What was worth starting a continent-wide war over? Dark magic? Pride? Vengeance?

Rhun couldn't be sure he'd ever have an answer. He'd asked his parents that once. They all said they...weren't sure anymore, either. After all, in their youth while on opposite sides, his mother and father both once thought they had the answer for that question. They both had once been sure they were on the right side. To his mother, elves had been bloodthirsty monsters from stories, and to his father, humans were only a greedy distant enemy that truly threatened Xadia. Now neither could be positive of what they believed to this very day.

They were as close now as they were then, albeit their bond more platonic than romantic, and they still butted heads over the subject of the problem's true nature on the occasion Draven sought Amadahy's advice. Eventually they both had come to the agreement that their lands were at an impasse. Xadia wouldn't budge so much of an inch so long as humans used dark magic, and humanity wouldn't either so long as Xadia kept them out of what they believed to be their rightful place and ancestral lands. Both Xadia and the human kingdoms were to blame for this ongoing circle they were stuck in. And neither were willing to compromise in order to break it.

And now here they all were. Just perfect.

Rhun sat ten feet off the ground on a sturdy branch, staring out at the land of Katolis that he could see. In the distance, snowy mountains and forested valleys stretch out as far as he can see, here and there dotted by human villages. And beyond those mountains, near invisible in the darkness, was the volcano that was the border to Xadia and the home of the dragons. Above them, the clouds still kept the moon's silver light from shining over the land, even thought the rain had stopped pouring, leaving only the occasional drizzle.

It was a good place to think. Especially after discussing the details of his plan with King Harrow. He breathed in deeply, savoring the cool fresh air and the feel of moon magic swirling around him, no matter how weak as it was a few hours till sunrise. He had almost forgotten how much he liked being awake at night.

"If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing up there?"

Still captivated by the night, Rhun was jerked from his thoughts at the sound of a voice with a familiar musical lilt. He looked down from his spot to see a bright blue hood over a lovely dark face and dark curls. Tzipora placed her hands on the trunk of the tree he sat on. "You're not stuck, are you?" she teased.

Despite himself, despite all that's happened recently, Rhun laughed in response. His problems were still at the front of his mind, but with her here, they seemed less world-ending. "Just thinking," he chuckled.

"Aren't you worried you're gonna fall?" she asked, this time with slightly more serious concern. The tree itself sat on the edge of a cliff, Rhun's legs dangling over empty air.

"I don't fall, " Rhun said simply, with so much conviction that she knew she was fighting a losing battle.

Instead she sighed and shook her head. "Then what are you thinking about? Must be pretty big if you're up there for a thinking spot," she called up. She'd known him to appear in high places to think, whether it be his rooftop, a tree, anywhere he could climb, but this still seemed ridiculously risky.

"Yeah..."

"Mind if I join you, then?" Without waiting for an answer, she lifted herself up onto any foothold she could find. Considering she was less a stranger to the outdoors than he was, she edged her way up the trunk faster than he had and was beside him in a few minutes. Rhun extended a hand to help her up onto the branch he sat upon, and she took it, heaving herself up. Once she was on, though, she opted to stay closer to the trunk just in case, trying not to look down; doing so made her head spin. "How are you never afraid of falling from this high up?" she has to ask. "I mean, it's just one slip, a misstep or even a strong wind and then there's nothing to catch you."

"Didn't know you were scared of heights."

"I'm not scared," she protested, cheeks reddening slightly. "I just like to stay away from falls that could kill or maim me."

"Like I said, I don't fall," he shrugged, then turned to look at her. "Besides, if you fall, I'd be here to catch you."

"Very reassuring."

As they stared out into the distant and the silence stretched on for a few more moments, Tzipora subconsciously relaxed, momentarily forgetting her fear. Then Rhun shifted, drawing one knee under his chin and letting his other leg hang from the branch and she scooted back to the trunk, gripping a neighboring branch.

"So what's wrong?" she asked softly, seeing his brow furrowed in thought.

"Nothing. Everything," he breathed out. "It's all gonna fall apart, Zip. And what's it all worth anyway? What does any of us fight for that's worth war, death, or destruction?"

For a long moment, Tzipora didn't answer; she didn't know how. She's not even sure if Rhun's expecting one. "I don't know," she replied anyway before going silent again. Then, "When I was little, my mother was in...I guess the best way to describe it would be a cult. I think she said once that humanity just loves destruction, taking and breaking things apart. That it's human nature, and that it was what her 'Dark Lord' represented. I asked her if that meant He represented evil." She paused and took a deep breath. As long as he'd known her, she'd never so much as mentioned either her mother or father. "She told me it didn't. It meant he represented free will.

"Everyone is given strict guidelines on how they're supposed to act, what's good and what's bad, right and wrong, but take them away," she continued, "and you know, it basically all comes down to that person, and there are even some who grow up with those and still come up with a way to twist them to their own agenda. So, if you're asking what drives a person to commit things like that, I think you'd have to answer the question of whether we're born evil and taught to be good, or if we're born good and taught to be evil. Either way, it's not just one thing or the other."

Rhun's ears swivel to the sound of her voice, but he kept himself still. His eyes were distant and he didn't reply for a long while. Then, "So I guess it's nothing, and yet...everything." He snorted out a laugh, though it sounds sad and bitter even when he tries to joke. Tzipora's expression saddens at it. "I don't even know what or who I fight for. Never have, and still don't."

Tzipora took a deep breath, let go of the branch and cautiously scooted over to him before taking his face in her hands and turning him to look at her. When he does, suddenly she's struck by how human yet foreign he seemed. She's reminded of their first meeting, when they had met each other's eyes, how strange he appeared, although she couldn't quite put her finger on what was off about him. Yet despite the rumors of the source that resulted in those differences, he looked, moved, talked and felt just like she did while managing to exude an otherworldly grace, and that didn't make him much different than her or anyone else.

She'd gotten used to his lavender eyes, the slight lilac undertone to his copper skin that she could see best under moonlight, his strange birthmarks and four-fingered left hand, to the way he walked, nervous, uncertain and constantly taut, ready to spring forward or run at any given moment. Now his eyes seemed almost to glow in the dark like a cat's, and beneath his hood, his auburn hair was silvery and bright. His birthmarks seemed sharper, like dark shadows across his face. The way his body is curled around his leg, lean muscled arms under his knee and hands on his shoulders. Everything about him suddenly screamed there was something inhuman about him.

She was used to ignoring the rumors about his birth. And even before he told her the truth once in a whisper, with tears in his eyes afraid she'd run or that she'd hate him, she had always suspected they were true.

Yet unlike their first meeting, Tzipora isn't scared by them. She sees the similarities and the differences and takes comfort in all of them, because although there were tales and stories about elves and how he has them in his blood, Rhun himself is a good person, dedicated to doing the right thing, whatever he thought that might be.

"You fight for the people you care about and you fight for the right thing," she told him, gently placing a chaste kiss on his nose. As she released his face, she pulled down his hood to play with his bright, pearl hair as she turned her gaze back to the horizon. "And I know that because you're still the same boy who gave money to a thief because you believed she needed it more than you did, where others would have turned simply turned her in." Noticing it loose instead of in its usual bun, Tzipora began braiding Rhun's hair with deft, steady fingers, weaving the strands together to keep them out of his eyes. "I swear you're like Rapunzel," she joked lightly while she worked. "Have you always worn your hair this messy or do you curl your pretty hair for special occasions?"

"Says Goldilocks. You're just jealous because I've got prettier hair than you do," he shot back with a laugh, getting a light tug in response. As he looked at her, he remembered what he'd been thinking of earlier. Even in appearances, elves and humans weren't so different. They were the same, like he and Tzipora were.

They were the same.

"All jokes aside, trust me, what you fight for...you're looking for the answer out there, but maybe you should try looking in here," Tzipora went on, tapping his chest over where his heart laid. "And maybe you'll find what you're looking for."

As he stared back at her, he found himself caught in the dark pools of her eyes that crinkled slightly at the edges when she smiled at him. Although she was the only girl he was able to get close enough to see them, to let her get close enough for him to see them, he had always found himself enchanted by her eyes. So dark he'd felt the solid earth and warm sun in his chest when she kissed him, steady and nurturing. In the sunlight or campfire, they seemed aglow with color reflecting off them like a kaleidoscope.

Still, he tore himself away, having to focus on the matter at hand for when the moon would rise again, full and when the Moonshadow elves at their strongest. Maybe even before since if they knew their element of surprise was lost, they could strike at an earlier time when they weren't expected. Rhun needed to get the princes out of the castle before sunset and as soon as their bags were packed. King Harrow had talked of taking the boys to a place called the Banther Lodge, where they would be safe, or at least for the time being if the assassins didn't search for Prince Ezran once the king was dead.

He couldn't explain everything, because then Tzipora would want to come with him, and once she set her mind to something, no matter what he did, she would still find a way to do it. And if she ended up hurt in the crossfire, he didn't know if he could forgive himself. He did, however, tell her part of it, enough so that she wouldn't worry about him and still relatively knew what was going on.

"The moon is fortunate," Rhun could remember saying to the king before leaving. It was half of an old Moonshadow elf proverb his father had recited more than once - 'The moon is fortunate, to leave and return.' It was also a common parting between some, a way of skirting around saying goodbye. For Rhun, it was to wish King Harrow luck with his fate as he spoke. "And I pray so are you."

And hopefully, so was he. Half an hour ago, Rhun had felt sick to his gut with problems he didn't know how to solve and questions he didn't know how to answer. He still didn't, of course, and he'd have to resolve them somehow. And soon. But they were suddenly a lot easier to ignore for tonight knowing he at least wasn't alone as he entwined his fingers with Tzipora's.