Running From Darkness

Elven

After about 5 minutes Emily and the other young girl took the lead. They were very vague about where they were going and said they would explain more when they reached where they were going. After about 2 hours of walking, Nathan asked,
"Sam? Couldn't you just teleport us to where we're going? It seems a lot simpler."
"No, the only way I can teleport somewhere is if I've been there before and I have no idea where we're going." Sam replied, shaking his head as if it were a common question he was asked. They trudged on for about another hour or two, James couldn't tell, until they reached a clearing within the forest. The grass was coated with a fine layer of pine needles and the smell that preludes a rainstorm.
"We need to wait here," the girl voiced, "until midnight. All will be revealed then." She seemed a lot more confident than she had at the outside of the institute.
"Hang on a minute!" Joseph exclaimed obnoxiously, "We only just met you, we don't even know your name! And you expect us to wait around in the middle of an unguarded forest until midnight! Bull shit!" The girl stalked towards him and stood right in front of him. James hadn't realised until now just how tall she was. She stood about a foot or two above Joseph and began poking him in the chest, pushing him backwards with one finger. She must be amazingly strong as well, James thought, who or what is this girl?
"My name," she hissed, "is Alexandra Oakleaf and I'm an elf. You mess with me and I'll turn you inside out. You got that punk?" Joseph swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down, sweat glistening on his forehead. He nodded slowly and as Alexandra backed away from him he flipped onto a tree stump and sulked, his body turned away from the rest of the group. The 4 others tried to hide sniggers behind their hands and when they failed to do that they rolled on the floor, laughing hysterically at how Alexandra had made fun of their friend. It was mid afternoon when they had arrived at the clearing. They each dug around in their backpacks for something to eat and offered some to Alexandra. She politely declined, telling them that elves very rarely ate. They sat in silence for about an hour where during that time Joseph had walked over to them, apologised to Alexandra and sat down to join them.
"So Alexandra, what can you do?" James asked cautiously, remembering the way she had verbally slaughtered Joseph.
"Pardon?" She replied.
"Well, you said you were an elf and they can usually do cool stuff. I just thought about it I'm sorry if I-"
"Don't worry about it!" she laughed musically. Her laugh was like tinkling music notes. "Number one, please call me Lexi and number two, I can in fact 'do things'. You saw what I did with The Order's wards, right? Well, elves can do a certain type of magic called rune magic. We have a second language that runs rampant with magic and a plethora of symbols that can do different things. The ones you saw created the door that took you out of the wards but there are others that give enhanced speed or strength along with some that can heal wounds. There are hundreds! As well as that, because I'm an elf, I have better endurance than humans, meaning that I can run faster for longer and I have more strength than the average human. Any more question?"
"Yeah," Sam said, "what weapon do you fight with?"
"Well, usually elves like to use long tapered swords, daggers or bows. However, I have a higher interest in battle training than most elves, who enjoy it but don't do more work than they have to. I use a weapon called a Nagasaki. It's difficult to explain so I'll show you instead. She stood up and muttered something under her breath and fizzing symbols appeared in a circle opposite her chest. She reached forward into the centre of the circle of symbols and pulled out a long wooden staff with two curved blades attached to the ends. The runes faded away and Lexi stood in the middle of the clearing with her staff in hand. She began twirling it between her hands, like Darth Maul does in the first Star Wars movie, and slowly advanced. She spun and kicked and flipped and swiped with the blades. She came to a stop just in front of Sam, one of the two blades a mere millimetre away from his throat.
"Good enough for you?" She asked, and they all burst out laughing.