Alanna pushed Casiama away from her, the elf falling backwards onto her butt, panting for air as the enchantress rushed over to comfort her baby. Alanna picked him up gently, rocking him ever so sweetly in her arms as she displayed the world's quickest change of emotion. Talos calmed down within the minute.
"What... are we... doing Alanna?" Casiama asked between gasps of air. Alanna shook her head with a frown, her eyes fixed on her little Talos.
"We're fighting," she whispered, unable to speak in any higher tone with her babe so close.
"Why?!"
Casiama pushed herself off the ground, smoothing her dress out when she found her feet. Alanna frowned when their eyes met for but a couple seconds.
"Because... he decided to leave," she replied sadly. The elf frowned as well, plopping down on the chair behind her.
"Because...?"
Alanna sighed, glancing towards her child once more. "Because we're always fighting over him."
Casiama lowered her head into her hands, sighing with exasperation when palms met cheeks. Alanna set her babe back in his crib, wanting to comfort the elf with words she did not know. It wasn't entirely her fault that Talos felt that he had to leave, of course. They shared that blame together. They shared it equally.
Alanna realized just then how tumultuous the past three months have been. At first, their relationship was marked by a hesitant joy; no soul was willing to push another too far, lest they ruin the moment. Joy soon turned to a cordial possessiveness, the girls finding their own personal time to be in their shared man's arms, while being completely unwilling to share those moments with one another. Possessive feelings turned to eagerness, a willingness to at least
try
and share. That had been but a month ago, just before Alanna and Talos had taken their vacation together. That eagerness quickly devolved into jealousy, an abject failure of their willingness to share.
Alanna sighed, deciding to reach out to Talos at that moment. She closed her eyes as she shut herself off from her immediate surroundings.
She was on horseback now, cantering through the meadows and hills of Catriona towards the morning sun. She thought of everything yet nothing at all, welcoming the simple pleasures of a life on the road once more. She appreciated this short chance to get away from it all, knowing she would appreciate returning home just that much more...
"Alanna. We cannot keep doing this," Casiama said brittly, bringing the enchantress back to her house by the bay.
"I know," Alanna pouted.
Alanna knew wholeheartedly that Talos would return on his own accord as she reviewed the thoughts gathered from his mind, and decided she didn't need to seek him out to convince him otherwise. Yet, her vision of Talos reminded her of the road once more. Binding with him always did, really. The man dreamt of it endlessly, even if he gave his best in an attempt to hide that fact.
She recalled her own time with Casiama in the Borderland forests to the east. She remembered her own astonishment upon learning the elf was a princess, her utter excitement when she revealed herself to be a conjurer as well. She recalled her time with Talos in the Badlands beyond that, remembering all the good times and the bad.
A life on the road made things simple. Everything hidden was revealed to you when the world was laid bare, and problems were forced to be resolved lest they consume you.
Alanna knew what she had to do. She turned towards the elf, an elf who loved her man just as much as she did, the enchantress's willpower filling her heart once more as she smiled as well she could.
"How long has it been since you've seen a forest, Casiama? A real forest?"
-=-=-
Alanna had haste work to do this morning. She had just convinced Casiama to travel with her to Falinor, a forest to the east, and now had to secure lodging for her child as well as passage to the forest itself. She had to accomplish these tasks before Casiama could change her mind as well, as the elf could simply decide to leave on her own accord rather than accompany her.
Both tasks were simple enough for an enchantress who personally knew half the city of Catriona. She had a bag slung over her shoulder and her babe cradled in her arms as she strode towards her sister's house, just a few streets away from her own. Alanna knocked on the door gently when she'd arrived, her sister receiving her with open arms.
"Morning Alanna," she greeted hoarsely, wrapping one arm around Alanna to ensure she didn't disturb the infant in her arms. Alanna smiled, shrugging the heavy bag off of her shoulder. Her sister took it.
"Hey sis! I'm, uh, in quite the hurry. I'm wondering if-"
"Maria? Who's at the door this early?" A man shouted from out-of-view, from within the house. Alanna recognized it as her sister's husband, who soon appeared at the door with a grin. "Ah, Alanna! Good tidin's to you," he greeted warmly. Alanna hadn't yet met a soul who she couldn't melt with her smile.
"Good tidings, Mattias. How's the leg?" the enchantress asked coyly, already knowing she had healed it perfectly the last time they met. Mattias glanced towards it all the same, lifting his foot from the floor.
"It's perfect, miss. Almost like it didn't break a'tall," he grinned.
"That's wonderful to hear," Alanna replied breathlessly, glancing towards her sister once more. "Sis, I need you to take Talos for a couple days. Until the-"
"Of course! The little one's always welcome here."
"-until the thirtieth," Alanna finished, handing her infant into her sister's waiting arms. "Should have plenty of milk," she explained nodding towards the bag on her sister's shoulder. Maria frowned as she looked over Alanna's worried face.
"Okay," she replied softly. "Are you in trouble, Alanna?"
Alanna shrugged with a half-smile. "Maybe. Guess I'll see shortly," she replied as she leaned over to kiss her child on the forehead. "Be good for your aunt and uncle, Talos," she cooed for him, glancing upwards to the two smiling souls before her.
"Thanks so much, you two. I hope he's no trouble."
Alanna's next stop was to secure passage to the forests itself. Over land, if traveling by horseback, it would take the better part of a week to venture to Falinor. Alanna didn't have that kind of time, or that kind of patience really. Nor did she have a reason to travel by horseback either, as she was friends with most of the sorceresses of Catriona.
She and Casiama would port directly to Falinor, skipping the journey on horseback entirely. Alanna had already settled on Jenna to perform the task, a young teleportation sorceress who was still attending the College in town. Alanna hadn't asked her for a favor for months now, and knew she was always eager to help her when she needed it.
She knocked on the door to her flat, another three blocks from her townhouse. Jenna greeted her with a warm smile; Alanna's adorable demeanor had that kind of effect on people, after all.
"Good morning, Alanna."
"Good morning! Jenna, mind if I ask you a favor?" the enchantress asked breathlessly, having walked at a quick pace to arrive here. She hadn't granted herself a moment of air before knocking.
"Of course not... but only if I get a favor in return," Jenna smirked coyly. Alanna moaned with feigned exasperation, a smile present on her face as well.
"Name it."
"Can you help me with my restoration studies sometime?" the young sorceress asked softly. "I'm struggling on Sonja's third verse, you see, and-"
"Done," Alanna nodded instantly. "I need a port to Falinor, for a friend and myself. Today. The return trip's on the thirtieth; can you do it?"
"My, you're in a hurry aren't you?" Jenna giggled as she nodded her consent. "Of course I'll port you. I'll be here 'til noon, Alanna."
Alanna had almost forgotten to thank Jenna as she rushed down the steps from her flat. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
-=-=-
Alanna returned to the townhouse in a hurry, sighing with a mixture of relief and exhaustion when she found Casiama waiting for her, dressed and ready to go. She soon led the pouting elf through the streets of Catriona, to the teleportation square just a block from Jenna's house.
Teleporters of Catriona required these squares - a simple thirty-by-thirty foot marble platform checkered in black and grey - to port from one location to another. The squares were linked together across vast distances through a network in the aetherial wind, allowing a sorceress to reach out to another square across the empire to port themselves or others there instantly.
Sorceresses of other schools eventually learned to port without need of these squares, due to the fact that Catriona held a monopoly on their use and construction. To port without a square, however, required a considerably larger amount of willpower and magic than porting with one. Jenna, for example, would be able to port twenty people through this square on the very same day if she wanted to; and she was still going to school.
Jenna gifted a small pendant to Alanna before she departed, an amulet which, when activated, would let her know that Alanna was ready to return to Catriona. With a quick 'thank you' and a wave, Alanna and Casiama were consumed by a bright, glimmering portal of purple light, forcing their eyes shut. When their eyes reopened, they were standing directly atop a similarly-checkered square in Falinor, a mountain range and two-hundred miles between them and their positions a second before.
The city of Falinor was certainly nothing special, especially compared to the wonder of Catriona. The stone walls which surrounded it were worn from the passage of time, barely a thought spared towards their upkeep in the past three-hundred years due to the city's naturally-remote location. Dirty wooden houses surrounded dirty marketplaces, and the only stone buildings of the city were the churches and the castle keep itself. The teleportation square of Falinor was, fortunately, not within the walls of the city itself. It instead stood two miles outside of town, atop a hill which overlooked the city.
Casiama instantly squinted with disgust at the sight. Alanna felt her displeasure and placed a haste hand on the elf's cheek to push her gaze to the side, away from the town. Alanna had brought her here for the valley; Falinor itself was worthless, as far as she was concerned.
"Oh," Casiama murmured, her frown instantly disappearing.
The city of Falinor was nestled between two snow-capped mountain ranges on its east and west sides, both about thirty miles away. Before those peaks were foothills, covered with miles and miles of dense forests where no humans bothered to tread. Streams and rivers of all sizes ran from those mountain peaks towards the valley floor, weaving and twisting their way under the endless canopy of tall trees.
The girls soon made their way to the west, their gazes fixed on the forests before them.
-=-=-
After two hours of walking, the sorceresses were now surrounded by all manner of oak and redwood standing proudly around them, forming a thick canopy of foliage which both sheltered and hindered the saplings and smaller trees closer to the forest floor. The copses of redwoods dominated all else around them, rising hundreds of feet into the sky as if defying the unwritten laws of nature themselves. Most redwoods refused to give in to the sigh of a spring wind or the frost of a winter's chill; their trunks were straight and firm, as if incapable of taking any other shape.
Casiama had her hands clasped behind her back with her gaze turned ever skyward, marveling in their magnificence. The princess was unsure where she should look, so she twirled instead in graceful appreciation. The trees of the Borderlands, of Tor Valliya, of all she'd ever known were positively diminutive compared to these miracles, and she couldn't help but grin as she danced beneath them. She wondered how many years those wonders have seen. How much they had lived through.
Alanna gazed happily upon Casiama's contagious joy, deciding to answer her unasked question.
"A sorceress told me once that some of these same trees were alive when dragons ruled the lands," the enchantress said softly. "They've... a thousand and two years, at least. The red ones anyway."
"A thousand and two..." Casiama repeated in awe, her gaze only falling from the canopy to locate the nearest redwood. She bounced over to it, placing her hand on it's trunk. "Kianra could have touched this very tree... just like I am," she whispered reverently. Alanna noticed the elf's trembling lip, but made no move to remedy it.
The girls shared a wondrous quarter-hour of silence, then, treading softly through the undergrowth of Falinor forest to only listen to the songs of the gentle wind and the forest's many birds. Casiama broke that silence with her gaze still fixed towards the heavens, soft tears blurring her sight.
"Imagine if they could speak, Alanna. What manner of story would they tell? All our problems, all our concerns... I imagine they are pitiful and pointless to ones so wise."
