The elven border crossing that led to the wild lands was far different than the one where they had entered the great forest. This one looked like one of the fortresses back in the human kingdom with dozens of steely eyed rangers patrolling the place.
Anna pulled the wagon to a stop on the road next to the fortress. One of the border guards walked over to speak with them.
“It’s not safe past this point,” she said.
“We know, lass,” Thokri replied.
“Look, I don’t really care what you do. I’m just supposed to tell you that,” she said.
“Doing a fine job, lass. Can we go now?” Thokri asked.
“Get moving,” the elf woman replied.
The elf guard took a step back, and Anna got the wagon going again.
The forest grew thick and unruly as soon as they were away from the border. She started to hear the calls of wild things all around them. Thokri picked up his crossbow and looked around.
“Nothing’s stalking us,” Anna said after looking through the eye she had floating above the wagon. Thokri nodded but kept holding the crossbow.
As the day wore on, the forest got thicker still, and the trees grew tall, dimming the light. It was more than enough for her to see colors, so she wasn’t worried about whether nor not the horses could see. She pulled the wagon to a stop late in the afternoon. A large tree was laying across the road.
“I’ve been meaning to get another set of troll balls,” Anna said as she hopped off the wagon.
“You’re just teasing, right lass?” Thokri asked.
“No, but don’t worry. I don’t see any trolls around here,” she replied, smirking at him before walking over to the tree.
I wonder when they are going to come out and tell us what they want?
Naked elves surrounded them. They were shorter and stocker than the elves from the great forest, so they were most likely to wood elves, but she wasn’t sure.
As soon as she got near the fallen tree, they walked out of the forest pointing their bows at her.
“HANDS UP!” One of the wood elves demanded. She ignored him.
He’s shaking anyway. He’s never killed anyone before, let alone a pretty woman.
Anna grabbed the tree and flung it into the air. It sailed off into the forest falling a great distance away with a loud crash. The elves had watched it fly off and collectively winced when it landed.
“Did you need something?” Anna asked.
“No Ma’am!” the elf that had threatened her replied.
“Good, then get off the road,” Anna said.
She walked back to the wagon and climbed onto the driver’s bench. Thokri had a stern look on his face, but his eyes danced with amusement. She flicked the reins, and the gawking elves scurried back into the forest.
“Thought you wanted a set of balls?” Thokri asked, bursting into laughter.
“I do, but elf balls are so small,” Anna replied.
“HEY!” Voekeer shouted from the back.
“YOU OFFERING?!” Anna asked.
“HE’S NOT!” Lyreen replied. Anna just laughed in response.
They didn’t run into anymore trouble and made camp for the night just off the road. Animals with seemingly no fear of people kept trying to join them for dinner, so Anna summoned a few tentacles to keep them away or toss them if they were stupid. Lord Emerald was chomping away on some wild plant that seemed to be growing everywhere.
“You sure it’s okay for him to eat that?” Elaine asked. Anna shrugged.
“He was a wild bunny. He knows better than me on what a bunny can eat,” Anna replied. Lord Emerald looked up at them, still chewing a leaf. He paused for a moment before going back to eating.
“I guess you’re right,” Elaine said.
“Why don’t the elves live here?” Anna asked.
“Gran told me we used to live in the forest all the way to the feet of the mountains, but there was a cataclysm tens of thousands of years ago, and we had to leave the northern lands,” Lyreen replied.
“My gran told me the same thing. She also said something about the world bleeding when it happened,” Voekeer replied.
“The world can bleed?” Anna asked.
“No, child,” Barika replied.
“Yeah. It was probably just the molten rock that Thokri told us about,” Lyreen added.
“I wonder what happened,” Anna said.
“The only people who might know are the high elves, and they won’t talk about it,” Lyreen replied.
I’ll get them to tell me one day.
Despite the overabundance of stupid wild animals that needed to be tossed overnight, nothing bad happened. They packed up and got back on the road.
A few days later, a caravan came towards them in wagons. The wood elf driving the lead wagon waved from them to stop.
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HE’S NAKED!
Anna pulled the reins and stopped the wagon. He shouted something in elven.
“COMMON OR DWARVEN!” Anna shouted back, using the native words for both languages.
“WANT TO TRADE?!” the wood elf shouted.
“WHAT DO YOU GOT, LAD?!” Thokri asked.
“FURS, SKINS, RARE THINGS!” the elf shouted back.
“That sounds fun,” Anna said.
“Aye,” Thokri replied.
She pulled the wagon off the side of the road, and the elves did the same. They started to unload some of their goods, and her friends got out of the wagon to look. There were so many different kinds of fur for trade, she wasn’t sure which one she should get.
The wood elves unloaded the biggest fluffiest fur she’d ever seen. It was so huge that it took four elves to drag it out of the wagon and unroll it on the ground. She walked over to it immediately. The fur was brown in color and so thick that her hand disappeared to her wrist when she touched it.
Okay. Thokri said not to be too excited and not to give them too much in trade. So, what should I offer? What would they want for something this amazing? Oh, I know. I’ll show them some of my teeth!
She took out a basilisk fang and held it out to the wood elf standing next to the fur.
“This for the fur,” she said.
He looked at the fang for a moment before his eyes went wide. He shouted something in a language that was similar to elven but not quite the same.
A few more elves walked over. They passed the fang around repeating the same word over and over.
“Where did you get this?” one of them asked.
“We killed a basilisk, and I took its teeth,” Anna replied.
They talked more in the odd form of elven. Her friends walked over to see what was going on.
“Is it not enough?” Anna asked.
“No, No, it’s enough,” the first elf replied.
He put the fang in his pocket, and a few of the elves rolled up the fur and carried it to their wagon.
“You got that for a tooth?” Lyreen asked.
“Yeah, they really liked it,” Anna replied. Lyreen was wearing a necklace made from shiny beads.
“Where’d you get that?” Anna asked. Lyreen smiled and fiddled with the necklace.
“Voekeer got it for me. There’s a man over there that makes them!” she replied.
Lyreen pulled Anna over to show her the necklaces. The man had a blanket laid out with a few on it. Anna looked at them, but none of them were better than her medallion, so she didn’t trade for one.
Each one of her friends found a few things they liked and traded for. The elves invited the party to camp with them for the night, and they agreed. They set up their tents off to the side and joined the elves at a huge fire they had built. The elves passed around a strange food made from crushed dried meat mixed with fat and nuts and berries. Anna took a bite from a small bar of the stuff.
Oh, that’s good! It’s salty and kind of sweet with lots of fat!
She kept nibbling on it and watched the elves laugh and tease each other about this and that, kind of like the party did.
Some of the men brought drums out and started to play a rhythmic tune. The elven women got up and started to dance. They swayed with the rhythm, moving right in front of the men, pressing their pubic region right next to their faces or turning and wiggling their rears. Some of them even leaned over and jiggled their small breasts at the men.
They sure are friendly. They have bigger boobs and butts than most of the elves I’ve seen. Must be because they’re wood elves. Is being so tall what makes other elven women flat?
Anna pondered this new information for a moment, uninterested in the women. One strayed over and started to dance in front of a bright red Voekeer.
She smiled at his discomfort and leaned forward.
“No touch,” she said as she shook her breasts at him.
Lyreen glared at her but refused to stand when the woman pulled at her arm. The elf woman shrugged and went to Thokri who just smirked as she danced in front of him. Not getting the reaction she expected from the dwarf, she flitted back to the elf men.
“I wanna dance naked!” Anna said.
“No, you don’t,” Lyreen replied.
“Yes, I do!” Anna said.
“Whoever they dance for the longest is who they are going to have sex with tonight. See how some of the women over there aren’t dancing?” Lyreen replied.
She looked over at the group of wood elves and spotted a large group of women grinning at the dancers but not joining in. There were also a group of men sitting away from the fire that the dancers weren’t coming near either.
“How do you know that?” Anna asked.
“Gran told me about the wood elves,” Lyreen replied.
“What about those wood elves that tried to rob us?” Anna asked.
“Just bandits. Every race has them,” Voekeer replied.
“Even dwarves?” Anna asked.
“Aye, lass, even dwarves,” Thokri replied.
She watched the naked elves dancing in the fire light, thinking about why people would turn to banditry.
I guess they are greedy, or maybe desperate. I’ve never been either. I wonder what it’s like?
It was clear who the women preferred after a while, and those lucky men were pulled into the dance with the women. When they started to get handsy with each other, she left, heading back to the wagon.
I’ve already seen what happens next, and I don’t want to see it again.
She collected some firewood and went to the small firepit Voekeer hand dug out. Rose walked over and took the armload of wood from her. She started to arrange the wood in the firepit.
“Don’t want to watch either?” Anna asked.
Rose shook her head no. She scraped a stick a few times, creating some dry fluffy substance that would catch a spark, and then proceeded to strike her flint and steel. As soon as the fluffy stuff started to smoke, Rose laid on the ground and started to blow on it.
Having short hair makes that easy unless you have hair like mine. Then it doesn’t matter.
Rose kept blowing and managed to get a small flame to flare up. She started to feed small sticks to the fire, gradually building it up until it was fairly good sized.
Anna ripped apart the wood and handed it to her friend when she needed it. She looked over and found that the armload was dwindling fast.
“I’ll need to go and get more,” she said. Rose nodded at her and then moved her hands as if she was tying something.
“I know. I’ll bring you a bundle this time,” Anna replied.
She walked into the forest and pushed her way through the brush that aways grew where the trees were thinned out. Like near the road, some people had to cut their way through, but sticks couldn’t stop her, no matter how many there were.
Once she got through the underbrush, she looked around for anything that would make good firewood.
Can’t rip the trees down. They are too wet when you do that.
She found a fallen tree and kicked at it.
Not rotted, but dry. This is perfect.
She started to tear it apart. She’d gone far into the forest so no one would notice the sounds she made. She gathered a good amount, but then remembered that if she got the tap root, she could make fire starters out of it.
That would make it so much easier!
She walked around to what was the bottom of the tree. The roots were huge. The half that stuck out of the ground were more than twenty feet tall, and the hole where they had been was deep.
I’m not getting in there. I’d have to dig my way out if the tree breaks and it falls back on me.
Tentacles appeared and started to tear huge chunks of the tap root off and pile them safely next to her.
After she’d gotten enough of the tap root to start fires for weeks, she bundled it and the wood up with lengths of twine before heading back to camp.
This will make it much easier for the others!
The rest of her friends were at the camp when she returned, and a pot was over the fire with the night’s dinner bubbling away. She dropped the bundle of wood next to the firepit and took the tap root a few feet away to break it into smaller chunks.
When she finished, she wrapped it up and put it in the wagon. She went back to sit at the fire and was handed a bowl of stew.
Oh, Barika must have collected some wild herbs while I was out!
They chatted about the wood elves while they ate. Lyreen and Voekeer told them about what they had learned from their families.
I guess elves don’t like wood elves that much.
She didn’t think they were so bad, at least the ones they had met today. The other ones were bandits, so they were bad, but these ones were nice.
Once they finished eating, the others went to bed leaving her alone to watch the camp like usual. She didn’t mind all that much.
It would be nice to have someone to talk to.
She looked up at the night sky and wondered who else was out here for her to meet.