The Woods of Cuole

Archive One







2 Years After Reise's Defeat...

The Cuole woods were still. The sun had just risen, washing the trees in a warm, peachy glow of light, staving off the dark and cold of another peaceful evening. The birds chirped in singsong tones, alerting the other occupants of the trees to the time, and all seemed blissful.

"STOP! THIEVES!"

The shout startled the birds, and the following sounds of a chase on horseback futher disturbed the peace of the surrounding woods. Two dark-toned steeds raced, their hooves pounding, breaking through shrubs and low branches, racing away from the stout man that was behind them on foot and growing further and further away. Luckily, their victim was a pudgey old man, fat from the greedy wealth he'd reaped, and he gave up quickly. Rubbing his balding head and cursing under his breath as the culprits escaped, he turned back to his abandoned and ransacked wagon.

It wasn't until the trees opened up into a wide and sunny clearing that the cloaked riders of the steeds pulled hard on the reigns. Once stopped, the larger figure dismounted and peeled back his hood. Sharp, blue-grey eyes shimmered beneath curly black locks that hung to his shoulders and flanked a broad, freckled nose and cheeks. He wasn't any older than perhaps twenty-one, but he moved with an air that spoke of age and experience.

"How much did you get?" he probed the second rider, keeping a hand on his reigns.

"About four this time. If you hadn't insisted on grabbing the coins on his belt, I would have had time to grab more." The second rider was not like her partner. Doffing her hood revealed sun-gold hair that was straight and chopped to her ears, but shimmered like silk. Her eyes were strangely colored: her right orb was blue like her brother's, but her left was a deep drown. She sighed through full lips and hopped down from her saddle, pulling the pouches of gold and diamons from the burlap sack that was hitched to her seat. She tossed two of them to her brother. "Two for you, two for me."

"I know, I'm sorry, they just glitter so prettily, I couldn't help it. And you know he deserved to be robbed of every bit of it." He hefted one pouch in each hand, admiring the weight of the gold in his palms. He heard his sister scoff and he could almost feel her roll her eyes. But he decided to move past it, since they'd already exhausted the arguement of his greediness and how often it inhibited the success of their thefts. "What are you going to spend your money on, Aveda?"

She glanced at him over her shoulder with her bi-colored eyes, then went back to packing her cut of the profit away in her saddle-pack. She didn't admire her spoils like her brother always did. "I'm sure I'll find something to spend it on," she said in a quiet voice. She also wasn't one to frivolously waste her money like he did.

"Please don't tell me you're going to give it all away to some filthy beggar again? I've told you a hundred times over, those people put themselves in those places through bad choices. It's not your fault, and your kind heart doesn't need to ache for them."

Aveda ignored her brother's tedious lecturing, tightening the straps and buckles of her horse's bridle. Rather, when she turned back to him, she put her hands on her hips and pressed, "So where's our next adventure, Titus?"

Her brother sighed, but submitted and shrugged his shoulders, now putting his cut away as well. "Word on the wind is that the castle in Layfette has just finished reconstruction, and the royal family is having a special celebration for the King and Queen's return from their travels. It would be prime for looting."

Aveda paused. "But Layfette is not a corrupted city, Titus. They're very prosperous, and rightly so."

"All the more, they won't notice the little penance we take." Titus argued, turning back to her. He narrowed his eyes. "Is your tender heart swaying you from our purpose?"

"No," she retorted quickly.

"Good. Then let's go." Without another word, Titus turned and pulled himself back onto his horse, and Aveda did the same with a sulk.

It would be a long ride through the expansive, elf-infested labyrinth of the Cuole woods, and despite that it was charmingly scenic and peaceful, Aveda was not looking forward to it. She eyed her older brother wearily, then pulled her green hood back up over her head, kicking her horse to follow his as she blew a strand of hair from her eyes with a puff through her lips.




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