Betrothal's Price

Chapter 24: Hard-Knock Life For Some

Nearly thrown into a living room inside the house, Isla, Liam, and Taylor looked around at their "captors". They were both humans and Silvestrians congregated. They looked as if they'd been fighting an eternal war.  Their clothes were torn and tattered. Bows and arrows, knives, swords, brooms: a variety of weapons were in the hands of even the smallest and youngest of Silvestrians and Humans alike. Neither citizen argued or gave anyone any dirty looks or whispered about one another.

They acted as if everyone was equally fighting for everyone's survival, not only their own, which they seemed as if they did. Each and everyone of them looked bruised and beaten as few of them bandaged each other up.

Liam stood and looked around at their small fortified sanctuary. It wasn't much, but everyone seemed to use every inch of room they could find. He inhaled, ready to speak up when Isla stood quickly and clasped a hand on Liam's mouth.

She put a finger to her lips, as she heard Scaths making their way. The lights were immediately cut, and silence befell the entire household. Even the toddlers fell silent.

When human guards at the sealed door stood from leaning against the door and nodded, everyone sighed in relief and lowered their weapons. A tall man carrying a bow and arrows stepped forward.

He seemed elven, his skin was lightly tanned, his hair clearly hadn't been cut for quite some time. It was black, long, and ratty as if he hadn't the chance to wash it in months at the very least, and it was held up not very securely in a top bun. His eyes were dark and pained, as if war was all he'd seen.

He looked at them as if he knew they were temporarily here. As if they wouldn't make it long enough to return to wherever they came from.

The three felt as though they really couldn't blame him for looking at them the way he was. Outwardly they looked like "uppity" travelers lost in something they didn't understand. On the outside they wouldn't have been assumed to know of anything that was going on.

He had markings on his face, shoulders, arms and what they could see of his neck. The markings shown light blue resembling ocean waves. Yep! He was an Elfos del Agua, an Aqua Elf.

Taylor was the first to stand again. "Excuse us, but we really should return to our Phoenix. Ash might get worried for us---"

"--- Sorry but what's been happenin'? How long have you been here? Hong long have they been tormentin' you?"

The citizens looked at each other with worry, concern, and an answer they knew would be incredible. The tall man looked around then dead in Isla's eyes. "Young Miss , Perhaps it has not occurred to you, but this?  This is all some of us have ever known. Charlie, over there." He pointed to a human man, dark brown skin complementing his lightish gray eyes. "He and his family lived peacefully in the presence of Silvestrians here. All until 13 years ago, when Scaths raided and corrupted our homes. He was a teenager then. Now, he is a grown man with a growing family that have never seen anything but this never-ending battle. Many of us, never managed to survive. His parents died when the Scaths came and his first wife died through the infection. Similar things occurred to most of us but we've managed to get this far. We can only hope and pray to the Source that we make it through to the next day. The Scaths keep a constant vigil of the towns and villages. No one has ever made it out, only dying trying. Everyone they find they infect, and we are forced to watch as one of us is slowly infected."

Isla looked back at Liam and Taylor and both boys stood behind her. She looked back to him, "This is Prince Liam and Baron-to-be Taylor, I'm Lady Isla. We have a Phoenix outside in the outskirts of Littus. We know you guys have been struggling, but we can map out a path to help everyone escape. Are there any points to which we can use as vantage points?"