Chapter 20: Eternal or Momentary

Back home…

The halfling woman quickly walks to the queen's private sitting chambers. Her simple free servant smock gets caught around her feet. She pauses long enough to lift them up letting her run with more exuberance.

She is winded by the time she reaches Queen Anastacia. The queen is accompanied by two others guests. Grymlop Stonebottom and Saerana herself.

All eyes are on the halfling.

"Your majesty," she bows slightly and approaches.

Anastacia quickly pours water for her friend. "Easy," the queen says with concern and hands her the water.

"Kosh and the others are... gone." The halfling pauses a moment to let her words sink in. "The boat was sunk. Only two were picked up by near fishermen. The others were sucked down below the water."

Saerana puts her hand to her chin. The cleric radiates a light that is soothing to whoever is near her. The halfling always felt calm and at peace whenever she is around and this time is no different.

"Did anything else happen?"

The halfling nods. "They said that sharks, a lot of them, attacked the ship."

Grymlop grunts and nods. "I've heard rumors that someone may be manipulating sharks to do their bidding."

"It is pretty unusual for that many sharks to be in one area and attack a vessel of that size," Saerana responds.

"Well, if there was any doubt that the necromancer knew of our fellow adventurers, it's gone now." The queen says with a heavy heart. She sits down hard, disregarding all propriety.

Saerana lays her hand on the queen who visibly relaxes.

"The rumors of the summoner controlling the sharks are said to come from the Darklands."

The free servant halfling and Grymlop audibly gasp. Maybe we should send Kessindra's team to investigate.

The queen closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "Bring them in."

Harrin

Blood stings his eyes as he endeavors to make out where he is.

He tries to wipe at them but realizes his hands are tied behind his back. Pain in his shoulder causes him to wince. He catches the groan before it leaves his lips. He looks around from his angle and through the blur can see he is in a makeshift cage. Heat radiates from an unnatural fire on the other side. The smell of burning flesh saturates the air. Two dozen drow are outside, moving and bandaging up their wounded. Several tents are being hoisted. Fear creeps in more as he sees some dead bodies off to one side of the cage. He can't tell who they are. Friend or stranger. Their clothing is matted down or ripped apart. Some of the drow go through their belongings. One of them throws the corpse of a female human into the fire. It cracks and pops, eventually catching fire to the clothing.

A meek noise comes from the corner. Harrin squirms his body around towards the noise. It is the female gnome Mili. Her face is bruised but nothing too bad to the rest of her. She is tied down to a human male who doesn't appear to be moving. A massive amount of blood pools beneath him. Mili's arm stretches out as far as they can to not be next to the male. No one could have survived that much blood loss. Her eyes are shifty and she looks panicked.

"Calm Mili," he whispers. Better said than done he knows. She shakes her head slowly as she closes her eyes a moment. A loud bang startles her.

A drow spies them from the other side of the thick wooden bars that make up their jail. He has short white hair and wears cloth leggings. A vicious scar covers his bare stomach. "Look who's awake."

Mili tries to scamper close to Harrin but the weight of the dead human is too much for her. A sob breaks from her mouth as she looks at Harrin with complete terror. The drow snatches her up towards him hard and her arm breaks. The snap causes Harrin to flinch and Mili to scream out in agony.

Harrin screams obscenities at the drow as he watches the drow release her from the binds. He drops her to the ground and walks over to Harrin to kick him in the stomach. Pain and nausea wash over him. His breath is knocked out and takes a moment to return. Harrin struggles to sit up.

"Mili look at me!" Harrin can't stop the pain of his heart and the helplessness at their current situation. Anger and fear cloud his mind.

The drow drags Mili with her long brown hair. Other drow join him as Harrin continues his verbal assault. Harrin tries a different tactic. Anything to stall or keep attention from Mili. "Figures. You'd have no honor or shame in beating a defenseless female. I guess it's not true what they say of you drow."

The drow who'd kicked him unhands Mili and she slumps to the ground. Her pants are tattered and blood spotting the area where they rubbed against the ground.

"What's that, deep-meat." The drow kicks him again this time aiming for the face. Harrin barely has time to turn. Harrin couldn't help but groan. He had been through this enough with his father to handle the pain though. I guess something good did come from that man.

Harrin turns and spits out blood on the man's clothed feet. Even from the sitting position, Harrin knew that if he were able to stand he would tower over the drow.

"You guys love to see who the strongest is." Harrin shifts back to a sitting position. Untie me and let's see who's stronger." Harrin's head throbbed and his vision blurred, even more. Blood trickles down his neck. He will lose consciousness soon. Flig, where are you?!

"I guess you're scared." Harrin chuckles lightly. "You'd hate to look bad in front of your men." The drow gets in Harrin's face, cocking it to the side before smiling. Harrin closes his eyes. He has seen those eyes before. Harrin's heart sinks. The drow swiftly takes out a knife stabbing and twisting it in his leg. Harrin grunts loudly.

"Bring her here. Let him watch," the drow shouts angrily at the others. This close, Harrin could smell death on the dark elf's breath and it is all he could do not to vomit from the stench.

They gather Mili up, yanking her off the ground by her shirt. Tearing open, she falls to the ground. Harrin kicks the drow next to him hard in the leg. The drow falls to the ground clutching it. In another language, he yells to his men. Mili uses this to her advantage and scrambles away from Harrin's sight. Some of the others come into the jail and drag him out. He fights to stand wincing at the pain in his leg. It takes four of them to bring him over to the firepit. The others catch up to Mili quickly as they have the advantage both in terrain and in stride length.

Something moves in closer behind the two drow readying their weapons against the frightened gnome. One falls to the floor as the other looks at his companion lying on the ground blood pours out of him. It slowly makes its way across the cavern floors like a river of crimson. In another flurry, the other drow joins him. In his place is Kosh. Fury stamped on his face.

The drow in front of Harrin grabs his own leg as a snap echoes one after the other. The man crumbles to the ground, writhing and screaming as the cracking continues. Kith leaps from the dark and attacks several drow leaving the tents. Three women and a male, run towards Kosh. Thorny vines snake their way up from the ground and box them into the wall.

A ball of fire explodes on top of them. Screams and wails come from all directions as his friends have finally made it. A small smile creeps onto his lips as he slowly loses all consciousness. It's about time.

"Harrin, I have you now. Everything's going to be okay."

Ren

The group is tired. They needed to rest longer than 30 minutes. Ren's side hurt and he touches the area to reveal blood tainting his fingertips.

A female drow tries to sneak up on Ren but Okami tackles her to the ground, snarling and wriggling her head as the woman's arm is between her teeth. The drow punches furiously at the wolf's snout. Okami relents, dropping her hand to prowl around her. The red wolf leaps forward and feints left. The female spins around and Ren grabs her arms. Life drains from her body and flows into his. She gasps and sputters for air that never comes. Her shriveled body crumbles to the ground. Renimil hasn't used that spell since learning it. It wasn't what he expected and if he wasn't careful he could get addicted. The rush of another life course through him... empowering him. He takes a deep breath.

Ren looks around to see Aluuna healing Harrin and Mili.

They were the only ones left of those the drow had taken. Harrin didn't look well though. Even from this far away he could see the frantic look on Aluuna's face. A drow nears her and Ren moves to help, jumping over a few crates. Aluuna stands quickly to her feet and faces the dark elf. A rush of light erupts from her and the drow is stopped in her tracks. She falls to the ground, screaming and clutching her head. Aluuna walks up to her lying there completely at her mercy and unsheaths her mace.

"Aluuna!" Ren calls out to her. In the next second, Kith is there. He pulls the drow woman up and throws her against the wall, knocking her unconscious.

Kith looks at her. "You worry about healing leave the rest to me." Kith turns to stab another enemy whose running for Flig. The whole cavern is filled with the clanking of steel and groaning. Eris finishes off the last of the dark elves. Their breathing is harsh and quick. Sweat glistened off of them. Kosh makes his way over to Aluuna and Ren joins them.

Kosh kneels down next to her. "How are they?"

Mili is still unconscious. She has Kosh's cloak covering her. The dark cloth is a stark contrast to the paleness of her skin. "Mili will be fine." She says quietly.

"And Harrin?" Ren inquires.

Aluuna remains silent as a tear slides down her cheek. Kosh stands and puts his hand on her shoulder. No words needed to be said.

They all settle down where they can. Some pillaging the encampment or burying the dead. Renimil's anger is at an all-time high. Hate and rage fill his pores. A pulse surges through him of peace and calm. It feels warm and so intense tears start to burn his eyes. He looks around to see Aluuna staring at him. Haggard and completely spent, her heavy lids close as she leans against Eris on the wall next to Harrin. She smirks and mouths something to him.

Thank you.

Several hours pass as two at a time take turns watching over the others as they slept. Ren felt as if he could have slept a week. As an elf, his body didn't need the same rest they did. He offered to take more shifts because of it. Both Aluuna and Flig healed the others as some slept. Once everyone was healed they did their own recovery. Although no amount of magical healing could help Aluuna tonight. Ren thinks back to Kylinndra, to her warmth. Her smile, her eyes. He begins to wonder about his future. One that doesn't entail the tyrant and dark memories. Would he ever feel peace again? Rustling near him draws his attention.

"That smile on your face is it for someone in particular," Aluuna says as she sits down.

"For you," Ren says his smile getting brighter.

Aluuna rolls her eyes nudging him with her shoulder. "Too bad I know better."

Ren was never one for small talk. He knew how to talk to a woman or anyone for that matter, to get what he needed. Be it a bedmate or information.

"Do you doubt me, lovely?" Ren feigns dismay.

"Very much so," Aluuna says with a light laugh.

He sweeps his hand around the room. "I would outlive you all. And even still long after this journey. I'll live with the aftermath both good and bad. I'll see the fruit of my work." He looks at her. She has cuts and bruises to mar the beauty that is her face. "Why do you even bother. Why do you never give up? Humans, I mean?"

"It's because of that little time we have that we must make the most out of it. Cherish all that we have. After this, we go to have children. We make it better for them and so on. If we don't who will. We can't leave our lives in the hands of ours. History has proven that has never been a good idea."

Ren nods. Children. He never saw himself as a father. He barely even had one. The tyrant took that away. "It'd be nice to have a family."

Aluuna kneels before him and looks him square in the eye. "You already do." she smiles and retreats back to Harrin's side.

He looks at Eris. Her hair fell in front to partially cover her face. He looks to Kosh. Who is lying down beside Mili holding his blade on his stomach as he slept, softly snoring. He looks at Kith, who eyes him questioningly. He suspects there is more to their mission than they've let on. Elves and humans could never be family like that. Elves lived too long to make a lasting relationship that would be so fleeting. Ren's resolve was starting to melt away though. It is time for him to decide if he is willing to sacrifice everything for his eternal family or lose it all for a momentary one.