Mirefa had trouble sleeping the day after learning that her sister might be leaving for good without teaching her magic. It was something she was looking forward to ever since she learned about it. While she understood her family’s concerns, she also did not like giving up. And unlike deer, she couldn’t just brute force chase the issue down and stab it. Life would be much easier and simpler if she could.

After a good day’s rest, she had an epiphany. Couldn’t she just accompany her sister to wherever they go and just wait until she’s considered old enough? It’s also possible that they just come back after a short period of time too.

“Mom, dad, can I accompany Sofare on her journey?”

“You’re still not over the magic thing?”

“Well, since your main issue was the growing up part, I thought I could just follow Sofare around until I’m old enough instead. There’s no problem if I do that, right?”

“That does address that concern, yes, but —”

“And also, aren’t you worried about Sofare? She can’t hunt very well, and her deer searching is very bad. If I was with her, I could help cover for her. Besides, for the parts you always complain about me, she does very well, so we’d make a perfect team.”

“That’s… huh, maybe you’re right. If you really feel like you are ready to go out on your own, we aren’t going to stop you. It’s your life after all.”

Her dad added, “Also, if it gets too tough, feel free to come back with Sofare too.”

Mirefa was quite surprised about her parent’s willingness. She guessed that her parents were a lot more worried about her sister than they let on. Well it worked in her favor so she wasn’t going to complain.

Knowing how slowly her sister moves, as well as the fact they have a cart that they are bringing with them, she decided that she could pack quite a bit of stuff with her. Her spear was a must, and the knife was extremely useful. Although she could go without water for a few days without much problems, she decided to bring a large waterskin just in case.

For food, she decided to go out and hunt a deer, asked her parents to help cook it for her, and then stuffed herself silly so she didn’t need to eat for awhile. She also brought strips of dried deer meat.

It wasn’t strictly necessary, but a good day’s sleep was always welcomed, and there was plenty of spare space available, so she also brought her bed with her.

By the time she did all of this, daytime was approaching again, so she decided to spend one last day before heading out.

It wasn’t very hard at all to follow them since they left very obvious cart tracks in the dirt. Soon enough, she noticed the pair in the distance, and then realized a slight problem. She never asked Sofare if it was okay for her to join. 

Knowing her sister, she’d probably ask her to go back home if she approached them now. But if she waited until they were far enough, her sister was less likely to tell her to just go home. And if it turned out Sofare did, at least she wanted to follow them all the way to wherever they were going to so she could visit later on.

Stalking them was rather boring. They moved so slowly. Mirefa was certain the cart wasn’t that heavy based on how deep the wheels ate into the dirt. She decided to entertain herself by clearing the cart tracks, just in case the place they were going had unfriendly beings and they wanted to track them back to her village.

Elves also had weird sleeping patterns, so they only moved when the sun was up, and slept at night. Because of this, she ended up sleeping as they moved, and when they slept, she went off and hunted or foraged, and then followed the very obvious trail they left behind.

This worked until about a week later, when the trail led up to something that looked like where Sofare used to live, except bigger. If Mirefa remembered, Sofare said she’d be moving to somewhere very far away, and while this place was definitely pretty far, it still was within a reasonable distance to visit. Mirefa felt a bit cheated. If she knew that her sister was just moving to here, she could have just continued on as usual with the exception of maybe visiting less often than before. Now it would be quite awkward if she showed up back at home.

She hid her bed and other belongings, and then followed the trail, which was now full of other marks other elves left behind, to the gate. The elves there yelled something at her, but she had no idea what they said so she ignored them and continued forward. When they started threatening her with weapons she knew she wasn’t welcomed. As a last ditch effort, she stuck out her middle finger, hoping that it would work. Instead, the guards ended up trying to stab her, so she turned around and fled.

She wondered if there was an entrance with more friendly guards, but then realized that the walls surrounding the town were short, and she could easily jump over it. She was quite suspicious about the walls though, especially since there were no guards there. There were trees everywhere so she thought it would be safer to climb a nearby tree and just jump to another tree on the other side of the wall, which is what she ended up choosing, just in case the walls had traps or something.

Safely on the inside of the town, she sniffed around to follow her sister’s scent, which ended up taking her to a relatively well-built tree house. She climbed around, looking through the windows to see where her sister was. Eventually she found her, sleeping with the elf. Mirefa lightly tapped the window to get their attention, but they continued to sleep. She progressively hit the window harder and harder until they finally noticed her.

Sofare was clearly not amused to her when she opened the windows and asked, “Why are you here?”

“Just wanted to see where you were moving to so I can visit later? You did say ‘very far away’, but this place isn’t that far.”

“It’s in the middle of the night and I’m tired, but anyways, we’re only staying here for a few days and then we’re going to keep moving. It really is far away. Also, you should go home. Our parents are probably worried about you being so far away.”

“Actually, I asked for permission and they were fine with it.”

“Wait, really? Oh whatever, I’ll talk with you more in the morning. You want to join us on the bed?”

“It’s only in the middle of the night right now though. I’m not tired at all.”

“Oh right. Well in that case…” Sofare shut the window and walked away, before abruptly turning back around and opening the window back up, then asked, “Wait, how did you even get into town in the first place? Given the trouble I had, I doubt they’d just let you in. There’s also the magical barrier around town too.”

So the walls were trapped. Good thing she decided to get in through the trees. Mirefa responded, “I just climbed a tree and hopped in?”

“You know what? Just get inside the room,” Sofare said as she dragged Mirefa in through the window. “During the day, the other elves would probably notice you jump in, so it’s safer this way. Just don’t make too much noise and don’t leave the room and let us sleep in peace.”

There wasn’t much to do in this small room, but then if she wanted to tag along, it’d be best to get on her sister’s good side, so Mirefa simply just nodded her head and just looked around the room. There wasn’t much stuff in the room, so quite quickly, she got bored.

Mirefa did wonder where the cart went. She assumed it was in another room nearby. Sofare only said for her to stay in the room and never said she couldn’t open the door. Luckily, Mirefa had some experience opening doors during her brief visits to Sofare’s old house, otherwise she wouldn’t have known to twist the shiny round thing and then push. Or pull, as it turned out for this particular door.

A quick glance outside revealed a short, circular hallway and a staircase in the middle. No cart in sight. Giving up on guessing where it went, she quietly closed the door again and stood there quite bored.

Actually, how does the door even work? She opened the door again and noticed the shiny grey protrusion moved inward when she twisted the knob. Releasing the knob sprung the grey protrusion outward again. Mirefa manually pushed the grey protrusion with her finger and it also sank into the door. She also inspected the door frame and saw a nice hole that perfectly fit the grey protrusion. Well that explained why she could close the door without twisting the knob, since the grey protrusion was slanted so that when it hit the door frame, it would cause the grey protrusion to move inward until it hits the hole. That also explained why she had to twist the knob, since otherwise the grey protrusion would just hit the hole.

Mystery solved, Mirefa had to go find something else to entertain herself. She ended up inspecting all the furniture, and the sun still hadn’t risen yet. In the end she decided to observe her sister and the elf, and noted that while Sofare touted the benefits of clothes, she sure wasn’t wearing any when she slept.

The elf was wearing clothes even while sleeping, and Mirefa was wondering exactly what was under there. All the elves she saw always had some fabric covering them. Mirefa didn’t want to wake the elf up though, so she tried to look through the gap in Never Mind’s sleeves and collar area. She didn’t see anything unusual, but it’s not like she got to see much. She thought that she might as well wait for Never mind to wake up and then take a peek with her permission.

It was getting quite late, and she was really bored, so she decided to curl up next to her sister and fell asleep. Sofare could just wake her up when the time came.

binarysoap

Last chapter, a lot of people guessed who the "determined predator" was. Guess I wasn't subtle enough about it, although it's not like I was trying to make it mysterious or anything. Baka.