Far from where Alexander met his fate, the innocent wood elves continued their journey to find Queen Legodia's throne and the evil King Oom. Thal would have to challenge him face to face in order to claim the throne and kingdom as rightfully his by birth.
King Oom had been expanding the kingdom, but not by conquering adjacent kingdoms in battle. His method was to bully landowners until they signed away their land for pennies on what they paid for it; or he would take it by eminent domain even if the land had been in the same family for centuries. Laughing as his men burnt houses and barns, he would toss a few coins to the families that had been heirs born to the land before King Oom was even a thought in his father's pocket.
It would come as no surprise to Elder Elowin how King Oom had been growing his kingdom, but she wasn't with the four as they traveled again at the earliest hours of the day. Vondran had been silent as the closer they came to the kingdom, the greater the risk to their lives.
There are many on this planet we call home that would betray their closest friend or family, neighbor, town, even country for the most minor of reasons for financial gain. Vondran knew of Kael's past and had reason to believe that if offered the right price, he would betray them all.
Thal sensed that Vondran was concerned about Kael but couldn't pinpoint why. It was the least of his worries for the moment because he also sensed that they were being followed. But no matter how hard he tried to get Vondran to speak to him and tell him who it was, he'd not been able to get a response from Vondran. He hesitated to mention it to Kael or Eldrin because he didn't want to frighten Lyri... something he needn't worry about.
At the next break they took for a meal, it was Lyri who brought up the "shadow" that crept along in the woods parallel to their every step.
[This is an ongoing chapter a week story that began with the first Words for Wednesday for 2025 on 1 January. I'm hoping to continue it through 31 December, the last Wednesday of the year. To start from the beginning, click on the Words for Wednesday 2025 label to the right and it will pull up all of the weekly posts, beginning with the most recent. To start from the beginning, continue to click "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page until you get to 1 January 2025, then click "Newer Posts" to read the next date. You can thank Blogger for the inability to list them by chronological order under the labels.]








