The Blade of Kenai

Part 2: Chapter 4

They began their expedition through the thick shrubbery and Kenai was glad Kazdyn was with him, he was much more extroverted and Wren quickly relaxed into his personality. Kenai was better at listening and observing.
"So you two are..." Kenai wasn't sure exactly what she was referring to about them, but Kazdyn began rambling about Kenai and himself answering almost every question she could have intended to be answered with the few words she gave him.
"We're knights, we've trained pretty much half our lives. So you could kind of say we're experts." Kazdyn bragged, saying it with casualty but clearly wanting to impress her. Oh, Goddess. Kenai thought, shaking his head. She couldn't have been over seventeen but Kazdyn seemed to be desperate for some female attention even after only a few days.
"How old are you guys?" Wren asked, seeming to have the same thoughts as Kenai.
"I'm twenty, Kenai is nineteen." Kazdyn was in the lead and was holding tree branches out of the way for Wren but letting go before Kenai could make it through. "What about you?" Wren lengthened her strides and clenched her jaw, cheeks beginning to take on a shade of pink.
"I'm fifty-three." She looked back down at the ground and watched her steps as they continued through the thick terrain. Kenai could tell Kazdyn was holding back his shock. Please don't say something stupid. He looked up at Kazdyn as he held another branch out of Wren's way.
"Oh... so is that like, an elf thing?" It wasn't the worst thing he could have said and Kenai let out a sigh of relief.
"Yes, we live a lot longer than mankind. I guess I thought it was common knowledge but I guess maybe not." Kenai watched Kazdyn slow his steps so that all three of them could walk together.
"Like I said." Kazdyn looked at Kenai and smiled, quickly returning eye contact with Wren. "We're from out of town." Wren relaxed her shoulders with relief. Kenai cut into the conversation wanting to change the subject, still feeling a twinge of awkwardness in the air.
"How come you and your dad live out here?" He wanted to ask more about Elvish villages but didn't want to sound like he knew nothing at all about the vast lands.
"You two really are clueless, aren't you?" She let out a breathy laugh. Kenai could hear the hesitancy in her voice, which made Kenai feel even more grateful for Kazdyns presence, and glad that he finally knew Kenai wanted a turn with the interrogation.
"Father doesn't like to talk about it, so please do not tell him I've told you anything of it." She waited for a response.
"Yeah okay, we promise." Kenai and Kazdyn said the words almost in sync.
"When the Demons attacked," She began. "My father was only a young man. He couldn't understand how our king could be so trusting towards the very species that swore to destroy us only a few moons earlier." The only other sound was their shoes crunching on the forest floor, it seemed even the animals had quieted to hear the tale.
"So he and my mother, along with a dozen or so other soldiers and townsfolk fled the city on the night King Klein welcomed the Demons into the city walls. And as you know-" Wren looked back at them and raised her eyebrow, knowing that they did not know what came next. "The entire city was decimated, leaving only the few elves that were wise enough to leave, while the foolish were left behind. Father says that they deserved what fell upon them." Although Wren was the only elf he had met, he felt sorry for all the others whom he had never met.
"And what do you think?" Kazdyn followed, prying further.
"I don't think anyone deserves the fate that they were given. Not even trusting numbskills. I think that they were desperate and King Klein was going to do anything to protect his kingdom, even if it earned a deep hatred from the human race." Kenai wasn't going to push for more answers or for her to continue the story, but she was lost in the history of her people she had never met.
"The humans heard of the few numbers of elves that survived, and they devoted themselves to ensuring we would be killed. Even though the ones that remained were the ones that refused to pledge their allegiance to Zolhorn they hunted down every last one of us." Wren looked at the ground.
"Me and my father are all that are left of the elvish race." The group fell silent, even Pae seemed to have a shift in her mood. Instead of running back and forth across Kenai's shoulders as usual she stayed stable between the crook of his neck.
Are there other humans? Or are they in the same situation? Kenai thought that it would be rude to ask, considering Wren's likely feelings towards most humans were negative.
"So why did you trust me?" Kenai asked, too curious to keep the question to himself. Kazdyn nodded.
"Yeah, I don't really get that either." Wren sighed. Maybe she doesn't know.
"It was your eyes." Kenai didn't understand, and kicked Kazdyn in the shin when he opened his mouth to surely say something along the lines of Kenai having 'shit-colored eyes'.
The entirety of Elhein's civilians had variations of blue or green eyes, and Kenai had felt secretly jealous of them his entire life. Demon eyes. Could the color of his eyes have anything to do with what Soren had called them?
"All I have ever been able to see in men's eyes is hatred. Pure anger for a past they never experienced. Yours are..." She was trying to come up with a way to explain them.
"Soft." She concluded, which made little sense to Kenai, but he assumed was a compliment.
"Oh." He responded, finally permitting Kazdyn to speak by giving him a bit of a nod.
"What about me?" Kazdyn said excitedly, he was someone who refused to be left out from an exchange of compliments. Wren stopped in her tracks, causing Kenai and Kazdyn to also pause, exchanging confused glances at each other before Kazdyn's eyes landed on Wren's. She studied them closely for a few moments.
"Yes. You both have kind auras, your people must be very considerate and empathetic. I envy you." Kenai's sorrow for Wren was suddenly cut short as a shock of pain encompassed his entire body, beginning from his forearm. He bent over, unable to ignore it as he had the previous times.
"Kenai!" Kazdyn bent over to look at him, worry creasing his face.
"What's going on?" Wren asked, backing up. Kenai tried to respond but crumpled to the ground instead, clutching his arm with ferocity.
"It's his arm," Kazdyn explained as he began sliding his glove off of his hand and rolling his sleeve up.
"No, DON'T." Kenai hissed, pulled his arm away from Kazdyn and began unraveling the bandage on his own, the pulsating had begun to calm, which made it easier to check on it.
Kenai looked up at Wren when he'd completely unwrapped it, revealing the cursed mark. Thankfully, it had not spread further, and Kenai let out a sigh of relief.   
  "What happened?" Wren relaxed, taking a step forward, her fear replaced with concern for her new friend. Kenai looked at Kazdyn, a habit he had to ask if it was information he should share. Kazdyn nodded and Kenai gulped.
"I was cursed by a Demon." He had not expected to become emotional, but his voice cracked. He quickly overcame it and was able to keep explaining.
"A Demon named Zolhorn attacked our village. He took-" Kenai was not sure what to call Daithe. Certainly not a romantic partner, so he settled on: "Someone I love very much." Kenai looked Wren deeply in the eyes, trusting her with the information he was letting go. "That's why we're out here. We're looking for her." Wren tilted her head and her bottom lip trembled as if she were about to cry.
Instead, she knelt next to Kenai and Kazdyn, taking his head in her hand. Kenai shut his eyes and leaned into the comfort her touch gave him.
"I'm so sorry," Wren whispered. "The same happened to my mother." She looked away, biting the inside of her cheek.
"So you know what will happen to me?" Kenai asked, yearning for more information on his condition that Pella had not been able to offer to him.
"Yes." A tear attempted to make its way down Wren's face but she quickly wiped it away. "I do." Her throat bobbed as she slowly reached out to take Kenai's arm in her hands. Kenai's first instinct was to jerk away, but Wren looked at him when she saw his arm twitch slightly back.
"It's okay, it will not harm me." Kazdyn leaned forward, blocking Kenai and Wren's eye contact with his own.
"So you mean I can touch it too?" He said it hopefully, but dropped his chin when Wren shook her head.
"I am immune, all elves are immune to the touch of a Demon's mark, but if a Demon were to touch me I would have the same fate as you." Kenai also lowered his head. For a second I thought...
"Let's keep moving," Kenai said gruffly, pushing Kazdyn's head away so that he could stand up without kneeing him in the face.