Beleg looked over at the others, trying to avoid Kre’s eyes but found no help from his colleagues. “Ah,” he muttered, “I’m a Tehynshin too you know. I heard the same stories growing up.”
Kre nodded and waited for Beleg to continue. The big man did so, nudging his horse closer to Kre’s as the company started their ride out of the area. “If you’ll be traveling with us, you should know that the… uh… world, is far bigger and more… uh… varied, then our government has ever let on.”
Beleg scratched his chin, buying himself time to consider his words. “You’re already all too aware of goblins. Things out of bedtime stories, used to scare children into behaving, but also all too real. Most Tehynshins will never meet a goblin, or if they do, they won’t ever live to tell about it.”
Dain slowed his own horse down and evened up with Kre and Beleg, now that there was some room on the path for the three of them to be side-by-side. “There are dozens, if not hundreds of creatures like that out here in the wilderness. Creatures out of stories and myths that we tell ourselves could only exist in our nightmares.
“Only the military and hired adventurers have actual experiences with a small portion of these faie.” Beleg explained, feeling more confident now that he wasn’t the only one trying to explain things. “Faie being the term that the Ylveryan offered our people as a way to collectively label all things mysterious and mystical to us.”
“Such labels are apparently very important to your kind,” Kersath smirked, maneuvering his horse to guide Beleg’s mount out of the way, allowing him to pull up next to Kre in the big man’s place. “Why your people have this fascination with labels and definitions is a mystery in and of itself, but one that none of the Ylveryan will bother to solve.”
Dain chortled at the verbal jab to his people. “It’s very true though,” he admitted. “It’s actually the reason why us Tehynshin aren’t as adept at the mystical arts as our Ylveryan fellows. We simply cannot fathom the vastness of the world around us and, not only that, we generally cannot accept it for its inexplicableness.”
“Dain enjoys using those dusty leather book words far too much,” Kersath muttered, intentionally loud enough to carry. “Myself, I use only the words necessary to convey my intent.”
“Though that intent is usually to insult,” smirked Dain as a counter.
Kersath shrugged, “What can I say. My mission in life is to educate others in how foolish they are being.”
Kre cleared his throat loudly, “What about the Dalklyn… are they part of what we call the faie?”
Both Kersath and Dain pulled sharply on their reins, stopping their horses completely. The trio were in the back of the column, so no one was otherwise inconvenienced by the sudden stop. Kre tugged lightly at his own reins and used his knees to encourage Maple to turn, facing the other two head on.
“How do you know about the…” Dain waved a hand towards the trees and whispered the next word at barely more than a breath, “Dal…” He flailed his hands a bit, as if trying to pull the name from his throat. In the end, he simply hissed, “… the thing.”