(Edited 7/5/17)

Chapter 3: We're off to see the elves (And hopefully a wizard of Arda)

Dappled sunlight fell on copper hair, making it gleam like fire. Riv and the fox had been traveling for a while now, but she still couldn't make heads or tails of where she was. All the bushes and trees looked the same to her, but she did see a couple of good climbing ones. Not that she would be any good at it, no way. What would the Royal Archivist's daughter be doing climbing and hiding in the courtyard trees after all?

The fox looked up from where he was trotting alongside her feet. "So, human, you said you were on your way to your friend's birthday party? What's that?" Riv glanced down at the critter before continuing to look forward as not to trip. "Well, birthday party is a celebration of the day you were born. Most err, two-legs I guess you call them, celebrate them. I don't know anything about these other races and their customs, but it's probably safe to assume they do too."

Riv scanned the area, carefully monitoring her surroundings. Didn't want another one of those warg things attacking them unawares. Although she had taken precautions and tucked one of the throwing daggers she had stashed away in one of her capsules in her belt. She wasn't as good with them as a gun, but she had some skill and she didn't want to waste any bullets in a place she had no way of replacing them as far as she knew. Not that she didn't make her own bullets anyways.

"Oh, the day of kitting, then. Yeah, we animals have our own customs about that, but we only celebrate it twice. Once when they are born and then again when they come of age. It's different

for each animal and they call it something different to, like the birds for instance. They call it the eggeves." The fox huffed, jumping over a small log in their path. Riv stepped over it carefully. If she wasn't careful she would take a header. Unfortunately, she got really clumsy when she was spaced out or otherwise occupied, unless of course she was on her hoverboard. Nothing to trip on when your cruising above the ground.

There was rustle of the tree branches above them causing the fox to stop and peer up at the leaves suspiciously. Riv stopped with him and cautiously looked up as well. "Something the matter?" The fox shook his furry head back and forth, but his ears stayed pinned back. "Just paranoia. That stupid warg has got my fur standing on end and me jumping at every little noise." Riv gave him a skeptical look, not believing him entirely.

The two kept moving forward, though they kept their silence as they listened to the wind in the trees. Another rustle above them, louder this time and the movement had twigs and leaves raining down on the pair. "Hey!" Riv complained as she covered her head with her hands, and glared up at the branches with one squinted eye.

"Well, well, well. This is a rare sight. The fox has come out of hiding and is actually outside his normal territory. Sure are brave for a fox." A disembodied voice called out from the branches above them. Riv swung her head around trying to glimpse whoever it was that was speaking. "Show yourself!"

The fox growled, "No need. I know who it is. Come out where we can see you, Featherbrain!" A large shadow descended from the canopy to settle on a branch closer to the ground. It was a falcon, a peregrine falcon in specific actually. A female with bluish wings and a white underbelly and sharp black talons curled around the branch she was perched on. Observant black eyes narrowed at Riv, before they lazily drifted back to the fox.

"What do you want, bird?" The fox bared his teeth at the bird that was almost the same size as he was. "There's quite a bit of noise in the forest right now. And you're right in the center of it, fox. Along with your female two leg." The furry creature sat down with a snort. "Like I care what those busybodies say. And what goes on around me is my business, not theirs. Why do you care anyways?"

The blueish colored bird narrowed her gaze at the sitting fox. "You know exactly why I've concerned myself, fox. Whether you like it or not. I thought I would be kind enough to inform you that I spotted another pack of the hideous two legs heading towards where you just came from." The falcon turned her feathered head to gaze in the direction of where they had just come from.

The fox visibly looked startled, throwing an apprehensive look over his furry shoulder. He quickly stood back up and trotted over to Riv to stand behind her and start physically nudging the back of her knees with his head. "Well, if that's the case we really should be going. Good to see you again, bird, but I've got to get this two leg to the eleven path and out of here." Riv started walking forwards with the urging of the fox and a questioning glance at the falcon.

Riv looked to the beast guiding her along and then back to the female bird still watching them, locking gazes with her. The bird seemed to puff out her feathers in a sigh before launching herself off the branch she had perched on and glided towards the human female.

There was a quiet slice of feathers through air before they fluttered loudly as she descended to the human female's shoulder. The fox jumped back incredulously as he watched the falcon land on the human female's shoulder. Riv jumped slightly as she felt sharp talons scrape her left shoulder and a slightly heavy weight land there with a rustle of feathers. Thankfully, the talons only lightly dug into her shoulder, not even piercing through her white t-shirt.

The bird gentle shifted her weight to make herself comfortable on Riv's shoulder, tail feathers shaking out slightly. The fox was the first to speak, or yelp really. "What do you think you're doing!?" The falcon turned her feathered head around to pin the reddish creature with a look. "What's it look like? Coming with you. I'm interested in how a human, female no less, came to the forest without any of the border creatures spotting her. Not to mention the get an explanation of the dead warg back there."

Riv's brought a gloved hand up to her mouth to smother an amused smile at the look of ignant annoyance on her companion's furry face. "We don't have time to carry your feathery behind along with us. Go bother one of your nestmates!" The fox shouted with bristling hackles. The falcon just simply turned her head around to face her living perch, ignoring the complaints of the four legged creature.

"So, how does a female human two leg end up out here, nearly in the middle of the forest?" she asked with a curious eye. Riv smiled at her new animal companion and replied, "I honestly have no idea. The place I come from is much different from here, not much as much green and even less animals, other than highlings of course. I was heading back to my home for the celebration of my friend's birthday … er, eggeves, I guess as you call it, when I remember a bright light and the sensation of falling, then total darkness. Everything around that is blurry or just blank, but I woke up in a clearing to a whole bunch of snarling."

Riv gestured gently to the silently fuming fox muttering under his breath, "Our cheerful friend here was fighting off something called a warg, or at least that was what he called it. To me it looked like an overgrown hyena that had had its face smashed in. Where I'm from, these wargs, or even the elves or whatever these 'orcs' are, don't exist. I really don't understand it."

Riv gently maneuvered around a large rock that was blocking the path, clambering over the slightly rocky area as carefully as she could without dislodging her passenger. "I killed the wag before it could eat him, and patched him up so he wouldn't bleed out everywhere. He really saved my life, I owe him for that." She announced with a soft, fond look at the fox.

The falcon turned her attention to the now embarrassed fox whose ears were plastered to the side's of his head. "Well, aren't we the hero, fox. I can't decided if it was out of sheer nerve or stupidity." The fox sneered up at her, "Well, I didn't see anyone else stepping up to help her, bird! What was I supposed to do, let her get eaten?" The falcon shuffled her wings irritably, giving the fox her best glare.

Sensing the sudden hostility, Riv hastily asked, "Why do you call each other 'fox' or 'bird'? Don't you have names?" The fox's attention was diverted by the question shifting his sneer into something a bit more curious as he looked to Riv. "Name? Like a title?" The falcon was the one to answer. "No, we don't have names like you two legs do. We are given simple designations, like Hatchling, or Nestmate, so on and so forth. It's different for each creature group. " The fox had a look of understanding on his face as he came to realize what exactly they were talking about.

Riv furrowed her thin eyebrows together. "Doesn't that get confusing if there more than one of you?" The fox slipped around a gnarled tree root with ease as he replied "It can be, but certain creature groups don't get together very often, especially since they can get very territorial. 'Names' are usually only used during things like mating seasons or when you're young." Riv raised an eyebrow at that and crossed her arms. "Well I refuse to be continued to be called 'female human' or anything like that. My name is Riv." The fox's tail swished contemplatively as he tested it out. "Riv? Like a river?" One of the teeneager's hands came up to rub at the back of her neck, "Well I guess you could look at it that way. It's my nickname, since my real name is too long and too girly for me."

"Nickname? What's a nickname?" The falcon asked with a tilted head. "Oh, well, a nickname is something friends give each other or its another name you go by for whatever reason." The falcon chirruped quietly, her version of a hum, as she absorbed the information. "Speaking of which, would you two mind if I gave you nicknames? It'd be to awkward for me if I was just addressing you guys as 'Hey, you, fox' or 'I'm talking to you, bird'." Riv finished spastically waving her hands about.

The female falcon nodded as she resettled on the flailing human's shoulder, "If that will help you address us." The fox just grumpily muttered his okay. Looking up into the leafy canopy, Riv thought about her friends' nicknames before nodding resolutely to herself. "I have just the names," looking to the feathered flyer on her shoulder, "Yours will be Kol," and glancing at the fox she smiled, "And yours will be Frei."

The newly dubbed Kol preened at her new name, seeming to like it. Frei rolled his eyes, but his happily perked ears and swishing tail gave away his pleasure at his name. The odd trio continued on in silence, with the only sounds being the life of the forest. Then it all stopped.

The newly named fox suddenly stopped in the path, ears swiveling back and twitching. Riv stiffened along with him and scanned the surroundings while Kol fluffed out her blueish gray and brown feathers.

Frei burst out of his frozen state and darted over leafy covered ground, yipping "Run!" over his shoulder. Riv gave no thought to the command and quickly followed it, tearing after Frei. Kol launched herself from Riv's shoulder, ripping her shirt and scratching her in the process, and quickly flew through the canopy and fell back to get a good look at the cause of the swift movement.

Her sharp eyes caught movement a small ways away from her friends. It was the pack of hideous two legs she had mentioned earlier, but the group they were in was larger than she had ever seen in the sunlight. They usually only hunted in pairs or lonesomes during the day, but this was a large pack of about eight two legs and two other wargs. Black eyes narrowed before wings tucked closer to a blueish body as Kol sped up towards the two copper colored blurs that flashed from her view point above the trees.

Kol burst through the branches with a shower of leaves and a screech, evening her wings out to glide swiftly along side Riv. "It's those hideous two legs! They're gaining quickly, but you're almost to the path!" She screeched above the wind. Riv kicked her feet up harder in response, arms pumping harder as she leaned more forwards, jumping around stray rocks and fallen branches.

Her sense felt like they had kicked into overdrive, colors sharpened to a blurring degree, the sound of her feet pounding against the ground almost in time with her thundering heartbeat, and the feel of her chest rising and falling faster as she panted for breath. Something went whizzing past her face, nearly causing her to stumble as she saw it plant it self into a tree just to her right. A black arrow. "Shit!"

More projectiles seemed to lose themselves after her after the first one. Riv started to bob and weave, making herself a harder target to hit. Kol quickly ascended above the treetops to avoid being shot down. Riv tried to go faster when she realized that the trees were getting a bit thinner. "We're almost there, keep going!" It was Frei that time, yipping as he dodged around forest overgrowth.

Riv suddenly pitched forward with a scream. An arrow had grazed her side, but thankfully it didn't pierce through and just shallowly cut her side. Riv whipped her head back to see how close her pursuers were to her and caught sight of the orcs. Frei had skidded in an attempt to not lose Riv in a cloud of dust to yap impatiently at her. "Hurry up! Your going to end up orc fodder in a minute!" Her eyes widened and she decided not to stick around.

"Sheesh, now I know why you call them hideous two legs! Those guys have some gnarly faces!" Riv called out to her companions to get a hysterical sound of choked laughter from Frei. Her side throbbed each time she took a pounding step as she continued to flee, but she had no time to rest. Finally the trees thinned out into something like a barely definable path, that Frei took a sharp left onto and kept running.

Riv followed behind closely, narrowly dodging another black arrow that flew over her head. "I'm assuming this is the elven path you were talking about! What do we do now!?" Riv yelled frantically, taking a glance over her shoulder. The orc pack was gaining on them.

"I hadn't actually planned that far ahead, except for following it in the direction of the elves." Frei answered sheepishly, breath labored. Riv could have face palmed if she wasn't running for her life. "And I hadn't planned on following a talking fox being pursued by angry and hideous orcs on the way to find elves to help me!" Riv yelped, glancing over her shoulder.

Riv squeaked as the orcs seemed to be hot on their asses. She put more kick into her already fast pace, the wargs almost snapping at her heels. Riv's eyes widened as she realized exactly what she could do to buy them some time. Keeping a careful eye on her surrounding, Riv started to rummage a gloved hand through her large back pouch on her belt. "Aha!"

The copper haired pulled out a capsule that had a hot pink line around its circumference. Pressing the button on the top she twisted around to throw it at the pursuing enemies. "Take that, bastards!" The ensuing chaos was beautiful.

The capsule upon hitting the ground exploded in a great thick pink cloud of smoke. Angry screeching rung out through the air followed by snarling wargs. "What in the world did you just do!?" Kol yelled over the wind rushing past them. "One of my specialties, a pink smoke bomb. That should give us some time and hopefully catch some friendly attention. I can fight, but that's way too many for me to take on by myself." Riv followed Frei and Kol as they continued racing down the path.

"Well, hopefully these friendlies notice soon, that smoke is already disappearing." Frei yipped. Riv glanced over her shoulder only to jerk her head to right as an arrow flew pat her head. "Oh my god, that was too close for comfort! Jerk!" A screech made her whip her head back around just in time to see Kol spiral towards the ground.

Riv had just enough time to dive and catch her before the falcon hit the ground. The oranged haired woman somersaulted to absorb the impact of the dive. "Riv!" Frei skidded to a stop, turned to look at the woman crouching with a wounded Kol held close to her chest. Riv took off running again without a glance backwards.

She couldn't keep running for much longer. While she had pretty good stamina from the acrobatics she used in her gun training, she didn't have infinite energy. Unfortunately, it looks like the choice was taken from as she failed to completely clear the branch she had been jumping over.

Riv tucked in close around Kol to protect her from any of the fall and rolled a good couple feet before stopping.

The world was spinning as she sat up, trying to continue her get away. However it was not to be as the orc pack had finally gained on her and the two wargs started circling her and growling. "Well, well, well. A Woman all alone in the forest. Looks like we'll be eating good tonight." An orc smiled cruelly at her, the other five of his pack laughing with cruel enjoyment.

Riv sneered at the orc in front of her, curled defensively on the ground. Kol was chattering angrily in her arms, her uninjured wing flapping wildly. "I say we eat the appetizer first, and have a little fun with her before we eat her. The feisty ones are always the most fun to break." Another orc stated, licking his lips as he boldly stepped forward.

Suddenly a bush nearby was a flurry of movement as Frei darted out of them and around the orc that had stepped forward. Frei skinned off part of the orc's leg with his claws, causing him to holler at the surprise pain, as he skidded past to take a defensive position in front of his injured friends. The fox snarled at them angrily to warn them off. "What do we have here? Another appetizer and pair of boots it looks like." One of the orcs to the side laughed at his pack mate's pain with a mocking sneer. Another blur shot from the trees towards an orc.

"Urk!" The orc fell to his knees with an arrow straight through his throat with a gurgle of black blood. Immediately the orc who seemed to be the leader of the pack started barking orders as they all drew their swords to face the unknown assailant.

Frei's nose started twitching as his ears tried to find the movement of the third party. Bright amber eyes widened as he turned to the woman who was whipping her head around trying to find whoever it was helping them. "Elves!"

Riv's own lavender eyes widened at the furry creature in front of her. Thank god for miracles, because she honesty had thought they were goners. Another orc was felled by an arrow straight through the eye and fell directly by where Riv had uncurled from her defensive ball. She made a face at the gruesome sight, but did not hesitate to poke at it with her the tip of her boot to push it away some. That was just gross.

Finally the orcs and Riv got their first look at their third party as a blonde man launched himself out of his hiding spot to take down the orc closest to him with a sword. Another man also charged out from his hiding spot, this one dark brunette with a bow slung across his chest and back, skewering another one on his sword. The warg that had been behind Riv suddenly let out a dying scream causing her to whip her head around at the noise. Another man with raven hair had killed it from where he rode atop a horse. An old man in mostly grey clothing carrying a long staff and long sword, one in each hand, dispatched the other warg as it charged him.

Riv started discreetly inching away from the battle, intending to get into a more defensible position seeing how vulnerable she was at the moment. Frei was right beside her, copying her movements as they carefully inched away from the battle zone.

The blond man was in combat with two of three that had managed to stay alive in the ambush, easily parrying their blows as he tried to create an opening. One more orc was slain with a brutal blow across his abdomen by the man as he then concentrated on the other orc. The leader of the orcs ran up, prepared to strike him from behind. The brunet man spun around quickly to try to cover his comrade, but was too late.

The blond man quickly slayed the remaining orc and turned to look behind him as a body hit the ground. There was a single throwing dagger embedded in the side of the leader's head. He followed the path from the dagger to the young woman who was on the ground. Riv had seen the orc trying to get one in on the man and hadn't even thought about snatching the dagger out of her belt and throwing it at the orcs head. Luckily it hit.

Riv sighed out a breath of relief and gently shifted Kol in her arms. Frei had sat on his hind quarters and was observing the new arrivals with a wary look, tail swaying back and forth. The brunet man was the first to slowly approach her.

Riv raised a coppery eyebrow and shifted towards Frei a little bit. They may have saved her, but that didn't quite buy her trust just yet. "It is not everyday that I save such a strange young lady from a pack of orcs." The man remarked as he knelt down in front of her, eyeing Frei a tad warily. Riv was able to see him better, from his stormy blue-gray eyes and unkempt beard to his now sheathed sword.

"Strange? Now what would give you that idea?" Riv snarked in reply with a quirk of her lips. The man seemed to be amused by her sarcasm and offered her his hand to help her stand up as he did just that. Riv hesitated, but clasped his forearm to help herself up. By the expression on his face he wasn't expecting to pull herself up without much of his help.

His expression changed quickly into one of concern as Riv stumbled into him with a pained hiss as the hand not holding Kol shot to her side. The orange haired woman grimaced as her vision blurred out a bit with her lightheadedness. Twisting ever so slowly, Riv caught a glimpse of the crimson that was now staining the left side of her white t-shirt. Oh, great. This was one of her only pure white shirts she had left and blood was so hard to remove.

Riv started to sag in the man's grip as she started to black out for the second time in less than what she suspected was 12 hours. What was it about today that made her such a damsel in distress? The man was shouting to his companions and she could barely make out what he was saying over the ringing in her ears.

"...injured!... arrow… probably poisoned...needs help...quickly!" She felt herself being lifted up in a princess carry and her bag being pulled from her person by another set of hands and Kol being taken with much protest judging by the screeches. Her head lulled to the side, allowing her a glimpse of Frei frantically dancing around many pairs of legs, barking up at her. The little fox was nearly stepped on a couple of times.

"Watch out… for… Frei… Don't leave… him..." A waved hand at the fox and a faint murmur was all she could muster before she went completely limp and her unusually dull purple eyes closed.

"Don't you dare die on us now, you stupid human girl!"


So I have finally got the third chapter up and running, thankfully. I'll be continuing this to the best of my ability, unfortunately, I've run about a bit of bad luck. My younger brother downloaded something on my computer that he wasn't supposed to and what ever it did gave my computer a virus that ate right through my hard drive to where it won't even boot up. Even worse, when my dad tried to fix it for me, we learned someone cut corners on assembling it so its irreparable and I have to get a new computer. So the updates are unfortunately going to slow down as I have to use my mom's computer and I only have few hours a day to do that. But have no fear, I will get the next one out as promptly as I can and I have started working on the next chapter already.

As for the talking animals, guys, yeah there's actually an entire back story behind that. It has to do with what happens in the actual story that Riv is from, since I am currently writing a dystopian fantasy novel based around the two races mentioned in the first chapter. Right now it's only in the planning stage and I am trying to design the city and work out all the kinks that come with building two entirely different civilizations. But what I've done basically is morphed the two stories by tying their pasts together in a way that completely ignore some of the past things that happen in Tolkien's scheme of things (i.e. The Silmarillion, ect.). So if your hardcore Tolkien fan and a stickler for how past events go, this is probably not the fic for you.

Please Review! 0.0 -Tai-Chan