They galloped between the trees, Arthur sitting in front of Alfred to steer the unicorn's gallop, the human having to hold on to his waist to prevent himself from being turned upside down - the wild creatures of the forest were not as gentle as the horses that had already been tamed by the humans. Soon enough, the two men reached the edge of the forest, took Arthur Kirkland's baggage and backpacks that he had prepared there in advance, and immediately made their way up the river valley in the rising light of the morning sun. The pressure of their pursuers did not dare to make any stops. They kept running for a day and a night, and finally stopped beside a wooded valley's high ground.
Alfred and Arthur rolled down to the low ground one by one, Arthur patting the soft mane of the unicorn before spreading his arms around its white neck. The elf's cheek pressed against the fantastical creature and he whispered a few words to his friend before releasing it. The unicorn stomped its front hooves gently in place, then threw back its head and let out a long cry, wagging its tail as it ran deeper into the forest valley, quickly disappearing into the shadows of the moonlit bushes.
"Did it just leave?" Alfred asked as he stood still.
Arthur moved all of his traveling bags to a rocky poop in the dry sand and explained to Alfred without looking up, "It just needed to go and find some food of its own, unicorns can protect themselves and they are so good at hiding their tracks that the average person wouldn't even be able to spot it."
Alfred shrugged and walked over to Arthur to look at him. The elf felt his gaze and pursed his lips to take the lead, "We have come out of the dozens of leagues, I know my father, and this is too far from the forest for them to come after us again. Still, one must be careful, I have heard that there are often other dark creatures moving around here lately."
To his surprise Alfred shook his head at him, "That is not what I was going to ask, Arthur." He paused for a moment before spitting out his concerns bluntly once more, "Why did you follow me along? You shouldn't, I'm afraid-"
Arthur was unloading his longbow and quiver from his back, and when he heard this, he immediately turned to face Alfred head on, "When you were adamant about leaving the Forest of Rhiannon to return to the human pack, I also told you, 'You shouldn't do this'. But what did you do? Alfred?" His tone was more than a little aggressive, "So you are the only one who is not qualified to speak to me in such a manner, this is my decision, and I do not need the opinions of humans."
Alfred chagrined, rubbing his already messy blonde hair even further, "Let's not rehash the old story, okay? I don't want to hurt you."
"What? You think you don't?" Arthur Kirkland slammed the weapon in his hand to the ground, his green eyes filled with anger, "Even after all this, you still think I'm a foolish and stubborn idiot for standing in the way of your success, don't you?"
"Foster, don't get cocky," Arthur continued, "You want to win, you want to prove you're right, then do it. I will personally witness your victory with both eyes, or the end of this continent will come."
Alfred didn't know exactly what was wrong with them, but Arthur's deliberate paranoia left him at a bit of a loss as to where to begin explaining. And at this point the elf looked like he was determined to follow him as soon as he was gone, and that was exactly what Alfred feared. Elves might be excellent traveling companions on long journeys and valiant comrades on the battlefield, but their destination was the human world, which was far more complex than elves could ever understand in their common sense, and because Alfred had lived in the world as an elf, he understood all the more how much Arthur would have to give up for this trip! He is the only one who knows how much Arthur will have to give up for this trip. For Alfred, Arthur ...... is very significant. Not only is he the last of Alfred's relatives left in the world. So even if he chose to leave him, even if he was not the same "Foster" that Arthur thought he was, Alfred's heart would still beat for him.
At that moment, the hostile elf walked alone to the other end of the clearing. He sat down on the ground by the riverbed with his back to Alfred, and proceeded to carefully wash his blade and feathered arrows in the water of the stream. Alfred stooped to remove a small slice of dry bread from their packages and slowly paced the line to Arthur's back and reached out a hand over his shoulder to hand the bread to the other man.
The elf paused in the act of wiping his sword, but did not immediately accept the human's gesture. Alfred sighed and stepped around his body to take a similar seat beside him.
"After I left you," Alfred spoke suddenly, "I went many places. The world lies beyond the forest, and the world is far more vast than what is mentioned in fairy tales and songs. I wanted to find an answer about who I really am, and where I should really be going."
"I met some people in the foothills of Mount Nilsek. At first they were just some ......" Alfred paused, "nomads. Because the remnants of the Black Race often harassed that village, taking their food and killing innocent people. They didn't even have enough overwintering reserves, but still provided food for me, the outsider. Then the flames of the Northern War reached all the way there and they had to fight back, and I joined them."
"And then after that, more and more joined. They kept fighting, for the land, for the sheep, for life to go on. I felt a ...... responsibility, and I'm glad I realized it before it was too late."
At some point, Alfred noticed that Arthur had turned his face to his own again. His speech slowed and eventually stopped. And the green-eyed elf stayed quietly watching him, a miraculous power in his eyes that instantly made Alfred feel a steady focus and calm.
After a long time, Arthur spoke slowly, "You have already experienced what it is like to be a hero at the drop of a hat, and so you want to be a hero. You want to be their king."
The blonde human let out a low chuckle and met Arthur's eyes sideways, "If there has to be someone to be the hero, then why can't it be me?"
"And that would come at a great cost." Arthur said, "Peace and tranquility will be far from you, and your whole life will be spent in exhaustion, as is the destiny of every king."
"You are right," Alfred said, picking up a short dead branch and scratching it absently at his feet, "That is why I do not wish to impose it on anyone around me. Especially you. You have done enough for me, Arthur."
Arthur reached out and took the slice of bread from Alfred's hand, putting it to his mouth and taking a small bite, "Elves only do what is necessary. We need not argue about this any further. If you need the wisdom of an elf, then I will present myself, for I fear no test. It is only for strategic reasons: I think having the support of the Elves is a key part in your plans, and enlisting me is your only chance."
His delivery was twisted and perverse, but Alfred could clearly hear a subtle hint of compromise in it. So the human smiled slowly as he reached out and took the back of Arthur's hand as it lay in his lap, "Indeed, it is a hard offer to refuse."
Arthur shook off his hand and stood up, looking down at him, "Enough of this idle talk. Tonight we will station ourselves here for the night and catch up on our rest."
The blonde human agreed with this, standing up and offering to take the job, "I'll get the fire going then."
Surprisingly, Arthur stopped him, "I think before you do that again, you should go and clean yourself in the river." The elf frowned as he stared at the fabric of Alfred's tunic that had long since lost its original color and his knotted, half-length blonde hair, and spoke with a note of disgust, "You're stinking, Alfred. It smells like the corpse of a cannibalistic spider that's been soaking in the muck for three days and nights."
Alfred raised his arm and sniffed himself, his body was indeed covered in filth from days of running and intermittent battles, but by no means had he been reduced to what Arthur had described. But the human wasn't going to retort on the matter, merely spitting out his tongue and dutifully following the elf's instructions to walk towards the river, "It is I who have offended the elf's keen sense of smell."
The blue-eyed young man crouched down on a pile of cobblestones and scooped up a handful of water and flopped it onto his cheeks, the crisp, cold water was quite pleasant on a summer evening. He washed his bare neck and hands briefly, hesitated as he decided to remove his clothing, then turned quickly to look behind him at Arthur Kirkland.
His elven companion was gathering thin twigs in the nearby forest to serve as firewood for a while, and Arthur, with his back to Alfred at full attention, did not notice this side of the room. Alfred breathed a weird sigh of relief, then quickly picked up a fairly clean set of undershirts from his baggage and headed off alone up the river.
Alfred avoided Arthur and followed the riverbed to the relative silence and emptiness of the upper reaches of the river, stripped off his dirty shirt and pants behind a rock, and then quickly stepped into the river. The water was halfway above his waist, and the slightly more turbulent flow than at the downstream end rinsed Alfred's naked, strong back muscles, giving the human a rare moment of relief. He carefully rubbed the dirt from his torso, wounds of all sizes littered Alfred's front and shoulders, and that was just the parts he was able to shine a light on himself and see. Some had healed to the point where only pink scars remained, while others were still oozing blood. When rough fingertips touched them, they could still hurt and make Alfred shiver. But it was the sword wound on his back that was the hardest to deal with, which in turn reminded Alfred of his encounter in the small town of Kambryl and made him feel more and more annoyed.
He was so absorbed in cleaning himself that he didn't even notice the footsteps on the shore at first. It wasn't until another patter of water that wasn't his own that Alfred was startled to realize that someone had long since approached him from behind.
The blonde-haired human turned to look warily, only to change to stunned silence upon realizing just who the visitor was. Arthur, who had long since removed his tunic and sleeved helmet, was standing on the bank watching him, the river already over his calves.
"Arthur?" Alfred called out to him, not without embarrassment, and asked in a low voice, "What are you, uh ...... what are you doing here?"
"Looking for you." Arthur replied sharply, looking a little uncertainly offended, "Why didn't you tell me you'd come upriver?"
Alfred could only take a few steps in his direction, his body driving a clatter of water around him, "It's just a bath. I can protect myself. Besides, didn't you say so? It's safe here."
"For now, it's safe." The elf gave him a rather disapproving look, and then without a care in the world began to remove his lining as Alfred watched. The ties around his waist were quickly undone, and the white lining slipped off the elf's shoulders, revealing a perfectly pale body beneath it. Arthur tossed his dirty clothes all the way to the shore, lifting a hand to untie the delicate braid of hair at his temples, then tossing the ends, he lifted his naked body and trickled over to Alfred.
The human stood still and watched as his elf took a step towards him, the pale moonlight shining down on the river and illuminating every inch of the elf's delicate, flawless skin, creating a sense of holy soft mist in vain. The nature of the race made it extremely difficult for scars and dust to linger long on the body of an elf with the ability to live forever, and a battle that hurt Arthur Kirkland enough to make him pay had hardly ever happened, and if scars were a badge of honor for a human warrior, the opposite might be true for an elf.
After spreading out his braid, Arthur's flaxen tresses were just shoulder length. He graciously displayed his naked body, not realizing that there was anything wrong with bathing with a human, and Alfred tried to control his gaze by keeping it above his chest, but at that moment, the elf had no qualms about bending down with his back turned to him to wash his hair, and it was precisely at that moment that Alfred had the unavoidable pleasure of seeing what he saw between his legs! A small, unusual and concerning indentation between the other's legs. The blonde human made an involuntary swallowing motion, a dryness at the bottom of his throat. Immediately afterward, Alfred realized that his gaze felt as if it were glued to sticky oak gum, and it was difficult to move from there easily again.
This is not the first time that Alfred found out that Arthur's body has a different, beautiful and special secret place from his own, the elf's body hair has always been lighter and sparser than humans, so it has always remained a very clean flesh color, revealing a little bit of the inner pink if any under the cover of the buttock flap. After many years, there was no change from what Alfred remembered. However, he had long since ceased to be the child who was in the throes of love and ignorance, something that had festered and escalated in the brewing of time and the lingering of each after they parted, until today's reunion, even though they hadn't really broken through that layer of iffy feelings, Alfred's cheeks still turned scarlet in an instant, and his heart, which was imprisoned between his breastbones, began to pound violently and heavily one after the other.
Seeming to notice that Alfred did not continue to move for a long time, Arthur turned strangely as well. He cocked his head to gauge Alfred's evasive expression and inquired with concern, "What's wrong?"
The human coughed heavily, "...... Nothing. I'm done washing." With that, and not caring much more, Alfred was about to turn and leave from the river.
But Arthur, apparently not so sure about that, tugged on Alfred's arm, organizing his movements to get up, even bringing the man towards himself. Alfred did not anticipate him pulling, and his body momentarily tilted backward in the turbulent river before instantly freezing. For between the movements, he distinctly felt the two points on the elf's chest that had stood up from the excitement of the cold water graze his back, if at all, in the sudden physical contact.
"You didn't even clean it properly," Arthur criticized with an older man's accent that was usual when he faced Alfred, "It was a waste of time. One never knows when the next time there will be such a leisurely respite, and would your people want to flock to a disheveled, dirty and unkempt man as king?"
Alfred screamed in his mind, but was unable to voice even an ounce of bitterness to the man before him. He definitely did not want to expose his heart, which was filled with incestuous thoughts about the elf, to Arthur right now, nor did he want their newly repaired relationship to be threatened or misinterpreted in any way possible.
Arthur frowned as he wrenched over Alfred's shoulder, the elf scooping up the water in his wet palms to carefully rinse the grit and dirt embedded in the wounds on Alfred's back, the human's body stiff as a rock, and it was all Alfred could do to force himself to divert his attention while trying to adjust to Arthur's touch.
The elf's fingers brushed tentatively over the edges of the flesh that had been turned up by the sword wound, and when Alfred shrank his shoulders, Arthur stopped moving immediately. After a moment, Alfred suddenly felt a tiny warmth in his back coming from his wound, and Alfred nearly jumped from his spot in surprise, but once again Arthur's arm around his flank prevented him from moving.
"What are you doing?" Alfred asked aloud with difficulty, trying to twist his head around once more.
The moist heat behind his back disappeared for the moment. Arthur raised his head slightly and muffled, "Elven saliva has some healing power."
At this moment, Alfred felt that his spirit was probably this close to completely caving in. He took a few deep breaths to stifle his stupid physical reaction and hastily disengaged himself from Arthur's confinement, stumbling a few steps in the water to separate himself from him. The blonde human turned away, his ears tinted red. He could barely lift his head, for if he did he would be looking straight into Arthur's glistening white naked ketone body. So Alfred could only gulp and refuse Arthur's further attempts to get closer to his body, "Stop, Arthur. It's not proper ...... I can bathe alone. Really."
The elf looked at him in confusion, "You can't deal with a back wound alone."
"Then don't deal with it!" Alfred crumpled, "It'll heal itself anyway."
Arthur's eyes began to look a little sad, and he seemed to realize something, "You don't want me to touch you? But when we were in the forest, we would all bathe together at the spring. Have you forgotten?"
"No ......" Alfred felt like he was practically asking for trouble, "That's not the same thing, Arthur. You see, now that we are ready to enter the world of humans, then we must, must be prepared. Why don't we just start by following the rules of human life?"
Arthur Kirkland looked even more confused, "Don't humans bathe with their children?"
Alfred covered his eyes, "Perhaps you should stop counting me as a child, Arthur. I've grown old enough by human standards."
"And by elven standards," Arthur argued with him very seriously, even with a tone of pride that made Alfred laugh and cry, "you can only be considered a baby. So you will always be my child, Foster. I'll take care of you, of course."
TBC