The night grew deeper, and the cold creeping along the riverbank began to bite straight through to the bone. Only the campfire between them stood as a fragile guardian against the darkness. Its orange glow flickered and danced, painting shifting shadows across their faces.
Crickets sang their melancholic rhythm beneath a sky overflowing with silent stars, watching from above like distant witnesses. Yet beneath the calm of nature, something heavy still lingered in the air. The emotional weight left behind by Kaera's confession.
Kaera sat quietly, wrapping an old wound. Across the fire, Eira stared into the flames. Her gaze was distant. Empty.
"You said earlier..." Kaera's voice broke the silence. "...that you'd be there for me. When I'm okay. And when I'm not."
She stopped wrapping and looked up. "But what about you? Did you ever have someone like that?"
Eira's fingers, which had been idly playing with the edge of her cloak, froze instantly. She inhaled slowly, letting the sharp cold air fill her lungs before releasing it in a long, heavy sigh.
"…Never," Her voice was calm, but Kaera caught the faint tremor hiding at the edge of it.
"Because everyone else… is gone."
Kaera set the bandage aside. She knew that wasn't just an answer meant to end the conversation.
"My people once lived deep within the forest of Elun'vahl," Eira began.
Her eyes remained fixed on the flames. "At least, that's what I've been told. What the stories say."
A pause.
"The birthplace of the Elves. We lived in isolation. Never leaving the forest. Never involving ourselves in the outside world."
She let out a hollow laugh. "I know the stories. I just don't remember them."
"One night… the sky turned blood-red. Dark flames fell from above, burning the sacred branches we had worshipped for thousands of years."
"There was someone. He wasn't a demon. He didn't come to conquer. He raised his hand, and the trees stopped breathing." Her voice lowered.
"He came to erase everything."
Kaera's eyes narrowed. "And you? Back then?"
Eira shook her head slowly. Her gaze hollowed.
"I don't remember. My memories are blurry. Like something locked them away. All I know is when I woke up... I was alone. In the ashes."
The cheerful warmth that always surrounded her vanished completely. In its place was the face of someone who had lost her entire world.
"Even now, I don't know if anyone else survived."
"But in all my travels…" She swallowed.
"I've never found another one of my kind. Just me. Alone." Eira wiped her tears roughly with the back of her hand.
Kaera's eyes shifted toward her. "...Never?"
Eira shook her head.
Kaera was quiet for a moment. She had known Eira was an elf from the beginning. The pointed ears had made that much obvious. But she had never thought much about it. Elves were rare. That was all she had assumed.
"Wait," Kaera said. "You mean there aren't many elves left?"
Eira's expression turned faintly sad. "I don't know if there are any."
Kaera stared at her. "...Oh."
Eira blinked. "That's your reaction?"
"What am I supposed to say?"
"I don't know. You're usually more expressive when you're surprised."
"I am surprised."
"You don't look surprised."
Kaera looked back at the fire. "I thought elves were just rare."
Eira was silent for a moment. "...We're worse than rare."
Kaera's gaze slowly returned to her.
That was the first time she truly understood the weight behind Eira's words. For the past month, she had simply thought she was traveling with a rare kind of person. She hadn't realized she might be traveling with one of the last elves left in the world.
Eira forced a smile again, but this one looked fragile. Like glass moments away from shattering.
"So I started walking. Decade after decade. I wandered from place to place. Helped villages decode ancient relics. Drove dark creatures away. Became a bridge to history for other people..."
Her smile faded slightly.
"...but I had no history of my own." She turned to look at Kaera.
"People saw me. They respected me. They feared my power. But no one ever truly saw me."
A faint, empty laugh escaped her. "I felt like a ghost walking among the living. Existing... but never truly felt."
"Until you appeared." Her voice softened.
"You're scary. Quiet. You tried to chase me away half the time. But you never feared me. You never treated me like something strange. And even when I was troublesome... you never left."
She looked down at her hands. "You made me feel like... maybe I'm not a ghost anymore."
Kaera said nothing. She lowered her head, staring at the dark, stony ground beneath her feet. She knew that feeling. Being seen as a weapon. A monster. But never as a person.
"We were never normal, Eira," Kaera finally said, her voice barely above a whisper. "But we're here. We're alive, we feel the pain that other people will never understand."
She looked up, letting her eyes meet Eira's.
"I used to think we were just two lines walking in the same direction." A faint smile touched her lips. "But tonight.. I think I'm glad our paths crossed."
Kaera was quiet for a moment. "...But actually what were you looking for?"
Eira looked at her.
"After you left Elun'vahl. You wandered for a hundred years, didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"Did you have somewhere you wanted to go?"
Eira thought about it. "Not really."
"A goal?"
Eira shook her head. "Not really."
Kaera frowned slightly. "Then why did you keep wandering?"
Eira looked up at the night sky.
"I don't know." There was no sadness in her voice this time. Just honesty. "I just kept going."
Kaera stared at her. That answer should have bothered her. Somehow, it didn't. "So you don't actually have a reason to follow me?"
Eira smiled. "Not anymore."
Kaera raised an eyebrow. "Not anymore?"
"I think I found one." She glanced at Kaera.
"You."
Kaera stared at her for a moment. "...That's a terrible reason."
"Maybe. But it's enough for me."
That night, beside the silent river, two lonely travelers found something neither of them had expected; a place where they didn't have to pretend they were fine.
Now Eira knew the truth about Kaera's father. And Kaera carried the secret of Eira's erased race.
Yet deep in Eira's heart, one question lingered.
Was her blurred memory of the red night truly the truth? Or was something greater waiting ahead?
---
"Alright, enough." Kaera's cold tone returned. "Go sleep. Tomorrow's journey still long. And I don't want to hear your stomach growling while we climb a hill."
Eira giggled. Warm. Cutting through the cold. "Okay, boss! But tomorrow you're cooking breakfast as payback!"
Kaera snorted. But she didn't look away. She let Eira see the faint smile on her face. The wall she had built for years had finally begun to crack.
***