gotten annoyed at someone for trying to take over, but he was not foolish enough to let his emotions kill them all there and then.

Fortunately, with their height advantage, it didn't take too long to stop the ogres from advancing any longer.

"Almost beat your record,35," Leaf smirked towards his elven friend.

"Nice try, I got 40," he smiled back, referring to the amount of arrows hit. Despite their first meetings, the town elf had greatly improved in his skill in archery over the years, with mostly the help of his instructor and Aelfric in his free time.

As they turned around, they realised there were people riding on horseback over the sandy hills.

Aelfric couldn't make out who they were, but he had a feeling they shouldn't attack immediately.

"Stay down," he warned, noticing Telasius's bow rise from his side.

A woman wearing a dark hood over her face, approached the prince and leapt off of her horse.