It was a cold winter evening. The elven party was forced to stay in a hunting cabin in the hills because of a sudden snowstorm. Elendirill knew this storm was coming, but the small glimps of hope finding them before the storm seemed good enough to leave ... Now everything could be lost. They had been following the trail all day since they left.
Elendirill sat down, apart from the others, and they didn't look at him either. He felt their glances from time to time, but they understood his loss.
All what happened the day before was just impossible. Never had someone entered the Elven forest without their knowing, and never had someone taken an elf from their homes ... never had someone taken his wife from their home. He dropped his head and kept looking at the ground. If he could only find a reason ... Why would they take his wife, or was she just a random victim ... None of that mattered now, she had to be found, he reased from his seat and slowly walked towards his bow. He knew the others looked at him, trying to see what he would do now. Without saying a thing he took his cape and ran out into the darkness. No one tried to stop him but they knew this might have been the last time they saw him ...

Elendirill kept running untill he reached the point where the party had to abandon the trail. Nothing was left ... The 12 footprints, 10 from ugly big feet and 2 slender he would recognize as his wife's, had disappeared. Just thinking for a split second he ran the way the footprints where leading. He knew they had gained on the bastards, and they would have sought shelter too. There was still a chance. For a moment there was a sign of hardness on the elfs face, a rare moment where he showed his feeling. He was thinking about what he would do to them if he found them ...

Like the others, he knew what was happening and what Elendirill was leaving for. He sighed. He knew that it would be pointless to try follow the tracks in the middle of the night, even with his or his friend's enhanced Elven vision.

I could sense my friend's prescense far out into the darkness, or at least, I thought I could. I had always been able to...sense things others could not. I have never known whether or not it was true. As a habit, I have ignored this "sense," but now it seemed to pull at me, somehow trying to force me into doing something.

As a mage, I naturally have spent many years of research in my homestead, the village of Thyrawn. I have researched my gift but I was able to find little information about it. I only know that it is very rare and called "Ainu" by the elves. Translated to the common tongue this means Angelic or, Spirit. I have as yet not been able to find any information as to why it has been called this. I hope to discover more information about my curious trait in the future.

For now, however, more important matters are at hand. I am sure my friend has taken off without any food, being so distraught about his beloved wife. Noone had reported any food missing so I assumed he would have nothing to eat. Despite being a skilled trapper and hunter, this winter is very harsh and I think that even Elendirill will be hard pressed finding something to eat.

For the first time in my life, I decided to follow my premonition as a sort of trial. Besides, even if I cannot find my friend, I will know the truth about my supposed gift.

The next morning I told the other members in the party that I intended to leave and follow Elendirill. I took extra rations, noone asked me why. I suppose they don't think I will find my friend.

My standing orders in Elendirill's stead for them was to travel in the same direction until they reached the river Niune, still several days away.

With the knowledge that the party was in good care, I left to follow my friend, out into the wilderness....

White smoky strings were dacing in the water and Eandrae saw two creates in a storm. She couldn't see a lot,
but she felt that there was something wrong. While trying to concentrate a litle bit more, she sensed a heavy sting in her head
and her vision was gone.

While returning to her hut, she though about what happend. In the many years that she lived in the forest she was always able to solve any of her visons. Maybe she was getting to old for this? The people who lived at the edge of the forest where telling that she wasn't a normal witch. In cold winternights they were telling a tale that Eandrae was born together with the forest but noone knew why she lived there. What was her task in this world? Mothers told their children to keep away from the heart of the forest, cause everyone was afraid of this old lady.Eandrae liked it this way. It was years ago that she lived together with other people. She loved the silence in 'her' forest, and if only a sole traveler came to the heart of the forest, she asked the trees to keep him away from her hut.

Elendirill looked at the two creatures from a distance. He never saw any animal like them but there was no time to waste wondering about where they could come from. This was already the second guardpost he encountered, well, it was actually more like a pit where they seemed to sleep and the two creatures where just walking around a bit. But they were not that stupid, one always looked after the other and they always were in scream-distance from eachother. The previous two he took out with lots of luck because they found something to eat and that acquired all their attention, so he shot them both before they knew what was going on.
It was already daytime now ... And with all this delay his wife could be miles away. Again he felt a warm burning feeling inside of him. It was not just anger, it was rage. An unknown feeling for him untill now. He always understood the way life moved on, he understood the balance of things ... but this just was wrong, this was no part of nature.
One of the two creatures was getting closer and was walking towards his hiding place. Now he had to clear his mind of all this anger, think at the spirits of the woods, always calm and controlled .. suddenly he jumped up and an arrow hit the monster that was the most distant just seconds after the closest creature could give a yell. Elendirill drew his knife and waited. The other creature looked at his friend and when he looked back at Elendirill there was a glimps of fear on his face, just for a second, after that it turned to hate. The hate was so strong it amost made Elendirill back up, but this was not much different from defending yourself from a raging wolf. The creature jumped at him and he almost let the vreature hit him ... almost, he moved out of the way and ducked while making a flashing move with his knife. When he turned around the creatures just laid there with an open throat.
Elendirill gathered his bow and ran, following the tracks of the kidnappers of his wife, cursing in himself for all the delay this caused ... 

He usually slept in the abandoned huts now that the farmers had seeked the sanctuary of the local villages. The last few days however, the huts he had passed had been burned down. He always stopped and looked for bodies, making sure that if there were any, they were properly buried.

This was unusual as the houses were all empty. Why they were burnt down was beyond his knowledge. This did not bode well.... 

With its big, black, round eyes wide open, the ignorant little creature watched the treetops woosh by at a high and regular rate. It did not comprehent, and it was completely in the dark, about the danger of this unintended trip. But how could it know, only shortly after it had broken out of its egg, that it wasn't supposed to be flying through the air, head down, with its backside hold by a pair of big, strong claws? How could it know that a giant bird of prey had taken it from its nest and its only chance to survive? How could it know that the low howling noise that had covered the woods right after its journey began, was the cry of a mother, who had lost everything she had lived for for the last months?
The little thing with the crude, blueish naked skin, had no idea. It had also no idea what was about to happen, when the clouds turned darker and wet drops complicated the raptor's flying skills. The baby creature however noticed a strange feeling in its belly. Instinctively its mouth started chewing, but what it was used to didn't happen - its mouth wasn't filled with the warm solid juice it had been eating for all its life. At this moment it also felt the cold air pulling its skin, the green ground coming closer and turning and moving away faster than its eyes could absorb, and finally, from within every part of its little fat body, an earsplitting cry burst out through its wide open mouth. 

At the roof of the woods a bird looked up to seek for the cause of that noise, and quickly pushed off and flapped away when it saw a big blue ball falling from the sky. It hit the treetop and bounced its way down taking branches and thousands of leafs with it, to finally hit the ground with a mat bump and to be covered with a carpet of brown and green colors. Under a gray and rainy sky, the woods lay silent again. 

The last few minutes were the most misarable of Elendirill's life. It took nothing more than a second before he lost all hope on rescuing his wife, and the seconds after that made him crazy with sadness. He sat down covered by some trees at a safe distance from the largest Stronghold he had ever seen. It was no regular stronghold, it didn't look like a casttle at all. It looked like a wide open terrain covered with all kinds of war material, positioned in such a way that every intrution would mean certain dead.
But nothing of that meant anything for Elendirill. All that he saw when he looked at the camp was an impossibility to reach his wife. He had never been seperated from her since they had met eachother, and the longing for her alone hurt like nothing else. But now he saw where they had taken her and the pain he felt inside was so overwhelming he couldn't help himself. He felt the loss in every cell of his body, in every memory his mind could come up with.
He couldn't go further and he fell on his knees with his head bowed down. And that's when he saw ... it. He didn't know what it was, but it looked like some kind of bird. Still shocked from his previous feelings and feeling totally empty inside he just stared at the tiny creature ... 

He was however, completely unprepared for the sight that lay before him. Mud, churned up by countless iron-shod shoes lay in front of him. The last thing he expected to find was a large camp filled with orcs, men and other things unnamed. Strangely enough, the camp seemed to be composed mainly of the unknown creatures that Elendirill had killed earlier on. This explained the burnt huts he had met earilier that week.

Stunned as he was, Joreth almost did not notice the noisy patrol that came from behind him. Just before it was too late, he displaced his considerable bulk into the, unfortunately, thorny bush right next to him.

His luck was with him and he went unnoticed by the patrol. He decided to proceed with extreme caution from now on, around the camp. He supposed he would find his friend somewhere circling the camp, or, more probably, would be noticed by his friend himself.

Before he went, Joreth cast a aura of silence spell, to prevent anyone from hearing him. He hoped to meet up with Elendirill as soon as possible.

While he was bumbling around the camp, thinking and hiding, Joreth realized that his friends wife would likely be in this impregnable "fortress." He hoped his friend would not have realized this himself yet.

While he was hopping from bush to bush, Joreth noticed that many people were entering the camp as mercenaries to some commander or overlord. He heard that the army was still looking for "able bodies." He suddenly got hit by the thought that it would be easy to infiltrate this almost nameless mass of churning bodies. Noone would notice you and you might even be hired to fight for them. With this thought, Joreth understood that he would be able to find out the location of Elendirill's wife quite easily, making sure he avoided larger than average warriors who were obviously picking fights.

As he resolved on his course of action, Joreth stood up from his thorny hiding place, relieved, and entered the camp.

So far so good. He had not yet been challenged by anyone in the camp, even though he got many suspicious eyes being dressed in a mage's robes. These were evident, as he had taken off his fur coat in the sudden, almost unnatural heat of this camp.

As he went through the makeshift streets he saw many people living in squalor, trying to carve out an existence from the trash of the army. He spotted a tent where many mercenaries entered, some more successful than others. This was evident by looking at the bulging, or, more often, empty pouches at their waistes.

As he entered the tent, the enrollment officer said "next." Joreth walked up and felt very awkward, looking into the face of one of the ugliest, most bloated people he had ever seen. Trying to mask his revulsion of this man Joreth said he was a mage looking for employment.

The man sniffed and looked up once more. He grunted ,"We's got enough mages to last this army a lifetime, you and your foul kind are no longer wanted, so you's gonna buggers off now."

He was expecting such a response, knowing most people didn't like mages as they didn't understand them. Joreth knew that people like this needed impressing and a little aggressiveness to make them yield.

Joreth slammed his fists on the table. Suddenly the torches flared violently, a misty wind entered the tent. The ugly man shrunk back into his rockety chair as Joreth shouted telepathically, "don't treat me like some ordinary nameless mage, boy, I have powers you haven't even dreamed of." Even the guards seemed ill at ease. As I recited the many acheivements during my lifetime, some now famous, the ugly man retreated impossibly far into his chair.The ugly man stammered,"uhhm, ok, sir, sorry, I..I.i. won't deny your power again, I t-think it will be ok-k-kk if you j-join the army. Your n-name please." "Joreth Starlight." The wart covered man responded ,"ok, that's done. Your n-name will be up on the list from tomorrow. P-p-please leave me alone now."

Before Joreth left the tent, he asked. "Now could you just tell me where the nearest tavern is, I need some ale." "Just down the road," one of the cloaked guards responded.

His words proved true and soon joreth came to a Tavern called the "Rampaging Troll." The inside of this tavern looked much like its name just happened to it but he had endured worse and decided this would do fine for a few nights, at least until he was paid.

Joreth asked a barlady called Alwina if he could have a room for an unknown amount of time and she answered ,"sure, if you can pay me for an unknown amount of time." Joreth paid the bill for a week, as she apparently owned this tavern. She was a very jovial woman and seemed ill placed in this camp of poverty. After his conversation with Alwina and a multitude of ales, he went to his room and there Joreth finished the last of the food he had taken with him from the Elven camp. Joreth knew that he would not see Elendirill for quite some time and that in this heat the food would soon turn mouldy.

After placing some spells for his personal safety and spells against thieves, Joreth went to sleep, pleased with this day's accomplishments. 

Everything around the strange little critter was still moving in circles when all of a sudden it sensed a smell that drew its attention and triggered that annoying feeling in its stomach again. It tried figuring out where up and below was and rolled over, trying to get up. But even with the big feet it had, it fell over on its back, and it tried again. That's when it noticed that smell for the second time. Awfully scared to move, because his big black eyes could only distinguish vague spots in bright and less bright colors, but driven by that commanding feeling in its stomach, it rolled up its feet, stayed in balance, and in a flash it waddled up to where the smell came from and instinctly put its big mouth around it and started chewing. But nothing went in its throat except for its own slobber, and it let go and looked at the smelly thing with what seemed to be a frown. The hunger was about to make it open its mouth and cry again, when it suddenly looked up and stared into the staring eyes of the weirdest creature... 

With his mind still blured with sadness Elendirill looked at the creature trying to eat his legg. The previous attempts to get up, and now the way it tryed to find something to eat made Elendirill feel sorry for the poor bastard. At other times he might have laughed and he would have a story to tell when he got home to his wife ... but now reality just shattered his normal way of life.
But still, he had always liked animals, and when he was hunting he only shot the animals that where weak or too old to survive. And he had found some abandoned young animals too. So when he sat down to clear his head, he looked in his backpack for something this strange fellow could eat. He still had some bread and milk left, so he crumbled the bread in tiny little pieces and put them into the milk. And while doing this he thought of a plan. First he had to find out where they kept his wife. And that was just a matter of patience and keeping yourself out of sight. He could go from treetop to treetop and observe the entire camp in one day. It would be logical if they kept her some place away from the main camp with all the soldiers and mercenaries so he would have a good chance to find her somewhere on the outer limits of the camp. He put down the little bowl for the creature without really seeing it. Then he had to find a way to rescue her and that would be the difficult part. She could be injured or sick and it could be she wasn't able to run so he should get her out unnoticed. But there's not much of a chance she would be unguarded and ...

Jer'kal was one of the many guards in the camp who was on duty that evening. He was assigned the task of maintaining the general safety (along with 20 other guards) since the prisoner was allready guarded very intensly by 8 guards round the tent where the cage was situated in. The tent of the prisoner was situated next to the tent of the 'chief' (nobody knows his real name but stories go that he had a score to settle with Elendirill). The prisoner was very tired and a bit injured because of the way she was treated. She has been begging for food and water some days now but more that 1 cup of water in the morning and 1 in the evening was all that she got. trough this she has gotte, very weak and thin, barely able to withstand her 'royal' treatment.
A few hours before sunset Jer'Kal started his round a he wandered of a bit because he wanted to make sure that the forest, which was within 100 yards, was also safe of enemies... 

This was unacceptable. There was three of them, all of their names were Grub, Grub and Grub. They seemed to be brothers. They came at him from three sides at once, despite being a mage, years of campaigning with Elendirill had improved Joreth's agility and he was able tomove out of the brute's way quickly. Next he cast a quick shield spell that would protect him from most blows for a short period of time. This should be long enough to take care of them. Next he cast a Spark spell which involved several small blobs of floating electricity to look up, well, let's say delicate parts of their body. This stunned them momentarily but they kept on coming. Joreth had underestimated them but his shield spell still managed to protect him. Lucky for this because several blows were coming towards him at once. He could avoid 1 of them, and one was deflected by the shield. The third blade however, was magical and passed through his shield, but its force was reduced. It struck him on his shoulder, but it was a glancing blow. Grimacing though the pain, Joreth recast his shield spell, some distance away from the brothers. Other people had noticed the fight and decided that the world could do with one less mage. This brought their number up to seven. Despite this fact, Joreth was not dicouraged. He quickly teleported towards a slightly elevated section of the road and started laughing out loud. He shouted "Your time is up, prepare to accept my wrath." One of the followers, seeing the display Joreth put up, ran away as fast as he could, to be forced back into the fight by the onlookers. Joreth started chanting in an arcane language and then the warriors suddenyl chred, trying to break his concentration. They ran into an invisible wall of force, which surrounded them in a cube shape, preventing their escape. To reenforce his wrath, Joreth continued chanting, laughing at the same time. Joreth's arms spread out before him, his face looked up at the heavens, two beams of light came down and into his eyes. The energy could be seen through the body as it was channeled to his arms, where the concentration manifested itself. Joreth's eyes still a deep red glow, two large globes of fire in his hands, Joreth asked the warriors "do you want to meet your maker?" Before he was able to throw his spell, he heard "ok, break up the show, stop it now please mage." Frowning, Joreth discharged the energy into his surroundings, making several people hair stand on end. When Joreth saw who told me to stop, he saw a handsome man of average length, with blond hair and a strong, muscular build. He was young and probably was able to reach his luitenant rank through enginuity. He came over to me and introduced himself as Tyer. "Thank you for stopping you spell in time, even though it is a shame we missed the fireworks. They have been causing problems for the last few weeks and we have considered leaving them behind, or sending them away as scouts. It's convenient they ran into you, you don't look very powerful at first glance, no offence, as looks can be deceiving. Because of the way you looked, they probably thought you would be an easy target, haha, they should be kinda disappointed now." Joreth responded "You're welcome, it was MY pleasure to do this, despite the cut inf my arm, I'm doing fine. I'll just heal this myself when I return to my inn." Dismissing the other soldiers following him, Tyer asked Joreth if he could join him for an ale or two, or many more  Tyer had been very friendly and sympathetic so far, so Joreth thought, what the heck, I might be able to learn something about this place.

It was already past noon, (Joreth woke up late ) so Joreth decided to invite Tyer for some lunch. He accepted and they had a lunch consisting of the same breakfast that morning . Alwina kept the ale coming and Joreth was busily conversing with Tyer, talking about general things, current affairs, etc. Joreth mentioned that he had only arrived yesterday and that he had not yet received a wage, and Tyer offered to pay some money from a reward purse for people who did good deeds (oddly enough, in a camp filled with meanies!) with the excuse that he had helped the three brothers that day. Being almost out of money (Joreth had barely enough to afford the week he had reserved at the "Rampaging Troll!") he gladly accepted the offer. They spent most of the afternoon talking and then it became the early evening. Tyer told me Joreth had to go back to his duties, and that he was already late. His newfound friend in this camp asked Joreth to meet him again tomorrow, so that he could help him doing something in the camp, some patrolling. Of course Joreth accepted, anything that could fill his purse was for the better!! After an enjoyable day, but not forgetting my purpose in the camp, Joreth retired to his room, casting the spells of protection and healing his wound and then going to sleep.

He woke up in the middle of the night, his Ainu sense throbbing in his head. He realized that something was going to happen, something was going to happen that night....
While he was recuperatting from a deep sleep, the aching suddenly ceased. Joreth felt unsafe that night, dispelled his spells, placed his belongings under his bed (he was always a materialist! ) and then cast new, even stronger spells around his bed. Then he realized how stupid he was, he had cast the spells before going into his bed! Dispelling them once again tired Joreth. He then made sure he was in the bed before casting the spells. He recast the spells and his extreme fatigue from these actions made him fall asleep almost instantly. 

Elendirill had been circling around the camp the entire previous day and after having slept for a really short time he went back to work. Always hiding from a safe distance. He had no trouble staying undiscovered. The first non-elf who could find him when he was hiding ... well, he had to be very good, or helped by some magic spell. The odd creature had been following him all the time. And when he had to go hunting to have something to eat. He always gave it some of the meat, and some of the wild fruits he found. In a situation like this, he couldn't stand another man or elf with him, but it was different with this creature. It didn't talk as much as others would have done and it made suprisingly not that much noise with his big feet. Elendirill didn't know if the vreature was capable of hunting himself, but he still looked like a baby, although it wasn't small at all.
And that's how they found a strange place in the camp around mid-day. The first thing he saw was a guard wandering around in the forest. The first guard he saw that wasn't actually in the camp. Most of the time there were no guards at all. And now he found one of them sniffing around away from the camp. This could mean something. This guard was to guard something important enough so he would actually leave the camp to check for intruders. Most of the people he saw in the camp looked like lazy, old hirelings. Sitting around fire with entire boars roasting on it, most of the time there was also a huge amount of beer. From what he has seen thusfar Elendirill didn't think that much of this 'force' that was stationed here. So this exception could really mean something!
Elendirill stayed away from the guard and he checked the camp where he could have come from. He was far away, and even with his sight he couldn't see that much. There was a tent which was bigger than all the others he had seen so far. And there seemed to be some kind of flag waving in the wind. But it looked very old and dirty. Like nobody really cared about it and someone just took as much effort as to hang it there and didn't care about it anymore. But this was a clue. And this was a place where he had a big chance to find a prisonner. He had to find a way to check it out ... 

Having payed all this attention to the camp in the distance, Elendirill hadn't noticed his companion nosing about the ground which was covered by soft pillows of leafs. Wandering through a maze of bushes only guided by unfamiliar odours, the blue creature all of a sudden halted and felt an incredible biting pain in the bottom of his big, left back foot. A sharp thorn had cut a nasty hole in his feet and a warm dark fluid slowly flowed out of it. Instinctively the creature realized that this was not a good thing to happen, and it released a short cry, startling some birds even in the tops of the trees. Yet immediately, told by that same instinct, it closed its mouth and awaited anything that would break the sudden silence he had just caused. But the noises that surrounded him some seconds ago simply raised again as if nothing had happened. But something had happened, and the creature stared again at his sore foot. On his short journey so far, the ground had always been friendly to the little stranger, as if the bushes and the trees and the birds and the bugs had been warning the ground, that the creature walking it with those big, yet amost tender soles was to be kept a buddy, as from its coarse looks, it promised to, once, become a jumbo beast, and there was no way to tell whether this alien would one day outgrow the trees themselves. But this presumed promise had now been broken, and unfamiliar with the situation, the creature panicked a bit, and it turned and limped its way back to that other, tall creature he had been accompanying.
The strange odours however never left the air and never left his mind, but the increasing pain muddied his thoughts and senses, which caused him to not notice one particular odour rapidly growing stronger. Dazed as he was, it took him some moments to become conscious of what was happening to him in the next seconds. His tail was grabbed by two strong and rough hands and he was thrown in a half circle through the air to be released and casted against the rugged bark of a big trunk. He fell with his head on the ground and lay about for an indefinit amount of time. It couldn't have been too long though - When his big black eyes focussed again, he saw two fairly hairy legs running towards him, and as his reflexes quickly came back to him, without hesitation he opened his mouth towards the lifting leg that was about to kick him, and snapped as hard as he could. He may not have had any teeth yet, but his jaws were strong, and his aggressor cried out in pain - loud, but luckily nowhere near as loud as the creature could. The man wildly started to kick and punch around, but the blue beast wouldn't let go, and when he accidentily bit in his own tongue, all his strength was drain from his body and he fell to the ground. The blue creature kept his jaws closed and stared back into the squeezed little eyes of the smelly creature in front of him.
He didn't have to wait long for the foodsteps coming from behind him. 

A battered row boat which had recently survived a pirate raid in the high seas neared the island and was heading straight for it... its passengers didnt see the island there since the sun had dropped behind the mountains quite early in the day. The dwarfs in the boat didnt notice this, either because they were to tired or because they had spent all they're lives in caverns digging out theyre fortune. The real sailors- the humans- had all died in the raid and in theyre cowardice, the dwarves flee'd to the row boat and to stop the pirates from stealing theyre precious jewels and diamonds- set they're own ship alight. The row boat was drifting insanely fast either because low currents... or some magical force...

A man in a black cloak was swimming through the water, carrying his wicked looking dagger that was over a foot and a half long dagger in his mouth. He had come from the eastern shore just across from the village that held the elven woman captive... as he approached the island he knowticed out of the corner of his eye nothing other than what he though was a damaged skiff
heading at break neck speeds. He knew that the island only attracked boats to the island and that he was safe but he didnt know the other things about it... He also knew that if the passengers of the skiff survived he would have to kill them sooner or later... 

As Elendirill came running to his strange companion he saw what happened. He had almost forgotten about the creature, he had to pay attention to what happened in the camp. But the bone chilling sound couldn't be mistaken for anything else. The little thing was in pain. And there was no way the guard couldn't have heard that. But now seeing the result of the cry of pain, he was amazed. His companion sat there looking guilty, he even seemed confused. And in front of him was a man that was almost three times as big, laying on the ground. Elendirill sat down on his knee and he felt if the man was still alive. He had no compasion for the likes of this guy, they were all responsible for the kidnapping of his wife. But watching a man die is not an easy thing, certainly not when there is a way you could prevent it.
But the man was dead. In a weird sort twist of faith, he fell down on his own dagger when he was pulled down by the blue creature. Or when you fell unconcious ... Elendirill couldn't tell, but the creatures grasp was so strong the guard bit his own tongue.
Leaving the man there as it was he concentrated on the animal. He just sat there, trying to do something with his foot. In it's big eyes Elendirill could see he was in pain. And almost in a rage because of it. Elendirill had seen peaceful animals killing people when they didn't know what was happening, and when they were in pain. So he slowly xame closer to the creature, staring it right into the eyes while speaking with a calming voice. He always used this voice to speak with the animals, to comfort them.
"A brave little creature you are, I think it is time to find a name for you ... don't you agree. Easy now, I'm not going to hurt you. I think I'm going to call you Elmo. Elmorin are the strange creatures the wise are talking about in the Sories of the Past. And you are a weird looking animal indeed."
His last words were spoken with a smile, right before he clammed his arm around the creatures neck and held it tight to the ground. Elmo screamed again, struggling with imensive power, at least for such a small animal. But Elendirill kept talking and after a short but furious struggle, Elmo gave up, but looked at Elendirill with fear in his eyes.
Now Elendirill had time to find the cause of the creatures agony. He looked at Elmo's giant feet, and there it was. A thorn not longer as his fingernail, but deep in the creatures still soft foot. Time would probably harden Elmo's footsoles, but now they were very vulnerable. Taking a little needle from his belt, he managed to get the thorn out quick and painful. And then he let go the creature as fast as possible, and stepped to a safe distance so he could whatch how Elmo responded to his short capture ...  

Of all the things Elendirill feared to happen, none did. Elmo just stood there. He didn't make a noise and he didn't budge. He just stood there and stared at the creature in front of him, stared at his foot, and stared at the creature again. He was confused but he didn't really care for what the creature would do next - The pain in his foot had suddenly disappeared while his fellow traveller was attacking him, and he felt very lucky. He hadn’t had the power to fight back with great strength after he had put all his energy in hitting his first opponent. But why did this elf suddenly stop his assault then? And why did the elf attack in the first place? Elmo had never before felt threatened by him, and he also hadn’t given the elf any reason to feel endangered himself. His baby mind couldn’t comprehend any of this, and soon he forgot what he was trying to figure out, while the cold feeling in his foot reminded him of the unexplainable pain so shortly ago. And when he stared again into Elendirill’s eyes he felt nothing but the trust that had always been there and slowly started waddling his way towards the elf. Elendirill wasn’t sure about the little creature’s intentions, but before he could even consider making a move, the strangest, and considerably annoying thing happened: Elmo staggered and simply fell asleep, right in front of him. 

It seemed like it was noon again, there was no other way to keep track of time, every time at noon they allowed her to take a little walk for about an hour. Always the same walk, and always there were 2 guards with her. She knew every place they passed, and she had thought over the pro's and con's of every possible way to escape. Now they passed a little bridge over a small river, just to wide to jump over ... under the bridge was a great hiding place, and in the dark she might not been noticed when she was swimming, but the bridge was in the middle of the camp, and if she had to swim 'till she reached the camp borders she would have to come above for air, and she would immediately been discovered.
That's another thing she noticed around the camp. The soldiers didn't look professional at all, she just had to take a look at all the different swords they carried and the different drwaings on the shields, but they all seemed to do their very best, probably for the money, but more out of fear for the man in charge.
She had met him already a few times, he liked to attend the times she got foltered. It had been a while now, but when she was just brought in they kept asking her about Elendirill and the Elven deffences, she said she didn't know anything about that, and part of it was true, because she wasn't a spear elf, she wasn't involved with the elven army, but she wasn't completely ignorant either ... But everytime she refused they did terrible things to her. After 2 days or so, she even tried to escape, and when she got caught she was tortured again. So now she kept calm, and pretended to have accepted the fact she was a prisoner and there was no chance for her to escape.
They almost reached her tent again, and she could take a look at the forest, she loved to look at trees, she felt always happy when she saw their power, and she felt connected to them in a way, but she loved these trees even more, because they were almost next to her tent, and when she escaped before and knew she was gonna get caught, she ran away from the forest, so next time they wouldn't think she would run that way ... if she could reach the forest she would be safe, there were very little creatures other then the forest creatures ofcourse who could run as fast as an elf in a forest. The prescence of the forest gave them energy, there was no other way to explain. And like she always did before she entered her tent, she took a deep breath, pointed her eyes to the forest and prayed to the goddess for a way to get out ...

As Elendirill saw Feraila returning to her tent, it almost looked like she knew he was there, she looked long and hopefully at the forest, not directly at him, but he could make her aware of his prescence next day, to give her, and himself, hope ...

Some time later he reached the elven woods. The trees gave him cover from the wind, his tears began to liquify, wich had a burning feeling in his cheeks as result. He felt looked upon, for the last half our before entring the forest he scanned each tree in sight to figure out who or what is watching him. As he advanced in the woods the sky got darker, day turned into night. He could see very clearly where he walked, the moon shined upon the with snow covered bodom, wich reflected the light onto the trees. Having eat his latest portion of meat this moring he had to find something to eat, wich he realised to be very unlikely. A familiar smell catched his attention. He recognized the distinct ouder of burnded pineapples, he also smell burned leaves. He learned alot in this split second.

Know the man knew someone is making a fire or had made a fire, whover did it would be very dumb or very assured that thier are no threats in the enviroment. He also knew he was heading to the warmer parts of the elven forest, cus the burned leaves indicated on the precense of oaks wich don't grow in the cold, snowy part. This is maybe his only chance to get something to eat. So he followed the smell.

Then he passed a oak, and sah the glow of fire on some leaves, carefully he headed towards the fire, when he came closer he kneeled down and laid on his belly. Then he started crawling on his fingertips and shoetips only, this way he would make minimal noise and the casted light of the fire will not reveal his position. He came closer and closer until he had a good vieuw of what looks like a camp site. He saw few humans, 4 to be excact. Those 4 men were talking loudly about their distination, they were going on some raid on the Elven poppulation, he heard him talking about how they will impress the recruitement officer.

The company was absolutly careless so he stood up, making much noise that didn't seem to be noticed by anyone of the 4 men. Noisyly he walked to the 4 men who were very surprised that their was standing someone before them.

The greeted them and asked if he could join them and have something to eat. One of the replyed he would share no food with men so stupid to come here. "Who are you stranger, and why are you here". The man replyed his name was Dulartus and he's going to participate the raid. The human answered "what makes you think some halfass boy as you will get accepted". Dulartus grabbed underneat his coat and pulled out a short sword. The human started laughing out loud, "you cant even kill a bunny with that table knife of yours" Dulartus anwered "you would'nt survive a single second in a fight with me", on wich one of the others stood up, The guy looked huge, "haha, want to fight me!" he yelled, when he pulled his bastard sword. Dulartus, raised his shortsword above his sholder, making his opponent believe he would swing his sword, he charged an the gaint man, placed his sword in this way Dulartus could never hit him. Dulartus did swing his sword but it was blocked by the bastard sword, immidiatly delartus jumped using the power of his swing, he rotated around the bastardsword and kicked the giant on his forehead who instantly dropped backward and Dulartus landing on top of him. The giant lost his conciuosness and didn't move anymore at all. Yet another guy yelled you've killed him on wich Dulartus said, "no, he'll only sleep some houres".

The party beeing impressed by the strangers Skills, they even feared him so the accepted him and gave him some of their meat, not wanting to have more trouble.

When the others were at sleep he leaved the campsite and climbed up an big oak to sleep there, when he was settled he tought about the identity who had followed him since he entered the forest, he figured it had no bad intentions, otherwise it would have attacked already, he felt its presence again and staired around fore some time after wich he fell a sleep.

"Hahaahaptn.." The woman stifled her sneeze and looked at the oak tree - had she been heard? Her eyes tried to pierce the darkness, then she calmed down, there was no movement to be seen from the bundle in the branches. She cowered down, her knees were trembling. "Wow, that was close," she murmured to herself. After a few minutes she was able to stand up again and crept back silently to her former resting place, a small hole in a tree stump. She sighed, hunger burned in her stomach, it was freezing cold and her coat clung to her, full of small icycles. No, it would have been too dangerous to light a fire, she would just have to bear it.
"Now, how could I get into such a mess?" she uttered under her tone, angry with herself. 3 days ago she was in a nice warm tower, near by the fire, an apprentice mage with a promising career. What her driven her to this madness, to sneak into the room of the arch mage in search of new spells, scrolls and parchments? Of course she had to be caught and thrown out of the guild... "Ah, well, curiosity killed the cat, I was lucky after all..." she tried to comfort herself. "Look forward, Mari, no use crying over spilt milk" she sighed and looked into her small bundle for food. No, this was futile, she had eaten her last apple hours ago. Whilst wandering through the forest, trying to orient herself with a map, realizing in growing dread that she was lost and far away from a settlement she had spied this man in his skins and decided to follow him in safe distance. Hoping, he would lead her to a village. She had watched the fight from a distance and knew, it was better to stay invisible in spite of the tempting fire and the food she had smelt. "He'll get up tomorrow, I'll just keep following him..." With this poorly comforting thought she cuddled up to the tree stump and fell asleep.
A few hours later...She awoke with a start, something/someone was creeping up towards her direction! Mari froze, her mind whirled, her trembling fingers crept towards her dagger and she waited...

That night the forest seemed restless. Elendirill had been waiting at the edge of the forest untill night fell. He trusted Elmo was safe, and Elendirill would have no trouble at all finding the two trees where he was sleeping. No two trees were ever the same, and as a hunter he could easily recognize the trees which marked the hunting grounds of his prey.
He was still looking at the tent. It was like there was no other thing in the world, he could feel the prescence of his wife through the cloth of the tent. His chances of rescuing her at night weren't any bigger than during daytime. Large barrels with burning would in them illuminated the entire camp, and especially this seemingly important area. The guards were replaced every 4 hours, and there was never one more or less. All that was left for him was trying to make a sign of hope for his wife, so she would know he wouldn't leave this place without her. Elendirill climbed up a tree in the second row. No human would ever see when a brench is out of place, but Elendirill made the 7 pointed star shape by just bending some branches. The same sign was made on the tree in front of their house by the sages. It was a ceremonial sign, which represented the day they got married. The day they decided they couldn't live without eachother. Literally. Elendirill was sitting in the tree for a while untill he realized tears were drawing lines in the dust on his face. The feeling he felt inside ... it was no anger, it was a complete non-understanding of why these people were disturbing the balance. They had no right, it should just be impossible.
By the time he was back on the ground burning anger filled his heart. Anger because he just couldn't understand. Anger because this shouldn't be.
All he wanted to do know was run. Run as fast as he can. It was like his rage made him even faster than before, he didn't care about the very few noises he made. Those humans wouldn't hear them at all. He almost turned around and charged the camp on his own. It would be suicide but it was almost worth it. Every blow with his sword would taste so sweet, every blow would be a message of justice ... But he knew this wasn't his way of thinking. The anger was cloaking his thoughts. So all he did was run.
When he was just a short running space away from Elmo there was something wrong. He could feel the forest was uneasy. There were no noises of the nocturnal forest creatures and he could feel the presence of something or someone who wasn't in place here. And although the wind was blowing in the opposite direction, there was still a faint smell of a fire in the air. Just strong enough for an elf to smell.
Elendirill slowed down. Not really caring for who or what would be in his way, but he would gladly defend himself and his newfound companion at this moment. After just a few steps he saw a human lying in a small hole in the ground. She seemed harmless, but if even the slightest wound would prevent him from rescuing his wife, he would give up his elven nature and spend the rest of his life in the Orc wastelands. So he backed up a little so he would be out of sight and he broke a branch beneath his feet so the loud snap would wake her ...

Mari realized what she was doing - she was going to touch iron! No, this was definitely a bad idea... Her fingers let go of the dagger, she took a deep breath, calmed herself down and then began to focus her senses on her heart, looking for the gift she had been born with, a gift she had feared in former times but then had learned to control: Soul sending. Deep breathing in let her senses grow, every deep breath flowing out of her mouth seemed to grope like fingers and touched everything around her, scanning for danger. There! Something was wrong, something didn't fit into the forest trees, a shadow, or not? Mari focused herself even more, concentrating on that area. Yes, this shadow did not belong there, it was no animal, not a bush - a human? No, not a human, something else... She concentrated even harder, her soul fingers seemed to flow around the shadow, and she felt HATRED, anger, lust for killing; aggression, not directed at her, not yet - a cheap relief, she thought bitterly.
She knew, running away would not have helped her, this creature would have tracked her down - easily. She had no choice but to try and find out more about this creature. Her soul fingers shrouded the outline and waited patiently for more information. Ah, there was more: pain - not coming from physical harm but from the heart, and she suddenly realized, this was an elf, worse still, a male elf: Her "fingers" had sensed long pointed ears and male physiology.
Ah, her knowledge about these wood people was minor, but what she knew was enough: There was no great friendship between the human and elf race. Her arch mage had taught this, ranting along about their arrogance, their longevity, their love for nature crippling development. "Well, I never figured out, this could become worse, I was wrong as always", she sighed. Her focus broke and she was her usual inconspicuous self. She stood up, wrapped her cloak tightly around her, held her chin up high and slowly began to walk towards - this elf.

As Dulartus waken, the first thing saw was the beautifull show nature has made for him, daylight dripping trough the dense roof of leaves making everytime the winds touches the leaves a unique pattern. He heard distant footsteps, Are the 3 men already moving, this early? Couldn't be. There's only one pair of footsteps. It wouldn't be a elf it's to noisy, but still carefull. Dulartus didn't move a inch, tried to breath as silently possible. He figured it was the precence he felt yesterday, it could have studied all his moves, knowing what he was capable off. And it appeard to get be sneaking up to him. Dulartus started poundering, what if it is an elf, testing me? Would he be hostile, I'm not the most popular race around here, still it could be the right elf to help me. Suddenly the footsteps stopped still a fairsome distance from himself. He just kept laying there listening, He felt as laying there for houres but realised it should bee arround 1 small hour. He decided to take his chances and got up, positioning himself to have a better look.

As he looked around he couldn't spot anything but the three men still sleeping, or dead who knows? He also didn't felt the presence anymore, wich releaved him so he leaped almost cat-like out the oak, he walked towards the party who seemed not dead, their warm breath was clearly viewable. He spotted a brown leather mantel laying on the ground so he dropped his white fur, and pulled the mantel on, this way he would be less noticable and not as hot.

He rembered not all of the food had been eaten the other night, but it had dissapeard, did one of them eat it? that couldn't be these clumsy fellows would surely made enough noise to wake him. The unknown identity would have taken this, it was probably following me te get some food, now it is has some so there no reason to follow me any further, Dulartus figured

As he had to move on and wearing more appropiate outfit, he started running, deeper in to forest, he kept a steady, pace and didn't seem to get tired at all, when suddenly in a blink of an eye he saw something very strange, a creature he never sah before. Quickly he leaped in a tree by pusching of on another tree, where he carefully listened and looked to figure out wheter his imagination is playing with him or not.