Private Tales Meadow of Swords

[Amalric Urahil]

“Good,” replied the elf in his willowy timbre.

They had much to go over today and would both need the food. He did not immediately dig into the sack for food. He was not yet hungry.

Reaching under the saddle of his horse, he pulled out another scabbarded sword. He drew it out. The falchion bore only a single edge and curved slightly toward the tip. A fuller ran the length of the blade, giving it strength while also making it light as a feather.

Amrose held the scabbard in one hand, the saber in the other, and strode toward Anais.

“Get your guard up.”

The sun glittered off the blade as it whipped through the air in a blur of silver, coming first from one direction, then the other as Amrose sought to press her backward and test her defenses.

He would do so for the next hour. Whenever he caught a gap in her guard, he would tap her there lightly with the scabbard. The key to most fights was just surviving. The first step to survival was having a good guard. If he built a strong foundation she might have a chance in this life.

 

[Anais]

Guard up... Guard up...

Brief flickers of disappointment contorted her features every time he managed to tap her with his blade, but it was soon replaced with the furrowed brow of determination and she chewed on her lip in concentration until the skin was ragged and torn. She would get this. She watched the way he moved, how he stepped and she learned quickly to parry and deflect, and she was clearly pleased with herself when she managed to do so.

She mimicked his gait, his strong back and legs, and even though it ached she kept going, moving backward in response to each of his steps until he managed to tap her less and less.

"How am I?.." block.. "Doing?.."

 

[Amalric Urahil]

"Better."

She learned quickly and had none of the poor habits of a soldier taught by some gray beard in their village. But the ambitions of achieving competency within a month seemed far off still.

Not that she could be allowed to leave.

A far-away look tinged his gray eyes, their pallor that of distant clouds on the horizon.

A flick of the wrist and his sword slid along the length of hers, binding it against his crossguard, then his hand holding the scabbard came around and rapped her soundly on the knuckles.

He stepped back before she could counter and slid his sword back into the sheath.

"Enough for now..."

Sweat slick locks hung down across his face as he stared at her for a moment, expression melancholy beneath the scars. The clothes she wore were meant for travel, but even still of fine quality. Her skin was soft and pale, untouched from lack of toil beneath the harsh rays of the sun. Her hair bound up in a braid like woven gold. The draw of her lips set her face in a permanent pout. How long could she truly last on her own?

"When you leave... where will you go?"

 

[Anais]

Her shoulders jerked upward in a slight flinch as he wrapped her on the knuckles and she rubbed at them as he stepped back, a small smirk twitching at the corners of her lips. She nodded with a deep sigh as she pushed the stray locks of hair back from her clammy face, glad of the reprieve. Ana's head tilted at him in mute question at the way he stared at her. He was painfully unreadable.

His question sparked an excitement that seemed to burn like embers in her eyes as she sat in the lush, verdant grass and plucked an apple from her bag.. "I want to sail, I'll board a ship and sail along the Cortosi coast first, then to the gulf of Annuak.. All the way to Oban." she smiled, her gaze glossy and distant as she imagined what she'd been told about the city.

She flopped back into the grass and pulled in a honeysuckle breath as she stared up at the white, velvet clouds that drifted lazily across acres of blue. The sun warmed her face and she smiled, taking a bite of her apple and closing her eyes to bathe in it as she dreamt of her freedom..

"Where do you live, Amrose?.." she asked, her eyes narrowed against the sunlight as she opened them and looked up at him with curiosity, realising how little she knew about him.

 

[Amalric Urahil]

A shadow fell over her as Amrose loomed, a wiry shape against the blue sky, then he knelt down beside her. He fished in the sack for a moment until he produced a hunk of bread, which he began to break apart and eat hungrily.

"Here," he said between mouthfuls, gesturing around at the clearing.

The bread sated his hunger. How long since he last ate? He could not even remember. Had it been the apple yesterday? Time was such a strange thing.

He crossed his legs and settled in the grass, fingers playing across the tips of the stalks as if he were stroking an instrument.

"Oban..." Amrose chewed in thought for a moment, "That is very far away. I wonder how much it has changed."

Did the skyriders still soar endlessly above the sea towers? He closed his eyes and remembered.

 

[Anais]

"Here?.." her brow knit briefly and her head shook.. "Don't you have a house?.. Family? Friends?.." she asked in a tone of mingled confusion and pity. Anais wanted to get as far away from her family as she possibly could, she wanted the sort of freedom that he had, but she also wanted to have a home.

She sighed dreamily at his words and nodded with another bite of her apple.. "Mhm.. So far away.. You've been?" her brow rose. "I've always wanted to go. I remember seeing paintings of the gryphon knights when I was a child. I wanted to be one.." she laughed under her breath and her eyes rolled with a silent reminder of how ridiculous that notion had been; she'd been told as such, harshly, and had never mentioned the city again.

 

[Amalric Urahil]

The elf did not open his eyes, dreaming of distant towers in far flung lands.

"Maybe one day you will," he said, voice soft and smooth as a summer breeze, fingers playing through the grass.

But now his thoughts turned to the home she asked of, to trees tall as mountains that turned golden in autumn. Of waterfalls that roared in hidden valleys and warded, wall-less cities wrought from the magic of the earth.

And of the Anirian fires that consumed them all.

"Home?" Amrose asked, opening his eyes and lifting them to the sky, "No. Not anymore."

 

[Anais]

"I will.." she answered quickly as though to cement her intentions. They were not a maybe in her mind. She took another bite of her apple and watched the birds dance and play in the skies above. Her head rolled to the side to frown at him as his home became a past tense. So there had been a home..

Anais sat herself up and sat facing him, swallowing the bite of apple and licking the sweetness from her lips before she spoke.. "Not anymore?.. What happened to your home?.." she frowned. As soon as she asked, she feared that she knew. She wasn't stupid, she'd grown up in Vel Anir, she knew what they done, but they'd simply had everyone convinced that it had been to keep the city safe. She hoped her fears were wrong..

 

[Amalric Urahil]

Thin fingers that had been playing atop the tops of the grass now curled into them and pulled. Grass tore and snapped. Amrose held the ripped blades up in the palm of his hand. A gust of wind snatched them away, sent them spinning through the air.

Amrose watched them float off, gray eyes opaque as fog.

"Humans happened," he muttered.

How long had it been since he had dreamed of the screams now? Ten years? Twenty? But they always came back. One night they would come back. And he would be there again, the city burning in the night, the smell of smoke and charred hair filling his nose, and the screams as the dreadlords cut their paths through the elvish inhabitants.

He looked at her, eyes misting, then away, unable to meet her gaze.

"It was a long time ago."

And they've built over the ruins since.

 

[Anais]

Anais’ cheeks flushed and she chewed on her lip, the skin already ragged from the habit. She wished she could take the question back, she could tell how angry it had made him as she dropped her gaze to watch his knuckles pale as they gripped and plucked the grass he’d been treating so tenderly only moments ago.

She looked back at him as he spoke, a look of hopelessness and apology in her eyes as she tried to find the right words to say. She wasn’t sure there were any.. Her hand had been reaching for his, almost subconsciously, the elf who had rescued her from the grips of the human lech who’d sought to defile her, the elf who’d decided to help her, teach her to fight and bought her a sword. But as he looked away from her she caught herself and her slender hand recoiled and she held it against her chest instead, assuming him too disgusted by the memory to look a human in the eye.

“I’m sorry.... I’m sorry that happened to you, and your people. I’m sorry they.. we, did that to you.” she looked down with a furrowed brow and sighed..

“Why are you helping me, Amrose?.. I don’t understand why you’d want to, what should it matter to you whether I survive this world or not?..” she murmured, her own fingers grasping at the blades of grass to rip more of it from the clutches of the earth.

 

[Amalric Urahil]

Amrose wanted to tell her. He wished he could, but when he opened his mouth to speak the spell that bound him made him shut it again. He breathed out through the nose and lowered his head, brow creasing.

A war raged in his heart. On one side, hatred he felt for humans coursed within him like a poison. A sickness that would eat him alive. And though the years had drug on, still the poison thrived within him. On the other, the goodness he could see in Anais. The innocence.

He looked down as she mirrored him and tugged at the grass. The elf reached out tentatively, then settled his own hand over hers to still her actions. She did not carry his scars. Nor should she.

Eyes of a haunting gray tracked up to meet her gaze. They spoke where his lips could not, telling volumes in a language of emotion that needed no speech or writing, a language that crossed all barriers.

"All life deserves a chance."

 

[Anais]

Anais looked sharply up as he settled a hand over hers, her mossy green eyes wide and timid. She took the opportunity to study him up close, his eyes specifically, now that they were looking back at her. They were grey, not a dull, unremarkable grey like that of concrete or stone. They were the grey of the last ashes on a fire, tossed up on the breeze; the grey of a dove’s wing, soft as down; the grey of the ocean an instant before dawn's first rays strike the water after a storm. Those eyes saw her, and ensnared her from that moment in a net of intrigue. They suited him, she thought, but she wondered if those storm clouds would ever pass.

She caught herself staring and dropped her eyes to the soft hand that caged her own in warmth, her nerves tingling with the harsh comfort of contact. She was surprised at his words, surprised that someone who had lost so much and seen what suffering he'd seen would still care for the wellbeing of a hopeless human girl and a few blades of grass.

Her fingers slowly uncurled, sparing the turf any further pruning. She wasn't used to much physical contact with any man, let alone an elven one, according to everyone she'd ever met she should be terrified by the very thought, she should have him beaten and hanged for even speaking to her let alone having the audacity to touch her. Instead all she could do was blush and allow her lips to curl into the shyest of smiles because he wasn't so disgusted by her.

She cleared her throat.. "Some more practise?.. Then you can show me the town you spoke of, if you like?.."

 

[Amalric Urahil]

The elf nodded, finished the last of his bread, and stood.

Several hours later, they stopped again. The sun bore down and the elf’s tunic clung to his skin and beads of sweat trickle down his wiry frame. Amrose pushed strands of wet hair out of his face and nodded to signal a stop. He sheathed his sword and stuffed it back beneath the saddle bags, then mounted his animal.

They made their way in due time, speaking little, for that seemed to be Amrose’s way. When they came into town, the sight of an elf and a human provoked little commentary. It soon became apparent why when they left their mounts and entered the tavern called the Blue Jay.

“Rose!” shouted the tavern keeper, a portly looking fellow behind the bar.

This caused everyone inside the smoky and dimly lit establishment to turn and regard the elf.

“You gonna give us a song tonight?”

Amrose shrugged. “Maybe. Ale first and meat, thank you.”

 

[Anais]

The training was taking it's toll, but she was picking it up better than she'd expected to. By the time he told her to stop her muscles were aching, her clothes and stray locks of hair stuck to the sweat on her skin and her cheeks flushed with exertion.

Mounting Fin's saddle took a few attempts, her legs shuddering and failing on the first two attempts to pull herself up. She wouldn't complain. The breeze was soothing as they rode toward the little town and as she joined him in the tavern she gazed around anxiously, feeling terribly out of place. Nobody seemed to mind, and she frowned at the contrast to her own city, knowing well if she'd taken Amrose into a tavern there what the outcome would have been..

Her eyes settled on the man behind the bar and her lips curled at his words, remembering how the elf had sung as he'd watched the sun set the night prior.. "And here I was believing I was special.." she murmured sarcastically..

She looked at the red haired elf with a curious smile "I didn't know you were a bard.."

 

[Amalric Urahil]

The elf shrugged.

"I sing. They pay me."

A simple enough way to earn a living. That was a concept mankind seemed to enjoy - earning the right to live.

He moved to a table near the back and sat in a chair that faced the front door. Amrose leaned back, resting his head against the wall behind him, and hoped the food arrived soon. He was actually quite hungry, now that he thought about it.

A few stares lingered on Anais. Amrose felt more than saw the attention directed her way. Foolish of him, to bring her here without suggesting she wear a hood. Men in places like this could not simply admire a rose for being a rose. They needed to pluck them, to keep them, and to throw them away to be trampled upon when the beauty faded.

Better to be scarred liked him.

He sighed through the nose and idly stroked the deer horn hilt of his dagger, hoping he would not have to use it again.

 

[Anais]

Her smile faded slightly as Amrose shrugged off her curiousity as he often so easily did, and she sighed with a quiet "Oh.." before biting on her lip..

"Well, I suppose it must be nice to have your talents appreciated.." she cleared her throat and returned to chewing on her lip. Amrose wasn't much of a talker, and she realised just how much of a talker she was since being in his company, she couldn't help but feel like a hinderance. She gave herself a mental kick to shut up, and followed him to sit at the table.

Anais cast a look across the tavern, wringing her hands together in her lap as she noticed a few pairs of eyes on her. Her attention returned to Amrose, her lips parting to speak to him again before she caught herself and sighed, deciding to drop her gaze to her hands instead..

Silence it was..