FAITH: A Tale of Courage

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Trial

Sitting in the carriage just ahead of the baskets of fruit, were a girl and a boy not much older than Zleet and Rofiel. The two of them were tied up, and clearly unconscious.

Both of them were elves, or so it seemed. The young man's ears were pointed and short; his hair was long, a reddish brown, and his sharp eyes were a lime green. Adorning his sleek body was sky blue armor lined with a dark gold.

That wasn't the part that completely shocked Zleet, however. No. While his ears were clearly that of an elf, the girl's- while also pointed and short- seemed to be fluffy. Almost like a fuzz was permanently attached to them. Her waist long blonde hair was braided, and freckles dotted her pale cheeks.

What appeared to be fangs were slightly visible peeking out of the corners of her mouth. She wore a pale, long sleeved shirt underneath a light brown leather tunic, and soft blue pants that came down to her ankles.

Zleet couldn't believe his eyes. It was her. Zleet recognized her straight from his nightmare a few minutes ago! Surely it couldn't be her though, right? It had to be mere coincidence! She just looked similar, right? Lots of girls have blonde hair, albeit not nearly that length.

Whoever these two were, what were they doing tied up in the back of a human carriage? There had to be a reason, surely! Perhaps they commit a crime? It had been ages since humans captured elves for no reason, but... what if that's what this was? Were they going back to their old ways?

Without another thought, Zleet climbed into the carriage, grabbed some of the cloth they had, and covered himself.

"Wh-Zleet?! What are you doing?" Rofiel asked, bewildered.

Normally it was Rofiel that would make these brash decisions. What in the world was Zleet doing? Even he himself didn't know! But there was no way he could let this slide. He had to know why these two were being held captive. Getting back home would be a problem for later.

"Shh! Get in, Rof'!" Zleet whispered.

"Are you out of your mind, Zleet?! Do you know what would happen if we got caught? And you say I'm crazy!"

Zleet thought about it for a moment, contemplating the decision. If they were caught, the humans would imprison them, and put them on trial. They were likely to end up dead, with the way their legal system worked.

On the other hand, if they did nothing, the two prisoners could be killed! If they were innocent...

"I have to know, Rofiel! If these two are innocent and get killed, what would we be just standing by and letting it happen?"

Rofiel bit his lip, and then finally grinned devilishly and took a huge crunchy bite out of his stolen pear. Somewhat reluctantly, the shorter elf jumped in next to his friend, and pounded his fist.

"Alright. I'm with you. But only because we were going to go up there anyway! Maybe this is what the talk was about!"

The two could suddenly hear two males talking. One of them, Zleet recognized. It was the huge scary muscular human! They both looked at each other and pulled the cloth over themselves.

Sure enough, the carriage rocked back and forth slightly as the two men outside got into the driver's seat. The carriage began to move, the sound of horses clomping along the soft terrain.

"Rof'," Zleet whispered as quietly as he ever had, "Did you even get my clock?"

"Oh yeah... I kinda smelled the apples and, well. Here we are!" Rofiel chuckled.