“You’re an Elf?!” Selveana shouted in disbelief.
Emiri was still stunned by all the previous events that have all occurred so quickly in a small amount of time, and now some strange human that saved her life was yelling at her. While Selveana stood mouth a gaped for a few moments, Emiri took the chance and readied an arrow, pointing the bow straight at Selveana.
“Whoa, whoa whoa! Let’s not do anything rash now, alright?”
Emiri continued to aim at Selveana.
“Look, here,” Selveana said as she unstrapped her sword, placed it on the ground, and held her hands up, “I’m unarmed now. It’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Where am I?” Emiri replied holding back the fear and anger in her voice as best she could.
“Uh, this is Middle Earth.”
“What?”
“You’re in the Human Nation,” Selveana retorted.
“Then where is everybody?” Emiri challenged.
“Oh, well, we’re in this alleyway you see. Nobody really takes it; it’s the perfect place for someone to attack you without anyone knowing. Besides, it’s unnaturally quiet back here, most people are afraid to travel through here.”
“Then why are you back here?”
“Well, you see, I was trying to avoid this shop . . . “ Selveana began sheepishly.
“You’re with them, aren’t you?” Emiri said sternly.
“Wait, what? No! Of course not! Why would I work for people who have me on their wanted list?”
“It doesn’t seem so by how they were after me and not you,” Emiri shot back.
“I was actually surprised at that as you were. They usually come after me! I swear on this sword! You must be a more important target than I am or something. Besides, I saved your life.”
“I could’ve saved myself,” Emiri replied coolly.
“Come on! Give me some credit, will you? From what I was seeing, you froze up! You probably aren’t use to fighting, and even having to take a life!” Selveana fired back hotly.
Emiri tightened her grip on your bow.” You don’t think I’m willing to take your life now?!”
Selveana stood quiet, looked hard and still at Emiri’s bow, and simply muttered, “You won’t fire.”
Emiri looked up from her concentration.”Huh?”
“You won’t fire it. You know I’m not your enemy deep down. You’re just scared, that’s all.”
Emiri was stunned for a moment, unsure of what to do or say. Selveana took a few steps toward her. She tightened grip even more and yelled through pouring tears,” Don’t come any closer! I’ll shoot you! I will shoot you!”
Selveana abruptly stopped. She gazed straight into Emiri’s eyes, almost as if she were looking deep down, and mumbled, “Alright, shoot.”
“Wha-what?”
“You said you are going to shoot, so shoot.”
Emiri held her bow tightly, her arms now trembling with fear. The human looked too calm, much calmer than she was before. Even her voice hinted a major change in her mood. It almost as if she was seeing deep inside of Emiri. She was calmly waiting for the Elf’s next move.
Emiri’s vision was blurred with tears, realizing she could not shoot, and that the strange human meant no harm. Slowly, she lowered her bow, loosening the tension on the bowstring and sank to the ground.
Selveana quickly rushed over, making sure she didn’t faint or something.
“Are you alright?”
“Soon Emiri bawling and wailing in agony. Selveana was taken aback at the sudden outburst, but did her best to try and calm her, or at least figure out what was wrong.
“C-calm down, everything’s going to be alright. You’ll see. Right now you need to be strong.”
“Please, just make it go away! Kill me now!”
“What?!”
“Kill me! I can’t take it anymore! None are probably alive!”
“Uh, wait, who’s not alive? What are you talking about?” The Elf was still wailing about. Selveana couldn’t take it anymore. “Hey! Get a hold of yourself! You’re a ranger for crying out loud! I can tell from your bow and your cloak! Now I’m not sure what you have been through, or what you are even talking about! But right now, you got to suck it up, and tell me what has happened to you!”
This time, Selveana got the Elf’s full attention. She began to calm her snuffles, and breathed heavily. Emiri finally regained her control.
“Good, now that that’s said and done, allow me to introduce myself. The name’s Selveana! I’m one of the greatest fighters there is around here! What’s your name?”
She paused before she softly spoke,“ Emiri.”
Tricia walked down the sidewalk; cautiously looking around her making sure she wasn’t being followed. As she traveled onward toward her destination, it began to have less and less people traveling along the sidewalk, and cars within the road. Before long, the road and sidewalk were deserted. The ominous quiet here made Tricia nervous as she cradled the dagger in her pocket. After going several blocks, she finally made it to the abandoned warehouse. Looking about her once more, she creaked open the door and slid inside.
“Whoa, I see now. You’ve been through a lot today, haven’t you?”
Emiri slowly nodded her head, still gazing at the ground.
“Well, I know that is pretty traumatizing, but it’s definitely not something to kill yourself over! Try looking on the bright side! If you managed to escape, I’m sure someone else had. Even so, you must continue to live on! Carry on the Elves’ legacy! Besides, I believe there are some Elves out here as well!”
Emiri rapidly looked up in bewilderment. “Elves here? In the Human Nation? How? Why?”
“Well, I’ve heard that even though the Elves left to get away from the Humans’ “destruction”, they left some Elves behind to help protect the trees from “further” damage. These Elves were called Rangers, the protectors of the forests,” explained Selveana.
“So then, my people still cared for the Humans. Rangers right?”
“Yep!”
“Interesting, I remembered my friend Miku told me about Rangers. He thought I was a Ranger when we first met.”
“I thought the same thing. You sure you’re not a Ranger? They are the most elite Elves there are.”
“Well, I’m very skilled with the bow, does that make me a Ranger?”
“I wouldn’t know,” said Selveana, “ I don’t know the criteria for a Ranger.”
Selveana began to look at Emiri, as if she were studying her. It began to freak Emiri out. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
“I know!” exclaimed Selveana. “I should train you to become a fighter! “
Emiri stared strangely at her, feeling a bit confused. “Huh?”
“Yeah! That would be perfect! That way you can defend yourself from the Hunters!”
“The who?”
“The Hunters, those beings I fought off of you.”
“Wait, what?”
Selveana appear to ignore Emiri’s questions, and continued to babble on about training Emiri to become a fighter.
“Yes Emiri! You need to become a fighter! Know how to fight in close combat! No, mortal combat! Elves are very weak in close combat.”
“Now wait just a sec- what? Did you just say Elves are weak in close combat? How dare you insult me and my people!”
“I’m sorry Emiri, but I’m only stating facts here. I remember reading somewhere about great battles against the Elves. They killed off many people from long range with their skills in the bow. They were deadly from afar, impossible to advance in any closer. But, one battle, the enemy snuck up from behind and attacked! Shocked and surprised and completely unprepared, the Elves were taken down quickly, not knowing how to defend themselves or to fight with their fists instead of their bows.”
“You actually read?”
“Hey, just because I’m a fighter, doesn’t mean I don’t like to do a little research! Look, you either are going to be in denial of the fact that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, or you are going to make yourself a better fighter.”
“ If that’s true, then what’s your weakness?” questioned Emiri.
“Why long range attack of course! I don’t have a bow like you do to fire enemies from afar. So, shall I train you in fighting?”
Emiri considered this for a moment, still slightly unsure of this new human she had met just recently.
“Okay, teach me in the way of hand-to-hand fighting! I want to be a fighter!”
“Alright, that’s the ticket!” Selveana shouted cheerfully, “Now that that’s out of the way, let’s start heading back to Middle Earth!”
“That would be very nice, I’m tired of being seemingly in the middle of nowhere,” Emiri chimed in with a sigh of relief.
And so, together they moved along the alleyway towards the welcoming sounds of Middle Earth, unaware of where fate has placed them, and the great perils in between their embarking and their end.
***
“So, Selveana,” Emiri began as they continued along the alleyway, “What’s it going to take for me to become a fighter?”
Selveana at first didn’t respond to this, and for a very long moment, she was silence in deep of thought. “Well, there is one thing we got to do before we can begin training,” slowly and slyly Selveana said. Then, before Emiri had time to react, Selveana grip a bit of Emiri’s long gnarly hair and tugged back on it, drawing Emiri in close and placed her in a hold.
“This hair is going to be your downfall. Your opponents can easily grab it because of its long length and place you in a hold you can’t get out of. Unless . . .”
Emiri knew where this was going. “No way! You’re suggesting cutting my hair off?!”
“I’m asking to cut off all of it, about shoulder length will do. This will help in close combat.”
“But Elves are suppose to have long hair! If I get rid of it, I’ll be less of an Elf then I already am!”
“Well, you want to be a better fighter, right?”
“Yes,” Emiri said exasperated, “Yes I want to learn how be a better fighter.”
“Then this is your first lesson,” Selveana said releasing Emiri from her hold and offered her sword. “Now cut it off. Besides, I think it’ll be better for you to not look so much like an Elf here in the Human Nation. It’s not normal to have an Elf roaming around the Humans’ place. Draws attention, the last thing we need.”
Emiri reluctantly took Selveana’s sword and took hold of all her hair. She slowly lifted the sword to the length she had to cut it, which was about at her neck level. There was a long moment of hesitation, and then, she braced herself, and took a quick short swing of the blade, not watching all the hair that fell to the ground. Emiri’s head felt very light now, from all the hair that had been taken off of her head.
“See? Wasn’t too bad, now was it?” Selveana said in approval.
“Feels like a part of me has just died,” said Emiri answered sadly.
“Hey, that means a new part of you can be born! That’s great! That part might be the fiery spirit of a fighter!” Selveana cheered.
“Well, now that you mutilated my hair, what will I have to do next?” Emiri said aggravated.
“Well,” Selveana started as her attention was drawn to Emiri’s pointy ears, “those big ears will end up giving you away that you’re an Elf. We’re going to have to get rid of them.”
After Selveana’s first solving of problem by cutting off her hair, she had sick visions of what she planned to do with her ears.
“Don’t worry! I know just the thing to cover them up! Stay here for a sec, I’m going to go into Middle Earth and find some head cover to hide those ears of yours!”
Selveana quickly rushed out of the alleyway, which was becoming increasingly more noisy than it use to be. Must be close Emiri thought.
“Here we go!” yelled Selveana as she rushed back with a piece of maroon cloth. “Put this on!” Selveana.
Emiri wrapped the cloth around her head, placing her ears inside of it, and tied a knot at the back of the head.
“There, that’s perfect! Nobody will ever know!”
“Great, I worked so hard at trying to be like the other Elves, and now the only few features I have to relate to Elves you’re making me cover up and get rid of! I’m even less of an Elf!”
“Hey come on! You’re still an Elf deep down inside. That’s what matters. Besides, maybe you’ll fit in better with the Humans. Nothing wrong with that! Now come on! There’s so much stuff I got to show you!”
“What about training?”
“We’ll do that later. Right now, let’s have some fun!”
also, little something extra special: minicomic! just took a scene from here and changed it up a little, love making fun of my own characters! too much fun! sorry if my drawings look sucky to you, if you actually critique, I'll get better.and also sorry if you cant read it. if its that bad, I suggest going to the eye doctor XD. so, enjoy and critique!
