LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 6: An encounter with an elf
Today started like any other ordinary day. I woke up while the sun was setting, dived into the lake to clean myself, shook myself dry, and wandered off to look for food. The best part of foraging at this time is I can actually see colors better, which helps a lot when trying to find edible food. Initially, I had horrible accuracy to the point where Cabg was wondering whether I was just assuming everything was edible, but after trial and error and coming up with my own way of differentiating the safe from the toxic, my parents trusted me enough to let me forage by myself.
One major bonus of being in charge of foraging is that I decided what was for dinner, which meant I mainly focused on getting only the food I liked. Those disgusting radish-like plants? I, for some reason, just couldn’t find any! Please ignore the fact that a few of them are growing a few meters away from my tent. Those neon pink mushrooms? I swear they are growing everywhere, and I most certainly didn’t wander around for an hour just to look for them. Although why neon pink mushrooms are even edible in the first place is beyond me. Aren’t colorful mushrooms usually poisonous? That being said, this is a fantasy world and most of my common sense is useless here.
Anyways, my haul today was rather typical, and I handed over the food to my father. I asked as usual if I could help with the cooking, but unfortunately, my parents still do not trust me to handle fire or the stone knife. This makes no sense to me, since they are totally fine with their three-year-old daughter going alone into the forest to pick food. I really don’t get it.
After finishing breakfast, I talked with my parents and brother, and learned a bit more of the language and some random facts. Soon enough, it was time to go to the daily child gatherings. I waved bye to my family and headed out.
However, as usual, I did not actually go there, but instead, used the time to explore the forest. According to my parents, we don’t have any natural predators, so I’d only be in danger if I try to fight things or ignore warnings. This time, I wandered around east from my home. A few hours in, I spotted a strange green light in the distance, and curious, I cautiously approached the light.
The source of the light came from a young elven girl that looked like she was ten, but since this is a fantasy world, she could have been a hundred for all I knew. Her long blonde hair swayed as her hands glowed a faint green. The seeds in her hand gently floated up until about a meter above her head, in which a bird flew over and ate it. The wind died down right afterward as her hand stopped glowing.
What the heck? Well, I guess this is a fantasy world and elves and magic are a pretty staple part of it, but still.
While I was surprised by what I was seeing, the girl noticed me and signaled me over. I walked over to her and she went and levitated a nut over to me. I put my hand under the nut, expecting to feel the wind, but there was nothing. Having no idea how magic works, I decided to shelve it for later, as I inspected the nut. I’ve never seen it before, but surely the elf wouldn’t try to poison me.
The nut was surprisingly good actually, and as soon as I ate it, the young elf grabbed another one and levitated it again, a small distance away from me. I walked over and snatched it out of the air to eat it. She brought out another nut a good distance above my head, forcing me to jump to take it. After that, she placed it even higher.
Yeah, I’m not going to dance around for a single nut. Let me just raid that bag that she has over there.
I snatched the bag off the ground, and began to ate the nuts by the handful.
She yelled, “Ay, tio estas trompado!”
I honestly have no idea what the heck she said, but I assumed she was not expecting me to go for the bag directly. I just stuck out my tongue and continued to shovel the nuts into my mouth. She started to chase after the bag, and I ran away.
I know I am considered physically unfit compared to my fellow peers, but I could surprisingly run away from the elf. She chased after me, and occasionally glowed green during the chase.
Hey, using magic is cheating, I thought.
We ran around in circles, while I slowly ate the rest of the nuts. Eventually though, I grew tired, and she caught up to me. Instead of grabbing the now empty bag like I expected her to, she grabbed me in a big hug with one arm and used the other and vigorously petted my head. I initially struggled a bit, but it actually felt kind of pleasant, although it did hurt a bit because she put way too much pressure.
She held me like that for a really long time, now gently running her cool fingers through my fur, while walking off to somewhere.
Elves in fantasy worlds are usually depicted as nature loving beings that are often vegetarian, so surely, she’s not taking me to become dinner. She was happily feeding the birds without trying to kill them so she doesn’t have ill intentions, right?
Although still worried about exactly what she’s trying to do, I still let her carry me, mainly because I was curious about the elves.
She eventually took me over to a wooden gateway, where a few elven sentries were stationed. She put me down and began a conversation with the guards, while I was busy gawking at the elven settlement. All of the houses were up in the trees, with wooden walkways connecting the various buildings. There was the soft glow of candlelight peeking through the windows. Actually, looking at the houses closely, part of them seem to be inside of the tree, like the elves dug a hole in the tree trunk to live in.
By the time I finished taking in the view, the young elven girl already went through the gate without me, leaving the sentries glaring at me. I took a tiny step forward, and they began jabbing spears at my direction. Since I was clearly not welcomed, I turned tail and scurried back home.
On the trek back home though, I realized that I was still holding onto the cloth bag that held the nuts.
Hopefully she won’t get in trouble for losing the bag. I guess I’ll just hold onto it until I meet her again? Although it’s not like can call her or visit her house. Looks like I just obtained a free souvenir, although I wonder what my parents would think about this since I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to go wander off alone when I was supposed to be at the daily children gatherings.
Luckily, I managed to arrive at my room with no one noticing me, so I dug a hole under my bed and stashed the bag there.
Lying on the bed, I suddenly thought, Given that the elves are quite near to us, I wonder why they were never mentioned at all by my parents. Maybe I should ask them about it.
During dinner that night, I casually asked, “Oh right, today while I was foraging, I saw this strange lupo that was missing fur, had these weird ears, and no tail. Do you know what that was?”
“You did run away from them, right?” my mother said, worried.
“Of course,” I lied.
“Oh good. Those are elves, and they are one of those creatures that I mentioned that will give you a warning before they attack you, but they don’t actively try to hunt us. They make these weird sounds that no one knows what they mean, but as long as you run away when they do that, they won’t chase after you. So if they make noise, run. Got it?”
“What if they don’t make noise and seem to not care about me?”
My mother dropped the deer steak she was holding and said in a grave voice, “Sofare, this was before your time, or even mine, but a long time ago, our ancestors got tired of collecting branches or lopping branches off of trees for wood. They had the idea to cut down one of the trees. In the process of doing so, those elves came and made the weird noise. Our ancestors ignored them and continued to swing our axes at the tree. The elves came over and pulled them away from the tree, in which we pushed them aside and continued.
This is when accounts differ. Some have said that rocks suddenly appeared out of nowhere and rained on our ancestors. Others have said that the very air we breathe suddenly became sharp enough to cut. Some have even said that the elves just simply willed them to die. Either way, all accounts agree on the fact that the elves killed them through unknown means.
So just in case, just stay far away from them, Sofare.”
“Yes, mom,” I said. Well, I thought, guess the meeting with that young elf is going to be kept a secret. Also, note to self, never mess with the trees, especially in front of the elves.