The peace and quiet of the Great Forest was suddenly disturbed by a loud slap that reverberated through the dense woods.

Danny tried to ignore the sting in his back as Wizard Basalt laughed next to him. The evening after Danny's attempt at using his flame aspect found the two shadows trekking through the Great Forest. Arya told them that they should soon be nearing the edge of the Great Forest, where they merged with the Elven Forest. A great river, called the Wisteria, separates the two forests from one another.

Wizard Basalt wiped a tear from the corner of his eye as he asked, "So you just thought your clothes wouldn't be burned by fire?"

Danny rolled his eyes and wished he could be anywhere else at the moment, "Yes, how was I supposed to know there wasn't some sort of protective barrier for my clothes. It didn't burn my skin!"

Wizard Basalt smirked as he looked at Danny's head, "You forgot about your hair."

Danny went to run his hands through his hair, as was his go to when frustrated, only to find the now familiar bald head. Well, there was a small bit of stubbly hair, but according to the girls you couldn't even see it.

*Danny, I confirmed your new hair has those crystal structures in it as well. Maybe it won’t burn up next time… Or it might explode! Try it now and let’s see!*

Danny shook his head and thought back to when he had conjured some water in one of his bowls. Only to be horrified to find out that his eyebrows were gone too. The girls tried to sooth his ego by saying it made him look mysterious.

Wizard Basalt's loud laugh echoed again through the forest, "Mysterious, oh those poor girls. They sure are trying their best."

Danny made a pleading look to the older wizard, in hopes he would give him a break.

The wizard smiled at Danny and looked conspiratorial forward at the females who had apparently given the two some distance to speak alone. Danny noticed the change in mood and watched him closely.

Wizard Basalt leaned closer to him and whispered, "I am going to let you in on a little secret. You know, they actually teach the lady folk in the order early on how to handle us wizards."

Danny looked skeptically at the wizard, unsure if this wasn't a prank.

The wizard nodded, "It's true, I found the instructional book one of my wives had, when I first joined the order. It covered topics like positive reinforcement and distraction techniques. Ways to keep a wizard happy, content, and not rebelling. If I hadn't looked through it thoroughly I wouldn't have noticed how they all seemed to have read the same book."

*Ha! I bet it was titled 'Ten Easy Steps to Keeping a Good Wizard', or better, 'How to Turn Your Evil Wizard into a Good Wizard'.*

Danny scoffed and jokingly added, while trying to shock the wizard, "Sure, and I bet there is a section on how to handle us in the bedroom as well..."

Danny, having decided the wizard was pulling his leg, had turned to look ahead. After a few moments of silence he turned back to see the wizard looking at him with a smirk and eyebrows raised.

Danny gave his full attention back to the wizard, "No, you’re kidding... right?"

The wizard looked ahead and seemed to check where the rest of their group was, "If you ever find your girl's copy of the book, I know I have been real appreciative of the last section covered in the book. They probably have it hidden away in some secret compartment in their packs."

*Oh, oh, I got it! How about 'Bewitching your Wizard: Bedroom Magic'.*

Continuing to ignore Cranny, Danny began debating if looking for this supposed book was worth getting caught. If it even existed. It did fill some gaps on how this society functioned the way it did without most men revolting. Still, there had to be more than a few men that would seek more than what the society allowed them. Maybe, the fact that only wizards were seen rising to great heights reinforced contentment with "locked" men when they found favorable marriages. A case of if you don't know better, you can't expect better.

They made good time by themselves, and didn’t stop but for longer than six hours at a time. Danny decided to wait till later when he could try his other aspects in private. A few mornings later the sound of rushing water could be heard through the trees. It wasn't much longer before they came upon a river that had to be well over 200 meters wide. The part of the river they came across was not the least bit calm. White water rushed around rocks and fallen trees that stuck up from the water.

Before anyone could comment, Wizard Basalt walked to the edge and lightly stomped on the ground and began thrusting his hands forward as if he was practicing punching. Large, rectangular sections of stone rose up from the riverbed. Once they had reached a few meters above the water, the sections seemed to merge. The group backed away as the water in the river was displaced, and quickly flooded up near where they were standing. A few rectangular steps later and the group made their way across the bridge. The surface was slippery with all the spray from the river, and they had to walk carefully.

Once they reached the other side, another stomp from the wizard had the bridge began sinking into the ground. Arya stopped a little ways from the river, where it wasn't so loud, and everyone gathered around her.

Arya announced, "We are now in the Elven Forest so just assume we are already being watched. Please be respectful in anything you do. Danny, please no more fires."

This brought a few chuckles from the group, even Danny joined in.

Danny nodded, "Yes, ma’am, we are definitely being watched." He then started pointing, "There are three elves over there, two over there, and another three behind me."

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

As he announced them, the supposed elves stayed hidden except for the group of only two. An ancient looking male elf and a younger female elf stepped out from where they were hidden. The ancient elf had a face that was heavily wrinkled with extremely long drooping ears. He was wearing robes made from some material that mimicked the bark of a tree, and in his long pale hair he wore a laurel of vines that looked to be made of a metal. The female elf was young and beautiful, like all her kind seemed to be. She wore armor that looked to be crafted to camouflage her in the forest, and she carried a long bow and sword.

The ancient elf smiled towards Danny as he raised his hands outward, greeting them, "Indeed, I welcome you all to the elven lands. I am pleased to find the story that was brought to us of the human sorcerer was indeed true. Using the magic of the wind to sense those around you is not a simple feat."

As they had discussed elven customs beforehand, Danny and his group bowed low to the old elf.

Arya replied, "Greetings to you Elder. Please let me introduce my family."

After Arya introduced the two shadows the old elf nodded his head, "I am Elder Rising-Breeze-Felt-On-The-Wings-Of-The-Falcon. As I have been warned beforehand by our scout, Leaf, you may call me Elder Breeze. Unlike Leaf, I would rather choose my own name than have your young sorcerer pick it for me."

The young female elf next to him turned, alarmed, "Elder Rising-Breeze-Felt-On-The-Wings-Of-The-Falcon, this is unheard of and you deserve..."

The Elder raised his hand and interrupted her, "It is fine. I am old enough to choose what I do and don't deserve."

The female elf bowed at his words.

An obviously nervous Arya stepped forward, "Elder Rising-Breeze-Felt-On-The-Wings-Of-The-Falcon, we have no intentions of circumventing decorum and apologize for my future nephew if his actions have caused any disrespect."

The Elder turned to her with a small smile on his lips, "Your "future nephew" has caused no disrespect. In fact, in the short few days since my grandson's return, Leaf has become the talk of the forest. Now all of the elves, especially the younger ones, have taken it upon themselves to create their own informal names."

Danny couldn't help but ask, "Elder Breeze, I am curious. If your people have not had a custom of using informal names, then were you always formal, even in front of friends and family members?"

"No Danny, instead of using a proper name we would just call them 'friend'," Elder Breeze gestured toward the female elf next to him, "or granddaughter'. Isn't that right, Sparrow?"

The female elf just blushed and nodded while smiling at her grandfather.

Danny looked thoughtful as he nodded in his understanding and bowed, "Thank you for the explanation, Elder Breeze."

Elder Breeze smiled at Danny, only for it to fall from his face to be replaced by a look of alarm. Walking over to Danny, Elder Breeze grabbed his hand and the elf’s vision slowly traced up Danny’s body and into Danny's eyes. Danny was unsure what was going on, but Arya had not covered this in the ‘Elven Customs for Dummies’ discussion. He was honestly getting very uncomfortable with the invasion of his privacy.

Danny tried to take his hand back, surprised by the strength of the old elf, "Elder Breeze, can I please have my hand back?"

The ancient elf seemed to come to his senses, "Ah, yes my child. My apologies..."

As Elder Breeze stepped away he looked down deep in thought. Sparrow looked at her grandfather in concern.

Turning suddenly back to Danny's group, the Elder distractedly spoke barely loud enough for everyone to hear, "Everyone… welcome again and please follow us. We are not far from the carriages awaiting to take us to the palace, where the queen and the rest of the elders are patiently awaiting your visit."

Unsure what had just happened, Danny followed the others as they traveled further into the elven forests. Danny was expecting the trees here to look different, but it almost appeared to be a continuation of the Great Forest.

*What was up with the old fart holding our hand and looking longingly into our eyes?*

Danny shrugged to himself, confused.

*My money's on him noticing your recent upgrade. They probably have something similar to mana sight. He could tell we used air affinity... We can only see raw mana. We need to get him to show us how to do that.*

They emerged from the forest to find a dirt road and three carriages awaiting them. Looking up and down the road, Danny didn't see a reason why they chose this spot to stop. Probably because it was closest to where his group had entered the elven forest.

The groups were split up and Danny got in with his shadow into one of the carriages. As soon as Danny sat down on one side, Jade pushed her way forward to sit next to him. Danny figured the girl's recovery must be going well. That was until she promptly fell asleep on his shoulder. In fact after the other two girls closed the curtains, it wasn't long before they had given in to slumber themselves. Danny hadn’t really had much opportunity to ride in a carriage in this world. These noble girls obviously were used to this mode of travel. So, Danny was the only one still awake, left with only his thoughts. Danny peeked outside the carriage to see more of the same forest. The light that was let in by this caused Jade to start fussing in her sleep. Danny decided it was best to keep the curtain closed.

Hours passed as Danny tried to ignore the drool slowly wicking through the shoulder of his shirt, and the loud snores coming from Brooke's corner of the carriage. He was pretty sure someone had passed gas, and he took a little time to practice his innocent face. The rest of the time Danny spent quietly talking with Cranny about how best to handle his flame aspect.

*Danny, check this out!*

Looking out the carriage window, Danny saw what must be the elven capital. He thought it was odd that there were no city walls or obvious defensive structures. The city seemed to just suddenly grow right where the trees stopped. The outskirts of the city consisted of beautifully crafted homes of wood and stone. There was an obvious attempt to make each home appear organic or natural. Like an earth and stone hillside, with growing moss, or interlayered logs of wood, made to look like a small grove of trees. The thing that surprised Danny the most was what comprised the center of the city.

*Danny, they have trees filled with mana!*

Danny reached over and pulled back a curtain all the way, to see they were now moving through a city made of living trees. Each building was made of numerous trunks rising from the ground to twist around each other in an elaborate dance. Whether it was one large tree or multiple smaller trees braided together, Danny couldn't tell. Some of the structures were as tall as three stories while others were squat and short. Each one looked natural in its placement, giving Danny an uncanny sense of rightness.

Looking up the canopy was filled with leaves of different colors that seemed to refract the light that passed through them.

Through his mana sight, Danny could see mana coursing all throughout the trees. There was something else about what he was seeing that he couldn't put his finger on.

*Danny, their cellular structure is similar to yours!*

An image of the inside of one of the trees was suddenly inlayed over Danny's vision. He could see the same crystal structures imbedded throughout the cells structure.

*The mitochondria look like yours and their chloroplasts look changed as well... Maybe they use mana to generate carbohydrates. They actually need to ‘breath’. This is crazy!*

Danny shook his head, but didn't have time to dwell on it anymore as their carriage came to a sudden stop. The girls all awoke and looked around, confused.

Brooke rubbed her sore neck and asked, "What's going on?"

The door opposite to Danny opened and a male elf in bright green armor politely greeted them, "Welcome to the royal palace. When you are ready, please step this way."