Tale of Alora- Chapter 18: Certain Similarities
CHAPTER 18: Certain Similarities
“I ran into Enya in the market today,” Ben explained as he walked in. Nelia was at the table goofing around with her turtle, and Alora was sitting on the end of one of the beds, her hand aglow trying to practice some of the magic she’d learned growing up.
“Oh? How’s she doing, is Vearil back yet?” Alora asked as she lowered her hand onto her belly, leaning back relaxing for the moment.
“No, still no word on that, and Beth and I agreed that if he isn’t back soon, we’ll just carry out the preparations without him. Some leader he’s turning out to be so far,” Ben replied. “No, Enya wanted us to come by tonight, apparently she’s done with whatever she’d been making for you two.”
Nelia turned in her chair, “Oooh! Yeah, I’d completely forgotten about that.” She mumbled, standing up and stretching side to side a bit. “So should we just go now?”
Alora shrugged, heaving herself to her feet as well. “Might as well.”
Heading out the door and making their way across Delyrim, Alora looked over to see Jandyce standing at the gate of her manor. Once the older woman turned to see Alora, the color drained from her face, and she quickly opened and closed the gate, jogging inside.
“If I didn’t know any better, I would say she’s scared of you, Alora,” Nelia teased, nudging the elf with her elbow.
“Yeah, well, you saw what I did, she’s probably thinking if she makes me mad I’ll wipe out the whole town before the Invasion even gets here.” Alora replied in a deadpan tone.
“Well once this is all over, we’ll never have to worry about her again.” Ben muttered.
Alora and Nelia look between themselves. “What are you gonna get rid of her or something? The plan is to save these people, remember.”
Ben laughed, “Oh not like that, I just mean, well after this, we’ll have to continue our journey to get you two back to normal, right?”
Alora looked down. “That’s true… but do you really think we’ll just…go back to that after this?”
“What do you mean?” Ben questioned.
“I mean, Nelia got pregnant because the demon queen wanted it…” Alora began, “and now she’s after us. This invasion thing…the demon queen. If we’re going to stay here and fight, we’d better be getting some answers from the demons! I don’t think we move past this without figuring SOMETHING out about getting us back to normal.”
“Huh…”Nelia thought aloud.
“I think that whatever happens, we have to use this chance to figure something out,” Alora said, taking her hands from her belly to one another. “No human village has had anything for us. So…”
“I see what you’re saying,” Ben said, already in thought. “We’ll have to see what this Vearil’s plan is…or figure out ours, and then we’ll see if we can work getting answers in there. I know this seems like a good chance, but at the same time, the priority is keeping you two safe and away from the demon queen’s clutches. We all have to survive this first.”
Alora nodded in quiet agreement.
Nelia, meanwhile, had her head elsewhere, eyes looking down at her hands resting on her belly. “...but what about AFTER that?” She asked under her breath. “Do I have a place to go back to?” She looked back up at Ben and Alora ahead of her as they crossed into the elves’ district. The three continued to walk on that note, arriving at Enya’s and knocking on the door.
“Well welcome back you three! It sure is nice to see you again!” the jovial blacksmith shouted as she basically threw open the door, pulling them all inside. “Oh I can’t wait to show you what I’ve put together for you two!”
Nelia jumped up and down excitedly. “Ooo, yes yes! Show us, show us!” She giggled, as Enya turned around, whipping a cover off one of the tables, showing a large axe and sword lying there.
As Nelia’s eyes widened seeing the two weapons, Alora’s eyes flattened.
“Aren’t these things going to weigh a ton?” Alora asked, crossing her arms. “I don’t know if you’ve seen me but I don’t exactly lift. And neither of us are in a condition to-”
Enya grabbed the axe on the table and spun it over her head with ease. “Don’t know much about elvish steel, do ya? Light as a feather!”
“Really? Lemme try!” Nelia somehow launched herself forward and got both hands on the axe, though she immediately started to plummet toward the ground with an “Eeep!” Fortunately, Enya stopped her.
“But only in elven hands,” Enya said sympathetically, getting Nelia back into a standing position. She turned the axe in her hand and presented it to Alora knob first. Alora still looked skeptical but grabbed it with both hands anyway. She prepared herself to drop when Enya let go but instead it felt like the weapon floated in midair.
“Oh!” Alora’s ears perked up. She widened her grip and carefully swung the axe in front of her. Then, her hands turned around around its belly and she swung again, spinning in a circle on her heel. Ben jumped backward, only narrowly stopping short of a hanging blade on the wall.
“No this was a great idea,” he said to no one in particular.
Enya chuckled as she watched Alora test out her new weapon. “Obviously,” she said, patting Nelia’s shoulder, “you can’t wield elvish weapons, so I had to do something a little different for you.”
Enya presented Nelia the sword on the table. Despite what happened last time, Nelia grabbed the hilt of the sword and lifted it.
“So I made this with some rare ore you can only get in the mountains to the north,” Enya began, “the stone in the blade helps it hover when you hold it, and the gaps in the blade make it lighter and more aerodynamic, almost LIKE elven steel. The fun part about this one was that I balanced it differently.”
Enya grabbed a helmet that had been reshaped into a much rounder, wider structure, which she then stuffed up under her apron so that she looked pregnant.
“This is the first ever sword balanced for a pregnant wielder!” Enya said proudly as Nelia kept wobbling the sword in her hands. “Had to make this thing to test it. Really wanted to scare the neighbors and-”
Enya’s ears drooped as the door swung open, and a large figure filled the doorway. “Enya! What do you think you are doing!” Shouted the figure in a very stern tone. As he walked in and entered the light, Alora was quick to notice the long ears, and the same blue hair as Enya. Walking over, he towered over all of them, looking down at Alora.
“What are you doing here, futilitarian?” he smeared, throwing down his large, heavy bag onto the floor, moving his scowl to Enya. “I specifically told you not to talk to these three.”
“Vearil come on, we can’t just leave them to-”
“I don’t want to hear excuses, I want them out of this shop!”
“Oh leave her alone you ass!” Alora growled at Vearil, to which he turned back to face her. Alora pointed the axe she was holding in his direction.
“I wouldn’t do anything to hurt my sister, trust me on that. You on the other hand, if not for your condition I would throw you out of here with my own two hands” He mocked, gesturing down at Alora’s bump before his hands deftly yanked the axe from her grip. He then turned to face Nelia.
“And you, Demoness, as much as I hate what you’ve brought to our village, you likely have valuable intelligence on how I can best prepare. And human boy? Benres, was it? Mac speaks nothing but praise for you. And other than your relation to princess over there, I am poised to trust your character as well. I’ll have to speak with you and the demon for a moment, but I won’t until we’re in a place of my choosing, without the Silverian.” Vearil added, pointing to Alora, who was already red in the face, about to launch into a tirade back at the hulking elf.
Ben put a hand on her shoulder, turning away from Vearil. “Ok, don’t go off on him just yet. We have to keep him on our side, without him and his forces, our stand won’t work.”
“I know, but come on, he’s obviously a massive sack of-”
“Just, head back to the inn. Nelia and I will learn what we can and then we can figure this all out, ok?” Ben said calmly, patting Alora on the back. “You’re never going to be able to think straight with him in the room. And let’s not make a mess of this with Enya since she’s been so nice.”
Alora’s face did little to hide her disdain, but she sighed. “Fine, fine. You’re right. We can’t mess this up…” She rubbed her back, her belly shifting and moving from the emotion, her baby kicking. “I’ll head back and rest, I feel like there’s probably another round of contractions coming before long. Last thing I want is this jerk seeing that.” She added.
“Well lucky for you Vearil, I have some matters to attend to, but if I hear back from these two about you trying to pull something, you’ll see how much of a pain I can be.” Alora called back as she gathered herself to leave
“Oh I am well aware of how much of a pain you are. You see while I was abroud, I ran into an old friend of yours. Seems like the Demons aren’t the only ones looking for you.” He said coldly.
Turning back to face him again, Alora looked up at the smirking grin of Vearil. “Who would that be?”
“Some other preeminent tripe, named Jailan. She wasn’t alone, but she wanted me to let you know something.” Vearil scoffed.
“Jailan? Isn’t that-” Benres interjected.
“The Elder, yeah, she tried to warn me of something before I ran away. I assumed she had somehow seen all this.” Alora said pointing at her bump.
“I don’t care who she is, but I did agree to deliver a message to you and will be doing so with no further interruptions!” Vearil yelled, slamming a fist on the table. “After I made mention of a certain high elf girl taking refuge in my city, she was quite shocked to find out it was you. And upon hearing you were pregnant, well, let’s just say her friend wasn’t too thrilled. As I went to leave their camp, she pulled me aside, paying me handsomely to deliver this message to you.
‘I am not the only one who has seen the strings of your fate. Talyn’s ambitions have only grown.’
Now I don’t know much of your uppity culture, but I know this lady was sure shaken up at the news you were expecting.”
Alora scratched the back of her head, a bit shocked. “I’ve been gone for nearly a year and a half. I can’t imagine Talyn willing to leave the walls of the Silver City…” she mumbled, almost to herself. “What about Durlan? Or any messages from my father, Alfurion.”
“That’s all she told me, and now that I’ve told you… get out of here. Being around you pure elves makes me sick enough already.” Vearil exclaimed. Enya walked over to Alora, opening the door for her.
“Sorry, he’s in charge after all.” Enya said apologetically.
Alora nodded back. “It's fine. I need to go think about things now. Thank you for your help, Enya.”
Closing the door behind her, Alora looked up at the sky as the sun began to set, looking back towards the mountains that separated her from her former home. She rested a hand on her belly, sighing as she began to make her way back to the inn. “Like we needed more to worry about, huh?”
