By the time the morning light chased away the silence of the night, Ellie had lost count of how many laps she had run—She was lost in a haze, her lungs burned themselves trying to catch the air that was slipping from her reach. Her breath, despite her chest heaving up and down, came in broken bursts and felt hollow, and when she blinked, the world pulsed. Bright dots scattered across her sight like someone had thrown glitter into her brain and let it float down slowly.
Yet, although her body was screaming in excruciating discomfort, her mind felt calm.
The first few laps, as she ran, every little thing demanded her attention. The crunch of gravel beneath her shoes, the rustling sound of leaves as the wind curled through the trees in gentle breezes.
Each lap painted the world into her senses in greater detail, grounding her in uneven patches and the tapping rhythm of her soles. But the body adapted too fast. And soon, the noise of the world faded into something half-remembered. Her ears still picked up sound, her eyes still saw, but nothing was fully registered. And without the distraction of her surroundings, her mind turned inward, dragging bad, old thoughts that hid like sludge beneath the surface of a calm lake, forcing her to confront the turmoil she hadn't wanted to think about.
And then—somewhere between one step and the next—everything disappeared. There was no more wind. No more dirt track. No more memory. Her mind was in a blank state as all the bad thoughts were thrown out of her head once she had processed them. Not discarding it, but acknowledging it. She continued to run until she physically couldn't anymore, only stopping once she collapsed onto the ground, lying down, waiting for her body to recover.
'This feels... right.' Ellie thought as she grasped for air, one of her arms lay over her eyes, veiling them from the bright morning dawn. The silence in her mind was still there, not lost by the bad thoughts, which was a good thing—It meant that what she was doing actually helped her combat against the side effect of Thief of the Divine Light.
A weak-willed person can never become strong. And right now, Ellie needed to become stronger. To protect herself. To protect her mother. She needed strength to shatter the shackles that were binding the two of them, threatening to turn them into experiments.
Now that her mind was clearer, Ellie could finally think straight.
'What is the best course of action here?' Ellie threw herself off the ground, her left hand curled into a fist for her chin to rest on. 'It's unclear whether or not all of the Dwarphs accompanying us know about the true intent of their mission. But it was clear that at least one of them had to know since the Clan Leader is familiar with Mom and would have someone to oversee us.'
'I haven't had the chance to interact with them much to figure it out yet, but this part is not as important. What's important right now is finding a way to break off from the group and escape as far as possible. This is hard considering the physical difference. However, the harder part comes after.
Hiding from the pursuits of both House Gennan and Clan Thunderspine. There is also the chance that the other Houses and the Church may join in on the chase.'
Ellie scratched her head. Where would she even find a good hiding spot? Having spent half of her adolescence behind the high walls of Windshire Fort, she was unfamiliar with the outside world. Her mother didn't seem to have one in mind, as she needed the help from Clan Thunderspine in the first place. Who else would dare shelter the two of them?
'I'm no different from him, huh.' She had no one to rely on, just like her past life. She hated to admit it, but she found herself respecting her past life for being able to stay in hiding for centuries.
'Wait! Wait! Wait! That's it.' Ellie screamed in her head, her eyes opened up, sparkling with excitement. 'I have no one but myself to rely on.'
She could enter her Promise and ask Woody about the whereabouts of her past life's hiding spots. For someone like him, surely, there must be lots scattered across the kingdom.
'Your shit is my shit, old man.'
Ellie burst out laughing. She had found a solution to one of her many problems just like that. 'One down, few more to go.'
***
'Why is she laughing?' Periola thought as she wiped her claws clean of green blood.
She stood atop a giant insectoid creature resembling a beetle, but its carapace was not a single hard shell, but a collection of translucent crystalline plates that shimmered in different colors depending on the angle of light.
The head of Shardscrarab was cut clean off its body.
Unlike a beetle's small head and tucked-away mouthparts, the Shardscarab's face was a vertical mask of smooth chitin with a single, slit-pupil eye in the center—glowing faintly purple. It had no mandibles, but instead a sharp, needle-like proboscis, which it used to hunt.
The Shardscrarab saw Ellie running and was about to ambush her when Periola fell from above, landing on its back just as quietly as she was swift with decapitating the bug.
Instead of going to sleep like she told Ellie, Periola had told Doread to take over for her before she hopped between tree branches to keep an eye on Ellie.
Periola looked at Ellie who was walking back toward the camp. She felt a strange emotion looking at the thin back that was fading away. Was it pity? Or was it something else? ChapoMaybe, some sort of understanding?
She gazed back at her claws—the gift that the Clan Leader had given her. The claws that she had used to kill her old owner. Then, she looked back at Ellie.
"You are in good hands now. Clan Leader would surely give you the claws you need to cut House Gennan to shred."
***
When she came back to the camp, Ellie saw Doread sitting by the pot. He was cutting the roots of strange trees before throwing them into the pot. With each type of root thrown into the mix, the steam coming off of it became more flavorful, hitting Ellie's nostrils with a punch full of spices, and her mouth instantly turned watery.
Her stomach growled loudly.
'Crap.' Her face turned red. She tried to duck into a nearby tree, but Doread beat her to the chase, smiling to greet her.
"Morning, Princess Zelris." He shouted, cupping his hands in front of his mouth.
"I told you to call me Ellie." She shouted back, stomping her feet, clearly annoyed.
Doread stood up and walked toward her. A bright smile ran across his face.
"Periola told me you went out for a run."
"Yeah, I did."
Doread tried to pat Ellie's shoulders with his large palms, but she ducked out of the way, standing a few steps back.
"Good reflex." He complimented Ellie as if encouraging her to be wary of others' touch.
"What are you trying to do?" Ellie asked, putting her hands at her chest level.
"Well, greeting you, of course."
Doread reenacted the motions of bringing his upper hands down, but this time, he also used his lower pair of hands, putting them inside his upper. And then, he twisted the lower pair of hands, circling them around the upper wrists, changing their direction and locking them.
After the demonstration, Doread straightened his back.
"That's it, one of the many ways that Dwarphs use to greet others."
"One of the many ways?" Ellie exclaimed.
Doread wiggled four of his hands.
"Well, we've got many hands. And the number isn't always the same for every individual."
"I guess that makes sense." Ellie lowered her fists.
Doread looked puzzled. "I thought House Gennan had already taught about our culture?"
"Who told you that?" Ellie retorted. "They didn't teach me jack. They think that it would be a waste of time and resources to spend on educating a bastard like me on important matters like culture, or history, or most importantly, geography. Well, it wasn't like I was going to rule this kingdom anyway."
"That can't do." Doread spoke in a concerned voice. "How can a king not know of his people?"
"Then what are we going to do?" Ellie asked, her voice was high and soft, like a young daughter asking her father to pick her up. "I know, how about you teach me?" She closed in on him, wrapping her arms around one of his arms, looking at him with puppy eyes.
She saw Doread's pupils enlarged slightly. He didn't answer her immediately but stood still, locking his eyes with hers as if he was taken aback by the sudden change in Ellie's behavior.
'I need to give him the final push.'
Ellie tugged at his arm in a gentle swing. "Please. Please." She begged, her voice was even softer than before.
Eventually, her tugging brought Doread back to his senses. She could feel him trying to pull his arm free from her embrace.
"Let go of my arm, Princess Zelris."
"You will teach me, right?"
"Yes, yes. I will. Please let go."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
"With your honor as a knight?"
"With my honor as a knight."
"Please let go of my arm."
"Alright." Ellie said happily as she released Doread's arm. "I'm looking forward to our learning session, Teacher Doread."
Ellie released Doread arm and walked pass him. She remembered to turn around, waving her hand, shining him with a bright smile before resuming her walk.
There were many things she needed to learn from him. Mainly, the geography of the kingdom. The kingdom was far and wide, with remnants of winter beasts lurking in her wilderness; while they waited for the return of winter, they acted as kings and emperors, ruling over the untapped parts of her and subjecting lesser animals under their control.
But beasts would remain beasts. These winter kings and emperors constantly fought among themselves over dominion; sometimes one would emerge victorious and swallow the other's entire territory whole, gaining all the resources that came with it. Other times, the loser would manage to escape death but have to relocate to a different place closer to civilization.
To avoid fighting a war from both sides, the Royal Houses would spend money putting up subjugating missions at the Adventure Guild. Because of that, those winter kings and emperors who lost in their conflict not only became the first to be subjugated, but to rub salt in their wounds, they had to shield their nemesis from the enemy's attacks.