A green fat orb descended seemingly out of nowhere. Which was unusual but not unheard of.

“A wisp.” A man pointed his finger at the obvious.

“Wait, didn’t it say something?”

“Just an illusion to confuse your simple mind. I heard nothing.” A second man brushed it off.

“Hello?” The wisp repeated.

“Kill it! Kill it now!” The third man shouted in fear.

The labourers began swinging their axes trying to get the fat wisp.

“Wait, no.” The wisp begged while dodging the axe blows.

“Begone you pest!”

“Foul demon!”

“Get out of my head!!!” The first man screamed while swinging his axe wildly in random directions.

There was a shout in the distance, “Magus! Magus!”.

The wisp continued to say something but no one was listening to a talking ball of light because they were too busy trying to swat it away.

Another ball of light flew from a side, just as fat as the wisp but orange in colour. The fireball hit the wisp and the two exploded in the shower of sparks and light motes.

“Hurrah!” The men cheered the magus.

The elderly man dressed in fancy robes walked casually to the dispersing light motes.

“I saw it explode but no exp, huh… Strange.” He ran his fingers through dimming sparks of light.

…

“Auch!” He fell backwards and landed right on his buttocks. His right hand was still nub as if electrocuted. “What happened?”

“They killed you. Like any other of my messengers.” The green wisp explained while pulsing with each word said.

“Well, that’s not very nice. But… I can understand why they did it.”

“You do?”

He nodded in a yes.

“Then you must have the wisdom we do not, King of Spiders.”

“I’m not sure about that, but I still think I should talk with them. This time like a human to human, or…” He remembered a particularly useful skill. “or as a King.”

“We take back what we just said.” The wisp pulsed. “But we shall leave you to it.”

“Don’t worry, I won't delay it, and I will do it right this time.”

He stood up and brushed the dirt off his tunic. The wisp flew to be absorbed by The Ancestral Tree.

“Wait! Do you know how I can use it?” He pulled out [Dark Essence].

The wisp emerged out of the bark and made a few spins around his outstretched hand.

“A precious source of magic. Just absorb it into your body.”

“That’s the problem, how? It doesn’t look edible at all.” The cube was as hard as a rock.

“You can’t?” The wisp sounded surprised. “Then you need a ritual. Nature ritual we could help you with, but this…”

“So you don’t know it either?” He looked at the material in his hand unwilling to give up on the idea. “I’ll find a way.”

“We’re sure you will, King of Spiders.” The wisp disappeared back into the tree bark.

“Ah…” He had one more question but didn’t want to bother the Great Ancestral Tree.

He approached one of the spiders, two brown squirrels were happily frolicking on its back.

“Hey, do you know where the High Chief disappeared to?”

“Disappear?” The spider twisted its head sideways. “He. Is. There.” It stretched its front leg pointing a direction out, the squirrel used that as a trampoline and ran away from its playmate.

There was nothing there just some funny-shaped tree.

“In that tree?”

“In. The. Tree.”

And so he went to what looked like just another tree, but oddly shaped and twisted.

“High Chief are you there?”

There was a lot of rustling coming from the tree. Something was definitely there.

“High Chief? Anyone?” He shouted louder, after all the tree was quite tall.

“Ah, yes o King of Spiders. I’m here.” The voice sounded weak, barely audible.

“Chief, what happened here?”

“…” There were only murmurs.

“Come down I can’t hear you.”

A gaunt-looking man descended from a tree, and for some reason, he wore his birth suit only.

“Chief?” He asked with confusion and worry.

“Sorry o King, we failed the forest, no, we failed you.”

“I’m sorry?”

“O King, we have nothing prepared for the ‘trade’ you have requested.” The chief prostrated himself. “Whatever we had… we have nothing now.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Well, he could see that.

“But why?”

“We have failed the forest. I am sorry.”

And here it was again, the conversation went full circle and he still had no answers; typical elves. He looked around trying to figure it out. The only conclusion he could reach was that whatever had happened the Dryads must have been involved.

“Am…” He felt kind of responsible for that so he asked with worry, “Are you alright? Do you need anything?”

The chief remained silent, but there were other elves finally poking their heads out of their hidey holes and looking expectantly; those eyes were the eyes of people who had great need of many things.

“Look, I can give you food and clothing, there is no problem, we are allies after all..”

“But we have nothing to pay you back, there is only our s…” He couldn’t finish.

“No need. Think nothing about it.”

He began pulling out sacks of fruit and pieces of cloth from his inventory. The elves rushed out of their hiding places: the trees, bushes and even from burrows dug in the ground; the latter were the dirtiest. They swarmed the fruit bags like starved animals and began engorging themselves. The bunch here didn’t look like elves but more like wild men. What had to happen to make them fall so much?

At least the chief retained a modicum of former self. He stood up and was patiently waiting for others to finish their feeding frenzy.

“I’m sorry I don’t have any clothes only cloth, but I am sure you can sew.” He had seen the hippy-like designs they used to wear.

“Yes, yes, o King. This will be enough.” The chief took the cloth and his eyes almost bulged out. “Enchanted cloth! We can’t take this!”

He simply couldn't take the sight of elves running around naked. “I won’t take no for an answer!” He commanded. “But really, what happened to your clothes and equipment and… everything?”

“The enchantments broke. The equipment disintegrated into nothing.”

“Oh?”

“The elders are gone, while some of us can still enchant it won’t be as good.”

“How about simple cloth? Or just some leafage for coverage?”

The High Chief looked at the Ancestral Tree. “We cannot, we aren’t allowed to take what is not ours. ”

Finally, he was getting some info. “The ancestral tree won’t allow you?”

“Yes, we are unworthy. We must prove ourselves, reestablish our bond with the forest.”

“And that involves starving and running naked.”

The High chief raised his finger into the air for correction, “We can eat bugs.”

“Doesn’t sound very fun. If you want I can speak with Great Ancestral Tree.” He offered.

“No, no. We reap what we sow.”

Yeah, but this meant that elves were kind of useless now. Well, that didn’t change much.

“Is there any other way? You know, I kinda need you to be… productive so we can trade.”

“We can’t harvest the bounty of this forest… but if…” He dragged the words.

The chief was still being difficult,

“You know what, I actually need your help.” He doubted the elves would know the Dark ritual, since even the Ancestral Tree didn’t know, but there was another thing, “I have a corrupted spring to cleanse, any idea how?”

“That...” The pair of elven eyes lit with a spark.” We could help with that. It is in your lands?”

“Mmm. Sort of.” He was temporarily occupying the spring for safety reasons.

“Then we will come.” The elf smiled taking the cloth.

“Awesome, can we go out soon? I have another urgent matter to attend.”

“At once, o King.” The chief turned at the fattened elves. “You heard our King speak, we are moving to his lands.”

“We?” And since when was he the Elven King?

However, it was too late, the elves cheered in unison all too happy to leave what once was their ancestral forest.

“But… All of you?”

“Is there a problem, King?”

“No… I guess not. If you want to come you are welcome.”

He left the elves to prepare, but just to be sure he went back to the Ancestral Tree and touched the bark with his hand.

“Dryad, I am taking the elves with me. Is that okay?”

There was no wisp this time but he could hear a voice inside his head.

“Take them.” The voice sounded pleased. “But I warn you, they are useless.”

“I figured…” he wondered if he was making a mistake.

But even if his heart still disliked the elves and their odd way of life he felt compelled to help them. He wanted to put them back on the right path. He wanted that elven furniture and other comforts of life they knew to make, also the elven bows and arrows were of interest to him.

Remembering the arrows he ran back to the chief. They were already at the gate all ready and roaring to go, which made sense since they had no material possessions. The chief, however, already obtained an article of clothing, it was the sack used to store fruit only with a hole for arms and head cut off.

“The blue suits you.” He praised the elven ‘craftsmanship’, well, or at least their resourcefulness.

The chief gave a shiny sparkling smile. “Enchanted Cloth! I feel like royalty.” He caressed the sackcloth as if it was golden silk.

“I see… hey what do you think about these?”

“Arrows!” There suddenly were tears in the chief’s eyes. “I never thought I will hold them again.”

“Huh?”

“Did your finest craftsmen make them, o King?”

“Ha-ha, you flatter me. It was just me, are they any good?”

“They are perf… Wait, [Identify].”

The chief dropped the bundle of arrows out of his hand.

“No wonder. Of course, you made them.” He scooped the arrows and then held them in his hands as if it was an artefact of the greatest value.

“You don’t have to pretend to like them that much.” He wondered if the High Chief was trying to butter him up or if he was just mocking him.

“No, no. These are amazing.”

“How about this one.” He handed a bundle he was not going to show, [Failed Arrow], but now at least he could see if the chief was just buttering him up.

“Hmm…” He rolled them between his fingers. “[Identify]” He concentrating on something distant in his vision. “[Failed Arrow], a result of failed enchantment, not any good but.” He scrunched his eyebrow trying to judge it properly. “Reinforced +1, so that makes them barely usable. They shouldn’t shatter.” He wasn’t too sure. “If only I had a bow I would love to test them all.”

“Keep them then, and then tell me once you get a bow.”

“Really. I will make that my priority. But first, we must leave the forest, taking wood from here is forbidden.”

“I’m sure The Great Ancestral Tree won’t mind if I took some wood.”

Just as he was to stray away from the packed dirt road the Chief grabbed for his hand.

“No! Let’s not risk it.”

“But we are friends, it won't mind.” He was sure of that.

He picked out a tree sapling which he tough wood be good and cut it by the base. “Is this any good? For a practise bow that is.”

“No-oooo!” The chief shouted in horror.

A green pulsing wisp caught up with them, the pulses were quite strong making it very large one second and then minuscule the other.

“King. Of. Spiders.” It spoke in a funny fashion pulsing with each word.

“Oh no?!” He began to worry even if they had an agreement that he and his spiders could take a bit of forest bounty. After all that agreement was with Great Dryad, and that Dryad was something else entirely now.

“I have finally caught you.”

“I am so sorry.” He bowed in apology to the entire forest worrying that it was his turn to have all enchantment broken and left standing naked.

“Sorry? … So you won’t leave any spiders?” the voice asked with visible worry, the green orb shrunk to the size of a pin.

“Spiders?”

“Yes. Forest animals made great friends with spiders. They are too sad that friend spiders left so abruptly!” The wisp grew to the size of a large ball. “See, I like them too. I like their webs and how they clean the plants from pesky bugs. Much better than elves.” Then it shrunk back to a moderate size. “Can’t you leave just a few?”

“Oh! So you’re not worried about this.” He waved a spindly sapling.

“This?” The wisp flew over the cut sapling. “You can take as much as you like. We are friends, the forest can share.”

The High Chief made a complicated facial expression, it was hard to describe it; a combination of awe and a sense of unfairness.

“Thought so. Yeah, I am okay if my spiders are okay. Anyone wants to sleep over at Dryads?”

A few spidery hands rose up.

“Don’t overstay your welcome. Oh and behave!” He cautioned needlessly.

“Understood.” The spiders chirped in unison and ran away with the wisps.

“[Reinforce], here it should be okay for a temporary bow to practise.” He handed the stick and the string.

“Ohh!” The chief seemed to be overly impressed with a simple stick. “This is just wonderful, thank’s O Great King of Spiders, Friend of the Forest.”

The High Chief handed the materials presumably to someone who was a better bow crafter than him.

“We are forever indebted to you.” He bowed deeply.

“No, need. No, need.” He repeated slightly embarrassed.

This High Chief knew how to toady up, quite a silver-tongued elf rascal. Maybe not all elves were so bad.