If someone swore to Waverly that she had died and gone to paradise somewhere, it would have taken no difficulty to believe them. The realm she was in, as she learned in no time, was Alpgeton - the Land of Elves.

The shock and ecstasy following the revelation that such a realm - where everything and everyone was flawless, stainless and unnaturally withdrawn from the rest of the world - existed seemed so incomprehensible.

Waverly had regained consciousness only a month before to find the looming yet blurry images of four brown haired women above her. When her vision returned to its acuity, she realized these women were Elves. They were the tallest and largest Elves she had seen yet. Their hands, albeit gentle, were big enough to contain a small human head. Doubtless of how large and threatening they looked, each woman was uniquely beautiful and kinder than any creature could ever be.

They wore large flower chaplets around their heads and across their smooth faces were delicate markings from a blue substance that Waverly guessed were old tribal marks. Their robes, although wizened and lackluster, looked rather very ancient and distinct as if it were an important yet prosaic map that guided one to the palace of the gods.

Waverly's eyes had first opened on a warm afternoon, disoriented and appalled. It took a few words of persuasion to get her to calm down. When she did at last, one of the Elfin women named Reela explained to her that alongside a wounded companion, she had been transported to the realm by Chryselephants; a pair of Alpgetonian horses created from gold and ivory.

Waverly realized that the armor she thought she had seen was actually the gold and ivory coat of those animals.

She could barely remember anything else other than the blackness she had drowned in after the horses arrived. When she asked after Brijjet, she was told that he had woken up a few hours before she did and that his injuries were deep and could have killed him if Waverly hesitated longer before blowing on the horn.

The horses had transported them swiftly to the lookouts of the realm's border where a pair of sentries found them and brought them to the Elfin nurses. They further revealed upon questioning that the horn Waverly had used to call on the horses was a special one delicately crafted to draw the attention of the Chryselephants to whomever had blown it. However, they refrained from explaining how the horn had come to be in Brijjet's pouch.

After a few minutes of rest, putting extra bandages around her injured arm, a thorough washing and a good meal, Waverly was allowed around the incredible realm for a tour.

First, she asked to visit Brijjet. It was a miracle he was even alive and standing. Albeit, his injury had been grave enough to reduce him to using his bow in its walking stick form but he seemed to be able to move around just fine. Waverly found him two rooms away from hers, lightly bandaged around his torso and dressed in a traditional kind of clothing that included slim brown robes and trousers of deep red. With a jolt, Waverly realized that he looked no different from the other Elves.

"You are an Elf." Waverly said jauntily.

Brijjet sniggered. "What did you think i was? A fire mortal?"

He offered to show her around since he had spent the earliest parts of his childhood in Alpgeton. He confessed to Waverly that he had only started running from Ante at ten years of age. Whilst under the care of the Nurses (the four lady Elves) Brid had left him with, Ante could not touch him as a baby. A couple of years later, he was declared missing after a hunting expedition went horribly wrong. His derailment attracted Ante who was finally able to pin down his location. Unable to find his way back to Alpgeton, he had run off and began to live as a nomad.

He showed Waverly around the first place she had woken up in - The Almshouse. The inn was a lovely place and was designed to host and take care of those who were lost, sick, injured or convalescent. It was situated on a mountain top at the mouth of the realm's gates. This was only a few rides away from where gigantic walls met the cobbled ramp of a very tall bridge. Waverly guessed it was only half as tall as the bridge of Bridge.

The concrete walls of the Almshouse were covered with a shiny type of coating that reflected different dim colors. Because of this, the room needed no torches. The roof magically rose and lowered whenever the Nurses stood or sat. The beds were two sizes bigger than Waverly, dressed with snow white sheets that were made from swansdown.

Waverly's new clothes were woven from the same feather and for the first time, she felt confident and comfortable. Brijjet led her away from the Almshouse and toward the sentry house nearest the inn.

He informed her, as they boarded the carriage that was to transport them, that there were more Almshouses scattered across the realm but the Nurses' was the most visited mostly by outsiders or travelers seeking medical help because they were the best healers in the realm.

Huge mountains bordered the entire realm as far as the eyes could see, with the sea gleaming at their feet. Even though they seemed close by, Brijjet told Waverly that it would take over a hundred and ninety days of travel via horseback to get to the foot of the mountains because they served as enclosures for the entire realm. Alpgeton and the sea sat in the very middle of the mountains.

"In the old days," Brijjet explained. "Those mountains moved. The first race of our people called Elder Elves were the only ones with the power to call to them so they didn't have to travel long. Now, as far as i know, after their time none has ever travelled to the mountain. The sea will not let anyone pass."

Waverly leaned inward. "What do you mean that the sea will not let anyone pass?"

"I'm not sure. It's never refused me as i've never tried to cross over. By the way, i doubt there is anything interesting to see beyond the mountains."

Waverly kept quiet and did not ask any more questions about the mountains.

It seemed like forest, sea and land had mixed together to form one colossal, infinite dwelling and when Waverly began to tour the realm she was less than baffled to discover that it held three different, equally infinite cities in it. The first was submerged in total greenery, the second experienced a permanent snowfall and the last looked quite normal.

Despite the clear difference, all three parts of the realm blended into one in such a harmonic way that Waverly felt like weaving in and out of it until she dropped dead. They were first driven into the green city which Waverly concluded was the biggest one she would ever see in her lifetime.

"Alpgeton has no towns or boroughs or counties?" She asked looking perplexed at the city that seemed to have no sort of divisions.

"Where is the need?" Brijjet retorted mildly and she did not mention this again.

Brijjet elaborated that three major race of Elves dwelled in each part; the greenery inhabitants were called Wood Elves, the wintery inhabitants were Snow Elves and the other normal part were Land Elves. He further added that in between each city was a large section for the fourth and most delicate race of Elves.

"Water Elves." Waverly swiftly guessed because she had immediately remembered Niana.

"Yes." Brijjet agreed beaming. Their carriage rode smoothly through the first part rightly called The Woodlands, which was nearest to the open sea and faced the towering mountains.

The Elves there had taut skin as Waverly quickly noticed. It was as if their bodies refused to wrinkle with age. What with their refined physiques and heedless behaviors, this race indeed seemed the most daring of all four.

"They produce the best hunters in the seven realms. It's a gift that has been passed down to every generation since the beginning. Half the lot of them are old warriors and Kingsmen, fishermen and women, guards and mountaineers. They're literally everywhere." Brijjet explained with a hint of pride in his tone.

Wood Elves were not as big as the Nurses who were the largest ones around because they were some of the very first Elves that lived during the birth of the realm itself, but they were taller than most. A number of them were dressed in either camouflage, dark colors, combat clothes or very light outfits. Waverly felt a small pride swell inside her chest when she spotted a bunch of elves swinging from a very tall tree dressed in shorts and tops exactly the way she loved to.

A great number of their houses were suspended within the branches of powerful trees that towered even higher than the buildings in the normal part of the main city Waverly had just left. Some of them were stationed on the ground and a few of these ones merged with clean lakes and streams which easily flowed right through them like a canal.

Waverly quickly spotted some peculiar creatures swimming in the water. Colored gills protruded from their cheeks and fins jutted out of their elbows, their skin was as pale as ice and their eyes were large slants of deep blue. She watched keenly as a young Elven boy knelt at the edge of a protruding wooden plank and peered into the clear water below. His face registered shock as he fell in with a splash after a blue haired nixie surprised him with a bubbly kiss. He surfaced moments later, laughing and splashing water at her. Waverly frowned when she overheard the water elf speak in plain English.

She turned to Brijjet. "The one i met could not speak English like that. She gurgled."

He nodded clutching his bandaged stomach but his face showed no pain. "She was definitely purebred then. These ones have a mixed Elven parent and that is why they can. . ." He paused to look at Waverly in slight bewilderment. "How have you seen a purebred Nixie? There aren't any here as far as i know."

"I-I. . . during the Trials." Waverly answered quickly. She had completely forgotten that her encounter with Niana was meant to be a secret. Brijjet nodded even though he still gazed at her in mild suspicion. Their carriage began to come close to the border of the Woodlands even though Waverly wished to stay and explore every inch of it. She had never seen so many Elves her age before. Many more looked to be approaching their late teens and more often than not Waverly found them in pairs doing dangerous things with an air of strange randomity.

Amongst one of such pairs was an Elfin who dangled upside down from the low branch of a tree, whistling and talking to another Elf on the ground. Whether out of pure instinct or Waverly suspected the girl had seen it, the elfin impulsively reached far into the branches above and grabbed a very long serpent. She gripped the reptile firmly by its throat, still talking casually to her friend on the ground as though nothing had happened. The snake soon went limp and the girl let it go. It landed behind their carriage as it drove past. Waverly's mouth hung open in awe. Brijjet who was oblivious to her bewilderment continued to explain as much as he could about the Woodlands.

Before Waverly could recompose herself, a biting cold had engulfed her. The carriage had rolled into the snowy dwelling of the Snow Elves.

She felt the cold only for a minute because as soon as she was made to alight the carriage, a large hooded fur coat draped over her shoulders. Two male Elves stood in front of her and Brijjet and greeted them ever so humbly with solemn bows and handshakes.

"Sentries for Snaw Ford's portion of the shared border." Brijjet whispered into Waverly's ear as they walked past them.

"Snaw Ford?" Waverly asked with an amused frown. "That is what this part is called?"

"Yes. Snaw means. . ."

"Snow. I know." Waverly interjected.

"And Ford, because you can walk across the snow. There was once a time when non-Elves could not walk into Snaw Ford. It swallowed them up."

"The snow did?" Asked Waverly, horrified as she glared hard at the crunchy precipitation under her feet.

"Yes. But that was eons ago. Now anyone is welcome as long as they mean well." Added Brijjet. He pointed to the magnificent cozy looking booth that spanned half the length of the border. Waverly quickly noted the interesting way in which the booth was built; half of it looked vividly green inside the Woodland while the other half glinted a painful white inside the everlasting winter. She wondered if this was reflected inside the booth as well - if one part of it was cold and the other, green and warm.

The sentry Elves allowed their carriage pass but not without Waverly stealing lingering glances at them. They each had straight white hair that reached down to the small of their backs. The wintery atmosphere contributed by intensifying the whiteness of their hair so that Waverly felt a sharp pain in her eyes from gazing at them for long.

They had solemn beautiful faces that made her think of newborn babies and puppies but there was a hardness in their buff colored pupils that also warned Waverly that they could handle a sword better than she could handle a common spoon.

The lifestyle of the Snow Elves - as Waverly learned - was much quieter, less daring, more careful and even more coordinated. They lived in cozy houses, their roofs garlanded by serried specks of multicolored lights whose reflections danced in the snow. Their doors were round and white and covered in patterns that reminded Waverly vividly of Judson's tree. This memory caused a throe of sorrow to course through her chest. She tried to peel the thought of Judson from her mind but it was impossible. She had told herself that she would find him soon as she hated to think what those foul creatures were doing with him; they were probably hurting him, plucking the delicate feathers off his wings, whipping him or starving him until he. . . .

Waverly forced herself to focus on a bunch of adolescent Elves who had willed the snow to melt into a small puddle of water. They laid on their bellies and had begun to lap up the water with their tongues when an adult Elf caught them, yelling and advancing dangerously fast but they giggled and poofed into giant icicles.

"The cold does not bother them at all, does it?" Waverly asked absentmindedly.

Brijjet shook his head. "No. Feels pretty much to them what the summer weather feels to you."

"Are you sure you can continue going any further?" Waverly asked examining him. He had leaned forward, perhaps involuntarily, and he looked white with effort. Waverly was unsure if it was because of the snow or the strain on his midsection from the injury.

"I'm okay. This is just exercise." He replied waving dismissively. He urged the carriage driver on. The Snow Elves were interesting in the kind of way that staring into a lake full of fish was. They got boring fast. Their dwelling was big but the Wood Elves seemed to have a bigger portion.

By late noon they passed by the last sentry booth where Waverly was asked to drop off her bear skin coat. There, she saw a wide green lake teeming with several stumps and low hanging trees, their fallen autumn leaves graced the surface of the green water. The lake divided the snowy ground from the other side of the city.

A large brick bridge connected one side to the other and as Waverly looked on, she caught glimpse of a trio of young Wood Elves sneaking across it. She watched in silence as they stealthily made their way into the wintery part of town then silently celebrated their success with them when they got to the other end. The snow suddenly turned their auburn hair white. Waverly inadvertently reached for her own hair wondering if it had looked different in the snow.

The Elves giggled in silent triumph but their victory did not last because they had not gotten far when suddenly a sentry guard blocked their path. His white hair swished behind him as he glowered down at them. Waverly gasped realizing he had run from the booth, as fast as Brijjet.

"This is the fourth time this week you three have tried to smuggle ice rocks from Mr Bonten. Did you think i would not notice you try to cross the bridge?" He said calmly but his glare was hot enough to melt the snow he stood on.

"We just want only one piece to freeze our chocolate cups to sell, Aveon." One of the Elves whined.

"Be that as it may, you three are breaking the rules." Aveon replied blinking softly at them. His anger, as quickly as it had come, had disappeared. Waverly fondly remembered HalfHyde.

She looked at Brijjet as he followed her across the bridge into the third and final part of the city. This time, they walked.

"H-he ran like you do."

Brijjet hummed. "I noticed."

They toured slowly here because Waverly did not want the sightseeing to end and because Brijjet moved slowly. She had only seen a semi quarter of each part of Alpgeton and she knew it would probably take her a few more months or longer to see it all but she wanted to savor every moment as much as she could. The part of town they had walked into was called Nael.

"What does it mean?" Waverly asked as she avoided bumping her shoulder against the waist of passers-by.

"Fertility. I'm not sure if you've noticed yet but this part of town is a little bit overcrowded." Replied Brijjet looking about in delight. "This is where i grew up."

Waverly looked at him. He looked back at her and quickly added. "Well, i grew up a little bit of basically everywhere but i consider this part more. . . my hometown."

He led Waverly past markets, town halls, stalls, shrines, theaters, smithery, learning halls, playgrounds, magnificent temples, public pools, dress stores and gift shops stationed near impossibly huge monuments of a few gods. Waverly stared up at a statue Brijjet claimed was of Jolan but what she saw was only a white bird. The biggest dove anyone could craft.

"Why a dove?" Waverly asked as she slightly touched the end of its shiny beak which was the only thing about the bird that was tall enough for her fingers to reach. Even at that, she had to stand on her tippy toes. The bird was so enormous she wondered how many more statues like it were scattered about the realm and how long it had taken to build them.

"Well, purity." Brijjet replied. He gazed reverently at the bird. Waverly guessed it was the only one he would ever look at that way because Jolan had saved his life a little over fifty years ago. He disliked almost every one of the other gods.

"Come on, you need to see this one." He took Waverly's hand and led her deeper into the crowd. The city square was so big that Waverly feared if she lost sight of Brijjet there was no way on earth she could find him again. For a split second, she hated the sheer size of Nael. She had almost concluded that the Wood Elves had the bigger portion but Nael made their part of the realm look like a speck of dust.

She fought to stick close to Brijjet whose injury seemed to do nothing to slow him down now. He led her past landscape after landscape and house after house with Waverly usually gaping at a thing or two before catching herself and running up to meet him again.

At last, they arrived at a huge temple that was separated from the bustling city. It was prominent in the evening sky, so blinding white that it could not be missed even from a hundred miles away.

"You're not ready for this, moonshine." Brijjet muttered with a hidden snide in his tone. He took Waverly's hand and pulled her close.

"What do you want to show me?" She inquired suspiciously.

"Oh, you'll soon see." He replied and led her around the building. "Now you have to close your eyes because it's going to be a real treat."

Waverly shut her eyes as they rounded a corner that led to the back of the temple. It stood so high off from the ground that the top of her head could only go past the slab of its substructure.

Brijjet took hold of her shoulders and made her spin a couple of times until she became so dizzy that even with her eyes shut, she was sure she would still see double.

Brijjet urged her to keep spinning.

"Alright, open your eyes." Brijjet announced happily.

Waverly opened her eyes mid spin, let out a sharp scream and fell to the ground. Brijjet roared with delightful laughter, clutching his stomach for support. Waverly let her wobbling eyes settle for a few minutes before she joined him in his humorous fits of laughter. He had spun her for so long, all the while leading her to a series of statues of Selene arranged in a semicircle behind the temple. When she opened her eyes, the statues all seemed to be looking straight into her face giving her such a bad jolt that she had screamed out of pure terror.

"I definitely was not ready for that." Waverly breathed placing a hand on her pounding heart.

"This is Selene's temple. The biggest one around. Elves know her very well but she's not worshipped much because the patron god of the Elves is -"

"Brij!" A new voice called. It sounded unsure and a little shocked.

Waverly and Brijjet turned to look at whoever it was.

There were two Elven boys walking in calculated steps toward them. The pair looked about a few years older than Brijjet himself. They were dressed in clothes of dark blue and faded green that almost blended in with their surrounding and the evening sky. Both had neck length black hair, the same almond brown eyes and lovely sallow skin. They had numerous strange things tied and buckled around themselves that Waverly thought made them look like hoarders.

She concluded that the boys were identical twins and from her visual assessment of them - a pair of troublesome twins.

"No way." Brijjet breathed googling at them like he had been presented with a bucketful of his favorite foods.

They rushed at Brijjet and pulled him into a tight hug. Waverly stared on in silence. The boys patted Brijjet on the back repeatedly, their eyes twinkling with restrained tears. It seemed that a silent conversation passed amongst the trio because for a long time no one spoke. They only touched one another as if unable to believe that the other was real.

"It's so good to see you again, you two scapegraces." Brijjet chuckled at last.

One of the twins snorted. "Look who's talking." His gaze flickered to the bandages around Brijjet's body. "Where have you been for the last thirty four years, huhn?"

Brijjet shrugged lazily. "Just doing what i do best."

"Jumping around like Borzoi?" The other twin guessed with a wide, silly grin.

"Shut up." Brijjet chuckled playfully pushing the boy's head. "How's Borzoi by the way?"

"She has nineteen puppies now. The nerve of that dog." The first twin said gritting his teeth. His voice was deeply melodious.

Brijjet whistled in disbelief. "No leash?"

The second twin scoffed. "What good does that do? She doesn't go to them, they come to her."

All three of them burst out laughing. Just then, the first twin, the one who had called Brijjet's name, noticed Waverly standing quietly a few feet away.

"That your friend, Brij?" He asked pointing weakly at Waverly. His eyes suddenly seemed to be unfocused, clocking from behind Waverly, to her face and back again. His twin noticed her too and thinned his lips; his eyes did the same clocklike movement.

"Yeah uh, this is-- " Brijjet started then stopped momentarily. He had also begun to look at Waverly in a strange way and this finally prompted Waverly to turn slowly, checking to know if something dangerous was behind her but all that was there were eight statues of Selene in a semicircle.

"What?" She inquired irritatingly.

"You're friends with a goddess?" One of the twins asked breathlessly. He was the one with the deep voice and his comment made Waverly turn visibly red in the face.

"She's not a goddess." Brijjet replied.

"I thought you hated their lot." The other added thoughtfully.

"What?" Waverly asked blankly.

"No, that's not. . ." Brijjet started to say as he walked towards her, his eyes still clocking from her to the statues. ". . . this is Waverly. She's a good friend of mine."

The twins seemed to relax at that but their gazes lingered still. Brijjet pointed first to the Elf with the deep voice. "Waverly, this is Dermot. And his brother, Diarmaid."

The first twin, Dermot, bowed curtly. "Tom Red. At your service, my lady."

The second bowed as well. "Raid Maid."

Dermot nudged his brother. "It's Diam Raid, you magnificent chowderhead. You're not a girl."

"It's been so long since we did that. I only forgot." Diarmaid defended scratching his torso where his brother had nudged him.

"They are identical twins." Waverly blurted. She had somehow been wanting to say it out loud ever since she set eyes on them.

"No, no, no, please no, my lady." Dermot chuckled. "We aren't twins at all. This freak just stole my face in the middle of the night."

"You stole my face." Diarmaid said frowning slightly. "I'm the good looking one, everybody knows that."

Dermot scoffed. "You've seen your face, haven't you?"

The brothers began to bicker but Waverly smiled knowing it was only playful quarrel.

"They are not twins, Waverly." Brijjet said quietly placing his arm around her shoulder. She almost crumbled to her knees because he had unintentionally put all his weight on her but she held him up anyway. She was sure that his injury still hurt despite his ignorance of it, what with walking around the town and laughing hard.

"Diarmaid is two years younger but they would usually look so much alike to whoever is only seeing them for the very first time. This effect wears off after a month or less if you grow accustomed to Diarmaid's personality." Brijjet explained. His breath smelled heavily of eucalyptus and milk.

Waverly watched the brothers who were now arguing over who would look more stupid in a stovepipe hat and lady shoes. She concluded that she liked them already and that she loved Alpgeton even more than her own hometown but a dark cloud loomed over her head still.

"Jud. . . " She started weakly looking up at Brijjet. It seemed he had also concealed his hurt because a look of sadness suddenly clouded his face. He was a good friend of Judson's after all.

"I don't know, Waverly but i hope we can find him soon. We will."

"How do we do that?" Waverly asked.

Brijjet kept quiet in deep thought for a moment. "Alert the King. It won't be that easy but the army that took Judson was no ordinary one and you know it. We have to be prepared for whatever they intend to throw at us. It is a good thing that the King won't take news of a war lightly."

Now, Waverly stood at the very top of the sentry tower watching the glossy sea in the afternoon sunlight as she recalled Brijjet's words over a month ago.

Upon his troubling news, Lord Javan, the King of Alpgeton had sent out fleets soldiers to search for said army by sea saying it would be the fastest way to find them or any clues of the whereabouts of Judson but each ship came back with the same story - no sign of any army nor Judson.

It began to seem to Waverly that the incident by the oceanside had not taken place at all and that she had only dreamed it. She feared this was the effect of living in the blissful realm of Elves for over a month but a part of her knew beyond doubt that she was only lying to herself that it had all been nothing but a terrible mare just to be able to deal with Judson's absence. The only thing that tethered her to the reality of it all was Brijjet himself. He was there when Judson was taken even though he had been submerged underwater. He assured her that the soldiers would find Judson soon but every day dragged on slowly with no news about Judson or any army of Hags, Cruels and Giants led by a cross-eyed Outcast.

Brijjet spent most of these watchful days with Waverly at the top of the sentry tower in Nael staring into the horizon for when the fleet would return. They never spoke more than a few words to each other because each felt that speaking would jinx the possibility of a ship returning with Judson aboard or at least, news of his whereabouts. Despite this, each ship did return - only without him on board.

Dermot and Diarmaid offered to help the fleet search for Judson despite not knowing who he was with the promise that were they ever to get hold of his captors, they would snap their bones and fill them with firecrackers (Diarmaid's idea). This gave Waverly a good laugh but she insisted that they stay behind. In addition to being hotly mischievous as she had predicted on their first meeting, the brothers proved to be amongst some of the best hunters in Alpgeton. She thought of them as additional comfort. They were respectively fifty five and fifty three years old in Elf age but looked and behaved no older than twenty three. They helped her adapt rather swiftly to life in Alpgeton (which, in general, was not a hard thing to do).

Waverly bore the weight of Judson's disappearance with cruel difficulty as the first monthly slowly bled into the next and the next and the next.

However, one morning she woke up to the endless sound of thunderous fluttering. It was as if all the birds in the realm had decided to take flight at once. She hastily put on her robes and ran out of her room to see what the noise was all about. Halfway outside, she nearly collided with Brijjet who was already rushing to come and fetch her.

"The noise -" Waverly started.

"They came back." Brijjet announced, his chest rising in heavy breaths. It seemed he had run a terribly long distance. "The fleet soldiers. And they have news."

Waverly half walked and half ran with Brijjet to the front of the house in which they lived. It was more of a public lodge but she felt it was better than having nowhere to sleep. Outside, three Elves in very dull camouflage uniforms stood waiting by their horses and a carriage Waverly mistook as first to be a caravan. When the Elves saw Brijjet, they stepped forward simultaneously.

"What news, Sir Chedor?" Brijjet asked.

The middle Elf, Chedor walked further looking Brijjet dead in the eye and spoke in a low tone. "We haven't found your missing acquaintance but we do have news regarding recent sightings of unpleasantries, possibly executed by this so-called army that took him."

Waverly felt offended. She wanted to hear about Judson, not the army or their unpleasantries but she swallowed in anticipation waiting to hear all that the soldier had to say.

"Where were they last seen?" Brijjet asked calmly.

"They attacked Bremeton. Two major towns have burned to the ground as we speak."

Waverly's ears filled with high pitched ringing. She could not believe what she had just heard but allowed Chedor to keep talking.

"I am led to believe that those creatures had very vital information before executing the attack because word from his royal highness of Bremeton, Lord Asherah claimed they had infiltrated said towns from a few delicate traversable. I say, this missing acquaintance of yours might have known a lot of secret routes to the heart of the realm; which was probably why they took him and if anything, he might have joined them on purpose. He could be working as a spy for those bastards and for all we know -"

"You lot know nothing then." Waverly said bitterly. Even the words tasted sour in her mouth.

Chedor's gaze snapped to her for the first time. His eyebrow creased in egressing anger.

"Excuse me, young miss?"

"I said. . . you lot know nothing." She repeated grinding her teeth and biting back tears.

Chedor glanced at Brijjet who looked totally stunned. The moving crowd in the streets had noticed the commotion and stopped to stare. They all had elf ears and so no matter the distance, they had heard Waverly insult high ranking fleet soldiers.

"Who is this child, Brij?" Chedor asked shortening Brijjet's name. It seemed he was also a close friend of Brijjet's. That and the fact that he had brought news directly to Brijjet when naturally everyone would have heard a thing like that from a herald or wildfire gossips.

"A friend. The missing boy is also a friend of hers." Brijjet explained in a placating manner.

Instead of the compromise Brijjet expected to follow, Chedor and his men drew their swords. Waverly subsequently willed Calaire into existence, brandishing the crescent blade.

"Then she is possibly a spy herself." Chedor said glancing from Waverly to her odd looking weapon.

"No. Please, Chedor. She is not." Brijjet advocated with a nervous look on his face. Waverly thought it was a strange sight to see him act nervous.

"She spits in the eye of the King and on his kindness by insulting us. Ask her to put down her weapon at once and present herself to higher authority." Chedor growled. His eyes became slits as he watched Waverly. Brijjet turned to face her. The watching crowd gasped and mumbled in accordance with the scene.

"Waverly, drop your weapon." Brijjet said sharply.

Waverly blinked the tears out of her eyes, unwilling to move.

"Waverly. . ." Brijjet called again, more gently this time. "Please, put the blade down."

Waverly's head was buzzing loudly. How could Chedor stand there and call Judson a spy? How could he?

Judson had promised he would never tell anyone about those secret tunnels they had found months ago. She spited Chedor for insulting her friend nonetheless. He had no idea the kind of person Judson was and what they had been through together. He had not even the faintest idea how much Judson had suffered and how hard he had tried to fit in all those years. Just when things were working out for him, it had all gone bad again.

Why on earth would he help the enemy side when he was the purest, most peaceful soul in the entire universe?

"Waverly?" Brijjet's voice came from afar.

Waverly grunted, the brewing anger in her gut finally rising to a violent bubble, and threw her crescent blade on impulse. It was not her intention to hurt anyone but she was so angry that she felt the need to throw something.

Calaire projected past Chedor's ear by an inch, zipped over the tall heads of the flinching and shrieking crowd and pinned itself rather heavily to a stone structure a long way off sending the building into an instant collapse. Calaire rebounded as the empty house fell, transiently shrinking into a wrist band before it wrapped itself cleanly around Waverly's wrist.

A shrill silence tore through the crowd for what seemed like forever until Brijjet broke it at last.

"Waverly, i understand that you are furious right now but that was very a foolish thing you just did." He stated matter-of-factedly.

"Indeed." Chedor agreed tightly. "And for that, young miss, you are under arrest for targeted brutality toward ranking soldiers and for disrespect of local lives and property. Your seizure is in accordance with the Decree of Ancient Elven Laws of Aggressive Conduct. You are hereby ordered to be taken under monitored confinement until brought forth to face trial."

The men that stood next to Chedor approached Waverly and pulled her hands behind her back. Something thin shackled her hands together but she did not try to struggle. She looked to Brijjet but his expression was impassive, although she noticed that his eyes showed a pained kind of emotion. He seemed to convey how powerless he was against her arrest.

The soldiers led Waverly to their massive carriage pulled by black horses and ushered her in.

I will come find you myself when i get out, Jud. I promise. She swore internally.

The carriage turned away from the public house and headed down the cobbled road that supposedly led to her new residence.

The End

The Honor of Light|
Book 02