The sleek frigate tacked briskly towards the southwest, sails filled gloriously with the autumn prevailing winds, plowing furrows into the countervailing currents and chop heading southwest off the shores of the continent seen in the distance. The slowly setting sun glowed reddish, turning purple, playing hide and seek with the mild clouds seen above the coastline.
While the crew bustled amongst its many duties, a lone elf stood at the stern, facing back towards the vast ocean they had been crossing for the last weeks. His shaggy silver hair flashed in the breeze, a red cloak billowing around him as the winds pushed across the deck. Silver and blue colors shown from beneath the cloak, and a well-used hilt of a long sword stuck out of a scabbard belted for a left-handed draw. Only as another elf turned from near the wheel and approached the stationary male did the height difference really become visible.
“Not even a full day left, Captain,” the shorter, older elf stated. “The weather looks good for the approach, so we will land you via the long boat sometime early tomorrow morning.”
“I am no longer in the Guard, as you well know, Captain,” replied the younger elf. “But, again, you have my thanks. I know that this is considerably outside your normal patrol range.”
“Once a Guardsman, always a Guardsman, whether you like it or not, Elyrienne, whatever new duties you have thrust upon yourself. I suppose I could call you my Lord, but if I recall you like that even less. As to the transportation, it matters not. This is a new crew, it does them good to get their sea legs together as a unit; besides, this won’t be the first time we have sent a scout or someone else into those human cursed lands of Vasis, especially this northern area of conceit and arrogance, or so the more recent reports say. And if I couldn’t come up with some justifiable mission, I would have done it anyway. Lysianna would be dead if it had not been for your actions that day.”
They both paused at that, and the younger elf grimaced. “It was a bad day, but I am glad that we were able to retrieve your niece, Jasyinne.” After a few moments of shared memory, Elyrienne continued, “I would ask a favor upon your return, though.”
“Anything within my power, my friend,” Jasyinne replied quickly.
“I am about finished with a letter, probably one I should have sent long ago. Will you see to it that it is delivered to a friend in Calethria?”
“With pleasure, Lieutenant,” the captain replied with an amused smile.
The next morning, as they clasped hands, Elyrienne withdrew the letter, sealed in wax and embossed with his signet ring, with a name written on the outside of the letter.
The captain read the name, quirking an eyebrow in surprise. “Really, to her?”
Elyrienne shrugged and nodded.
“Then I will deliver see it delivered, by mine own hands if necessary, my friend.”
Last Dreams 