In the wake of losing his magic, Feyrith struggles to adapt and survive the new and constant onslaught from the feral jungle beasts, trying to keep himself as well as Sunwood alive. Something unnatural has disturbed the beasts and though it's danger...
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The trip over to Aendor was surprisingly accident-free. Given what had been happening, Feyrith had feared that they'd get attacked on the way, despite traveling during the day, but that had not happened. And yet, as the massive, diamond bridge came into view, he felt more anxious than ever.
He remembered leaving Aendor after he'd been banished with a mix of determination and outrage. Now he was scared of facing the Council again. Of facing any elf at all, for that matter. He wondered if the Council had told everyone what had happened, even if it would be their version of it. They'd called him Cursed, but how would the elves react to learning that one of them had been Cursed in adulthood? To Feyrith, at least, the idea of a group of rogue elves who could somehow steal magic away from them seemed less intimidating than the possibility of becoming Cursed at any point for no seeming reason.
But given how the Council had reacted to his story, it was more than likely that they'd not addressed it at all. Feyrith still had trouble believing that development. He didn't want to question his elders, but none of it seemed to make sense, and the only explanations he could come up with always centered around the Council being cowardly, foolish, or both. But he'd been agonizing over this for an entire month, so he knew he'd come up with nothing new.
The five humans traveling with him all let out impressed gasps when they noticed the bridge, which finally managed to at least somewhat distract Feyrith from his panic as he focused on them instead. At first, he'd been a little disappointed that the newcomers decided that three of them accompanying him would be enough, but he was quickly realizing that it likely didn't matter much. Even one of them was capable of giving the Council enough of a testimony to convince them, so three should be plenty. Not to mention that Arbane and Lanna also had first-hand experience with the attacks, even if those had been less destructive.
"I didn't know the elves actually had a bridge like this," one of the newcomers, Terra, said, her voice filled with awe. But looking at her, her expression quickly darkened. "Of course they would have a literal diamond bridge."
"Did you think it was a metaphor?" the leader, whose name Feyrith had found out was Kass, asked, sounding amused. It was very strange how calm this woman seemed given what had transpired just hours ago, but Feyrith wasn't going to think about that. Humans and their emotional expressions were a field of study that never failed to stump him.
"I thought it was just talk," Terra replied, muttering something under her breath. Whatever it was, Feyrith was certain it wasn't complimentary. Not that he could blame any of them for thinking it was unnecessary for the bridge to be made of diamond.
As much as he understood that it wasn't meant to be insulting to the humans, he could see why it would be. Natural diamonds were rare and precious, so to make an entire bridge out of them would seem like the elves were trying to show off their riches. He knew that wasn't the case, but he could see why a human would see it that way.
"Can we go over it?" asked Lanna, looking at Feyrith. The elf gave a firm nod.
"There should be a guard stationed on the other side. We will explain the situation to them and see what they say."
