Lie Ren sighed deeply as he stretched his arms over his head, letting his energies flow in a steady rhythm from his head to his feet and back. He kept his eyes closed as he meditated. Breathe. Calm.

A presence to his left disturbed his focus, despite her attempts to keep quiet. He cracked one eye and found his Dwarven companion watching him, eagerly waiting for a chance to speak. Nora was never a patient woman before, but after interrupting his meditation one time… let's just say she had been very careful from then on.

"Everyone's ready to go," the Dwarf said once she was sure Ren was ready to listen. "Just waitin' on us."

Ren nodded and stood to his feet with a light grunt. He knuckled his back as he eyed Nora; specifically, the large hammer she had strapped to her back. He chose not to comment, instead walking out to meet their newest companions. Now was not the time to open up that debate again.

Their new companions were sorting the supplies for the trip into a wooden cart that seemed a touch too small for all of them, but Ren quickly deduced the reason for this - when they first met her, the lady Paladin seemed unprepared to handle any sort of gathering of extra people. He spied a few cases left in the stable that appeared to be her personal effects, abandoned for the sake of space. Hopefully nothing important.

As he approached, he overheard the two elf women bickering… again. He sighed as he tried to ignore their clear distaste for one another. At least they had the decency to argue in their native tongue - no doubt their curses would clear half of the city if they used a more common language.

"Good morning, Ren," Pyrrha Nikos gave a warm greeting as she spied Ren walking up alongside her cart, with Nora walking next to him. "Did you sleep well?"

"Well enough," he said with a sigh. After sleeping in the same room as a Dwarf who snored loud enough to make a Cave Troll jealous, he could handle pretty much anything.

"Good, I'm hoping we can cover at least half of the journey to Mountain Glenn today, then reach the fishing village nearby tomorrow," she explained.

Ren nodded. "If we get started soon, that won't be difficult. The road leading to Mantle is very straight."

Pyrrha smiled again, then returned her attention to making sure they had the supplies they needed. She'd traded in her fine tunic for a russet-colored gambeson today, draped in a surcoat bearing an emblem of a spear atop a round shield, though it wasn't a symbol Ren could recall having seen before in his travels.

As they finished getting their things sorted, Pyrrha commenced her efforts to get the elf women settled enough to get them into the cart. Ren stood far enough away that he didn't hear everything said, but it apparently worked - Rielonar agreed that it was time to head out and climbed up into the cart with Nora. Ren himself sat at the front of the cart and held the reins to steer the horse, while Pyrrha rode atop her second steed.

Dulineth, however, did not join the others in the cart as expected. Pyrrha blinked at her and said, "You know… there's plenty of room next to Nora."

"If it's all the same to you," the shorter elf said with a dry tone, "I'd rather walk; I don't care for riding in wooden boxes."

[Neither do your paramours, I'd wager,~] Riel sniped, judging by her tone.

Pyrrha cut in before they could come to blows over what was said, stating, "It's a very long way to where we're going… are you sure?"

Dulineth stood a little taller, puffed her chest a bit, and stated, "I made the trip from Dolen Mir to Mantle and back in less than a week, on foot. If anything, I'd be worried about leaving you all behind."

Ren took a moment and gave the shorter elf woman a better look: beyond the obvious trait of long, wide ears that stuck out past her hair, this woman had hard amber-colored eyes set beneath a head of black hair that was slightly wavy. She wore an outfit that resembled basic highway traveling gear beneath a long, flowing sort of black robe with white accents. And she was barefoot; indeed, most elves Ren had seen preferred to move about with no shoes of any sort.

Riel scoffed at the comment from her seat, but said nothing more on the subject. Ren gave her a quick glance and realized that this woman wore a very similar style of robe, albeit with a red robe bearing gold accents, but beyond that the two elves were very different. Riel's skin was a dark gray color, similar to stone, and her hair was a faded black that fell shorter than Dulineth's did. Riel's eyes were also amber-colored, but he saw a spark within them… like a fire from deep inside. This was technically his first time meeting a Drow in person, so he wasn't sure if that was normal for her race or not.

Pyrrha turned her horse with a sigh and said, "Well… if we're ready, then let's move out. We have a lot of ground to cover."

"Yay!" Nora cheered, "We're going on a quest! We're going on a quest! Today's the day, hip-hip-hooray! We're going on a quest! Whoo!"

"As long as we get out of this city soon, then all the better," Dulineth added as she walked up next to Pyrrha's horse.

"I hate to admit it, but on that matter I agree," Rielonar said begrudgingly.

Ren simply sighed again, urging the horse into a steady trot as they headed for the main gate. He was pretty sure he'd be sighing a lot before this trip was over.

_/_/_/

Pyrrha hummed to herself as she rode alongside her cart, happy to finally be out in the world with everything going good. Granted, that had taken a tad bit longer to come about than she initially thought it would, but that issue was behind her now; she'd assembled a party, and they were now on their way to their destination.

So far, so good.

"…so then, we were surrounded by like a hundred bugbears!" Nora exuberantly explained, sitting on the back of the supply wagon, "It was epic!"

"There were three," Ren corrected. This was apparently common for the two of them.

"Then! They all charged us at once-"

"One of them crept forward."

"-and we thought we were completely done for-"

"Only one of us thought that…"

"-if not for Ren's amazing Punchy-Monk powers, caving the beast's skull in with his bare hands!"

"It was just a bop on its nose, which caused it to back off."

"Then I did the same thing to the others using my hammer!"

"You swung wildly as they headed back into the woods."

It was… oddly charming, in a way.

"True story.~"

Pyrrha clapped politely as Nora finished her anecdote, as did Riel (though the Drow woman's clapping seemed less than genuine).

"You should have just stood your ground," Dulineth explained, sounding a bit disappointed, "Bugbears aren't inherently violently creatures, though they are territorial; if you'd shown them you weren't afraid, they would have let you move on… so long as you didn't move farther into their territory."

"Or if they simply finished the job," Riel added, earning her a glare from the fairer-skinned Elf.

Uh-oh, time to play the mediator again… "I'm sure Lie Ren had a reason for acting like he did," Pyrrha suggested, glancing at the young monk for an explanation.

He shrugged. "I figured that would be the best way to keep them from getting attacked and killed by Nora." He continued when the Dwarven girl pouted at him, "You have a problem showing restraint sometimes."

This seemed to please Dulineth, her expression morphing to one of satisfaction.

Riel on the other hand rolled her eyes. The Drow woman made no secret of her distaste for… pretty much everything, though she thankfully held her tongue in this instance.

"See?"

_/_/_/

Sometime later, Pyrrha and Dulineth had fallen slightly behind the wagon, which gave the Paladin a chance to get to know her party member.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" The elf woman nodded in response. "What made you want to join this party?"

"Short answer: the Relic you all are after."

"You know what it is? I'm afraid I haven't read up on the ruins of Mountain Glenn…"

Dulineth looked up at Pyrrha out of the corner of her eye, then sighed and said, "Those ruins had other names throughout history, but only you humans call it Mountain Glenn. In a time before Mantle was more than a sheep farm, it was a prosperous Elf city that housed a powerful Relic of the Gods… but then it was attacked by an unknown force, likely in a battle for possession of that same Relic, and the city was destroyed. Most believe the Relic was little more than a myth, but my people know it to be real."

Pyrrha's brow furrowed as she absorbed this information. "I… see."

"To the Fae, the ruins and the Relic are considered sacred. We don't… defend it to the death or anything, but… the thought of that woman setting foot in such a place… I could not sit idly by."

"So you only came because you could not let Riel… win?"

Dulineth flinched at the word. "In the simplest terms, yes. No offense, but I prefer to leave humans to their own goings-on whenever I can."

Pyrrha smiled, "None taken. The few elves I've met in my life had much the same opinion, and it never bothered me."

A short time later their small caravan stopped so Nora could answer the 'call of nature.'

"I can't say I'm surprised the Dwarf is the first person to insist we stop to pass mud," Rielanor remarked, pointedly looking in the opposite direction Nora disappeared in.

"It would need to happen eventually," Pyrrha reminded the Drow woman, "I don't see any real reason we can't stop and refresh ourselves for a few minutes."

"It's uncouth, and it's wasting travel time." She folded her arms over her chest. "Besides, I'm above such base compulsions."

One didn't need to have the wisdom of Enlightenment to tell that Riel was fibbing. However, calling her out on it wouldn't serve any purpose other than to irritate her further, so Pyrrha held her tongue.

"I imagine the Tree Hugger is positively ecstatic at the prospect of nourishing her precious forest…"

That, on the other hand, required some context.

"Why are you always antagonizing Dulineth?" she asked, "Ever since I met you two yesterday, you've taken every opportunity to insult her and put her down. Is there some bad blood between you two I should know about? Because if there is, I'd appreciate it if you could put that aside for the sake of this Quest."

Rielanor let out an exasperated sigh. "If you much know, we may have crossed paths once or twice before, but the animosity between Drow and Fae is a tale almost as old as time itself. I can't help it if that one is overly… sensitive."

"But why put her down? Surely you're not required by law to insult every Elf you see, right?"

The woman shrugged. "Because it's fun? You should try it sometime; just casually mention her ears and see what happens.~"

That wasn't likely to happen. Pyrrha knew a bit about Elf culture, and she was aware of what Riel was talking about; for Elves, their ears were considered elements of beauty. It was the same as a woman's breasts for humans, or beards for the Dwarves.

…Come to think of it, Nora didn't have a beard despite being a Dwarf, why was that? She'd probably need to ask about that when they settled down for the night.

"I think I'll pass," Pyrrha finally said. "Just promise me that whatever teasing you do, it doesn't end in one of you stabbing the other." She wanted to tell Riel to stop the insults altogether, but she had a feeling the woman would find a way to do so in spite of it.

"…Very well, if you insist. Cross my heart." She scratched a cross shape over her chest, albeit with an expression that made Pyrrha think the Drow woman was just humoring her.

"All done!" Nora suddenly announced, just finishing the process of doing her belt up as she burst from the foliage. "Let's get this party moving again!"

Pyrrha sighed and headed back to her mare; now that the initial excitement of actually forming an adventuring party and accepting a quest had somewhat faded, she was getting a better picture of her new teammates. Ren was stoic without being aloof, while also managing to be rather personable at the same time. He rarely said more than he needed to, and he seemed to always have a cool head on his shoulders. Nora, by contrast, was never without something to say and was clearly the more outgoing of the pair; she was Ren's opposite in just about every way Pyrrha could think of.

The two Elven women were also polar opposites from each other, though of a different flavor than the Monk and the Dwarf. Dulineth was very in tune with nature, and had a sense of dignity that might have stemmed from that. On the other hand, Rielanor had a vast amount of internal confidence, which often came off as haughty. She was also more cosmopolitan than Dulienth, so it was not hard to see why that rubbed someone with more of a connection to nature in the wrong way. (There was also Riel's dark, ash-colored skin compared to Dulineth's more pinkish skin tone, but as far as Pyrrha could tell that was a purely superficial detail.)

But what was weirdly getting her hung up was why Nora didn't have a beard like her kind usually did. She'd seen Dwarven women before, her combat instructor at the Order was one; besides, she'd always heard that Dwarves took great pride in their facial hair.

Questions for later, she supposed.

_/_/_/

Some more time and small talk later they stopped to make camp for the night, Nora flopping dramatically on the ground as the others (save for Dulineth) dismounted.

"Land!" she exclaimed, kissing the ground a few times. "You don't know how much I've missed you!" (Riel made a show of silently gagging at this.)

"…But it's only been a day's travel," Dulineth pointed out, "and it's not like we went out to sea; the ground has always been close by."

"It's a Dwarf thing," the ginger-haired Dwarf responded casually, "you wouldn't understand."

"And thank the Goddess for that!" Riel snarked quietly from nearby.

Pyrrha gave the Drow woman a stern look but said nothing. Instead, she addressed the party at large. "Alright everyone, I think if we divide the work up evenly we should have our camp set up in less than an hour. Miss Dulineth, since you're the most knowledgeable about the forest, you and Ren can look around to see if there are any berries or herbs we can add to tonight's meal. Miss Rielanor, you can make sure the horses are taken care of and secured. Nora and I will work on starting a fire. Does this sound agreeable to everyone?"

She was met with no objections, though Rielanor looked like she had something else she wanted to say despite holding her tongue. (She was probably just glad to have a moment to herself after all the communal travel time.)

About ten minutes later Pyrrha and Nora had assembled a ring of stones around a small bit of kindling they'd gathered and were now in the process of lighting a flame. The young Paladin hadn't assigned everyone their tasks randomly; there was a method to her madness.

"Nora… may I ask a question? I'm sorry if it's a bit personal…"

"Ask away!"

"Very well… um… Wh-where did you grow up? I'm not familiar with Dwarven cities." It wasn't the most eloquent wording, but Pyrrha fumbled when she realized how rude it would be to simply ask "Are you really a Dwarf?"

"Oh, I grew up all over the place, mostly running away from angry people who didn't like having their food stolen," the ginger girl said casually. "And I can tell ya that Dwarf cities are just like human cities, except… shorter. And underground. And they smell like sweat all the time."

"So… what about your hometown? Where were you born?"

Nora gave a shrug, but she was still smiling. "Iunno; I've been out and about ever since I could walk."

Pyrrha wanted to keep the conversation polite, despite how badly she wanted to know if Nora might be a Mul, a not unheard of human-Dwarf hybrid. "What about your parents? Do you remember them at all?"

However, this had the unexpected effect of causing Nora's typically bubbly mood to drop.

"…I don't really remember," she said in a quiet voice, "they sort of… died when I was still really young."

Pyrrha gasped. "I'm sorry…"

"It's fine. I mean, it happened a long time ago, and now I've got Ren by my side, so everything's great!" Her smile seemed the tiniest bit forced.

"That's still unfortunate, and I apologize for bringing up unpleasant memories."

"Don't worry about it!" She gave Pyrrha a hearty pat on the back. "No use worrying about stuff that happened in the past, or else you'll miss stuff that's going on in the present!"

That was… surprisingly profound. Pyrrha wasn't sure how well it would hold up under scrutiny, but it did give a bit of insight into the energetic Dwarf girl.

"What about you?" Nora asked, "What's a fancy looking girl like you doing out in the sticks looking for adventure?"

Pyrrha thought for a moment before answering. "It's part of my duty as a Paladin," she explained, "Most people in my station want to go on grand quests and gain renown for valiant deeds, but that's all idealism and naiveté from living a spoiled life. I've always wanted to do what I can to help those in need, so while many of my fellow Initiates headed to the larger cities around the world, I chose to head where people might not have the kind of protection the Capital would." She sighed. "Though it seems my idealism and eagerness blinded me to certain realities of life outside of my home city."

Throughout her explanation, she'd been attempting to use a flint and steel to start a fire, but for some reason the kindling wouldn't light.

Which was why, when a fully formed flame suddenly burst forth from the kindling, she reeled back in shock, almost toppling over.

Rielanor now stood nearby, a few licks of flame dancing around her outstretched hand. Her face gave away her annoyance.

"You were taking too long," she informed the pair.

It now made sense why the Drow woman looked put out earlier.

"Well… thank you for the assistance. Are the horses-?"

"Tied up and both have food in their bags." She then unrolled a bedroll she had in her other arm and sat down on it. "Now, to wait for the two pieces of wood to return with food," she said, reaching into a pouch on her hip and pulling out some dried meat, popping a piece in her mouth and chewing on it.

Pyrrha elected not to point out how it would not take long to cook up a stew once their companions returned.

_/_/_/

Late that night, the trees spoke to her. A warning. Danger.

Dulineth pulled herself out of her reverie with little effort, quickly standing to her feet as she darted out of the tent and listened. Ren was on watch, but he didn't notice her right away.

She put her hands to her ears to catch the words of her friends. Galadh-lind, the lost art of tree-singing, was one of the few things she was very good at.

"Wolves. A pack of eight, heading this way," the elf spoke aloud, causing Ren to jump slightly from beside her. "They're on the hunt."

"How do you know?" the monk asked as he also stood up.

"The trees told me."

Just before Ren could ask what that meant, a lone howl broke through the stillness of the night. Soon it was joined by another. Then another. After a few moments, all eight could clearly be heard… and they were close.

"We'd better wake the others," Ren stated calmly. Dulineth nodded and went to Pyrrha's tent to wake her up.

It was kind of impressive how calm that man was in this situation. Dulineth had encountered wolves on other occasions, but only in passing, but every human she'd ever met before now would panic at such a predicament. She made a mental note to keep an eye on the monk later - she might learn a thing or two.

A few minutes later, Pyrrha and Nora were awake and ready. Their fire had burned down to mere cinders, but the light of the full moon was more than enough to see their enemies - eyes in the darkness, all around them, watching with hunger.

"Is this a bad time to tell you that I'm… pretty much useless in a straight fight?" Dulineth tried to lighten the mood a bit as the tension grew.

No one laughed, but Pyrrha nodded and said, "In that case, stick close to me. Here they come!"

Six of the wolves emerged from the treeline, not even bothering to circle before attacking. They ran in pairs straight at the fighters, and Dulineth could see the other two staying back. One of them was quite large… likely the alpha. He would be a challenge.

One pair reached Nora, and Dulineth watched in awe as the shorter girl swung a hammer the size of a blacksmith's anvil without any effort. She managed to hit one of the wolves in the side, knocking it all the way back to the trees, and then dodged a bite from the second before bringing the hammer around and down directly on the second wolf's head, crushing it into red paste. It was at that moment the elf decided to never get on Nora's bad side.

Ren fought with as much speed as Nora, but with far more calm and measured strikes of his fists and feet. Rather than overpower his enemies (his strikes didn't seem to be doing much damage on their own) the monk seemed able to predict and counter their attacks. His fighting style reminded Dulineth of water running down a river - seemingly calm, but hiding a devastating power if you didn't take it seriously.

Pyrrha, on the other hand, fought like most knights Dulineth had seen: slow, defensive, absorbing damage rather than avoiding it. Her armor was certainly a factor in this, but the elf guessed that the weight of it also meant that Pyrrha couldn't dodge even if she wanted to. Instead, the Paladin used her shield to slap one wolf away, then thrust her short sword into the neck of the second mid-leap. When the first wolf came back around, she turned and swung again, catching it across the leg, then a final stab finished the job.

The sound of torn fabric pulled Dulineth's attention back just in time to see another wolf, the one hiding back with the alpha, ripping a hole in the side of one tent and making its way in. Pyrrha saw it as well, giving a cry of alarm.

Dulineth smiled; they didn't need to worry about that one.

Sure enough, a moment was all it took before the wolf was blasted out of the tent by a mammoth blast of fire. The beast's body slid to a stop several feet away, still smoldering.

Rielonar came out of the tent a moment later, her hands still flickering with flames and her eyes ablaze. [How is a woman supposed to get proper rest while these mongrel vermin are running around?!]

Pyrrha, after recovering from the shock of the initial blast, said, "Are you alright, Rielonar?"

"Oh, I'm fine!" The throbbing vein on her forehead suggested otherwise. "Other than being awake at this ungodly hour, I'm just peachy!"

"Oh good," Nora said casually as she rested her hammer across her shoulder after finishing off her second wolf. "I was afraid you were gonna be grumpy or something."

Ren sighed again, "Nora…"

Riel started saying something to the Dwarf in the elf tongue, which Dulineth would never have translated out loud, but she was interrupted by the snarling of the alpha wolf.

It was almost big enough to be a direwolf, really. It certainly looked ready to attack, even though it was now alone. Odd, since normally wolves would flee after such a beating. It must be angry about losing its pack.

"It's not over yet," Pyrrha stated the obvious as she readied her sword and shield again.

"Yuss!" Nora said emphatically, following suit with her own weapon. "I'm not done with the smashing, either!"

"Let's just end this and get back to sleep," Ren said wearily as he also took a ready stance.

Dulineth tried to say, "Actually, I-"

FWOOSH!

A second, larger fireball suddenly shot out from the still angry Rielonar, hitting the beast and instantly engulfing it with a blinding ball of flames. Dulineth was certain that anyone within a hundred miles could hear the alpha's cry of pain. All they could do was stare as the alpha wolf was devastated by the fire, and eventually, it grew still.

"Okay, we're done." Riel still had a throbbing vein on her forehead, by the way. "Back to bed for me…"

But before she even took one step back to the tent… something happened.

A strange sort of emptiness began to emanate from the body of the slain alpha wolf. A tangible darkness. Visible evil. Dulineth gave a shudder at the sensation.

The flames extinguished by themselves, leaving the group blind for a moment. The bones of the wolf, blasted clean by the fire, suddenly stood up… and the night itself seemed to come alive, wrapping the bones in liquid darkness. Everything except the skull… where two wicked red eyes appeared in the eye sockets, glowing with the fires of hell inside them.

No one moved. No one could believe what they'd just seen. The wolf had… somehow… come back to life?!

…No, this thing wasn't alive. It was… a monster, an abomination. The very trees cried out in pain at the thing's existence.

"That's…" Ren said quietly, his voice strained, "a Creature of Grimm; I've heard of such beasts on my travels, but, to see one in person…!"

"Maybe lay off the fire a bit next time," Nora jabbed at the dark elf.

"I had nothing to do with this-"

The Grimm attacked, interrupting Rielanor's protestation.

Pyrrha was the first to feel its claws as the creature swiped at her shield, leaving long, jagged cuts in the metal as it knocked her aside. Nora managed a hit with her hammer, but it did very little if any damage - the beast caught her in the side with a swipe of its tail, sending her skidding across the ground. Ren tried to dodge, but the thing moved too fast to avoid for long, and it eventually caught him in the shoulder.

Riel was too stunned to move right away, but eventually got up the nerve to try a few more fireballs. As she charged up a few, she turned and said "How about you actually do something for a change, tree-hugger? Instead of sitting there like a wart on a toad!" Her voice actually held a trace of panic in it.

Dulineth ignored her. She was already hatching a plan.

This creature moved fast. If they were to beat it, they needed it to hold still.

Putting one hand on the ground, Dulineth expanded her energies and made contact with the woods all around them. All of the Fae had a connection to the natural world, but Dulineth had a stronger connection than most. Mother attributed this to her magical abilities, but all the elf needed to know was that she could ask favors from more than just trees.

In mere moments, vines emerged from everywhere - trees, branches, roots, even from under the ground - and quickly entangled the beast. It tried to break free, but even more vines took the place of any that broke. Soon enough, the Grimm was fully trapped.

"It's too dangerous to keep it alive," Ren said as he stepped back. "Nora, take it out!"

"Yes, sir!"

The Dwarf spat into her palms, then took her hammer and made a wind-up motion to build up speed before slamming the giant hunk of metal into the beast's head… and absolutely destroying it. Broken bones flew everywhere as the blackness that made up its body vanished as quickly as it came.

By the goddess…! Dulineth was very glad Nora was on their side.

Pyrrha sheathed her sword as she approached the monk. "Ren… you acted like you knew what that was. Care to explain?"

"I know only rumors and gossip," he said with another sigh, "but I can tell you what I know tomorrow. For now, we should get what rest we can before dawn."

Rielonar was already halfway into her tent by now, but the rest quickly moved to join her. Pyrrha offered to keep watch the rest of the night.

Dulineth decided not to go back to her reverie. The sight of that creature had disturbed her, and she needed to talk with the trees for a while, to clear her head. She climbed a larger tree some feet away from the campsite and chatted with her friends, letting out all her frustrations to the most patient listeners in the world.

She also greatly missed Meriliel. The two of them could chat up an entire forest if no one stopped them. Those were good times.

Would she ever enjoy such peace again?

Only the goddess knew that… and she wasn't talking.

_/_/_/

Note from AManwithAB0x: Well that was fun. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed it, because there's more where that came from. And for those who couldn't figure it out from our poor descriptions of them, Dulineth is meant to be an elf variation of Blake and Rielonar is meant to be a dark elf variation of Cinder (in case you were wondering). As The Layman said in the previous chapter, this world makes another appearance in Paradigm of the Rose: Concurrence, starting in chapter 10. And yes, these elves are a bit naughty... but it's all in good fun. :)