Egosum turned around to see Cinera waddling over to the scene of the battle and the various bodies.

‘How did she wake up the fastest? She is like a fiftieth of the size of the elves.’

“What's up with all of the dead bodies? They don’t look like elves.” She poked one of the corpses that were still whole and looked around at the carnage.

“Yeah, only one elf died. The musicians turned out to be some kind of assassins or something. I am not too sure. They did know about my civilization's end though.” The surprised look on her face said way more than he was expecting.

“What? Why do you look like that?”

“Well, it is just that there looks like there are at least half a dozen dead people here and there was only one of you. If you are just a mage in training, then how did you kill them? Some kind of mass-binding spell or something? The ground is pretty tacky.” Her expression changed from surprise to intrigue as she lowered and lifted her foot in the mud multiple times.

“Nothing like that, intentionally at least. I think my specialty is more close-range combat.” The look she gave him changed for the third time this conversation as she looked entertained by the thought.

“Huh. A close-range mage. What an oxymoron. Glad you are okay though. I definitely couldn’t have killed so many people without some help to hold them off.” He took the compliment in stride and looked over at the pile of elven bodies.

“What do we do about them? The assassins said they poisoned the drinks. Do you know any spells for that?” His hopeful question was quickly shot down.

“I am an ash and lightning mage. What could I even do?... Maybe something charcoal based actually could work, but I don’t know the framework for that. Let's just head up top and find a guard or something.” The duo left Coyotl to watch over the incapacitated group and traveled their way up to the canopy.

The walkways were dead so late into the night, it took them nearly an hour of wandering to find someone that had not taken part in the festivities. A pair of taller-than-average elves with huge war bows and actual leather armor stood before the largest tree either of them had seen.

“Halt…Creatures! No one is allowed into the palace so late at night!” They spoke at the exact same time with the pauses matching perfectly.

“Uh weird. Whatever, we don’t want to go into the palace. There was an incident at the feast. Everyone present passed out. They were poisoned by the other visitors. I took care of the danger, but I am unsure if they will live without some intervention.” The pair looked at the toad that spoke in elvish with their heads cocked to the left.

“Um, okay.” The pair spoke in tandem once more and stood back at attention.

A few seconds passed with neither group moving an inch now that they had said their piece.

“Are you guys not going to do anything about it?” Cinera seemed just as confused as Egosum was.

“We are royal guards. We have no idea what to do.” The pairs stared back and forth at each other.

“Maybe you go and find someone to help them before they all die?” The elves looked at each other with equal levels of uncertainty.

“We will get in trouble if we leave. We will stay here while you look for someone else.” They stomped their feet and stood up straight to get back into the position they had been found in.

“Are you guys stupid or something?” Egosum gave up on humoring the two and pushed them for answers.

“Yes! We are stupid according to our Mommy!” They shouted like soldiers answering roll call before thumping their chests with their closed fists.

Egosum gave up on answering them and began to hop away from the stupid pair of elves.

“...oh, I see. Well, do you want to be heroes then? If you find us someone to talk with, you will definitely become one.” Cinera hung back and attempted to coerce them one final time.

The elves exchanged looks of desire before appearing to decide on a course of action. One of them cracked the large doors open and slipped through the gap before the other closed it behind him.

“You think they can find us anyone even worth talking to? Look how dumb they are.” The harsh words seemed to bounce straight off the elves as he showed no reaction to the insult, possibly used to the harsh language.

“I am sure they can do it if they put their minds to it.” Cinera had a more positive outlook on them as she waited patiently for the guard to return.

Thirty seconds of silence later, they heard the door open again and the other guard took up his position he had left less than a minute prior.

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

“What did I say? I knew they wouldn’t get-” The sound of rapidly approaching heels silenced him.

The pair of amphibians watched as the fattest elf either of them had seen stuck her head out of the door enough to see them. Her long blonde hair was tied into a rough braid and her chubby cheeks jiggled as she took in haggard breaths from the rigorous walk she had just done.

“Hello… I am Earindil… queen of the Sothern elves. How may I help you?” The amphibians balked as she introduced herself. Egosum looked at the elves on either side of the door.

‘Did he really wake up the queen?’

“Wow, I…I…Sorry. I am just surprised. I wasn’t expecting him to get the queen herself.” He stumbled over himself before finally finding his voice.

Cinera was even more blown away by the person they acquired. She looked at the elf with her mouth wide open and stared ahead.

“Amendul said someone needed help and that it was very important, so I had to come and see what he thought was so demanding of my attention.” She stepped out of the door for them to see her full glory.

She was the size of nearly four normal elves combined stuffed into a stretchy nightgown. Her stomach fought against the constrictive material that housed it like a methane bubble pushing its way to the surface of a peat bog.

“Yeah, there was an incident at the feast down below. I had to-” Before he could finish the sentence, the queen cut him off with a scream.

“A feast?! What do you mean? How could I not have been invited? This is treason of the highest order! Take me there immediately, there must be food left! Guards, see to it that my stupid child stays inside, I saw him trying to sneak out earlier.” The two dimwits on either side of her slammed their closed fists into their chests and clicked their heels together.

“Sure, but I should probably explain what happened first.”

“You shall do so on the way there, now hurry!” She lifted the hem of her gown up and started to walk ahead.

Egosum looked to his side where Cinera was finally coming to. She looked at the ground and then to the back of the queen in apparent confusion before moving to guide her to the location. Egosum flanked the queen's other side and began to explain away.

“The musicians that arrived to entertain them during the feast turned out to be assassins that poisoned the food or drinks, maybe both.” Before he could continue, the queen let another gasp escape her lips.

“Poison food and drink? What barbarians! They shall be tortured to death and skinned alive for their crimes against sustenance.” The amphibians shared a glance as they guided her along.

“Yeah, well most of them are dead. I only left one alive. The real issues are all of the poisoned elves strewn about everywhere. Thankfully I was able to save all but one of them. I consider it a huge success truthfully.” The queen seemed mildly concerned by the news as she walked ahead with purpose.

“They will wake up in time. We are elves after all. There isn’t a natural poison around that could kill us. However, it would have to have been strong to actually incapacitate so many.” She looked at him as they traveled.

“Are you the frog that helped rescue my son?”

Egosum looked up at her and thought about the best answer.

“Yes, I am. I helped lead them to your daughter as well.”

“I thank you for the meritorious deeds you have performed. I apologize for not thanking you before, I was preoccupied for the last few days sadly. That was the only reason my stupid son was able to get away with that stunt.” Egosum held his tongue as he hopped along and guided the queen to the feast.

The trio finally made it to the forest floor and within eyeshot of the downed citizens. They were all still scattered around, unconscious and unresponsive to stimuli.

“Yes, this is quite a strong poison. I must inspect it to help diagnose and treat it. Point me to the food.” Egosum swore he saw drool drop to the ground as she glanced around for the source. He hopped into the direction of the food stores with her trailing not far behind.

The queen caught a glimpse of the food and halted in place.

“Crane? They had crane? Treason!!” The bird sat untouched on the table as the centerpiece of the meal that was saved for last. He watched as spit flew from her mouth in anger as she screamed.

“You can hand out your punishments once they all wake up right?” His prodding seemed to calm her as she took a closer look at the dishes placed all around with a quick taste of each one before she came to a conclusion.

“This is gore-mashed liquid death. They used enough to kill a few dragons it seems. This is easy enough to deal with, but they are so going to get it when I wake them up!"

She walked to the center of the party and placed her chubby hands on the packed soul.

Egosum watched as the entire forest lit up with mana like he had never seen before. The sun and moon’s mana were calm waves traveling across the land. This was a tsunami rushing straight for the queen.

He shut his eyes as he physically felt the mana brush past his rough skin. He slowly opened them and squinted as she channeled all of the mana into the earth below her feet. As quickly as it came, the mana disappeared from sight

“What are yo-” Before he could finish, life sprouted from all around him as hidden seeds and small roots turned into luscious meadows filled with grass and flowers he had never seen before.

Life spread from her at the epicenter, growing around the downed figures of all the elven bodies.

One by one, the hundreds of elves woke from their slumbers. They scrapped at their eyes and yawned as if they had just awoken from a deep sleep.

The casualness of the whole thing pissed Egosum off deep in his core.

‘They are this carefree and they don’t even know how close to a genocide they just were.’

A scream in the distance startled the trio that waited for them to get back up. It came from the direction where the skirmish had occurred and sounded like bloody murder being called.

The few elves that were fully awake bowed as the queen walked through the clearing to investigate the continued ruckus. They finally arrived at the area and saw a lanky elf cradling the dead body of the hostage while bawling his eyes out.

The queen looked on with a stony expression.

“Serinal was a fine woman, your children shall have their education paid for by the crown and her burial will be taken care of by the court personally. My condolences. Justice will be served.”