The horses must have spooked when the cave had collapsed, because all they found were the now-broken leather straps that had tied them to the trees. So they had no choice but to set out on foot.

The days that followed felt more like weeks as they dragged on in silence. Falcon and Julia barely spoke. Even Jade was quiet, and then he took off all together―the feelings were too depressing for him, and he didn’t feel her emotions if he was far enough away.

Julia was filled with a strange mix of feelings, too many at once. She couldn’t think of Lotus without crying, without being angry at such injustice in the world, without hating herself for being the cause of the bard’s death. But she also felt joy every time she looked at Falcon. He was alive, and she never wanted to let him out of her sight again.

She felt guilt, too, because of how she felt about him. How could she feel a warm bubbling inside of her when she looked into his deep brown eyes at a time like this? Their friend―more than that to him―had just died. And Kieran was still in power, still causing destruction and suffering. They had the whole world to think about.

But even in her sleep, Julia thought about him; the nightmares of Hilltop had been replaced. Now she was much too focused on her own feelings for Falcon to care about much more important things. And it was the same dream every night…

They were inside the shack where everything had started―their shack. Falcon was sitting at the table messing with his bow while she sat on the bed across the room. Her back was against the wall, but it was warm... everything was warm. Everything looked golden in the light of the crackling fire in the hearth. He looked up at her and smiled that crooked smile, and her heart leaped happily in her chest as she smiled back.

Then he was sitting beside her, caressing her face. He said something she couldn’t hear, but she didn’t need to because his eyes were filled with love. She leaned in to kiss him, but suddenly he was gone.

Rocks piled up inside the shack, blocking out the fire, making the place cold. She could see her breath in front of her in the dim, gray light. Where had he gone? Panic filled her. She called for him, but he didn’t answer.

Then she could feel him in her arms, lying in her lap. She looked and found him staring up at her, unblinking, but not seeing anything. She brushed the hair out of his cold face. “Falcon?” she whispered. She choked on a sob.

A bell-like laugh made her look up, through a window that had appeared in the wall beside her. Lotus was outside, twirling around in the sunshine, her face serene and happy. Julia felt relieved to see her.

She glanced back to Falcon, but he wasn’t there anymore. She heard Lotus singing, though she couldn’t understand the words. When she looked outside, she found that Falcon was with Lotus now, alive again.

“Falcon." Julia smiled. But he held Lotus’ hand and started walking away. “Don’t leave me. Falcon!” she called after him, but he was laughing and smiling at Lotus as they left together. New tears spilled onto her cheeks. “Don’t leave me,” she whispered.

Suddenly, the dream changed again. The rocks disappeared, and Falcon was sitting beside her once more. He smiled and pulled her into his arms, holding her close. She instantly felt warm again.

“Shh. I’m here,” he murmured gently, and she sighed as he kissed the top of her head.

But every morning when she woke up, he wasn’t holding her. Since Lotus had started traveling with them, and after she had died, Falcon didn’t hold Julia at night anymore. And she didn’t feel like she had any right to ask him to, or to make up any excuses. So they just continued to stay distant from each other, in every way.

The long periods of silence became a heavy weight on her shoulders, and she physically slouched under it. She felt alone. Falcon was there, but at the same time, he wasn’t.

When they finally made it back to Brunya City. They found some parchment nailed outside Kalos’ Tavern, the northernmost building. On it was a pretty actuate drawing of them, and under it said that they were wanted for questioning. It offered a thousand gold pieces as a reward for their capture. It was signed by High Priestess Kieran. She must have figured out what they were doing somehow.

Falcon sighed. “We’ll have to avoid cities. Which means no store to replace everything I lost in the cave in.”

“Can we make it without getting more supplies?” Julia asked. At the moment they had one of everything: plate, fork, cup, waterskin. Only one bedroll too, but Falcon had been using their one blanket to sleep on.

He considered, then nodded. “I can hunt and we can just keep sharing. Another blanket would be good though.”

She wasn’t going to say anything, but she was glad he did. The weather had been nice, but it was still cold at night.

“Doesn’t look like there’s anyone at the stables yet,” he mused.

She followed his gaze, then felt disappointed when she saw found empty stalls. “There’s not even any horses we can take,” she said, and realized how easy it was for her to think of stealing now. “There’s too much at stake. I don’t care what we have to do,” she added, her tone defensive.

He shot her a glance, his eyebrow raised, and perhaps a little amusement in his eyes. But he turned back quickly and headed for the building. “There should be some blankets at least.”

She looked around, making sure there wasn’t anyone nearby, then followed after him. They found a couple thick saddle blankets. Falcon rolled them up and used some reins bind them, making the load easier for him to carry. He also found a small leather bag, that he filled with some oats, and a strange-looking knife which was apparently used for trimming hooves.

When they heard a couple of men talking down the street, they bolted across a small field and back into the forest. Skidding to a halt, they hid behind some trees and waited for any signs that they had been spotted. They’d made it. No one was following or raising an alarm.

Once they caught their breath, they continued their journey southeast.

__________

The following days dragged on, filled with more heavy silence. She tried to come up with something to talk about, but she couldn’t think of what to say. So the only conversation was “I’ll go fill the water,” or “Can you hand me the map?” or “We can camp here tonight.”

They followed the Belthon River east for a short way until coming to a shallow enough place to cross. On the other side, the Ifori Forest was filled with redwood trees, like the ones Julia had seen when she drove down from Washington. Northern California had been beautiful, with its lush forests filled with the massive trees; this place looked the same. It was impossible to see the tops of the redwoods through the high, green canopy. The forest floor was covered with thick undergrowth―mostly ferns, which covered up the dips in the unsteady ground and made it difficult to look anywhere but where they were stepping.

It was barely sunrise on the third morning when they found the elves―or rather, the elves found them. Falcon shook Julia's shoulder gently to wake her up, and she gasped when she opened her eyes.

Looming above them were four men, each dressed sparingly in deerskin clothes, with bare, dirty feet. They were tall and slender, with long, thin faces and skin that was a light cream color, but with a slight ruddy hue. They had green, almond-shaped eyes and pointed ears that stuck out an inch from their long, thick hair, which was the same reddish-brown color as the bark of the surrounding trees. They gazed down at the intruders haughtily, clearly showing that they were unwelcome. Still, Julia thought they were incredibly beautiful, in an exotic, almost animalistic, way.

She sat up and glanced at Falcon, asking silently what was going on.

“They’re taking us to Aerlon,” he told her, “their leader.”

“Why?”

“He will hear your reason for being in our forest,” one elf answered in a voice that was clear and firm, yet little more than a whisper. She could tell that English was not their first language, though this one at least spoke it well. His accent sounded almost like someone from Spain. It was fairly thick, yet he was easily understood.

“Okay,” she said slowly. “Good. I mean, we want to talk to them anyway, right?”

Falcon nodded.

While they packed up and got ready to leave, the elves kept amazingly still, as if they were trees themselves. They stood tall and proud, though their hands hung relaxed at their sides, not defensive in the least―they didn’t even carry any weapons.

When Falcon had slung their pack over his shoulder, two elves simply turned and walked deeper into the forest, leaving them to follow. The other two elves walked behind them.

After a while, the trees seemed to get much larger. They used a massive fallen tree as a bridge to cross over a ravine filled with young trees and thick with ferns. Once on the other side, they entered a village.

At first it just looked like a large clearing in the woods, but then, slowly, Julia began to notice details. Each giant redwood in sight had an opening at the bottom the size of a regular doorway, but it looked like it was just a natural part of the tree. Then she realized that there were other holes too―windows.

As they passed through, elves started appearing in the doorways, unfortunately blocking her view into their homes. They stood as if they were purposely doing so, not wanting the humans to see anything.

All of the elves had the same general appearance, though each had their own distinct features, as though they were all members of the same family. Two small children, with ears they had yet to grow into, stood near a pregnant elf. She was amazingly beautiful, with her large, uncovered belly protruding from her willowy frame.

Julia realized that there were more women around, but it was a bit difficult to tell them apart from the men at first because all the elves had feminine faces, their bodies were very slender, and the women had very small breasts. Yet none of them looked weak―quite the opposite, they looked like creatures of nature, strong and durable.

Falcon and Julia were shown into the tree at the end of the clearing. It was the largest of them all, with a doorway twice the size of the rest. They walked into a room that just looked like the inside of a hollowed-out tree, though it was very large―these trees were abnormally big, even for redwoods. There was no flooring of any kind, just dirt. At the back of the room, there was a built-in fireplace where a medium-sized animal was being roasted on a spit, but it wasn’t man-made―it was as if the tree had just grown into that shape.

The walls were decorated with animal pelts, though Julia wasn’t sure if they were there for display or just ready for use when needed. They didn’t appear to be very ornamental at all: everything she had seen in the village so far, even the elves' clothes, was simple and efficient. A large table took up the center of the room, and it, too, along with the backless chairs around it, seemed as if it had just grown from the ground into those very shapes. She wondered if this was an example of ranger magic.

“Aerlon,” one of the elves said to a man sitting at the table, then continued in a language she didn’t understand.

Aerlon and the woman beside him stood. They were both about the same six-foot-height as Falcon. “What is your purpose here?” the man asked in English, or common.

She heard Falcon respond, but she didn’t catch his words, because at that moment she saw a man standing off to the side, listening with interest to the conversation that she suddenly couldn’t seem to hear.

The man was beyond beautiful. He had the same redwood hair, pointy ears, and was only a couple of inches taller than the others. His body was a bit more filled out than the rest of the elves, more muscular. He didn’t wear the same clothes, either―the only deerskin he was wearing was his pants. He wore a green tunic style shirt, brown boots, a belt, and bracers

His face looked more human, and his eyes, instead of green like theirs, were extraordinarily blue, like a summer sky. His flawless skin was a slightly darker shade of cream, without the ruddiness. His thick hair parted in the middle and fell in gentle waves a couple of inches past his shoulders. It didn’t fall into his face, which gave her a clear view of his entrancing beauty―of his high cheekbones, strong jaw, and perfect lips.

Then he looked at her, meeting and holding her gaze. It felt like he could read her mind. Still, she stared at him shamelessly. His eyes were warm and gentle. He smiled, a small, knowing smile, and she forgot how to breathe for a moment.

He glanced to her left, then back to her, but she couldn’t figure out why until she felt a hand on her shoulder and physically jolted. She turned to see Falcon looking at her.

“Come on,” he said angrily.

Was it because of her? What had she missed? She followed him, along with the same elf escort as before, out of the tree-building. She glanced back, unable to help herself, wanting to catch one last glimpse of the beautiful man. He was still watching her; normally she would have blushed, but she was too enthralled by him to be embarrassed.

They walked in silence until they were well beyond the edge of the village. Suddenly, the four elves stopped and turned back, leaving them there without a word.

Falcon watched them go with a glower. “Can you believe them?”

She felt her face heat and flood with color. She turned away, making a show of examining where they were―it just looked like anywhere else in the forest.

“I expected them to be regal and lofty, but they’re just arrogant assholes! I thought the things people said about them were exaggerated. They're seriously not,” he said angrily. It was strange to hear him sound so harsh.

She had no choice now but to ask in a very small voice, “Why?”

He was silent for a moment. “Why?” he finally repeated.

When he said nothing more, she dared to glance back at him. He was frowning deeply, and a wave of guilt washed over her. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

“How much did you miss?”

She looked down, hiding her red cheeks, and that was answer enough.

He scoffed and shook his head. “The short version is, they won’t help us.”

“Why not?”

“Because we’re human,” he practically spat. Then, as if he couldn’t stand being idle, he took off their pack and crouched down to dig inside it.

“What’re you doing?” she asked quietly.

“You haven’t eaten,” he said, his tone edgy but controlled.

“I’m fine,” she said, but he ignored her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention, I was just… overwhelmed by all the―”

“Don’t lie,” he cut in sharply without looking at her. “You’re horrible at it.”

She frowned down at him. She wanted to say something defensive, but her voice stuck in her throat. She remembered Lotus and his reaction to her when they had first met, but Julia couldn’t bring herself to say the bard’s name. At least he didn’t have to feel the jealousy that she had to.

Finally, she sighed and pouted. “I don’t want you to be mad at me anymore.”

He looked up. “Anymore?”

“It’s been over a week,” she said softly, pushing at a small fern with the toe of her boot. “I deserve it, I know. But… I just can’t stand it anymore. And now you’re more mad because I…” Her words trailed off as she stared at the ground.

He stood and walked over to her. “What are you talking about?”

She glanced up at him, confused. “Um… you being mad.”

He shook his head slowly. “But I haven’t been.” He sighed heavily. “I’m not even mad at you now, just… annoyed.” He grumbled the last word. “Why do you think I’ve been mad at you?”

“Because of what happened… because it’s my fault,” she mumbled. “I know you probably hate me anyway, and you should, but―”

He grabbed her shoulders, with more force than usual, and it surprised her. “How can you think I’d hate you?” he asked, frowning. “I could never, ever hate you, Jules. And I don’t think anything is your fault. I don’t blame you for what happened.”

Her gaze fell to the ground again. “But you’ve been so quiet,” she said. “And… well, you don’t talk to me anymore.”

He lifted her head up with a finger under her chin, making her meet his gaze again. “It’s not because I’m upset with you in any way, it’s just that I―”

“I know,” she whispered. He was grieving for Lotus, and she felt horrible for bringing it up at all. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.”

She turned her head, but he caught her cheek, cupping it in his hand. “No, I’m sorry. I don’t like us not talking.” His voice was tender and sad now. “No more silence between us, okay?” He smiled, but it wasn’t real―it was for her benefit. She was sure her smile in return was just as weak.

He pulled her into his arms. It seemed like it had been forever since he had held her, though she dreamed about it every night. She slid her arms around his waist and clung to him, savoring the feel of his strong body against hers. The beautiful elf was easily forgotten inside Falcon’s embrace, where all she wanted was for him to never let her go.

But after a while―thankfully a long while―he did let go. “Let’s eat some breakfast,” he said. His tone was light now, but she could tell it was still forced.

“I’m really not hungry.”

He studied her for a moment, then nodded. “Me either.” He took a deep breath. “So, I think we should head south,” he told her, grabbing the map.

She was glad he was letting the other subject go and trying to be normal again. She smiled a little in appreciation, though he didn’t see it.

“I don’t think the orb piece is in the village. I’m guessing it’s in the forest somewhere. The others have been in a cave, a mine, and a temple. I bet the last piece is in something like that, too. Not some tree house.” He said the last part with contempt. It was clear that whatever Aerlon had said to him, it made him really not like the elves. Of course, they hadn’t been very friendly up to that point, either.

Falcon pointed to the top of the Ifori Forest on the map, in the middle and by the river. “We’re here somewhere,” he said. “So we can go south and search for some place that looks likely. If we make it to the bottom of the forest without finding anything, we’ll just go west a bit and then north.”

“And keep going up and down until we find something?” she guessed.

He nodded. “Exactly.” He rolled up the map and returned it to their bag. Then, taking his compass from a little pouch in his belt, he looked at it for a moment. He put it back and slid their bag over his shoulder before taking her hand and heading south.

He glanced back and smiled again, more genuinely this time, and she returned it wholeheartedly, happy to have him touching her again.