Bound before him, his hands felt too empty.\u00a0 Chernoe walked ahead of him with two bows draped over his shoulders.\u00a0 One was the scout\u2019s, but the other, beaten and bent out of place, belonged to Steel Tip.\u00a0 The fall had damaged beyond use, but Chernoe still didn\u2019t allow it in the hands of the ranger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still don\u2019t know why you have me tied up like this.\u00a0 You know why I\u2019ve come.\u00a0 You know my purpose here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know what you\u2019ve said your purpose is,\u201d the elf scout replied.\u00a0 \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that I believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think I planned to get caught in your snare trap?\u201d Steel Tip asked.\u00a0 \u201cAnd was it also my plan to break my bow and end up in your company?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what you planned.\u00a0 I have my suspicions.\u00a0 You seem like a petulant child and nothing more, but looks can be deceiving, hence my caution.\u00a0 You\u2019d do well to learn the same patience.\u00a0 In any case, you\u2019ll be taken to Tarenda, which is what you wanted anyway, is it not?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had just hoped it would not be in shackles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before long, the pair of them stepped past a thick copse of trees, and beheld the citadel in the distance.\u00a0 Its tall ivory towers and treetop bridges froze Steel Tip in his tracks.\u00a0 Chernoe continued on for several steps before he realized he was not being followed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like it before.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll still be there whether you walk or not.\u00a0 Come on.\u00a0 We\u2019re still a long way from the citadel.\u201d<\/p>\n
As they drew nearer to the city of the elves, others of Chernoe\u2019s kind focused on the odd site of the human he led in tow.\u00a0 He did not bother to pull his hood up, then.\u00a0 There was no way to stop the interest in the ranger, and the scout even picked up a few other tagalongs in his journey to the queen.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Upon the treetops, wooden bridges swayed in the gentle breeze.\u00a0 While the elves carried along with no worries, Steel Tip chose very slow, careful footfalls toward the center of each overpass.\u00a0 They were higher up than he dared to estimate, but he knew just by the ascent on the oversized fungi that lined one of the massive synoaks that it was much higher than he preferred to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you want to meet Tarenda by nightfall or not?\u201d Chernoe asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expected to meet her on the ground,\u201d the ranger returned.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m supposed to be her for training, but I don\u2019t think my legs will ever work again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The elves had the means to last far longer than any human, Steel Tip ventured.\u00a0 How else could they navigate the winding paths of their cities so?\u00a0 And without food, no less!<\/p>\n
Chernoe and his quarry entered the citadel, where they were met by a familiar face.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve come seeking Tarenda, no doubt,\u201d Enidine said.\u00a0 \u201cShe isn\u2019t here, I\u2019m afraid.\u00a0 Last I heard she was tending to the garden.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA queen, tending a garden?\u201d Steel Tip asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour prisoner says much considering his place,\u201d the maiden insisted.<\/p>\n
Chernoe flashed a one-sided grin.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s not my prisoner\u2026 yet.\u00a0 Supposedly, he\u2019s come to speak to the queen.\u00a0 All I\u2019ve heard is him spouting some nonsense about some fellow named Icarus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Enidine stood straighter at the mention of that name.\u00a0 \u201cIcarus?\u00a0 The Icarus?\u201d<\/p>\n
Steel Tip swallowed away his apprehension, and nodded.\u00a0 \u201cIcarus Callatuil.\u00a0 Of Ippius.\u201d<\/p>\n
Enidine cast her gaze at Chernoe again, her eyes narrowed.\u00a0 \u201cEven the fact that he knows of Icarus\u2014while you don\u2019t\u2014is worthy of an audience with Tarenda.\u00a0 If I were you, I\u2019d take him to her right away.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a plaintive nod, the scout continued on his way.\u00a0 Steel Tip offered up a subtle bow to the maiden, prompting a furtive giggle.\u00a0 Enidine went on with her business, though, except to watch Chernoe and his tarry hurry out the gateway toward the dais.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope you\u2019re not one with a fear of heights,\u201d the scout said.<\/p>\n
The ranger gnashed his teeth together.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019d say I wasn\u2019t, but then, I\u2019d never been this high off the ground before.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key is to think about it like this.\u00a0 You\u2019d die if you fell from fifteen feet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s reassuring,\u201d the ranger said.\u00a0 All the while he thought about his own precipitous fall in the past\u2014one that had robbed him of his memories.\u00a0 He had worked for some time at piecing together who he was once more, a task that Icarus had helped him with.<\/p>\n
Chernoe handed him his bow, and in a blink of an eye, had produced a small blade.\u00a0 Steel Tip was free of his bindings before he realized it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy have you freed me now?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll hold on better if you have both hands available to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHold on better?\u201d<\/p>\n
Without another warning, Chernoe stepped to the side of the oversized bough.\u00a0 While Steel Tip looked on to the beautiful dais up above, the elven scout took his bow and raised it above his head.\u00a0 He lay it down upon a firm cord, and leapt into the air.\u00a0 Without any further instructions to the ranger, he let gravity take its course, and he slid down the long expanse until he disappeared below.<\/p>\n
Steel Tip\u2019s eyes opened wide, and he only became aware of his fear when he realized he has stopped breathing.\u00a0 Alone atop an impossibly humongous tree, he inched his way toward the edge of the bough, and brought up his bow.\u00a0 \u201cThis is a bad idea,\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n
Clenching his hands close together, his knuckles turned stark white, and he could hear them pop in protest.\u00a0 As he let his weight fall upon the simple, damaged bow, he noticed that it, too, registered an objection.\u00a0 But with Chernoe already so far below, he knew he had no choice.\u00a0 He leapt up, and began the fearful slide down the rope.<\/p>\n
Cefen\u2019adiel raced by him.\u00a0 Trees and winged fauna were there and gone in a blink of an eye, and for brief moments of his rapid journey, he could see the sky above.\u00a0 Then, he was beneath the forest canopy once more, lush greenery becoming one big blur as tears rose up in his eyes.\u00a0 As he blinked them away, he noticed Chernoe waiting for him not so far below.\u00a0 The rope led straight into another of those mighty synoaks, yet the elven scout was far ahead of it, waving his hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t forget to let go!\u201d he cried.<\/p>\n
Still high off the ground, Steel Tip couldn\u2019t begin to imagine dropping from the sky.\u00a0 But as the thought of slamming into the tree began apparent, he alternated glances between that and the ground.\u00a0 A bed of verdant emerald was below him, and Chernoe bounced upon it.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet go!\u201d<\/p>\n
The ranger exhaled a breath so fleeting that he didn\u2019t even feel it.\u00a0 Then, without any further protest, he let his hand slip from his bow, and careened from his sliding perch.<\/p>\n
Steel Tip fell like a stone toward Chernoe, who arched his eyebrow as the human descended.\u00a0 The bed of moss that he stood on had been cultivated over time to serve as a sort of landing pad for the elves who needed to drop from the citadel in a timely manner.\u00a0 Stretched out over a large pond, it was as safe a place as any to attempt a landing.\u00a0 But the ranger wasn\u2019t attempting a landing, the scout realized.\u00a0 He was merely allowing himself to fall.<\/p>\n
With undirected weight crashing upon the moss, Chernoe could see the pad stretched impossibly thin, the verdant green giving way to a pale lime that looked like it was ready to snap at any moment.\u00a0 The moss persevered, though, and launched Steel Tip back into the air\u2014and Chernoe with him.<\/p>\n
The two landed several dozen feet away on more solid ground, with the human rolling end over end until he came to a stop.\u00a0 The elf walked to him, and looked down with a wry smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cI neglected to think of how much more a human weighs than an elf,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bound before him, his hands felt too empty.\u00a0 Chernoe walked ahead of him with two bows draped over his shoulders.\u00a0 One was the scout\u2019s, but the other, beaten and bent out of place, belonged to Steel Tip.\u00a0 The fall had damaged beyond use, but Chernoe still didn\u2019t allow it in the hands of the ranger. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1UVey-15x","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4188,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187\/revisions\/4188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}