The eastern road

Ellaya looked once more to the stars, to make sure her selection was the right one. Not that she would make such a mistake, but each step felt more like adulthood and freedom. "No turning back now..."

The cobbled road was well maintained, several signs of its constant use during the day. Cart tracks, horse droppings, discarded fruits. Each of these details screamed to her elvish eyes, so she picked up her pace to try to ignore what messy race humans were. Would these star man be the same? It would disappoint her if that was the case, but Mankind showed time and again they were never capable of keeping above their petty nature for long.

It was easier to focus on the greenery and flowers while she was running, but an ochre smell called her back to her senses. Blood had been spilled, recently. She stringed her bow and knocked an arrow, but didnt pull the string. It came from off the road, down a ravine. She moved in, slowly at first, but when she heard a child´s cry she gave up caution and bolted in that direction.

She saw the brow fur coat first, and sank an arrow on it. She had the second arrow knocked in before the dire wolf turned its large head towards her, a small twist on the bowstring made her next shot graze its nose rather than simply kill it. The lone wolf was an old animal, probably the reason why it wasn't with its pack, and also why it went after this easy prey. It turned tails and bolted off.

The girl was still alive, only fainted. She had a nasty bite on her arm, Ellaya didn't have a moment to waste if she wanted to save her. She tore down a strip of her dress and began cleaning her wound.

"That was a good fight. But you missed the second" Ellaya winced as she heard Galwynn's voice. The guard captain spent the last fifty years watching the blooming elf girl,she should have known it wouldn't be this easy escaping him.

"I didnt miss. I just didn't feel like killing a creature for being hungry." She kept her eyes on the girl, her condition was bad. Without proper healing tools there was only one way her arm could be saved. Ellaya began chanting words of ancient power, the language of elvish youth, gathering what little starlight pierced the forest canopy, and gifted it to the wounded human.

Galwynn caught her as the spell left her faint headed. He gave her the moment she needed to recover. "We ought to go back now" He said, but there was no command in his words.

"Should we? " the words escaped her mouth, the heat season momentarily taking over her good senses. Galwynn had often been her image of an ideal elf prince, both experienced and handsomely youthful at the same time, and it wasn't the first time she unwittingly teased him, but this time it took longer for him to rebuff her advance. Just a second longer.

"Ellaya..." he began mumbling, and she looked up, just enough to see his lips. He had a nasty scar on his chin, something that could ostracize a highborn elf for life, but to her it had always been proof of his heroism. She parted her own, leaning closer to a kiss. She found his neck, he turned away at the very last moment.

"Ellaya, you..." he started again, but she shushed him. She could hear his heart, it was beating fast, like a scared hare. She took his hand and placed it on her leg, at the rip she made on her dress. His hand held her firm, but not caressing.

"Hmmm" it took a moment for Ellaya to realize it wasn't either her, or Galwynn that moaned, it was the young girl coming to her senses. A sudden sense of shame shattered what hold the Heat had on her, and Galwynn too. Finally, he spoke...

"One of us should take the girl to her parents."