Chapter 3-Allies or Foes?

The boy was stunned. He had close to no hope of finding people in this forest due to how big it was. The boy had been walking for around a day or more before he had found the elven village and that just goes to show how big the forest really was.

The elves though, were not a good sign to the boy.

First off, most humans in the 7 territories of the continent were very racist. This belief of humans being better than the other races is derived from the myth of one of the greatest warriors that had ever lived. The warrior was human and had gone through many struggles throughout his life due to other races. This created a sort of mindset in modern humans and has grown out proportion. The boy knew that there was no truth to the myth because his father had already addressed him about it, but other people still feared and hated the other races for it.

There were some places where diversity was big and all races lived in peace, but none of those places were in Salir. This led the boy to believe that once he saw these elves, they would kill him on sight thinking he had evil intentions. This cycle of racism was never ending. Therefore, the boy was very hesitant about approaching the village.

Second off, the sight of elves in the middle of a forest in Salir would have sparked a war with the elven kingdom. Invading in another country would call for all military assets to move quickly for retaliation. So, taking this into account, the boy made the assumption that he was not near Salir.

‘How far did that light take me?’ the boy thought. Now that he thought about it, did the light have a pre-determined place it would transport him and Jameson? Was the scroll faulty, or did Jameson make a mistake while chanting?

The boy pondered over this for a while and came to a conclusion.

‘If my father had this scroll then the chance of it being faulty is close to zero. He might have made it himself even. My father was staying up late close to the night of- ‘the boy’s thoughts cut out because a wave of sadness came over him. It had only been a day since he lost his father and mother. He had not dealt with it yet.

“Fuck! I can’t be thinking of things like that right now” the boy said aloud, repeatedly hitting his hand across his head. He had to pay attention to where he was right now and at this moment. There was nothing he could do about his mother and father now.

But suddenly, the boy felt a rush of wind come from the right side of his head, where his hand was hitting his head. When the boy looked over though, thinking nothing of it, what he saw shocked him. There was an arrow going straight through his forearm. Blood streaked down his arm and the boys’ eyes widened. He lifted his head and looked around, but before he could find the shooter, he saw a second arrow heading straight towards his head. The boy had barely enough time to dodge to the left when he saw this. The arrow just barley missed and cut off the top of the boy’s right ear. He then got up and bolted deeper into the tree line.

‘Holy shit that was close’ the boy said chuckling to himself. That might have been dangerous, and he could’ve died, but it was also exciting. “Wow I really do take after my father.” The boy said to himself while running.

The boy then remembered what had happened and turned his head around to see if someone was chasing him. His new revelation of finding out he is an adrenaline junky is cool but that didn’t mean he would die for it now.

What he saw were two humanoid figures jumping through the trees. It seems they made their way out of the village and towards the boy without him noticing. They were right on his tail, so the boy booked it. ‘Come on think, what can I do to escape?’ the boy thought. Ideas were rushing through his mind; the boy knew he is better at thinking while under pressure. But even with that he could not think of an idea that would lead to him surviving or ending up in one piece. He could not accept this, so he urged his body to run faster and faster.

But Contrary to the boys hopes, the two in the trees were faster than him and were catching up. So, the boy thought of the craziest plan. ‘That wont work, right? No way in hell they would believe me.’ The boy though to himself, he was running out of stamina fast because of his dehydration and hunger so he had to do something.

‘Well, I guess I already accepted death a while ago in the forest, might as well give it a shot.’

As he said this, he passed behind a big tree that was blocking the view of the two from him. The two archers did not get a good glimpse of him when they shot and they definitely didn’t get a good glimpse of him when he was running away, so the boy was banking on this.

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When the boy reached the other side of the tree, he looked at his forearm. The arrow was still in it, coming in one side and out the other. He couldn’t feel the pain due to adrenaline, but that adrenaline had started to subside. “Damn that hurts.” The boy said aloud. He could not keep quiet because of the pain. He then clenched his teeth and grabbed one side of the arrow and then broke it off. Next, he grabbed the other side and pulled it out of his forearm.

“shit” the boy said as he pulled it out. The pain hurt like hell but at least it wasn’t in his arm anymore. But the next thing the boy did surprised even himself.

“God this plan is so fucking stupid” the boy grabbed the arrowhead of the broken arrow and brought it to his left ear. He then sliced the top of his ear off, similar to his right ear. He knelt, blood streaming down his face, and started digging in the dirt. These events had only been a few seconds, but the two archers were close to getting to the big tree. They had noticed the person that they were hunting hadn’t left the tree, so they knew where he was. The boy then took the cut off piece of his ear and put it in the hole he dug and covered it up.

The last part of his plan though was going to hurt worse than this. The boy started to rip his clothes and smearing dirt on them. He already didn’t have shoes, so he was good on that front. After that, he immediately started to punch the tree and throw his body at it, trying to give his body the most visible damage he could. He would throw hooks, jabs, and straights at the tree resulting in multiple fractures and some broken fingers. He messed up his wrist pretty bad and his knuckles started to bleed.

By the end of what probably looked like someone trying to kill themselves, he took the arrowhead and started to put cuts on his body. Once he was done, he laid against the tree and waited.

A few seconds later, two men appeared on the branches above and pointed their arrows at the boy. They were surprised by his condition because they knew only one of their arrows connected and injured him, but he looked like he had been in a bloody battle. To say the least, the boy looked pathetic, and they knew that he could not fight back. At this moment, the archers pulled back their strings and were about to let two arrows fly when the boy yelled.

“STOP, STOP! IM AN ELF! DON’T SHOOT!!”

The archers, being rangers in the elven village’s military, knew how to speak the human language. So, they were quickly surprised by this statement. They didn’t know if they should shoot him or ask him more questions. They were at a crossroads. What should they do?

One of the archers then let out a sigh and signaled the other to put down their bow. He then looked at the tattered boy and said in the human language “Why are you speaking in the human language if you are an elf?” the archer knew that the boy was no threat, so he was interested in what the boy had to say. “I was kept as a slave, can’t you see. They beat me and tortured me, but I ran away and found myself in these woods. I don’t know where I am.” said the boy as he made himself cry.

‘I think I did a convincing job if I do say so myself’ thought the boy, chuckling in his head.

“Okay that’s believable, but why aren’t you speaking in elvish?”

This caught the boy off guard.

‘Fuck, I never thought about that’ thought the boy.

The boy then contemplated for a second, the wait made the two archers suspicious, but before they did anything the boy answered.

“I was taken as a baby; I have only ever known the human language. I have been kept from my people for as long as I have been alive.”

After hearing this the elves felt bad, it was a tough thing, to be kept from the people your similar too for so long.

“Okay then” the archer from before said. “We don’t fully believe you; we don’t know if your dangerous, but we can still take you into the village.” After he said this, he jumped down from the tree, the other archer following, and went towards the boy.

When he got to the boy though, he was surprised, both of the boy’s ears had been cut.

“What happened to your ears?”

“Oh, I had my left ear cut off for being too rebellious towards my slaver. The other one though, the last one, and the one I cherished, was cut off by your arrow earlier. So, it’s kind of hard to notice if I am an elf.”

The elf that was silent the whole time spoke at this moment while scratching the back of his head in embarrassment “That was my arrow, sorry about that. You must understand we can never be too cautious about what can come through the tree wall from the woods.”

“It’s all good, it’s not like it killed me” the boy said surprised that they actually bought this load of shit he had cooked up in a few seconds. ‘It looks like I have lady luck on my side.’

“Okay then, get up. We need to take you to our commander; I don’t think either of us know what to do with you.” said the original archer, motioning for him.

‘Oh shit’ thought the boy. He might not have been so safe yet. He hadn’t looked that far into the future just yet to think what would happen if he did convince the two archers.

The boy got up and followed the two archers. He was having idle chit chat with the one that asked him the questions earlier, while the other archer stayed behind them just in case the boy made a run for it. The boy did no such thing, fearing for his life, so they eventually made it past the tree wall and into the village.

When they got to the village, it looked pretty big. What he didn’t see from the tree line was that there were many houses and stores on the ground while there were also the same things in the trees. The elves definitely used the space they were given effectively.

When the two archers escorted him to the busy area where there were shops and other wooden and makeshift stores, some people stared at the boy and started whispering. “Don’t worry about them, they just haven’t seen anybody new in a while. It’s a pretty small village and we are very deep in the forest, so it is rare to have visitors.”

“It’s okay, I’ve had people look at me since my ears were a rare sight in the human cities.” The boy said, it looked like he would have to embrace the slave persona for a long time. Longer than he wanted to.

“Well in that case, Welcome to Akro Village!” the archer said with a smile.