Char: Male x Male (Pairings are Surprise). Female x Male (Pairings are surprise)

ch sum: Ir abelas...Tel'enasalin ma lethalin...ma lethalan. Ir suledin nadas...Falon'Din...Ma ghilana mir din'an...

Children of The Veil

Tel'Enasalin

Noah, as usual, led the troupe in front. Technically, he didn't lead. Sara steered him to the right path from time to time but otherwise stayed silent. They should have waited to travel when it was light out but Noah had said it would be better to leave at that moment. "We should camp here." Sara said quietly. Noah turned to look at both Saeya and Sara. The two were dragging behind him slightly. He could tell the two were exhausted.

"Alright." He mumbled.

Noah sat close to the stacked sticks, striking rocks. It would have been easier if they were to light it with magic, but Noah didn't like fire magic. He didn't like it for the same reason as Saeya, of course. He didn't like it because Saeya didn't like it. When Sara had questioned him about it, he didn't really give a straight answer. He just said he didn't like anything that brought them pain – them being Sara and Saeya. Both the younger elves sat on a fallen log next to each other. Saeya was counting the number of healing herbs and rations they had left while Saeya was taking inventory of his throwing knives.

Saeya and Sara turned their gaze to Noah when it went silent. The older elf had stopped clicking the rocks together but hadn't lit the fire. He was looking up at the trees. "Noah-"

"Shh." Noah stood, his back tense. Saeya reached for his daggers. "Can you not hear that? Laughter." Saeya looked to Sara who took on a look of concentration.

"…there are about two dozen armed men. They're not moving closer nor farther so I assume they are camped…"

"Two dozen?" Saeya asked warily. "Are they human?"

"I can't tell…" Sara frowned. They both looked to Noah. Noah turned to see the two waiting for him to make the next step.

"We can't stay here, they may discover us." Noah crossed his arms. "There is too many of them for us to take on – especially given how dark it is getting. We move away. We'll take turns on watch." Saeya and Sara nodded.

…

..

.

A couple of hours later found them in the cover of the forest instead of a cleared field. Saeya sat somewhat comfortably in a tree with Noah and Sara at the base of the tree. He'd been sleep just a few minutes ago and he wasn't sure why he'd awaken. He looked down to see Sara and Noah leaned against each other fast asleep. What had woken him up?

Crunch…

That. Saeya tensed. Crunching and low mutterings. It was getting louder and closer. Saeya let a string of elven cussing pass his lips, which seemed to wake Noah for when Saeya looked back down, Noah was glaring up at him. His glare seemed to dissipate when he noticed how tense Saeya was. Saeya jumped from the tree and landed as quietly as he could. The displaced air caused Sara to jump and stare up at him in confusion. "We need to go." Saeya whispered. The laughter was getting louder. They were almost upon them. Noah and Sara abruptly stood.

"Which way are they coming from?" Noah asked.

"Well isn't this our lucky day?" The three froze. It was too late, they were there. Noah spun around, drawing his blade. Sara had been wrong. It was more than two dozen! What where they all doing out here like this?

"Prize ripe for the taking," another of the men had chuckled. The one that stood at the front of the men wore heavier armor then the rest. He looked to be a defender with a heavy wall shield held in his hands and a sword strapped to his side. The two standing on either side of him held mauls with blood thirsty grins on their faces.

There was no way they were going to get out of this without blood being spilt. Noah glanced behind him and noticed both Sara and Saeya had gone missing. Not missing, but both had faded out of sight.

Good.

"If I fall, run." Noah said. He had spoken it loud but in the elvhen tongue. He knew that the two younger elves would know what he meant. Noah pointed his sword at the two on either side of the defender. "Die." He growled, his eyes narrowed.

Suddenly, the two men dropped dead, blood spraying from their necks. The defender took a step back, as did the rest of the troops. "What the fuck?!" They all shouted different variations to express their fear mingled shock.

"How did he do that?" They all took up arms, but only 4 rushing at Noah. Noah took a step back before charging at them as well. At the last minute, he slid to a stop and skirted to the side, swinging his sword up and knocking one of the men off his feet. The others around him suddenly froze, their body becoming incased with ice. Noah took the chance and swung his sword at them, causing their frozen bodies to burst into bloodied pieces.

"What the fuck is he?" there was another cry. Blood sprayed from the troops necks as Noah flicked his hand at each one of them. He growled as an arrow caught him in the shoulder. He hadn't even noticed they had archers. As soon as he glowered at the archer, he was dead – a long gash across his throat causing his death.

"Don't let him point to you!" The defender yelled out, taking on an attack pose. He tensed his back and ran at Noah just as Noah was bringing his blade down on one of his men. The large sword bounced off the shield, leaving Noah opened to the man coming up behind him. Noah managed to twirl his body around, the blade just glancing off his chest plate.

He held his sword up and backed away from the large group. He did a mental calculation. They'd just killed eight of the men. He did a head count as he continued to back away and cursed. He'd counted at least 20 more heads and a lot of them wore thick helmets. Saeya wouldn't be able to get through the armor to kill them easily. He'd have to kill them himself.

"Die, you dirty elf!" the man to his right yelled. He came running in towards Noah, his sword drawn back. Noah brought his sword up to meet the man's but the man to his left took that as an opportunity to run at him too. Noah managed to pull his sword away from the one on the right to meet the one on the left but the defender decided to make his presence known. He used his shield and ran at Noah again, causing the elf to be flung backwards off his feet.

"Fenedhis!" Noah cursed.

"Noah!" Noah's gaze quickly snapped to Sara who had come out of her fade cloak. The troops surrounding Noah had turned to look at her as well, giving Noah the chance to quickly stand and swing his sword to behead them. Blood sprayed from the beheaded bodies as they dropped to the ground.

The deaths had caught the attention of the defender again who had growled and turned on Noah again. "So this is how you've been doing this, huh? You're not as alone as we first thought." Two more gurgled deaths made Noah smirk. They were down to at least 15 more heads. Saeya appeared next to him with a frown. There was blood on his side – and it did belong to him. Someone had managed to hurt him. Sara looked like she was ready to faint.

They hadn't had proper rest nor had they eaten properly in a while. She wouldn't be able to keep up casting spells and Saeya's usually graceful moves were sluggish – looked pale in the face. He turned to where the younger elf had been looking and cursed. There were more of them coming in. This wasn't just some small band of wandering shems. They'd run into an army. He glanced to his side when Sara came up to him. She looked scared out of her mind.

"Run." At this rate, they would all die.

"What?" Saeya looked at Noah in alarm.

"Run. Go to where Ira told you to go."

"Wait…just…no!" Sara cried. "We're not going to leave you! If we keep working together we'll-"

"All die!" Noah hissed, turning on Sara. "Saeya, take Sara and go!" Saeya hesitated. "GO!" after the shout, Saeya grabbed Sara's arm and tugged her into the brush. Noah intercepted their would-be pursuers by swiping his sword at their faces. They jumped back before going at Noah. Noah managed to kill the two but had suffered a long gash on his arm. He could barely hold his sword anymore. He gritted his teeth against the pain.

He had to keep them distracted long enough for the two to get away. "Damn, knife ears!" Noah cried out as he was flung backwards again by the defender. This time his body rolled across the ground a few times before he stood back up. He felt blood soak through the sleeves of his under clothes.

They fell into a dangerous dance. The other troops, Noah had noticed, stopped interfering. He'd thrust his sword at the defender and the defender would take the attack's momentum and use it against Noah, knocking him off balance. After his balance was unchecked, the defender would take a swipe at the elf. If the elf happened to dodge, he would bring in another attack. If he wasn't….it was added to the growing pile of both shallow and deep gashes.

The defender rushed at him again. Noah brought his sword up but the defender knocked it out of his hand with a simple hard outward thrust of his shield. Noah backed up a step as the defender twirled his sword around in his hand.

The elf heard the jeering laughter of the troops around him. There was no way in hell he was going down that easy. When the defender came rushing at him again, Noah rolled out of the way just before the shield got to him and grabbed up one of the blades of the dead soldiers littering around them. Noah held one hand out as he gripped the single handed blade with his other.

He was adept in one-handed combat. He just preferred the raw power that came with 2handed weapons. He only wished he had a shield for better defense. "I've never seen a knife-ear wield a blade longer than his hand." The defender sneered.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say that was a compliment." Noah smirked. The defender growled.

"Guessing that means you don't know better, dirty rotten elf!" The defender rushed at Noah. The elf used the sword to deflect the defender's sword. "You know if you give up now, I promise your death will be painless. I'll look over the fact you killed some of my good men."

"Ah. That was your best? I guess I have nothing to worry from you then?" Noah's smirk widened. The defender snorted.

"I said good men. I didn't say the best, now did I? For such large ears, your people know not how to listen."

They fell into another dangerous dance. The defender would rush the elf, the elf would skirt away. The defender would use his sword, the elf would either deflect with his sword or skirt away. Noah was beginning to tire. He was breathing harder now and his vision was beginning to swim. He wasn't going to last much longer now. He had to find a way to get out of this mess with his life. Sara and Saeya needed him.

"Those two elves that were with you – they were mighty pretty." Noah's tensed. His eyes narrowed. "I was thinking – once I'm done with you, we could use them as morale boosters instead of killing them." Noah growled.

"You will not touch them!" Noah shouted. He thrust his blade out, managing to knock the defender against the head. The defender stood dazed for all of 3 seconds before he was upon the elf again.

"That's what you think," the defender snickered. "I especially liked the girl – I wonder if she's a virgin. I didn't see any of those facial tattoos on her-" The defender quickly brought his shield up to block the slash. The elf's slashes were becoming more violent and less spaced out. "I wonder if she'd scream and beg me to stop – would she do it in her own tongue or ours." The defender laughed.

Noah's eyes burned with anger. He twirled the blade once then brought it into an upward arc. That proved to be a wrong move when the defender used his own sword to deflect. The sword was forced out of Noah's hand and the defender used his shield to rush into the elf. Noah was flung backwards again and hit his back and head against a tree. He hissed in pain, forcing his blurry eyes to open. The defender was slowly walking towards him with a smirk. He hurriedly tried to scramble to his feet. He managed only that, looking around blurrily for his sword. He couldn't focus on anything, his mind in panic mood.

"Too bad you won't live long enough to see her face after I'm done it her." He laughed. He held up a sword, staring at it. "Any last words?" Noah couldn't say anything. The defender smirked before plunging the blade into the elf's stomach. Noah choked on a gasp, his eyes wide. He slowly dropped to his knees as the defender took a step back. When he dropped to his side, coughing up blood, the defender turned and walked away.

"Tel'enasalin….ir abelas…ma…lethalin…ma…lethalan…" Noah coughed. "Forgive me…"

"Just leave him be. He'll die eventually." That was the defender's voice. Noah felt his consciousness slipping away. A suffocating darkness was clawing at his psyche… "Span the area and find the other two…I wasn't lying when I said they'd be useful…"

"No…" was the last conscious thought Noah had before darkness consumed him.

-End Notes: Ch summary translation: Ir abelas...Tel'enasalin ma lethalin...ma lethalan. Ir suledin nadas...Falon'Din...Ma ghilana mir din'an... = I am sorry... I have failed [you]... my cousin... my sister [implied]...i must endure...Falon'Din guide me to death.

Fenedhis - common cuss
ir abelas - i'm sorry
Tel'enasalin - I have no victory/ i have failed