Hamertia: The Elven Folly
Chapter 18

“El?” Folwin said, knocking on his friend’s door. “I just want to talk for a minute.”

Elluin clenched his hands in a fist before taking a deep breath. “Come in.”

“El, did something happen to Kellam?”

“What would make you think that?” he replied, attempting to sound casual and disinterested despite the racing heart in his chest.

“Well you get a little…defensive whenever someone brings it up.”

“Folwin,” he groaned, mustering all of his willpower not to lash out. “I came across Kellam in the forest as he was leaving, he told me he was going on a nature trip, that he wouldn’t know when he’d be back, and then he left. That’s it.”

“It’s just a little strange that…”

“You know how he is, Folwin! He lived outside all the time! Nobody hardly ever saw him anyway! There’s nothing weird about this! He probably did it a thousand times before and we didn’t even notice! But now you’re acting like I…”

“Like you what?”

“Get out.”

“El…”

“Get out!”

Elluin sprang up from his bed, grabbed Folwin’s arm, and threw him out of the room. He slammed the door and stood there, tears running down his face. Folwin stood silently on the opposite side of the door for a while before ultimately deciding to give Elluin some time to calm down. In the meantime, he went outside to check on Puff, as well as to get his mind off of the current situation.

“Feno!” Rychell cheerfully called out. “Come swing on the trees with us!”

Feno, sitting on the ground with his hands on his chin, looked up and watched his friends hanging from the tree branches.

“I’ll just watch you guys for a bit. Don’t really feel like doing much right now.”

“You alright, Feno?” a newcomer asked.

Feno turned to see Rydel walking down the path toward him.

“Rydel? Aren’t you supposed to be at the library learning to write?”

“I’m taking a break. The gnome is more interested in working with Ath anyway. So what’s going on with you? Don’t feel like climbing trees today?”

Feno shook his head. “Jastra is supposed to go to the woodlands with me to rescue my friends, but she’s just been in her room with Jharyn all day. I don’t know what they’re doing in there all the time, but it’s really annoying.”

“Woodlands?”

“To bring a couple centaurs to live with us, just like I promised them.”

“Will the other centaurs be ok with that?”

“No,” Feno replied casually. “But who cares? They’re just a bunch of jerks.”

“We shouldn’t be doing anything that might anger them…The last thing you want is for them to attack us.”

“They’re not gonna attack us over that,” he insisted, pinching the skin between his eyes. “You worry way too much. Even more than me.”

“But you know how centaurs can be. I don’t think you should risk it…”

“Rydel, do you know how bad their life is there? Yeah, it’s a little bit of a risk, but don’t you think you sometimes have to take risks to help others? I could just forget about them and leave them there; nothing bad would happen to me if I did that. But they’re my friends and I promised to help them. Sometimes you have to make these kinds of decisions. Now I’m gonna hang out with Rychell and Jorie until Jastra’s ready. I’ll see you later.”

While Feno ran off to join his friends, Rydel sat on the ground, a blank expression on his face. Never before had anyone made him feel so conflicted. Always having been opposed to anything that may lead to violence or confrontation, he never imagined how not doing these things may have a negative impact on others. After a long moment of contemplation that reached no conclusion, he stood up and put the thought out of his head, simply hoping for the best outcome to the decision Feno and Jastra had made.

“Hey,” Horyn said quietly as he approached Heath.

“Hey,” Heath replied, sitting at his garden stroking the leaves of his plants. “How’s training going?”

Horyn joined him at the ground next to the garden plot. “You know I don’t go to those anymore after what Phezran did to us. I’ve just been walking around.”

“Thinking?”

Horyn nodded.

“’Bout what?”

“How that elf isn’t coming for us.”

Heath remained silent for a long moment. “So what are we gonna do?”

“Well I’m not staying here for one more day.”

“So go,” he replied passively.

“No. We go. The elves aren’t coming for us and I’m not leaving you behind.”

“Do you know what Phezran will do to us if we get caught?”

“What will he do if we stay? We haven’t been going to training, he’s gonna think we’re lazy useless cowards. He’ll eventually snap and beat us worse than he did before.”

Heath caressed a leaf in his hand. “And what about my garden? I’ve spent pretty much my whole life tending to it. I can’t just abandon it.”

“They have gardens in the elves’ forest, you know. I’m sure they’ll let you work on them. We can’t just stay here, Heath.” He placed a hand on his shoulder. “And I care about you too much to leave you behind.”

Heath turned his head and looked at him. “So when do we leave?”

“Now.”

After looking at him in disbelief for a moment, Heath sighed and stood up. He looked at his garden for a long moment, trying to suppress the tears welling in his eyes. Horyn looked on in anticipation as his friend finally nodded.

“Alright, come on,” he whispered. “But we can’t let them catch us.”

Horyn smiled. “Of course not. We’ll just slip out. Nobody will ever know.”

Heath bid a tearful farewell to his garden and followed Horyn into the dense underbrush of the woodlands, avoiding the main trails lest they be spotted. What they had no knowledge of, however, was the elf who had been watching them and listening to the entirety of their conversation.

Invigorated by the yams and beet juice, Xander had made it to the woodlands from the red ash lands in record time. He arrived just as Horyn first approached Heath and hid behind a particularly large tree trunk. Thinking he was quite clever for not being noticed by the young centaurs, he didn’t realize that he had been spotted himself.

“Spy!”

The sudden outburst made him jump. The booming voice came from behind him. However, as soon as he spun around to investigate its source, three centaurs galloped up to him, knocking to the ground. Dazed from the impact, he was thrown over one of the beast’s backs and carried off to the center of their training yard.

He was thrown hard on the ground as a group of centaurs surrounded him. Phezran broke through the crowd and stood directly in front of the elven intruder.

“Why do you come to our land?” he snarled. “Just because we fought alongside you against the trolls doesn’t give you free reign over our home.”

Xander only stared at him, equally bewildered and terrified.

“Speak! Or you’ll be trampled to death!”

“I…I’m not a spy,” he replied slowly. “I was banished from the forest. In fact…I’ve come to warn you!”

A brilliant thought suddenly popped into his mind.

“Warn us?” Phezran mocked. “What could an elf possibly warn a centaur about?”

“The elves. I just came from the land of the Red Centaurs and…”

Every centaur began talking at once. Some jumped back on their hind legs in concern while others snarled and grimaced.

“Silence!” their leader commanded. “What do you know of the reds?”

“That the elves are plotting with them to attack you.”

The scene once again erupted into chaos. Even the demands for order from the head centaur couldn’t quell them this time. One of the centaurs made a sudden beeline for Xander, attempting to kick the defenseless elf’s face in. Everyone suddenly fell silent and stood frozen as Phezran jumped between them and forced the belligerent centaur to the ground.

“No one is to be killed unless I give the order! Is that understood?”

Everyone, with the exception of the centaur who at the moment lay unconscious on the ground, timidly nodded their heads.

“Continue,” Phezran said in an ominously calm voice, returning his attention to Xander.

“Right…” he began, waiting for his heart to stop racing. “Anyway, after a long time of travelling aimlessly in the lands outside the forest, I stumbled upon a group of Red Centaurs.”

“We don’t call them that,” Phezran interrupted. “They are not true centaurs. They’re merely demon spawns of their wretched volcano. Centaurs live in the woods! Have you ever heard of a centaur just popping out of a volcano? It’s absurd! The only true centaurs are from the woodlands!”

“Alright,” Xander continued, taking a deep breath. “I came across a group of reds.”

Phezran gave an approving nod.

“I then saw a group of elves…elves I recognized from the forest, come and talk to them. They said that after seeing how strong the woodland centaurs are, they feared you may try to attack them. They said they knew how much the reds hate you, and suggested joining together to attack the woodlands.”

The tension was unbearable. The centaurs, naturally inclined to react strongly to bad news, could barely contain themselves. Seeing their unconscious comrade was the only thing that prevented them from causing another uproar.

“If this is indeed true,” Phezran said, trying his best to maintain his calm and collected demeanor. “Why would an elf tell us this. Have you no loyalty to your own kind?”

“I have no loyalty to those who threw me out of my home. That’s why I came here; I want to see the forest destroyed. But we have to act quickly.”

“If the elves traveled to the land of the reds, we should attack there, take care of them all at once.”

Xander shook his head. “I’m almost certain they’re back in the forest by now. And they may have immediate plans. When I first got here, I saw…”

Phezran gave him a curious glare.

“I overheard two of your own talking about acting as spies for the elves. They then took off in the direction of the forest…”

Not even the threat of being kicked in the face by the strongest centaur alive could prevent the others from breaking out in a panic. Hooves pounded the ground, wails of terror and anger assaulted eardrums, and a stampede nearly ensued.

“The threat to our homeland is real!” Phezran shouted over the noise. “The elves and the reds wish to eliminate the one and only true race of centaurs! We charge on the forest tonight and kill them all!”

The panic quickly turned to cheering. The centaurs dispersed to prepare themselves for battle. Left alone, Xander didn’t bother trying to hide the sinister smile that spread across his face.

Aodhan sent a few of his subordinates to fetch yams and beet juice as he joined the fire mages in sitting on the side of the town’s main path.

“So,” Connak began, choosing his words carefully. “About the original reason we came here…”

“Which was?”

“Eradicating the elves and woodland centaurs, remember? We need to act quickly before they invade our land.”

“Our land?” Aodhan asked, raising an eyebrow.

“The volcano accepted us into your clan. That makes this our land as well, doesn’t it?”

“I suppose,” the centaur replied as the yams and beet juice arrived and were handed out. “The woodlanders have the audacity to call themselves centaurs, but the only true centaurs are born of fire. Volcanis Centaurin!”

“Right, Volcanis Centaurin,” Druin repeated, mockingly waving his hand in the air. “Are you interested in fighting with us?”

“Of course,” he replied, chuckling at the elf’s ridiculous behavior. “But you’re going to have to start showing more respect.”

Connak exchanged a look with Druin just as he had so many times before. He wasn’t sure why he even bothered, however, as he knew by now that Druin was never going to change.

“Anyway,” Aodhan continued. “When do you expect them to be coming?”

“There’s no way to know for sure,” Connak said. “I really think we should hit them preemptively. Don’t even give them the chance.”

Aodhan slowly nodded his head. “I was worried I’d never see the day; the day that Volcanis Centaurin finally claim our rightful place as the world’s supreme race, eradicating the inferior and those who dare claim the title of centaur. It seems that day has finally come…”

“It has,” Connak said in his best diplomat voice. “But we have to make it happen.”

“We gallop on the enemy tonight!” Aodhan announced, suddenly jumping to his feet. “Right after the evening fire celebration, of course.”

The elves gave him a confused look. “Huh?”

“We celebrate and dance at the volcano just as the sun begins its descent. You’ll be expected to participate if you want to be truly be seen as one of the clan.”

“How could we possibly get to the forest in time then?”

Aodhan laughed. “You haven’t seen how fast a Red Centaur can run. What you witnessed earlier was nothing more than a trot. We will have no trouble getting to the forest in time for a nighttime assault.”

The elves exchanged another look of concern with each other as Aodhan beckoned them to follow.

“I’ll give you a tour of what will soon be the capital of our empire. Then we’ll celebrate in fire before fulfilling our destiny.”

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