We walked in pure silence, broken up only by the sneezing of Timi.
The group all in common didn't feel like saying a single word.
We pass the last of the houses, marking the end of our stay in Outskirs. People were staring at the group, looking not at a naked John as Celestrus still has his shirt in her hand. But at Celestrus, some take a quick look at us and ignore, but that's the small few that don't see her ears.
The huge majority catch quick sight of her ears and immediately began to distance themselves from our group, like we had a new form of the bubonic plague.
Most walked and talked, but always without a doubt, they stared at her.
She still had my hand in hers as we walked side by side, like siblings.
As we passed that last house, we walked more and more, with a lot less people being around us. Slowly as we did walk, the pathway in front of us faded out into not a dirt pathway that matched the towns own, but instead it turned into dirt, that had patched of grass that was there, but since it was used as a walking place the grass was dying and left a path for us to follow.
While the other grass around the place, where scattered trees grew, stayed green with it's nice color.
We continued to walk in complete silence with a sneeze coming from Timi again, and again.
Rosa turns to John, pushes his arm a bit into my direction. As I walk facing forward, Sply now in front of us, walking fast enough to keep herself in font of us.
John looks at Rosa.
"What?"
He says as quietly as he can, as he looks at Rosa.
Rosa rolls her eyes as she nods her head in my direction.
"What?"
John asks again, asking with genuine confusion in his voice.
She looks at John with a frustrated look and takes off her glasses. She does the same thing she did before, nodded her head in my direction as she looks at John once more after.
He looks in the direction she nodded her head, and then as if a lightbulb moment happened he pointed down at the ground with his forefinger, mouthing the words:
Now?
She gave him the same look.
This time she nodded her head:
Yeah!
She mouthed.
Angel turned to her side to look at the two of them, confused by what they were doing.
"What are you doing?"
John shakes his head as Rosa gets startled a bit.
"Nothing..."
John clears his throat, passing both the bag and the bow to Angel before taking on long strides to get to Celestrus and I.
Angel looks at Rosa.
"What's he doing?"
Rosa looks at Angel and then steps a bit closer to her.
"I told him go talk to Lazuli."
Angel nods her head, in understanding.
John comes up from behind Celestrus and I. He clears his throat as he comes up behind us.
Both Celestrus and I turn our heads to look at him.
"Could I get back my shirt?"
John asks as he hide his nipples, as if he wasn't embarrassed a few seconds ago.
Celestrus looks at his hands then, at the shirt in her other hand, then at John once more, faking his own embarrassment of the situation.
She looks so embarrassed as she hands him his shirt back, looking away from him as she passes the shirt.
"I'm so sorry, I forgot to give you the shirt back. I should have given it as soon as we left them."
He chuckles as he gets the shirt in his hand and slowly as he puts it back on he slows his walk speed and meets up in between Angel and Rosa.
Angel looks at him confused as he begins to step in speed with them and finish putting on his shirt.
"That was quick?"
Angel said.
"Well, they didn't give me a problem."
"She's talking about the talk."
"What talk?"
John asks.
"I just asked for my..."
Rosa looks at him for a second in the same annoyed look as before.
".. I was actually just going to do that."
John puts some pep in his step and gets behind us again.
We both look back at hi once more.
"We don't have anymore shirts..."
Celestrus says in a serious way, that makes it sound like a joke.
That makes John let out a chuckle of his own.
"No. No I don't want anymore shirts..."
He pauses to look at me as I look at him, my past rage now gone now, for some reason when I saw the arrow pierce him in the place that shall not be named it was... enlightening.
"Me?"
I ask him as if finishing his sentence.
He nods.
Looking to Celestrus she lets go of my hand.
"I'll be fine."
John then softly slams his hands on my shoulders and pulls me to the side.
"I won't take him forever."
John tells Celestrus as she lets out a chuckle that's less of a chuckle and an awkward empty silence filler.
John stands in the way of both Celestrus and I and looks down at me, I to him.
"Yes?"
I ask.
"What happened to you back there? And did you know she was an elf? And what the shit is going on with you kid?"
John asks those questions in quick succession of each other.
"Uhhhh..."
My minds pauses for a second as I try to think of something to say to ANYTHING he had just asked.
"No..."
He says.
"First things first. Are you okay?"
Lifting my eye patch, showing him my eye:
"Yeah, I feel better now."
John smiles at me and tilts his head, then slowly he shakes his head.
"What does that mean?"
Dropping my eye patch I look at him confused now.
"Is my eye still red?"
"No... Why does that matter?"
"Oh, well. A while back, around the same time I first met you guys. I figured out that my eye turns red under extreme anger. And under an anger more extreme than that, or when there to much release Soul Energy, I end up bleeding from my eye."
"Oh, so it's like an emotional telling for you... kinda?"
He says, sounding confused at the end.
"I'd guess so..."
I wave off the idea:
"Anyway. Yes, I'm fine."
I tell him.
"Good. Great. Now my next question. Why are you with a slave..? Better yet. An elf?"
"That's not her name."
I tell John, plain and clear.
"Sorry. I meant it like. Do you know the dangers?"
He pauses as he gets closer to me. Whispering a bit more quietly.
"Do you understand that you may very well end up getting eaten?"
John says, as if he's trying to warn me.
"John. Have you ever met an elf?"
He looks at me with a side eye as he backs up to give both of us space once more, since we both no longer need to whisper.
"Well, no. They aren't just out thee for me to look for, or find."
"So those things that have been said about elves, you haven't seen happen?"
"No, but they were documented in many books, even tales have elves eating people."
John says that and my eye grow wide.
"WHAT?!"
My voice a lot louder than I meant for it to come out.
John then looks at me wide eyed. So does everyone else, except for Sply, she just continues to look forward and walk.
"What?"
John asks, sounding a bit paniced.
"That's what was said about elves?"
I say lowering my voice now.
"Said? No, that's what has been documented about elves, they are blood sucking, body eating monsters, that worship a God, that grants them eternal life, by draining blood and horrible ri..."
"Stop."
I say interrupting what he was saying.
"None of that is true, not in the closest set of my life is that even close to the true."
"No, it is. People with long ears have been seen doing exactly that."
John says.
"No. It's not true."
John takes a breath as I finish my sentence, not with my composed tone of voice, instead with a serious voice, that is borderline angry.
"Okay Lazuli. You truly believe what you are saying?"
"Yes... I do. I can even give a reason as to why, I believe that all of that isn't true."
"Okay. Go ahead."
I pause my speaking to take a deep breath.
"I have a sister. She is also an elf and she..."
"You're an elf?"
John asks interrupting me.
"No."
"Then how is she..?"
"Not blood related."
"Oh."
"Can I finish?"
"Yeah, sorry."
I continue with my sentence:
"My sister is an elf. We have been raised together since I was five... maybe... six, seven. She has never once pushed herself to almost ham me... well, with exceptions of punching me vey hard in the shoulders."
I rub my shoulder in remembrance of her, as if I didn't leave the village just a few days ago:
"But never once, was she getting close to me to hurt me, to harm me, to ever lay a deadly finger on me. It was always sisterly love that she PAINFULLY laid on me, even with her long eared self."
John listened to me.
"That... Is it true? That you really had a sister and that she was an elf?"
I look at John confused.
"Now... JOHN. If I told you a story and it started with... "I have a sister" You would think. "Oh, his sister is really an elf." Or am I going insane...?"
John lets out a chuckle at my sarcastic remark.
"That's very true. I guess. If you have a sister that is an elf, then I'll believe you on what you say."
He puts a hand on my shoulder and shakes me a bit as we walk.
Sply's footsteps stop in front of us making us stop as well. A small moment, we both look forward toward her.
We end up at a crossroads on the pathway. Both making a stop to the dirty-ish path that we are walking on.
There's a wooden sign with pointed ends, pointing in the two different directions of the crossroads that we could go in.
Left
Derilium
Right
Kakko
The two signs have both the names of the towns supposedly along with the directions of them.
"So, where are we going?"
I ask her.
"To get to Virvanum. We have to go to Derilium."
Sply looks up at the sky as the sun gets lower, making it border between both bright and not, but before that, is the beautiful hue of orange that the sky always puts up before turning dark.
"We'll camp here for the night."
John nods.
"Yeah. I think we all need a break after… some things that have happened."
He says for the group to hear.
Softly he pats my shoulder.
He then looks at me and as if reminding himself of something, his finger goes up.
"Wait."
He runs back, I turn my head to follow his movement.
He grabs the bag and bow from Angel then breaks back into a jog to get over to me.
"Here's your bag and stuff…"
He says holding it out to me as he gets closer to me, his hands in front of my childish face:
"Try not to lose this stuff."
Taking it from him, I smile and nod.
"Thank you."