Crowns and Guns.

Venom (part 2)

The recruits immediately fall silent, and look at me, their eyes wide in fear. A minute or so passes, and nobody says a word. Noting breaks the silence but the distant singing of some nightbirds.

Katie is the first one to move. She slowly stands up, not breaking eye contact, and wipes off her dirty hands on her equally dirty nightshirt.

"I ... I didn't even wanna come." Katie stammers. "It was all Kelsey's idea, she like, pressured me."

Kelsey shakes her head. "Don't pin this on me, Katie." She turns back to me. "That was all Katie's idea. I swear."

May interrupts them. "It was all my idea, I swear, please don't punish them."

I cross my arms. "Do you guys realise how dangerous this kind of behaviour is? Elves patrol these forests. You guys could have been killed. And nobody would have ever found your bodies or found out what happened. We would have found your bones if you were lucky."

Jerry picks up one of the guns, scattered between the broken bottle, and points it at me. "We would have been fine" he slurs. "We brought guns."

I grab his arm, twist his hand, and take his gun. He yelps in pain and rubs his hurt hand.

"First off, never point a gun at anything unless you want it dead. Rule one of gun safety." I toss the gun aside. "And second, our most experienced soldiers wouldn't take on a group of elves when they are with less than fifteen. What the hell do you think a group of teenagers would pose? Elves would probably laugh at you. Guns or not."

The recruits all look down, in silence. Except for May, who keeps staring at me.

"Third, whose idea was it to light a fire?"

Tony stands up and gestures to his bare chest. "Look at how little clothing ORCHID provides us. We had to light a fire to stay warm."

I shake my head in disbelief. "You know that this fire can be seen a mile away. And if I can see it, then so can elves." I press my finger against the bridge of my nose. "You guys are going to put out the fire, and then we are gonna walk back home. And you should be grateful that I don't tell the commander. Or your parents."

Kelsey stands up, takes an old rusted pot of water standing on the ruins of the kitchen counters, and throws it on the fire. The fire immediately sizzles out, and the room is filled with thick grey smoke. I cough as I feel the steam burn my lungs.

"See," Kelsey says. "We are smart. We came prepared."

When the sizzle of the fire quits down, I look around. I can hear the sounds of the forest, the leafs rustling in the wind, but something feel off. There is something wrong. The rustling doesn't sound natural.

And then I hear it.

The unmistakable sound of metal claws over stone. Of large creatures, pushing bunches aside, and bending trees. Elves.

Kelsey keeps blabbing. "You might think we are a bunch of clueless children, but we actually were –" She stops as I put my finger on my lips, gesturing her to be silent.

"What is wrong?" She asks.

Her question is answered as an elf jumps through the hole in the roof, and lands in front of me. The elf looks, different than elves usually do. Its kind is covered in large black spots as if its ash-white skin was charred or burned. Most of the spikes on its torso are broken off, and the ends look split, like a broken branch. One of its arms ends in a stump, and the lower arm and signature hand with claws are missing. Where one of its eyes should be, is nothing but an empty socket, and one of its ears seems to be clipped. But despite its injuries, I recognised it immediately. It is the elf that kidnapped me when I was ten.