"That was very interesting," said Thalon, "I thought Vyran would be on his way there already."
Fraka, on Thalon’s shoulder, nodded in agreement.
"It's complicated. 'There' can be several places at once. Location doesn’t matter much in that realm."
"I see," replied Thalon, "I still don't see why you didn't think I could've defeated him."
"By the Gods, no! Especially not in the Shadow Realm."
"Althelia, sweetheart, do you think we could not discourage him at this point?" said Jhenna, glaring at her older sister.
"I'm just being honest Jhenna-dear. I'm sure you can answer any other questions he has, I have to go and talk to Lord Dyalyn."
Althelia vanished into the air.
"That was rude," remarked Thalon.
"It is Althelia, she is always rude," replied Kandar. "Come along, we should not linger here."
"Kandar is right,” agreed Denkar, "We need to get to the nearest village before nightfall. There we will hire horses to take us to the Port City where Lady D'marigold will, presumably, have arranged our passage across the ocean."
"Her communications suggested as much," replied Kandar who had been in charge of those arrangements.
"I see no reason to stay. Prince Thalon, are you ready to depart?" asked Jhenna.
"Please just call me Thalon and, yes, I am ready."
Jhenna rolled her eyes and started walking down the road followed by her brothers and Thalon.
"May I ask," said Thalon, "Shouldn't we disguise ourselves before we leave?"
"No," replied Jhenna, very patiently, "If we stay here a large number of Shadow Lords, whose attention would have been attracted by the opening of that portal, will see us. Now as they are our mortal enemies and in league with your brother we really do not want that to happen. So we are going to travel for a few hours then we will worry about disguises."
"I see." said Thalon, as he followed them down the dusty road.
A short while later he spoke to Jhenna again.
"How does our brother know so much about the human's land?"
Jhenna looked at him wondering why he was asking such a ridiculous question.
"He's been here quite a few times. More than I have anyway, and Denkar travels here from the Dwarven lands quite regularly."
"I see."
"Dwarves are a far more common sight than Elves in these lands, that's one of the reasons we brought him along. So just let him do the talking when we get to the village."
"I understand." said Thalon looking annoyed. He walked further ahead so that he was between the other men and Jhenna rather than next to her.
Kandar stepped off of the road and announced that it was time to stop.
"Finally," muttered Jhenna, "the view was getting tedious."
"For the benefit of Prince Thalon I will explain our cover story. Denkar and Jhenna are a pair of Dwarven Traders. Prince Thalon, who shall be referred to as Ralin for the purpose of the story, and I will be their bodyguards. You and I, who will be named Jerad, will refer to them as Master and Mistress. Their names will be given as Verla and Barec."
"Jhenna does not look like a Dwarf."
"Oh please," Jhenna rolled her eyes, "I'm short and if I cover my ears I’ll be a Dwarf as far as the human population are concerned."
"I see," said Thalon.
“One more thing. Tell the bird to stay out of sight, tame predators are not common around here.”
“Very well,” agreed Thalon, relaying the message to Fraka who took off and flew out of sight.
"Good," said Denkar gruffly, "Then cover those pointy ears and let's get going."
The three elves of the group, and Denkar for the sake of appearances, covered their ears with scarves wrapped around over their heads.
"Very stylish," giggled Jhenna when they were done. Thalon looked extremely put out by both the ridicule and the disguise itself.
"It is not that bad," he muttered while the others laughed about it.