[Author's note] Normally I don't like putting these notes in my stories, but I've been forgetting to say a couple things. First of all, I'd like to thank my friend Maelstrom for letting me use her character's name and likeness as the beautiful elf, Dione.

Secondly, I know this chapter is a little short, and you may be wondering, "what happened to Lynard's bit?" Well, the next chapter will be dealing with him, as it would be too long to include in this one. Well, that's all I have to say for now, so enjoy the rest of the story.

CHAPTER THREE

[Dione]

Dione was astonished at the beauty of Theodin. She had never seen anything so magnificent. In fact, the only reason that she was even out of the forest was because of Talia. She had hoped to return to the forest after Talia had reached someplace safe, but as she stared at the wondrous city before her, she decided it wouldn't hurt to stay for awhile. She and Talia had convinced Lynard to stay with them for the night, partly because he helped them the day before, and they would've felt bad if they had just left him on his own. "I guess he's not such a bad guy after all." Dione thought to herself. She continued to walk alongside Lynard and Talia as they entered the walled city. Talia commented that it looked more like a fortress than a city, and Dione agreed. Lynard began explaining the city's origins as a battlefield encampment. After the war between the Nobles and the Viashino nomads, some of the soldiers stayed behind and built shelters. After a few years it became a meager trading post for travelers, where they could buy supplies and rest to regain their strength for the journey ahead. A few decades passed, and with the money that the residents made from trading, they bought supplies to build even more elaborate structures and walls to defend the steadily growing village. Finally, after nearly one hundred-fifty years later, it made it's final transition into the magnificent city they saw before them. Talia was amazed that something like this could be accomplished in a mere one hundred and fifty years, but accepted it nonetheless.

As Dione walked along the cobblestone street, she noticed that the buildings all seemed to shimmer with a golden light. When asked about this, Lynard explained to her that it was a result of using powerstones as an energy source for the city. Dione looked around in awe at the diversity of people in Theodin. There were high elves buying and selling potions and recipes to the human mages. Dwarves selling their expertly crafted weapons and armors, of which Lynard took an interest in. There were the leonin, the cat men from the high mountains, who rarely came to ground level unless it were a matter of war or politics. But perhaps out of all of these, Dione was most surprised to see the Aven, a proud race of bird people, who normally thought themselves much too superior to the ground dwelling races to even talk to them, and here they were walking among them as if they were equals. Theodin certainly did give off an aura of peace and harmony. As they continued down the main street, they ran across a street which seemed to consist entirely of inns. They entered the first to their left and walked to the desk. Lynard stepped forward, as he was the only one with money at the time. "We would like a room please." The manager looked at the trio. "Would you like a separate room for the ladies?" Lynard blushed. "Oh, umm yes." The manager pulled out a large, leatherbound book from a drawer and asked Lynard to sign it. The manager gave them their room numbers and gave a key to Lynard and one to Dione.

After receiving her key, Dione turned towards Lynard and Talia. "Well, there's still some daylight left, I think I'll explore the city a bit. I'll meet you here before nightfall." They all agreed and, after Lynard gave them both a small amount of money, they split up for the remainder of the afternoon. As Dione walked back outside of the inn, she still couldn't believe how beautiful Theodin was, and couldn't wait to see what else this city had in store for her. She walked for nearly 3 hours, taking in every sight and sound she could. She saw tailor's shops with expensive, but oh so pretty dresses and suits that only nobles could hope to afford. She also ran across several food vendors selling boiled mutton, stew, or fruit. After buying a piece of smoked meat she continued on, eating as she walked. The stones in the road had been smoothed by the passage of time, as well as the thousands of people and wagons traveling over them every day. The walls of the buildings, with their slight shimmer, made the city look almost electrified as night came. "Night? Oh no, I forgot I was supposed to be back by now." Dione yelped as she started jogging back to the inn.

She made it to her room just in time to see Talia walk out of the small bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body. "Oh, so you decided to come back after all." She said with a slight giggle. Dione laughed as she explained how she had lost track of time while in the city. "Did you come back with Lynard?" Talia asked. "Oh...no I didn't. Has he not come back yet?" With a raised eyebrow, Talia said, "No, not that I'm aware of, I thought maybe you two had run across each other outside and come back together." Dione tugged on her earlobe as she thought. She gave up and told Talia that they shouldn't worry. After all, he was a barbarian, and quite capable of taking care of himself. Talia agreed as she dropped her towel to get dressed. At this moment an excited Lynard burst through the door, arms full of armor and clothes he had bought. Dione prepared herself mentally for what was about to happen. SMACK! The room shook with the sound of four hundred pounds of steel crashing to the floor. As soon as Lynard had stepped through the door unnanounced, Talia had walked over, completely naked, and given him the slap of his life. She quickly pulled the towel back up around her body and stood there glaring at Lynard with a look that could kill. Lynard's face was beet red, but not red enough to hide the slowly fading hand print on his face. Dione shooed Lynard out of the room after he had picked up his things.

[Talia]

Talia was still quite irritated by the fact that she had just been seen naked by a man she'd only known for a day and a half. Dione tried to lighten her mood by telling her that Lynard was probably more embarrassed than her, judging by her face. Talia cracked a smile at this, and then both girls began laughing loudly at the whole incident. Dione let Talia dress as she herself undressed in order to take a bath herself, but not before she had locked the deadbolt on their room door. As Dione finished undressing, Talia got a good look at her without her stiff and somewhat unattractive armor. Dione's skin was quite pale and extremely smooth, not so much as a blemish. As her white hair hung about her shoulders, her eyes seemed to glow green in the dimly lit room. Her legs were short but slender, as she herself was only a little over five feet four inches, or so Talia assumed. She took this opportunity to read the journal she had procured while escaping from.....that place. She still didn't know where or what she had woken up to, and was hoping for some answers in that little journal. Just as she opened the cover, a tiny knock was heard at their door. Lynard's voice came softly from the other side. "Umm...if it's, you know...okay, can I come in?" Talia looked towards the bathroom, and decided that Dione would be in there for a little while still. She informed Dione about their visitor and completely closed the bathroom door.

Lynard waited patiently outside the door, waiting for a response, when he heard the deadbolt open. He winced as the door open, expecting another slap. In fact, his face was still sore from earlier. "Well, are you just going to stand there?" Lynard snapped out of his thoughts and walked into the room, very cautiously. Talia giggled. "Don't worry, she's in the bathroom and she knows you're here." Lynard breathed a sigh of relief. "I brought you two some things." He said as he set a small pile of clothing on the bed. "Judging by your current outfit, I thought you'd like some new clothes." Talia agreed and thanked him, taking a quick glance at her own clothes, and remembering that they were badly ripped and didn't look proper at all. "Take what you like, I uhh, got several pairs." "Oh thank you Lynard. You know, you didn't have to do all this for us." Lynard blushed and said that money wasn't a problem for him, and that he didn't mind at all. Talia thanked him again as she held up an azure shirt, checking it's size. It was a little big, but was still ten times better than her current wardrobe. Lynard had also noticed the dagger that Talia carried, and produced a somewhat sleeker, dwarven forged dagger and handed it to her. It was about a foot long, and the blade tapered to an exeptionally sharp point. It also came with it's own belt sheath, so she could wear it comfortably. He also showed her some things he had gotten for Dione, including a set of light, leather armor and an almost identical dagger to Talia's. "I'll show her these as soon as she gets out. Thank you so much." Lynard blushed again. "Like I said, it's nothing, I don't mind helping out." He left the room with a smile and said he'd be retiring for the night and that he would be sure to knock the next morning.

As soon as Lynard had left, Talia closed the door and slipped into a new set of clothes. Around this time Dione finished her bath and walked out into the room. Talia blushed a little as Dione noticed her staring. She quickly looked away and assumed that because elves were raised differently from humans, they might have different concepts of modesty. Talia broke her chain of thought and showed Dione the set of armor Lynard had bought her. Dione was stunned. The leather was of good quality, and backed with a thin plate of steel, much better than the natural armor of her tribe. After she had put it on, Talia mused to herself that she was even prettier with the armor on as she was with it off. After admiring the armor in a mirror, Dione stripped herself of the armor and crawled in the bed to sleep. Talia's eyes widened. "Maybe elves don't have concepts of modesty.....but I do." She thought with a despairing tone. "Oh well." she thought. It's not like Dione would try anything funny. Now, Lynard, on the other hand. She laughed at that thought before realizing that she too, was getting sleepy. She looked longingly at the journal she had set on the small table next to the bed. "I'm too tired to look for answers tonight, I'll do it tomorrow." With that, she resigned to bed and promptly fell asleep.