The Three Kingdoms

3: Captive

Beinion smiled as he opened his eyes. "I wonder, are you going to kill me, elleth?" He questioned the voice behind him.

"Give me a reason why I shouldn't?" Eruviel hissed. "You have trespassed on our land!"

"And now, you are preventing us from leaving." Beinion retorted.

"Do you really expect me to believe that if I let you go, you will just leave quietly? That your obtrusion into this forest was just for the sake of a simple meal?" She snapped at him, feeling annoyed that he would find her so foolish.

"I expect you to believe the truth." His voice was deep and calm. Centuries of experience in battle had taught him that panic and fear only clouded one's judgement, whether it be during a fight, or negotiations.

"Then what is the truth?" Eruviel was now feeling irritated with the mountain elf captain, and put a little more pressure on her knife that was against his neck.

"The truth, elleth, is simply that. We have come into the forest in search of food. We have found some, and are now preparing to leave." Beinion insisted.

"The punishment for entering this forest is death." Eruviel said flatly. "You would risk death for a simple meal?"

"We were already risking death without this meal. Our people are starving." Beinion explained. "Now, would you kindly lower your knife?" He asked, dropping his axe and raising his arms in a show of good faith.

In a way, the mountain elf's words made sense, but Eruviel was not entirely willing to trust this invader just yet. "Lower your hands, and place them behind your back." She commanded.

Beinion hesitated.

"Now." She demanded, applying a little more pressure to her knife.

Reluctantly, Beinion lowered his arms and placed them behind him. With her free hand, Eruviel quickly restrained his arms with a length of rope that she carried with her. The rope was fine and thin, but deceptively strong. Once his hands were secured, she instinctively kicked his axe out of reach, and lowered her knife.

"Was that really..." He began turning around to face his captor, "...necessary?"

Beinion found himself taken aback. For the elleth that looked back at him, was not what he had expected. In the mountains, most of the women, like the men, were built with a generous amount of muscle mass. This most likely derived from the tremendous masonry and blacksmithing done by their ancestors. Their features were usually sharp, and their eyes a deep brown. The eyes staring back at him, however, were a shade he had never seen before: silver-gray. Her features were much softer and more feminine than the women from his kingdom, and she was rather beautiful. Not what he expected in a warrior. Her ears were unlike any other elves' he had ever seen before as well. They came to a perfect, singular point.

"So this is a forest elf." He found himself thinking out loud.

Eruviel was equally taken aback, as she had never encountered an outsider before. The captain seemed to tower above her, and she wouldn't be surprised if he was more than twice her body mass. His ears, while pointed, were somewhat folded over, causing them to appear to point behind him rather than up, and they were pierced, both through the lobes, and again closer to the tips. His face was pierced as well: twice above his nose in a horizontal fashion, and a half-ring through the septum of his nose. While still rather handsome, this pierced look was foreign to her, and made him all the more intimidating.

While still remaining on the defensive, Eruviel began to interrogate the stranger. "What is your name, mountain-elf, and what is your true purpose in the forest?"