Elanil stalked the outskirts of Illana Elyen. This is the night, the night she finally left th village, the night she would leave everything she'd ever knownand the night she would stick up a huge pinky finger to her father and his traditions. Elanil had a simple plan, Elanil didn't like elaborate plans they took too long and often went wrong, no this was a good plan. She climbed the huge Everwood tree that supported Tinlef's house, he had left the village to go to the council of United Races, she placed the elk fat and oils she got from the hunters at the perimeter of Tinlef's house, laid some tinder and took out her flint and steel and set it alight. The flames caught on to the oils and fat and quickly grew to a blaze.

She would have to be fast or the village mages would arrive and notice that it was just a distraction. She ran to the edge of the river which served as a border for the village and swam over it to the other side. She took her pack that she hid in a thorny thicket. It had everything she needed till she got to the nearest village, a months worth of seed bread, a longsword from the armory and a few silver coins she got from her childhood friend Fenian, she asked where he got them he had said he got them from a couple of men hunting elk too near the village without permits from the Coucil of Elders. As she was thinking about him a voice called from across the river.

"Ela! Dont do this!, As a guard I command you to stop!"

"Fen please, you know of my dreams. Please if you bear any love for me, for the friendship we have, please let me go" she called

Fenian's face grew conflicted. he looked at his childhood friend his Kinnon, sister of different blood with a grim expression. " Are you sure you want to this?"

"Yes, it has been my dream to be a guardian, ever since I could walk. If I cannot be one here, I will carve my own path somewhere else." she called steel in her voice

"Very well, cut your hair and arm, then spill blood on the hair, they would think you got overwhelmed and killed"

Elanil did as she was told. She used her longsword to cut most of her flowing locks, mad a cut in her arm then dripped it over her hair. She attached the bloodied hair to a rock and threw it at Fenian, Then she washed the wound in the magic rich river of the Rheynorhin and the wound closed.

"the mages are close, Run Ela!" he called "protect your friends don't let the fate that will befall me, befall them" he said under his breath.

Elanil ran, she ran into the forest and never looked back.

•••••

Aquile was a respected village Elder, the head of the noble Falamin house, was the first to establish a strict mage force in their village after traveling to the homeland and learning the secrets of life magic. He strode proudly to the top of the Lignaternum, the largest tree in the village, where the Council of Elders converged to meet. He could hear the curses and arguments from the outside. As he pushed aside the leaf curtains, the room fell silent. The eleven Elders looked at him, some with pity and some with a smug expression on their face.

"Sir I found this last night while on patrol" a guard stepped forward, Aquile recognized him as Fenian, his daughter's friend who teached her those blighted sheilding techniques so unfit for a lady of her birth. The guard handed him a thick locke of gold hair matted with blood.

His heart fell from his chest.

He grabbed the hair and quickly used Ancestry Detect on it. The spell confirmed his thought, his little princess was gone. He dropped to his knees and wailed, tears falling on the wood floor. Some of the others elders looked away in pity at the grieving father who lost a daughter, 50 years of age, barely an adult. Some looked on, hiding the smug smiles forming on their faces,at the most powerful Elder on the council who lost his only heir, who lost his only chance to continue the Falamin name.

Aquile rose and pointed a finger at the guard. "It was all your fault!" he screamed spitle flying out his mouth. A thick black-green aura formed on his hand, filling the room with the smell of detritus and rotting wood. "I Aquile of House Falamin sentence you to death for the failure of your duty" He looked at each of the Elder's eyes, a hint of grief induced madness in his eyes. " If he had done his job she would still be alive ! this is unforgivable" he said " Who objects to this? I will send you with him, along with this whole blighted village. Me and my mages will render this village to nothing more than a pile of rotting leaves". Every elder held their tongues and their breaths.

Fenian adopted a stoic look on his face. If he died so her dreams may be fulfilled so be it. He never had the courage to pursue his dreams why would he stop someone else? much less his Kinnon. He locked his jaw and waited for the inevitable.

"Naturas Kalamitae" He screamed. The black-green energy flew toward him at the speed of an arrow and impacted his chest. The guard turned into a wooden statue then it began to rot, magic forcing a process that would take weeks to happen in the span of a few seconds. The decomposition was completed and all that was of the guard was black soil

The Elders looked at Aquile, they looked at a broken man.