"What are you talking about!?" I yanked on my arm, but his grip was iron tight.

"You don't know what he is," Simon lowered his voice once again. "The elves --"

"The elves are just like us," Aldyth drove her foot into his shin. Simon winced and loosened his hold just enough for me wriggle loose and shove him to the ground.

"You don't understand," he gasped. "He's one of them! Don't you see!? He'll lead you right to --" His fingers closed over my ankle and dragged me to the dirt with a hard hit to my head. He was strong and I soon lost any upper hand I would have gained when he smashed my jaw against the ground. "They're savages, those elves are," he hissed into my ear. "Just as bad as the atrixes --"

I snapped my shoulder back into his jaw. "Why are you fighting us, we have done nothing to you," I growled when my fist drove into his face.

I let out a low groan. Simon had slammed his knee up against my ribs and for the longest moment; I froze in anticipation. I had seen a good many brawls at the tavern in Gris. Most of the fights ended after the first punch -- at least the ones I was involved in -- but this didn't seem like the kind of drunken sparring that was usually found in a back alley bar. My hands clawed against the ground searching for anything that could be made into a weapon. My fingers closed around a handful of sand and gravel, and I whipped around to fling it in his eyes. Simon was stumbling backwards a step when I lunged at him.

Aldyth, who up until that moment was frozen with shock, started backing away slowly until her shoulders grazed the wall of the shed.

I hadn't the time to tell her to run, nor anything else productive. Simon's head cracked back against a pile of woodstock, sending the freshly chopped lumber tumbling to the ground. His blood ran down my hands from a cut down his temple as I pressed my forearm down against his throat, and shoved him back against the back wall. Aldyth sprange out of the way before she too was caught in the middle of the brawl.

The rabid farmboy bared his teeth at me, now painted pink with his own blood. "Leave- leave us be," I panted. His hands tried to remove my arms, but I just increased the pressure on his windpipe in response.

Suddenly, with a mighty growl, Simon threw his weight forward, which sent the both of crashing back to the ground. A flurry of words danced under his breath as he pinned one of my arms to the ground with his knee and jabbed an elbow into my throat so roughly that for a moment, I thought my lungs had collapsed. Among them, I could have sworn I caught the words, savages, and something about sips.

And underneath it all, was the constant pounding of a drum that existed not, but inside my head, mirroring the ragged beat of my heart and racing veins in my eyes. For the split second, the battle drum crescendoed and it felt as if the earth would part to fuel the silence that no one else could hear.

The movement came without conscience decision. The next thing I knew, Simon was on the ground in my place, clutching at his chest as if a parasite were trying to dig its way out of his heart. "What did you do to me?" He gasped, and for the briefest moments, his eyes flashed yellow as the sky after the dawn. His fist found my face and I could just feel my jaw hinging backwards in the wrong direction. There was a loud crack, though it impossible to tell if it was his hand or my face. I fell over to the side, my jaw bones screaming in pain.

Suddenly Simon stopped fighting, yet I could still feel his shadow looming over me like a ghost in a graveyard. The boy let out a gargled noise and I turned to see his eyes as wide as saucers. "Why are you attacking us?" Aldyth's arm was wrapped tightly around his neck with her dagger clenched in a fist at his throat. Her tone was icy.

"You're with the elf, aren't you?" Simon sputtered only to have the blade pressed more tightly to his skin.

"Yeah, we're with him," she muttered into his ear.

"Figures, elves never travel with bystanders," Simon's eyes burned with a newfound hatred. "I should have known better, filthy creatures, the lot of you." His eyes moved between Aldyth and me. "Heh, a girl with a knife is the one to end the fight." His voice was sneering. "I would have thought he would have at least been a decent protector, but it would appear that your only use for him comes when the stars turn their eyes away -- then again, you seem tense. He's probably not good at that job either."

"The night has its secrets and the night tells none," Aldyth purred. "Besides. I was watching this battle, and from what I saw, Elias almost had you beat. Now be careful what you say, Simon. When I tire my hands tend to grow unsteady. We don't want any accidents tonight. We're here to do what we say we're here to do, then we'll be on our way. No harm. No foul."

"I'm riding out tonight," Simon growled through his teeth as if that mattered to anyone.

"Whatever reenforcements you bring won't be here for days," Aldyth's lips pressed into a thin smile. "We'll be gone by first light."

Slowly, I crawled to my feet in a cloud of my own stunned silence. Aldyth had always had her whims for drama, but this seemed be overstepping the boundary, even for her. I did my best to keep my face neutral. It appeared that we would have no friends to help us, no matter where we went.

"What do you think you know about us?" I asked in a tone that hopefully matched Aldyth's.

"Why should I tell you what I know?" He spat at the ground by my feet.

"Aldyth is holding a blade to your throat." Just this morning she all but pushed me off a cliff. "I don't think it's within your boundaries to be denying information."

"I have no fear of death."

"Who said anything about killing?" Aldyth's eyes sparkled as she yanked the farmboy up to his feet, the dagger still tucked neatly under his chin. "I was thinking something more along the lines of tying you up to a stump like that old ass of yours so you can wait until someone comes to release you."

"You wouldn't," Simon hissed.

You see, that's one of thing I learned about Aldyth at an early age. The moment you say she wouldn't do something, she would go right ahead and do it, just to prove that she could. There were times when she would get carried away, but in this situation, I was all but delighted to aid her in turning the farm boy into a pack animal.