The Count of Castle Rock

Chapter XXXIX- There Are No Gods

Traveling with people born of the Felah Forest is a different experience from the first leg of the expedition's journey. Weaving through dirt trails and hidden pathways that Luis and Leesa would have never noticed, their feliruu guides, Vlask and Hukk, navigate the forest with practiced ease. The trek is less treacherous and morale rises swiftly. The two feliruu take the group from shade to shade, making the humidity of the forest far more bearable. They show the expedition rest spots close to water sources and sheltered from the worst of the afternoon heat.

The clothing provided by Fleeth Village proves a much needed boon to Leesa Talbert, whose own clothes are cumbersome in the weighty humidity. Her new garb is made of the forest and for the forest. She feels more comfortable than she has since leaving Solomon.

Lacking skill in the common trade tongue, Vlask uses Hukk to point out local flora and their medicinal uses. Hans writes it all down, his notebook always hungry for knowledge. Hukk makes sure to direct the expedition's attention to free dancer landmarks, teaching them how to navigate Fleeth territory. Each lesson comes with a warning about the other tribes. Marlic had downplayed how eager the other Khl were to see Olivia's blood spilt.

For her part, Olivia is quiet about her exile. She's uncharacteristically quiet about everything. When the expedition settles down for the night in the crook of a massive tree, she sits on the ground alone and hums herself. Leesa and Alice join her after they set up their tents and help with the gathering of firewood.

"Are you okay, Ms. Olivia?" Alice asks. The trip has made her and the other guards far more comfortable around the half-elf.

"I've been kicked out of far nicer places." Olivia sighs and looks skyward. "I'll be fine."

"Of course you will, you're resilient," Leesa says.

"Not sure what I expect really." Olivia turns and leans against one of the tree's protruding roots. "There is no place for a creature like me. You won't have me, the catmen won't have me... Thueny is the only one who's ever wanted me. A hundred years from now, things will be no different."

Alice leans forward. "How long have you known him?"

Olivia walks her fingers across the bark of the tree's root, like her legs they are slender and lithe. "I hear you all talking through the walls of the castle and, what I don't hear, they whisper to me at night."

Alice squirms, her cheeks reddening as she looks down at her hands. "Everyone, even the older castle staff who have been with The Count for decades, say you've always been with him."

Olivia looks at Alice as if she's referring to much more than her tenure at Castle Rock. "We've been together for three hundred years. He's always been the only one to show me love... until recently." She looks wistfully towards Hans sitting by the burgeoning campfire.

Leesa finds herself getting up and sitting beside the half-elf. Olivia rests her head against Leesa's leg.

"Three hundred years..." Alice whispers to herself.

"I need him back, Leesa. I need my Thueny back."

Leesa ponders those words. Hans needed Methuen back as well. His training has just started and his dreams hinge on completing that training. Leesa tries to pretend she has no personal vested interest in The Count, but the truth is he holds answers about that night and answers about a strange feeling at her core that arises every time she allows herself to think about him.

*

Hans takes in the forest with a desire to learn like never before. Every new thing makes him hunger for more. The feliruu and their keeper of histories awakened his appetite and each new sight merely teases his pallet. Recording everything and watching out for Leesa and Olivia consumes most of his day.