No one had come out of the forest in over five-thousand years. In fact, even those who ventured in to the forest, never ended up returning. It was common knowledge among the two great kingdoms that the forest Gúl was, put simply, forbidden. What was not-so-common knowledge, was the reason why. Gúl was once the enchanting home of the beautiful and prosperous forest elves, and was thought to be the origin of all the elven races. The two remaining elven races, the mountain elves, and the river elves, while differing in culture and even appearance, have managed to live with each other peacefully and even prosperously. However, after an experiencing an unnaturally long winter, each kingdom is faced with it's own hardships. Facing certain starvation, the military captain Beinion of the Mountain Realm has decided to gather two of his best warriors to take their fate into their own hands, leaving in search of food in the only place that hasn't seemed to be affected by the winter... Gúl. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Three Kingdoms draws inspiration from many different sources, but is very heavily influenced by Lord of the Rings. (I use a lot of Sindarin and other elvish names in my story.)