Chương 18: Brash and Blasphemous

"Finrod."

"Elessar" She answered with the brightest smile that Finrod's feeling of hunger abated and he turned away feeling his face heating up.

She simply just continued chewing on the snake meat. She had cut a large chunk for Pouka and she left a little piece on a piece of rock for her insect familiar to dine on.

Finrod turned back to the group and after seconds of hesitating, he chose to speak.

"Can you please spare me some of that meat?"

"Sure!" She responded with excitement and tore off a chunk still on fire with her bare hands.

"Shouldn't you…"

"Here!" She was already in front of him handing him a piece.

Finrod leaned backwards, eyeing the meat with curiosity.

"Does it not burn?"

"Just a little, My Pain Tolerance skill abates most of the pain and I'll be fully healed by nighttime."

"Night time? There's night?!" Finrod blurted with surprise, feeling quite shocked. He had thought the conditions of the climate were constant and the suns would remain as they did, there was no visible change in light when he travelled in the forest. He took the chunk of meat from her hands and felt it burn his hands for a very short while until it was warm and he could hold it for a long period.

"There is, the mist oozes out a lot more at night time and the demons get all feisty. I think the mist empowers them. The moons also come up but since the suns are already so dimmed in their light, they don't make that much of a difference."

"I see, is there anything else you think I should know about?"

"Pouka will eat you if you try to steal my things." She said with a grin.

Finrod felt his pointy ears twinge, he turned to look at the black beast still busy with its meal. Pouka looked back in return, giving him a stern look.

Finrod struggled to find the words, he most certainly wouldn't steal from someone who had saved him, also stealing was greatly frowned upon in the elven community, he had already grown an aversion to the act and he was in no position to steal, it was plainly illogical.

"I would never." He refuted and looked away from the beast.

"Oh well. I don't have valuables anyway. Here's your bow, it's very tough to have withstood that blow. It's almost unchipped. You must really value it." She said walking to a little pile of miscellaneous and she picked up his wooden bow and a few arrows.

"Your quiver broke unfortunately, so did most of your arrows."

She squatted looking Finrod in the eyes and handing him his bow and two arrows.

"Ohh, thank you."

She stood up and walked away.

"You know, I was really surprised to see you alive, to see a pale elf alive in that thickness of trees. Seeing your swift movements and your countenance over and over again, I was even more surprised. It could have been the events so far, the system but you're nothing like what we have been told you all are."

Finrod snickered, "Am I supposed to be flattered?"

"No, but you should be grateful."

"To whom?" He asked with a frown.

"Our goddess is dead, there's no one to look up to." He yelled.

The Funari simply looked down at him, a look of sadness and pity was plastered on her face.

"Why are you looking at me that way?"

"You elves, I suppose you're just like that too. You think all that existed in your bubbles existed outside? The goddess only favored you people because she deemed you her perfect creation and you all sang constant praises to her, not everyone receives the goddess's grace."

Of course, the elves were deemed her perfected creatures, they lived very long lives, they absorbed knowledge easily, they were graceful and beautiful, they were docile and most importantly, they looked the closest to the goddess. It was expected that she showered them especially with favoritism.

"What are you talking about? The goddess is all-loving, she's the manifestation of love and her love went through all corners of Melos."

Finrod recalled once when the goddess chose to possess the statue of herself and complimented the elf who had created it but had died by the time. She told stories and played with everyone. He couldn't fathom her being exactly different, there was no way her love was a facade, he was convinced.

"Beyond the forest, far to the North, South, East and West. Her creations battle each other for shiny things, women and land and she does nothing to stop the bloodshed that constantly happens in their lands."

"I'm sure there must be a reason." Finrod was quick to defend her.

"There's no use, the ranting of a stranger certainly won't pull you out of your illusion. You'll see with your eyes soon enough."

Finrod had mixed feelings about the female Funari, on one hand she had saved him and she was beautiful and he liked that and on the other, she was brash and blasphemous, and he didn't like that part a lot.

He took a bite of the snake's flesh, it was becoming cold.

'Not bad' he thought and took another bite, the elves rarely had meat, they mostly dined on fruits and vegetables and meat was on a blue moon or celebration, usually when a new elf enters the world. And whenever he ate, he had always thought they were good and he would like more but a part of him always felt bad for the animals that had their lives taken away so that he could fill his tummy. However, now coupled with the pain of hunger, such thought wasn't present and he chewed and swallowed to his stomach's delight.

"Does it still hurt? Your body, does it still hurt?"

"Hmmm?" Finrod sounded still with a piece of the meat in his mouth, this wasn't like him.

He coughed and then he answered, "I can move without wincing."

"Give it a day and eat more. Here." She threw something his way.

It fell on the grass beside him, it was his wooden bottle of water.

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