Elven Interlude

Unbeknownst to Erik, his army wasn’t the only, albeit temporary, inhabitant of the forest.

The forest was located in the western part of the Astrira continent which was located in the world of Valeria. The huge forest which stretched from the top of the continent to the bottom of it was under the protection of the elves.

After the Exodus most of the elves made the forest their home for countless centuries. They lived Isolated from the rest of the continent in relative peace interspersed with occasional conflicts with human slavers and the ever-industrious dwarfs. There were not many who could claim that they walked away after entering the forest.

But all of that changed with Erik’s arrival. The elves were baffled by the strange events happening in the forest. First there were the rabbits, then the wolves and finally the goblins each one being stranger than the former.

In the elvish capital Ost-in-Edhil the King of the Elves had his hands full with nonsensical reports of massive rabbit armies followed by wolves and goblins. His advisors were bickering amongst each other. Some wanted to exterminate the perceived enemy while others wanted to hunker down and ignore the outside world.

While the elves were quarrelling the armies cleanly bypassed every elvish village in an orderly fashion. When the King received reports about that he was for a moment relieved but soon enough a disconcerting though occurred to him “If we weren’t the targets, who was?”.

When the King again sat down with his advisors to discuss what to do next, everyone was unanimous. They would do nothing and hope that the unknown enemies would mutually destroy each other.

But of course, the elves were not a collectivist society. They prided themselves most on their nobleness and their arcane knowledge. It was safe to assume that some elves would disobey their orders due to their hubris or ignorance.

But Lhaindir was governed by neither of those. His motivation was of the most dangerous kind.

Curiosity.

Even in the days of childish games and mock sword fights with sticks plucked from the forest floor Lhaindir knew he was different than the other youths his age. He had no interest in rough housing or wrestling and fighting like the other youths his age quite the contrary actually he liked to discover the world around himself, plunge into the unknown and uncover the buried past. Most of his childhood was spent inside the Royal Library learning magic and history since he was a recognized genius among the new generation of elves. He had no time to be like his heroic ancestors protecting elven kind but if there was an adventure to be had you could count on Lhaindir being a part of it. Due to his adventurous spirit he led more or less a solitary life with most of his acquaintances being librarians.

So, when Lhaindir disappeared no one noticed for quite some time. But at that time even Lhaindir himself didn’t know that he would embark upon the greatest adventure of his life that would take him across Valeria and beyond.

When Lhaindir heard about the strange happenings in the forest, his first thought was “A new adventure!”. He immediately went home, packed everything up and set out at dawn. He followed the tracks belonging to the rabbit army for a week. He came just in time to see a human bawling his eyes out among myriads of tiny rabbit corpses. Suffice to say, Lhaindir was thoroughly confused by the sight in his view.

And then everything changed for Lhaindir. The human summoned more humans with no visible preparations at all. When Lhaindir saw that, he was astonished since even elves couldn’t summon every time they wanted something.

But what happened after gave Lhaindir the biggest shock in his life.

After the rabbits came the wolves but they perished with relative ease. Lhaindir risked his life just to satisfy his curiosity. He had to pull back a little since the humans were destroying the forest. His mouth twitched in annoyance due to the destruction but his curiosity won in the end. He had too many questions to ask but he didn’t know if the humans would let him live if he showed himself to them. It was the greatest dilemma of his life. Safety or satisfaction.

The day he finally decided to satisfy his curiosity the goblins came. Lhaindir watched the battle with rapt attention. He watched with abject horror the horrific scene in front of him. Screams and explosion everywhere where the eye could see. The goblin army was annihilated. After the deed was done, only little green corpses remained.

Throughout the month after the battle Lhaindir observed the human army with more caution since he wasn’t completely sure if he could run away successfully if he was discovered.

When the humans finally boarded their metal chariots and left, Lhaindir went to explore the remains of the base. But there was nothing of importance since everything was torched and demolished leaving nothing useful.

But Lhaindir wasn’t discouraged since he had already made a decision before. There was an adventure waiting for him and he wouldn’t shy away from it.

Lhaindir followed the humans to the edge of the forest. This was his first time leaving the forest but due to his almost child-like focus on the shiny army he was completely oblivious to his surroundings.

He followed behind the army, which was considerably easy since they were thundering along the way. All animals were scared away.

Due to the “inhuman” speed at which the convoy travelled Lhaindir had to strengthen his body with magic to keep up but that put a strain on his body.

And on one fateful day, Lhaindir due to exhaustion made a mistake which was part his own fault and part Erik’s.

It seemed that Velaria’s soil wasn’t accustomed to tanks. While Lhaindir was sneaking the ground suddenly caved in and he fell straight down. His scream carried far due to the acoustics of the cave and a commander observing the surroundings from his Puma heard it. It was instantly forwarded up the chain of command. Five minutes later there was a lone elf with a broken leg surrounded by humans.

When Erik came to the scene, oblivious to the tension in the air, the first thing he blurted out was, “Elf?”

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Your author here.

Yeah I'm more or less back.

The healthcare system in this country is abysmal. I still need to go through check-ups for my sinuses. My head feels like a balloon ready to pop.

Anyways, since I'm a big fan of Tom Clancy, I'm gonna model my commandos on Rainbow Six. So if you want to, you can suggest a character or two.

Still no dragons :D