Tam
Tam and Marella were hanging out by the stream, swimming. They had given up searching for Linh, and it was way too hot outside anyway, so Marella had suggested that they play in the river. At first, Tam had refused, since he knew that there were frogs in the river, and Tam hated frogs. But to be fair, Tam hated a lot of things.
Except Linh. And Marella. And Leila, since she was Linh's friend, and actually kind of cool. And Marella's parents, because they were letting him live with them. And the Smiths. But that was it. He hated everything else. Especially bikes. And weird human food. Except for those weird round breakfast foods. Those were good.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when a wave of water splashed over him. He glared up at Marella's grinning face. "Seriously?"
Marella let out a laugh.
"You're going to pay for this!" Tam yelled, and started chasing Marella around, trying to splash her back, which started a full on splash war.
After a while, they were so tired they decided to take a break, so they sat next to each other with their feet in the water.
"What's that?" Marella fished something out of the water. It looked like an empty elixir jar. She passed it to Tam.
He inspected it. "There's something inside." He realized.
"Open it!" Marella urged.
"Okay." Tam chuckled, and flipped the jar over. A rolled up piece of paper came tumbling out onto the ground. Tam picked it up, and began reading aloud. "Dear Tam, how are you doing?" He nearly dropped the letter in surprise. "It's from Linh!"
Marella gasped. "Keep reading!"
"Right. Dear Tam, how are you doing? I'm sending you this letter to let you know that I'm fine, so quit worrying about me. As for how I am sending you this letter, it was really Leila's idea. She read about it in a book, and suggested that I try it out. So, here it goes. I hope this actually makes it to you! And I hope to find you in good health! Okay, Leila's reading this over my shoulder and laughing because that makes me sound so old. Anyway, you're probably wondering where I am…"
Linh
Linh smiled as she rolled up the letter. She slid it into the jar, and turned to Leila. "Are you sure this will work?"
"No. But we have to at least try." Leila replied.
Linh paused. She did have a point. They had to try. She read over her letter one more time.
"Here goes nothing." Linh set the jar in the water, and gently pushed it upstream.
"Now what?" Leila asked impatiently.
Linh smiled. "I told it to find Tam. He'll know what to do afterwards."
Tam
Tam reread the letter. "I still can't believe she's in Ravagog."
"Me neither." Marella agreed as they stared at the river.
"It's strange to think about, honestly."
Marella nodded. "I'm surprised. I didn't think the ogres let anyone in Ravagog anymore."
"Yeah." Tam frowned every so slightly. He didn't really like to think about the fact that Linh was in Ravagog, all alone. Well, maybe not all alone, but without him, which was close enough to the same thing.
"Now what?" Marella asked. "Are we going to go after her? Because it doesn't really seem like she was in any hurry to leave."
Tam snapped. "Of course we're getting her out of there! She could be in danger!"
Marella kept her cool. "She's been in Ravagog for over a month, Tam. I'm sure she's fine. She can take care of herself."
Tam glared at Marella. "We still have to get her out of there."
Marella glared back. "And then what?" She kicked the water with her feet. "You'll just leave? And go where? Wildwood is burned down, and you can't go back to the Lost Cities!"
Tam sighed and deflated. Marella did have a point.
"And how will we even get there? You can't light leap to Ravagog!"
Tam paused. She had another good point. "You can't?"
"No, they have some sort of barrier around the city so elves can't get in." Marella said matter-of-factly.
"Hmmm." Tam frowned. "Then how did Linh and Leila get in?"
Marella's brow furrowed. "They probably walked right in. That makes the most sense. There's a bridge that goes into Ravagog near here. They likely found it. But I have no idea why King Dimitar let them in, the only elf allowed in Ravagog is Lady Cadence, and she doesn't even get to live there."
"In that case, there's even more of a chance that they might be in trouble! We have to go rescue them!" Tam protested. If Linh's in danger, it's all my fault. I should never have hesitated to go after her. Now she's going to get herself killed and it's all my fault.
Marella shoved him, snapping him out of his thoughts. "It's not your fault, Tam."
"You don't know that!" Tam screamed. "You don't know anything!"
"Okay, enlighten me." Marella replied, unruffled.
Tam kicked the riverbank. "Linh ran to the river to try to stop the fire. To save the gnomes. It was too dangerous, so Leila ran after her. I hesitated, and they had already run off, and I lost them. I had no idea where they were, if they were even still alive."
Marella didn't say anything for a few minutes. Then she said, "Tam, listen to me." She waited until he looked at her before she continued. "Linh knew the risks, and so did Leila. They were prepared to risk their lives, and so were you. Even if you'd gone with them, you would probably have been separated anyway. Don't beat yourself up about it. You could have ran away, but you were brave. So you stayed and tried to find them. And besides, if you hadn't gotten separated, you would have never met me!"
Tam blinked back tears. "Thank you." He said, choked up. Marella's words had been exactly what he needed to hear.
Linh
"Do you think he's found it yet?" Leila asked. She was practicing her dagger throwing skills on a nearby tree, and Linh was working on her Hydrokinesis.
"Maybe. But I kind of regret sending him the letter."
"Why?" Leila asked, throwing another dagger at the painted-on target. She missed, and cursed in what Linh assumed was Ogre.
Linh formed another bubble. "Because he probably thinks I'm in danger and is going to find a way to come rescue me."
"If he did, what would you do?" Leila hurled another dagger. It just missed the bulls-eye.
"I don't know." Linh said, and she really didn't. For the most part, she'd enjoyed her time in Ravagog, but she really missed Tam. "Probably go back to Excellium."
"Excellium? Why?" She threw another dagger, concentrating. Bull's-eye.
"It's not terrible there, and there are so many kids there who need hope."
Leila snorted. "I'm sure Tam just loves to go around spreading hope."
Linh smiled. "And we'd probably go check on Wildwood, see how many of the gnomes are still there." Her voice cracked, and her smile disappeared.
Leila pulled her daggers out of the tree with a yank. "I- Yeah. That makes sense."
"What about you? What would you do?" Linh flicked her wrists, and the bubbles all spun around, soaring into the air.
"I don't know. I might stay in Ravagog. I mean, my training is going well, and it's been fun hanging out with Ro and the other ogres." She carefully slid her daggers into her bag.
"Really?" Linh said. She couldn't believe it.
"Yeah. I bet Lady Cadence would let me keep staying with her, and if not, there are plenty of ogres I could bunk with." Leila replied casually, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "Later, Linh. I have to go train some more with Ro." And with that, she disappeared.
Linh was stuck, trapped in between two places. On one side, her brother, and on the other, her best friend.
Tam
It was late at night when Marella snuck into his room, waking him up. "Ready to go?" She whispered.
Tam nodded and grabbed his backpack off the floor where he'd left it, and followed Marella out the door.
Marella led him outside, careful not to make a sound. They slipped out the back door and into the woods, where they could regroup.
"We go downriver, right?" Tam clarified.
Marella nodded. "We head downriver until we reach Wildwood, and go around the pass."
"Around?" Tam hissed, grabbing her arm. "I thought we were going straight through!"
"There might be guards. Going around is the easiet option." Marella yanked her arm out of his grasp. "Come on. We better get walking now."
They walked all night, and were exhausted come daybreak. "When are we gonna stop and rest? I'm tired." Marella asked, yawning.
Tam glanced around. "Soon. I know a place we can crash for a while. Then, we can pick up where we left off tonight and travel until Wildwood, where we'll stay the night. After that, it's straight to Ravagog."
Marella nodded, yawning again. "So where are we going now?"
"You'll see."
Tam and Marella stood before a cute yellow cottage with a simple white trim and baskets overflowing with flowers. "This is a human house." Marella remarked, stating the obvious.
"I know." Tam replied.
"You've been here before?" Marella looked shocked.
"Yeah." Tam replied vaguely.
He walked up to the light green door and knocked. A plump older woman opened the door and beamed. "Tam! It's so nice to see you again! And you've brought a friend!"
Tam smiled back. "Mrs Smith, meet Marella. Marella, Mrs Smith."
Marella grinned and shook Mrs Smith's hand. "Nice to meet you! I've heard so much about you!" She hadn't, actually.
Mrs Smith blushed. "Aww, thank you! How about you come in and have some breakfast?"
After Tam had explained to Mrs and Mr Smith some long and complicated story, they finally got to rest. Tam stayed in the same room he'd slept in last time, and Marella was given another room.
Later that evening, after dinner, Tam and Marella waved goodbye to the Smiths, explaining that they had a ride waiting for them down the road.
They didn't, but the Smith's went with it anyway.
"They were nice." Marella remarked as they continued walking. "How did you meet them, again?"
"None of your business." Tam snarled, too embarrassed to explain it.
Marella smirked, and they continued in silence for the rest of the night.
Linh
Linh stared up at the ceiling. She was supposed to be sleeping, but she kept wondering about what she would do. Go back with Tam, or stay in Ravagog with Leila? She glanced over at Leila's sleeping figure, and then at the picture of Tam on her desk, and she suddenly knew what she was going to do.
A/N
You all probably hate me after that cliffhanger. Originally, this chapter was supposed to be longer, but I decided to cut it short and leave you with that amazing cliffhanger.
So, would you like more short chapters like this, that I update more often, or the same long chapters about once a week that I've been doing? Let me know!
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Announcement: Unlocked is officially out! Woo-hoo! I'm currently still reading it, but I promise I won't include any major spoilers. Or really any, it kind of depends.