Their journey through the once homely trees was a slog, mud clogged up their pace like how one's lungs would clog if filled with tar, but they moved without break, having nearly been caught by a night search party of four.

  The orcs clearly knew someone had escaped, but whether they were motivated to dedicate a day's journey to hunt two down or if they knew it was only two that had escaped in this journey would decide if the two siblings would live a lot more than any effort they put up in the face of destiny.

  The trees started to thin out sometime just before dawn, and now they were approaching the end of the forest. Beyond was a grassland where not much grew. To the left of them would be the heart of a mountain range off into the distance that would spill down right, and to the right would be the grassland, wide open with no place to hide. There would be nothing to eat but field mice on the grassland unless they stole from some human herders, but all humans on the grasslands were raiders, merchants, and herders, and they were all three in one at all times.

  Despite this, they had no intention of heading up the mountain, into the heartland of a monster.

  Their town was on the Elven periphery, but the tree line was the true boundary between what the Elves called the 'Varsee' and the 'Amsee,' or the 'halfway' and the 'far gone'. In Elvish faith the world tree was the center, and the further away from that you moved, the crueler and less kind the cosmic order. Despite this, it was against Elven nature to group up and share. Prideful and arrogant as they were, it was not uncommon for Elven scholars to spend 700 years researching a particular interest and then burning any chance another elf could find their discoveries. Even more common was that a scholar would die having never written down any findings at all, only sharing parts by word of mouth to brag and demonstrate his research was true.

  The Elves broke themselves down into two groups off this: the high elves, who gathered around the world tree and shared at least by word of mouth vast magical knowledge, and the wood elves, who lived throughout the forests and woods connected to the world tree. However, it was strongly known that wood elves were more in tune with nature and had stronger physiques. They were, oddly enough, more social, as all society in wood elf culture was optional, with the exception of children to parent and sibling to sibling.

  Humans didn't have this quality, as they were often forced together with people they disliked or bound to tribes. The result was that most wood elves, especially, were kind and friendly, and most humans were nasty.

  The Elves hid in a patch of tall grass. However, their injuries and fatigue led to them doing so in a clumsy way. When they poked their eyes out to see what their instincts had told them was there, they saw a human convoy gathered around a shared cart. However, that cart was stopped. Human warriors, about seven, dressed in thick leathers, furs, heavy boots, and metal caps and trailed by curious goats, came up from the group.

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  They looked around warily and seemed hesitant to pass the first tree until a goat ran over to the elven brother hiding in the tree. Seeing that he was revealed, he stood up to take the momentum, something his sister couldn't understand, so she panicked and drew the orc weapon. The sound of a sword being drawn and a man appearing who had been watching them put the warriors on edge.

  The goat continued on up to the elf and started to try and lick at the wounds where his fingers had been. The elf flicked his hand and commanded the goat to return. All animals listened to elves, except when the elves went out intending to hunt them. As if they had been told beforehand that the elves were hostile, they would flee instead. Even for the elves, this experience was magical.

  But the two didn't have time to revel in it now. Instead, they were now staring down a human tribe. The weapons they used were spears, clearly for hunting and prodding along the animals they grazed. What seemed like a leader among the humans took a cautious step forward and then another.

  Over what felt like a full day's hard work, the human came close enough up to the elf before he was stopped by the elf, who took a fighting stance. Then slowly, once calming down, the human reached out and gently grasped the elf's hand to inspect the wounds. Then reached up to touch at the elf's ears before hurrying back to the tribe.

  The elven brother was shocked by how easily the human had shown his back and was confused. Turning to look where his peripheral vision could catch his sister without giving her away, he hoped he looked for clues, as only she between the two of them could speak human.

  He turned his attention back to the humans, who had gathered around what looked to the elves to be an ancient human. He had the saggy and wrinkly skin that elves get when they break a thousand years of age. They were shocked to find humans could live that long, and that ancient human brought over the goat from before, with a quick, practiced stroke cut open the guts of the animal as the humans watched, and then consulted with its innards, not that the elves could tell what he was doing.

  The elven sister heard something like 'The gods! The gods!' and then the ancient human, alongside two little human girls, came over. The elves would have laughed at how clumsy the three moved through the forest, and then with gentle hands started to guide them back, using waves and hand gestures instead of words. They also showed that they knew where the sister was, waving at her hiding place.

  Soon, the two elves were before the human crowd. Various hands from the non-warriors touched and prodded them, pinching their ears, and one woman carrying an infant pinched at the elven sister's chest. The elves found it very intrusive and humiliating and turned to leave, feeling no threat from the humans, when they were beckoned to the cart.

  Looking at each other, they decided to approach the cart. The smiling faces of the humans, with the warriors dissipating from their group to go do small tasks here and there, had already largely put the fears of the two siblings at ease.

  Then, once they were close to the cart, the elves were shown how to get in, not that they would have needed help. They followed suit. There wasn't a human in the group that the elven brother would need to look down at to see their eyes. That, and the innate pride of the elves, left him feeling overconfident about whether he could respond to anything the humans had in plan.

  But after a while, the elves sat down as they were beckoned, and then the cart was away. Realizing the humans intended to give them a ride, they relaxed.