Chapter Ten: Trappings of Admiration
Talia awoke to rays of brilliant sunlight entering through the mouth of the cave. Adam was sound asleep next to what remained of the smoldering fire, and Donadeir was propped against the wall just behind their barrier snoring loudly. Donadeir had fallen asleep during his watch and had not awakened Adam for his turn. Gently, Talia kicked at Adam’s leg, and he quickly stirred awake and stretched.
“Dona didn’t make it through his watch,” Talia told Adam as she nodded to their snoring companion.
“We haven’t seen anyone up here, so I think we are finally starting to relax a little. We all needed the rest,” Adam replied.
“So long as we are safe, but we must remain vigilant. Tonight, I’ll start taking middle watch so this doesn’t happen again,” Talia stated.
Talia walked over to where Donadeir was fast asleep. As she started to nudge him awake, something peculiar on the opposite side of the barrier caught her attention. She held her breath and knelt down next to Donadeir, who was still holding her sword securely in his hands. Careful not to disturb him, she removed the sword from his grasp.
“What is it?” Adam whispered. “You’re freaking me out!”
Talia jerked her head quickly around to face Adam and placed her finger over her lips to indicate she needed him to be silent. She moved closer to the barrier, keeping her body low. Skulking behind their defenses, Talia scanned the open area in front of the cave.
Right in front of the entrance, just outside the reach of their barrier, were three rolled stacks of fabric neatly piled together. Talia cautiously peered about to see who had happened upon their camp. She did her best to remain concealed, fearing it was a trap to draw her and her companions into the open for an ambush.
She watched as Adam quietly made his way along the wall just to the edge of the barrier opposite where she was perched. She saw his eyes widen in fear when he noticed the bundles lying in plain sight.
Talia nudged Donadeir startling him awake and he quickly sat upright. “What’s happening!” he cried out.
Talia quickly placed her free hand over Dona’s mouth to silence him. She nodded for Adam to retrieve one of the rolls and he nodded back in understanding. Keeping himself low, he reached out, grabbed the top bedroll, and pulled it into the cave as Talia watched for any signs of trouble. Talia waved her hand low to the floor indicating she wanted him to unroll it.
She watched as Adam pulled the drawstrings around the bedroll with ease and unrolled it onto the floor, revealing quilted, fur-lined portable bedding. It was definitely high quality. Inside the roll, there were also two pouches and a fine steel dagger with a marbled bone hilt, sheathed in fine leather.
Talia pointed to the first pouch, and Adam opened it to find dried figs and other dried fruits and nuts. She watched as he opened the second, larger pouch and he showed her the dried cheese, dried meat, and waybread inside of it. Enough rations for several days of travel.
“Was this left for us?” Adam whispered.
“Who would do such a thing?” Talia questioned. “No one knows we’re alive, much less hiding way up here in the mountains.”
Donadeir removed Talia’s hand from his mouth, “Um, I thought I was dreaming,” he started to say and then abruptly stopped himself.
“Dreaming what, Dona?” Talia demanded to know.
“The lady that came from the stream,” Donadeir said with embarrassment staining his face a deep red. “She came up, singing the most beautiful song ever so softly. She was tall with golden hair with fine braids and her ears were pointed, like what you hear about the elves. Her armor looked like padded fur and her voice was so sweet and calming.”
Talia shook her head in disbelief and looked to Adam, “Get the other bedrolls. We need to figure out what this elf wants and whether we should get out of here quickly.”
Donadeir made his way back over to their makeshift fire pit and began agitating the embers and adding more wood, so the cave would have plenty of light. Adam retrieved the other two blankets as she had instructed and opened them up, finding more food supplies, two more daggers, some fine-steel arrowheads, some fletching feathers, a length of fine woven rope, and last but not least, a note. She suspected Adam didn’t know how to read, because he passed it to her instead of reading it himself.
Talia read the note: Looked like you needed assistance.
- from a friend.
Donadeir inquired, “What does it say?”
“It is apparent, Dona, you have a friend who wants to help you,” Talia replied with sarcasm. “Looks like your elven friend left these for us to help out.”
Talia rolled her eyes at Adam as he ate some of the dried fruit. She surveyed all of their new gear. Her eyes wandered to the fletching materials that were together in the same roll as the note, and she deduced this bedroll was meant for her, which would mean, whoever left the supplies had watched them for several days. It was the only way someone could have known she would need the fletching supplies for the bow she had so diligently worked on and the arrows Donadeir had shaped for her.
“How could someone have been watching us without us knowing about it?” Talia asked.
“I’ve heard elves live in the wild and are as quiet as the still air,” Adam answered.
“I felt at peace when I saw her,” Donadeir added. “It is all still fuzzy, but I didn’t feel any kind of danger. Then again, I’m still not certain it wasn’t a dream.”
“You were probably bewitched by elven magic, Dona,” Talia said. “We need to be vigilant, and I need to start teaching the two of you to defend yourselves if we are going to get anywhere.”
“I have no idea where we could go,” Adam admitted.
“Talia and I talked about trying to find her father in Corronest,” Donadeir explained. “It would take us a few weeks of traveling to the west for us to get there.”
“We cannot risk traveling the open road, Dona, so it will take us longer than a few weeks,” Talia argued. “And with this being the sixth day of the Blood King’s passing, we have five more days for the heir to awaken if the words of the prophecy are literal.”
She noticed Adam refused to look up at the mention of the prophecy.
“That will be something to worry about at a later time,” Donadeir interjected.
With any luck, they could prepare enough cooked food to make it several days before they decided to leave. With the rations the elven woman left for them, they should be able to make it safely somewhere to resupply. Still, Talia was suspicious of their anonymous new “friend”.