"Ivy, Danny, I think he is waking up," Jade whispered excitedly. It was the second night since they brought the man back with them to the tree house.

Danny got up with Ivy and they left Brooke sleeping on her pallet. Jade stood over the man who lay sleeping in the far corner. They had placed on some extra blankets that they'd brought. He was groaning and speaking in a language Danny guessed was Elven. Going back, Danny grabbed a cup from his pack and filled it with conjured water. He squatted down next to Ivy, who was trying to talk to the man. She seemed to know a few words in the same language.

Danny asked, "Ivy, you know the Elven language?"

"Yes, they make sure every team leader knows enough Elven and Dwarven to be able to communicate fluently."

Jade asked, "What's he saying?"

Ivy shook her head, "I think he is saying someone’s name, but the rest doesn't make sense to me."

Danny said, "I want to learn the Elven language, I only know how to write in it."

Ivy looked back at Danny like she didn't know who he was, "You know how to write in Elven? How?"

"There was a book in the academy library. I guess it was there in case someone needed to read some Elven texts, though I never found any of those."

"That's strange..."

“Why would an Academy having books be strange?”

Ivy looked away for a second before responding, “I was told that Wizards at the academy are only given what is needed to learn magic, and there isn’t a need for them to learn other skills.”

Danny looked confused, “I looked all over for anything other than magic there. My book on potions had to be purchased. Why do they not want wizards to gain knowledge in other fields?”

Ivy sighed, “I asked the same thing when I learned about it. Since we have so few wizards, we can’t afford for them to get sidetracked into other things.”

“Do they actively stop some wizards from pursuing other things?”

Ivy shook her head, “Not that I have heard.”

Danny wasn’t sure what to make of this new knowledge. It didn’t sit well with him.

The elf opened his eyes and started speaking again. Ivy replied, but stopped in the conversation and turned to Danny, "He wants to know about the other elves that were with him."

Danny shook his head, "Just tell him to drink this water and I will make him something to eat. We can talk about that later. Oh, ask him if he eats meat. Oh, and if he says no, don't tell him about the broth we have been feeding him the past two days."

Ivy stared hard at Danny for a second before talking with the elf again. The elf started to get agitated and tried to get up but he was too weak. Ivy gently pushed him back down. "When I avoided telling him about the other elves he tried to get up."

Danny looked over at the elf and asked, "Do you speak human?"

The elf nodded, "Yes."

Ivy looked a little embarrassed for not asking this already.

Danny said, "My name is Danny, what's your name?"

"The-leaf-that-falls-on-the-first-day-of-Autumn."

Danny paused at this and then, acting as if it never happened, said, "Nice to meet you Leaf! Now, I need to get you some food so that I can eventually heal you properly. I did not spend all that mana on you, bringing you back from the brink of death, just so you could starve."

Leaf nodded at this, "Thank you for saving me."

"You are welcome, now is there anything you don't eat, like meat?"

"Why wouldn't I eat meat?"

"I don't know why, but there are some truly odd people in this world. I just wish not eating meat was the weirdest thing people did."

Ivy stayed with the elf while Danny went around to the other side of the platform to grab some fruit. He didn't have anything clean to put them in, so he quickly grew a bowl. He took the fruits over to the elf.

"Here, these should tide you over 'til we can get you something more substantial to eat."

The elf dug around in the bowl and looked surprised, "Where did you find fresh apples out here in the forest? Are these grapes?!"

"Oh, I just grew an apple tree and grape vine into the side of the tree here."

The elf looked around as if he just now noticed where he was, "Did you grow all this out of the tree?"

Danny looked around, "Oh, yes, you will have to tell me if I did alright or not. I am sure you’re used to nicer-looking structures. I usually rush these as we only stay in them one night."

The elf looked around in shock as he raised an apple to his mouth, absently taking a bite.

Danny looked upset, "Did I do something wrong or can you tell me if there is a way to do it better?"

The elf stopped eating, "Danny, only the eldest druids of our people know how to do this! They take hundreds of years, living in solitude in the forests, to learn to bend the trees to their will. They observe the very nature of the forest to unravel its secrets. While not as aesthetically pleasing as the buildings of my people, this is very well done! Then you have water and earth affinities above five?"

Smiling, Danny said, "Oh, thanks! Yes, I have water and earth, along with nature affinity."

Danny hadn't seen her leave, but Jade came back into the living room with a plate of jerky, "Danny, this is the last of the jerky. I could have sworn we had plenty a few days ago. I will go hunting and get us some more meat. Maybe we can cure some more before we leave. I don't want to have to hunt every night on the way back."

Danny quickly grabbed the plate and didn't turn to look at Jade, "Oh that's awful, I hope I didn't eat more than my share. Yes, please go get more when you can. I will be happy to help you make more... No, I insist I help you!"

Jade looked oddly at Danny's back before grabbing her bow and heading off into the woods.

Leaf looked between the retreating back of Jade and Danny looking at the plate in his hands. "What was that about?"

Danny looked up at Leaf and handed him the plate. "So, Leaf. What affinities do you have?”

Leaf looked at Danny like he knew something was up, “I have earth and water like most elves, but they are only level two each. I don’t spend much time on magic, as I prefer a bow and sword.”

Danny nodded, then a few minutes later asked, “Can you teach me the Elven language? I only know how to write in it."

Leaf finished the jerky he was chewing on, "Sure, Danny."

In between eating, Leaf taught Danny some of the Elven language.

Danny looked up from the fire they had set up a ways away from their tree house. He had been drying meat over the fire all day. His backed started to ache from leaning over the fire so he made himself a chair with earth affinity. Dried strips of bacon were hidden in an earthen jar he made. He only made that after something small and black made off with a few of his finished products. Sitting nearby, Jade had managed to fire off a few arrows at it but it was too fast, even for her. Brooke kept coming up with reasons to come by and sneak off with some of them herself.

Having rested a bit more, they had the newly-awakened elf recount how he got captured by the goblins.

It turned out that Leaf had known about his fellow elves being tortured but not their deaths. The elves had been scouting in the area based on rumors of increased goblin activity. They had discovered a single goblin that had been gathering different clans under one banner. They found a goblin city had sprung up at the eastern base of the great dwarven mountains, around the ruins of an ancient fortress.

Taking the initiative, the elven scouts attempted to assassinate the new warchief. The elves had learned long ago to quell any nearby goblin cities, after they lost an entire village and part of their forest centuries ago.

Leaf and his group stealthily entered the fortress at night, but before they could reach the warchief they were detected by the goblins' wolves that littered the fortress. The elves found themselves in even worse shape when numerous goblin shamans appeared from the depths of the ruins. Outnumbered, some stayed behind to draw their attack while Leaf and the others fled to bring word to their people.

Unfortunately they were attacked again as they tried to escape, by a goblin male wearing a duster. This was a style normally only worn by human wizards. He did not dress like the other shamans. He used magic they had never seen before. Then they were shocked to find he even knew the Elven language, for he taunted them as he started to kill them one by one. One elf threw himself at the strange goblin so Leaf and the other two elves could escape.

Wounded, they fled through the forest as the goblins gave chase. The goblins were able to keep up by riding the captured beast wolves. The elves found themselves herded away from the elven woods to the north and were turned southeast into the Great Forest. They were eventually captured by the goblins and imprisoned.

The goblins demanded to know a large number of things, including the locations and numbers of elven cities and troops. Leaf noted that this was a strange and advanced list of things to request by the usually dim-witted goblins. Leaf had then watched them beat and torture his fellow elves. The hardest part was not telling them what they wanted to know when they made him watch as they systematically chopped up his current mate. They always took the other elves away before they could die and refused to tell him if they still lived. They eventually beat him until he could speak no more, leaving him to die.

Ivy had questioned where the wolf riders were, as they had not seen any since arriving. Leaf figured they had left to report their capture. Danny wondered if one of the other elves had spoken, but he kept this to himself. He didn't know how Leaf could be so calm when faced with what he had gone through.

Danny finished what he could of the meat that day and returned to the tree house. Jade went to check the lookout where Ivy was, while Brooke stood guard at the way up. As he stepped into the living room, Danny added more mana to the light spell inside.

Danny noticed Leaf touching the remains of his ears. He placed the meats in a container they used to keep foods and went over to sit by the elf. Danny leaned against the wall, "I'm sorry about your ears..."

Leaf jerked his hands away as if he didn't realize what he had been doing, "It's alright Danny, you have done what you can and I have you to thank for my life."

"I can mend flesh, fix bones, and now I know I can remove diseases. I just wish I could help you grow..." Danny stopped, looking thoughtfully at one of the elf's ruined ears.

The elf looked worriedly at Danny, "Danny, what's wrong?"

Danny broke from whatever trance he was in, "I think I can do it.'

"What can you do?"

"I can grow back your ears- well no, that's not right, I can tell your body to grow back your ears. Well at least I think I can."

The elf looked at Danny like the boy had just claimed he could fly. "Danny, if you had the pieces of my ears and they had been ripped off only an hour or so ago, then maybe you could possibly heal them back on. Healing my ears from nothing is not possible. They fed them to the boar!"

"I think I could also get arms and legs to regrow," Danny said distractedly, as if Leaf had never spoken. "Here, I should be able to convert your cells to what is needed. This isn't a limb so it should technically be easier. I just hope they don't become tumorous..."

Leaf looked at him worriedly, "Danny, what are you talking about?"

Danny raised his hands to the elf's ears and used life affinity, willing some of the cells in his ears to change to an undifferentiated state. If correct, they would use different chemical signals from the surrounding cells to quickly grow and fill in the missing ears. Or possibly they would become a giant tumorous mass.

"Danny, do you really think this could work?" Instructor Meadow asked.

"I believe so, but I will probably need to observe him for a few days to ensure it is taking effect like I believe it will. He will probably have an increased appetite, but that is just a guess."

Leaf looked lost, "Danny who is this woman?"

"That's Instructor Meadow, she sent us here to drive off th- Instructor Meadow! What are you doing here?!"

Meadow smiled, "I have been here the whole time with another member of the order, observing your first mission. Good job finding an alternate way to scare the goblins off without giving away your identities. Fear of the unknown spreads easier than fear of human teenagers."

"Where is your partner then?"

"When you rescued the man in the cage and it turned out to be an elf, we were about to step in. The one that left is a skilled healer. Then you were able to heal him effectively and get information from him we needed. The one that left will alert the government about the growing goblin threat. We will help Leaf here get back to Diadem, where we can send him back home with a proper escort," Meadow explained.

Leaf said, "Instructor Meadow I thank you for sending your people here, and for any assistance you can provide me in warning my people."

Meadow smiled at Leaf, "I am just sorry I didn't know about this issue sooner. We will be sending our own courier to your people as soon as we can."

Leaf bowed to her from his seated position.

Meadow continued, "It looks like we will be here until Leaf is able to walk. Danny how is his condition?"

Danny replied, "Leaf here still has multiple contusions across his body. I was able to effectively treat his wounds, broken bones, internal bleeding, and hopefully soon we will be growing him some new ears. I suspect his strength has returned enough to travel, though we may take it easy the first couple of days. I should be able to remove the bruising now. He wasn't complaining about them and I figured it wouldn't hurt to let him recover some more fat before I started that. Then I got distracted and started him growing new ears... I hope."

Meadow sighed, "Danny, next time just say his condition is good and he should be able to start off with light travel."

Danny looked embarrassed and Meadow patted his shoulder before heading back out.

Leaf asked from behind Danny, "Do you really think my ears will grow back?"

Danny turned to Leaf and just smiled.