While searching around the house, Astrid gave Hazel a somewhat brief geography lesson about her world. And it started with her talking about the current continent they were on called, Triumis Continent.
Triumis is a continent situated on the northern and western hemispheres of their planet called Meine. The same as America, which only proved Hazel’s theory about how their worlds merged like two maps being placed over one another.
Getting back on topic, Triumis was ruled by three kingdoms: the Briarhart Kingdom, the Ruinvia Empire, and the Great Forest of Mier. According to Astrid, there used to be a few more kingdoms, but they were merged with Briarhart and Ruinvia during the Great War of Triumis, which occurred several hundred years ago.
Although Hazel was curious about the war, her biggest concern was the kingdom they were in, Briarhart. This kingdom occupied a large portion of the western and middle continents.
But thankfully, Briarhart was neighboring the Great Forest of Mier, which was where a good majority of the Elven Race resided. This brought up a rather peculiar question for Hazel.
“How many types of Elves are there?” She asked. “I’m assuming that there are regular Elves aside from Dark Elves, correct?”
Although Hazel learned a little bit about Astrid’s tribe and such, she didn’t know much beyond that. She didn’t know about the other Elven tribes or where they were within the Great Forest of Mier.
“There are Four types of Elves,” Astrid stated while raising her head, bringing out a finger as she named each one. “There are the Elves, which were the first, the Dark Elves, like me, and the Lunar Elves, which aren’t within the Triumis Continent,” The dark elf’s expression darkened a bit as she named the final Elf subspecies. “Then, there are the High Elves.”
“You don’t seem to like the High Elves very much,” Hazel noted. “Does the Dark Elves have a bad history with them?”
“We certainly have a history with those bastards...” Astrid replied with a grim expression. “In more ways than one.”
Hazel hesitated to ask what that meant, afraid of what her dark elf partner would say. It would likely be best if she avoided the topic. Especially since Astrid looked more annoyed than usual as she talked about the High Elves.
She was a bit curious about how the other elves were created. Obviously, the Dark Elves, High Elves, and Lunar Elves stemmed from the original Elven species, but what caused them to become so diverse? That was what caught Hazel’s attention.
“How were the other Elves created? Like the High Elves for instance. I’m assuming they're called that because they’re considered superior to normal elves?”
While Hazel was making assumptions regarding the origin of the High Elves, a part of her believed that they were just like the High Elves depicted in her world. On Earth, High Elves were stronger, faster, and more intelligent than regular Elves, thus emphasizing their superiority not just to their own race but also to every other species in their world. Plus, these guys called themselves "High Elves". If that didn't scream inflated ego, then Hazel didn't know what did.
“You could say that they are superior,” Astrid noted before furrowing her brows irritably. “Or at least, those bastards believed themselves to be superior. While they do hold several advantages over normal elves, there is one notable characteristic that all High Elves possess; their highly inflated ego.”
Hazel stifled a laugh at the last bit. Astrid noticed this bit and refrained from speaking about it before continuing.
“Due to the High Elves being more superior than any other race, they soon developed a bit of a superiority complex and started believing that they were the very embodiment of perfection, to the point where they viewed any other living species from Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, Dragons, and even their elven predecessors as inferior.”
Hazel arched a brow. “They consider themselves that highly, huh?”
“In more ways than one.”
“How did High Elves come into existence, anyway? Did a former elf reach enlightenment or something?”
The dark elf scoffed. “If by enlightenment, you mean realizing that they could become better through unorthodox methods and resorting to experimenting on themselves, then you would be correct.”
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Hearing this, Hazel’s eyes widened in shock. “Experimenting? You mean that they...?”
Astrid nodded. “Yes. The High Elves were created through experimentation on normal elves. It’s how they were able to make themselves better than their former comrades. And, as you could see, they were successful.”
“That...is quite a bit to process.”
While Hazel was curious about the origin of the other elves like the High Elves, she didn’t expect to hear that they were created from experimentations on themselves. Even if it was an attempt to become more than what they were, why resort to such...methods?
What’s more, was how they were able to do this in the first place? What kind of experiments were they conducting to augment their current capabilities? From how Astrid talked about it, it seemed like the High Elves used scientific means. Or maybe she was speculating and the experiments in question were actually magical in nature?
It was hard to say. And that only made Hazel even more curious.
“What about the Lunar Elves and Dark Elves? Were they a result in experimentations as well?”
Hearing this question, Astrid abruptly stopped rummaging through her side of the room to investigate it. The pair were then met with a deafening silence that overwhelmed them. Hazel instinctively held her breath, as if held hostage by the tension in the air.
“...The Lunar Elves weren’t the result of experimentation,” Astrid finally said, cutting the silence like her words were a sharp blade. “At least, not that I know of. In the past, several of my elven predecessors decided to leave the Great Forest of Meir and ventured out into the world. None of the other elves back then heard back from their brethren that decided to go on their little spiritual journey, but did learn about a group of Elves on another continent that formed some kind of religious tribe where they worship the moon.”
“Hence why they're called Lunar or Moon Elves, then,” Hazel nodded. “What about the Dark Elves?”
Astrid hesitated to answer for a moment, her expression darkening. Seeing her partner’s reaction, Hazel was about to take back her question, not wanting to impose on her family history if she didn’t want to talk about it. However, the dark elf spoke first.
“The Dark Elves were a result of Experimentations by the High Elves. However...” The dark elf faltered. “We were considered...defects, I guess you could say. Defects that needed to be destroyed.” She clenched her hands while gnashing her teeth angrily.
Hazel nervously listened, unsure if she could say anything out of fear of uttering something she shouldn’t have. But she did get the gist of what Astrid meant regarding the Dark Elves being defected.
Clearly, something went wrong when the High Elves continued their experiments, and that resulted in the birth of the Dark Elves. Disgusted by the failed creations, the High Elves attempted to get rid of them before they could pose a problem.
Knowing that Astrid was here meant that the High Elves failed in disposing of the first Dark Elves. This also explained what Astrid meant before about the bad history between the High Elves and Dark Elves. Those supposed superior Elves attempted to be rid of their failures at all costs, possibly even relentlessly hunting them down until there wasn’t a single dark elf remaining.
Hazel could tell that there had to have been at least a couple of wars or major conflicts between the two Elven species.
Astrid remained silent, clearly disturbed by their conversation of the origin of the dark elves. Hazel immediately changed gears and changed the topic before the silence became too awkward and suffocating.
“A-anyway,” She coughed, loudly. “Since we know we’re in Mossley Town, that means we’re close to the Great Forest of Mier. So, all we need to do is wait until it’s dark, and we can have Nycteris fly you over there. It beats having to walk from here to that forest for an entire month, am I right?”
Astrid stated before that it took her a month on foot to reach Mossley from her village. But with Nycteris, they should be able to reach her village in no time since they’ll be flying there. All they needed to do was wait until the sun went down.
“Should we just stay in this house until the sun is gone or do you want to explore Portland/Mossley a bit more?”
Astrid took a minute to consider her options while meticulously staring at a sheet of paper that was on the floor. She placed a hand on her chin, deeply considering her options. It didn’t take long though, for her to come up with an answer.
“We should explore this place a bit more. It’ll also help pass the time since we won’t be sitting around in a building all day, waiting for nighttime to come.”
“Makes sense. If we keep ourselves busy doing something, time will fly by in no time. Like the old saying goes ‘Time flies when you’re having fun.’”
Astrid leaned her head to the side curiously. “Is that a saying from your world?”
“Yeah. You guys don’t have that saying?”
“We do not.”
“That’s a bit depressing, you know that?”
Astrid shrugged. “Not like we can help it.” She then places the paper from before down while making her way over to the exit. “Let’s get moving. Since we know where we ultimately are in both worlds, it should be easy for us to navigate around.”
“Either that or it’ll be more confusing due to how roughly blended in everything is.”
Saying this, Hazel followed Astrid while putting away one of the sheets of paper as well. Now that they knew where they were, all they needed to do was wait. Wait until it was finally nighttime so that Astrid could catch the first flight back to her village.
In the meantime, the pair planned to explore Portland/Mossley for a while longer to see how much both places have changed due to the merging.