Inside the comfort of his house, he now worried about Lira. She had disappeared overnight to who knows where, and now he had this bad feeling in his gut that told him something was terribly wrong. He wanted to go outside and look for her, but he was afraid that the storm would drop at any minute, and he would be caught in the middle of it, and that would definitely not help him find her. However, after spending a few moments inside his house sitting on a chair and thinking of what to do, the sunlight started coming through the window once more, and when he opened the front door and looked up, the sky was clear again.

It all happened so fast it felt like magic, and he was now very confused before the situation. Just a moment ago the sky had been so dark it seemed like it was still the middle of night, but now there wasn’t a single sign that the phenomenon had ever happened. He couldn’t bare to think that both that and Lira’s disappearance had something in common, which made him even more worried. Pushing those thoughts aside, he stepped out of the house and went out into the street, looking for some guidance.

He found one of his neighbours outside. The man was happily taking care of his garden and didn’t seem to have been frightened over the strange weather that came over the kingdom just a few moments before. He decided to go talk to him.

“Good morning, Jarod.”

“Yes it is, Aaron, now that the sun shines again.” The man watered the plants in front of his house while talking to him.

“Yes, I saw that. It was very strange. It’s been a strange morning for me.”

“How so?”

“Have you been awake for long?” Aaron took a deep breath before asking this question, working hard on not sounding suspicious.

“Even before the sunrise. You know my vegetables grow better when I water them overnight.” Jarod stared proudly at his terrain for a few seconds, before turning his attention back at Aaron.

“Yes, you’ve mentioned that before. So, have you seen Lira walk by here?” He tried to ask that in a way that the man wouldn’t sense his nervousness, although it was very difficult to hide it behind his somewhat trembling voice.

“As the matter of fact I have, although it’s been a long while now.” The man seemed to know that this was the objective of the conversation, and had now stopped taking care of his plants with the intention to focus on the questions. He had a serious look on his face, as if he too was worried about the situation.

“Well, did she say something to you?” He thought he’d feel better after knowing she had been seen, but it didn’t seem to calm him down.

“Strangely, no. When I saw her, I smiled and asked her if she didn’t think it was too early to be walking on the streets like that. She briefly looked at me and simply continued to walk down the road towards the exit of the city. I thought you two might have had a fight or something, and decided to just let her go. There was something else though…” The man made a brief pause to catch his breath, as if preparing for what he had to say next. “She looked… different.”

“Different? What do you mean, different?”

“Well, her skin wasn’t as light as it always had been. It was more of a… greyish tone. And when she looked at me, I noticed her eyes. They weren’t exactly green. They were more like…yellow. And they didn’t sparkle as usual.” Aaron was now visually worried, and Jarod noticed it. “I don’t know exactly what I saw, maybe it was too dark or something. You should go look for her and see it yourself.”

“Thank you for all your help, friend. I’m gonna go after her right away. Who knows, maybe she really was mad at me and I didn’t even know.” He tried to smile as he made the joke, but he probably looked more nervous than he thought.

He let Jarod go back to watering his plants and quickly followed the path back to his house, where he got some provisions together, mounted on his horse and rode him towards the town exit, intended on finding Lira and making sure she was okay, although every bit of him told him otherwise.

Aaron rode his horse through the dirt street that would take him to the elven city. However, he wasn’t exactly in a rush, since he had no idea if that was where Lira was actually at. It was a beautiful morning now that the clouds were gone from the sky. The sun shone brightly over the verdant fields that surrounded the human kingdom, and a gentle breeze made the leaves and flowers up on the trees and on the ground move around in a hypnotic dance. It would have been a great day for some horseback riding if it wasn’t for the strange occurrences that happened earlier. He could almost see himself and Lira sitting down under the shadow of a tree, having a picnic while the birds sang the most beautiful melodies. If I find her soon, we can still do that.

While the horse galloped down the path, Aaron turned his head towards different directions as fast as he could, but nothing caught his attention. Not even the animals are up this early.

The street had been empty up until the point where Aaron reached an abandoned tower. It was a three story construction that had been made a long time ago so that the human guard could have somewhere tall to look over the distance and spot any newcomers, but that had never been used due to the peaceful kingdom they lived in. Getting closer to the tower, he heard voices and struggling sounds, as if a fight was going on somewhere behind the building. While still fairly distant from the construction, he dismounted the horse and quietly walked towards the direction of the noises.

Hiding behind one of the edges of the tower, he now looked at a strange scene. A dwarf and two elves were having a struggle. Or at least what seemed to be elves. They had the characteristic pointy ears, but their skin wasn’t the normal clear light pink color. It looked more… grey. A shiver went down Aaron’s spine when he remembered what Jarod had said about Lira.

One of the elves now held the dwarf by the arms and lifted him up from the ground, while the other seemed to torture the short fellow. From what Aaron heard, it seemed as if the elves were trying to extract some sort of information out of the small man, who didn’t have any clue of what they wanted to know.

“Where is it, you little devil!? You were the only one out here this morning, it had to have been one of your scum!”

“I swear it wasn’t me! I’ve no idea what you two ‘re talkin’ bou- ah!” One of the elves hit him in the stomach and the dwarf lost his breath.

Aaron had no idea what was happening, but he wasn’t gonna let the little man get beaten up and possibly killed by those two bullies. He noticed that none of the people involved in the fight were actually carrying any weapons. Both the elves were making use of their strength only, which he now realized was really impressive, considering how strong the dwarven people was. He equipped himself with the knife he always carried on the inside of his right boot, usually used to skin dead animals or cut through vegetation, prepared for the attack, and charged towards the fight.

He grabbed the torturing elf from behind and swung the knife ahead, cutting his wrist and freeing the dwarf’s throat. The elf screamed in agony, holding his right arm as blood poured out of it. Aaron still held him, and when the creature took a few steps back, the human lost balance and both men fell to the ground, the elf now on top. Aaron took advantage of the elf’s weakness and quickly rolled over him. He now kneeled on top of the man, keeping him stuck to the ground.

While Aaron struggled against the one elf, the dwarf, after being freed from the torture, was able to recover his strength. Now, with only one enemy keeping him tied, he was able to use his feet to hit the elf that held him up in the air on the stomach as hard as he could, who in response let the short man go. The dwarf ran towards a relatively large rock a few steps from where he fell on the ground, picked it up and aimed towards the elf’s head. The taller man, noticing the danger, started running through the street in the direction of the elven city. By then, the rock only hit him on the shoulder, still strong enough to make him lose balance for a few steps, but enough to make him fall.

Aaron watched this scene happen before his eyes. The elf under him seemed to have calmed himself down now, since he had stopped moving so much. He looked at the dwarf, expecting some guidance.

“Watch out, lad! These are not normal-” as the dwarf said that, Aaron felt a supernatural force push him up into the air. He fell with his back to the ground as the other elf got up from the floor and proceeded to run as well, towards the same direction the first elf had ran to.

Aaron stared at the running man, astonished. How could an elf just push me up into the air like that, specially after being hurt?

The dwarf now approached him, offering out his hand for Aaron to hold on to it. He took the help and got up to his feet, still shocked by the whole situation.

“What was all that about?” he asked the dwarf.

“What do ye wanna know first, lad?” the short man seemed to be as confused as Aaron was before the whole situation that had just occurred. He leaned his hand against a tree now, the same tree that had just been used as the base for his torture, and tried to recover from the fight, still catching his breath. His robust face had traces of dirt, and his long ginger hair and beard had small sticks and leaves stuck onto them, clear signs of the dwarf having been thrown on the floor. He must have fought back for as long as he could, rolling on the ground and getting his simple clothes dirty as well as his light skin.

“Were those… elves?” Aaron still stared into the horizon, towards the direction both men had fled to, but he couldn’t see their shapes anymore.

“Guess so, though those two looked like they’ve been workin’ on a coal mine or something.”

“Did they have yellow eyes too?” Aaron couldn’t think of a way that he could ask that without it sounding suspicious.

“Now that ye ask, they did. Do ye know something ‘bout this?” The dwarf tried to hide the accusing tone in his voice since Aaron had been the one to save his life.

“Not exactly, but I was going over to the elven city to try and find out what’s happening.”

“I might ‘ave the answer to one of yer questions lad, if ye believe what those too long-ears told me.”

“What did they tell you?”

“Something that made me cold to the bone, lad. It seems to be that the elven staff has gone missing, maybe stolen.”

Aaron stood there for a few seconds simply staring at the dwarf, trying to understand what the small man just told him. Their weapon is gone? For the love of Melqart, what does this mean!?

“You still there, lad?”

Aaron broke out of his trance and started putting his thoughts in order so he could talk to the dwarf.

“So, they thought you had stolen Baculum?” He remembered the staff’s name from the old stories his parents used to tell him, of the origin of the world.

“That they did. Pretty sure they’d ‘ave killed me if ye haven’t saved me there, since I could tell ‘em nothing. They mentioned something ‘bout goin’ to the ends of Gwenderan tryin’ to find this weapon, and killin’ the people who stood in their path. But since they found me here all by meself, they now think us dwarves did this! I probably just cursed my entire race by walkin’ to their damned city to buy some food!”

The man was genuinely worried about his homeland. He pressed his right hand against his dirty forehead, as if trying to rid himself of a bad headache. “What ‘bout you, lad? What’s yer excuse to be ‘ere this fine morning?” Aaron sensed the irony on the man’s voice. It seemed as if the dwarf made jokes when nervous.

“Well, I guess you should know. I had an elf… friend stay on my house last night. When I woke up this morning, she was gone. I was then told by a neighbour that he had seen her leave town earlier before sunrise, with that same skin tone and the yellow eyes those too elves that attacked you had. It all seemed even weirder after that storm almost hit…”

“The storm! Ye saw it too, huh? It was gone in the blink of an eye, I thought meself going crazy!”

“Yes, the storm. By then I was very worried, and decided to ride into the elven kingdom to look for this friend and find out what was going on. That’s when I found you.”

“A very happy hour, indeed. Well, what’re ye gonna do now, lad? Still plannin’ on payin’ a visit to the cursed city?”

Aaron wasn’t sure on what to do when he got there, but he knew he couldn’t leave this story untold. He had to see what had happened in the elven city with his own eyes, and perhaps come back home with disturbing news to his people.

“I have to. I need to find this friend and make sure she’s alright.”

“Well, if it won’t bother ye, I’d like to come with ye, lad. I need to see with me own eyes what has come to that place, so I can go back home and warn me people. I’ve already put us on radar, might as well not come home empty handed.” He seemed very disappointed at himself, and Aaron wasn’t sure on how to comfort him.

“Of course, friend. I wouldn’t want to go to that place alone now that I have an idea of what’s going on in there. Come, I left my horse back there, on the other side of this abandoned tower. I’m Aaron, by the way.” He decided to finally introduce himself now that he would be in the company of the dwarf for a while longer.

“Names’s Tonks, lad. Nice to meet ye!”

After riding for what seemed to be almost an hour, Aaron and his new friend arrived at the elven city. The ride until then had been somewhat interesting, after both men decided to share a bit of their personal lives with each other with the intent to make the time go by faster. He told the dwarf all about his life as a soldier in the human guard, and eventually revealed his romantic involvement with Lira as the real reason to be going to the city. On the other hand, the dwarf told him about his simple life as a baker. The short man took weekly trips to the elven city in order to buy flour and an assortment of spices the elves used in their culinary, which made the dwarf’s bake goods the most famous around his people. Aaron found out that the man was a lot younger than what he thought, and still had no family to take care of.

“Alright, I think this is as close as the horse should go. We can’t risk making any trotting sounds.”

They were at one of the marble walls that surrounded the city, but still far enough from the entrance gate so that no one could hear them. Both men got down from the horse and Aaron tied him up to a tree nearby so the animal would be far from trouble.

Sneaking up behind the edge of the wall, both men now stared at the entrance of the elven kingdom. No one seemed to be guarding it, so they slowly and quietly moved towards it. From the outside, they could hear the sounds of a crowd screaming and arguing, and one distinguished voice who seemed to be making a speech. Perfect, no one is gonna hear us now. The gates were open, which made an easy job for the men. Peaking at the inside of the kingdom, Aaron could now see what was happening. It seemed as if the entire race was gathered around the biggest tower, which was probably the royal castle, talking to each other and listening to another elf make a speech. This specific elf was farther from the other ones and atop a few steps of the castle stairs, in order to be heard by everyone else. Behind him, there was a scared woman hiding herself behind the protesting man.

Before entering the city, Aaron spoke to Tonks of his plan.

“Lira lives just a couple houses from the gate, so I’m gonna sneak until I reach her door. Luckily she’ll be there, and I can settle this story with her. What are you gonna do?”

“I’m gonna go deeper into the city, back where the other ones seem to be crowdin’. I wanna listen to what that elf up on the stairs is sayin’.”

“You be careful not to get caught. I’ll try to be quick so we can sneak back out quickly. Meet me back by the horse.”

Both men now sneaked closely to the wall and through the first few houses of the kingdom. As Aaron thought, no one was inside them, and since the man at the back of the city kept loudly speaking to the other elves, no one turned around or even noticed them.

Reaching Lira’s house, Aaron nodded at the dwarf to let him know that this is where he was staying. The short man nodded back and kept going towards the back of the city, while Aaron kneeled behind a barrel and peeked through the window of the house.

He was relieved to see that Lira was in fact inside. She sat in a chair facing the door to her own house, in position that allowed Aaron to see her face. She looked indeed very different, as Jarod had said. Aaron didn’t know how to feel about that.

All of a sudden, the woman’s yellow eyes blinked, and when she opened them again, they were deeply staring at Aaron’s. She knew he was there, and it didn’t seem to surprise her. She slowly got up from the chair and walked towards the door, apparently to let Aaron in. Once the door was open, he quickly got up from behind the barrel and, being careful to not be seen, sneaked through the wall and into the house, while Lira closed the door behind him.

Feeling like he was finally safe, he stood up to face the elf. Staring closer into those eyes now, he understood what Jarod meant when he said that her eyes had lost its natural sparkle. They were now an opaque, yellow color. Her skin also didn’t look like it was still soft as it always had been. The dark color made it look more rough, and it probably was.

Aaron wasn’t sure what to do now that he found her. He thought she would be the one to start talking, explaining her escape earlier that morning to him, but after what seemed to be an eternity, but was actually just a few seconds, he decided to break the uncomfortable silence.

“Lira. What happened to you? Why did you leave in the middle of the night? I was worrying sick!”

She didn’t seem to be touched by Aaron’s words, and answered him with a harsh, toneless voice.

“I was awakened in the middle of the night out of nowhere. When I woke up, something told me I should go back home. So I did.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“What about your skin and your eyes? And everyone else’s?”

“They’re consequences.”

“Consequences? Of what? Lira… I don’t understand what’s going. Your entire race is different, you’re different! I heard this rumor that… someone stole the staff. Is it true? Is this why all these bad things are happening?”

“What you heard is true. When I arrived at the city and joined the crowd at the palace, Leonel was telling everyone of how Baculum had disappeared overnight, and that one of the other races must have taken it in order to steal our magic and wisdom. He is now preaching of how we must destroy everything and everyone on our path in order to find the staff and return it to our kingdom, so we can recover our lives back. He believes that it has all been lost to us after the weapon was used to hurt someone intentionally, as the prophecy says.”

“Your lives back? You mean your image?”

“Not only that. We have no more magic in our bodies. Our minds will not concentrate enough to generate energy anymore.”

Aaron felt bad for her and for her people, but he was also very scared of the consequences that the robbery of the weapon could bring to the world itself. The prophecy…

“Lira, this is all so crazy. Let us go back to my house, this place is too dangerous for you…”

“I cannot do that. There is one more thing I haven’t told you. Another thing we elves lost together with Baculum…” She took a pause before breaking the news to him. “We do not have… feelings anymore.”

Her last words hit Aaron like a strong punch to the chest.

“No feelings? What does that mean? Lira, what about us?”

“I can still remember our times together, this has not been lost to us. However, I have no feelings for you or anyone else. All I feel is instinct. It tells me to help my people. And to avoid other races such as yours.”

Aaron was stunned. He wasn’t sure what to do next. Will she kill me?

“Lira…” He said her name in a begging voice, hoping that she wouldn’t hurt him and at the same time expecting it all to be a lie, a bad dream.

“I do not wish to see you dead. In respect to all the memories you might have of me, I will not kill you. But you should leave this town as fast as possible. You will not want to be found by anyone else. They’re violent and bloodthirsty, and they have a good reason to kill.”

“I will not let you stay here!”

“You have a choice. Either stay here and get killed by one of us, or go back to your people and warn them of our coming. We will ascend to battle. Would you enjoy being the one responsible for so many deaths?”

Aaron knew she was right. If he couldn’t convince her to come with him, he needed to go back to his city and let the kingdom and the guard know of what was happening at the elven town. Not only his people, but all the other races should also know of this. Thinking of the other races, he remembered his stout friend whom he left outside. Let’s hope he’s alright.

As if in answer to his belief, he heard a commotion coming from outside. With a bad feeling in his gut, he looked through the window, expecting to see nothing but the crowd still going crazy at Leonel’s speech. However, what he saw froze him to the bone.

Still far from the house, a multitude of the now savage elves ran after something. When Aaron saw they were actually running after his dwarf friend, he panicked. He still had so much he needed to say to Lira. He wasn’t done convincing her to come with him yet, although it already felt like a lost battle.

“You should go help your dwarf friend. It doesn’t matter if he stole the weapon or not, they won’t think twice on killing a spy. They’re already suspicious of the dwarves anyway.”

Aaron looked at her, and then back at the running dwarf. Every second he got closer and closer to the house, and Aaron knew he no time to make a decision. He had to follow his instinct, much as the elves were doing now.

“This is not over, Lira. I will come back for you!” After saying that, he stepped out of the house, closing the door behind him as fast as he could, hoping that no one would notice that he had just stepped out of Lira’s place. He didn’t want to give her any more trouble.

The dwarf was almost reaching him now, and the crowd of elves was still far from him. We can escape if we hurry!

Tonks now saw him, and so did the elves.

“Run lad, to the horse! I will be there in a second!”

“Look, it’s a human! Of course the wretched race had to have an involvement in this.” Leonel kept preaching to his people. Aaron had now put the humans in the elve’s radar as well, but at this point there was nothing he could do besides run away.

Listening to Tonk’s words, he ran as fast as he could towards the exit of the city. He was happy no elf had been there, or else the doors would have been closed by then, and both men would have no escape route.

He reached the great door and stepped out of the kingdom, Tonks tight behind him. The men took a right towards the tree where Aaron had left his horse. Just as he turned around another corner, he felt relieved to see the horse was still there. He quickly grabbed the knife in his boot and cut the rope that kept the animal tied, while already mounting him in a clumsy way.

Tonks quickly reached him. He stretched his hand for the dwarf to hold, just as the man had done to him earlier that day, and the dwarf grabbed it and jumped to the back of the horse, while Aaron already forced the animal to take them away from that cursed place as fast as it could.

Looking back at what they left behind, Aaron stared at a sea of dark skinned, yellow-eyed animals. They all looked hungry, and not for food. He turned his head forward and fiercely closed his eyes for a few seconds, trying to get Lira’s face out of his mind. Lira...