Chương 27: Friends

"Aura!" I yelled her name as my eyes flew open to the familiar scene of white-washed walls and daylight's rays peeking through the curtains. "Dammit!"

I slammed my fist against my mattress. Then I pulled off the comforter in a rush and grabbed my smartphone from the chair so I could dial Ty's number.

Precious seconds ticked by on my alarm clock as I waited for him to pick up.

"H-hello?" Ty answered sleepily.

"Ty, get up... I need your help with something," I said in an urgent tone.

"Sure..." He yawned. "It's Sunday... so give me another few hours to catch some zzz's..."

"I need you now, man!" I insisted. "Get dressed, pick up Arah, and head to my house as quick as you can... please."

Ty finally registered the tone in my voice. "A-alright, dude... I'll head over soon."

"Thanks," I told him before I put the phone down and dialed Arah's number next.

She picked up at the second ring as I figured she would. Arah was an early riser who liked to exercise in the mornings. After Luca disappeared, she'd taken up the Japanese martial art of Aikido to learn and protect herself. She was probably already deep into her katas by the time I called.

The conversation with Arah was short and quick to the point as she understood that time was important to me. She made a promise to arrive soon.

Finished calling for reinforcements, I rushed down to the kitchen to find that Aunt Lena had already left me pancakes and bacon for breakfast along with a note that explained she was spending the day at the hospital to visit my mom.

Guilt racked me then because I hadn't visited mom since the night I defended the hilltop. Partly because I didn't like seeing her in that fugue state she was in, but mostly because I really didn't want to run into Azuma while on Mudgard. That would be very dangerous considering he wanted to kill me.

I shrugged the guilt off and reminded myself I was doing everything I could to bring my family back together which is why I needed to rescue Luca as soon as possible.

I grabbed a quick bite to eat and downed a glass of apple juice as I would need the energy to prepare my counterstrategy for the tonight.

Ty and Arah arrived just as I'd finished my meal, and I led them from the front door and back to my dad's study, which is where I was about to tell them my plan but Arah stopped me with a raised hand after she'd shut the door into the room.

"Are you okay?" she asked sincerely. "Because you look like you barely slept and you're still in your PJs..."

"I don't have time to shower now... I'll do it later," I countered. "So—"

This time it was Ty who had his hand raised. "Dude... we've been talking..."

Now I knew why they were both standing so stiffly and had their arms crossed together. I was in for a lecture.

"You've asked us to help you out several times already... to research some really far-fetched stuff in here," Ty gestured to the stacks of papers and books on the walls. "And we have said nothing but..."

He looked over at Arah for support.

"We want to know what's gotten into you... do you believe these creatures - these fairies actually exist?" she sent me one of her smoldering looks. "What's going on with you, Dean?"

"Guys, we don't have time for long explanations... we need to—"

They both had their hands raised.

"We're not helping you anymore until you fess up, dude," Ty admitted.

Arah nodded in agreement. "Yeah, what's really going on with you, Dean?"

We were at an impasse. They wanted to know the truth, but I refused to put them in that kind of danger. Besides, I wasn't even sure if I could. I didn't know if Aura had placed on me the same restriction of being unable to talk about fairies as was clearly put on my mother by the fairies who took Luca. But I needed their help. It was only because the three of us worked it out that I was able to find my way into the Fayne, and it was their suggestions that helped me figure out a strategy to defend the hilltop. I needed them.

I sighed. "Look, you don't want any part of this... I'm keeping you safe by leaving you in the dark... I swear."

They both looked at each other. Then they turned their eyes on me.

"Ready player two," Arah said with conviction.

"Ready player three," Ty added with a grin.

True to form, these guys wouldn't abandon me despite the trouble I could send their way. It's why we were best friends after all.

I sighed. "Alright... Let's start from the beginning then..."

It turns out Aura had placed no restrictions on me as I was free to tell Ty and Arah everything that had happened to me since the day we discovered the fairy summoning ritual. I also clued them into my family's curse. This explanation took the better part of two hours as they were both stopping me for clarifications.

"So you serve as a commander in this fairy clan?" Arah asked.

"One-hundred Man Commander," I corrected.

"So, like, Aura's a girl and she's an elf? I'm guessing she's hot, right? Please tell me that every fantasy we have about elves is true?" Ty asked eagerly.

I nodded in response. "Yeah... she's beautiful."

At the thought of Aura, I began wondering if she had defended herself after our enemies knocked me out and if she was safe with Edo and the others and waiting for my return.

It was a credit to the trust Arah and Ty placed in me that neither of them asked me if I was lying or even considered the possibility that I was going crazy. I told them fairies were real and they just accepted it just like that.

"So that's why you always look like you lack sleep... and why your grades have dropped considerably," Arah noted.

"Dude," Ty reproached her. "Priorities... you don't have to rub it in that you've finally beaten him academically..."

The three of us laughed at that, and the lighthearted feeling I always had when I was with them returned.

"Fine... we'll table my lecture on how foolhardy you've been, Dean," Arah said.

"Cool name by the way," Ty interjected.

We bumped fists.

Arah coughed to get our attention back.

"So Luca was kidnapped by these drow which is slang for dark elves... correct?" Arah asked for confirmation.

I nodded. "Yeah... drow are bad news. They're like the ninjas of the Fayne. Hired assassins who kill or abduct other fairies for profit..."

"How do you know this?" she asked.

"Aura..." I wondered inwardly if it was my place to tell them about Aura's life. But they needed to know a few things. "There was a coup attempt in the Trickster Pavilion years before I arrived, and the opposition hired a rival drow clan to assassinate the patriarch's family. Aura and her brother were the only survivors. Drow are the reason they're orphans..."

After several seconds of absorbing this information, Ty asked, "Could this be why they took Luca?"

Arah smacked him on the shoulder. "That theory only makes sense if they took Aura too, dummy."

"Yeah, but... what if they did?" Ty asked the question that was in my mind too. "What if after they knocked you out and you were sent back here to, um, Mudgard, what if they took her then?"

My brows creased while I worried about Luca and Aura. This was completely my fault, my failure as their leader not to have foreseen something like this could happen.

"Cut giving him more reasons to feel depressed, Tiberius!" Arah karate chopped him on the top of his head. "We don't know what happened after Dean passed out like a wimp—"

"Hey," I cut in while frowning at her. "I didn't pass out! Something heavy smashed me..."

Arah ignored me and kept on with her deduction. "What we know was that Luca had killed one of these drow, right? It stands to reason this might be why they took him..."

"For revenge?" Ty sounded skeptical.

"It's my theory at least..." she gestured to the books on the walls. "We can find out more about drow in these, yes?"

I nodded, amazed at how rational she was being while discussing creatures we only encountered in our DnD campaigns.

"Then let's get cracking," Arah insisted. "What are our objectives, Dean?"

"Drow culture... how they live, where they live, and what hurts them," I answered quickly.

Both Ty and Arah nodded, and we set to work on the task before us. And it took us most of the day to work out what we needed to know. During this time, Ty had ordered two large pizzas from our favorite pizza parlor so we could load up on carbs while we thought up a plan.

Ty discovered the clue about why drow would want to abduct Luca in one of my father's books called the 'FAY MOST DARK AND CUNNING.'

"It's called a blood feud," Ty explained. "It says here that drow are so few in number that they're familial bonds are really important to them. If one of them is killed in combat, then the other family members have to seek revenge on the killer to ensure the soul of the dead drow is reincarnated back into the family..."

"That's morbid," Arah said. "So, how do they seek this revenge, Tiberius?"

Ty looked at me with his brow creased. "Through single combat... The killer and a member of the drow's family..."

My heart raced at the thought of Luca being in serious danger. But I kept my cool because I didn't want my friends to worry more than they already did.

Another thing Ty discovered was that drow like to live in dark caves due to their extreme sensitivity to light.

"They have something called a superior shadow-vision... Looks like they see better in the dark than in a place of light. They've got extreme sensitivity to sunlight too... they're weaker in the daytime," Ty said.

"That's no help... I'm not in the Fayne during the day," I said before an idea came to life inside my brain. "But what if we can bring the light to them?"

I quickly explained to my friends about the luminescent rocks I saw in Broken Sellsword's canyon and asked them if I could use these against the drow to create a stronger light source.

"Depends, you'd need a certain amount of magnesium or aluminum to create a powerful enough reaction..." Arah pondered on this while her fingers tapped on the surface of dad's desk. "Can you even find those two in the Fayne?"

I nodded. "I've seen aluminum in the stores of Fort Darah the first time I went there, and magnesium is common enough here on Mudgard that it'll probably be abundant in the Fayne too..."

"Can I just say how derogatory that word sounds to me?" Arah complained. "Humans haven't lived in mud houses in millennia!"

Arah's outburst fell on deaf ears as I was contemplating how I could use the information we uncovered to save my brother. Eventually, the three of us came up with a pretty solid strategy that might help my upcoming rescue mission. That this strategy depended on finding magnesium in the Fayne wasn't something I wanted to think about too much. Unfortunately, apart from golden Leprechauns, I couldn't bring anything from either world with me to the other.

"Thanks, guys," I whispered after we'd finished with our plan and Ty had eaten the last slice of pizza. "For believing me..."

It was a huge deal for me that my friends hadn't questioned my sanity or left abruptly in anger thinking I was lying to them.

"Um, we believe you but I have to say... this still feels unreal, dude," Ty said.

"We'll still need further evidence to rid us of our doubts, Dean," Arah added.

"Um, how do I give you that?" I asked.

Ty quickly raised his hand. "I'd like to meet Aura!"

This got him another karate chop to his buzz-cut head.

"Not that I wouldn't mind... I'd love to meet this elf girl who got you caught up in all this mess, Dean," Arah's eyes narrowed. "But you can give us proof today."

"Huh?" I raised an eyebrow at her. "How?"

Arah pointed to the lone window in dad's study. "Sun's coming down... So, if everything you said is true, you should head off to the Fayne as soon as you fall asleep. We'll stay and watch."

The excited smiles on their faces told me I might have a hard time sleeping after sundown.

SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO
GD_Cruz

Hey, true believers! Thanks for joining me for another chapter of the Dapper brothers' adventures.

It was about time we had a chapter back in Mudgard so we could hang out with Ty and Arah, and now that they know the truth, do you guys think they'll eventually find themselves in the Fayne too? Tell me your thoughts in the comments.

Look forward to the next chapter! Dean returns to the Fayne to enact his plan but he might receive some troubling news along the way.

As always, Like, comment, vote. :D

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