Chapter 22: Wood Elf Hospitality

Before them stood a tall, slender figure with a long brown braid, but otherwise masculine features on a smooth face. This person had high cheekbones, piercing eyes, and notably pointed ears. Under a thick gray cloak, they wore a tunic of green and brown adorned with various tassels and cords.

“You are a Wood Elf…” Chastity said.

“He’s an elf! A real live elf! And I knew it,” Charlie blurted. “I guessed you would be tall but not quite as tall as my Tall Lady here, didn’t I?”

Read the room, Charlie! This is not the time or the place. Chastity cringed, giving a sheepish smile.

“Humans are oft in the habit of speaking the obvious, and halflings of speaking entirely too much,” the figure replied wearily, pointing back to where the duo emerged from the Evervale. “Now please return from whence you came and leave me alone.”

Charlie spoke up again.

“Now wait a minute, mister Wood Elf. You want us to go back through there? That forest is dangerous! Those trees and vines tried to kill us! We’ve been hiking through mud and thorn and climbing over rocks and logs and–”

The elf’s brown eyes flashed to the halfling for an impatient instant and then back to Chastity.

“Please,” Chastity pleaded. “I am truly sorry for whatever has happened to you, and to this place, but please don’t send us away just yet. We’ve traveled for days and faced several dangers to get here.”

“The forest is not fond of outsiders, especially humans. Can you blame it? After the armies of the Eastern Kings brought axe and hatchet against it to build their engines of war in the last age? Truly does the forest have a long memory. I hope that neither of you dared to carry an axe into the Evervale?”

“Um, no,” Chastity said, returning her javelin to her bundle. “Just these javelins. Although my companion here cut some vines with a knife in self-defense.”

“They were evil vines, they were!” the halfling said indignantly.

The elf sighed.

“Nay, the natural world is not evil. Although with enough bitterness of root or thirst for vengeance, no matter how justified, perchance even a fair flower may transgress. I will speak with the trees and bid them offer you safe passage back, though I cannot guarantee they will listen. Much pain has been visited upon them, and suspicion abounds in these sorrowful times. What are your names, that I may translate them for the forest?”

Chastity reached out to offer a handshake. The elf stared at her gloved hand in confusion.

“I am Chastity Morningstar, Paladin. My companion is Charlie Cucumber… er … Pickle-Maker.”

The elf gave a slight bow, but there was no warmth in the gesture.

“You may call me Yr Örsmíð. The recitation of my full name would no doubt test the patience of short-lived races such as you are.”

Then, for just a moment, the wood elf softened. He sighed once more, this time a hint of resignation playing across his angular face.

“Because our kind fought side by side in the last great war… I do not mean YOUR kind, of course,” Yr said, nodding to the halfling before continuing, “I will at least serve you a meal before I throw you out of the ashes of my home. However, it is improper in elven custom to eat in front of those who can no longer partake.”

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Chastity looked over the elf’s shoulder at the rows of bundles on the snowy ground in the middle of the destroyed village.

They are bodies, she realized, her heart sinking. Dead elves, covered in funerary shrouds.

ꭘ

Chastity and Charlie sat around a circle of uncut stones in a small gap in the forest off to one side of Everglen, keeping at least one watchful eye on the nearby treeline. Yr had gathered armfuls of dried lichen and waved his hand over the pile, igniting it with a blue green glow mixed with golden embers. The visitors gladly warmed themselves by the enchanting fire as the elf went off and prepared the meal.

He returned with wooden cups filled with water nearly as pure and refreshing as that which they gathered from the waterfall, along with thick slices of buttered bread. He joined them around the circle and distributed the food.

“Bread and butter!” Chastity said with more excitement than she intended. “Oh, thank you.”

Charlie licked his lips and tucked right in. Chastity took a generous bite, then stopped. The bread was very, very dense, and had a peculiar flavor she could not place.

“What kind of bread is this?” she asked while chewing, half curious and half not entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.

“Acorn bread,” Yr replied. “A wood elf specialty.”

Ohh noo, Chastity groaned inwardly. Are acorns even edible?

“This is delicious!” Charlie enthused.

“And the butter is made from stoat milk.”

Stoat? As in weasel!?

The clump of bread sat in her cheek, growing denser and mushier by the second. She honestly did not know if she could get it down with gagging, but dared not spew it out in front of their stern host.

“Miss Morningstar, you look pale. Is the food not to your liking?” Yr asked, his keen eyes perceiving her obvious discomfort.

She put one hand over her mouth and waved with the other, trying to play it off.

“She comes from a far away land,” Charlie explained. “Has very particular tastes, she does. Although I’ve never had elf food myself! Tell me, do you mash your own acorns? And have you ever tried to PICKLE acorns? Now that’s a new thought!”

Yr ignored the halfling for the time being, looking with concern at the human.

“If our bread does not agree with your barbarian appetite, I do have some elf ears you can eat.”

At this, Chastity’s stomach strongly protested.

Elf ears!? Are elves cannibals? Is that a thing? Do they eat their dead!?

Yr reached into a cloth satchel and produced a few light brown objects, oblong and pointed at one end. Charlie eagerly took one from his hand.

“Elf Ear Mushrooms! Will you look at that! You know, I’ve heard of these before. Never seen one–never TASTED one!”

Chastity relaxed a bit. Mushrooms, she could handle–so long as they were not poisonous. Maybe she could use her Identify ability on one just to be safe.

“I’ve heard, if prepared properly, they taste a bit like roast pheasant!” Charlie continued.

“I would not know. We only eat that which grows from seed or is shared by beast, nothing for which a life would be taken. Elf ears can be gathered throughout the Evervale, if one knows where to look,” Yr explained, producing an additional number of the large mushrooms from his satchel and setting them on a wooden platter near the glowing fire. “And I find they are best enjoyed warm but raw.”

Chastity forced down the mouthful of acorn bread and chugged her water to wash it down, wondering if she could spam her Focus Points to somehow keep from barfing. She carefully picked up a mushroom and examined it. It smelled earthy with just a hint of sweetness, and she took a delicate bite.

Hmmm, not too bad, she realized, taking another nibble. Finally something I can handle! Interesting people, these wood elves: foraging, eating vegetarian (but not vegan–stoat milk!), living in harmony with nature…

She realized there was no animal leather of any kind on Yr’s outfit or belongings, but all was woven or sewn from plant fibers. But she still needed to clarify something.

“Wouldn’t the… er… forest get upset with you burning these plants? Or carving cups and plates out of wood?”

Yr shook his head. Off to the side, Charlie surreptitiously stuffed some of the extra mushrooms into his traveling pack.

“When the great trees have no more use for the Glimmer Moss, it falls from their branches. We gather it, and after burning, we scatter the ashes on the forest floor, returning nourishment to the soil. Our wood comes only from fallen limb and log, repurposed for noble use, for which we express our gratitude.”

He grew silent, the light from the glowing embers reflecting in his eyes.

“I keep saying ‘we’ and ‘our,’ whereas I alone remain. I chided you both for habits common to your respective races, while I myself must now contend with habits rooted over thousands of years.”

Chastity looked back over the scorched grove and the shambles of the elven village perched in the trees.

“Regardless of the reason we came and the favor we sought… please tell us what happened here. What disaster fell on Everglen and on the Wood Elves?”