"Ooh, sweet, nice without the n." Said Nefeli cheerfully from atop her horse as she and Emery reached snowy land.
Emery turned to his elven companion with a confused look as they both stopped moving.
"You mean snow?" He asked raising a brow as he noticed the lack of ice around them and the abundance of snow.
Nefeli shrugged. "Ice, snow, frozen water, same thing."
"Ice is a mineral, though." Emery whispered to himself, boasting in secret.
"What was that?" Asked Nefeli quickly with a bright smile.
"Nothing." Replied Emery immediately.
Awkward silence descended upon the two as they continued moving forwards on their steeds. However, Nefeli looked more affected by this silence. The boredom was too much for her to handle.
But then, salvation caught her eyes. Emery's bag. It was bound to have something fun.
But just as she was about to put her hands on the bag, Emery started pulling something from the bag and saw her.
"Were you trying to steal my bag?" Asked Emery in surprise.
Nefeli paused. "No?"
Before she could say anything else, Nefeli heard Emery on the verge of laughter.
"H-hey! It wasn't that bad an attempt!" She pouted in a way Emery found adorable, causing him to break into laughter.
As time passed, soon the two made it to a town. A town near a place called "the cursed caldera", which was where the princes and the egg were according to their compass named "Compster" by Nefeli.
As they headed inside, they noticed some...glares directed at Nefeli who was in her disguise.
"Is this how humans greet foreigners out here? It seems a bit aggressive." Asked Nefeli quietly.
"This isn't normal. Have you ever visited this place before?" Asked Emery wary of the gazes.
"I don't think they have much to steal." Whispered Nefeli. "So no."
"Halt!" The two heard a voice yell.
They turned to the source and saw a blonde guy who they've never seen before.
"Show us your hands!" The man exclaimed with fury.
""Uhh...what?"" Asked Emery and Nefeli in union and definitely confusion.
"Jinx." Added Nefeli with a cheeky smile
"All we need is to make sure they aren't an elf." Said the guy narrowing his eyes as he brandished a magic knife.
Suddenly, the two were surrounded by the townsfolk.
"I'm beginning to think they don't like us. Do you have anything that could keep them away?" Asked Nefeli as she grew nervous.
"Anything that can't accidentally cause permanent damage to innocent people? I don't think so." Replied Emery as he began to panic internally.
"Are they really still innocent when they're attacking us unprovoked?" Countered Nefeli.
"They're still innocent enough."
As the two argued, the townsfolk got ever closer to them. Making sure there was no escape.
"Alright, time to scram." Said Nefeli as she dashed towards the blonde guy with the magic knife.
The blonde couldn't react or even properly percive the speed of Nefeli. He couldn't do anything as she dropkicked him before going back and taking Emery while flying.
"Uhh, do you have a way to land?" Asked Emery already knowing Nefeli can't fly with him.
"I got a cool knife, is that good?" Asked Nefeli showing Emery a magic sunforge knife she stole from the blonde guy.
Emery didn't hesitate to take the knife and throw it away towards the town at the expense of a small burn.
"Hey!" Exclaimed Nefeli as she struggled to fly.
"Enough kleptomania! Just focus on NOT DYING!" Exclaimed Emery angrily as they began getting closer to the ground.
The two screamed as the crash became eminent. The two got closer and closer to the foot of the mountain until they hit a tree and got stuck in its branches.
"That...was horrible." Said Nefeli tiredly.
"And I'm not moving until you tell me why you decided to steal that knife?!" Emery yelled angrily.
"I'm a thief! I just see cool stuff and I grabby!" Said Nefeli nonchalantly.
Emery stared at Nefeli disapprovingly before pausing and rubbing his temples. After a minute of silence he spoke calmly.
"Alright, the road ahead looks pretty dark so how about this; try to resist taking the shiny artificial magic lamp I'm about to pull out. We'll take turns holding the lamp, your turns will be longer, but if you steal it during one of my turns, we skip one of yours."
"Ooh! A game!" Exclaimed Nefeli happily.
"A game that should teach you little about self control." Added Emery tiredly.
Nefeli went silent at those words. It took her a minute to speak again. "No one has ever tried to help me with self control before. They mostly just yelled at me before kicking me ouuuu-... forget that last part."
Emery shrugged before he slowly got down from the tree without a word. Nefeli, of course, had no trouble getting down using her wings.
"You're not gonna ask about that?"
"My teacher always said 'it's rude to pry into other people's secrets'." Said Emery calmly as he pulled out an artificial sun magic lamp. "Always will be my favorite person in the whole castle."
"Oh, seems like a nice guy...*gasp* shiny magic lamp!" Exclaimed Nefeli upon noticing the lamp. She then noticed the look on Emery's face. "Right, no touchy before my turn."
And with that, they trudged forwards uninterrupted. And when they got closer to the top they heard a tune that made them very sleepy.
Emery quickly discovered this and plugged his ears before he got too sleepy. He turned to Nefeli to see how she was doing and she was completely fine, just focused on the lamp in her hands.
For once, Emery thanked his partner's kleptomania before searching for the source of the music.
And there he saw them, Claudia and Soren about to attack a sleeping elf. An elf who is most likely the one accompanying the princes.
There was only one thing to do in this situation.
xxXxx
Sorry for the cliff hanger and short chapter, I'm busy irl and with other fics and there's still the need to rewatch this part of the show to see what I want to do and there aren't any quick sources for these scenes like transcripts or clips.
I'm very sorry.
Toodles.
