The archive of the forgotten

the raven brothers

I wade through the mud and water of the swamp. I've been walking for hours and haven't gotten anywhere yet. All of these dammned trees looks the same,  I suspect that I'm walking in circles and I also suspect that I'm not gonna make it through this night. Well, I pray there aren't any alligators. I hear a bird sing. "Oh shut up already." I respond. Weirdly the song stops. I look up and see something disappear into the tree. I make a mark on the tree with my knife before walking further into this strange mangrove. After a while I see the mark again. "Fuck me" the sun begins to set. I sit down on a tree.

The wet moss makes my clothes feel cold and useless when I suddenly hear a mocking chuckle. I immediately get my sword from it's sheath. I hear footsteps in the trees above me but they are extremely light. "You should've seen yourself. It's incredibly entertaining you know" I growl a little under my breath. "Show yourself and fight like a man" "how do you know I'm a man?" The voice asks. I roll my eyes. "I'm sorry, fight like a human being than!" "I'm not human so that won't be necessary and besides that I wouldn't fight you, that would only risk you hurting yourself." I'm frustrated when I hear someone land on the ground. I turn around and I sigh. Of course, an elf, I could've guessed.

"Fancy making your aquaintance, I'm ethuil. Nice to meet you" I shake his hand, I am puzzled by his appearance. His hood obscures his face which most elves don't do, most of the elves are proud of their beauty. Only some assassin's do it. But it's evident he isn't one, not enough scars or markings on his hands. Maybe he is a youg one? No, his hands were certainly trained for fighting but he has had a different upbringing. He is far too elegant to be a killing machine. "Your name means spring doesn't it" I ask, trying to make convesation. "Indeed it does." He while grabbing a branch and using it to pull himself up. "And who are you?" he asks. "I'm Castor" he nods and I can see his smile from under his hood. "What do you say we strike up a deal Castor?" He says while balancing on the branch. 'I'll help you get a good night rest if you tell me why you're here." he goes on. "Seems we have a deal my dear ethuil I'm pretty desperate right now so I would agree with anything." He picks me up and jumps into a tree. He puts me down. From here the swamp is quite beautiful.

"Beautiful isn't it? And it's safe because of all the security portals" he starts to jump from branch to branch. "Come on, we need to get there before all rooms are occupied." We start to run. After a while he jumps out of the tree and screams at me "um it would probably be better if you just climb, I mean elves are more lightfooted than people like you." "Aye,aye captain." I climb down when I see a city made out of gigantic trees and treehouses. My whole body and mind can't believe this. it's absolutely stunning. "Pretty beautiful isn't it?" I close my mouth and swallow. "Yeah cool." We walk over a bridge to a big cozy looking tree. He open the doors with a flick of his finger. There are people eating. "Is this your tavern?" "No it's an inn." "Wait I thought you'd get me a place to stay" "and I am aren't I?" "Why can't I just sleep in your house" "because I say so and I don't really have that much of a house, I'm a traveler, I know our whole world like the palm of my hand. Well, if you don't count the lands after time, never been there, yet."

I look at him maybe he would come in handy. I look at the other folks sitting in the inn. Ethuil gets me a room and both of us a warm dinner. I look at the other people on the room, there are few humans I think. Of course there are some elves. In a corner a shadowy figure isn't eating anything from his plate, not far from him are two pretty young guys talking I recognize that one is a nymph but I don't know what the other one is. There are very few humans, the only one I am sure is human has strawberry blonde hair, ember eyes and is dressed in all black, surprisingly his heavy combat boots are clean as ever. We sit down at a table "so begin with your story" he says while he digs in into the delicious looking food. I sigh "right..."

"So this all started fairly normal, my powerful sorcerer family had its own town we ruled over. I had a twin brother, his name was Colin" "Hehehe" He huckles in a rather unflattering and mocking manner. I frown "What? It is funny, Castor and Collin" I look irritated "oh yeah sorry go on" he says. "everything was perfect, I was the impulsive one and my brother was the smart one. My brother was a perfect warlock. You couldn't imagine what he could do. I loved him but I'd also be jealous all the time. We had a lot of strife when something happened. Two teenagers who tried to steal my mother's necklace, a necklace which is worth more than anything and it was magic. I was so furious. I couldn't contain myself cursed the kids when he deflected the spell saying they should have a fair trial." I sigh "and then it happened I cursed him out. I wanted to get rid of these kids and couldn't believe he wouldn't do it so I physically hurt him and told him I wish he wasn't born and I was alone when a sorceress entered." I have a flashback, her red hair trailing behind her. The soft tone  when she said 'as you wish.' And she snipped her fingers "she enchanted my brother he fell into my arms I can remeber my cries for help. She told me that the price to pay for my greed and selfishness was high..... she'd take my brother and his appearance would change. He'd forget most of the things but most importantly he'd forget me. And now I'm looking all over all countries to find my brother."

Ethuil looks at me with a hint of disdain. "you shouldn't have said that, I wish I still had a sibling"  he says. "but elves are immortal how can your sibling be gone?"  "he was adopted, he was human,I led him into his death" he whispers.

A really big guy comes up to us "hey rich boys, you're in my place" "I'm sorry we're not" ethuil say and turns around when the man tries to punch him but he dotches it. He turns around, gets his knife and starts to fight. He fights athletic and very acrobatic. He runs over a table and grabs one of the lamps to swing his foot into the teeth of the man. He uses his elbow to get rid of someone standing behind him. After a while the two men flee. He looks at them while they run. The nymph and his companion clap. "I'm sorry Mrs verisol, here" he gives her some gold coins "for the damage I've done" she laughs "I can forgive the damages but I can't forgive that you still don't know the rules ethuil." She removes the hood from his head. Long white hair falls downard. But the thing that is even more unusual is the gold mask that is covering half of his face. It looks absolutely beautiful. "What is that?" I ask but he does not answer. "I'll be here as soon as possible tommorow to pay for your breakfast." He walks away. "Pretty Cool dude..." says the guy sitting at the bar

To be honest I have nothing to  say about this book. I think I made some random characters and threw them in a tolkienesque work but still. I quite like this scene