Chapter 16: Don't Attack

“Crap! I only have ten seconds, I should probably find a careful way to say things so that they don’t hate us anymore than they already do. If we can get them to understand the situation they might be less mad.”

The father elf looked at Areon with his head tilted as the boy had not yet spoken. Realizing the brief amount of awkward silence between the two, Areon spoke impulsively.

“Basically, the reason why we’re here is because Lucious is a jerk.”

“W-what did you say?”

The father elf’s face turned flush red with anger. As Krieus began to wince out of worry, mister Puff Puff however, seemed to find the situation nothing but comical as he cackled whilst wagging his tail fervently.

“It's true! We were on our way here because we thought this place was still a dragon's training ground, but then he created a storm, and then the lightning cage when we tried to leave! He's doing it in order to take the dragon's blood."

The father elf grimaced. It was true that he had been clued in on how the chief elder wanted to hunt down the dragon and used the storm to lure him in. But both of those things only presented reasons for him to question Lucious' leadership as they both led to further destruction of the mother tree. They were not reasons for him to welcome a foreigner. It was still quite jarring to be forced to listen to a child speak about how a dragon should have their mercy. The elf grit his teeth while he continued.

"But while we were here we found out that your mother tree is about to die because of the parasitic plant known as the Maimo, and that if the mother tree falls, everything here is done for too.”

The eyebrows of the father elf furrowed as his expression became etched with a grimace. The truth of the matter was that it would be much worse than everything being done for.

"Every last elf would certainly be dead if that tree goes down. We are too far out in the middle of nowhere for us to continue migrating. But how… how the hell does he know all of this?"

Areon continued to explain.

"I know that you guys hate the idea of a foreigner on your land. But I know that everyone that you guys have sent to the Maimo was unable to stop it, so I'm going to give it a try!"

There was a loud commotion that was being caused in the streets. And gradually, small groups of elves were leaving their broken houses in order to investigate the current scene that was playing out. Initially, they were shocked to find a human speaking so casually with another of their kin.

“Gah!”

Hearing such appalling things exit the mouth of a foreign child was nothing short of flabbergasting for the elf.

“You fool! Coming onto our pure lands is already against the will of the elves. Do you really think that we will just let you guys march onto here and play hero? While we just do as you ask?”

“I’m not really asking.”

Whilst listening to the father elf, a stray rock came flying towards Areon as he caught it with his right hand. However there were four more that were incoming each one thrown harder than the last and from all directions. He swiftly evaded the stones that were being hurled towards him as he caught a glimpse of the crowd that was in front, they were angry.

He saw that they all had begun to pelt him with rocks from the side of their houses.

"Damn it! If this keeps up it'll take longer for us to get to Lucious!"

Then he heard a rush of footsteps closing in on his direction. He raised his head to find that the father elf had now picked up a large broken log and carried it over his head rushing to throw it at him.

"You can take your foreigner ideals and disgusting dragon elsewhere! Because the elves don't need you here! We never have and we never will!"

With a huge push, the elf swung the log past the barrier of fire stopping him from approaching Areon. He watched the others cheer him on as he was being attacked, and they began to pump their fists in the air, eager to see his demise. But none of that truly effected the boy. He was simply mad about how this elf had chosen to address to his father.

Boom!

In an instant all of the debris in the air was blasted away by an unforgiving blaze of fire. The sight of flames was bigger than anything the father elf had seen up close before. His mouth dropped agape at the pure spectacle of everything being so quickly incinerated.

"How the hell can a child do something like this?"

His thoughts were cut short by the yelling from Areon.

“Enough!”

The scene of black pieces of ash falling from the sky like snow called everyone's attention to the boy in the middle of the street. Their faces etched with shock after witnessing the scale of the blast unleashed.

“Your entire village is falling apart and you're concerned about the fact that the person trying to help you is a foreigner! Can anyone even tell me why that’s a problem to begin with! Since when did it matter that the person helping you in your time of need wasn't an elf!? ‘The strong will fight for themselves but a true warrior risks his life for the stranger.’ isn't that a saying that came from you!?”

Murmurs began to raise from within the crowd as Krieus put his hand on his head out of slight embarrassment.

"I figured he might do something like this. Whenever someone crosses that line he gets rather fired up."

Areon pointed at the broken down state of the father elf's house. 

“You're all watching your houses break down bit by bit! Struggling just to get by! What part of that is a decent life! Don't you realize that if your mother tree dies, everything in this village dies too! And for what? Because you wanted to refuse help from a dragon! Is that what you’ll tell your kids when there's no food to eat!?”

There was a great silence that hung in the air as the father elf clenched his fists.

“For a village that had someone as courageous and selfless as Gera as their chief once, you guys are nothing but a bunch of pathetic cowards! The only reason I'm still here is because you guys are convincing yourselves that you're all helpless! I’m destroying the Maimo whether you like it or not. It’s up to you if you want to side with me or continue to take this suffering lying down!"

The father elf averted his gaze from the child and stared at the ground. He then felt a tug at the torso of his shirt. He looked down to see his son, Finn with tears in his eyes.

"We're not helpless. Right daddy?"

He looked to the side of the street and saw his other child, Claira who had also been sobbing whilst trying to dry her eyes with the end of her shirt.

"What the hell are we even doing…?"

He glared at Areon, biting his lip while sweat rolled down his chin.

"He's a little abrasive but, I can't deny that he has done more to fix the situation than me already and he's barely been here a week! Besides, I have a feeling that if Gera were here that he would have said the same thing."

Whispers began to run through the crowd as the villagers were muling over the idea.

"For how long are we going to do nothing but complain about fixing the mother tree." One muttered.

"This is our home, we can't just sit back and blame Lucious for everything." Another added.

The sentiment of the elves was slowly beginning to change before Krieus. His eyes widened at the sight of elves of all people, considering the words of someone who was not a native. Not so long ago they were mad that he was a fugitive. The corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl up as he looked at his son.

"Hehe, you're quite the interesting child, Areon."

Then before the father elf could make the effort to gather his children an arrow shot forth. It soared past them and Krieus and mister Puff Puff, just barely missing Areon's neck. 

Though this attack was not like any of the others that he had faced. Behind the arrow was a strong current of wind. The wind completely blew out the flames surrounding Areon and thrust large pieces of the destroyed house far into the sky. The boy began to sweat.

"That's gotta be a wind user! And from the looks of it, a damn good one, too!"

Everyone's heads turned in the direction of who took the shot, however once they saw the person, everyone became quiet.

"It's Rhys! The leaf cutter." One elf gasped.

Rhys continued to strut forward.

"That's a shame. I was hoping to get him in one go."

Strolling past, unbothered, was an elf clad in dark black jacket that went down to his knees and silver badge that seemed to be signifying his rank. He carried a bow and arrow with a shining green element stone attached to the base of his weapon.

Areon's eyes began to bulge open wide as he realized that the elf's wife had finally returned with one of the search parties in order to kill the child and the dragon. 

The leader of the search party spoke again.

"I got bad news for ya, kid. I heard your little speech back there but we spent way too much time and energy trying to hunt you down for us to not kill you. We also alerted sir Winstes and sir Cornelius about your location so don't even think that there's a way out of this now."

He glared at Areon once they locked eyes, so that he could see the amount of fury he had been fostering all this time. Rhys grinned manically.

"I can't believe it's finally time to kill you!"