The Forest of the Elves

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Tsome Laminiri sat in her tree, looking at the little ones practice shooting their arrows. One of them was having some dificulty, so she jumped down and helped him.

The boy was struggling with his arrow. "Madame Tsome, it just will not work! This one is a bit too large for me to handle."

Tsome smiled and went to get a smaller one. She brought it back. "Try this..."

The young boy bowed. "Thank you, Madame Tsome." He went straight to work.

Tsome nodded and jumped back in her tree. She sighed. She wanted to go explore, but she had no reason to leave the forest.
~*~
Caranthir flew over the treetops looking down with her amazing sight. She looked upon trees, birds, medows...but mostly trees. Then she came upon the elf training field. She saw one of the older elves sitting off to the side in a tree. She couldn't tell from this altitude whether it was a female or a male, so she dove down to get a closer look.
~*~
Tsome sighed as one of the other little ones were having trouble. She jumped down and laughed when the arrow was too big for her.

The girl laughed. "I'm sorry, Madame Tsome... I messed up again..."

Tsome smiled warmly. "Its alright. This is why you learn."

The girl took the arrow that Tsome got for her. The girl smiled and Tsome went back up into her tree.
~*~
Caranthir decided better of it, and flew back up. Maybe another day when there isn't so many of them!she thought. She flew back to TWED Dragon Lair

Tsome saw the thing flying in the sky, but shrugged.

After an unspecified (as unknown) period of travel, Sila arrived at the forest, absolutely dying to know why humans were so against elves. She was so curious that she dropped her bag so she could race inside and find an elf to ask.

Tsome saw the girl running in. She tackled her. "Hello!!"

"Hi! Why do all the humans want to kill me?" Sila asked, rolling around the girl and standing up instinctively. Also as beaten into her by her instructors, she subconsciously stood with her feet farther apart, ready to draw her swords.

Tsome smiled. "I have no clue... I take it that you are an elf such as I?"

The kids who were practicing went and hid behind the trees when they saw the newcomer.

Tsome sighed. "Its okay... she isn't a human... she won't harm you." she called out to the kids. One ran up and wrapped herself around Tsome's legs. Tsome laughed when the others slowly came out and did the same.

"More or less." Sila agreed, not sure what to do about children. "I'm S'yataran."

Tsome grinned. "I'm Tsome."

"And I'm Minusila Silamel." Sila enunciated, the slippery syllables of the silas sliding smoothly off her tongue.

Tsome laughed. "Wow! Thats hard to pronounce..."

"It does take practice." Sila agreed. "So you have no more idea why the humans have such a dislike for elves than I?" She asked disappointedly.

"I wouldn't know... we don't talk about it much... and i've never left the forest, even though I want to..." Tsome said.

Sila eyed her speculatively. "The sailors don't know either, obviously..." She murmured thoughtfully. "Do you get seasick?" She asked out loud.

"I wouldn't even know..." Tsome laughed sadly.

"I bet you're good." Sila decided. "Tell you what. You guide me around the forest for a while, and then if it's all right with whoever's keeping you here, I'll take you sailing. Possibly even to the other S'yataran elves, if they let me." Her face darkened.

Tsome started to jump up and down. "YES YES YES!!!"

One of the elders walked into the clearing. "Young ones, what is the excitment here?"

"Oh! Hello elder!" Tsome bowed.

THe elder gave a slight nod of the head.

Sila, noting him, gave a complicated hand gesture in return, the S'yataran form of bowing. Unless, of course, you were in a tree, in which case it was acrobatic and whirling,or holding a bow, in which case it was best for those with slower reflexes to clear out.

"I am Minusila Silamel, of the S'yataran elves, recently of the ship Likut in the harbor of Port Imrat." She introduced herself.

Some watchful yellow reptilian eyes watches the event from the cover of the trees and their leaves.

"Huh?" Tsome says, looking at Sila.

"I was introducing myself to your elder." Sila explained.

"Oh!" Tsome laughed.

"Um, hi." Sila added as the elder continued to watch.

The elder beckoned to the children. "Come, young ones, we are not welcome in this introduction." And gave a pinched smile to Sila, and, just like that, he and the children vanished.

Sila blinked in surprise. That had to be magic, she supposed, but more importantly, why? Had she said or done something wrong? Why wasn't she welcome anywhere? Humans, elves - no, Tsome was good.

"So," Sila asked Tsome, "what is there to see around here?"

Tsome sighed. "Not much..."

"Trees and more trees?" Sila asked, disappointed. It was just what the S'yatarns had, only bigger. Maybe the society was different; elders were certainly new.

Tsome laughed. "Basically, and our city..."

"What's that like?" Sila asked.

"I'll show you." Tsome smiles, dragging Sila through some bushes. They come upon what looked like a city made of turqoise blue. Steps led up to houses on the super big and thick trees. There were steps that led to a little water fountain in a gully.

"Interesting." Sila mused, looking around. It really was very nice. It just wasn't really her style. She liked bounces and swords and gales at sea. "Do you like it?" She asked Tsome.

"Yeah, but I'm tired of seeing only it. I want to travel... see the world..." Tsome sighed.

"Then I advise you to become a sailor. They do get around." Sila commented. "Shall we ask your people-in-charge? Elders?" She started walking off, only to pull up abruptly. "Do you have a library?"

"Yes. I shall show you." Tsome said, walking towards the closest staircase.

Sila followed. She'd been in plenty of cities, and had her share of shore leave, but she'd never been in one with a library before. Generally, this had to do with cities being on the sea, tides, and hurricanes, and the S'yatarans passed their knowledge orally.

They cane to two big oak doors. It started to rain, so they ran inside.

The yellow eyes in the cover of the woods and bushes figured it had heard enough and disappeared as mysteriously as they had appeared.

Sila looked about in awe. She'd seen a grand total of three books in her life, and eleven sightings of these books. Two of them were captain's log books. And now... here was a library. Packed with scrolls and tomes. Where to begin?

Tsome wandered over to a corner marked "Horror"

Sila looked around, then took to a staircase and wandered until she found herself at a dead end. She took a random book from a shelf and sat down on the floor between the aisles to read.
~*~
Some time later, regretfully, Sila put the book back on the shelf and went down the stairs to find Tsome.

Tsome had just finished her book and sighed. "Another good one by Stephen King...."

"Tsome?" Sila called softly.

Tsome walked up behind her. "Im here."

Sila spun around. "Oh! Okay. Where to now?" She asked.

"Where ever you want to go..." Tsome smiled.

"Where would you suggest?" Sila questioned.

"Well, I should bring you to The Council..." Tsome said, hands behind her head.

"What's that?" Questions, questions, questions. Someday, maybe soon, she would be the one answering.

"They are the people that Me and everyone else have to bring new people to... You met one earlier, the elder." Tsome sighed.

The ancient librarian hobbled in. "To the council, are we?" she croaked. "I do believe the council is closed this day." She took a shallow breath and leaned on her cane. "They smelled a rat!" The old woman squinted her only working eye at the stranger. Her other eye was blind. Her joints and bones creaking, she walked ever so slowly over to the newcomer. "Ah, and who is this, I wonder?" she spoke more to herself than to the two women. After what seemed like ages, she shrugged and muttered something under her breath. She slowly, quietly went over to her large leather chair behind the counter.

Tsome had frozen in place, and when the librarian went to her chair, Tsome shivered. "L-lets go then, shall we?" Tsome squeaked.

"Okay." Sila agreed, and once they were out, she added, "What was that about?"

Tsome shrugged. "That lady gives me the creeps..." then she started to laugh. "So, where to now?"

"I don't know. I've never been here before; I don't know what there is." Sila explained. Just as she finished talking, though, a clash pierced the forest's general quiet. Automatically, Sila took off running towards it. Before long, her ears picked up more noise, and sorted through it.

They followed me all the way here? Sila thought in disbelief, and sped up a bit.

Tsome came up next to Sila. "You know whats goin' on?"

"I know it's humans. I suspect I know which humans. I don't know why." Sila replied. "No one will tell me why they suddenly don't like us."

She sighed as they came across the source of the disturbance. As she had suspected, the humans had launched a raid against the elves. Mostly they were vaguely familiar humans - the ones who had chased her out of the town her ship had come in on.

"My fault. I'll handle it." Sila told Tsome, and drew her swords as she closed in on them.

Tsome looked at the swords. "I'll help." she said, taking out a huge bow. She had a quiver of arrows on her back and already had one strung up. "At your command..."

"Bows." Sila muttered, remembering the S'yataran forest. "Whenever you're ready. But try not to hurt them." That said, she entered the fray, carefully. She'd learned after graduation that not everyone could equal a student of her school. These townsfolk certainly couldn't, particularly as they were already having to look out for other elves and arrows. Before long, several swords were deeply buried in the ground.

Two brothers ran at the elves excitedly. Finally, they could prove themselves worthy to their fathers. Finally, they would be able to be with the men. All because of a female elf. They ran as quickly as they could, side by side, hand in hand, when the younger of the two, a boy of 8, got an arrow through his shoulder. He fell down, his brother knelt beside him hurriedly. "Tseckome! Tseckome! Are you alright, Tseckome?" the older, a 10 year old boy, started to weep over the wound his poor brother had. "TSECKOME!"

Sila heard; it was, overall, a quiet battle. Much quieter than a market, a ship, or school, or even a gathering of elves. It must be the air of this forest. The quiet was really pervasive.

Still, there wasn't all that much she could do. She was all the way across the field, and she'd never been as good a tree-hopper as the other S'yataran elves. Even before she stopped practicing. Still... and that was where thinking got you, with a slash down your arm. Angrily, Sila kicked the sword out of the man's hand rather harder than she ought. There was a crack. Sila hoped he wasn't ambidextrous, got a running start, and swung off a branch toward the brothers. Idiots. Far too young to get in a battle.

Tsome noticed a human running at the two boys and shot him in the back. "Screw not harming them..." she shot people out of the way and she ran to the boys. "Kiran, take it easy, I'm a healer." she said softly to the older brother.

Ah, Tsome was there. And she'd shot people, curse it. Sila dropped un-elven-ly heavily next to the boys and took it upon herself to make sure no humans got to them. Not that they would; it wasn't that large a raid, most of the people were fleeing already. Like demons were after them. What was with these people?

"You all right?" Sila asked over her shoulder. "I know battle medicine, if it's needed."

Tsome was healing the younger brother. "And I'm this elven commiunity's healer..."

Kiran turned in an attempt to flee, but he just couldn't leave his brother. "Get away from him! Stopit! STOP!" he yelled as he tried to push the elf away from Tseckome. He knew it was useless, so he sat down looking at Tseckome. He saw the villiage baker get killed, as well as the jester. Kiran stood up and ran off, leaving his brother to the elves. It was too much for Kiran.

"I TOLD YOU TO STOP KILLING THEM!" Sila bellowed, to very little effect. Irritated, she turned back to Tsome. "You'll have to watch out for yourself. I need to get this over with." That said, she decided it was better to hurt than to let them get killed, and disarmed her current opponent. Six humans left.

Tseckome opened his eyes and shot up. "Kiran?? Kiran!!" he started to cry when his brother didnt show up.

Tsome hugged him. "Its okay, Tseckome, its going to be okay."

Sila, extremely irritated, returned. The elves had dispatched five of the six humans, in a messy, irresponsible, crude, immoral manner, as she was busy shouting behind her at one of them.

Tseckome had cried himself to sleep, being tired from the healing.

Tsome sighed. "Sila, have you seen Kiran?"

"Kiran?" Sila asked, not sure who that was. SHe thought she'd heard the name before... where... oh, that kid on the floor had been shouting it. "The other kid? I'm not sure, I was busy... I think he ran off, though. Umm... that way?" She guessed, pointing.

Tsome sighed. She put Tseckome and put him on her back. "We need to find him."

"Why?" Sila asked. "He'll probably find us after a bit, and it'll be easier if we don't move around too much. He has to come back; we have his brother."

"I am responsible for them... you stay here with his brother, I'll find Kiran." Tsome sighed.

Sila nodded, and looked down at Tsekome. "What a wonderful duty." She muttered, and sat down.

Watching Tseckome was boring. He just sort of breathed. Sila wondered if she'd ever been like that. Breathing. Sleeping. No one at school had been; too many surprise classes started mid-dorm. No one on the ship had slept full-tilt, either, in case of a squall, or their watch. And she hadn't been off a ship for long since she became a sailor. It reminded her too much of how little she was doing. She'd graduated, after all. She ought to be doing something, not watching some idiot kid who runs into the middle of a battle snore.

Tsome was looking around and saw Kiran crying in a tree. She came up slowly to him. "The battle is over and your brother is fine."

Sila stood up and paced restlessly. Honestly, what good was watching the kid going to do? All she had to do was be there. Doing nothing. Watching someone sleep. Only assassins watch people sleep. Novice assassins, at that. Sila thought, and almost muttered, to herself.

Kiran stood up and numbly followed the elf. "Tsome, why did you kill the baker? He was my father's best friend!" he asked his wet-nurse. When elves and humans were friends, not foe, Tsome had taken care of him and Tseckome when they were young.


tsome sighed. "He was your father's best friend. The humans have changed... they've grown to hate us enough to try and kill us..."

"Are you back?" Sila called, exceedingly glad. "Are you talking about humans? Have you figured out why they hate us?" She was half way through a sword exercise, and came out of it smoothly but feeling half-balanced.

Tsome smiled. "Yeah."

"You figured it out?" Sila forgot Tseckome and bounded towards Tsome's voice. "Why?"

Tsome sighed sadly. "Its because of the war. Humans now only trust their own kind... so much, that they don't even trust those they know the best."

"War?" Sila asked. "Please excuse my ignorance; I've been at sea for a weeks to months. What war?"

"There has been a war between races." Tsome sighed.

"Do tell." Sila prompted. "How did it start? Which countries? How long has it been going on?"

"It just... happened. Its been only going on for a few months, but the tension started years ago."

"Years ago." Sila kicked a rock, sending it skittering across the ground into a tree. "I was at school. I really have to get back in touch with the rest of the world." Having vocalized it, her decision was made. "I need to go home. Would you like to come or not?"

Tsome smiled. "Of course!"

"Then let's go!" Sila replied, relieved, and fetched her bag. "Do you have a sword? Or two?" She asked after rummaging through it for a moment.

Tsome unclipped hers.

"Good." Sila stated shortly, automatically assuming she knew how to use it. "Let's go, then." She began walking towards the town she'd come from.

Kiran helped his brother up. "Tseckome, let's go home!"

Tsome smiled. "You two behave." and she ran to catch up with Sila.

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