Nora had seen many displays of power in her twenty years of mortal life. People moving so fast they could practically dodge wind. Attacks that could part the earth. Maneuvers with all manner of weapons that defied disbelief. But what she witnessed now was...what was it?
The group had traveled out of the planes and far away from Nora's home to arrive at a range of innumerable mountains. Beneath said mountains was an impenetrable and thick fog deep as an ocean. Neither the dragon nor the bull had wanted to cross through it, telling Nora and Elly to instead go over the rocky tops.
There was no carved path on them, but it was still an easy feat.
Then, not even ten minutes into the trip, the group had to jump over the first wide gap. The bull jumped, then the dragon, and finally Nora with Elly right behind her. That was when an actual dragon, a being Nora had only seen in artistic depictions, burst out of the murky whiteness with a roar. It had headed straight for an airborne Elly and was about to consume her, but the being froze in place before it could reach its target.
Both women arrived safely on the other side, and Nora had looked around in confusion to find her subject holding an open palm toward the beast. He then simply closed his hand into a fist and the winged being imploded onto itself.
There had been no sound, no indication of...well anything. It just ceased to be there.
After that, it was just a repeat of events. Unimaginably large beasts appeared out of the fog--all indescribable--and their guide would compress them out of existence.
At one point she asked if he was in the Tiaros rank, but the dragon just said 'a valid observation' in his annoying holier-than-thou voice.
Regardless, Nora didn't need anyone to tell her what her fate would have been had neither of the men been there. Her instincts alone were screaming warnings into her brain every time a new threat appeared.
Elly had also become more guarded as she attempted to scan her surroundings, possibly sensing the danger even more acutely than Nora, being the weakest of the group.
Yet these two men might as well had been strolling through a field of flowers.
Maybe not flowers
, Nora thought as she took in their grave expressions. It seemed that as soon as their mission began their whole demeanor changed. Though the bull had already lost most of his wind after the dragon's outburst of emotions.
"What happened with Roesia?" Elly suddenly asked.
It's finally here.
Nora had been waiting for the question, and the subsequent argument. Most likely in the eyes of Yvain's master she had once more failed as a teacher and put one of the members of Draconian's Tavern in danger.
Elly didn't look angry at least, and they
had
reconciled.
Nora looked to the bull and dragon at their front, there was no doubt that they could hear them. The tall woman didn't seem to mind though, and it's not like the conversation was a secret.
"She never needed my help," the starchild said. "No sooner had I set her inside her Galaxia that she pushed me out and began to absorb starlight like a madwoman. Afterward... you saw what happened. She's a prodigy, there's no other way around it. Her body is nowhere near prepared to handle the quantities she absorbed, yet she did without repercussions. The only way that could have happened was if she compressed the energies, but that's something you don't begin to learn until the final stages of the Protos rank
and
with a master to teach it."
"Why stop her then?"
"Because she wouldn't do so on her own otherwise. Did you not see her? She was ecstatic. Most likely lost in a trance as starlight flowed in. And no matter how compressed it was, a point of bursting would have been reached eventually. She would have died."
Nora regretted failing to stop her right from the beginning. Roesia wasn't like the rest, she was more inclined to gush over a book than physically train for even ten minutes. The fact had made the starchild complacent. Then when the critical moment arrived, whatever starlight she had managed to accumulate had been far from enough to do anything.
"Then, she's alive?"
"I...I don't know," Nora said apologetically. Like with Nelimir, there had been no way to break her out of her state without unorthodox methods. It could succeed as much as it could fail, and currently they had no way of knowing thanks to the dungeon.
Elly didn't anger, she just solemnly nodded while keeping her gaze forward.
"She's alive," the dragon said.
"You know this, how?" Nora asked but he shrugged his shoulders, making her give a frustrated sigh.
"She's with Yvain," he said. "You'll see her once we reach our destination."
"If you're lying..." Elly left the threat hanging, for all the good it did.
The dragon chuckled, "If I am you can take it up with Yvain."
----------
"So, you can't tell me anything about yourself," Nelimir began, "but anything besides that is fair game, right?"
After a long back and forth, the darker elf carrying him had agreed to let him walk on his own two feet. Apparently because they had covered enough ground that a somewhat leisurely pace could be kept while still being on time. On time for what? He couldn't say, and she wouldn't.
"...I guess," she said with caution.
"What are your people like?"
"That falls under myself," the darker elf said with a light laugh and softly pushed his arm.
"I'm just asking about your kind's culture. Despite your contrasting features you are still similar to Haradriel. Are you both the same? Or are you from another race entirely?"
Maybe they, like humans, had a variety of skin colors among their own.
The darker elf pushed him violently against the trunk of a massive tree nearby before covering both his nose and mouth with one hand. She gestured for silence, scanning from side to side.
Nelimir complied while staring at how her ears twitched up and down with every sound coming from the forest. The wind, the leaves being shuffled, and then an agitated rustle of branches right behind him.
The darker elf rushed out of sight and the sounds of combat ensued.
It didn't last even a minute. A roar that shook Nelimir's eardrums burst out of whatever beast she was fighting before it was cut short; the only indication of its death the thunderous fall that rocked the forest floor.
Then, as if nothing had happened, the darker elf appeared in front of him.
"We are not the same, though we are not too dissimilar from each other," she said.
It took Nelimir a few seconds to realize she was answering his question. Trying to ignore the apprehension planted in his chest by what had just happened, he asked, "What are you, then?"
"I am me," the darker elf said. "Though if you are asking for a moniker, others have called us Star elves." She gently pushed his shoulder, motioning for him to walk, and the duo set off.
Nora had never mentioned such a name, only elves. Did she omit it on purpose, or was it simply ignorance?
"And Haradriel is...just 'elf'?"
"According to others," the Star elf said with a nod.
Maybe Nora just doesn't know about Star elves.
Against his wishes, the thought of having a piece of outside knowledge that the goddess didn't know filled him up with petty pride.
"What do you call yourself then?" he asked.
"A myself question," the Star elf wiggled her finger with soft, reprimanding eyes.
Nelimir tried to keep the slight frustration out of his voice, "I mean your race, what do your people call themselves?"
"Our names, what else?"
"Your given names?"
"Correct."
"Do you not have a term for which to define yourself with?"
"Why would I need to define myself? If someone wants to know of me then all they have to do is start a conversation."
A group of beings that didn't have a collective name for themselves. What drove them to such an idea? Calling himself a human was just common sense, but now that an alternative had been offered, the question of 'why?' formed. It could be marked up to simple practicality. Did the Star elves and elves not think the same? Or was said practicality just unnecessary?
These were questions that most likely not even his guide could answer. It would take a deep dive into the home of Star elves itself.
"Can we start a conversation?" Nelimir said, deciding to forgo the heavy questions.
The Star elf smacked his arm again with mock anger.
"Do not be a smart ass. You know what I mean."
Nelimir rubbed his arm absentmindedly, "I'm Nelimir. Nelimir Allsworth."
The Star elf's head snapped toward him with widened eyes.
"Why did you tell me your name?" she asked in a fearful whisper.
Nelimir looked at her curiously, and with some doubt said, "It's common courtesy."
"I do not need such a thing; I am only your guide. Leave it as such." The Star elf looked ahead of her and increased her pace to the point that Nelimir was forced to run.
What was that? He was only introducing himself; it couldn't be that big of a deal. At least, that's what he wanted to tell himself.
An image of the Star elf's ears at that moment was engraved in Nelimir's mind. It was too violent a response from just him telling her his name. He tried to find a reasonable explanation to such a reaction. One that didn't conform with a new, unsolicited idea. Yet he couldn't stop a warmth assaulting his chest against his will as the fresh memory replayed itself.
"It's just my name, what could possibly have you feeling so happy about it?"
"What spirit has possessed you? I am not happy."
Nelimir pointed to his ears, "It's written all over them."
Somehow the Star elf's cheeks darkened as she grabbed her twitchy members.
"How do you know?" she asked quietly.
"So you
are
