Light as a Cloud

Chapter 6

Ayra sat down by the fire, hoping the warmth would dry her faster. She was sitting on Selar's right side, so that her left arm was clear for him to see.

"What happened to yar arm?" Selar asked. "Battle wounds?"

Ayra shrugged. "Fell on a dagger yesterday," she said. "Nothing special. I'm pretty clumsy."

"Really?" Selar said. "Oh, ya should let Athon have look at the cut. Elfs are pretty good doctors, ya know."

"Athon!" Sheya called. "Can ya have a look at Ayra's arm?"

Athon joined the eminns by the fire and sat down between Ayra and Selar. He started untangling the knots in the cloth and said: "Did your mother do this?"

"Nah," Ayra said, trying to look tough. "She didn't get the chance."

"Ya just said ya were clumsy," Selar remarked.

Ayra laughed. "Not with my eyes, I'm not. I tamed a dragon with 'em."

"A dragon?" Grey now called from the corridor. "You tamed a-"

"Ehm... Ayra?" Athon now interrupted. "There's no wound there."

Ayra, Sheya, and Selar followed Athon's eyes to the spot where the cut should be. Instead of this cut, there was plain skin- maybe a little whiter than the rest, but undeniably perfectly healthy.

Ayra clacked her tongue. "That is odd."

Athon held up the sleeve. "This thing isn't bloody at all. I'm pretty sure it has never covered a wound."

"I think I kept the previous one," Ayra said, reaching in her pocket. "That one's blood-soaked. You'll see I'm not lying." Her fingers goofily clenched around the chunk of cloth in her pocket and pulled it out. Instead of dark grey, as the clean sleeve was, this one was reddish brown from the dried blood. "There!"

"That's blood-soaked alright," Sheya whispered breathlessly.

Athon took the cloth and studied it. "Blood of yesterday," he confirmed. "If this is yours as you claim it to be, then your wound magically healed itself overnight."

Ayra still sat there, perplexed, when she felt something soft placed over her head. She instinctively put her hands on her head and felt the soft fabric of a hat, with two thick-fingered hands still on it.

"Not the brightest, eh," Grey grumbled, "if you can't hear a dwarf sneak."

"In case you didn't notice, we were busy solving a mystery," Ayra bashed.

Kayr coughed. "Grey, intelligence has nothing to do with hearing."

Grey didn't reply, but just silently shambled back to his place in front of the left corridor. When he arrived, a heavy and absolute silence filled the room. The eminns felt as if they could hear everyone blink.

"I'll take some time to study this," Athon broke the silence, with the bloody cloth still in his hand. "I may find some clues to what happened. Can you give me some details on how you got hurt?"

"Simple," Ayra said. "I was flying with my dragon Je-"

"Dragon?" Sheya and Selar asked simultaneously, and Sheya continued: "Ya have a dragon?"

Ayra nodded proudly. "Its name is Jewel."

Selar gasped. "That's pretty sweet! Is it a boy or a girl?"

"I don't know!" Ayra laughed. "What do you think I do after catching a dragon, look at its genitals? Anyway, I was flying over the Teelen when Jewel got thirsty and landed by the river..."

Ayra summarized what happened that evening in a story as short as possible, though she was tempted to stall a little. She liked being the center of attention. However, she didn't want to show that.

"... So we stayed there for the night," She finished the story.

Athon nodded thoughtfully. "Did anything seem strange the morning after?"

"It'd rained," Ayra said. "But that isn't very strange, is it?"

"No, indeed." Athon agreed. "I'll give it some thought. Maybe Meroch knows something, he grew up around there."

Ayra got a surprised expression on her face.

"He's a half-elf," Athon explained smilingly. He turned and called: "Meroch? Meroch?!"

Kayr sighed. "The bloody guy went out again without a warning."

Ayra spent the rest of the afternoon by the fire, telling stories and listening to the stories of other gang members. Sheya and Selar turned out to have been raised thieves, but when their parents got arrested, they managed to escape. Kayr had been falsely accused of witchcraft by his neighbours, that hated him, and Athon had been banished because he'd had a vision of dark elves.

"You must understand," Athon said, "most elves are very smug, if I may say it like that. They don't actually believe that anyone among them could be evil. The ones that do believe dark elves exist, are exiled. Even I, who had no choice- the vision was clear."

"People tend to not listen if they think they're superior," Ayra stated.

Suddenly, the hatch behind them flew open, and Meroch stuck his head through the opening.

"Folks," he gasped, "there are no guards on the east side of the keep!"