Fable - Ask An Escort to Vel Anir

[Varo]

Varo grimaced, leaning back against the tree and catching his breath for a moment as he glanced down at his wound. His hand slipped away from it for a moment, and he saw the deep gash into his flesh. Fuck me.

He thought to himself.

Perhaps he had been a bit foolish, too aggressive. He could have waited until the mans back was turned and then attacked. Instead he'd wanted to get it over with, wanted to just be free and make sure that they could get away.

Stupid. He cursed himself.

"Just a minute or two." Varo agreed with a nod of his head. "Don't suppose you have a needle and thread hidden somewhere?"

He asked with a smile, trying to hide some of his pain and paranoia.

 

[Colette]

A frown formed upon Colette’s lips.

This gash was bad, much worse than he had let on. The stains on her clothes helped tell that story well. What was even more terrible was just how helpless she felt. She had no idea what to do in this situation.

”A needle and thread?” she thought for a moment before announcing, ”no, no such luck.” She pulled the dagger from her waistband and straightened one of the legs of her tanned pants.

This was better than nothing. Probably.

Using the dagger as leverage she cut and tore at her right-leg near the knee. Releasing a large piece of cotton fabric that she folded over once.

The Anirian moved in closer towards Varo and pressed the fabric against his open wound, ”I think… I think you’re supposed to apply pressure.” She stared up at him and bit her lower lip.

”I’m not a field medic, I’m sorry.”

 

[Varo]

Varo grimaced as she pressed the cloth against his side, a breath sucking in through his teeth. "Well, can't have all the luck."

He commented quietly, forcing himself to take deep breaths as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He could still feel his heart thundering away in his chest, adrenaline pumping through him as the threat of Bandits looked behind them. He tried to calm himself, knowing that the slower his heart went the better it would be.

Slowly he collected himself.

He tried to think of home. The glades his mother had been famous for, the gardens that his cousins had tended. He fell into a slow and quiet trance for a moment, almost meditative. A technique his father had taught him, one of many that he had nearly forgotten.

After a minute he could feel his heart slow, his wound still throbbing but the bleeding crawling to a near stop.

His hand came up to cover Colette's, bloody fingers folding atop hers to hold the torn clothes.

"We should get going." He said softly, glancing down at her as his eyes opened. "Need that head start."

 

[Colette]

Colette kept a firm grasp on the rough bandage. She kept an eye on Varo's face as his breaths got heavy and his eyes seemed to roll back into his head. For a split second she thought he might've been passing out.

She kept quiet when she realized he was just relaxing or meditating or whatever it was that elves do when they're hurt.

They'd have to move soon. If those bandits caught up to them now she, well she didn't want to think about what they might do. But she knew that the blood flow needed to cease or Varo wouldn't be able to make it and she also knew that she wasn't going to leave him behind.

It felt like an eternity until his fingers moved over her own and covered his wound.

"Let's go," she said as she tried to help him up. His spirit seemed to have improved and the blood loss was lessening quicker than she would've expected. That pressure trick must've been a really great idea after all.

Once they had passed a boulder and a few more trees she spotted what appeared to be a hole in the ground near a creek bed. Perhaps it was a cave or some sort of animal's dwelling. "Do you think we could take shelter in there?"

Her head swiveled to face his before asking, "or should we attempt to get back to the road or to civilization before daybreak?" If the bandits were truly keen to hunt them down they'd be easier to spot in the day light when the bandit's were sober.

 

[Varo]

As Colette pointed out the cave Varo hesitate for a moment.

His lips thinned and he glanced down at the wound on his side. He had slowed his heart, staunched the bleeding, but he knew that the more he moved the better chance there was of it starting to be a problem again.

"Cave." He told her quietly.

Making it back to civilization would be nice, but...they had no idea what town was nearby. At least Varo had no idea. He was still missing half a day because of that Guardsmen that had blackjacked him.

The open road wasn't a good choice either, too easy to track someone on. Wait. Shouldn't she know all this?

Varo thought to himself with a furrowed brow, glancing at the strange cave as they drew closer to it.

It was large enough for both of them, there was no question of that, but there was also no telling just how far it went. Or what was inside of it.

"You know." The half-elf commented dryly. "My father taught me a lot of things about nature."

He frowned. "I just wish I'd paid better attention."

 

[Colette]

"The cave it is," she said as they hobbled towards the opening.

Inside it was cooler and the air within the cave felt damp. She couldn't tell how far or how deep it went but it was obviously large enough to house... other creatures. Best not dwell on that thought, they could stay near the cave entrance for now.

Colette smirked at the elf's comment. "I wish you would've paid more attention to him too." As they neared one of the interior cave walls she relinquished her hold on the man's wrist so that he could rest his back against the damp, rocky, surface. "I grew up in Vel Anir. Didn't do much camping... unfortunately."

She slumped down herself against the wall of the cave, feeling the weight of today's events finally hitting her like a ton of bricks.

"I shouldn't even be here." she thought aloud. It was the truth but complaining about her life probably wasn't something appropriate at a time when her fellow escapee was severely injured. "We're required to serve in Vel Anir. I was picked to serve here in the north. The wilderness. I can't imagine a worse match for my talents."

She allowed a quick, dismissive laugh, at her own misfortunate.

"How are you? Do you want me to see if I can find you any water or anything?"

 

[Varo]

"I'll be alright, best stay in here for the rest of the night." Varo said as he shook his head and he leaned against the wall. One hand was still holding the ripped up cloth to his side. The bleeding had stopped now, and fairly soon the wound would begin to heal himself.

Briefly he hoped that Colette was ignorant enough about the anatomy of his people that he could just claim Elves healed faster. It would save him from coming up with another lie. "You're required to serve?"

He echoed for a moment, his brow furrowing.

"In Ivladrin forcing someone to fight is as barbaric as you can get." Then again, his people hadn't seen a war in...well he wasn't entirely sure how long. His father said that they had sent Rangers to the battles with Vel Anir, but that had been out of choice.

Ivladrin was called the Hidden City, and there was a reason for that. Most Humans likely didn't even know it existed.

His head shook.

"At least you're learning something." Varo laughed. "Meeting handsome elven men too."

That was something.

 

[Colette]

Blonde hair shook as she nodded in agreement. She didn't want to venture back out of the cave and she especially didn't want to explore deeper into the cave for water.

She crossed her arms and leaned back, comforting herself against the wet surface of the cave.

"It's our civic duty. Someone has to defend Vel Anir. I was just hoping that I'd end up in the homeguard not on the frontier." She leveled her chin against her knees as she stared outwards past Varo into the night outside the cave. Focusing on the crickets and the occasional hooting of owls.

Colette had done a fine job of not becoming overly homesick during her service yet this brush with death or captivity or whatever ill fate she had avoided was causing her to reminisce. Helping her father with his masonry work, baking with her mother, or going to grab a cup of coffee or tea with her friends.

What snapped her out of the fond memories of home was Varo's laughter and quip. A smile came easy to her despite the rosy color her cheeks took on.

"I didn't know handsome elven men existed until today." Which was, admittedly, something she had indeed learned from this experience.

"Ivladrin? Is that where you're from? I thought it was Alliria."

 

[Varo]

Varo smiled. It was a winning sort of smile, the sort that a man who had quietly learned something during a game of cards might have worn. "Well, I'm glad I could teach such a lesson."

He scooted just a tad closer to her, just a tad.

The talk of a 'homeguard' confused him, though from the context he could tell it was probably another piece of the military. She had spoken of being assigned to the north, which made him wonder if there was a south, west, and east.

It was a question, he decided, for another time.

He could tell that she was wavering, confidence shaky. It was as though this were the first time she had been away from home. "I live in Alliria now, but I was born in Ivladrin."

Varo explained.

"It's a city in the Falwood, further than Fal'Addas." He did not think telling her that was a problem, even if she returned she wouldn't exactly know where it was. "I don't think your people even know it exists."

 

[Colette]

Colette sat firm as Varo inched closer to her. The intimacy of the moment was one of the few bright points she'd experienced in the last twenty-four hours.

Ivladrin. Elvish words were so strange to her.

Her eyes widened when he mentioned that it was a city within the Falwood although she bit her tongue to stifle any sort of gut reaction to that place's mention. "I've never heard of Ivladrin." She wasn't exactly sure if she was saying it correctly.

"I've never been to Fal'Addas. Is it true that they..." she wasn't sure if it was appropriate to ask if elves eat human infants as a delicacy. This was a well-known fact in Vel Anir but it always struck Colette as odd. "...nevermind. What are elvish cities like?"

What she really wanted to ask, aside from the human infant question, was why the elves wanted to eradicate humans and Vel Anir. She'd grown up being told that elves hated humans. That they wanted to wipe Vel Anir off the face of Arethil and grow a huge forest city in its stead before moving on to Alliria and Oban and Elbion.

But Varo didn't seem like the kind of person who would want to kill Colette just because she was human. Perhaps that was why he lived in Alliria now? He wasn't welcomed in that terrible place to the south any longer.

 

[Varo]

He smiled for a moment. "Like I said, I don't think a lot of you guys have heard of Ivladrin."

Varo closed his eyes for a moment, considering her question and picturing things back home. There were many who thought of Elven Cities as something unique, something that no man could ever build. Varo wasn't entirely certain of that, but it was most definitely different than Aliria.

His eyes opened, and he looked at Colette.

"Imagine a forest." The young thief said. "A grove, with trees bigger than anything else."

Varo continued on. "Now imagine those trees grew out into buildings, and those buildings grew into the skies."

That was Ivladrin.

"Everything is perfect, natural, within it's place." He told her. "There are no homes crushed by others, no slums. Every wall is alive and as hard as stone. Flowers grow and gardens are as common as cobbles."

It was only then that he realized how much he actually missed his home. How much he wished he was back in Ivladrin. "Ivladrin is a living place, a forest and city all the same."

 

[Colette]

So, it was true that elves lived inside of the trees.

But the way he described it was much different than how Anirians talked about it. In Vel Anir the assertion was made to make elves seem like savages. To hear Varo explain it, well, it sounded lovely.

”That sounds beautiful,” she said with a disappointment to her voice. ”And all of their cities are like this?”

She was convinced, since she was a child, that if the elves of the Falwood just spent time in Vel Anir they’d realize how wrong they were. They’d understand that Anirians were good people who just wanted to live their lives.

Colette stared at Varo with determined blue eyes. ”In Vel Anir most of us don’t understand why elves hate us so much.” The blonde girl bit at her lower lip before continuing, ”I know you aren’t like that but I thought maybe you could explain it. Is it because we don’t live in trees?”

She truly couldn’t fathom any other reasons why.

 

[Varo]

"Not all, but most." Varo explained. Fal'Addas and Ivladrin certainly were, though the latter had a docks and piers as well. All of it grew out of the forest, of course, the harbors almost seeming to grow out of the ground itself.

"Lev'alen is made of stone." He explained with a smile. "But not like your cities."

He remembered visiting the city, his father explaining how it was created. "Instead of stacked bricks, it is carved. Over the centuries they brought it forth from a great quarry of marble. It seems set into the earth itself."

Varo took a breath, walking along a memory that he had long forgotten.

He seemed to revel in that thought for a moment, though as he listened to her next question the memory seemed to shatter.

His eyes snapped open, and he looked at her in confusion. "What?"

Varo sounded incredulous.

"We don't hate you!" He exclaimed, frowning. "Well...most of us don't."

Most remembered the wars, the genocides, the battles. It was a horrid memory for both, but few Elves clung to such hate for long. They knew humanity did not hold such long memories, that many who would committed the crimes were already passed. "My father always said that you were young, short sighted. That you couldn't see the ages pass and thus made mistakes we wouldn't. Your people are just..."

He frowned.

"But he...we don't hate you." Varo looked at her. "Not all of you."

Was that the difference? Did they hate him just because of who he was? "If I took you to Ivladrin tomorrow, no one would even think of hurting you."

Varo said, his voice as strong as an oak, not knowing how else to explain.

 

[Colette]

Blue eyes were ablaze as he described the the city carved into the marble quarry. Lev'alen he'd called it. Sounded like a sight just as incredible as the living cities made out of trees.

His explanation about not hating humans made sense and calling humans young initially felt like a sleight to her but she recalled hearing that elves lived for a very long time. Some Anirians even claimed that elves didn't have souls and thus they never really died. She wasn't sure if she believed that one though.

But when he mentioned bringing Colette to an elvish city, the city of his birth, and that no one would bat an eye at it...

She chewed on her tongue for a second, not really sure what to say. "Vel Anir is not like that." He had to already know that though. It wasn't like there weren't occasional elves or dwarves or orcs conducting business within Vel Anir but they always traveled in groups. An lone elf within many parts of the city was a dead elf.

"You wouldn't be safe if I took you to my home." Had she been deceived for her life or was it Varo who was deceiving her now? He seemed honest and he had helped her more than once despite his place of initially being a prisoner. "Most of us believe that elves want to wipe us away. Demolish our city and kill us all. I don't, well, I don't know what I think."

Colette forced a smile to try and break any tension she had just created before adding, "I know that I believe you. I don't think you would hurt me. If enough elves are like you then maybe it would just take Anirians getting to know your people to put an end to a lot of that foolishness."

There was one last lingering thing she wanted to ask him. But she knew it may not be appropriate.

"Why did you steal from that man?" She'd grown up in the middle class of Vel Anir. The notion of stealing to survive was something entirely alien to her.

 

[Varo]

He listened to her, nodding his head as she spoke of Vel Anir.

A second after he hesitated, realizing that he had perhaps made a mistake. "There are some elves who do hate humans, don't look kindly on the wars and remember all the deaths."

He frowned.

The last thing Varo wanted was for Colette to get the impression she could simply walk into the Falwood and make friends with everyone she met. Though his people were more forgiving, kind, there were still those who clung to the bitterness. Particularly those who still lived closer to Vel Anir itself.

"But by and large most of us just...want to live. My father certainly only wants peace." He himself was evidence of that fact, given who his mother had been. His lips thinned for a moment, and then his head shook.

When her next question came Varo blinked.

"Well." He said. "It seemed a good opportunity to do so..."

Had he hit the road he would have gotten away with it too, instead he'd given into the temptation of cards and gambling.

He offered her a wry smile, the charm of it almost overwhelming as he slipped into a more honest answer. "I had to run away from home a few years ago, and since then..."

Varo trailed off for a second.

"I do what I have to to survive." Stealing a bit of coin that was just going to go to some noble in Vel Anir didn't seem too bad an idea.

He was no angel, nor was anyone in the gang back home, but they weren't the worst either. They tried not to steal from those too poor, and they never hurt anyone. Not if they could help it.

 

[Colette]

So, there were morsels of truth to the Anirian version of the story too. If Colette had learned anything in her time with the guard it was that life was far more complicated than she had originally believed. Not everyone was as kind as she had imagined and those whom she had grown up being told wished her death weren't all that bad either.

Her nose scrunched up at Varo's explanation of why he had resorted to being a cutpurse however.

All she knew was what she had grown up experiencing. Her father had worked as an apprentice before her birth and became a mason. Her neighbors were carpenters. Her best friend growing up had come from a long line of blacksmiths.

Surely running away from home had put strains on the half-elf that Colette couldn't begin to imagine. But why was a life of honest work not available to him? That didn't make sense to her.

"Why did you have to run away from home?" She wondered aloud before correcting herself, "I'm sorry. That's none of my business... I just..."

She let out a sigh of resignation. "The next time the guard catches you might be the last and I know what happens to elven criminals who get shipped to Vel Anir." If they were lucky they were pressed into forced labor at some Virak mine or a Weiroon factory. If they were less lucky they were likely subjected to who knows what kinds of horrors before meeting an untimely end.

Colette shivered from the cold of the cave and moved in a bit closer to Varo. "If you could return home I think you'd be safer there. But I don't mean to pry, it's none of my business."

 

[Varo]

Varo wished that they could have started a fire, but he knew that would have easily given them away. The smoke would be seen for miles and the Bandits would be upon them in a heartbeat.

Better to just be a bit cold. He shifted a bit more, huddling against the wall until he was nearly against Colette. "It's complicated."

He told her quietly.

"It was...I had to..." Varo knew he couldn't tell the truth. The moment she found out what he really was Colette would likely see him as more of a monster than the bandits. His teeth sunk into his lips for a moment, then he continued. "It was better for me to leave than to stay. For me and my family."

Though he'd never explained to them why.

The Wolf had carried him miles from the city the first time he had turned, and the week after that he had been so paranoid...he'd known that he had to go.

"I'll go back to Alliria. I'll be alright there." He told her quietly. "I was only on the road to...

He frowned, realizing that he couldn't very well tell her he had been scouting a different caravan the group wanted to rob. Not with how she'd reacted to him just taking a small purse. "Meet a friend."

Varo wondered why he cared what she thought.

 

[Colette]

Colette Maconner curled herself into a ball to warm herself up as much as possible. The added body heat from Varo's close proximity made it so that she was almost comfortable.

A hand ran through her blonde hair while her lips squeezed together in contemplation. "I'm sorry," she said in response to his mysterious dilemma. "I can't imagine not being able to ever go back home. That must be hard."

She raised a thin eyebrow at his next statement.

"A friend?" Was this another criminal? His frown and brief pause made her question why he wasn't so forthcoming there. Maybe he just didn't want to talk about it. That was okay, she thought.

Not wanting to dwell on who this friend may or may not be she instead quickly followed up her question by asking a completely different one, "do you like Alliria? I've only been once, when I was a girl, and my memories of it aren't very fond." It wasn't that Alliria was a bad place, other than The Shallows from what she was told, but Alliria paled in comparison to the splendor of Vel Anir. At least, her mind told her so.

Her shoulders slouched whilst her back pressed against the cave wall and she got more comfortable sitting so close to the half-elf. "Maybe one day you can come to Vel Anir. We can buy you a big hat to hide your ears and I can show you around. It's actually a pretty lovely place." She smiled at him, knowing that he probably never would feel comfortable seeing her home.

 

[Varo]

"it's not so bad." Varo said quietly.

He missed Ivladrin dearly. It had been his home for most of his life, and he had not left because of his own choice. He had gone because he'd needed to. There were days when he wished he was still there, nights where all he dreamed of was the sea and the forest.

Thinking about it now made him long to go back, even though he knew he couldn't.

Part of him was thankful when she did not press the issue of his 'friend'. It was an explanation he did not want to get into, and lying to her felt...wrong. As strange as that was.

Lying was half of his life now, it was easy. So why not now? "It suits me well enough."

Varo mused.

"The inner-city is nice, and I've made more friends than I can count." Meaning he conned half of them and charmed the other half. "It's nothing like home, but there's an...appeal to it."

He smiled for a moment, listening to her talk about getting him a hat. He chuckled slightly. "Could be fun."

Varo grinned.

"I bet I could even make a few friends there." He raised his hand and let it run through his copper hair. "Long as the hat fits."

 

[Colette]

It wasn't so bad.

That's what someone who was homesick to their very core would say. Not so bad as to complain about it openly but the pain of missing their home still ate away at them. Colette knew that pain because for the brief time she was away from home she had felt it.

How much longer had Varo been feeling that pain?

"I think we can find someone to fit you for an appropriate hat in Alliria," she said with a giggle.

A wry smile overcame her face just in time for her to ask, "do you think that you're good at making friends?"

She certainly believed he was. He'd charmed her despite being a criminal trapped in a cage. But it was always telling to hear someone talk about just how personable they believed they were.

 

[Varo]

"I think I'd prefer something knit." He told her with a smile. He always found there was something pleasant when talking about the future. Particularly when you were in a situation that wasn't exactly ideal.

Talking about possibilities, what might happen, what you could do helped take the mind off of the moment.

Varo could remember doing it when he had been on his way to Alliria. The nights spent alone in the forest, dreaming of better days and thinking of what he would do when he was safe again. It felt like one of those nights.

Except it was better.

He wasn't alone now. "I think so."

Varo said with a smile.

"My father always said I would make the best Diplomat." He almost seemed to beam at the memory. "I think it's because I don't mind making a fool of myself."

The half-elf chuckled. "I never saw the point in being withdrawn or reserved. Something that...perplexed a lot of the folk back home."

Varo had been born an extrovert in a world of reticent elves. Manners, patience, and constraints had often gone entirely out of the window with him. More than once he'd gotten other children in trouble, and he would need a dozen hands to count how many times he had been punished for one antic or another.

 

[Colette]

"Something knit would look good on you," she said while returning his smile.

It was rare that Colette was alone. But on a typical night she was stuck at some Anirian camp with the same boring rank-and-file soldiers filling her head with stories of what they've seen on the frontier. Few of them were all that interesting and even fewer could hold a conversation.

Varo was... different. He wasn't just interesting but he was from another culture entirely. He was the first elf she had spent more than five minutes conversing with.

Her cheeks formed dimples as she thought of the idea of the elven boy as a diplomat. "I'm not sure if that would suit you. You seem too honest for politics." Colette leaned in closer to the elven boy until their shoulders made contact.

"And another thing, you aren't a fool."

That last statement was said with enough gravitas to convince the gods. "You're clearly smart. I wouldn't have been able to come up with a plan to get us out of that situation at the bandit camp."

It was a rare thing to be an Anirian who was humble and ready to admit that they weren't equipped to deal with circumstance. Even worse to admit that an elf had come up with a better plan than an Anirian. But Colette was nothing if she wasn't honest. Had Varo not been there she'd be crying herself to sleep in that wretched cage.

 

[Varo]

Varo smiled for a few seconds. "I'm sure you would have figured it out in your own way."

Colette might not have had the same cunning as he had, but she clearly wasn't helpless either. She had fought those bandits well, and he was sure had she not been outnumbered she would have done more than well against them.

It was better than he could have done.

A smile spread over his features.

"I don't mind being a fool." He told her quietly. "People underestimate you that way."

That was something he had learned early on. Even back home in Ivladrin the others had always thought he was just a bit behind, when in fact he was one step ahead.

As she leaned against him Varo undid his jacket, letting what was left of the tatters drape over Colette so she could share some of the warmth. "My father used to say that everyone has a talent, you just have to find what it is."

Varo had never been a fighter, a warrior. Hell he could hardly use a bow, but he could talk. He could charm and he could make friends. That was his gift, and he was damn good at it.

"So what's yours?" He asked quietly.

 

[Colette]

"My talent?"

She mused for a few seconds, wondering how best to answer his question. Eventually she huffed a sound slightly louder than she intended and confessed, "I think I'm a good listener."

"I can listen for hours," she confessed, "but what got me pulled into the northern guard was my talent for archery." Her cheeks puffed out and turned a shade of bright red as she thought of how to explain it to Varo.

Colette didn't want him to think of her as some sort of barbarian hunter. It was just as much of a surprise to herself as it was to the generals within the Anirian Guard.

After a brief period of silence she admitted, "I'm very accurate with a bow. I don't know why. Maybe just a natural talent." She swallowed a gulp of saliva while thinking of any possible way to salvage this awful exchange.

"I also think I'm very good at baking. And identifying teas." Those weren't so much 'talents' as they were hobbies. She knew there were better bakers than her within Vel Anir. But the idea of her perfect skill being archery was... embarassing.

Her cheeks stayed the same shade of red they had been for the entirety of this little exchange.

 

[Varo]

Varo smiled as she explained more about herself, listening carefully to every word. It was how she talked about it, how she quickly added on and tried to explain more than he enjoyed the most.

In a strange sort of way he could appreciate the way she approached these things. It was almost directly opposite the way he took it. Varo was brash, confident, and self assured. Colette seemed almost shy in her nature, half hesitant to bring forth nearly any topic.

Was that because of how she had been raised in Vel Anir, or just how she was?

"Sounds like you'd made a better Elf than I do." Varo joked, never considering the fact that in Vel Anir that might pass for an insult.

He would never meant it as such of course.

"I can't use a bow for crap." He chuckled. That had always frustrated his father, though the old man had never admitted it to him personally.

"And if your Blueberry Loaf is anything to go by." Varo contended. "Then you could probably be a very wealthy woman running a bakery."

He said with a smile.