Yeoldebard

“As a rough stone hides a diamond, so might a drab appearance hide the heart of a saint. I shall not judge on looks.” The elf travelled a labyrinth painted on the floor of the temple, his eyes glued to his bare feet. He repeated Shelyn’s code over and over, a mantra in his mind as he sought redemption from his god. “I will strive to lead by example, not my blade. Where my glaive passes, a life is cut short, the world’s potential for beauty diminished. All things that live love beauty a

The sound of beeping roused him from a nightmare. Erith kept his eyes closed, fighting a light that seemed almost insidious in its attempts to disturb him. He was certainly disturbed. Slowly, the world came back to him, and with it the throbbing agony of a thousand cuts. He let out a pained whimper, and someone gasped nearby. “Erith? Fuck, you’re awake…” The elf’s eye peeked open, Blake’s worried face bent over him. He could tell he was in the hospital again, and Erith’s heart rat

This story was honestly really rushed. I did it as a sort of novel in a month thing, and often I didn't know what I had planned for a chapter until that chapter was written. I'm sorry it isn't better paced.

Blake has a mating connection with Adam. As Erith and Gara are two separated parts of a whole werewolf, they don't really have any mate connection to speak of. The connection between Erith and Blake is purely emotional, but at the same time was driven by Varen's desire for Blake. Whether Varen had a mating connection to Blake is unclear, but he was as close to a true werewolf as the system got.

Lynn lay on the ground, her feet kicking behind her as she scribbled over a neko in a colouring book. She was bored; there was nothing to do in this room. A bed, a small table, and an open shower offered no entertainment. The neko was happy she had been given a book to play with, but even that was getting old really fast. She was worried about Gara, and no amount of colouring could help that. The wolf was missing. He had vanished a day ago, and all she could feel was Erith hovering just out

Adam is a sore spot, and I wrote him fully knowing that his actions would piss people off. He is not intended as a sympathetic character. He did what he did. There are no excuses in the world for what he did, and the whole "but werewolf mates" is a bullshit excuse. That said, he was written as a character who is struggling, who has gone through extensive therapy and is doing everything he can to be a changed person. In a perfect world, he would have stayed away, and Blake would have never been forced to deal with a mating bond to someone who raped him as a child. However, this is by no means a perfect world. You aren't supposed to think, poor Adam, I hope things work out for him. But he is an example of people who commit horrendous acts, and then do everything in their power to try to make up for them. Does it work? Probably not. Does it happen in life? Certainly.

“You understand we need to find someone to replace you, right?” Erith’s shoulders sank at the words. He had thought he’d hit his lowest point; that from this point on things would get better. Instead, he was losing his job. What made things worse was the elf understood. He had to leave. He had to get help, and the help wouldn’t come from just a weekly therapy appointment. Erith had almost died, and he could not take the risk of that happening again. Varen was missing; neither Lynn nor

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Hagan promised huskily, reluctantly letting Galen go as they reached the front desk. “That was the best orgasm I’ve had in awhile.” “I’m glad to hear it,” Galen smiled, waving to the white Egaro until he was out of the building. “Fuck… this is good, right? I’m not stealing a client from Iason, am I?” He looked back at Pasiphaë, the orange tigress smirking slightly. “Oh not at all,” Pasiphaë said, rubbing Galen’s head. “But if you’re that worried, why don’t

His hands scrambled to grab a bush, a root, anything that would stop his fall. Erith’s body ached as he slid down the cliff face. Every bounce, every hit, only served to jar him as he jammed his hands into a crevice in the side of the hill. The elf’s arms almost pulled out of their sockets as his body slammed to a halt. Tears streamed from his eyes as he stared down at the ground, barely ten feet away. Taking a deep breath, Erith worked his fingers free, and let his body drop to the ground.

The cleric disintegrated in his arms, a nightmare playing out before his eyes. But this time there was no waking up, no promises that it would ever happen. It happened, and Jakun had to accept that his friend was dead, gone, never coming back. Dust fell through his fingers, Jakun dropping to the ground as he stared at Jeremy’s remains, his mind struggling to accept what he had seen. Despite all his planning, his insistence that the cleric did not go with him, his vision had come true, and t

The sound of the front door opening sent Varen to his feet, the elf fuming silently. Exactly eight o’clock. Blake had to wait until the last second to get home. He turned and froze at the sight of the mage, at the beaming smile that slowly turned into a frown as Blake saw the elf. “Erith? What… why are you here?” “To make sure Adam didn’t kill you,” Varen said. “How did you know…?” Varen sighed, sitting back down on the couch as Dr. Marin entered the room. The human smil

“You did WHAT?!” Faes was seeing red. Not even a day back from the Narlmarches, and Lapis was already throwing his weight around without even consulting the hollowborn. “I gave money to Kaessi to repair the road to Restov, and for three new buildings in Omestra; a tavern, and the two shops that Cassiel was supposed to build.” “FIFTEEN THOUSAND GOLD! Do you know what we could have done with that money?!” “And some to Kassil for the fortress,” Lapis added as an afterthought. “H

Four in the afternoon. Erith felt time closing in around him again. Lynn had her hour at six, leaving him barely two hours to finish everything he needed to do. Another call to Blake had gone unanswered, and the elf was worried about the mage. What had happened to him? Was he okay? Had Adam done something to him? Erith dimly remembered something about swimming with fish. It had sounded like a threat. “Fuck this.” Sprinkling a bit of fish food into the pond, the elf hurried inside and g

The drive home was one of the longest drives of Varen’s life. Which didn’t mean much, when most of his driving had happened because Erith had gotten drunk. Not common, but enough that Varen had learned to drive to deal with it. He still hated it, but Varen knew better than to get rid of the alcohol in the house. Erith would just assume he drank it all in a black out and go buy more. And Varen really didn’t want to explain that every time the other elf got drunk, Varen was left to deal

Lapis slid off his horse with a frown. They were three hours out of Bronzeshield, the dwarven fortress, and a ruined cart was blocking the road. “It doesn’t look too damaged,” Valerie pointed out. “Likely an animal attack, not bandits. There aren’t any bodies either.” “Eaten,” Lapis nodded. “But usually animals leave at least clothes and bone behind. That’s missing.” His eyes scanned the area warily, searching for the bandits that this pointed to. Beside him, Kiba was poking aroun

“I need to see him.” Adam gave the elf a withering stare. Varen glared back firmly, refusing to be cowed by the man. “I told you you’ll get to see him again. You should have waited,” the human scowled. “I don’t know who you are, Varen, but you are on the wrong side here.” “Says the person who kept me hidden all night long,” Varen scoffed. “In a wolf proofed room. With a guard on the other side of the door. That’s not normal.” Varen shivered in the damp air, listening to the d

“Four cups, two that would let us pass through the wall, two that are poison.” “Let me guess, there’s a riddle to figure out which is which, right?” Jeremy frowned. “I’ve seen this trick before.” They stood in a small chamber with two doors, an exit and a door that led into a stone wall. It had been confusing until Jakun found a note, the catfolk’s ears folding over as he read it. “All bring despair, if not death… Why would they bring despair?” Jakun frowned. “Two will pass, two w

“Couldn’t have gotten edible fish…” Varen stared down at the pond, watching the fish explore their new home. He had followed instructions exactly, using the internet as a guide, and they all seemed healthy and happy. Well, except for the sucker fish that appeared obsessed with spinning in the shallows, but no accounting for weird fish he supposed. It was probably going to die, Erith would cry about it, and Lynn would flush it. That would be the end of that fish. There were plenty more to br

“You have to make sure the water is neutral, no more than 7.4 ph. Some websites say 7.4 and higher, but that’s for cichlids from Ythan, not Sarelin…” He was barely listening as the neko collected nearly twenty different fish out of various tanks. Blake had been here; Erith was sure of it. Even Gara seemed to think the mage was here somewhere, but there was no sight of the man. Both wolf and elf were feeling rather down about missing Blake, but he couldn’t let it distract him. He was now on

It didn’t take long for Ryan to clean the room, the human smirking as he passed the Faro. “If you need help, you know where to find me,” he said. “I don’t suppose you want to blindfold me before I film this?” Reinard muttered, looking at the camera that would soon be centered on a naked deer ass. “Now why would I do that? It would spoil the show. Look Reinard, I know you’re one of those monogamous people, and trust me, I get it. Where I’m from, what the Egaro do is frowned upon. B

Water trickled over a series of smooth stones, running down into the larger pond. A weeping willow sat in the middle of the pond, on an island that was carefully designed to not interfere with the pumps.. Beneath a small bough, Erith sat silently, taking a series of deep breaths. Meditation was pretty low on the elf’s list of favourite things to do. He wasn’t even sure it was supposed to help, but it did keep the outside world outside. ‘Urdya nights.’ He didn’t really care for him

“Hey Blake, this is Erith. I hope I didn’t scare you off earlier, with all that stuff… It’s been a hard week…” The elf sighed, leaning against the wall. Three days, and no message, no call back, nothing. This was his last chance. If the mage didn’t reply to this, Erith would just have to accept that he chased off one of his only friends. Again. “Anyway, I’m sorry if I’m bothering you with all these calls, but I want to make sure you’re okay. I guess… I’ll talk to you when you call back

The group sat against a stone wall, the fortress filled with the hum of workers busy repairing the ruined keep. Jubilost was already working on his map, filling out the last blank spot. Linzi sat with a book in hand, the halfling filling out her own notes on their travels. For his part, Kiba was bored. The kobold was running through various stances, trying to get his magic to work with his blade in different ways. He had been watching Valerie, seeing the way she moved with blade and shield,

Seventy gold for the Eternal Maiden, a tithe to Shelyn. Amnor Sen let the last of the coins fall into the offering plate, kneeling before the goddess’ altar. It made him feel better, as though he had helped, clearing his conscience just a bit. The paladin rose to his feet after a moment of reflection, a simple white robe falling down to his ankles. He had traded his armour two days ago, storing it for a time. The elf had no place in the gear, no spot in the heroic tales of the heroes of old

Gara groaned as he crawled into his bed. It wasn’t often that he felt the results of Erith’s work, and he couldn’t remember the last time he felt this bad. It wasn’t just his muscles that ached; the wolf’s stomach was twisting. All the cookies Lynn had eaten were fighting him now, and it was agonizing. More than that though, he could feel Erith in his mind. The elf wasn’t sleeping anymore, he was wide awake, if lost in the fog that was their head. That was a new development. Gara would