Rune

Amrunela glanced at her prince. His spirits had raised. She was glad. She did not like seeing him look so morose. But he was laughing and talking with the villagers as they ate with them.

Niliah sat beside of her quietly. Amrunela flashed her a smile. The elven girl gave one back. Then she glanced away, "Is your friend really a prince?"

"Yeah. He's the only prince of Carendlus. His parents only ever could have him." Amrunela smiled. "And I'm the oldest of my parent's children."

She glanced over at her and looked vaguely interested, "You have siblings? I've always wondered what having one would be like."

"I have fifteen siblings!" Amrunela grinned, "The younger ones can be a handful, but I love them."

"Fifteen? That's… a lot." The girl was wide-eyed. "Your poor mother…"

"Mum loves having children. And some of them were born at the same time." Amrunela laughed, "She wanted a huge family. So did Papa. They were both orphaned fairly young."

"I see?" Niliah also laughed, "I don't think I would want to have that many pregnancies though…"

"Mmm." Amrunela agreed. "Twelve pregnancies are a lot. I would only want to go through it seven at most."

Niliah laughed again, "And only that for a man I truly loved. And he'd have to sweettalk me into it."

Amrunela giggled. "Right. But I think in my parents' case it was my mother's idea and father went along with it."

Niliah then looked down and whispered, "This is kinda nice. I've never had a girl I could talk to."

"Me neither really. Not like Mum and Aunt Fayre do." Amrunela smiled, "It is different than talking with Jaek."

"I know right? I mean I could talk to Wind about things, but it has to be worded differently. I kinda like talking with a girl. I think I'm a little glad we are going to be traveling together." She smiled, a bit shyly.

And Amrunela knew that this Nix'Rylian girl had accepted her as a friend. The girl must have been starving for female companionship. She was sure that Talon was nice and all but he was a male, and rather odd in the first place.

And Amrunela was actually rather glad to have a female friend herself. There were some things she did not feel too comfortable talking to Jaekel about. And while she could talk to Althea about some female things, it was nice having a non-sister female to talk to.

After breakfast they grouped up. It took a bit to find Talon. He was in a group of the villagers laughing and talking to them and working alongside them. Niliah managed to extricate him though.

Today both his hair and eyes were a beautiful gleaming golden color. Every strand seemed to glitter when the sun hit it.

"Sorry, I suppose we are going to need to be leaving, huh?" He laughed. "I got caught up in helping out."

"C'mon." Niliah just pulled on his arm.

They went to the edge of the village and waited for Mem. The young woman was going to be giving them some supplies.

The elven girl came over carrying a single pack, a potion bandolier, as well as a bundle of arrows. She handed the arrows to Niliah, "Here. You are an archer correct?"

As Niliah nodded with a smile, Mem then thrust the potion bandolier at Talon, "Here, these should be useful to you," and then threw the pack over Jaekel's horse's saddle. "The pack has plenty of food in it. Its been enhanced to be able to hold more than it looks like it should."

"Oh! Thanks." Amrunela smiled. She knew of such bags, they were not an uncommon magic tool. Very useful though. While not being as expensive as some other magic items would be, it was still a rather nice gift.

"No need to thank me. I very much want you to succeed. I only wish I could help more."

"You are." Talon suddenly said, "You are making it so that there is a point to all this." He then turned to the rest of them. "Shall we be off then?"

Jaekel nodded, "Yeah, I do believe we should."

Mem called to Talon as they started leaving, "Wait! I don't think you should go entirely straight to the old capitol. You might want to detour to take that test. Now wouldn't be a bad time."

"I…shall keep that under advisory." Talon said.

Amrunela had no idea what they were talking about. And she did not get a chance to ask before Talon had led them out of the Valley.

It was a bit frustrating but she just let out a sigh and fell in step beside of her prince.