It was only a mile and a half walk to the cabin, but it felt like quadruple the distance due to the heavy load Liesa was carrying on her back. She usually got there in less than twenty minutes, too, even when she was hauling back a kill. But with the unconscious human knight weighing her down, it took her well over two hours just to make the trip. Liesa huffed and puffed, feeling more tired with every step forward. Breathing a sigh of relief when she saw the chimney smoke billowing not far in the distance, she hastened her steps. The ravens following her flew past and beat her to the cabin as they perched themselves on the rooftop, watching intently as Liesa approached her home.
That sense of respite was short-lived, however, when the Lieutenant's words echoed loudly in her head as she was merely a few paces in front of the door.
"…We elves are always hearing a voice in our heads telling us to kill you humans…"
If such a thing were true, Liesa feared that the human knight could be in danger if she brought him inside. Respen and Sillavana were surely waiting for her inside, and if this so-called voice effected them as well, Liesa thought that she'd just made another grave mistake.
The ravens on the rooftop of the cabin then began to caw in harmony with each other, just as Liesa started making a B-line for the forest, thinking the human knight would be safer away from other elves. But she didn't even make it two steps before the door to the cabin opened and an old wrinkly winter male elf was standing in the doorway calling out to her.
"There you are, Liesa," Respen said, "Um…mind telling me why there's a man on your back?"
She froze in her tracks as soon as she heard his voice. She didn't answer him right away, fearing that telling the whole truth would put both herself and the human knight at risk. A simple, nervous, "Um…" was all she could muster.
"You'd better not be thinking we'll be eating a person tonight," Respen teased.
"Of course not!" Liesa cried, not at all amused by Respen's joke. "You see, this…this man saved my life today, but now he's hurt and hungry and I want to help him."
Respen placed his hands on his hips. "Jeez, Liesa, our place is a little bit of a disaster area right now and not quite ready for company," he said.
"Please, Respen," Liesa begged, "I need to pay him back for what he's done for me."
The old elf ran his fingers through his silvery white shoulder-length hair, debating with himself, and the anticipation was killing Liesa. He eventually beckoned for her to come inside and said, "Oh, alright. The things I do to keep you happy," he teased.
Liesa didn't thank him. She just stumbled passed Respen through the doorway and into the living room, which was an open layout that connected to the kitchen and dining area. As she made her way towards the hallway that led to the bedrooms, Elder Lady Sillavana appeared from that same hall and let out a gasp that could've sent her into shock once she saw what Liesa was doing.
"Dear me, Liesa, what is going on here?" Sillavana asked, seeming just as concerned for the human knight's safety as Liesa was.
"It's…" Liesa didn't know how to answer, "It's a long story."
"Not how you told me," Respen added. "Didn't you say you found him like this in the forest?"
"Oh, uh, yes…of-of course!" Liesa tried to seem convincing, which was never her strong suit when it came to lying.
"Dear Liesa…this is a human soldier," Sillavana didn't waste any time in spilling the beans, "Don't you realize the danger you're putting us all in?"
"It's not like that at all, Lady Sillavana!" Liesa shouted. "I…I already made sure he was alone. I scouted the area three times over," she lied, but she sounded nervous as she said it, "And once I knew it was just him, I noticed he's been hurt. That's why I brought him here."
"Oh dear, why?"
"Didn't you also say he saved your life, Liesa?" Respen inquired as he was fidgeting with the human knight's red cloak. "What exactly could he have saved you from?"
Liesa had to make up a good lie, and fast. "Um…just an ice bear," she said.
"An ice bear?" Sillavana said.
"Just an ice bear?" Respen said.
"Well, this ice bear was huge, massive even," Liesa's face was starting to twitch at how much lying she was doing, "So much bigger than the one I caught last time. You could say it was a colossal beast."
That was when the human knight moaned in his sleep and started slumping off of Liesa's back, but she caught him in time. "Oh, would you look at that? I better get this big hero to bed," Liesa said nervously, and then she quickly darted into the hallway, trying to end this conversation as soon as possible.
"We don't have a guest room. You know that, dear." Sillavana reminded.
By the time she kicked her bedroom door open and finally set the human knight down, Liesa was exhausted, physically and emotionally. It had gone better with Respen and Sillavana than she figured. She honestly thought that, despite their old age, they try and attack him with no remorse or reason. Considering what she'd just learned today, Liesa didn't know what to believe anymore. Then she noticed the human knight was shivering, so her immediate instinct was to take off his wet clothes. As she did this, a million and three unanswered questions swirled in her brain.
Was there truly a voice in all the heads of elfkind that told them to kill humans?
Could said voice cause such immense bloodlust in her own people?
What was the real purpose to this war? Had they been fighting in vain all along?
Who was this knight? What did his so-called curse of the "Phoenix's Rebirth" do for him?
Why did he save her? More importantly, why did she try to save him?
Before she knew it, Liesa had stripped the human knight of his boots, red cloak, gloves, silver chest plate armor, even the shirt and chainmail underneath. She realized she had gone too far because now he was only wearing his pants. With her face blushing bright red, she examined his muscular body, which she assumed must've taken years to gain all that muscle mass. From his biceps to his abs, Liesa couldn't help but feel overwhelmingly flustered staring at a man's half-naked body for the first time in her life. She smiled a little bit, but it quickly subsided and she proceeded to cover him up with a spare blanket at the foot of her bed.
The human knight moaned again, gritting his teeth, and his eyes opened, just as Liesa was about to place the blanket over him and cover her mistake.
"What…Where am I?" he said weakly. His gaze shifted to Liesa who was still blushing and holding the blanket at his side. "Oh, it's you. Why are you looking at me like that?" A sharp chill ran up his spine and he began rubbing his biceps with his hands to try and warm up. "Why am I so cold?"
"I'm so sorry!" Liesa said, "Your clothes were all wet from the snow, so I, uh…Here, this will make you warm." She placed the blanket over him up to his collarbone and tried to even swaddle him to ensure he wouldn't realize how much she had stripped him.
"What are you…But what…If you could just—" He tried to ask what was going on and sit up but was cut off by her shushing him and she kept pushing him back down into bed and swaddling him like he was an ill baby.
But then he managed to get one of his arms out from under the blanket, swatting her hands away and sitting up, which exposed his bare naked upper body to the cold again. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds before he demanded, "Alright toots, tell just what the hell is going on. Why did you bring me here?"
"I…well, you saved my life back there, so…"
"So what?"
"So I—AAAHH!" Liesa unintentionally looked down at his handsome body again and became extremely flustered that she covered her face in her hands and turned away.
"What's wrong?"
Liesa wouldn't answer. She couldn't answer. How could she explain that she was the one embarrassed about him being half-naked in her home?
The human knight soon looked down at himself and realized what was making her face beat bright red. "Oh relax, it's nothing to be ashamed of," he said, "You said my clothes were wet, right? I'm not mad at you for that."
Hesitantly, Liesa let her hands drop at her sides and turned back to face him, but she still had that look of embarrassment mixed with confusion on her face. But she needed answers, so she toughened up, clenching her fists and taking a deep breath. "We need to talk," she began. "Why did you save me?"
"Jeez, and here I thought you were trying to praise and thank me just a minute ago." The human knight joked.
"Stop playing around. I don't like it, especially when Respen does it."
"Who?"
"Just answer my question."
"Well, back there, didn't you try to save me first?"
Liesa was speechless.
"You clearly did," he said. "I mean, you didn't exactly make that much of an elegant entrance, but I saw it in you. When you aimed your arrow at your own kind, I sensed you had every intention of trying to defend not just yourself from those jerks but me as well. Gotta say, you held your own for an archer."
"Um…thanks?"
"I guess not all elves are made the same," he added.
Liesa scoffed at that remark, thinking about how right he was. " Yeah, you got that right," she whispered.
"I'd always figured there was something off about this whole war, but what that Lieutenant said today makes my wonder…" the human knight scratched his chin.
"You mean, what he said about the voice in all elves' heads?" Liesa asked.
He nodded.
"You don't think that—" Liesa tried to say but was cut off when Respen entered the room with a tray full of food.
"Ah, so you are awake already," Respen exclaimed, "That's good! Didn't want all this bread and soup to go to waste."
"Oh Respen. Um, how much did you hear?" Liesa asked.
"Were you two talking about something private?"
"No, not-not at all! Why would we? Haha!" Liesa stammered as she lied. "So you made a meal for him? That was nice of you."
Respen set the tray on the bedside next to the human knight who stared at the food hungrily. Then Respen said, "Oh it's no big deal. They're just leftovers. Hopefully this will satisfy his appetite." He then turned to Liesa and told her, "Oh, and Liesa, my mother needs your help. She accidentally cut her finger with a knife while she was slicing up meat from the stockpile for tonight's dinner, so patch her up and then you should help her with the rest of the cooking tonight. If you need me, I'll be out chopping firewood."
"But Respen, it's still snowing out there," Liesa said.
"It's just flurries. I'll be fine," Respen assured her, and then he exited the room.
After he left, Liesa sighed before turning back to the human knight and was about to introduce herself and ask him what his name was. But he was already devouring the food in front of him, noisily munching on bread and slurping his soup from the bowl. She decided to just leave him to it, but not without telling him she'd be in the kitchen nearby if he needed her for anything. She awkwardly backed out of her own bedroom, unable to take her eyes off of him eating like a pig.
Once she was out in the hallway passed the doorway to her room, she smiled to herself and said, "I guess he was very hungry, huh? Kinda funny."
Liesa made her way to the kitchen where Sillavana was sitting in one of the dining chairs waiting for her. The young nineteen-year-old winter elf girl had grabbed the first aid supplies, took out some white bandages, but they had nothing to disinfect or clean the wound with, so Liesa just licked it clean for Sillavana. The wound itself wasn't too deep, which relieved Liesa, knowing how frail the elder lady elf can be. She was one of the oldest, wisest living elves in the region. Liesa didn't know how she could've gotten this far without her kindness and guidance, but she knew where she'd be without her: dead.
Suddenly, Sillavana asked in a whisper, "Is Respen outside?"
"Yes, he said he was going to chop firewood," Liesa assured, but then Sillavana shushed her as if she were talking too loud, even though her volume was at the perfect level for indoor speaking, as she'd been told by Elder Lady Sillavana while growing up. As soon as Liesa got the memo, she asked, "Why are we whispering?"
"It's because of the human you've brought home," Sillavana said.
"But I really don't think he's a threat to us. He seems nice and like I said before: he saved my life from the pla—I mean, the ice bear."
"That's not what I meant, Liesa," Sillavana said, "You should know I cut myself just now with the knife on purpose, and I sent Respen outside to chop firewood despite the weather, just to get you alone with me."
Liesa was shocked. "What? Elder Lady Sillavana, why would you…?"
Sillavana lowered her head as though she'd been dreading this moment ever since the day Liesa came to stay with them. She said, "I think it's time you know the truth about this dreadful war, and why the elves have hated human for so many centuries…"