My mind raced.
I could still see the image burned into my memory.
Those ears.
Long, elegant, pointed.
Elven.
'I saw those ears, dammit!'
A ragged breath escaped my lips.
"...Hah... haha... heh..."
Silence.
I swallowed, hard.
"...That's it," I whispered. "That's all the proof I need."
This is classic fantasy.
Not just magic. Not just strange beasts or unnatural phenomena.
Elves.
In a giant forest. This wasn't post-apocalyptic. This wasn't a twisted sci-fi dystopia with mana-infused mutants.
No.
This was high fantasy, at least to some degree. I felt it with my whole being.
I was completely ecstatic at my discovery. But only for a second. My thoughts quickly did a barrel roll and my stomach lurched in anxiety.
'Where did he go?' I thought
'What possible reason could he have for revealing himself to me.'
Judging from his extremely sudden appearance and disappearance, him being "caught" was clearly intentional.
But this posed some serious implications. That elf was most definitely not weak. From my quick observation he appeared to be wearing some sort of light armor and carrying a dagger on his waist. On top of that, he was able to come into my perception from out of nowhere and disappear in less than a second without even a trace.
From my limited scope I could only conclude one thing.
'Am I being tracked?'
There was no other explanation. It still couldn't explain the reason he revealed himself, but it doesn't take a genius to realize some group was now aware of my existence. The worst part was that I had pretty much no information about who they were and their intentions surrounding my presence.
Retreating into the building, I racked my brain for answers.
'There is a very high likelihood that I am in the elves territory.' I thought.
The sheer scale of this forest and my preconception of elves practically confirmed that.
'But why would he reveal himself to me?'
'Is he gauging my reaction?'
My mind raced trying to figure out what possible motive he could have had.
'Maybe he was attempting to perceive any animosity or check if I would flee after seeing him.'
I couldn't know. There were just too many different motivations.
whhoooo
I exhaled slowly to calm myself down then stood up.
'No matter their intentions, I think gambling on staying here is better than running blindly.'
I knew nothing about this forest. Nothing about the local dangers. And honestly? Being drawn into a literal elven fantasy had its appeal.
'Now, lets lay out what I do "know" about elves.' I thought.
Gathering my thoughts I came up with three distinct stereotypes often associated with elves.
'Lets see. There's the hostile elves. They usually are either prideful or treated like commodities by humans. Then there's extremely friendly ones who never do any harm usually due to some kindred spirits of nature type bullshit. And lastly, we have the "basically just human but a different country" type elves.'
The third was less common in stories as authors love contrast between species. But the second? The whole "they can do no harm and never lie" thing?
I doubted it.
Not just because it was optimistic, but because the only elf I'd seen carried a knife.
So while I hoped for a diplomatic encounter, I'd be preparing for the opposite.
That being said, the likelihood of there being an entire elven society seemed pretty high, all things considered. Everything about that guy screamed scout. The armor, the dagger, the whole vanish-into-thin-air thing. Classic recon behavior.
I stood there contemplating for a while, weighing my options carefully in my head.
"Ok so my information is jack shit and fuck all."
"..."
"Nice."
"..."
"At least its honest work..."
I had no idea who I was justifying myself to, but apparently racially profiling someone's entire species after a one-second glimpse counted as investigative analysis now.
And that was enough to keep me going.
'Enough guesswork.' I thought. 'At this point whatever happens isn't under my jurisdiction.'
I figured I'd drop the racism for now and occupy my mind with something else.
Or at least that is what I told myself until a really grand old idea popped into my head.
'This might be completely stupid, but I am gonna try to make contact. Lets hope the elves understand English...'
Hesitating slightly, I walked toward where I'd last seen the elf, heart pounding in my chest.
Then I stood underneath the "tree" that I had seen him perched on and started yelling.
"IS THERE ANYONE STILL HERE."
"IF YOU CAN UNDERSTAND ME, PLEASE COME DOWN."
"I COME IN PEACE, I'M JUST A BIT LOST"
"..."
I waited a couple minutes with no response. I thought maybe they hadn't heard me so I raised my voice and repeated myself.
"HELLO THERE."
"IF YOU CAN HEAR AND UNDERSTAND ME, I WISH TO SPEAK TO YOU"
"I DON'T KNOW WHERE I AM, SO EVEN IF I WANTED TO LEAVE I CAN'T."
"..."
'Now I just feel stupid.'
'As I should.'
For some reason I had my hopes up that the elf would both hear and understand me then make the conscious decision to engage with my nonsense likely without the consent of his higherups. Yeah, that wasn't gonna happen unless that guy was either really strong or really "intelligent."
'Nice job, jackass,' I muttered. 'Really nailed the diplomatic approach.'
I only just started to understand what in god's green earth I just did. The absolute best case scenario there was probably me getting arrested by the guy after having a lovely chat. Worst case... Death, torture, permanent imprisonment, more death, execution... on the spot.
"Fuck." I muttered under my breath.
I had just scared the ever living daylights out of myself with that. Death two electric boogaloo was just over the horizon and I'd just done god's work toward bringing forward its release.
I took a deep breath and muttered,
"Guess I'm not as unshaken as I thought."
I quickly paced back to the Chavern to get some magical research therapy.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * (Going forward this means perspective shift)
Saav Vahlensight, a scout of the 13th scout division, couldn't believe his eyes.
Before him lay the tavern an old Vahlenguard commander had made as a scenic retreat during his later years. The once undisturbed, peaceful location witnessed the gruesome end of its creator hundreds of years ago and now bore witness to one of the weirdest inhabitants the lands had ever known.
Saav stood speechless as the retreating fool retreated into his ill-gotten retreat.
Saav had lived in Vahlenguard his entire life, raised on its rich tradition and powerful history. His faith in it's magical systems had remained unbroken through 63 long years. Nothing, be it be human, elf, or beast, had ever entered the forest in his time without being detected. Their detection system, developed over thousands of years of elven hardship was heralded as one of the greatest strategic assets this entire world had to offer.
But this long-held belief was crumbling- no, shattering to pieces with this absolutely nonsensical invader.
Still reeling, Saav slowly grabbed his Granight and activated the communication spell.
shvrt
The device popped into action and a magical link was established directly to Saav's thoughts.
He waited for a few moments until-
[Report, sightman.] Commander Grenfall's gruff voice sprang into his thoughts.
(brackets will denote all direct telepathy going forward)
[vahl ren dahl sir!]
[The subject has attempted to make contact after we gauged his perception] He continued.
[He yelled at the top of his lungs in a language my Granight doesn't have catalogued. It seems to bear no resemblance to any known language.]
[I am sending over the recording as we speak.]
[that... is certainly very odd. Continue] Grenfall responded, pondering.
[Sir! After finishing his attempt at contact he looked clearly frightened and ran right back into the tavern.]
[...]
Grenfall waited for him to continue, but after a few more seconds of nothing asked-
[Do you not know what he was scared of?]
[Sir!] Saav, broken out of his thoughts replied.
[I cannot reasonably conclude any cause for his fright.]
[Speculate.] Commanded Grenfall.
[Sir! If I were to guess, he might have been spooked by himself]
[...]
[The recording has sent, please take a look after the intent translation is complete.]
The device fell silent.
A few minutes past.
Then a few more.
It was evident to Saav that Grenfall was taking his time analyzing it. Thanks to the heavily guarded magical protocols exclusive to Vahlendra's elite, every inch of the elven-controlled forest was woven into the detection system. The magic infused into their network allowed full integration of the Granight's recording allowing Grenfall to view the event from any angle, as if he'd been standing there himself.
Saav himself had witnessed the power of this capability a number of times throughout the duration of his training, but the power to handle it was wielded only by those with the most noble of names.
After waiting a few minutes more Saav felt it acceptable to ask a question as his superior hadn't yet told him anything. He needn't fear repercussions for simple curiosity.
[Grenfall Sir! May I inquire the details of what the invader tried to convey?]
[...]
At that moment a magical pulse hit his mana organ. Saav knew exactly what it meant. It was the standard alert system, courtesy of Arcmage Aracthar Grenight, the device's half-mad inventor. Apparently, he'd been too deaf and jittery for normal chimes used prior, so he hardcoded magical pulses into the design. Everyone kept using them after he died because, frankly, they worked, even if your Grenight was miles away and buried under a tree.
[Vahl ren dahl sir!]
Saav promptly ended his connection and fiddled with the spells on the Grenight. He pulled up the cause of the magical pulse and a sound emanated from the small device directly into Saav's brain.
[...]
As Saav listened to the translation his face shifted quite quickly into a scour.
After it ended Saav stared intently at the tavern. His thoughts morphing to violence as he thought of how to best interrogate this baffling individual at once.
"How dare he mock me."
"A bit lost my whole sack."