Into the Land of Valentia

Chapter the Eighth

VIII

There was something important that Vivica had learned about elves. Yet she couldn't for the life of her remember what it was.

The elf that greeted them reached Vivica's waist. Its skin was a pale green colour that helped it blend into its surroundings, and pointed ears peeked out from its dark, seaweed coloured hair. "Emoe dood sdneirs!" it said gleefully. 

"What did it say?" Cayden asked, looking at Vivica in confusion. "And what is it?"

Vivica looked back at him, just as lost as he was. "I haven't the slightest idea. It's an elf, though. I thought you would have recognized it. Nothing looks much like an elf except, well, an elf." 

Cayden frowned at her. "As much as I just love to hear your voice, none of that helped."

He dismounted Sun and bent so that he was eyelevel with the elf. Vivica was left stunned by his comment—was he being sarcastic? He had to have been—and didn't catch what he said until he repeated it in a slower voice.

"We are lost," he stressed. "Can you help us?"

The elf grinned and clapped before grabbing Cayden's shirtsleeve and yanking him forwards. "Emoe!"

Shrugging, Cayden followed the elf, training a wary Sun behind him. He didn't look back to see if Vivica agreed or not with his decision, which both annoyed her and brought her to the conclusion that the comment from earlier was just to mess with her. 

"Come on, Garrett, let's go stop him before he gets us in some kind of trouble," Vivica muttered under her breath, swinging off his back and onto the ground. 

Garrett snorted. "Maybe," he suggested in a soft voice, "we could just tie him up on Sun and travel like that. He won't get in our way then. We could even tape his mouth shut. 'Love to hear your voice.' Ha! What a pompous. . ." 

Vivica tuned her mount out with a smile. Garrett was clearly staying strong on the disliking Cayden front, and she didn't blame him. It wasn't as though the soon-to-be prince gave them any excuse not to. Obviously he had his moments. This clearly was not one of them.

"Sdneirs avae emoe ror seitivitses!" the elf was gleefully announcing to seven others when Vivica approached. Cayden was grinning widely at all the elves, and when he saw Vivica he gestured at her.

"Smile or they might think we mean them harm," Cayden urged, not wiping the large smile from his face. He looked ridiculous, and Vivica stifled a laugh.

"No, thank you. It doesn't matter, anyway, since we're leaving."

The elves all turned their heads towards Vivica at this, and she wondered if maybe they did understand what she and Cayden were saying. Just because they didn't understand the elves didn't mean it worked the same vice versa. 

Elf One, the one that had met them first, shook his head. "Sdneirs tsut emoe ror seitivitses. Yaty reveror." It grinned even more with the last two words.

"Yes, yawty reever!" Cayden tried to repeat, nodding. Vivica clenched her fist, wondering what Cayden had just unknowingly promised the elves. To Vivica, he said, "We're lost, remember? How can we leave?"

"We just head back up the trail and go right at the fork, like we should have," she said simply. It wasn't much more complicated than that in her mind. She had made a mistake—an amateur one—and was going to solve it herself. Tangling with creatures they didn't understand was just asking for trouble, as far as she was concerned.

"Ooo krak." An elf pointed towards the forest. Following its gesture, Vivica was surprised to see that the forest was entirely encased in shadows. The sun had set. How could she not have noticed that?