"I believe we'll generally be well received. I mean, the Eluri are sometimes aloof but when people do bother to come into their lands they seem to be interested in what tales they have to tell. They're good people. Probably the most easygoing of the elf nations. And aside from a few differences, I think you'll find them very much like your own people. I think in general as we travel, you will realize how alike we all are in our own ways. We all want to provide for those we love. We all want to feel we are doing the right thing. We all want to love and to be loved, when it comes down to it."

Ridahne sighed, giving the other part of Darin's question some more serious thought. She hadn't given much consideration to how she would be viewed in other countries. She knew exactly how people would look at her in human lands--as a towering, dangerous, and exotic creature that was best kept at a polite distance. That was fine, and not altogether untrue if a bit hyperbolic. Earlier in her travels, she caught a rapist in a small town and made [I]absolutely sure[/i] he would never do anything of the sort ever again. The most readily apparent thing she did to him was take his right thumb, but the town surgeon was horrified to learn what else she'd done. They got the hunting bows out after that, and all but the girl and her family wanted to chase her out. They didn't all know the story, and some others knew and didn't seem to think the punishment fit the crime. Ridahne went without a fight, knowing that the girl was safe, and that Ridahne had shown the man fear. 

The human folk, unless they were particularly learned in faraway cultures, had no notion of her mark and what it meant and couldn't distinguish it from any other mark she had on her ojih. The Eluri though...

"Some will know what it means. Not all of them make a point to study the Azurian Ojih, as they follow a different religion. Some know them, or at least important ones. Most will know that I am Eija, though few would know I am Eija-alihn. Some might see that and my traitor mark and think me a dangerous person. They would not be wrong. I am dangerous." She said this with conviction, but followed it up with "But not all dangerous things are wicked. Consider Mitaja, or the wolves of the forest. Some may scoff and dismiss it as Azurei politics, of which they take no part. But..." She was thinking this through aloud, so as she spoke it was only a moment after the thought came to her. "Word will have spread about a sudden change in Azurei royalty. People are smart, they will put the pieces together I'm sure." Ridahne shrugged. "I don't know, Darin. Some may not care, others might be very bothered, and others might just be wary of me. We'll see when we get there."

The trees around them began to thicken, or at least, they had been for some time but it felt more noticeable now. The light was more green than sunny yellow as it filtered through the dense canopy, and their pace was only slightly slowed by stray branches that reached out across the road. Every so often, they would come across a clearing here and there, and once they interrupted a stag's grazing. The sight of Mitaja made it bound away into the thicker parts of the forest, though the cat did not follow. She'd been well fed and was content for now. 

"Yes, they have towns. They might look different than yours--the capitol is built mostly up in the trees, but the smaller settlements are usually around large clearings where fields could be planted. They will have beds aplenty for us, I'm sure." She was looking forward to beds too, and hot food.