Aleena begins with a finger lifted, leaning forwards as elves and elf children listen together with their human guests.

"In the beginning, there was a great king, and his name was Aranath. He was the ruler of the great forest of Thyn, and he was the first of the high kings of the elves. He was the one who united the clans of the woods, and he was the one who betrayed the gods. The gods wanted to create a perfect world, and so they created the elves, and they were perfect in their eyes, and so the gods gave the elves the gift of magic, and the gift of immortality, and the gift of beauty. But the gods had forgotten one thing, and that was free will."

"And so, the elves rebelled, and they turned to darkness. The gods tried to destroy them, but they couldn't, because the elves had become too powerful, as well as their leader Anarath. So the gods created the dwarves, and the humans, and they gave them the gift of the forge, and the gift of the hammer, and the gift of the axe. And they gave them the gift of strength, and the gift of courage."

Aleena glances at Faylin who is listening but she can easily assume her disinterest. She turns her head to the crowd anyway, continuing on.

"The humans and dwarves would go to war with us elves with their new weapons upon the forge. Humans would chop our forests down for resources, and dwarves dug under us like gofers smashing rock and stone. Once the forest was all chopped down and the ground sunk from under like a large quarry, we have had our land taken away."

Lyrian sits in amazement and nudges Faylin, "wow, these are good stories, right?"

Faylin rolls her eyes, "I've heard enough of these." She looks to the side among the grass, not amused.

Aleena leans forward, and looks at Lyrian, "do you know what happened next?"

"The story of Kaelen? The elven beggar who begged to the gods?" Lyrian tells Aleena.

"Very good. Are you a scribe, mage?" Aleena laughs.

"An archivist of sorts, but not by occupation. I've read many stories in my lifetime," Lyrian smiles. "I've always loved the story of Kaelen. It's one of my favorites."

Aleena nods, and continues to the children.

"Kaelen, the elven beggar, begged to the gods for help. He promised to make things right by repentance, worship and prayer to them. The gods were moved by his plight, and so they took pity on him, and gave him a gift. The gift was a magical staff, and with this magical staff, he could make his dreams come true and wish for anything he wanted. So he did, and he went to the great forest of Thyn, which was just but a quarry at this time."

Faylin closes her eyes.

"The heart of the forest still remained within the roots. Kaelen planted his wooden staff, and the forest began to grow, and it was like no forest had ever grown before, and it was the most beautiful forest that had ever been seen."

"Kaelen became the next king of the high forest, and he was the first of the high kings of the elves. And Anarath was banished with dark black skin and ugly features, and he became the first of the dark elves. And from that day forth, the elves were no longer the perfect race, but the imperfect race. The gods were no longer their masters, but their creators, and the elves could no longer rely on the gods for their happiness and their well-being, but only themselves, and each other. This created the wood elves, a reminder of our individuality and willing to treat all our brothers and sisters as equals."

Aleena looks to the children and back to Faylin, "do you know the moral of the story?"

Faylin's eyes open slowly and turns to Aleena, noticing her gaze. "Oh, me?" she asks.

"Yes, you," Aleena replies with a slight wrinkle in her brows.

"I don't Aleena," Faylin shakes her head.

Aleena turns to the children and Lyrian who are listening better than Faylin is, "it is to not let greed take over your mind and be grateful to what you have. To cherish nature, family, friends, and love. And to always respect the world around you, no matter what the cost. Anarath had power and abused it and so the gods created humans and dwarves to strike at Aranath's ego. A reflection of himself. He couldn't appreciate anything he had, he just used all he could. The high elves and their ego, branched out to be the dark elves we know today. And we wood elves took our forest back and found a place back with the high elves. And the god of love, teaches us to still love our dark elves as brothers and sisters, even though they were cursed and betrayed our beloved gods and goddesses."

Lyrian claps and the elven children join. Faylin sits in silence, thinking about the story. Aleena smiles at the children and they disperse and head off to play.

"That was beautiful Aleena," Lyrian says.

"Thank you," Aleena smiles. "I hope to tell many more stories in my life."

Aleena notices the chirping birds, but her ear flickers to a howling owl. Lyrian, who is next to her, hears it too. The deep fluting note is perfect for the wild. Cheerful at the forest's sounds and beauty, he is smiling at the note, and listening to the stuttering chirps of the owl.

"What's an owl doing up in the day? Looks like someone's an early bird," he smirks.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Aleena is not amused, she knows that there is something off, "that's not a owl..." Her eyes widen as howling and chirps get louder. She gets a frightening feeling creeping inside as she knows what it could be because she has never heard of a high pitched chirping owl reverberating in the distance.

Faylin examines the bushes nearby as she hears a small growl slowly deepen. Her eyes widen and her face goes pale.

Curiosity gets the better of her and she makes her way the bush. Growling is getting louder. She reaches out, ready to pull back a branch of shrubs.

"Faylin no!" Aleena yells out.

It leaps out in a pounce on top of her, latching Faylin's arm with an incredible bite force. A green dragon takes on the size of her own height. Two crests are on its head, and it signifies an unknown species of dragon, but there are no wings to be found.

It growls deeply like a dragon, but chirps in a threatening manner at her over it's locking mouth.

Faylin yelps in pain and the dragon chews for better a grip of bite. The dragon's teeth are sinking into her flesh and it begins to pull. Claws flail at her, and are shredding her armor to tattered leather. Faylin's face turns red in pain and anger. Yet an arrow strikes at it's head, letting it go limp and fall off of Faylin's arm.

Aleena aims her bow. "Hunters!" She commands as elven hunters scatter when more multi-crest heads dash out of the sides of the camp with swift speed. They run on two legs and turn their heads like birds to target a prey. They are small, and quick. And claws are fierce. The elves draw their bows and fire arrows at the beasts, but they are too quick.

They have their prey targeted on Faylin, Lyrian, and Aleena. A swarm of bird and dragon hybrids chirp, run, and howl.

Aleena is able to hit one of them with an arrow, but the others are too fast. They dash, passing her by. Each run flocks her radius.

Faylin, despite her wound, gets out her hammer with her other arm and smashes one in the face as one gets close.

Aleena glances at Faylin but keeps her eyes on the creatures, "good going human. You startled them."

"I'm not a damn animal hugger, elf," Faylin insults.

Aleena wrinkles her brows with a threatening intent, "don't make me prick your skull." She fires another arrow in Faylin's direction. Faylin, with wide eyes, reacts out of the way of the arrow and hits one of the creatures behind her, killing it.

"Gee, Thanks," Faylin says sarcastically, and the two of them glare at each other.

Lyrian stands in the back and uses his green geomancy magic. He lifts rocks and hurls it at a creature as it lunges at him. It hits and Lyrian dodges it.

More of these small dragon-like creatures dash out of the sides of the camp and surround the trio. Aleena and Faylin are able to kill a few, but they're outnumbered. They're surrounded by the chittering beasts.

"What are these creatures?" Lyrian asks, levitating a rock above his hand. Using his magic, the boulder hurls at the creatures. The rock flies through the air and hits one of the beasts in the side, sending it back.

Aleena turns to Lyrian, "I told you. Flightless dragons. They have unique abilities." She draws her bow and pulls the string for another shot, hitting another in a swarm coming. "Everyone into the trees!" Aleena commands.

The elves run to the trees, and they begin to climb up. Faylin and Lyrian follow them, and they scale up the long trunks. The creatures follow them, and stop at the bottom of the tall wood.

Faylin and Lyrian are struggling to climb as most of the elves are already positioned and firing arrows. Faylin looks down and sees the swarm of creatures clawing at the bark below her. "I can't climb as good as you guys," she tells Lyrian who is above her.

"Just keep going," Lyrian tells her, seeming to be slowly making it with one branch at a time.

Faylin slips a little and the scaly creature bites and nips at her legs with a low twittering hum, "Lyrian help!"

"Foolish humans," Aleena mutters as she tries to provide cover for Faylin, hitting the closest one that nips at her.

Lyrian looks down and sees that the creatures are starting to nip at Faylin's legs, he tries to use his geomancy to create a wall, but the ground is too far away. He sticks to the bark and he can't get a good grip of magic.

Aleena shoots an arrow and kills one of the creatures that's nipping at her again, "climb up stupid human! Use the branches!"

Faylin struggles and finally makes her way up with determination of survival, and follows Lyrian. They're at a higher altitude, and the creatures are not able to climb as high. Faylin and Lyrian continue to climb, and they get to a safe height. Aleena jots arrows a long the tree for Faylin to easily grab.

The hunters in the trees have been firing arrows for some time, killing the creatures, one by one. Creatures start to fall back to the ground, and it takes a minute to drop each one. They eventually give up on their prey who are too far away now, and they retreat back into the forest. Each two crested carnivore hops back into the bushes and behind trunks of trees, slipping their lizard tail in behind them.

Aleena jumps off with all the other elves and gracefully fall to their feet. She walks up to the creatures and examines them. "These ones have a quick reaction time and very agile," she says. "They hunt with their packs and their speed. I've heard them described like a mix of birds and reptiles." She turns to Faylin and Lyrian, "you two need to be more careful." Aleena looks to Faylin's arm and then her leg. "You're wounded, come with me to the healer's hut."

Faylin holds her arm, and looks at the wound on her arm, leg, and body, and the blood dripping down. "It hurts like hell," Faylin groans while laying on a piece of a giant leaf.

They are in the healers hut, another large wagon on wheels. Medicines and herbs layout the walls. It's crammed, but cozy, smelling of a fresh mint aroma inside.

Lyrian looks to the bite mark, "that looks like a nasty one."

Aleena looks at the wound, and she glares at Faylin, "that was a stupid move on your part. Reaching out like that."

The healer elf works on her wounds in the traveling wagon. She applies liquids and bandages.

Lyrian turns to Aleena, "hey, in her defense, she really didn't know any better. She didn't know what was behind that bush."

Aleena shakes her head and looks at the bite wound, "it could have been much worse." She looks to Faylin, stern in her eyes, "you got lucky, human."

Lyrian nods, "at least the healer's fixing her up."

"Yeah, she'll be fine, but she needs to rest," the healer elf adds. "She needs to stay here for the night."

Aleena nods and tells Faylin, "you're not leaving this hut until morning, and you're not going to argue with us about it." Faylin looks at her and nods with an innocent face.

Aleena and Lyrian head outside. "Look, you two wouldn't last a day in the forest or the caves of Limerock," Aleena sighs. "I've been meaning to find information on these creatures anyway."

Lyrian smiles, "so, you're saying you'll come with us?"

"Yes, I'll join you two in your adventure," she replies. "Maybe Limerock will have some sort of library or something. I need to identify what they are and where they came from."

Lyrian says, "I can help with that, I'm an archivist, remember?"

Aleena smiles yet her brows are still narrow, "I'll keep that in mind, mage."

Lyrian glances to the hut, "I'm going to go back inside to check on Faylin."

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Dilophosaurus

image [https://files.fm/thumb_show.php?i=v5xgmrrm47]