The Elven Powers

Chapter Ten: Speak to me O tree, for this land has become forsaken (Galandria)

The following morning I rose from bed early. The events of the previous night had left me shaken and uncertain with anticipation for battle. I again tried to counsel myself. I told myself over and over that there might not be a battle. However, my body pulsed with energy as if I knew with every fibre of my being I was about to fight for the liberty of the third realm within the month. I dressed, anticipating some early morning battle training. 

I swept onto the training grounds eager to meet with my mentor. His name was Finwe Seregon commonly known as Seregon the scarred. However I always called him Fin. I suppose we really appreciated each other because I was able to look past his horrific injury. During a battle with the Goblins an Rinwok of Ellegon had appeared before Fin. No-one had seen a Rinwok for over a thousand years, as they were such ancient and terrible creatures. It was sort of like a giant bat except it had two huge muscular legs and arms covered in black scales. It had fangs longer than an Elves arm and as thick around that dripped with black poison. It also had thick claws and talons and claws on both wings. Over all it stood more than three stories tall and was constantly surrounded by a thick black swath of gas, like it was a chagrined husk that continued to smoke long after death. Fin was lucky to be alive after encountering one. During the battle he had received many wounds from the creature, the worst being the huge gash where the Rinwok had sliced his face from his forehead across to his jaw not to mention strait through his eye. They had just about managed to save him when he passed out after defeating the beast. 

He also saw something in me the other trainers had not. They were all new elves or long standing captains that hadn't seen any battle. They only tried to develop me with a sword and not end up devoting too much time to me. Fin devoted all his time to training me, and he taught me things the others would not have. He trained me with the sword, with daggers, with throwing knives, with poisonous darts, with spears and even a staff.  Along with that he taught me useful survival skills and basic ways to kill with all sorts of things you would find lying around in case I was caught without a weapon. In the end fighting with a bow was the best part. He would always be impressed with my bowman-ship to a level where we always played a dangerous game. We would go into the forest I would hide and he would seek me out or vice versa. With my bow I could catch him off guard but sometimes he managed to dart me without my realising. Of course we had a long winded point system for these mini battles. 

"Right today I have a challenge for your bowman skills. " He said as we walked side by side to the furthest target on the archery range. The target however was missing. 

"Without a target what do I shoot? You Fin?" I joked. 

" And risk me losing yet another eye?" He laughed back. " No way. Look above you."

Sure enough above me extending from a pole behind me was a zip line. I traced it till it tied itself up at the top of a pine a few hundred feet away. 

" Today I am going to teach you a trick which has saved countless lives during sieges or other such heavy war battles. You are going to learn how to deflect small projectiles with naught but an arrow. "

" Is that even possible? " I gasped.

" It served me well during a siege long ago, where the guards on the curtain wall became so recklessly desperate they threw as many pebbles at us as they could find. " He remembered staring off into the distant past. " I hadn't a shield. I took the initiative. " He finished simply. " today I am going to teach you this technique using Tefalas. "

I remembered Tefalas once before. Fin had used them to teach me how to deflect a spinning dagger. They explode into colourful mists and are made of compacted flowers. They are so compact they are nearly impossible to see until they are too close that you would die if they were weapons. So useful testers for the real thing.