My Life As a Wood Elf Druid...

Eryn's Words...

I woke up and looked into the eyes of my mother's maids. They gasped as they saw the blond hair that contrasted that of my skin which was copper coloured. My green eyes shun brightly. My long ears folded softly, following horizontally with the ground. My smile grew as my young lungs were filled with fresh forest air. They stared at me in disbelief; I had yet not cried, nor screamed.

I was placed into the arms of my mother who was weak from the long taking birth. She stared at me with her fierce grey eyes as her long black hair relinquished beside my face. I laughed, yet her cold heart did not thaw. My mother, Agnes, being the abbess of the Northern Wood Elves, never gave me much love. I was to be treated as all others and never to be put under much consideration. She was hard to the core and lead her people with pride and justice. 'Tis probably why I never considered her as the maternal aspect of my life.

My true mother was the nature that surrounded my peaceful village; the silent animals that walked the ancient paths of the thickets, the towering pines that swayed in the mighty winds and the northern breeze that brought with it the messages of newly sprung life and decay.

My loving father, the leader of a peaceful druid clan for the Western WoodElves, learnt me the way of the forest; how to spot the different footprints of the wild animals that roamed, either in the canopies or in the moss that lay sunken into the earth. I knew it all and that made my father proud. Despite my long curly blond hair and feminine features, I was the spitting image of him, both with slightly slanted eyes that shun emerald green in the pure sunlight, a sharp perception and a wildering curiosity that brought with it both good and bad. Despite the sharp stares that came forth from my hair and being second-born in a split family, my people accepted me as one of their own both from my druid father and monk mothers perspective.

As the years passed I started to follow the path of the druids, living with simplicity and being the extensions of Mother Nature herself. I began to study the changes, and wander endlessly in the forest that had been my home for numerous years. My senior brother, Akídar, was the coming leader of the druid clan, my father praised his natural skill for leading and his everlasting knowledge of all living things. Not only was he was my idol, but also the one that helped me with my studies and who comforted me when my mother had struck me down with her hurtful lashes, and therefore, I loved him with all my heart.

The day came when change arrived. I must have been around 7 as I walked my peaceful path in the woods. I stopped to admire a bright blue Aquilegia flower that grew in the West Clearing. As I stepped over and plucked it, a sudden and unnatural swoosh in the trees caught my attention. I raised my head and stood there with my blue columbine. In front of me stood a dark creature with long white hair. She was a beautiful young drow that had calm yet intelligent eyes. On her arms, shun the brightest golden scales that I had ever seen.

My instincts told me that I had nothing to fear as she stepped forward and began to talk. From her lips came the common elvish that I had learnt from my mother's people. "Suilad meld hén, kayi cin o? Kluda cin bekka?*" She said.

Only thirty or so minutes had passed, yet I felt like I had spent my entire lifespan with this wondrous girl. Our cultures nor races did not oppose. We were happy as we were and did not need the hateful discriminative past that haunted so many others. But as all peaceful harmonies must, it came to an end. The grand warhorns began to blow in the distance, and I was pulled back to my reality. The drow looked at me with such loving eyes that it reminded me of the look that my older brother gave me when he was afraid that something would hurt me. She grabbed my arm with her firm fingers and told me to follow as she stared deeply into my eyes. I nodded in trance and followed her as her agile body carried her.

She ran through the thickets like a piercing arrow. I followed her, darting just as fast as she through the ancient woods. Where? I had no idea, all I knew was that I wanted to be with her.

Our path was blocked by a monstrous creature. The wretched face of Gnoll looked at us with delight. My stomach turned solid as I readied myself for combat. Yet before I could blink, the dark, white-haired girl had jumped on the Gnoll with a shining dagger. In its shaft, I saw the bright Lunar rock that would never leave my memory. She stabbed it in the eye and it roared as it tossed her about. She screamed at me to run, but I was frozen to the ground. She jabbed it again and again but it would not fall and soon after a second Gnoll appeared behind it.

A clean-cut paw came flying through the air and landed in the dirt beside me, I woke up from my trance and began to run, leaving behind me the screams and horrors.

*Translation: Hello dear child, who are you? Are you lost?