#sunashe

(( Original Fiction - Knights of Naren - #Fictober Day 23 Prompt: This is not new, it only feels like it ))

Clarity. He strived for it. His mind was muddled though he hadn’t had a drink in four days. His traveling companions had stopped just for him despite the danger. They had been heading north, but now there was talk about doubling back and going south.

They might all be dead if they did that.

His sons. His wife. No, she was gone. She’d been gone for years now. Where was a drink when it was needed? He wanted to forget.

His companions kept telling him there wasn’t any, and that he would need to be sober to face what was to come. He didn’t even know their names. One of them had said his name. What was it? Did the others say theirs too? How much had he missed? Was he going to remember the thoughts he was having now later or would he forget them too?

The blond one came to him with some water. He walked strangely, but it was only now that Arancon noticed why as the other elf’s silhouette moved in the light of the campfire. He had a prosthetic leg.

The other blond, the one with the curls, sat at the campfire eating something. It made Arancon’s stomach churn just to watch so he turned away.

“Here’s some water. How are you feeling?” the first blond asked as he knelt next to where Arancon lay.

“Awful,” Arancon muttered.

“Don’t worry. This isn’t new. It only feels like it. Your body is getting used to being sober again.”

“It would be easier just to have a drink.”

“I don’t think it would be a good idea to venture into town just for alcohol right now. Besides, I’d feel better if everyone with us was alert.”

“I’m not very alert right now,” Arancon mumbled after taking a sip of the water.

“It’ll pass. You’ll be fine. You’ll see. Then we’ll head towards safety.”

“Huh, and where is that?”

“We’re still trying to determine that.”

Arancon sipped the water again then looked at the blond, “What was your name again?”

“Sunashe. You need to be ready to walk a bit soon, okay.”

We have a new guy from Silvermoon. He’s come to us completely untrained so he can’t take an assignment for patrol yet. The first full day he was here, I stayed behind to train him, and let Arancon and Kavia take our patrol without me. The new guy’s name is Julan and I can already tell he’s going to be difficult to teach. I do think he’s willing to try, but he has some habits that he learned in…

(( Carefully placed in her lunch before patrol. ))

Dear Linarelle,

I’ve been getting your letters so I thought I would leave you one. Maybe you don’t think about me on patrol, but I think about you a lot, and I think maybe you do too, so I hope you like this letter.

I didn’t tell this to you last night because I thought you might like a letter about it, so here it is. I went to the school to ask…

Things aren’t going so well. Lin didn’t know if she wants to be with me or not anymore. I asked her because she seemed so unhappy with me, and thought she’d laugh and say no, but she said she didn’t know instead. I’m kind of glad she told me before the ball. It would have been much worse, and very embarrassing, to find out with all those people around.

She hates Blinky. I guess she’s jealous of…

Sunashe’s Log

Patrols have been quiet, and everything seems well in the area. There are two newer people with the rangers, Kavia and Yara. Kavia has been patrolling with Arancon and myself. Yara has been going with Nessna and Perothis. I guess Yara is Nessna’s first husband’s sister. That must be weird for the Captain, but she seems like a good ranger. She’d be better if she used a real bow instead of a…

Sunashe’s Log

I went to Silvermoon to get some supplies and other things before patrol yesterday. It took a while as the list was quite long. Orledin needed more things for the kitchen, mostly flour and sugar and such, but he also asked for a couple of new pans. I found most of what he wanted in the one end of the market where they sell a bunch of food goods. I found a stall that sells pans not far from that…

Dear Linarelle,

Your ears are like arrows pointing to the moons–

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Sunashe put his pen down and looked at his friend, Arancon. “It means she has nice ears.”

“It sounds like her ears are about to shoot the moon. It doesn’t even make sense. Try something else.”

Sunashe sighed and crumpled up the paper. He started again on a new sheet.

Dear Linarelle,

“You know, you…