The Last Satyr: The Company is Formed Part 1

“What I should have done long before,” Leradien answered, ready to truss him up in her webs. “What I’ve always wanted to do! Capture you! Do not fear. I shall protect you! Don’t you want that? I will keep you safe while keeping my own mind. That’s all I want! And behold! You enter my cave. It is a gift, I say; a gift to me! It is madness for me not to take it. I cannot risk again your ever being taken away!”

She began to back up, dragging him deeper into her lair, seemingly talking more to herself than he.

“I cannot give you up to be murdered by some drow or displacer beast!” he heard her saying. “Oh! No! Of what good is it to me if you are killed? Surely you see I do this for both our own good?”

“You are capturing me!”

“Do not be afraid. You know I won’t harm you. But this is the only way I can protect you! You do want me to protect you, don’t you? Please say yes?”

The boy fought even harder against her. Her eyes still looked insane. He was big, strong lad, but her forelegs were just horribly so. Leradien could have held him with but one.

“Let me go!” he struggled frantically, yet uselessly. She pulled him relentlessly to her as if she didn't even feel his opposition to her at all.

“Do not resist me, but come to me willingly. It is only natural that you be mine. Come to me! I shall make you happy and you will make me happy!”

The boy reached for his knife, but her foreleg simply pulled his arm away from it, leaving him left only to try and wriggle free from her grasp.

Yet now she suddenly stopped, staring at the knife he had tried to draw, her eyes filled with some inner turmoil and then abruptly she released him. Taking a step back, her expression shifted from determination to remorse. Her eyes, once wild, were now filled with regret, and she turned her head away, unable to meet the boy’s gaze.

“What have I done?” she cried out in dismay. “What have I said? I’m so sorry!”

The boy wasted no time separating himself from her legs. Leradien let him do so.

“Don’t leave me,” she pleaded. “The madness took me for a moment, but it is passed. I’m sorry! I thought you were dead.”

Alert and cautious, he watched her from a safe distance. Her eyes—they were normal again!

She quickly collected herself while studying him, resuming her old ways.

“What is it you want, boy?” she finally asked.

The boy dusted himself off, satisfied he was now safe from her.

“I was told they had blamed you when I didn’t come home last night,” he explained, still staying out of her reach. “So I came here to warn you and make sure you’re all right.”

“You thought elves would enter a drider’s cave to look for you?”

He nodded slowly, but sheepishly. That did seem rather foolish now. No elf enters a cave, especially if there's a drider inside.

“You still have much to learn about elves," she said. "Except for Ronthiel, they never showed up, and they never would have.”

Unfortunately, that was undoubtedly true. He changed subjects.

“What were you doing when I came in?” he asked her.

“Nothing,” she replied. “I thought you were dead. I was sad. It’s gone now. You’re alive.”

“I heard you call out the name Leradien the Light?”

“Forget her. She doesn’t love you. I do.”

“You tried to capture me!”

“I told you. I thought you were dead. Allow a drow a little bit of selfishness. It’s what we are. But I released you, didn’t I?”

The boy was still wary of her. “How’d you know I was missing?”

“You didn’t come by yesterday,” she said. “With a displacer beast about I went looking for you last night. But I didn’t see you with the gnomes or the fairies. That’s when Ronthiel came by this morning and told me you were missing. Then I heard people searching in the wood for you and calling your name. I figured you’d either left or were dead.”

“Why’d you think I’d leave?”

“Because you think I attacked Ronthiel.”

The boy nodded. “Yes. That was indeed, my plan,” he admitted to her. "You broke your word to me, so I figured I ought to break mine to you. I sort of thought you deserved it. I had left, but I have come back. I’d never leave without saying goodbye to you.”

“You promised me you wouldn’t ever leave me at all. I trusted you on that.”

“I haven’t left you. I’m here, aren’t I?”

“You’re here to say goodbye. That’s leaving me and breaking your promise. You gave me your word.”

“Now just a dang a minute, I’m here, aren’t I? I haven’t left you. Not yet, anyway! And speaking of broken promises, what did happen between you and Ronthiel? He says you tried to kill him! That’s a broken promise to me!”

“He says that, does he? Why am I not surprised?” she retorted and proceeded to set the boy straight on that. “Did he also tell you he put an arrow in me? Who is trying to kill who?”

“Did you try to kill him?”

“You were going to leave me for it on his word, so you obviously think I did. You are already decided against me!”

“I’m not thinking anything now without hearing your side of the story first.”

She relaxed a bit and explained it. “He was being followed by the displacer beast. I found its tracks behind Ronthiel’s and where it sidestepped the trail to get ahead of him to jump him. I got ahead of him too and ran it down. Your friend put an arrow in me for that.”

“Where?” He looked her over. “Did it hurt?”

“No. It just broke and bounced off.”

“Well!” he said. “That’s sort of the way he described it, too, only he says you and the cat were both waiting for him ahead.”

“Spiders don’t lie ahead in waiting. Cats do,” Leradien said. “Spiders use webs. The cat and I were fighting. That’s why he saw the cat. I used my fairy lights to blind it. It was by my own light he saw us.”

The boy nodded. It made sense. “I believe you, Leradien. Ronthiel said the same thing about your lights.”

“You should believe me. Why would I lie to you? Have I ever?”

“Ronthiel just got himself confused.”

“All Light Elves are confused. Don't you know that already?”

“You sort of looked that way yourself when I came in.”

“I thought you were gone forever.”

“You mean you missed me?”

She gave him a look of warning. “Don’t push your luck, boy. I’m still a drow.”

“A half-drow,” he reminded her. “Did your other half miss me?”

“What do I care, what my other half thinks?”

The boy gave up. He’d get no admissions from her. “So what were people saying about me if you could hear them?”

“Nothing you’d want to hear.”

“Oh! Come on! What were they saying?”

She knew! He had to hear! What did everyone think of him? And missed him?

“I mostly stayed around your aunt," Leradien told him. "I figured she’d be the first one told if they found anything out about you.”

“So what did she say?”

“Some good, but mostly apologizing to others for the not so good in order to get them to search,” answered Leradien. “Your aunt actually sees you in a nice way.”

“And how’s that?” he wanted to know.

“That you’re basically good and, that when you do bad things, it’s just for fun and that you really mean any harm.”

“What were the good things she said?”

“Those were the good things.”

“She said bad things?” he asked.

“Maybe,” said Leradien. “She admitted you were mischievous and irresponsible. It’s what she apologized for.”

“What? She said that?”

“Why not? It’s true, isn’t it?”

“That doesn’t matter!” the boy argued. “You’re not supposed to say unkind things about the dead.”

“You do it yourself all the time.”

“It’s okay when I do it. I’m a satyr. They’re not satyrs. They’ve got no excuse,” said the boy. “What about the other elves? What did they say?”

She tossed her silver-white hair. “Not much.”

“They must have said something! Didn’t anybody miss me?”

“Sure! There were some that did.”

“Who were they?”

“The fairies and the gnomes,” said Leradien. “They said you never meant any harm, and you were the best-hearted boy that ever was.”

“Well! See! That was right nice of them. Anybody else?” he asked.

“One,” she said.

“Who was that?”

“Nobody you care about.”

“Who was it?” asked the boy. “Somebody missed me and I don’t get to know who they were?”

“I guess not,” she said.

“How come you won’t tell me?” he insisted to know. "Who was it?"