Elves.
Well, I suppose in a setting like this it was never actually a question of if, but when, and what kind. It doesn't sound like they're the kind, fae, friendly type. I'd rather be fighting through some dangerous band of deadly forest elves that hate humans than be drawn into some feast by whimsical fairies that flit back and forth and sparkle like the sun. Of course I'm a bit worried that I'll accidentally over-prepare and overtrain, but I'm absolutely not going to snub or run from actual challenges leading up to the Demon King.
That assumes we're encountering any elves at all, though. So far we haven't encountered anything. And, in fact, since the forest has gotten darker and more foreboding, we're not even seeing animals.
Elara's horse rides a little closer to mine, as the red haired woman stares out at the forest around us, eyes wide. "I think I saw something..."
I squint in the direction she's looking. The forest is darker, but not so dark that I imagine anything could be hiding right there. "I don't see anything."
"Don't look into the forest!" Kael snaps.
Which. Startles me a bit.
The man frowns back at me. "Keep your eyes on the road. you will summon them."
Summon? Who will be summoned? And how would I summon them by staring at the forest? This man's cryptic speech and strange statements are beginning to frustrate me.
But he doesn't elaborate. He just rides his horse onward.
Elara is still staring. "I definitely saw something. I'm sure of it." She mumbles, almost under her breath.
Well. I can't say anything about that. Though I am tempted to stare into the forest just to see what happens.
"Answer: The Forest Elves use confusion spells which hypnotize those who look into the darkness, luring them into the forest where their carnivorous plants and other monsters devour them!"
...That's not summoning anything, though. What the hell is this about? It sounds like some kind of urban legend designed to protect people from being lured off to their doom, not a real threat worth thinking about.
"It's not an urban legend, Master! There is a great beast in the forest! One of the elves' greatest weapons, and also their greatest dangers. Once it's activated even they can't turn it off. It's the great-"
So, what I'm hearing is that maybe I should look into the forest after all...
"Master, no!"
Before I can respond further, a scream comes from my left.
Meera. Her horse has suddenly gone wild, bucking and trying to throw her off. Her cat bolts away from her and the horse and she-...is immediately yanked off of the bucking horse and held in the sky in an unnecessarily inappropriate position by what appear to be dark violet vines.
Oh. I can see now. She must have immediately went looking into the woods when Kael told her not to. Her horse - and herself - have wandered off of the path, into the forest. Not very far, but enough that the wildlife has decided she's a meal.
There's a shout, and Kael charges forward, sword drawn, to cut Meera down. It seems he knows exactly how to handle this kind of thing. The plants writhe and twist, grasping at him once he's in range, but he deftly dances around each one of their clumsy looking attempts. He manages to cut her free quickly enough, without getting himself caught up by the plants himself.
She falls to the ground with what sounds like a yodel, landing face first in the ground.
Elara and Arin are there with surprising speed. Arin's hands glow with healing light, and the cuts and bruises on Meera's hands and face vanish.
"Are you alright?!" Elara gasps.
"I'm! Fine!" Meera beams, as if she weren't screaming her lungs out a moment ago. "My incredibly cool armor protected me from harm."
She shows off the cherry red scale armor with unnecessarily dramatic posing.
"It looks like you need more than just the armor." Elara scolds her. "You have to listen when Kael warns you about dangers!"
"Yes. Yes, I'm sorry." Meera's face falls. "I was just so curious."
"I know. You can't help yourself, can you?" Elara gives her a gentle pat on the head, which seems to perk Meera right back up.
Meera's cat reappears, strolling out of the forest casually. It jumps up onto her shoulder and begins grooming itself. I guess it was never really in any danger. It's too small and too fast for vines that attack quite so slow and clumsy. Meera herself - and maybe Arin - is probably the only person even in this party who is in any peril facing them.
Fortunately, Meera's horse didn't actually spook and run far after it got her off of its back. In fact none of the horses did, including my own. That's actually. Quite impressive. From what I know of horses, some kind of sudden panic and screaming like Meera being attacked by a vine monster would usually cause at least one - if not all - of the nearby horses to break into a run to escape.
Strange. Perhaps they're well trained.
"We have to move. Now." Kael says, mounting his horse. "The longer we're here, the more dangerous it will get."
...I like the sound of that. If we wait long enough, will we encounter dangers that are actually a challenge?
"Answer: Only the Elves' ultimate weapon will be of any real threat to you, Master."
Well. I sigh. That does mean I shouldn't bother wasting my time with anything else. If there's only one thing worth fighting in this place, there's really no point in investigating any in-between step. I turn my gaze out toward the forest and scan the dark depths of it.
Somewhere in there, there's a creature that can face me. Something dangerous. Something to fear. To fight. To barely scrape by and survive.
It's dark. The whole forest around us is dark. Darker than it was the last time I looked. But there's still clearly nothing out there. besides, apparently, hidden vines in the underbrush.
But somewhere out there...
Deeper...
"HEY!"
I startle. Elara's up closer to me - back on her horse. When did she get there?
"What -?"
"Be careful!" She snaps her fingers in front of my face. "You were staring out there!"
Oh.
Right.
She thinks I'm hypnotized.
"I'm fine..."
"Good, then let's move." That's Kael.
I blink a few times and shake my head. Right. "...Move. Right."
"Exactly. It's too dangerous to stay put. We can't stop until we get out of here. No making camp." Kael urges his horse onward.
I frown as I watch him go. The others around me start off as well. If I stay behind, I'll be left without them. Which might be convenient for summoning that creature. But I probably...will end up trapped in this damn place forever if I have to rely on my own sense of direction to get out. So I urge my horse forward and follow after as well.
My gaze lingers on the edge of the trail as we ride, watching for any creeping vines that might reach out to catch a horse's leg and ruin our journey by losing us a horse.
...The Elves of this world definitely are not the whimsical friendly fae kind. But can they really be any kind of a threat, even still? They're so close to the starter town. Usually, as shown by that damn lich, enemies close to the starter town are weak, so that people who don't have unfairly broken abilities like myself can still survive. There aren't any visible elves around us, and Kael hasn't mentioned us meeting any, but the implications that they'll show seem pretty clear to me. We're riding deeper into Elven territory. It only stands to reason we'll eventually encounter them, too.
But if we were in their trap, if this forest has caught us since some time yesterday, why didn't they attack us in the night while we slept? Were we too far on the edges, where the forest was normal and their control was weak? I don't know. Unless they're just afraid to approach us as long as one person is awake - which seems odd even for a nonhuman - we should encounter them somehow soon. That's what makes sense to me, but I can't dwell on it too long, or the annoyingly chirpy voice in my head will tell me way more information than I needed.
Which would spoil it for me. If I'm going to run into something soon anyway, I may as well ask someone who won't just spoil it.
"So when should we see the elves?"
Everyone's faces pale immediately. Their horses seem to catch onto the mood and begin to stamp their feet nervously. Notable, given how calm they were with that vine attack.
So. The elves are very hostile indeed. How interesting. I might actually get to have some kind of a fight from them after all, not just doomsday pet. After all, as tempted as I am to look out into the forest again, I don't fancy seeing anyone die, especially knowing they'll really be dying - not just some NPC kicking the bucket but a person actually dying - so at this point it's probably for the best if we're not encountering any kind of group target enemies or...I don't know.
I'm overthinking. I shake my head and press my lips together, staring at Kael. "The reason why the woods are different and bigger than they should be is that the elves are trying to trap us here, right?" I nod to the forest around us. "And if they want that, we'll encounter them once they think we're softened up enough. Right?"
Kael squints at me for a long moment, and shakes his head finally. "No. Probably not." He takes a breath. "Woodland elves like to engage with their enemies at long distance. By the time they get close enough to count as some kind of encounter we'd already be destroyed by it. If they're wearing us down, we won't see them until we can't defend ourselves."
"I see." I scratch my head. "Well, how dangerous are they? I can probably handle more than the rest of you if they're trying to wear us down first, so I can fight them even then."
Kael grimaces. "Maybe...but they're smart. If you don't look tired, no matter how long it takes, they won't appear."
...Damn. So it's like that.
Well, I suppose it makes sense. They're predators looking for easy, softened prey. If I want them to appear, I have to look like that, too. I really don't like that. I'm no good at acting. Still, I shift in the seat and scan the horizon lines of the forest around us. Maybe I can spot something? Not the beast - not this time - though the temptation is scratching in the back of my head enough to make me itch. But if they're watching us, maybe that's what Elara saw. Maybe we can spot them first. If that's the case, I don't mind the danger of running into the forest to fight them.
That's why I got a weapon, after all. To more easily deal with nuisances like the vines.
...But I don't see anything. No elves. No predators. No moving plants. No giant hulking beast.
I just don't see anything. Every time I look there's just nothing out there.
"Master!"
I jolt. What was with that shrill screech??
"Be careful, master! The call of the forest keeps turning your gaze out to it!"
....Huh? Is that it?
Meera lets out an exaggerated yawn from her horse. She seems to have thoroughly recovered from her brush with the attacking plants. There's not a sign of stress from her or her cat, which has moved back to the top of her head.
How odd. I for one don't know why Meera would be so relaxed about this apparent threat. I glance to Elara and Arin's nervous expressions just to make sure I'm not vastly misunderstanding what people call a threat or what makes people afraid. They are still just as nervous. So no, it's really Meera who seems oblivious. Despite being the one who was actually drawn into the forest and attacked.
She is...incredible.
"You're handling an enchanted death forest and prowling predator elves well." I can't help it. My voice is deadpan, but the tension and the silence, and everyone trying to stare at the ground or the sky to avoid looking the wrong way, is starting to get to me. Which is saying something, because I'm fond of quiet.
Meera hums and waves her hand. "Elves are like cats!"
...Like cats. I stare at her blankly. What do elves have in common with cats? Other than that her cat probably also seems to want her to perish like the elves do. But I think that's more of a her thing than a cat thing.
Meera hums, swaying on her horse. "They like to be left alone, they don't tolerate people forcing their way into their attention, and! They like playing with yarn balls..."
One of those is not like the others. And I'm pretty sure it's also not true.
Kael stares at her for a long moment and then shakes his head. "If you have any of those to toss at the elves if we encounter them then go ahead and try, Maybe it will distract them."
Wait.
Will it?
No, I'm pretty sure Kael is humoring the woman. Definitely. I'm going to continue to assume that. Because I cannot conceive of a threatening group of forest sprites that might get distracted by a ball of yarn in the midst of their hunt.
Just as I'm about to pursue more of Meera's conversational skills and strange theories, a figure steps out of the wood in front of us, and Kael has to sharply pull on the reigns of his horse to avoid trampling it. The horse rears back in annoyance. Kael manages to stay in the saddle with a level of skill that makes it look easy.
But I'm....focused on the elf. That just appeared out of nothing but air.