Lorelei

Part One

Lorelei crouched behind a large set of crates, hoping to lose her pursuers. They were right on her trail, she only just managed to avoid their gaze. She could hear footsteps approaching her position. It was no doubt the soldiers who were chasing her. She had been running from them for most of the morning. So, considering that Lorelei was in excellent physical condition, and the soldiers were getting a bit round in the belly, they were quite tired.

Lorelei stayed in her crouching position, hoping that the guards would come no further. She heard the sound of metal against rock, as one of the guards lowered his sword and stabbed it into the ground and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Damn those elves," the first guard said, as he put his hands on his knees, trying to recover some energy.

"Get up, Lawrence." The second guard spoke in short bursts, speaking between pants. "That bastard of an elf can't be too far."

2 hours earlier

"So, this is the border wall?" Lorelei stated with a little chuckle. "It's barely a wall anymore," Lorelei looked at the landscape before her.

"I wonder what happened to it," Zoron said, mostly to himself, but Lorelei answered without hesitation.

"The wall has been in ruins ever since the last Great War," Lorelei looked up at the structure that was once a formidable form of defence for the humans. "That war ended with the humans being victorious and the elves suffered a great loss in soldiers, which is why the forest of Erlenwood is the last home for the elves." Lorelei looked down at the ground, remembering the stories her grandfather would tell her about the Great Wars before the peace treaty was signed.

"Every other forest that was once home to elves has been either burned to a crisp or used as wood resources for the humans." Lorelei glanced over to Zoron, who was still lost in the sight of the border wall. "Don't you pay attention to Sir Shiirun during History?" Lorelei allowed a smug look to creep into her face. Zoron continued to look at the ruins before realizing what Lorelei had just said.

"It's only because he has such an uninteresting way of describing things!" Zoron exclaimed, a little embarrassed about how little he knew of the Great Wars. "It's so boring hearing him going on and on about one minor detail in such a huge topic!"

Lorelei giggled at Zoron's embarrassment and turned her gaze back to the wall, thinking about what was beyond such a huge structure. The border wall was in ruins from the countless amount of wars with the elves and humans. The last war was around 78 years ago. The humans and the elves had rested on an uneasy peace. Most humans weren't fond of the elves because of the outbreak of wars. But now that the last elf king had died from poisoning, the heir to the throne took over and created the peace treaty between the elves and humans.

The two races had finally come to some sort of realisation that they were facing a common enemy; the orcs. The orcs had been trying to take over the land of Hostrilia and the forest of Erlenwood for centuries. The humans of Hostrilia couldn't afford to battle against the orcs, elves and the dwarves all at once. The latest elf king, King Kagiira, wanted to cease the violence and obsessive killing that his deceased father, King Hoenin, had started. King Kagiira had come to realize that the humans had something they wanted, and vice versa.

Erlenwood had large deposits of silver beneath the tree roots, which is what most elven weapons are made of, making their weapons quite light and easy to move around. And Hostrilia had gold, .Plenty of it. The peace treaty was signed by both the elf king, King Kagiira, and the human king, King Samuel. The elves were welcomed into human territory. However, most humans still believed that the elves were not to be trusted and that they would turn against King Samuel whenever they get the chance. So, the elves weren't exactly treated with equal respect.