Lost in the Crossroads

Eight - The Elf I (Dein)

All was well in their lives until the Elf woke up and went ballistic.

A high-pitched shriek sound tore through the forest that morning.

Dein jolted out of her seat on one of the above-ground roots, hearing the cry loud and clear. Drishti and her exchanged nervous glances before the others bolted upright from their sleeping positions, eyes wide in surprise.

“What was that?” Kara was the first to ask, hands quickly searching for her weapons with bleary eyes.

“I don’t know.” Dein answered, scanning the area. The sound came out nowhere and she didn’t find anything suspicious around them. It was barely six in the morning, according to her watch and the sky was already lighting up, providing them a clear sight inside the forest.

The sound repeated again, only longer and sounding more anguished.

She glanced around her friends, Drishti gestured for her to crouch down at the entrance of the tree’s cradle just like her while Tabitha and Alex crawled towards their patient to provide some cover and the others steeled themselves for anything.

“Sounds like an animal to me.” Abel yawned, combing a hand through her messy raven locks. “Probably got caught in one of the traps.”

“You sure?” Fenella inquired softly.

“Let me check.” Abel answered, standing up after she gathered her knives and gun. “Dein? Drish? You guys still good? Want to come with me?” she asked, silver eyes cloudy from sleep flickered into her direction.

“Sure.” Dein smiled. Most of the time she was bored in their watch, not even her phone couldn’t expel that boredom. After all, she was used in running around the hospital tending some patients.

Drishti nodded while yawning.

Without further ado, they walked towards the direction of the continuing high-pitched sounds, somewhere close to the river in the direction of the west with Abel leading.

Abel already has her combat knife in her right hand. Beautiful and wicked blade gleaming dangerously in their friend’s hand. While Dein was holding one of the bamboo spears sharpen by Abel that mentally made her laugh. She felt like one of those tribe women guarding their Queen and was very much tempted to holler like a barbarian.

Drishti was practically skipping by her side, bamboo spear held by her right hand and singing ‘I will survive’ under her breath.

Dein gave her an incredulous look. The twenty-six years old woman wiggled her eyebrows in response and offered her left hand for her to hold. She frowned at it for a moment before transferring her hold on the spear to her left and accepted it, humming ‘I will survive’ and skipping along with Drishti.

She was honestly that bored and it somehow made her remember a funny movie they watched when they were still in college. Peaceful days, those were.

Abel used to their antics never bothered to check on what they’re doing as they were not creating loud noises compare to the animal they were upon to check.

They almost collide on Abel’s back when she abruptly stopped.

“What on earth?” she said, quickly gesturing for them to back away. Her whole body tensing and hand grip tightening on her knife’s handle.

Drishti’s hands went clammy on her as they both peered over Abel’s shoulders, eyes widening at the sight before them.

It was an animal alright, fallen and panting with its eyes closed on the side of their path. Sickeningly red blood splattered on its side and pooled on the tree roots it had fallen onto from the bamboo spears stuck on its body horizontally like a fence.

That is not the most shocking thing of all. It, apparently, has the size of a horse which is quite absurd in Dein’s opinion.

“How is that... a pig?” Drishti whispered as she let go of her hand to grip her bamboo spear tightly. Dein did the same, heart beating loudly in her chest.

“It’s a wild boar.” Abel automatically corrected her, motioning for them to back away.

For some odd reason, a black fur and slightly smaller image of boar flashed into her mind. An image she was fairly sure she saw in a biology class in high school.

“But it’s so big! They should be smaller!” She couldn’t help but exclaimed.

In response, the boar’s eyes snapped open and zeroed on them filled with resentment clearly blaming them with its state.

Drishti whimpered. Abel’s body tensed more if that was possible. And Dein bit her lip hard for the unnecessary reaction.

The boar shakily stood, splattering more blood on the ground and they slowly backtracked, as if not to agitate more the already angry and pained overly sized boar.

It let out piercing scream and charged at them.

“Move!” Abel shouted, practically pushing them to run.

Drishti and her didn’t need further convincing. They turned and ran as fast as they can, screaming alongside the boar’s grunting.

“Don’t lead it to the camp!” Abel shouted behind them.

With those words, she and Drishti unknowingly went on different directions. Dein only noticed when she caught sight of Abel and the boar hot on pursuit zooming passed them with her peripheral vision.

“Abel!” She quickly stopped and turned, catching Drishti’s wide eyes on the opposite direction.

They both chase after Abel and the boar. It was quite the hard task, Abel was the fastest among them and the boar with its large frame and quick strides even with its wounds are hard to chase especially someone with a round figure like her and Drishti’s midget strides.

They saw Abel making a hard left and the boar skidding and bumping to a tree to stop, throwing knives embedding on its hide making it shriek in pain.

“How many knives do you want till you drop dead!” Abel snarled as the boar moved to stand up again and slowly turned its body.

Catching up, Drishti poised to throw her spear. “Die, you Lion King reject!” she shouted, throwing her bamboo spear with all her might.

It didn’t reach the boar, the spear landing uselessly on the ground. Though, it seemed to infuriate the boar more than the knives Abel throw at it. It turned to their direction and made that high-pitched shriek that threaten to burst their eardrums.

They were about to run when it was obvious it will charge again on their direction when Drishti slipped on the trail of blood left by the boar with a yelp, landing on her butt.

Not wanting to leave her friend behind, Dein throw her own spear in hopes of making a change. She honestly thought she’s going to hit it but the boar with its bleeding mouth chomped on it and shattered the bamboo with its bleeding teeth, startling her.

“That’s unfair!” Dein screamed in panic, pulling Drishti to stand up.

She never expected Abel to power tackled the animal on its left side with a war cry, gleaming blade digging deep on the rich-brown fur. The boar let out an unholy shriek as it fell on its wounded side.

Dein cringed when she heard the squishy sound of flesh being penetrated and the crunching sound of bones breaking as Abel’s five-foot five height and heavy athletic weight pressed on it.

The boar trashed, shrieking defiantly against Abel who climbed on its body, clothes soaked in blood and silver eyes gleaming like the blade she was holding. Dein shivered at the sight of Abel’s hard expression, single-mindedly concentrated on finishing the task. Abel stabbed it deep on the neck then twisted her blade and slashed, pouring more blood on the floor. That was then the boar stopped breathing with its eyes still opened.

Dein exhaled in relief and sagged on the ground by Drishti’s side from the adrenaline rush.

“Ah, damn.” Drishti groaned, rubbing her butt. “That was lame.”

Dein chuckled at her disappointment. Looking back at the whole ordeal, it was actually hilarious.

“Oh!” They both raised their heads to looked at Abel who pulled something at her back and revealed a gun that could have save them the whole effort of being chased. Though, the memory of last night talk flashed in her memory. They should not use guns with every opportunity they have since the people of this world doesn’t understand of its existence and thought of it as witchcraft.

“I forgot I have a gun.” Abel blinked before shrugging, satisfied with a job well done even without the use of a gun. “Oh well, the boar is dead. Who wants a barbeque?” Abel asked casually, the emotionless soldier gone. The transition was…intriguing.

Drishti whooped in delight. Dein tiredly smiled by her side. Alternating between the edible plants and fishes from the river, she admittedly craved for some meat.

“I should tell the others.” She said, shakily standing up and helping Drishti.

“I’ll just stay here and try to retrieve my knives.” Abel said, sliding off the boar’s dead body. “You’re going too, Drish?” she asked, turning to the small red-head.

“No. I’ll stay here.”

Dein gave the boar an appraising gaze. It’s huge. Abel and Drishti will need help to skin it. “I’ll ask for Tabby and Hailey’s help. Is that good?”

“And Geneva.” Abel added, snapping her bloody fingers.

“Yes! And don’t let Kara come.” Drishti agreed, huffing.

Dein rolled her eyes at the mentioned of Kara. The woman would probably complain if she helped in cleaning the boar or handling its bloody insides. In fact, she might scream bloody murder if she saw Abel’s blood-soaked form early in the morning.

With a bounce in her steps, Dein quicken her strides. The prospect of having a delicious meal lightened her mood from the whole being chased by a giant boar ordeal.

She was surprised to see her friends standing outside the protection of the tree’s cradle huddle together and yelling at someone.

Kara probably. Dein thought, snorting.

But as she approached, she found Kara groaning on the ground with a hand pressing a cloth on her forehead a good distance from the others.

“Is that blood?” Dein questioned, catching the color of blood on the cloth. Worry seeping in her veins.

“Yeah.” Kara answered, eyes wide as she took in her appearance. “What about that on your jeans?” she asked, aghast. Dein looked down at her jeans. It does have a patch of blood stains she got from sitting on the blood covered ground.

“Where’s Drish and Abel?” Kara added, searching for the other two.

“They’re good. Abel killed the boar caught in one of the traps which explains the blood. What about you? What happened?” Dein asked, crouching in front of her wounded friend. No matter how annoying Kara, she was still their little sister and Dein didn’t like seeing one of her friends hurt.

“The elf is being a b***h! I see now why the bandits called him an Elven b***h! The b***h! He threw a stone at me and started spouting nonsense! I don’t understand a single damn thing he said but I know s**t talking when I heard it!” Kara screeched, face red and body vibrating in anger.

Drishti leaned back, overwhelmed by their youngest’s outburst. It was known that Kara is emotional, hit her with a stone she will mostly like create ruckus about it but…elf?

“Dein! Where’s Drish and Abel?” Blake asked, hiding behind the large frame of Tabitha.

Dein repeated what she told Kara and slowly approached the disaster zone. She saw the elf.

Her heart skipped a beat with the beautiful visage he made; tall, dark and handsome with golden eyes adding to his enchanting air.

They are truly in another world.

He caught her gaze and started snarling something she couldn’t understand with his baritone voice rough from dehydration.

“What is he talking about?” Dein whispered to Blake backing away and letting Alex handle the problem.

“Calm down, please.” The eldest soothed but it wasn’t working the way the man backed and leaned hard on the enormous tree, snarling like a trapped animal with fire blazing in golden eyes. “We won’t hurt you. Just take a deep breath. It’s going to be alright. Trust me.”

“That’s the problem. We don’t understand him. Even sign language doesn’t work.” Blake answered, holding the guns they all have except Abel’s. “He just won’t calm down.”

Dein also noticed that all of their belongings were pulled away from him, just in case the elf tried to used it against them. The camp-fire looked hastily drenched by water and the kettle thrown haphazardly behind.

“Uh, what is he doing?” Hailey asked, her eyes darting nervously to the elf muttering something in his breath while staring at them with those fiery golden eyes. Abel was right. He was a fighter.

Alex stopped from trying to calm down the angry elf as the air suddenly felt weird and heavy.

“Is he chanting?” Geneva, brows knitted in a frown.

“Oh my god!” Fenella yelped, tap dancing on her position as the roots slithered like snakes. “The roots are moving!”

“Guys, watch out!” Kara warned from behind them.

Before she could react to Kara’s warning, Dein was already hanging upside down with a root wrapped tightly on her left ankle and staring at the guns dropped on the ground. She groaned, shaking her head from the sudden feeling of vertigo. Dein’s eyes wildly darted around checking on her friends who are in the same position as her. Their expressions are a variety of emotions ranging from shocked to unimpressed.

Fenella was having trouble with breathing while Blake and Alex were trying to calm her down. Hailey was blinking owlishly, the long curtain of auburn hair cascading like falls. Tabitha was stretching her long body like a cat in order to reach the ground but the roots holding her raised her higher, her chest heaving as she take deep calming breaths in order not to panic like Fenella.

Geneva was totally not impressed, glowering at the elf shouting commands to the roots in his elven language.

Then her eyes swiveled onto Kara’s standing form radiating with fury. For a moment, the elf stopped spouting his commands to the roots and narrowed his eyes at the challenging look Kara was giving him. Hopefully, he wasn’t ordering the roots to kill them. They helped him for Pete’s sake!

Kara sucked in a deep breath, noticed that he caught his attention and bellowed like a baby throwing a tantrum, “ABELONE!”