The Meridians

The Beginning

First and foremost, I would like to thank @Mousewriter88  for your amazing and funny comment, they were very helpful. 

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The inn was a few paces ahead of them.

It wasn't easy to be found, if one was unfamiliar with the territory. It was built on the outskirts of the city of Vilgas, near the thick forest of Naan, hidden among the tall oak trees. Only a small path through the thick foliage led to its entrance.

Unusual place for an inn.

As they walked slowly towards it, their boots on the muddy ground, alongside the rain, were the only sounds disturbing the nightly silence. It was an unusual rain that made summer appear as autumn.

"There it is. Kilian and I will go find the human; the rest stay hidden" ordered Ezra in a whisper.

The inn was a small building made of wood and stone; it seemed more like a cottage rather than an actual inn. In the dark, glimmering candle light came out of its few dirty windows and upstairs it seemed to have only two bedrooms and an attic.

"The Golden Goat" whispered Kilian looking at the inn's sign.

"Humans..." replied Ezra derisively.

They walked carefully around it looking through the windows, searching for the human, trying to track him by his scent. In the main hall, there were the innkeeper who served two drunken men some ale, he wasn't who they were looking for, so they walked back in front of the main entrance.

"He is not one of them, the scent comes from above. He must be in one of those rooms upstairs, probably in that one" pointed Ezra with his index finger, as the rain drops felt on his face.

It was relatively easy to find him. Humans were unable to keep secrets, as their scent was terribly intense when they had something to hide and only an elf would be able to sense it. Let alone this particular smell, that annoyed them for days.

Their short pointy ears moved intensely trying to grab the smallest sound. They didn't want to make their presence noticeable because they would have to deal with humans more than they wanted.

Ezra and Kilian with a swift and skillful jump reached the wide ledge of the window upstairs inside of which lay the human.

 A human would need a ladder to climb, but they did it effortlessly.

Kilian's sharp knife shined under the moonlight as he jabbed it into the window's crack and with a small push the window opened almost silently. They went inside unnoticed.

The human was lying in the bed and sleeping undisturbed. A small candle lit on his nightstand and a big chest was blocking the door from entering.

"Why the one who hunts you, would choose the door to enter inside?" whispered Ezra.

"Humans..." Kilian whispered back in a scornful huff.

They walked closer to the bed soundless like cats. The human breathed peacefully, as Ezra's face hovered over his head. His sullen green eyes looked like a predator ready to attack its prey. The human opened his eyes and bewildered to the sight of him.

"Look, he woke up," smirked Ezra.

The human had no time to react, Ezra's words were the last he heard before everything went black around him... until the moment he woke up and realized that he was tied up on the mast of a small ship.

The salty air waved his long brown hair, as he felt his sweat cold on his skin.

"Captain, our guest has woken up from his slumber" scoffed Kenta, one of Ezra's men.

"Elves!" shouted the human in fear and struggled with craze to free himself, but the ropes burned his sensitive skin. Ezra calmly nodded to him to stop because it was futile to try to escape. And even if he could, where would he run to? They were in the middle of the sea; he would drown or get shot by elven arrows before he could reach the land. With that thought he stopped and tried to calculate his situation more logically, to understand why was he on that ship with them in the first place.

"Where are you taking me?" he asked in terror, as he struggled to speak clearly.

"To Terintha" Ezra answered in a firm tone.

"Why? What have I done? What do you want me for?" continued the human.

"You can't think of something?" Ezra mocked him and the human lowered his head and stayed silent.

"That disgusting smell..." rasped Ezra while turning his head away from the human.

"I don't understand, what smell?" the human stuttered.

"The human scent of liars and traitors" Ezra roughened his tone, as he tuned his firm gaze upon him.

"I don't understand why I'm here. Let me go" he begged.

"That won't help you"

The human panicked even more and started yelling at the top of his lungs "I haven't done anything wrong; I only did what he asked me to do! Why are you doing this to me? Who are you?!"
Ezra went closer to him slowly, shooting daggers with his eyes and firmly said "I'm Ezra Wren, son of Thargan Wren, King of the Elves"

"Tha-Tha-rgan... Wren" mumbled the human in terror "Don't kill me, please" he begged once again, but no one paid attention to his plead. Everyone looked at him emotionlessly, as he kept yelling in panic and desperation, making his voice one with the waves and slowly fading into the abyss.

He knew he was in a very inconvenient situation and had no idea how he could get out of it.

"I did what he asked. I did whatever I could for your kind. I did what YOU ordered!" he gave them one last scream of desperation, in a poor attempt to save his life. But he deeply knew saving his life wouldn't be so easy, as he knew what he had done.

"You did what we ordered... who is we?" Ezra didn't try to hide his irritation, as he frowned angrily at him.

"You, your kind... the Elves" replied the human swallowing hard.

"We never ordered you to do anything. You helped someone that you shouldn't have and that was a big mistake human, so..." Ezra took a small knife out and played it around his fingers as he walked even closer to the jittery human. The waves crushed lovingly on the ship and the smell of salt water filled their nostrils.

The human's body tremble even more and he chose to stay silent, as it seemed the most fitting. What he could possibly say at this point?

Ezra with two swift steps reached close to the human and tacked his knife inside the human's neck just as much, so a little blood dripped off his skin. The idea of killing him right there on the spot was very appealing to him, he never liked any human, but he was following orders and he knew he must keep him alive at least until they arrive at Terintha.

Although, he managed to make the human more scared, as he enjoyed tormenting his poor soul.

"Alright, alright I did it! Now what do you want from me?" yelled the human, as his eyes watered.

"How easy you humans are, I told you; we are going in Terintha. The King awaits" Ezra replied with a harsh tone that terrified the human even more, if that was possible.

"Give him something to eat and drink" he ordered his men as he put his knife back to its hold. "We want him alive, for now" he added with a devilish smirk.

The human sat still looking around him worryingly. He couldn't stop thinking that in any moment he might be dead by those five tall elves around him.

"We'll reach the land soon" announced Kilian, as he gazed upon the blue sea.

"Good. I hate salt water" replied Ezra. 

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