• Maximus had his feet in the cool water of the stream as he laid there looking up at the color filled sky as night was starting to set in. The sound of branches and sticks breaking told him that someone was running away from something. He listened a moment or two before a beautiful female elf broke through the brushes and stopped at the stream. A small trail of blood showed that path that she took, and small droplets of blood fell to the ground from between her fingers that were pressed against her stomach. He could hear the faint sounds of people following her trail of blood.

    Maximus rose to his feet slowly and asked softly “Can you make it to the river?” He knew that the water would cover tracks, and wash the blood downstream. The elf looked at him with eyes wide with fear, but her ragged breath and heaving chest spoke of how exhausted she was. She shook her head slowly which caused her grayish hair to flow around her neck and shoulders. He let out a small sigh and walked in the stream to her. His movement caused her to tense, but she didn’t have a choice. Speaking quietly and quickly he pointed to her legs; his spell put energy into her legs and made them walk to the stream. He then spoke another spell to put her to sleep, because with each step her eyes shifted from one thing to another and he could feel her struggling against the spell. Catching her from falling into the water, Maximus placed one more spell on her stomach to slow the bleeding down. He then picked her up in his arms and walked upstream. Once she was asleep, her tired and worried face looked even better as she slipped into a dreamless sleep.

    As he worked towards his house that wasn’t too far from the stream that they were in, he thought about the world and why she was running. ‘Only 20 years ago.’ He thought slowly, ‘One rouge mage kills an entire village and the humans lose all taste for magic. The elves and dwarfs hunted down and killed whenever they are found. Even human mages were killed, burned or beheaded.’ He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he climbed up out of the stream and walked the short distance to his house. Slipping inside and through the small hidden door he laid her down on a bed in the basement. The small door was hidden and very hard to spot. He tended to her wound on her stomach while she still remained asleep. He mixed magic and plants to produce the best results, but she would still need some time before she could run again.

    Once he finished tending to her he stood slowly and looked over at the message that he had some of the others that he had saved write. It simply read ‘Be quiet, you are safe.’ It was written in the three different languages. He went and laid some clothes that he believed would fit her well enough on the small table next to the bed. He then went up and fell asleep, letting himself rest and his energy recharge and the elf wait till tomorrow morning.