Chapter 6

Author's note: As promised, chapter 6. I just write until chapter 10 and then I'll try to improve my writing, but if there is someone who would help me with the grammar (a beta reader right?) then please let me know! I am quite proud of this story and hope to expand it as best and long as I can make it. Anyway, enjoy this chapter.

Since I replace the intermezzo with this chapter, I want to come clear that I am not English or American. This means that English is not my native language and I deeply apologise for all the errors in this story... sniff

Elizabeth creaked her eyes open and was almost blinded by the intensity of the sunlight that pierced her window. She felt she had slept way to little since her eyes burned and her body felt stiff and exhausted from yesterday.

Yesterday

Elizabeth smiled and closed her eyes. Yesterday was fun. Even though she messed up a lot, she was treated kindly by every customer. The normally almost empty living room was completely filled with humans, warmth and joy. If she had to describe it in one word, then she would say everyone was in harmony with each other. No hatred was there, no judgment. Just people among each other to enjoy the drinks (the food certainly not) and celebrating the little peace inside the Boar's Hat.

She opened her eyes and decided to jump out of bed. Now that her wings weren't on her back for a while she felt lighter. And happier. Happy that she could be herself without anyone to judge her. Happy she could be of service last night.

She walked over to the one closet in her room and opened it, in search of some clean clothes. Somehow she wasn't surprised at the available clothes in front of her. There were familiar pink tank tops, familiar black skirts and the remaining pieces of clothes to complete similar outfits like she wore right now.

He's a pervert.

Elizabeth laughed softly. He makes it easy for me to choose though.

She took out a new set of clothes and walked outside her bedroom in search of a bathroom. She was surprised to see no one was awake yet. And she was disgusted by the sight of a filthy, messy room. I'll clean this up once I cleaned myself.

Buuut..where could be the bathroom?

She noticed one door in the wall that she hadn't open yet. Since no one else was awake, what would be the harm to search herself?

She found out that behind the door was a staircase. It went into a spiral. She could see it leaded to two more doors and one window. Once she reached the first door she carefully opened it.

Lucky guess, it was the bathroom!

Elizabeth felt refreshed and clean after her nice short bath. Her hair shone once again and made her hair look more lime green then silver. That would change once her hair would dry up. The lime green will fade slightly and become more silver-ish. She brushed it so it would fall down onto her back and brushed her bangs. She then put her clothes on, still feeling unsure since everything felt tight and was a little to short for her liking. When she came downstairs she noticed she was still the only one up. Not even Hawk was there to greet her. It felt a little unusual that no one was joining her this morning, but perhaps it was because of last night. Maybe they went off to bed much later than she did. She again didn't remember how she got in bed in the first place, but she had a feeling who might be responsible. Just imagining that face made her heart flutter a bit faster and warmed her cheeks slightly. She shook her head to clear her mind and fooled herself she felt this way just because she was hungry.

She walked over to the kitchen to fetch herself something to eat, but she lost that determination when she only saw vegetables, plain flour, raw eggs and other unprepared things. She hadn't cooked or baked once in her life, now feeling clueless about what to do with the fresh ingredients in front of her.

Why don't you wait until someone else has woken up, you fool?

A more reasonable option, she agreed silently. She instead wanted to clean things up around here and found immediately a mop and a basket to put water in it. She also found a solid, soft, yet a slippery stone that had a faint scent of lavender. Could this be soap? She have heard about the product that it could be used for cleaning purpose. She herself only needed to use water to clean herself. Elizabeth had a feeling that with only the use of water the room couldn't been cleaned properly.

So she just put the soap-thing into the basket and put water into it. She learned when she rubbed the soap-thing, it dissolved faster in water than left untouched, which quickened the process. Once she was satisfied enough with the amount of soap in water, she put the mop into the water and began to clean the floor.

After a while of cleaning the floor and the mess, she noticed that at last Hawk came to join her. He was surprised to find Elizabeth already awake and energeticly cleaning the room.

"Elizabeth! Good morning! You're one early bird despite the late hours of last night." If Elizabeth could somehow clarify her observing, she could swore she saw flowers twirling around Hawk's head.

"Hawk-chan, good morning to you as well! I don't know, but I just feel excited and well-rested today." She felt herself confirming her remark because she still felt she could do anything now even after cleaning the mess for almost two hours straight. "Hawk, do you happen to know where Merlin gets breakfast? I assume Merlin is still asleep and I don't want to wake her." Hawk looked thoughtfull. "Well, I think we need to get some in a village or town I'm afraid. The customers kept ordering stuff and as Meliodas is handy in cooking as a dork, he used up all the bread. That bastard really should learn how to cook." Hawk suddenly looked troubled. "Elizabeth, I don't know if we should go out now! What is we get lost on our way or something happens here?"

Elizabeth smiled. "I think we will be alright. We will be together and as long as we do not draw to much attention and stick together, we will be alright."

Hawk nodded. "Alright, let's do this!." He went off to find some money while Elizabeth wrote a small note for the other residents of this house.

"You'mm meady Elimabem?" Hawk's mouth was stuffed with a small leather sack full of coins and a cotton bag for carrying the supplies they are going to buy.

Elizabeth sweatdropped. "Yes, but I think it's better if I carry the coinpurse and bag myself? You can talk freely to me without concerning yourself." Hawk had to think a second, but nodded his head with also an obvious sweatdrop, making the coins in the purse chime.

"Watch out!"

BAMMMM!

"Owowowowwow," Hawk complained.

"Hawk-chan, are you alright?" Elizabeth's concern was crystal clear in her voice.

"Yeah, my head will swell from the impact though." He became suddenly furious. "What the hell WHY DIDN'-". Hawk swallowed the rest of his outbursts in when he saw that a small girl lay on her butt as well and looked very guilty at the talking pig.

"I-I'm sorry. I was in a rush…hang on, you're newcomers aren't you? Here, take this. I hope you come visit our village because we have much to offer there! You'll see!"

She handed over a flyer of Bernia Village.

"I'll be on my way. I apologize again for the trouble. Have a nice day!" The little girl grabbed her barrow with other flyers, waiting to be passed on to travelers, and made a run for it.

"Wait," Elizabeth yelled, but the little girl was already gone.

"A well," Hawk said. "Let's be on our way Elizabeth. The girl can handle herself."

Elizabeth nodded. "Hang on Hawk," Hawk was confused as Elizabeth put her hand on Hawk's head. "May I?" Hawk nodded, frozen from confusion. When Elizabeth focused her energy on Hawk's forehead, a green light shone from underneath her handprint. Hawk could immediately feel the bruising on his head healing.

"Ahhh, thank you Elizabeth. That feels much better." Elizabeth smiled. "No need to thank me. It was nothing." Hawk looked at her in respect.

"But seriously! I have never seen anyone something like you did!"

Elizabeth blushed. "Again, it's no big deal Hawk-chan."

Hawk grinned at her cute respons and together they marched towards Bernia Village.

"Bernia Village is a small village southwest of Britannia. It has a population of fifty seven humans, spread across nineteen houses, one major building, in which the chief lives, and two farms that produced the livestock, vegetables and, more importantly, the best ale of Britannia. No one ever dare to question its name except the greedy, spoiled and feared holy knight Gilthunder…".

"Hang on," Elizabeth said, interrupting herself, looking over at Hawk. "What's a holy knight?"

"Euh? You don't know what a holy knight is? Elizabeth, if you should remember one thing about them, it's that you never ever ever come cross with one! They are the knight of knights, skilled with a sword and master in conjuring a specific element. Wherever those knights are, it means trouble."

"But, who do the knights serve? Usually knights serve a king, don't they?"

Hawk watched the ground angrily. "Yeah, they serve the four kingdoms; Liones, Danafur, Edinburgh and Camelot. The holy knights are actually guardians of the Human race. I heard one holy knight is equally to thirty soldiers."

Elizabeth looked ahead and thought about Hawk's words. It's interesting that beside the Fairy clan, hers and the Demon clan another species can perform magic. Not all humans, but it is interesting to think about how it is possible that not all humans can do magic. And another thing. According to the flyer they have, sir Gilthunder should be a strong holy knight if everyone fears him.

"What does that flyer have more to say about Bernia Village?" Hawk's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Let's see," Elizabeth searched for the last words she read and noticed that only a few lines were left.

"However. Gilthunder's opinion was easily changed as soon as his lips tasted the first few drops of our splendid ale. For everyone who has time and money to spend, come to our beautiful village and enjoy the rich culture and our famous ale!"

A few minutes later they have at last arrived at Bernia Village. It looked like a typical farm village with a mill some now and then, attached farms and houses of stone with straw roofing. When Elizabeth and Hawk walked further into the village, they could see a market that was full of life, the ideal place to get their breakfast and lunch. The market had everything they could possibly need. The smell of fresh baked bread mixed with the aromatic scents of candles and incenses. A stall had a variety of vegetables and fruits and of course were there enough stalls that sold the most likely ales.

"Elizabeth, there is so much to choose. What should we buy first?" Hawk was slightly drooling from all the delicacies. "Elizabeth, hurry, I cannot control myself if we do not hurry with buying groceries…". Elizabeth laughed at Hawk's comments.

"Don't worry. I cannot wait as well to have breakfast at last. How about we buy the bread first?"

When they had visited every stall they needed to visit, the coinpurse was almost empty, but their bag was filled with delicious good stuff. They were about to leave when suddenly a voice called to them.

"Hey! You there! Young lady and the pig! I recognize that outfit, aren't you from the Boar's Hat?"

Elizabeth and Hawk looked at each other before they faced the yelling man. "Yes, we are," Elizabeth said.

"Good! Good, listen. Come closer!" Elizabeth and Hawk switched again glances. "No, I have no bad intentions. I only ask for a favour." Elizabeth and Hawk eyed the man suspiciously as they approached his stall. Elizabeth slightly recognized the man. He was yesterday at the Boar's Hat, drinking his ale and became drunk, raved about things that made no sense.

"Listen, could you do me a favour and purchase some of my ale? I believe you are travelers with a mobile tavern, because I have never seen you before last night. But that makes it more perfect! You see, I would like to help the people here with getting more visitors to our small village. We run out on customers since we buy from each other. We rarely see visitors from outside this village and it would really help if you could promote our pride, our Bernia ale. Could you do that?" Elizabeth looked guiltily at the man. She wanted to help him, but they had bought so much already that they wouldn't have enough money left to buy from him. "I'm sorry, but we are almost out of money..".

"Ah, I see. Well, how about this. You can take my ale, free of charge, but you need to do something for me in return."

"And what's that thing we need to do?" Hawk asked him, still eying him suspiciously.

The man sighed before he spoke. "In the Forest of white dreams there is something out there that has haunted the bravest men of our village. No one dares to enter that forest to hunt. I simply ask you to find out what or who that something is and eliminate him. Do we have a deal?"

Elizabeth and Hawk looked at each other. "Is it alright if we consider this first with our boss?"

"Of course! Of course that's fine! Do not forget me however. The offer will stand until tomorrow. If you do accept, you then have four days to find that thing in the forest, alright?" He held out his hand, which Elizabeth shook with determination.

Author's note: Argg, a clifhanger. Next week chapter 7 and will be longer. I apologise it's shorter then usual...

Bye for now!

ES12