Authors Note1: Sorry it took so long, had way too much work the last days.
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They followed the river for four days to the east, instead of going directly into the direction of Wishe, they followed it longer than intended, since they didn´t knew how much water they would find.
The time went by pretty fast, since they had something they could focus on. Bell was on cloud nine, nearly for the whole time they kept talking, and he really enjoyed to hear Riveria speak elvish. As she said, she started with simple greetings and pointed at every object they passed, telling him the elven name for it.
Of course she asked him again and again what the name of this or that object was. After making sure he was able to pronounce it correctly, she went on to the next lesson. He learned fast the body parts like arms, legs and such. Bell burned these words into his mind...it would help him to praise his loved ones even more.
A part of his mind imagined how he praised Riveria´s beauty.
Spending so much time with Riveria was pure joy for him, to see her as the first thing in the morning, the last thing in the evening...spending every day together with her. If the reason for their journey wouldn´t be so dire, Bell would enjoy every second of it.
Bell noticed that Riveria was holding back a bit, especially when the time to sleep came. He didn´t needed to ask her what made her so worried.
Bell did his best to cheer Riveria up, sometimes it worked a bit, most of the time she remained serious. One day went over into the next and they kept moving to the Wishe forest.
Two and a half weeks after they had left Orario, they arrived at the second forest, during the last two days, Bell noticed a shine at night in the south. It was the city Santoria Vega, which seemed to never sleep at night.
Bell was curious how much different the elves here would be from the other forest. During their journey they continued to work on his elvish skills, Riveria had ordered him to only speak elvish as long as he could, without using the common language.
He sounded more than a bit clumsy, since Riveria spoke and thought in fluent elvish, while Bell still translated the words in his mind into the common language. It would take a while to get better, but it actually helped a lot to learn like this.
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"Hah...hah...hah...Hiiii...no no no no no ...help!"
A small figure ran as fast as it could through the deep forest, completely in panic. Something massive crashed through the forest, smashing branches and bushes out of it´s way.
"Grooooooo!"
"Noooo! Heeeeelp! Pleeeaaaase!"
The small figure tried to run faster, but it was already moving as fast as possible. Nobody heard the screams and nobody rushed to help. Tears ran down the face as it desperately tried to escape.
But...the small elven girl wasn´t fast enough.
"Noooo!"
"Grooooo!"
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The situation when they arrived at the Wishe forest couldn´t be more different from the first forest. No guards were here, Riveria spoke the greeting three times but there was no reaction.
"Shall we just go inside?"
"Yes, but be careful and your weapons sheathed."
"Understood...lady Riveria."
"Mh.."
Bell smiled slightly when he noticed the tip of her ear turning slightly pink...he loved that reaction from elves. But he was prepared for a not so nice welcome, Riveria told him that while Wishe elves were a little bit more open to humans than other elves...they were still elves.
The best example was Lefiya, she didn´t trusted Bell in the past, but that was mostly because of her crush for Ais and her thinking that Bell was after Ais. Well...she wasn´t actually that wrong, but Lefiya also was an elf that could admit when she did wrong to him...like she did more than one time.
He did his best to look as formidable as possible, Bell wanted to show that he really was Riveria´s knight. So he followed his "lady" through the forest. According to Riveria, the village was located deep inside the forest.
"Lady Riveria?"
"Yes, my knight?"
"Do we have to visit the village? Can´t we just search for what we came for?"
"While it would save us time, it would be rude not to visit and explain what we came for, also they may know if it grows somewhere."
"Okay."
The forest was as beautiful as the other one, but it looked pretty different, due to the location. While the other forest as at the edge of the mountains, the Wishe forest ended at the sea on the north side. The canopy of leaves was not as thick as in the mountain forest, so they could see the sky almost continuously. Only towards the middle of the forest did the leaves form an impenetrable roof. What fascinated Bell most of all, although the sun didn't get down, it wasn't dark in the forest, it was amazingly light.
"It is like that for all elven forests, actually I never thought about it, it is just like it is."
"That i-...!"
"Bell?"
Bell suddenly stopped and looked left and right, frowning, the left hand placed on the hilt of the Hestia Knife at his hip.
"Bell, what is wrong?"
His expression darkened. "I can feel it...a woman is in danger."
Riveria looked a bit perplexed...there were words among those who knew Bell, that he had something like a sixth sense when it came to women in danger. She didn´t knew that Bell actually had a skill for that. It was part of "Blood of Zeus", part of the ability to make women happy, was also to save them from danger, one of Bell´s strongest longings.
"This way!"
The change in Bell was dramatic, whenever he sensed a woman in danger, he would immediately jump to action. Riveria trusted his special sense and followed him, being aware that a woman in danger here would mean a fellow elf. She didn´t even heard screaming or something like that, but Bell seemed to know where he had to go.
On and on she followed him into the forest, away from the seashore. The trees literally flew by as they stormed through the forest. In this area it was not as bright as before, it got darker and darker as the canopy of leaves became even thicker. For Riveria it felt like it was a bit cooler too ... almost like some kind of huge cave.
Riveria noticed a change in the trees itself, here and there were broken branches, as if something big had rolled through. Bell noticed it too and looked around.
"Riveria, do you see something? Hear something?"
Both got quiet for now, Riveria focused on her ears and listened to the forest. There were no ground animals here, only a few birds...and...growling...in the distance.
"That way."
Not all of the forest was owned by elves, sometimes like in the mountain forest, monsters settled down here. They followed the noise that Riveria had heard, until Bell noticed something on the ground and knelt down.
"Bell?"
"Riveria, here."
It was a ribbon, a pink ribbon. Bell was pretty sure this actually belonged into the hair of an elf. Riveria stopped next to him and looked into a certain direction.
"A monster went through here, do you see all these broken branches?"
"Yes, but in which direction did it went? This or that?"
Riveria crouched down and looked at the ground.
"This direction, it came from there."
"Allright, let us follow it. When the ribbon is here, it has kidnapped an elf."
"I agree with you, let us hurry."
Both followed the path as fast as possible...it wasn´t very hard to see where the monster went.
"What do you think it is?"
"Hard to say, but it only uses two legs, or there would be more footprints."
They followed the path deeper and deeper into the forest...until a cave came into view. The forest in this area was really dark.
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"Please...please...no..."
The small elven girl whimpered and tried to crouch away. A massive shadow towered over her and slowly came closer, giant fists opened and closed. Drool dripped down from the snout and red eyes gleemed in the darkness...an elven child was a true feast.
Other shadows lured behind the first, all of them massive on their own, but smaller than the first. One of them tried to come forward, but the leader monster whirled around and punched the others snout, marking his authority.
"GROWL!"
"Rrrrr..."
In panic, the elven girl tried to crouch away, not caring about her dress getting dirty or shred. Bones filled the cave ground...bones from animals and elves... She cried openly, sheer horror filled her mind. Just wanting to escape, she whimpered and sobbed, searching for an exit that didn´t exist.
With a thundering stomp, the monster came closer.
"Hiyaaaaaah!"
She got up to her feet and tried to run away. The cave was pretty big, only dim light filled it and the smell nearly choked her. Right when she made another step forward, a massive paw closed around her right ankle and lower leg, pulling her backwards.
"Nooo!"
The girl tried her best to grab something to hold, but the monster behind her was more than three times her size. Another paw came and closed around her waist, lifting her up in the air. She screamed wordless in fear, getting turned around to face the monsters face.
Tears streamed endless down her face, her scream reached a new high point...as it opened it´s maw. Sharp teeth that had tasted the flesh of more than one elf came closer and closer.
I don´t want to die! I don´t want to die! I don´t want to die! I don´t want to die! I don´t want to die!
She kicked with all of her might against the nose of the monster, but it didn´t worked.
Her feet entered the maw of the beast...
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Right when she was sure it would bite her legs off, something flashed brightly at the side. A wave of golden light washed through the cave and illuminated everything. Suddenly everything was visible, the four minotaurs included.
She didn´t saw what it was, but something moved very fast. An armored foot collided with the minotaur´s head, smashing it to the side, while a fist punched into the wrist, opening the paw this way.
The elven girl started to fall down, but was caught in two strong arms before she could hit the ground, saved in a professional princess carry.
"Kya!"
She looked up with teary eyes, someone had catched her...a...human.
"Are you hurt?"
His elvish sounded a bit strange.
She didn´t answered, just cried and sobbed in horror.
The minotaur he had kicked away got back to his feet and roared in anger. Joined by three other minotaurs they charged at the human.
"Stay behind me! Close your eyes! Cover your ears!"
Bell gently put down the small girl and got up to his feet, facing the minotaurs. The girl backed away and leaned against the wall behind her, watching feared. He countered the first minotaurs attack with his bare fist, as their fists collided, the bones in the minotaur´s paw broke and it screamed in pain.
Bell didn´t used his weapons to deal with the minotaurs, he just couldn´t. He was used to spilling and splashing blood and the sounds of battle, but the elf behind him was still a small girl. There was no way he could just kill the minotaurs with his weapons...that wasn´t a sight for a child.
His left armguard flashed slightly golden again, it was the "Golden Fleece" that Welf had made for him, hit at the right spot let it flash bright golden. With kicks and punches he countered the minotaurs and started to push them back. Even if they were true monsters, stronger than even monsters from the 37th Floor...there were no match for Bell.
Maybe they could even be compared to monsters from the 45th Floor...but Bell´s skill "Ox Slayer" made him even stronger...and the fact that he was an upper level six adventurer.
"Little lady! Close your eyes! Cover your ears!"
The girl did like Bell told her. Shaking and growling filled the cave, she still cried and whimpered. The whole cave shaked for a moment, slowly...little by little the fighting noises got more and more silent.
After a while...it stopped.
The small girl slowly took her hands away from her ears.
"Little lady?"
"Mmmmmh..."
She was still shaking from head to toe, feeling that someone knelt down in front of her.
"Little lady...I´m going to touch you now, please don´t be scared. Keep your eyes closed, I will bring you outside, the danger is over."
Slowly, to not scare her any more, Bell took off his cloak and wrapped it gently around her body, lifting her up. He didn´t wanted her to get dirty and also not to touch her skin, since elves were very sensitive when it came to that.
She felt that she was lifted up, keeping her eyes closed while he gently moved her body. Due to her closed eyes, her ears were a bit more sensitive, she heard his steps and the change of sound as they slowly left the cave.
The human carried her a few moments more, before stopping. The girl heard other steps coming closer.
"Bell!"
"Riveria, I´m here."
"Did you sa-...oh thank the elders!"
Fluent elvish from a female voice reached the ears of the little girl.
"Little lady, I´m going to set you down okay? Also, you can open your eyes now."
Bell knelt down and made sure that her feet were on the ground savely. Blinking a bit with teary red eyes, the small girl opened her eyes.
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A human male in a white armor and dark body suit knelt next to her, his left arm guard was golden.
"A...awa...awawa..."
She wasn´t sure how to react, still panicked.
"Are you alright?"
The girl turned around and looked up to a female elf that wore a green robe and travel boots...she looked really worried.
"*Hic* *Hic* *Hic* *Hic*"
The sobbing from the girl came faster and faster when she saw Riveria. Riveria who knew this behaviour crouched down lightly.
"It is al-"
"Waaaaah!"
The girl jumped into Riveria´s arms and burried her face at Riveria´s chest, crying from fear and relieve that she was saved. Riveria closed her eyes and gently put her arms around the shaking girl, patting her back.
"It is okay...you are safe now."
"Aaah...waaah...waaah!"
The girl hicced and sobbed, not letting go of Riveria. While it was Bell that saved her, her fear let her seek something familiar. Riveria opened her eyes and still held the crying girl, looking to Bell.
"You saved her, Bell."
He just nodded, as soon as they noticed the cave, Bell dashed forward with all of his speed, even charging his legs with Argonaut for a moment. Riveria had no chance to keep up with him and had to follow him, in the time she needed to arrive, Bell had defeated the minotaurs and saving the girl.
Both remained in their positions for a few minutes, until the girl slowly calmed down. She had to cry out her fear and let go of it. It was a good thing that Bell had saved her in the way he did, the darkness of the cave and the monsters were pushed back by the whiteness of Bell. While she would have a few dreams about this, it was always the light that saved her at the end, sparing her from having nightmares for a long time about the event. It also helped that she didn´t saw or heard how Bell defeated the Minotaurs, if he had just slaughtered them, she would probably get a trauma from the scenes. Dire situation or not, Bell always thought about those things, he wanted to save the girl...not traumatize her.
He watched how Riveria gently stroked the girls head with her right hand, holding her gently around her waist with her left. She looked so motherly right now to him...so gentle...so beautiful...
"Bell...you don´t think that I look like a mother now too, do you?"
She had used the common language that the girl didn´t understood.
"*Ahem* Of course not."
Riveria and Bell gave the girl all the time she needed to calm down and stop her tears. After a while, Bell noticed that Riveria hummed silently and started to sing something in a low voice that he didn´t understood.
In the moment she started to sing, Bell fell in love with her again...wanting to hear her voice like this forever.
"Little one?"
Riveria gently patted the girls head, who slowly moved her face away from her, she didn´t minded that her tears were soaked into her robe.
"Shank you...sho much..."
The girl was mumbling.
"I´m happy that you are safe, but it wasn´t me who rescued you, it was my knight."
"Your...knight?"
The girl slowly turned her face to Bell, who smiled friendly but didn´t moved to not startle her.
"Thank...you..."
As slow as possible, Bell lifted his left hand and showed her the pink ribbon. "Is this yours?"
"Mhm..."
She nodded.
"Then it is good we found it."
Riveria slowly got up and carried the girl.
"Do you live in the village?"
"Yes...but I don´t know the direction..."
"Don´t worry, I know where to go. Come, we bring you home."
"Thank you..."
With big eyes, the girl looked up to Riveria, who smiled motherly. They slowly started to walk, away from the cave and towards the brighter part of the forest.
"Would you tell me your name?"
Riveria tried to have a normal conversation with her, to lure her mind away from the horror.
"Fina."
"A beautiful name." Bell smiled from the side.
Only right now he noticed her chestnut colored hair, she had green eyes and looked pretty similar to an elf he knew...
"Fina...Viridis."
Bell´s eyes widened and they wandered to Riveria, who looked also surprised. In contrast to Bell, Riveria knew quite a lot about Lefiya´s family. She formed the word "Cousin" with her lips while she looked at Bell.
He was really surprised...by chance he had saved the life of Lefiya´s cousin...now that he heard her family name, they really looked similar to each other.
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""Fina!""
"Mama! Papa!"
As soon as Riveria and Bell came close to the village, guards spotted them and the little girl that Riveria carried. The elves were missing the girl and had prepared a search party for her, fearing that she got too close to the dark part of the forest. A few guards held sword and bows ready, but as they spotted the small girl, two adult elves came running out of the village.
Both had chest colored hair like the small girl too, and it was pretty obvious that the woman was her mother. She looked a bit like an adult version of Lefiya, but also had green eyes instead of blue.
Riveria sat down the small girl and let her run towards her parents, if Bell guessed correctly, she had to be about nine years old. The girl´s pink dress waved behind her as she ran towards her parents, jumping into the arms of the two elves.
""Fina!""
The parents hugged their daugther and cried happily to have her back. Bell waited next to Riveria and smiled, relieved that Fina was safe and back to her parents. The mother refused to let go of her daughter, while her husband got back to his feet and walked towards Riveria and Bell.
"Thank you so much, for saving our daughter!"
He was focused on Riveria, as Bell was used to. Riveria nodded slightly and pointed to Bell.
"It wasn´t me who saved her, but my knight did."
The man looked at Bell. "A...human?"
Bell nodded, put his right hand above his heart and bowed lightly. "Nice to meet you."
The eyes of the man widened a bit, Bell had trained a lot to be able to greet properly in elvish.
"You saved my daughter?"
"Yes."
He noticed that the man was holding back a bit, While the elves of Wishe Forest weren't quite as bad at humans as other elves, they nonetheless thought of themselves as something far superior to humans.
So the idea that a human had saved Fina was ... strange.
"Why did you save her?"
"She was in danger."
"But you..."
"I am a human?"
"Yes.."
He saw that the man gulped. "Th-Thank you..."
"No problem." Bell smiled.
Bell noticed the woman coming closer, holding her daughter on her arm.
"You saved our daughter?"
"Yes."
"Thank you so much! Really! I can´t thank you enough!"
She was far more open with her feelings than her husband.
"Mama."
"Hm?"
Fina said something in elvish that Bell didn´t understood fully. The mother moved closer to Bell and Fina waved shyly to him.
Bell leaned closer...and to his surprise...Fina kissed his cheek.
"Thank you...for saving me..."
Bell blinked perplexed and the elves looked a bit shocked. If Fina would be an adolescent or adult elf, this would be outrages to her people. Elves only kissed their beloved...their partner. But since she was still a child...a kiss was just was it was from a child.
She wanted to thank him for saving her life, nothing more. Riveria smiled next to him, Bell really had a hand when it came to elves.
Slowly other elves came closer to them, the guards relaxed when they saw how the parents and the child acted towards Bell.
The father looked at Riveria.
"My fellow elf, we welcome you to our village and I still want to thank you that you brought our daughter back to us. May we ask you for your name?"
Bell noticed the tiniest sigh of her, but she smiled, Riveria knew what would probably happen now.
"Riveria Ljos Alfr."
"Lady...Riveria?"
"...Yes..."
"Would you want to stay at our home tonight? It is the least we can offer you for saving our child...and you too of course."
He smiled towards Bell. Even if they don´t liked humans completely, saving their beloved daughter wasn´t a small thing.
"Gladly."
Bell bowed again in his polite way. "If my Lady is fine with it, I agree."
The elves looked a bit perplexed about how Bell spoke about Riveria.
"Sir Bell is my trusted knight and companion, he accompanies me on my journey and has my complete trust."
If Bell wanted to play that game, Riveria could play it too. A tiny playfull spark was in her eyes.
So Bell and Riveria were invited to the home of the Viridis family. And it wasn´t just the three elves here, the whole family contained a few more members, around a dozen elves lived in the house they were heading too.
Wait...does that mean...
He didn´t needed to ask himself for a long time, when they entered the big house that was part of a tree, a very beautiful adult elf walked in that moment through the hallway.
Judging by her hair color, her face and her eyes...this was Lefiya´s mother...no doubt.
Such a beauty...will...Lefiya...look like this...later?
Everything on her looked very familiar to Lefiya...but with an adult charm.
Holy!
He couldn´t help but be enchanted by her look, her chest was slightly bigger than Lefiya´s, her face had an very adult charm and her hips...those hips...a dream. Thankfully Bell rememberred his manners and was aware that Riveria was aware how he had looked at the woman for a moment.
Bell could hear her thoughts towards him.
Bell...This. Is. Lefiya´s. Mother!
But no matter how charming Lefiya´s mother was...Bell´s eyes were mostly on Riveria...as always.
"Oh my...and who may you be?"
Lefiya´s mother smiled friendly, while surprised that a human was here, there would surely be a reason for that, especially when he came with her sister. Her sister explained shortly to her what had happened, that it was Bell who saved Fina from monsters.
"A human saving our little Fina..."
Bell didn´t understood how to take the smile of Lefiya´s mother. Riveria would later explain to him that Lefiya´s mother had always felt a bit uneasy that Lefiya went to Orario. The family invited them to a dinner, a small feast to celebrate Fina´s safety. The small girl insisted to sit at Bell´s right, Riveria was on his left.
The whole evening she beamed up to and asked him many things about Orario and how it was to be a human. Her questions were really innocent and she was especially happy that Bell had found her ribbon, a gift from Lefiya how he later found out. While the two were cousins, Fina was more like a little sister to Lefiya, he also was told that Fina was eleven, not nine like he thought.
Riveria smiled and talked friendly with the Viridis family, explaining to them that Lefiya was part of her Familia and one of the strongest mages in the whole city.
Both didn´t explained that Lefiya had found a partner, who she had sworn her eternal love to...and that this partner was Bell. That was something that Lefiya should explain to her family on her own some day. All they had to know was that Bell was Riveria´s knight and accompanied her...something that felt less and less like a made up story...
And Riveria noticed something else...how she looked at Bell. When she saw how he had acted to save Fina...how he acted with her...something in her heart told her...Bell would make...an excellent father some day.
Why am I thinking about that right now...
Maybe it was the juice she drank over the evening...since she didn´t drank alcohol...but...Riveria felt her heart getting really warm whenever she looked at him.
But she wasn´t the only one, Fina blushed more than a bit when Bell talked to her, squealing from time to time and averting her face. It was pretty clear that she developed a crush on Bell..
Even a girl that young is falling for Bell...hah...is this...the guy...I start to...have feelings for...on my own?
Later that evening, Fina smiled while she followed her mother to her room.
"Good night, Sir Bell. Good night, lady Riveria."
Sir Bell?
Riveria slightly raised an eyebrow, the way Fina spoke the title wasn´t out of courtesy...it was the way how someone talked to a knight.
So Bell really...is going...to become...my knight? This...might be...not too bad...
Every day...Riveria´s heart opened a little bit more for Bell...letting him inside the part of her heart that no one was before...the place...of a partner.
Hah...what is with me...
Both got two free rooms to spend the night, before they would leave in the morning to search through the forest for the flower. The whole village was thankfull to them for saving Fina and getting rid of the Minotaurs.
While she drifted to sleep, Riveria looked at the wall to Bell´s room...having the feeling that he did the same.
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Good night...Bell...my knight..
