Private Tales The Lost Princess and The Exiled Prince

[Maeve]

"Yeah..." Maeve looked dubious and stared thoughtfully out of the window before scrambling off the bed after him. She had been sleeping and lazing around in the tunic she'd stolen from his wardrobe since she had got here but she stole a clean one because her mother had always reprimanded her for going out dressed like a slob and a mothers ire was never something a child would shake even when they became an adult.

She hadn't actually had any boots when he had picked her up but she had gotten used to walking on bare feet on most terrain now.

Once she was changed Maeve made her way out to the balcony and slowly looked down with a gulp.

"Is there a ladder...?"

 

[Arun]

Arun looked at Maeve for a few seconds in confusion, as though he didn't quite understand what she was asking. Then there was a sudden realization. "Oh."

He frowned.

"Of a sort?" The words were a question, but they only echoed for a second before Arun opened his mouth. This time no spoken word came forth, but a beautiful melodic tone that seemed to echo even though there was nothing to echo off of.

The song reached out far beyond, and then suddenly the nearby trees seemed to twist themselves. Branches stretched and shifted, moving slowly into place as they formed an odd sort of staircase.

 

[Maeve]

Maeve was about to ask what exactly he meant when he sung. It was bring you to your knees beautiful. For a moment all she could do was stand there and listen as it washed over her. At least until the trees began to move. To begin she had thought they had finally decided to take their chance to get rid of her for what she had done to their brothers and sisters. She gave a strangled yelp and then dived back behind Arun.

It was only when they had stopped moving she dared to peek out from behind him and take a look. The wind buffeted at her, tugging, pulling, coaxing her to see what he had done and reluctantly she let herself be moved over to the stairs. Carefully she tested it with one foot then snatched it back quickly as if it might suddenly disappear.

"Is it safe?"

 

[Arun]

"Of course." Safer than anything a human could craft.

The trees would not let them fall unless they started chopping with axes, and given the fact that neither he nor Maeve carried any sort of weapon at the moment he doubted that would happen.

Stepping up slowly besides Maeve Arun went first. The branch he stepped on didn't even bend in the slightest, not moving an inch as the Elf added his entire weight. He took another few steps down, and then offered a hand to Mae.

"See?" He asked with a smile.

 

[Maeve]

Mae looked at him as if he were asking her to step off a cliff and trust him to catch her. Her eyes flickered from him, to his hand, and back down to the step. She leaned as far forward as she could to grasp at his hang quite tightly before she slowly lowered her foot onto the wooden step. It took a while before she could be coaxed to put her full weight on it and then move from the first step, which had proven safe and thus should be cherished.

Steadily though she followed him down until her feet touched the ground and she almost collapsed into the grass in relief.

"Is my bow going to listen to me or try to kill me?" she eyed the stairs warily.

 

[Arun]

"It will listen to you." He told her simply. "It would only try to kill you if we don't find the right tree."

Hence why it was so important in the first place.

If you made a bow out of just any tree the chances of the weapon breaking, backfiring, or doing any number of disastrous things increased exponentially. That would not be the case if they found the proper tree willing to be crafted.

The Elf squatted down besides her. "How are you ever going to get back up?"

He teased with a smile.

 

[Maeve]

Maeve wasn't exactly comforted by his words. It just made her more nervous of the forest.

"I think I might just live down here, on the nice, safe, soft grass," she patted the blades comfortingly and then the wind stirred them. Row by row they bowed and then stood tall once more like little soldiers. Her eyes flicked up to him where he was crouched beside her and she plucked a flower from the ground and put it in his hair with a smile.

"Unless you are about to tell me the grass and flowers are also able to kill or maim if they are upset," in which case she would simply demand to be taken from the forest right now and never come back.

 

[Arun]

"Grass? No." Arun kept his face completely straight as she plucked a flower from the ground and placed it into her hair. "The Flowers though..."

Before he finished speaking Arun turned on his heel, as though there were something intensely interesting on the other side of the clearing that he immediately had to attend to. "Come on, Little Human. Many trees to meet."

As he began to walk the odd staircase slowly began to warp it's way back into an ordinary position.

Becoming little more than the trees they had been before.

 

[Maeve]

Was that a joke?

Maeve scrambled to her feet and decided it wasn't worth finding out. His legs were longer than hers and he set a mean pace but she managed to catch up with him with a quick skip and a hop in her step. Having not walked for longer than from the bed to the sofa and back again she was a little out of breath when she finally settled into a pace beside him.

"How do you meet a tree?" she leaned in close to whisper the question, conscious the blasted things were all around her.

 

[Arun]

He smiled slightly. "Well first, we're looking for a specific type of tree."

Arun had explained this before, though it had been brief. This time he would add a little bit more detail for her.

"The Wroshyr tree isn't rare in the Falwood, but not the most common." The Elf walked up to one of said trees. "It is the largest of all in the Forest, sometimes towering over a hundred meters."

He motioned to the Wroshyr. "You will feel a connection when you touch it. You can't speak to it, but it will speak to you."

When it was the right tree.

 

[Maeve]

"Worshyr tree," Maeve repeated slowly, testing the word out in the Common Tongue then trying to imagine what it would be in her own language. She followed after him with trepidation in every step. When he approached the large tree she stopped a little way back and craned her neck back to try and see the tops. It seemed impossibly tall and it blocked out the sun making her realise how cool it was in the shade.

When it didn't batter Arun away straight away she warily approached and laid her palm flat against the rough bark. It just felt like any ordinary tree did.

"What does the connection feel like?"

 

[Arun]

"Like an echo." He told her softly.

It occurred to him in that moment that for a human the feeling may very well be different. For all intents and purposes a Wroshyr tree wasn't all that special. Save for it's great properties there was no more magic in a Wroshyr than there was a Birch.

The feeling came from some magic in the Falwood itself, or perhaps the person. A frown touched his lips, but he decided to keep going with what his mother taught him.

"Almost like looking into a mirror." He smiled. "It'll be the slightest ripple, a reflection of yourself."

Then he added. "It'll be...positive if the tree likes you."

Negative if it really didn't, and neutral if it just wasn't the right one.

 

[Maeve]

Maeve stared at the tree as if waiting for something to happen but when all she felt was... a tree ... she tried closing her eyes and taking a breath.

She shoved the thoughts that she was trying to listen to a tree from her mind and cleared it instead, much like he had instructed her when she had attempted to meditate. A certain peace fell over her futures and she stood, listening. After a few moments a single branch came down and gently stroked across the girls cheek before returning to its stoic position.

Mae scrunched up her nose.

"No, not this one," she stepped back. "Next."

 

[Arun]

Arun let out a chuckle. "Well."

He looked around, pointing out half a dozen Wroshyr trees to her.

"You have your pick of the litter." Another thought occurred to him, but he decided not to mention it just yet. Instead he motioned for Maeve to move towards the tree that stood just opposite the one she had just touched. "Perhaps one nearer the river I found you?"

Trees were sympathetic things, perhaps they would find something there.

 

[Maeve]

Maeve glanced around at the trees she was beginning to recognise as the type he thought would make the best bow. She gave him another dubious look and then began to flit from one to the other.

Some she spent a good few minutes at, others she only had to brush past and she shuddered and moved on. A few of the trees seemed to respond to her in their own little way. Caresses across her cheeks, some played with her hair. She didn't seem to notice it for she made no comment or perhaps she was just used to spirits taking liberties in such a way.

None in the small clearing called to her and she wondered on further, following the river. Memories were coming back to her of the area. She had crashed through there - was that the way back home or had she done a circle? The Wind picked up and dogged her steps, pushing her on until she stopped in front of a lone tree.

"What kind of tree is this?" It didn't look like the others.

 

[Arun]

Arun stepped up behind Maeve, glancing at the lone tree for a few seconds in consideration. He had to think a moment, but then eventually nodded to himself. "Wyrwood."

He was no botanist, but knowing what surrounded your home was generally a good idea. Especially in the Falwood. It was not just animals that one had to worry about, so Arun had made it a point to get several books of relevant information.

The Elf watched Maeve for a second.

"Touch it." Arun said softly. Tree-singing could have helped here, could have helped this entire process in fact, but she needed to do this on her own. Even now.

 

[Maeve]

Mae stared at it a moment longer then hesitantly put her hand against the tree.

The others had been gentle brushes against her mind like a summer breeze. This was like a storm. The leaves rustled and the branches groaned and swayed. It made her heart race as the tumble of odd disjointed thoughts hit her. It wasn't like a human conscious. This was comprised of smells, sounds, an odd flash of colour. From when it was a tiny little sapling, just a sprout, it showed her its life.

After a moment she wrenched her hand back.

"I think it's this one."

 

[Arun]

"Interesting." Wyrwood was not as strong as a Wroshyr, but it could still make more than a decent bow. Not the least because it would be sung instead of cut off from a branch and twisted by the hands of humanity.

Slowly the Elf stepped up behind Maeve, moving closer to the tree for a brief moment before he shrugged his shoulders.

"Then this one it will be." He cleared his throat. "It will take some time."

A smile touched his face. "You will likely want to take a seat."

With that, Arun turned around and began to sing. The melody was a hauntingly beautiful one, ringing out through the clearing like slow lapping waves upon a beach.

 

[Maeve]

Mae wondered if it would keep the slightly reddish tone its bark had as she sat down to watch at the base of another tree. She hadn't been entirely convinced about the whole 'sensing' which tree was right for her. It wasn't like with the Horses of the Plains, there wasn't another being in front of her.

Well.

She had been wrong.

The girl watched and listened in awe as he sung to the tree. It was far more beautiful than the magic she had experienced. It was hypnotic and she found herself torn between wanting to close her eyes to enjoy it and not wanting to miss what happened next.

 

[Arun]

The tree began to move, almost dance and sway in the wind as Arun sang to it. For a few moments that was all that it seemed to do, then a branch from the tree itself began to lower to the ground.

There was no speed to the movement, in fact it was almost painfully slow, yet as the song continued the branch bent lower and then slowly began to form. It was an intricately beautiful thing, taking shape inch by inch as the tree itself willed it into being.

Bark slipped away, a notch for a bowstring was crafted, and etchings began to appear along the haft of the bow.

It grew steadily, an hour passed, and then another, and then finally another.

The time seemed to sail away, drifting like the song through the wind until finally Arun closed his lips and all that was left was an unstrung bow neatly held by the branches of a tree.

 

[Maeve]

Maeve wasn't entirely sure how long she sat there for. The Wind came and went when it grew bored, then returned nearer the end and seemed to collect in her lap like a cat. She resisted the urge to pet it and look like an entirely crazed person. Instead she watched Arun and what was happening in the branches of her tree as slowly but surely it took shape then presented itself.

She stood and took a few tentative steps forward. When she did the branched uncurled and deposited the bow into her hands. Her lips twitched as they ran over the wooden curve and admired the craftsmanship. Then, suddenly, she turned to Arun and threw her arms about his neck.

"Thank you," she buried her face in the the crook of her arm.

 

[Arun]

Arun hesitated for just a moment, and then slowly he wrapped his arms around Maeve. The warmth of her body was pleasant against him, and a breath filled him.

"It is no less than you deserve after the hardships you've endured." He smiled for a few seconds. "Perhaps some of your memories of the Falwood will be good."

Was that what he was trying to achieve here?

In truth, he did not really know. The breaking of his exile was something new. She was something new. Perhaps that was why. Perhaps he just wanted to repay her for the bonds that she had broken, or perhaps it was something more.

 

[Maeve]

Mae lingered for a while in the embrace.

"I cannot explain... how nice it is to have a bow again," she said softly and then eased back just a little so she could look at his face.

"I kept wondering if I would have been able to fight them off if I had had mine with me," her face crumpled a little with the memory. Pain and a look of disgrace twisted her features for a few moments. She had failed. Her people would have been disappointed in her for allowing herself to have gotten into the situation she had been in. Ilcinki were meant to be brave and fierce.

 

[Arun]

Arun saw the pain in her face and he couldn't help the odd twisting in his gut. He felt...guilty. The tribals had fallen quickly enough to him, but even with a bow he suspected she would not have faired as well as he.

He'd used stealth, subterfuge, and even then if it had not been for her healing he very likely would have died. Fingers tightened for just a second. "You have one now."

That would likely not make her feel all that much better, but Arun wasn't exactly the best emotional councilor.

"Do not look to the past." She had said something similar to him a few days ago. "Think of the future."

He smiled at her. "A journey lays ahead, a path has opened up for you."

That was what she should focus on, as best she could anyway.

 

[Maeve]

Arun would probably never truly understand how much better it did make her feel. She had only had her hands and her wits before and she had been suffering from a fever from her infected arrow wound at that point. A bow was something she knew and was extremely skilled with. Even if her chances wouldn't have been much improved in her mind they were.

"You're right," she slowly let her arms drop from around him and then smiled, returning her attention to the bow now in her hands. It had indeed kept some of the rich red tone she had liked in the bark. "It is beautiful though, I cannot wait to try it out," her fingers itched to do something she loved.