Meddling in Foreign Affairs

Chapter 10: The Forest

Byulat woke Dismas as it was getting dark again. It seemed kinda silly considering that dwarves had better night vision than humans, but they already were starting to form a pattern and Dismas couldn't be bothered to question Byulat about it.

As soon as Byulat was asleep, Dismas stopped pretending to paddle and watched the mountains in Zufluch to the right. It was interesting how different Zufluch and Maiorsem were. Zufluch just seemed so uninviting and uninhabited. Sure, they had a very small population and the majority of them lived in a tightly-knit community fight at the base of the mountains, but Dismas thought they could put a little more effort into their appearance. Especially since the open rolling fields of Maiorsem were so picturesque in comparison.

The mountains were starting to get close, so the forest that housed a large portion of the elves in the East must also be getting close. Dismas had seen a map of the continent once, and if he was remembering correctly, the forest was directly past the mountains. But of course, it was a very artistically done map that was mostly just for show and likely was inaccurate. That and it had been over two years since he saw the map, and he could be remembering it completely incorrectly. He wasn't even paying very close attention to it at the time, since he had been attempting to rob the person who was attempting to sell it on the street.

As the night went on, Dismas noticed a dark shape in the distance. It was wide and relatively flat, basically filling the entire horizon. It was probably the Escatar Forest, so he decided to ignore it until it could be properly identified.

Byulat woke up well before dawn, when the dark shape on the horizon had gained some height and Dismas was almost positive it was the forest. Dismas handed over the paddles without a word and sat watching the forest approach. As soon as they entered the forest he could see lights coming down from the trees. There was no way it was sunlight because the sun was just rising over the ocean, so he looked up and was surprised to see a small elven village in the trees. He had never been in the forest before, so he hadn't even thought that the elves might not build their settlements on the forest floor.

"Stop paddling. Don't make any noise," Dismas whispered. When Byulat looked back for an explanation, Dismas pointed up. Byulat glanced up and his mouth fell open in surprise. They floated down the river as quietly as they could and Dismas tried to make himself as small as possible in the back of the boat. Byulat must have not been accustomed to doing sneaky things, because he didn't move at all and was still gaping at the houses in the trees. Either that or he was horrified that someone thought to build a house that wasn't on the ground.

Right before they went past what looked like the last house, a voice yelled at them from the shore. Its musical tone and slower pace led Dismas to believe it was an elf. Plus they were under a elven village, so if it wasn't an elf that'd just be weird. But he didn't dare move to confirm his assumption.

"Stop!" Byulat didn't move and Dismas heard some clanking over to the side. "I said stop! Are you deaf?" The boat shifted slightly as an elf jumped in the boat right next to Dismas, and then shifted again as Byulat stood up and spun around with an axe in each hand. Unfortunately, he wasn't used to being on a boat, and it shifted a little too much. Byulat's bag rolled out, the opposite side of the boat from Dismas, and when the boat tilted down on his side, he grabbed his own backpack and carefully pushed himself out. The elf didn't even seem to notice him.

The river was deep enough that Dismas' boots barely reached the bottom, even though the river was only about 10 feet wide. He gently and silently kicked himself to the other side so that he could grab Byulat's bag before it floated away, all the while trying to stay as small and quiet and unnoticable as possible. It must have worked, because no one yelled at him to stop. There were still sounds of conflict coming from the boat, and it seemed like a few more elves had gotten involved. At this rate, Byulat would be captured. And no amount of talking would be able to get him out of it, because he'd attacked instead of seeing what they wanted first. Dismas decided it would be best for him to float down the river a ways past the village before getting out and coming back for Byulat. None of the elves had noticed him, so they wouldn't be expecting a rescue mission.