Ahulia, Way To Freedom - BOOK 1

Chapter 4: Departure.

The three of them are now going out of the centre of the capital, they exit the place which is surrounded by huge and thick rock walls to end up on the peasant side, extremely poor compared to the inside of the city. Symone looks at them with a lot of pity, he observes groups of people trying to pull huge horses attached to ploughs to prepare the soil to plant things. The green elf wants to help them so bad, so he let Ywain know that he wants to stop for a moment, but the faun refuses and says as well that this is too dangerous to stop near those poor people :

-"I'm not sure this is a good idea, Symone..." The faun knows that those people would try to steal them things because they are too poor. The king made them this way by allowing only the rich elves to live in the city. Symone's family is an exception because they aren't all elves but they are all rich, they also have what the king calls "useful" jobs, such as doctor, surgeon or even lawyer so any job other than highly diplomatic ones are useless to the king.

They continue their journey on the small carriage, even though Symone is really disappointed that he can't help people out. The three new adventurers are even followed by some of the villagers, as expected they want to steal some of Ywain's food and trinkets. The green one turns around to observe that small group of creatures, which consists of multiple species such as humans, elves, centaurs, dwarves and even more. Those ones are in fact rejected by the king, as said before.

The mysterious one, has been really quiet since they left the city, they didn't talk that much since they met the two other ones. The three of them are now farther away from the city, they are in a simple pine forest, continuing again for a few dozens of minutes. During this part of the trip, Symone can't stay still on the carriage which is obviously too small for him, he isn't comfortably sitting at all. Ywain notices it really quickly, because the carriage won't stop moving in weird ways because of the elf. So the faun suggests :

-"What about taking some time to rest ?"

Symone hesitates, not really daring to look at the faun, a bit frightened to bother his new friend :

-"It would be nice, I'm not really sitting comfortably..."

Ywain decides to stop a little farther in the forest. The faun gives a bowl of fresh water to his donkey for it to hydrate itself. It has been now a few minutes that they are resting in this forest, Ywain lets Symone know that the break is a little too long so it is time to go back to the carriage. But right before going, they all hear a weird noise coming from their opposite direction, it is yet not that far. A crackling noise. After hearing that weird crackling noise, Symone turns around towards where it is from, a dwarf suddenly comes out from behind some bushes. So the elf just thinks it's going to be a new person to meet, so he approaches the dwarf to start a conversation with them. Even if the dwarf has a dagger in hand and seems ready to use it.

Ywain tries to hold back the elf but it's already too late, Symone is in front of the dwarf, the latter tries to attack the green elf but Symone, reflexively yells in a really high-pitched tone just before running towards the carriage. The one lying on the vehicle and looking at this scene softly giggles under their black fabrics while not trying to help them at all.

A simple fight starts between the dwarf and the two new friends, Ywain and Symone. The dwarf attacks Ywain first, he dodges this first attack easily as if he was used to facing that kind of person. Then Symone runs towards the dwarf with a small knife he just found in the carriage, closing his eyes, scared to physically hurt the one he has to face but with a lot of luck, he stabs the dwarf in the arm, despite the height difference. Ywain's turn comes pretty fast, but he does not have time to do anything. Because the dwarf has already escaped, letting down their own weapon and taking with them the knife which is still stuck in the dwarf's arm. They let out some random growls of pain while running away.