Mystery's Path

Chapter 1


Lessien sat in the tall oak tree that was her resting spot. It was her respite to her search for her parents’ murderer.
The night air filled with the thick pine and sweet sap scent only made her senses keener.
With the ground twenty feet below her, she could safely sit pensively on her branch. Yet even so, other than the hoot of an owl, the night air was silent: for the crickets had since ceased their song.
As she sat there, she remembered the night it happened. Her eyes stared off as if at nothing as she flashed back to the day her parents died.
It had been raining for three days and Lessien had been standing at the window contemplating things she could do if it continued.
Maybe if she hadn’t been so lost in thought, she would have noticed the ghostly figure slink into her room. Perhaps had she not been caught off guard, she could have prevented the sea elf from forcing her into a chair beside her bed. If only she had stayed her shriek of fear, her parents never would have rushed to her rescue and would therefore still be alive.
She stared in horror as her mother hit the floor, for just as she entered the room; the assailant quickly threw a poisoned shuriken that lodged itself in her throat.
Her father who’d stopped a moment to mourn her sealed his own fate. She gagged as his head fell to the floor, his body not yet registering the loss. And they called it a mercy killing?
The elf finally diverted his attentions back to her. What he would have done to her was halted as the guards broke through the door. With a flash and a bang, he was gone.
The memory faded to black only to become clear again. It was her parents’ funeral. She watched as their bodies burned on a raft drifting toward a waterfall. She knew in her heart as they drifted away, her life would never be the same, and she cowed never to allow herself to become attached to anyone, lest she live it all again.
Her body gave an involuntary jerk as she was sucked back to the present.
As she wiped her tears on her cloak, she noticed a man stumbling through the dark. It wasn’t the stumbling man though that held her attention, gut the man slinking effortlessly behind him apparently undetected.
The moon had set so there was but utter darkness. No normal man could see with such a lack of light, so the only conclusion was that this man’s stalker wasn’t human. Apparently he was not friendly either she concluded as she watched him draw a dagger from a hidden sheath.
Upon further examination, she noticed a bluish tint to his flesh.
“Could it be?” She thought wordlessly. After five years of searching, could she finally rest?
Soundlessly she drew her bow. Knocking an arrow, she aimed for a vital spot on his back.
With a tiny reverberating “twang,” she released the string and watched as her arrow flew true. The elf groaned in agony and fell the ground dead.

Joshua spun around on his heels and drew his sword. Being of an average height and scrawny, he almost fell over from the momentum of swinging his sword. With black hair and deep blue eyes, many girls had told him that if it weren’t for his clumsy tendencies and cowardice, he could be a stud.
Steadying himself, he noticed an eerie glow emitting from the shaft of an arrow that just happened to be sticking out of the back of a man with sickly greenish flesh.
A branch snapped somewhere above him in the tree canopies. He looked toward the sound just in time to see a shadowed figure drop gracefully to the ground landing easily on all fours.
Startled by the sudden appearance, Joshua turned to flee and slammed face first into a giant pine. The impact of hitting the tree had caused him to lose his grip on his sword and it fell to the ground with a “Thud.” Joshua let out a curse tat scared some birds that had been till that point nesting quietly. As the birds squawked in reproach, he rubbed his forehead and knelt on the ground to search blindly for his sword. After a minute or two, he found the hilt.
Dusting himself off, he stood up and sheathed his sword: or so he thought. For if he’d been paying attention, he’d have noticed that he’d missed the sheath and the sword had just found its way back onto the ground.
Unfortunately he’d just caught sight of the shadowed figure. It was a she and she was no longer in shadow. From the faint glow of the arrow and the early sunrise, he could see her features, and they captivated him.
She had shoulder length blond hair with vividly green eyes. Of course they could have been blue because of the golden glow shining on them. She was slightly shorter than he, and thin, yet by no means fragile in appearance. He watched as she bent over to examine the corpse. She was mumbling to herself inaudibly so he inched in closer as an attempt to hear what was being said.

Lessien knelt over the body to examine it. To her dismay, she found that it was not the one who had killed her parents.
“I still can’t understand what happened. If anything, the sea elves were closer to being our allies than our enemies. The world must really be out of sorts if the sea elves are acting more like the Barakas.”
Suddenly she noticed the man she’d saved inching in closer. She felt the heat rise in her face. This was her business not his, and if he was trying to overhear what she was saying then he was really overstepping his bounds.
She got the strong urge to cut him down but thought better of it.
“I’ve never cut down an innocent person before, I’ll not start now.” She muttered. She thought maybe by walking away he’d leave her alone but as she turned to leave he called out to her.
“Please don’t leave me.”
Ignoring his pitiful plea, she walked on hoping he’d get the point.
“Please let me come with you I won’t get in the way.”
She could hear hurried footsteps as he scrambled to catch up.
The urge to kill him welled up within her again. A little voice tried to reason that he may not be as innocent as he appeared and that she may be justified in killing him, but she knew just by looking at him how unlikely that was. He didn’t even look as if he’d hurt a fly let alone another person.
His footsteps became louder as he caught up to her.
Steadying her temper, she stopped and turned to face him with an expression she hoped would come across as cold and uninviting.
The man stopped five feet from her and upon seeing that expression shuddered.
She took some pleasure in the reaction hoping he’d think better of it and go away.
Instead he spoke hesitantly keeping his distance, “Hi my name’s Joshua but you can call me Josh. I can see you probably want nothing to do with me but…”
“Go away.” She interrupted as calmly as she could.
“But… But I’m a coward and if I don’t travel with you I’ll be alone and I’m too afraid of traveling by myself.”
“Then what were you doing alone in the first place?”
“Well… you see… I was with someone, a friend of mine to be exact but I seem to have lost track of his whereabouts as night fell.”
Lessien grinned. How ironic. She thought to herself. Maybe his “friend” hadn’t lost track of him at all. The person he was with probably ditched him the first chance he got. Maybe I should try that since he insists on following me. “I suppose you could come with me for a little while.”
“Really? You wouldn’t mind!?” Joshua shouted gleefully.
“Shut up you damn Mlanna!” she snapped cringing at the volume of his voice.
Joshua gained a blank stare that made her chuckle.
“I don’t see what’s so funny.” He snarled in agitation.
“That look you just gave, if I could full out laugh I’d be rolling on the ground, but alas, laughter does not commonly escape me anymore.”
“Well if that’s the case I guess it’s not so bad. What does Mlanna mean though?”
“I’m not so sure you want to know.” She replied.
“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know.” He said.
“Are you sure you want to know, I mean it’s kind of complicated to understand for a person of your stature.” She drawled.
Joshua began to twitch with agitation, “I don’t know what you meant by that, and I’m not sure I want to, but I still want to know what Muhlanna means.”
“First of all it’s Mlanna not Muhlanna, and second of all, you’re right you don’t want to know what I meant by that it might crush your ego. Any way Mlanna means fungus and you’d better get used to it because I’m going to call you that from now on.”
It was Joshua’s turn to cringe, “As if that didn’t just hurt my ego. Couldn’t you just call me Joshua and we’ll call it a draw?”
“Couldn’t you just go off and find someone else to bug?” She mocked viciously.
“But you said I could travel with you. I could be alone for months, years even before I found someone else who was willing to travel with me.”
“Who said I was willing to travel with you? You aren’t giving me much of a choice, so if you want to continue to travel with me, you’ll grin and bear the name Mlanna until we part ways.”
“Wait part ways?” he squeaked nervously.
“You didn’t think we’d be traveling together forever did you?”
“Well maybe not forever, but I was hoping for a little while anyway. You know like create a partnership.”
“I would get into a partnership with you when I died and the bugs had gotten tired of devouring my corpse.”
“That was a little harsh you know.”
“Hey. It comes with the name.”
“The name?”
“Yeah. My name means harsh in my native tongue. Now if you’re coming with me, shut up and let’s go, the sooner we get to a village, the sooner I can get rid of you.”
“Hey that hurts. Get rid of me? Besides, no villages around here will let me stay.”
“Nonsense. That’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard Mlanna. Don’t think it will get you any sympathy. Besides, villages only deny entry to those who look like trouble.”
“Whatever you say, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Lessien walked off in the direction of the closest village. If she was lucky, she could be rid of him within a day or two.

The going was really slow, for Joshua was very sluggish and needed to rest constantly. Lessien observed that if he’d stop talking he wouldn’t have to rest so often.
To which Joshua commenced speaking again in his defense.
Finally Lessien had become so agitated with the lack of quiet that she told him if he didn’t shut up, she was going to cut out his tongue. Joshua then gulped and fell silent. Though the silence only lasted for about five minutes before he proceded to ask for her name.
She stopped and rounded on him face red with fury. “If I tell you my name will you shut the hell up until we camp for the night?” The tone of her voice was dangerously calm.
Joshua shuddered because if real daggers could have shot from her eyes, he’d probably be a bloody stump right at that moment. So to attempt to appease her she said, “ You have my word.”
Lessien noticeably relaxed and said, “My name is Lessien, now if I hear one more word from you before we camp tonight I will kill you make no mistake. We camp at sun down since I can’t afford to be your eyes. That leaves about four hours. Do you think you can last that long Mlanna?”
Joshua just stared at her and nodded unsure of whether he should verbally answer that question or just keep the silence.
“Good I’m glad not to hear it.”
The rest of that day past without incident as Joshua kept his word.
When night fell Lessien turned to Joshua and said, “We’ll camp here for the night.”
“Is it okay if I talk now?”
“If it hadn’t been I would have killed you by now. Just so we’re clear though do not inquire to anything pertaining to my past, for it is none of your concern. Keep any other questions to a minimum for I do not relish in answering questions. Got it?”
“Yes Ma’am.” He replied sighing with relief.
“And don’t call me ma’am. I gave you my name Mlanna, use it.”
“Yes Ma… I mean Lessien.” He stammered.
Lessien dug a fire pit and threw some loose twigs and sticks for fuel into it. She clasped her hands together and said, “Frindr.” The pile of twigs burst into a healthy roaring flame.
Joshua stared in amazement, “Could you teach me to do that?”
“‘Fraid not.” She replied.
“Why not?” Joshua asked.