Halfblood

Chapter 13

"Well here we are, on the road again."

Pythonia certainly seems very happy for someone who literally killed someone less than half an hour ago.

"Sorry if I'm bothering you, but where are we going again?"

She stops mid step. "Very good question indeed. Do you have any ideas?"

So she hasn't even considered where to go yet... how smart of her. Thankfully, I've read my share of crime novels.

"In my world, they generally start looking for clues where the person was last seen."

She spins on her heels. "To the old forest it is then!"

"The old forest?" Even as I turn to follow, I felt a lump of dread growing in my stomach. But no one ever leaves the forest without the permission of the guardian thereof. Why does it have to be there?

"Yes. By twilight falls in fact. She was picking moonberries that day."

So she was trespassing on the guardian's land, and stealing the fruit of that land, but Pythonia believes that Kardmis has taken her? "Listen, I hate to say you could be wrong, but isn't there a chance that she could have been taken by the guardian? I mean she was breaking the code of the forest..."

Pythonia sighs. "I know she wasn't. I saw her taken. It was definitely Kardmis. I know because I tried to stop him. But when I woke up from the encounter, Rosalyn was gone."

I pull a box of tissues out of my backpack and hand it to her.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

I pull a tissue out of the box and hand it to her. "Wipe the tears away." She does so and hands me back the tissue.

"I don't want it back."

She shrugs and snaps her fingers, causing the tissue to burst into flames. "Does this work?"

I nod. "That works."

"Good." She sighs. "Now if I remember correctly, you said you'd explain exactly why you're looking for my daughter."

I nod. "It all started with a book idea..."

As I talk, the hours and miles slip away, and before I even know it, we are entering the old forest.

"...and that is how we ended up meeting you."

She nods right as we make our way into a clearing in the woods. The very same clearing where Rosalyn supposedly disappeared from.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" The creature that stepped out of the woods was tall and humanoid. But he wasn't human. He was most obviously an elf.

"Humans have not set foot in this woods since Tarvill's funeral. Why should you be the first to change that fact?"

"Wait a second, who is this Tarvill?" There is no one by that name in my notes."

"The high king Tarvill the uniter, supreme ruler of men and elves." He continues speaking, but his voice is drowned by that of the howling wind. When it finally dies down again, he is shouting.

"GET EVERYONE INSIDE... INCLUDING OUR GUESTS!" More elves appear out of the the trees, and begin ushering us into a large wooden building. "THE STORM IS UPON US!"

"What is going on?" I look around at the rough oak walls and watch the bustle as warriors quickly board up the windows, slotting torches into prepared spaces in the walls for them.

The elf who greeted us earlier came up to us. "Malthazar is angry again. He sends the storms upon this forest when he believes we have stopped him from getting what he  wishes, or in this case, when we are trying to stop him." He pauses for a moment to take a swig of water. "His armies came through here a few days earlier. There was, as always a battle... and although we defeated some of them, they still managed to get their prisoner through our lands. And now Malthazar wants to punish us for trying to stop him."

Malthazar? Elves? United kingdoms? I never wrote any of this into my book.

"But he didn't get everything he wanted." The elf motions to the wall, and I turn my gaze in the direction of his hand.

Hanging there on the wall is a long black staff, set with silver moon inlays. It looks fit for a king.  

"I don't understand." Pythonia looked shocked, frightened even. "Who is Malthazar and what would he want with the staff?"

The elf turned to her, sorrow on his face. "He wants it for his prisoner."

"And," I couldn't help but be curious. "Who is this prisoner?"

He turns towards Pythonia again. "Your daughter."