37 Half-Blood

The girl walked out of the water as if she lived there. When her whole body was visible, it became clear that she was stark naked.

Brightise's eyes widened, but the girl seemed unfazed.

"I'm Neleah!" she said with a bright smile.

Brightise stared at her in awe.

"What are you?" she asked her slowly.

"An Amazon. Half-human, half-Elf, actually. My mom had a fling with an elf once," Neleah said with a shrug. "Has regretted it ever since."

When she realized both Brightise and Clober were still staring at her, she looked down at her body in surprise. "Oh, sorry! Armor is just so heavy. Plus, they yell at me because I get it wet all the time. Hold on..."

The girl walked past them and approached a tall tree, retrieving several long pieces of metal armor that had been hidden behind its trunk.

Clober made a move to follow Neleah as she started getting dressed, but Brightise held her back. That girl had a strange seductive aura about her that made her instantly likable. Maybe that was the Elf part of her, but Brightise would rather remain vigilant. She had never met an Elf before after all. She couldn't tell if the girl was actually telling the truth.

"Do you two have names?" Neleah asked them as she put on a pair of wooden sandals and straightened up.

Brightise decided to answer. If this girl was really an Amazon, she didn't want her to think they were rude or hostile. "This is Clober," she said while pointing to her sister. "I'm Brightise."

"You have really pretty hair," said Neleah.

Brightise looked at the tangled end of her braid in confusion. Was the girl messing with her?

"I meant the color," Neleah added. "Not that the rest of it is... Oh, shoot, I'm being rude again! My sisters tell me all the time..."

"You have sisters?" asked Clober tentatively.

Brightise could tell that she had taken a liking to the girl. She did have the same hair and eye color as Morral and she seemed just as kind as her, if not a little naive. It was only natural that Clober would like her.

"Sure, all the Amazons are sisters. But I only have two by blood."

"Are they Elves too?" Clober asked excitedly.

"No, they are normal," Neleah answered. Her smile seemed a little more forced this time.

"You are normal," said Clober.

Neleah laughed genuinely. "Thank you!" Then she added, as if it was a secret, "I have to try, you know..."

The two of them seemed to have hit it off. Brightise thought that if she let her little sister handle this, they would be at the Amazon Camp by sunset.

"I have two sisters too," said Clober.

"Where is the second one?"

Brightise tried to gesture that this was a touchy subject, but she couldn't tell if Neleah understood.

"She is meeting us at the Amazon Camp," Clober answered happily.

"Is she?" Neleah raised her eyebrows at Brightise. "Well, you must have gotten here first, because when I left this morning, she hadn't come yet."

Brightise breathed out silently in relief.

"That's okay," said Clober. "We can wait for her!"

"Wait for her where?"

"At the Amazon Camp," Brightise answered this time. "We were hoping that you could take us there."

"Oh..."

Something was clearly wrong, because Neleah's smile suddenly disappeared. Her expression was now a combination of shame and disappointment.

"I don't think you want me to take you there," she told Brightise.

"Why not?"

Neleah bit her lip in embarrassment. "The Queen doesn't like me very much." she murmured between her teeth.

"Why?" asked Clober.

Neleah looked down at the grass in shame and muttered something Brightise didn't hear.

"Sorry, what was that?"

The Amazon exhaled slowly. "I flooded the throne room once."

Brightise and Clober burst out into laughter.

"It was only once!" Neleah shouted. "And I mopped up the whole room!"