The next morning, Siv woke up and began walking around the tree. He had explored the cavern somewhat, but it was so large and looked to be empty enough that he was not inclined to really see the rest.
He was feeling antsy.
There really wasn't much he could do.
In that matter, what exactly was he trying to accomplish? Sure, he was meant to kill Taln. But he didn't really care to do that. In fact, it seemed like more trouble than it was worth. Plus the old man was a good cook.
So why was he so antsy?
He was sequestered with an elven girl in a beautiful cavern. Or was that a beautiful girl in an elven cavern? All with plentiful food and a powerful guardian.
His days consisted of lollygagging and lazing in equal amounts. Although, he had been mixing in quite a bit of practice with his chains, in the form of the basic kata he could remember.
Yvenna was off somewhere carving a willow branch into some kind of flute. She seemed content with their lot.
He couldn't blame her.
He had asked her once if she was wanting to get back to her family. It had been tactless, thinking back on it.
Her eyes had filled with tears, and she explained to him that the wendigo had left none alive. The forest itself had turned against them, rendering them unable to migrate to larger elf settlements. It turned into a labrinth, leading them back to where they had come over and over.
She seemed content to stay in this little wonderland. And why shouldn't she be? Once she got back out there, what was there for her? All the elves she had known had been slaughtered, and the elves in other settlements were as strange to her as humans were.
And Siv was hardly different. He had nothing out there for him, either. Maybe Taln would be disappointed if Siv got lost or was killed, but really, no one would remember him.
That made him frown. Somehow, even though he had no one else to live for, he didn't really care. He wanted to live for himself.
And maybe that was more important than living for someone else. He didn't have any dreams, or goals really. The most he could say was that he wanted to try some actual food, cooked in one of those restaurants. He wanted to be able to protect himself, and make money. Maybe even figure out who his real parents were. Eh, maybe not. He didn't really care.
Most of all, he wanted to grow up and experience things. He wanted to be able to kill those who would harm him with a flick of his wrist, like Taln. He wanted to have people to live for, like, well not Taln in this case. Like a normal person, then.
So that meant he could not stay in this cave.
Eiranhal was resting on the outskirts of the canopy. Siv walked that way, careful to avoid the roots. The bright grass felt refreshingly cold on his bare feet.
He reached the great stag, once again amazed at the sheer scale of the creature. He tried to imagine something living being as big as the Spine-no, bigger even because that was just the spine of the colossus. He wondered if it had been a human, or maybe even a stag.
He walked around Eiranhal's body to the stag's snout. One huge eye opened to look at him. He stood there awkwardly for a moment.
"Hi, uh, Eiranhal. I was wondering what you want me to do here exactly, and why you brought me here." Siv felt foolish.
The giant eye blinked slowly. Eiranhal moved his snout so that it was resting in front of Siv. He pressed it forward, and Siv put out his hand to touch it. Once again, he was filled with the sense of a cyclical flow between him and the great creature, filling him with a warmth and vitality.
Another sensation passed to him from the stag. It was... hunger. But it wasn't coming from the stag. Just a prodding sensation in Siv. Like the hunger was in him already.
He frowned. It was not nearly as strong as the pool, but it was unpleasantly similar. The stag pulled back, and Siv felt the stag wanted something from him. Eiranhal put his head on the ground, and Siv decided to walk up to his head. He continued down to the stags back, where Eiranhal picked his head up and moved it around to poke his snout through the willow's canopy.
Siv brushed aside the light crimson veil, and walked into under them. The cracks seemed to be pulsing with more eeriness than before. He frowned. It almost looked... as if something was there, growing from the tree.
He grew closer. It was a darker color than the shade of the leaves, more similar to the glow from the cracks in the bark. It was... a fruit.