Journey in Thia

Hi, everyone. I’m, Norline. Thank you for clicking on my story.

This is part one of the first chapter.

Chapter Section Content Warning: Prejudice (Let me know if I need to add anything else.)

I hope you enjoy it. Please be sure to leave a comment when you’re done.

Philip replied to the lull of the dark with a cry for rest. The declaration of war on the waking world caught Sven’s attention. Neither had predicted the night turn twice as long when they agreed to skip sleep to finish their journey. Excitement was a siren’s song that led to their misjudgment. Now they waned with each step as the wagon’s weight grew. Remorse left him in a sigh, but prompted a suggestion, “If you want, I can haul the wagon again. You sleep and I will wake you when we reach the city.”

Philip pushed away the dark spots beneath his eyes with an upward curl of his lips, “And let you have all the fun? Not a chance. Besides, we promised Mum we would take her to Freya’s Fountain the instant we arrived. I can’t let sleep keep me from that.”

A knot formed in Sven’s belly.

I never promised anything,

he thought. He sent it away with a dismissive shrug while he readjusted his pull-strap over his shoulder, “Then let me know if you change your tune.”

“You’ll love the Fountain, Angel. I bet it can fix your memories.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I’ve seen what it can do. The only thing it can’t do is…”

You were only a child when you saw whatever it was, Sven thought. He straightened himself and continued forward. “We risk falling asleep if we distract ourselves.”

Determination kept the verge of collapse at bay when one step at last rumbled out a fierce yawn that festered in Sven.

“C’mon. I see the walls up ahead,” Philip said, his words lackluster as he responded in kind to the tired chant, the sound flowing over into his next speech, “A few more minutes, and we’re there.”

“I see them too,” Sven gestured his head at the wagon, “Get in.”

“Are you serious? You want to hurt yourself in these last moments of our trip?”

“Philip, let me do this. This last bit of travel will not harm me.”

“I don’t know. It seems pointless if we can finish on our own.”

“We will save ourselves time and energy. And understand I can throw you in the wagon.”

Philip’s face blew back. His eyes blinked as he took in the words, then his lips parted and freed a chuckle. “Alright. I surrender,” he placed his arms up as they stopped. “I’ll-” As he removed his straps, he paused. His nose twitched, then his eyes twinkled, “I smell people! I think they’re human.”

“Humans?”

Further along the path, there were figures and light. As their forms grew, a finger twitched, a call for Sven to use his magic; to teleport himself, his brother and their things to the gates in his view. A voice nagged him from a would-be lecture. He kept his hands to himself.

“Oh, they have horses too. If they aren’t skittish, maybe they can help us get over to the gates?”

“Are you sure? I would hate to upset them.” Sven said. His vision tunneled on the figures as his breathing became shallow at every step.

“Hey,” Philip said, “You don’t need to fear for the horses or be afraid of the humans. We can’t judge them based on the actions of people from our past.” He intertwined their hands, “Mum grew up here. We might have a family here, so it can’t be all that bad.”

Sven bathed in his brother’s words, his nerves ran from his head and fell at his toes. However, reality could not be ignored. He made eye contact once more, blinked and replied, “You were thrown from a cliff, Philip.”

“And I’ll have you know there’s not a single cliff here right now, so calm yourself and let me do the talking,” he gave another blasted smile, showing his teeth in his confidence; it was audacious.

“You cannot speak Xenation…”

“Oh. Right… Okay, then you translate.”

“Of course, brother,” Sven said, a sigh held hostage in his lungs and his lips felled in exasperation.

Philip squeezed his hand, “We’re a team, right?”

Sven looked up at the sudden question. Though every part of him screamed that something would go wrong, he would never abandon his post as a brother. “Of course. Always,” he said and squeezed back.

Light shone from lanterns hung on the wagon’s front. Horses marched alongside their humans with one carrying the leader. As they drew closer to the elves, the beasts neighed, shook their heads and fought to move backward. Philip waved as they calmed their animals. Sven braced himself and did the same. The humans returned the motion, then made way for them after they settled the horses.

Freya’s mercy, please let nothing go awry, Sven thought. Arms fell while they waited. Philip’s face cracked in another grin while Sven’s twitch returned. A vice snared him, whispering to slink away; he was bound in place. Philip nudged him with his elbow, “Don’t be so somber. Strangers are just friends that you haven’t met yet.”

“While that is true, there is no shame in being cautious. Monsters can look like anyone.”

Optimism waded through a sigh, “Soon you’ll learn to be open-minded with your heart when we find Dad.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Just be nice while you translate for me.”

“Alri-”

[“Lookie at whut we got here, e’eryone,”] said the human upon the horse, [“It’s a couple o’ knife-ear magicians. Wasn’ the point o’ Garnett so that all yew elves cud have yer own space?”]

Sven’s eyes widened. What did he just say? he thought.

Philip cleared his throat, “We’re sorry to have upset your horses. I hope you’re not sore about it. We’re just trying to make it to the city.” He pointed behind them, “Will you help us, please?”

More protests were made with stomps and neighs. The group of humans jumped to protect each other and their wagon. [“Are ya tryin’ ta curse my brother, knife-ears?”] said one of the footmen as he pulled out a dagger. [“Wipe that smile off yer face!”] he said while the rest soothed the horses.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare anyone,” the words ran out of Philip’s mouth as he placed his hands in front of himself. “What did I say?” he whispered to his brother.

“Keep quiet,” Sven said. He cleared his throat, [“My brother is no mage and is casting no curses. He greeted you and asked for your help to take us to the city,”] he said, his arms remained in place, [“We did not mean to scare your horses or to frighten you. We will excuse ourselves and continue on our way.”] After that, he turned to Philip.

[“Whoa, slow down there, knifey,”] said the leader as he pulled out a riding crop to address the elf, [“What’re ya goin’ ta Thia fer?”]

Sven’s attention was brought back to the human. He made eye contact with him, blue marbles taking in the soil-colored brown; soil that poorly buried the contempt the human had towards him and his brother. The last time Sven had seen eyes like that, he watched his brother be tossed off a cliffside.

[“For personal reasons.”]

Stone cold focus laid over the man’s face. After a moment of unblinking, he gave a wry smile, [“Fine. Don’t tell me. But we’ll have ta investigate yer wagon.”]

[“You do? Are you border patrol?”]

The man chuckled, [“Yes, we are.”]

[“Then why-”] Before Sven could finish his question, the man signaled his group to go through their things. -are you not in uniform? he thought, I suppose Xen is not as strict with their law enforcement.

“What did he say? What’s going on?”

When the group approached them, Philip smiled and removed his pull-straps. Again, it faded when the humans did the unexpected, leaving his face scrunched in question as he watched them climb into the wagon and go through all of their worldly possessions.

As Sven joined him, the horses were upset again, though they were quieter about it. “The man says they’re border patrol. They have to go through our belongings. I think it is to make sure we are non-threatening,” his gaze never left the strangers as they searched through their things.

“That’s strange. I didn’t know that Xen has a border patrol like Garnett.”

“Perhaps it is something recent?”

“That has to be it, something new.”

Sven pulled his gaze from the humans, distracted by his thoughts, “Does that mean that there has been-?”

“Hey, not her!” Philip said when they had come across their mother’s urn. In a blink, he leapt into the wagon, “It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just that that’s all we have of our mum,” he outstretched his arms to take his mother from the young woman that held her in her clutches. “Please, can I have her back?” he asked, then looked at Sven.

The leader approached the mage while still atop his horse and used his crop to make Sven face him, [“Are ya hidin’ somethin’ from us in that thing?”]

[“No. That is an urn. Our mother’s ashes are in there. It is very important to us. Will you please have her give it back?”]

One by one, the man’s gaze took in all involved; from Sven to Philip to his group member, then to the urn. Another moment of silence passed before he said, [“Dump it.”] He pointed with his crop to a spot just a little ways near him on the dirt path, [“There.”]

[“What? Why?”]

Urn still tight in her claw-grip, the young woman jumped out of the wagon. Philip turned as pale as a spirit, “Angel, what’s she doing? What’s she doing to Mum, Angel? What is she doing??”

As instructed, she was in the spot on the path. Delight broke across her face with her tongue caught in her teeth as she removed the lid then turned the urn over.

“MUM!”

The sound of the ashes and bone as they tossed around was soft, followed by the gentle whoosh when they poured from their rightful homeplace. Next would be the thud as the clumps made contact with the ground, yet they never came.

Blood came to a boil in his veins. In silence, Sven held out his hand and caught the ashes midair with his magic. Behind him, he heard a sigh of relief, but his focus was on the man on the horse in front of him.

[“Are you satisfied? There are no harmful weapons to be found in our mother’s ashes,”] he waved his hand and returned the remains, then waved again to seal it and levitated the urn back to Philip; whom had just climbed out of the wagon to be back at his side.

The man on the horse eyed him down again, [“Perfectly.”]

Once reunited with their mother, Sven lowered his arm, [“You are not border patrol, are you?”]

[“Not officially, no. But my kin an’ I like ta think that we dew gud by protectin’ our homeland.”]

Sven furrowed his brow, [“Who are you people?”]

A grin formed in the man’s unkempt facial hair, [“We’re the Crawfords.”]

Thank you so much for reading. If you don’t mind, please take some time to answer these questions to help my writing improve.

1:

What is your first impression from the opening line?

2:

What is your first impression of the opening scene?

3:

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4:

Does it flow well or poorly?

5:

How good or poor is my Show-Don’t-Tell?

6:

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7:

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8:

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10:

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