Disclaimer: "The butt-kickin's over and it's almost midnight! Time for doughnuts!"
(An: As you can tell, it took me a while to figure out which story to start next...Special stuff: No accents will be codified. Remy's eyes are brown because this is an AU and because of what I want to mess with later on. Italics are thoughts and bold is emphasis. That's pretty much it.)
The three travelers looked like they had nothing in common.
To a casual observer it would seem as though there were only two travelers. One was a young woman, her hair tied back, wearing a plain cotton dress, with large blue eyes. Her steps were delicate and she seemed to ooze nobility. The second was a man. He was very alert, looking in every direction with his brown eyes and constantly redirecting the girl.
The reason the third traveler was so hard to spot was because he was hiding in the trees. His dark blue fur allowed him to be almost invisible in the shady canopy, and his long tail allowed him to swing from tree to tree with ease. He was wearing a small necklace and had hoops in both pointy ears.
Katheryn Pryde pulled her skirt from a bush. "And just why did we leave the road again?" she asked.
"I told you," said Remy LeBeau (the guy), "those wagons were bad news. Do you want to have us discovered right away?"
The third traveler hung upside down from his tail (his name was Kurt). "Where are we?"
Remy glared at them, and pulled out a map. He stabbed a spot on it. "Right there," he said. "See? I know exactly where we are. Now come on, it's this way back to the road." He led them off.
A FEW HOURS LATER...
Remy stopped short, sniffing the air. "What in the-" He was cut off by the elf that landed on his head. Remy fell over, the elf clinging to his back.
"This is sacred ground!" she cried.
"Quoi?" asked Remy, blinking and trying to stand up.
The elf pressed a small knife to his throat. "What are you doing here?"
"Is this how all elves say hello?" he asked, trying to wiggle out of her grip.
"This is..." she began, and then tipped over, dragging Remy down again.
Remy stood up, brushing himself off. "Ok. What was that?"
Kurt climbed down from his tree, approaching them. "Is it dead?" he asked, joining Remy in bending over the elf.
"It's not an it," said Remy, brushing the hair from the elf's face to prove his point, "it's a her. And it's an elf. We're in trouble." He sniffed the air. "...And we're lost."
"I knew it!" cried Katheryn.
"Oh, be quiet, Kitty," said Remy, investigating the elf. He then noticed her problem. "Poison arrow," he said, pulling a small barb from her arm.
"It's 'your highness' to you," said Kurt, glaring at Remy.
"Not yet," replied Remy.
"So what do we do now?" asked Kitty, trying to change the subject.
Remy sniffed the air again. "Just keep walking, I guess. We'll have to come to somewhere familiar... eventually." He carefully picked up the elf.
"What do we do about her?" asked Kitty, giving the elf a curious look. "Can't we just leave her behind?"
"No," said Remy. "Think about it. This is the elves' forest. She'll die without help, and I know how to help her. If we leave her behind to die, we're as good as dead."
"I wonder what she was going on about," said Kurt as he scaled a tree.
NIGHT...
Remy fidgeted. "Mon Dieu," he muttered. "I hate this forest." He looked up for an opening in the canopy, trying to see the moon, but found none.
"Would you calm down?" asked Kitty, gazing into the fire.
"No," said Remy. "What's the point of it almost being a full moon if you can't see it?" He bent down by the elf. She was wrapped up and shivering. "That stuff ready yet?"
Kitty stirred the liquid in the pot over the fire. "Um..."
Remy rolled his eyes. "Why do I even bother asking?" he said, looking at the pot himself.
"You should be more respectful," said Kurt with a lazy stretch.
"I'm the guide," replied Remy, adding something to the pot from one of his many pockets. "I don't have to be respectful." He stirred it. "This'll be ready in the morning."
He then went back to watching the elf. She had a petite build, with dark brown hair that had curious white stripes in the front. Her dress was plain, dark green that was the very color of the forest, and the only thing she wore as jewelery (unusual for the gem-loving elves) was a plain gold chain necklace with a blue moon pendant.
"It's kind of strange to run across a lone elf, isn't it?" said Kitty. "I thought they traveled in groups."
"They do," said Remy. "I don't trust this forest at all."
"And we're lost in it," said Kurt. "We have a real problem, don't we?"
"And you just figured that out now," said Remy, shaking his head.
(And that's that... Click onward for the second chappy.)
