13 July 2012
"No. I'm coming with you." was my immediate reply. "I need to get underway as soon as possible, and anyway, I can help you get that kill." "Alright then. Get your bow, and be prepared to shoot for me. I haven't been able to get in a lot of practice these past six months, what with being pregnant and all that." I ran back to the tent, grabbed my bow and quiver, and ran back to the patiently waiting Virra, and we set off out of camp, at a slightly slower than average pace. As camp disappeared behind the trees that started to crowd the hunting path, my companion looked thoughtful. Obviously setting out the thoughts in her head for the retelling of her adventures in the city. I wondered what to expect. Were elves treated on an equal footing as the many humans that occupied the city? Were they placed in high regard, due to their much deeper cultural heritage? Part of me (the less mature bit, the one that still liked kittens and rainbows) wanted to believe this, but I had an awful suspicion that it wasn't the case. I was correct.
We had made our first kill of the day (a small partridge) and I was just starting to move along the well-worn path when Virra called to me "Stop. I think it's time." We sat down underneath an old fir tree and made ourselves comfortable. Then she started.
"I was your age when I went to Serana. It felt a great honour to be selected for the task. Some of the clan had been ambushed and killed by bandits, and it was pure luck that when searching through the bodies one of the raiders had accidentally dropped a note tracking the group's whereabouts to Serana. I was selected to go, to find and deal with the raiders, along with two more experienced hunters, Bremman and Tavka. We set off and arrived in the city. And what a place it was. Filth seeped from every corner. The population was crowded into slums where ten people could live in a single house, nay, room. And there we were in the middle of it all, innocent as the day we were born to the horrors of that city." She paused. I interrupted. "How were elves treated?" She looked at me with a look that almost verged on pity. "If you think that they were revered, you are wrong. Our city dwelling cousins were, and most likely still are, crammed into the smallest, most dirty slum imaginable, segregated from the rest of the population, and looked on with disdain." She was lost in her thoughts, barely noticing me as she spoke. "We stayed in that hovel for a week while Tavka searched and made more formal enquiries into the whereabouts of the group, while Bremman and I dug for rumours. It was a nightmare. As "non-city" elves we were second class citizens, even among our own people. To the humans, we didn't exist. They only bared us because we paid rent, it was that simple. Anyway, enough of that. Tavka had jut started to get a grasp on a lead when we were kidnapped in the middle of the night..." She paused and drew breath sharply, her eyes brimming with tears. But she continued. Bravely. "Tavka's enquiries had attracted the group's attention, and they brought us to their hideout. They killed Tavka first. Then Bremman. They made me watch. The things they did... I don't want to talk about it. They then turned on me, promising to do things much worse than what had happened before. But they didn't get the chance. "It turned out that Tavka's questions had attracted the attention of an off duty city guard, and he had followed Tavka that night from the pub to question him. However he was only able to find our ransacked home. The guard had knowledge of the hideout, but were looking for an excuse to bring down the bandits. This was all explained to me as I was rescued by the aforementioned guard and his troops. "And that's it. I hope you find it beneficial." And with that Virra got up, took the partridge, and walked away. I didn't follow.
A Truth • Opuss № I