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CHAPTER FIVE

RESCUE PARTY GONE WRONG

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NIMUE and Randvi walked along side one another while they navigated through the woods. The clank of metal filling Randvi's ears as they walked through the forest, a chiming noise making her own head throb. She wasn't sure if Nimue could hear the strange noise. If she did, she never made any indication that she was hearing what Randvi was hearing.

There were whispers, small and unimportant. Things that Randvi had never heard before but some how . . familiar. She wasn't sure how and why exactly she was hearing these things, but the whispers had never stopped for her. Randvi had always heard things in her mind, speaking to her in an unknown language, ever since she was a young fey.

But she never thought anything of it, brushed it off as the Hidden speaking with her but what good was the Hidden, if they talked with her in some code? How was she suppose to understand anything if they didn't speak what she could understand? Walking alongside Nimue, somehow made the whispers louder than normal, or maybe it was the forest they were surrounded by.

Randvi made a mental note of everything she had passed while they walked, the small meadow of the greenest grass she had ever seen. Streaks of light shinned through the openings of the clouds above, sending magical particles of orange hue to dance upon the grass. Then, they passed a hallowed out oak tree, a mess of twigs and dried out grass sticking out of the rotten wood.

Nimue glanced towards the young woman with interest in her eyes. She gazed upon everything like this was the first time seeing the forest with her own eyes. It made her wonder about things, of who exactly she was and what kind of fey were her people. Nimue noted the purple hue in her eyes, but she had never seen such color in ones iris' before. She wanted to ask her but the silence between them was comfortable and she didn't want to ruin that by bringing up questions about her origin.

Soon, a trickling sound of water invaded both of their ears, and Randvi glanced over at Nimue with a smile on her face. Nimue's feet began to walk at a faster pace as they came to a small clearing, a small river flowing right through the middle. Both girls walked towards the water, and Nimue set her sword on the rock, the handle dipping into the rushing water while she began to wash her hands.

Randvi copied her actions, cleaning the dirt and dried blood from her hands, letting the crimson stain wash away into nothing but horrific memories into the water. Randvi glanced towards the brunette, watching her as she vigorously cleansed the blood off of her hands. Her eyes softened when she heard a quiet sob escape her lips. Both of them had lost too much.

Randvi had watched her only home burn in the matter of minutes. The only thing she had ever known. The only thing that was familiar. Never—in her life time —had she ever anticipated that she would be forced away from her only home, and into a world that she knew nothing about. The thought was scary enough but now that it had actually happened . . Randvi didn't know what was next for her. Her future was unpredictable and that was a terrifying thought to someone who already had an idea of how their future would play out.

She thought of her best-friend that she had to leave behind. Astrid— she had always been there for her through everything in her time span. She didn't know if Astrid survived but she had to hold onto the hope that she could possibly be out there, and hopefully getting help for the wounds she suffered.

Randvi pushed her thoughts to the back of her head as she cupped the cool water in her palms and washed the blood from her face. She scrubbed the sides of her temple and picked the blood from underneath her fingernails. She sat there on the rock for a while, just looking up at the swirling blues of the sky while she waited for Nimue to clean the blood off of her sword. She had watched the girl try to keep her sobs hidden but even the rushing water couldn't mute her cries.

Randvi wanted to comfort her but she was a stranger in Nimue's eyes. What comfort could she possibly give a woman that she did not know?

Randvi watched as Nimue rose from the stream and turned to face the woman on the rock. "Do you have a water canteen?" she questioned, her nose stuffy from crying but Randvi didn't mention anything to her. "You should fill it. Don't know when the next time we will be by any available water."

Randvi pushed herself from her sitting position and took the small water canteen from her belt, wrapped around her waist. Her canteen was almost empty and to be completely honest, she had forgotten she had one until this very moment. Thinking about water, now had her mouth feeling parched as she approached the stream once again and filled the bottle with water.

"Where will you go?" Randvi then asked her as she turned around, putting the bottle to her lips. She wasn't sure if she was invited to come with her, but Randvi had gotten use to having her around. Nimue was her guide in a way, she didn't know the land like Nimue did.

"I have to check on someone first but then I will be making my way to Hawksbridge. It's not too far from here, about ten miles." Nimue informed her as she looked towards the sky, and studying the position of the sun before adding. "We should reach it by sundown."

Randvi's eyebrows rose on her forehead, "What's Hawksbridge?" she questioned her as she began to follow behind Nimue as she strapped the sword over her shoulder.

Nimue looked at her curiously. This woman really didn't know a thing about the world she was living in and for a moment, she thought the young woman was kidding with her. "Are you serious?" Nimue questioned, her mouth turning up with a playful grin.

Randvi's eyebrows furrowed, and then she shrugged when Nimue's expression softened when she noticed she was serious. "My people didn't travel to other villages. We kind of kept to ourselves, so all of this . . " Randvi gestured towards the atmosphere, and the rushing river on her left as they walked further into the fey woods. " . . it's new to me."

Nimue lifted an eyebrow, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't assume things." She gave her a sheepish grin. She immediately felt bad that she assumed the woman was playing a joke on her, but now that she gave a second to think about it, she didn't know why she would lie about these things in the first place. "It's a village that we often traded with. I know someone there that could help us."

Randvi gleamed with the idea of visiting another village but she had seen two villages burn in a run of a day, or what seemed like a day. She was unconscious for who knows how long. It made an uneasy feeling rise in her throat. "And this village, it accepts who we are?"

Nimue glanced her over for a second, "Well, not exactly.." She watched as her face fell, and Randvi looked upon the moving leaves of the forest for a moment. "I had some trouble the last time I went but we need the help."

Randvi felt a wave of disappointment wash through her, dampening her spirits of exploring the world with Nimue. It wasn't even the fact that Nimue would be with her but exploring a world she knew nothing about. "I can't go.." Randvi frowned. "They'll notice that I'm not human when they view the color of my eyes.."

"I understand." Nimue began to nod slowly, "..Old Man Rock should be up ahead." She spoke as they paced themselves down the small hill, Randvi trailing behind her quickly. Her hand grabbed onto a tree trunk on her way down to balance herself as Nimue approached the hallowed out rock. "Squirrel? I'm here!" Nimue picked up her pace, running between the two boulders.

Randvi followed closely behind, her eyes studying the moss growing over the rock. She could hear Nimue's breathing get heavier while she power walked up the small hill, "Squirrel?" she called out again, and then ducked her head between a little hole in the formation of rocks.

Randvi glanced towards the brunette woman, blood still on her temple as Nimue's eyes danced around the forest. A look of sheer panic on her pretty features and Randvi frowned once again. Whoever this 'Squirrel' was, they were important to her and she had lost another person in her life after loosing too many.

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Nimue and Randvi had decided to part ways at Old Man Rock. Nimue had been devastated at the loss of the small boy, and even though Randvi didn't know her, she was there to comfort her through all the tears. Randvi had told her numerous times that perhaps the little boy had gotten away, or maybe he had found another fey to take care of him.

It made the dark thoughts swirling inside Nimue's mind feel at ease, but it still wasn't enough to dry the tears from her eyes. They waited for a few moments at the rock in hopes that he would show but he did not. It made this world they were living in almost unbearable, the fact that the Red Paladin's would cut down a small boy of ten winters, was bone rattling.

Nimue thanked Randvi for her presence in her time of need, but she could not stay with her any longer. Before Nimue had made the trek to Hawksbridge, Randvi had to ask about the man her mother told her to look for, Gawain.

Nimue had been most informative, letting the young fey know that her and Gawain had been childhood friends and grew up together in the village of Dewdenn. Much to her disappointment though, Nimue also told her that Gawain had disappeared on a vessel called The Brass Shield. She hadn't seen the man since and wasn't even positive Gawain was alive.

  Randvi felt like she was at a greater loss as she processed the new information she was given. How was she suppose to find someone who had disappeared, or even perhaps dead? It seemed like she should have just took her chances and gone to Hawksbridge with Nimue, at least she would have a chance of survival. In these woods, her chance of surviving whatever was lurking within was becoming more slim.

Randvi questioned the culture she was brought up into, of how the Fire Fae were never allowed to go beyond their own walls. What good brought the Fire Fae of being sheltered beings, afraid of their own powers if it meant beyond their own homes— they were clueless.

It made Randvi frustrated with her own upbringing. All of her eighteen years were spent on learning her heritage and the other fey, and not the world around them.

Randvi walked further into the fey forest, the trees whistling as she walked past them. Her eyes on the lookout for anything that could indicate that the fey were nearby. She looked for words in the trees, stones laid in a certain way that only the fey would understand their symbols but she had found nothing of the sort. It was already getting dark in the forest and soon, nightfall would consume the world around her and leave her in the darkness.

  Instead of searching for the fey symbols until twilight came, Randvi began to gather edible roots and berries she found in the forest. She would have to set up some kind of camp, even though starting a fire in these woods would bring attention — something she did not want.

She didn't know anything about the surrounding forests but she wasn't completely clueless of what lurks in the darkness. These woods were filled with Red Paladin's on white steeds, mercenaries looking to loot any coin they could find on your being, and flesh eating wolves traveling in dangerous numbers. Randvi could hold her own at a distance but she knew without a weapon on her being, up close combat would not turn in her favor.

Randvi placed all of her edible plants on a flattened rock, and then gathered firewood for the night. She picked up a few sticks, larger branches that had fallen onto the floor, and some dried grass at the base of a huge tree which she had decided to sit with her back facing the trunk. This way, her flank would not be exposed to anything creeping up on her in the night.

Randvi built the small fire with ease and then stared at the dried logs as she imagined flames eating away at the bark. Suddenly, flames sparked and took hold of the sticks, and the fire grew hotter and reached towards the sky. Randvi's purple eyes traveled around the dark forest, looking between the tree trunks for any movement and when she didn't see anything, she decided to relax her shoulders against the trunk.

  Randvi wasn't sure when she had fallen asleep but her restless slumber was disturbed when she heard a twig snap in the darkness and soon, muffled laughter echoed throughout the forest. Randvi's eyes shot open at the noise and immediately she was on alert. The fey launched towards the fire and stamped the remaining flames away with her boot, leaving her small camp in complete darkness.

"Soon we will all avenge our brothers and sisters." A voice called out in the night which made Randvi place her back against the trunk as the footsteps got closer to her camp.

"I still think you're an idiot, Grim." Another voice called out a few feet away from Randvi, and she looked into the dark forest and seen movement in front of her. Randvi picked herself off of the ground, and crouched down while tailing behind the small group.

Randvi could barely pick out any features in the darkness until she saw the flames of a campfire in the distance. Randvi hid behind a large tree and peeped out to the side of the tree, her mouth parted slightly as the flickering campfire came into view and highlighted the Weeping Monk's seemingly sleeping face. She could instantly feel a slight tug inside her mind, whispers of words she didn't understand in the back of her head as the connection they shared danced in the air around her and the Weeping Monk. It felt like they were reaching to each other, the world shifting it's way for two beings, and yet again, fate had brought them together again.

  Randvi knew the difference of approaching this man, even though the pull was strong against her mind. It wanted her to go forward, to approach him but she knew better. This man was dangerous, this man was not kind and would show her no mercy, connection or not.

"Get up, you murdering pig," a male Fey speaks, pointing what looks like a wooden rake down at the gray monk. Randvi's attention was brought back to the scene a few feet away from her, eyebrows raising on her forehead.

She gave them the credit of being courageous. She didn't know if approaching the grey monk was a good idea, especially with his reputation. She couldn't tell if these fey men were dumb, or stupidly brave.

  She watched as the monk's expression seemed unfazed by the weapon pointed at his throat, and with the fey surrounding his small camp, it made Randvi's skin crawl.

"Josse," A small boy exclaimed as he rose from his position on a log but Randvi couldn't get a good look at him since one of the fey warriors were blocking her line of sight.

"Squirrel, you all right?" the man asks, still pointing the rake at the grey monk. Randvi's eyes gleamed when she found out the small boy was the same fey Nimue had been looking for earlier. He was alive but had been captured by the worst man he could have been captured by. "Tie him up," the Fey man says to one of his companions, as he grabs the grey monk, hauling him to his feet.

"I think we've caught the big killer," The man that Squirrel called Josse, spat out while his companion hauled the grey monk to his feet. "Look at his eyes."

"Shed a few for us, brother?" The man who had been tying his wrists together with a rope began to mock him.

Josse looked towards the crackling fire, "Get me a nice red one, Grim."

"Ever been dragged by a horse with a hot coal up its bum?" Josse asks the grey-cloaked monk, as they neared the black horse at the other side of the small camp. Randvi had heard mumbling in response but she wasn't close enough to make out the words being said.

"Just kill him, Josse," The little boy yells out, growing impatient.

Randvi's forehead wrinkled as she stared at the grey monk. She had faced off with the monk before, and she knew he had tremendous skill with combat, but he was allowing himself to be captured rather than fighting the fey off. It all seemed very suspicious to her for Randvi knew he could easily fight them all off.

"What did you have in mind for Squirrel, you sick bastard?" Josse hissed venomously as they dragged the monk over to his horse.

Randvi couldn't hear the next words coming out of the monk's mouth, muffled whispers carried throughout the forest as the horse beside them neighed into the night. In seconds, Randvi's whole body stilled against the tree as the monk kicked his knee into the groin of the man in front of him, and then walloped the other with both his fists tied together.

Randvi covered her mouth as she inhaled sharply while watching the scene in front of her. Her heart hammering violently against her ribcage as she watched the small rescue party be slaughtered. The grey monk grabbed hold of his horse's reins and circled the leather around the neck of the same man he had kneed, and started to strangle him before the sound of metal coming out of it's scabbard filled the forest.

Randvi watches breathless as he launches his body over the saddle and took out several more fey with his hands tied together in front of him. She hears the knife fly through the air and embed itself into another fey's face as he hits the ground with a groan. He then returns to the saddle and hits the next oncoming fey man with something else that Randvi could not pick out in the dark before it drops to the ground along with the fey. The next man is kicked into the crackling fire. The yellow flames growing more with something else to feed on as it licks onto the fey's clothing, and consumes the fabric.

The last woman to fall get's an axe in the face which erupts a small scream out of Randvi's mouth which she immediately clamps her hand over. The Monk's head whips around in the direction of the noise and she quickly adverts her eyes from the scene, hiding her body behind the trunk of the tree. At this moment, she is thankful that darkness is around her, for if it was daytime, she would have been seen.

Randvi's hand is shaking over her mouth as tears stain her cheeks. She tries to regain control of her breathing and the magic begins to course through her in a time where she doesn't need it. The immense terror she feels in this moment is enough to ignite her powers, but Randvi breathes in and out, her head against the trunk as her eyes close.

She feels the drum inside of her head, the music of the hidden reaching out to her as her breathing slows and her magic dissipates with each breath. She is afraid, but she will not be overruled by her emotions, not when the risk is too great.

She can't see anything anymore, as Randvi is too afraid to peek her head around the tree to look where the monk is currently standing, but she hears his heavy footfalls against the leaves on the ground. The crackling of the fire, and the chirps of the grasshoppers sing in the night as the forest is dead silent and it makes Randvi feel more uneasy with each step she hears.

Then she hears leaves rustling and the boy, Squirrel, struggling to free himself as the monk walks over to him. The frightened whimpers of the boy fill the air and it tugs on Randvi's heart as more tears escape her eyes. She was about to witness and hear a little boy's slaughter and she did nothing for it, for she was too afraid of making herself known.

"You tell your Fey brethren what you saw here. Tell them I'm coming," she hears, mumbled into the night as a sound of something hitting the ground fills her ears. Randvi then hears running, but she doesn't dare peek out over the bark of the tree.

The wind picks up for a second, brushing through the ground and picking up leaves as it travels across the land. Randvi's hair flows off her neck and flies in the wind, straight for the Weeping Monk. Her scent of wood smoke, lilac, and some other type of herb that the grey monk can't describe invades his nostrils, and the same purple eyes flicker in his head.

"You can come out, I know you're here." His voice is muffled and strained as his words ring in her head, and her next breath comes out with a shake as she hears his footsteps near her spot behind the tree.

Randvi's breathing increases as her magic ignites at the mere feeling of danger, the familiar feeling of something building in the pit of her stomach. With a deep breath, Randvi steps from behind the tree and reveals herself to the grey monk, his features hidden by the darkness of his hood once again.

  The monk stops in his tracks as her frame is revealed to his blue eyes, and his gaze travels up and down her form as her chin wobbles with freight. "Does it give you courage when your sword tastes fey blood?" Randvi managed to croak out, not understanding why she felt the pull to reveal herself and not just run in the opposite direction. She should have ran.

The Weeping Monk didn't even move a muscle as he stared back at her, his sword dangling from his hand as they stared at one another. Their eyes studying each other's frames as they tried to read one another. "You know what gives me courage?" Randvi breathes out, feeling her magic pulse in the air around her. Like smoke invading her lungs, and the feeling of not being able to breathe invades her senses. "the fact that you burned my village to the ground and left none of us left, not even the children, and now I can avenge them by burning you."

If the grey cloaked Monk was even fazed by her words, he didn't show anything to indicate he was affected by her threat. Randvi forced down bile rising in her throat as her eyes began to glow a white, and he watches with bated breath.

  Then, the Monk immediately began walking towards her, and Randvi backed away as his pace quickened. Randvi then summoned her magic and her hand shot out but nothing but embers flew out of her fingers. She looked down at her hands, panicked before her eyes shot back up to the Monk, with a smirk on his face.

  Seriously? She cursed herself silently as she turned around and began to run. She could still hear his footfalls behind her and the more panicked she became, the more the drum sounded louder in her ears. Randvi stuck her hand out again and this time, the pyrokinetic energy flew out of her hands and hit the tree behind her, slicing the trunk down the middle and letting it fall right in the Monk's path. Randvi slowed down her run to look over her shoulder, watching as the Monk's features were illuminated in the fire's light, his marks under his eyes glowing an orange as they stared at each other again.

The Weeping Monk watched her evade his clutches again for the third time, and his breathing got heavy as he watched her frame disappear in the night.

A/N: Randvi is really behind that tree thinking: what idiots these fey are lol. 5 minutes later, she doing the same thing and then embarrassing herself in front of her emo boyfriend. 

Anyways, I hope you guys are enjoying my ideas so far, and Randvi's character. I'm so happy people are actually commenting on this story since it motivating me to continue writing for you and not just myself lol.  I wasn't initially going to write this much for this chapter. ( 4250 words ) but then i kept writing and went with the flow. so I hope you don't mind the length of the chapter. Let me know if you like small chapters, or the bigger ones??

The whole 'rescue' for Squirrel makes me laugh every time that I watch it, so I had to include it in here as well.  I just think it's hilarious that these fey are poking this famous fey killer with a huge fork, and thought it was going to turn out well for them.

I also made a playlist specific to Randvi and Lancelot, and what music I listen to and think of their relationship on spotify. So if you want to check that out, scan the code below, or just search up my name on spotify: lahnistersden

I hope you liked the chapter, and don't forget to vote!! :)