Forget me not

Chapter 1: A Melody of the Red Headed Elf

This day was supposed to be like any other for the Tavern's Deep party.

They resided deep in a beautiful forest, full of lush trees, lakes and colorful flowers. The spar hungry monk asked a fellow member for a spar. The dragonborn couple were looking after everyone whilst Sha'karr was just done with the monk just wanting to spar everyone. Verico wrote in his special little book. The bird boys were having a moment at the moment, while Thymus snacked on his fish-shaped cheese crackers.

And yet for some reason everything seemed to just go wrong.

Soleil started her day saying good morning to everyone then got some food and was about to collect some flowers so she could make her friends some flower crowns.

The atmosphere, peaceful and quiet.

The skies were a soft blue with almost no clouds in sight.

The air was so fresh, fresher than usual.

A great day to relax..

But then it seemed everything went wrong when a group of bandits ambushed the crew, the paladin wasn't happy about it to say the least. "You just had to ruin this beautiful day, didn't you?" Sha'karr sighed, glaring at the bandits. As they fought the bandits, there were some complications.

It seems the bandits had a lot of back-up and as a result the group split up, unintentionally.

When the fight was over, Sha'karr started searching for everyone, they didn't seem to be far away from each other.

The paladin was able to find the others, but one member was still missing.

Soleil.

"This isn't good... Soleil could be anywhere, we have to keep our eyes out. Shuka, Irid! See if you can find any trace of Soleil; keep close though we can't lose each other in this forest"

Soleil took care of the bandits on her side, knocking them out and tying them up to a tree. In case their comrades would come to help them out. "Now I can finally go back and..." It took her a minute to figure out that she was completely lost from her group.

Soleil called out for their names but... nothing, not even a peep of an answer back.

"Oh no! Mama Bear is gonna be so mad if she hears about this!" Soleil panicked, running through the deep forest, getting hit by foliage and low hanging branches. Quickly losing her breath with how fast she was going, refusing to stop until she found them, she didn't want to be alone. But then she stopped, a sound.

Humming?

Her eyes widened, a person!

Hoping that it could maybe, possibly lead her to her crew. She quietly followed the humming, as she got closer and closer to the sound, along with the humming, faint sobs were heard.

Unfortunately, it wasn't able to lead her to her party, which is to be expected. Instead it led her to a small pond, where a little figure crouched, the sobbing seemingly coming from them. Their face hidden by their white and dark blue hood, bits of red hair poking out. Slowly approached the pond, "Um... hello?" waving her hand awkwardly. The figure jolted, surprised but immediately froze up the moment they saw her.

The figure's face round and pale, elven-like ears and beautiful blue eyes, it looked as if they had specks of gold in them, Soleil noted. Lastly their hair, a little wild with curls here and there, a deep shade of red, kind of like a poppy. They looked uneasy, scared even. "Oh sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. My name is Solei-" before she could finish, the elf took off.

"No, wait!" Soleil ran after her, avoiding the foliage and hanging tree branches, keeping up with the elf which didn't take too long with the elf's small stature. The young elf finally stopped, "W-why are you following me?" The elf said, still catching their breath, their back facing the monk. Soleil spoke, hoping to ease the tension, "A-apologies, I just.. don't want to be alone..."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can be of any good company" Soleil, a little confused, slowly approached the other. "What do you mean you wouldn't be? Aren't you lost from your party?" Worry evident in her voice, "N-no, I'm all alone..." Soleil couldn't believe it. Sure, it wasn't unusual to travel alone, but something about this situation was strange. The monk glanced at the elf's back, and enthusiastically exclaims "Well, what if we stay together til then? It's better if we're together!" the other sounded hesitant, "W-what? Do you really think it's a good idea to stick together?" "I don't see why it wouldn't be, besides it would be safer for us both to stick together" Finally, the elf turned to look at her.

Offering a friendly hand to the elf, she introduced herself. "My name is Soleil Xīwàng, you?" "...I'm Sunniva. But if you want, you can call me Sunny" ''Well it's a pleasure to meet you, Sunny. I hope we can become good friends'' Sunny looked at the welcoming palm, with a hesitant hand Sunny slowly shook her hand.

Awkward silence follows after, sounds of animals roaming and the rustle of leaves until the shorter of the two spoke. "H-how did you end up getting lost from your party?" Sunny asked meekly, Soleil was caught a little off guard, but was happy that Sunny would try to have small conversations with her. She happily explained, with a small smile "Well, we were ambushed by bandits and I got separated while fighting them, but thankfully when I was lost, I heard your humming and found you" The elf turned a bit red when Soleil mentioned her humming. Sunny asked, embarrassed "O-oh... So you heard that huh?" "It's such a lovely melody! What's it called?" Soleil asked with such sincere glee, Sunny gave a small smile and answered.

"It's called 'Hope' My mother and I would listen to the bards play that melody at night time. One of them was kind enough to teach me the song" "I bet you sing it wonderfully!" Soleil encouraged making the little elf flush red as a rose, a gust of wind made the forest whistle, the two halted and took a moment to appreciate the song of the forest, the leaves would dance with the wind like they were in a ballroom, it was such a beautiful sight "Hey Sunny? If it's alright with you... can I hear that melody again?" Soleil asked the little elf, the little elf was caught off guard by the request but she smiled and hummed the melody for the monk to listen to.

((I would like to thank my friends for editing the story ;w; Kris and Middy you guys rock thank you! <3))