"I found some wool when I woke up", I said to Azer when I got to get breakfast.
"Wool?" he asked curiously.
"Yeah, um, I had this dream where there was a flying gold ram that gave me it's wool."
"A golden..." he began, "You have been given a gift by the spirits of our world. I will make sure someone goes to pick up the wool. We shall make an armour of it for you."
"There was also a feather", I said stuffing bread into my mouth and Azer nodded.
"Good", he said, "Now, we need to go make battle plans. We need you there also."
Well damn. I had already sat through the meeting with the fish, and it was deadly boring. I would've much rather spent my day shooting. But I guessed I had no choice.
"I just need a moment, I need to finish eating first", I said, "It won't be long."
"Good. Come to the command tent after. We will be waiting for you", Azer said, got up and left.
~x~
I pushed the canvas of the door of the tent out of the way and stepped in. All the highest in command were there. Except Celer. I guessed he hadn't gotten back yet. In the middle of the tent was a low, big table, and on it a huge map of what I recognized as the area we were in at the moment. I had seen it from the air, after all. Right across the river by which the camp was there was a plain, but no so far away began a forest. The river ran into the sea surprisingly close, but still way out of sight from the camp. There was a castle by the sea, some way along the shore to the opposite direction from us from where the river joined the big water.
"Cinnamon", Em said, "Please, join us."
I sat down on a cushion by the door.
"So, it has come to our attention that Folius will be travelling through the forest tomorrow, going to visit the forest where he was found by our Queen," began Azer, "That is when we can surprise him, and that is when we have our chance to get rid of him once and for all."
I'm going to have to kill someone.. No, not someone, I'm having to kill a high elf in one day. I did not like the sound of that. I cleared my throat. Everyone turned to look at me.
"Yes, Cinnamon?" Em said.
"Um, well, I mean, these are probably stupid questions, but I'm not from around here, so..."
"What do you want to know", her voice was understanding.
"Is that the castle where Folius and the Queen live?"
"Yes."
"It's quite close. How do you know Folius hasn't heard we are here, and knows to be prepared for an attack on his way?"
"We just know", Azer answered. I decided that if it's something he doesn't want to tell me, I probably didn't want to know.
"Another thing... Do I... Do I have to kill him?"
They all stared at me for a moment.
"How else are we going to get rid of him?" Azer asked, looking confused.
"I don't know, maybe you could just throw him in jail?" I asked, hopeful.
"No, Cinnamon", Em said, "He is a high elf. He is too powerful. If he is alive he will come back and continue his evil work. I do not like it any more than you do, but there is no other way."
"How about..." I was getting desperate, "How about someone just talk to him about it? Make him realize he is doing bad things? I mean, he can't be all bad, right? Elves are supposed to be good, aren't they? There are elves right here in this tent, helping us."
"He has been blinded by the power he has had", Narada said, "You are right, no creatures are profoundly evil or good. But he has chosen the path of terror. We need to get rid of him. The only way him being a high elf makes a difference in that is that it makes him more difficult to kill. I am sorry, Cinnamon, it is the only way."
I nodded. I didn't have a choice. I am doing the right thing.
"Now, to the plans. Folius will be travelling through the forest by this route here", Azer pointed at a thin line running through the green area covered in tree pictures, "We will have troops here, here and here", he kept pointing at the map and at the creatures around the table, "Omnath, you will take your group here, Ny, you are here, and Vella, you position here", everyone nodded, "And Narada. You will be with Cinnamon. Today you need to train shooting in chaos, and hitting the correct target."
"We have already done that", Narada said, "But there is still much to be done."
"You have the day", Azer nodded, "You will be situated here", he pointed at a place on the map that I interpreted to be a small cliff that gave a clear view of the road. Or, being in a forest, at least a part of it. I nodded.
"Also", he continued, "Today you need to go find lemons. One should be enough. But no one else can do it, it would be too risky to have anyone else handle such toxic things as lemons. Cinnamon, by dipping the arrows in lemon juice, you will assure no one hit by those arrows will make it through another night. And you are the only one who can shoot those arrows."
The meeting continues for a little while longer, but then we (me and Narada) were no longer needed, and we were excused to go find some lemons for the following day.
____________________________________________________________________
Illustrations? You should totally illustrate this!
Oh, we could take the illustrations and the text and go to ifolor and make a book out of this!
Yeah, this story isn't quite good enough to be worth it making into a book. But it might be cool anyway if we had the pictures.
Also, I've been putting this up on google drive as one story so that it's possible to just read the whole thing without bouncing from post to post, I could link it up here in the end. This thing is by now some 20 000 words and like 20-something pages long, and we're still missing a little. So that's pretty cool.
I assume you do have access to the internet, so your topic for tomorrow is Hideout.
Three more parts!
~matu
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