Ascalon and Lyle found themselves walking through the deep forest they had come across on their way to the capital of Lisbea. They walked with caution, the foliage of the trees was dense and trees themselves were very close to each other, which made it more difficult for them to walk easily or to see the path in front of them. However, right now that was not the greater of their problems, they had been walking all day, they were getting hungry and the closest thing to food they had seen so far were some mushrooms that they doubted to be edible. Ascalon still had a bag with some pieces of carrot, but they were all ashy.
As if that wasn't enough, night began to fall, meaning the forest would get even darker than it already was, all of this was just great. Lyle was noticeably affected by the lack of food, slowing them down considerably.
"I thought forests were filled with animals and fruits", Lyle said as he thinked on food.
"Well it's clear that this one is the exception", Ascalon said, beginning to worry about the state of his friend.
They walked a bit as the sun continued to hide in the sky, they were lucky and found a clear spot in the middle of the forest. Lyle sat in the clear spot while Ascalon cut down a tree with his axe. Ascalon took some pieces of wood and positioned them in the middle of the clear spot to make a fire. He used his axe and his friend's sword to create the spark to ignite the fire, it took a while but he did it. He then chopped two pieces of wood from what was left of the tree and put them near the fire to act like seats. The friends sat next to the fire, Lyle's stomach began to sound because of the hunger.
"Do you still have the carrots?" The blonde asked.
"Yes, here" Ascalon answered as he took the bag and leaned in to Lyle for him to take.
The blonde took some pieces of carrot and began eating. They still were ashy.
"Do you think that the fire could improve their taste?" Ascalon said as he looked at his friend disgusted by the ash covered carrots.
"You want me to take off the flavor of ash with fire?" Lyle inquired with confusion.
"Well, when you put it like that it does sound stupid." Ascalon said.
Lyle continued to eat with disgust at the flavor of the ashes, Ascalon just looked at the fire. The blonde asked his friend if he was going to eat too, but the axeman told him that he was fine and that he could eat all of the carrot if he wanted, Lyle didn't want to but if he had to, he had not much options.
"Lyle, did you hear that?" Ascalon said, getting on guard.
The blonde seemed confused, "Hear what?".
"There is someone near us" Ascalon said as he pointed at some bushes in front of them, they were clearly moving.
Lyle stood up and got on guard despite being tired and hungry. Silence dominated for a brief moment, no movements could be detected by either of the friends. And suddenly, out of the bushes, a big wild hog emerged, a big roar came out of its mouth. Lyle and Ascalon prepared for the attack, the wild hog charged against them, but out of nowhere an arrow made out of magic pierced through the wild hog's neck, killing it instantly.
"Are you two ok?" A female voice asked from the trees.
The friends looked to the place they heard the voice come from, on top of the branches of a tree the silhouette of a woman stood, staring down at them. The mysterious woman jumped from the tree onto the ground next to them, allowing both friends to have a better sight of her. She looked like in her mid 20's, she was noticeably shorter than both of them, her hair was almost golden and was tied up in two pigtails that descended on her shoulders, her skin was in a point where it was almost tanned but couldn't qualify as such, she was fit, her hips were noticeable as well as her chest. She wore a green hood along with a green and yellow sleeveless top and brown shorts as well as dark brown boots. Her eyes were rather peculiar, they were blue, but not a normal blue, a light blue, so light that it was almost blank, and of course, there was something of her that stood out from the rest of her, her ears, her pointy ears.
Despite never having seen one in their lives, Lyle and Ascalon were both aware that this woman was an elf, creatures they didn't know much about except that they existed and had pointy ears.
The elf woman looked at them and asked again. "Are you two ok?"
Lyle snapped and responded "Yes, we are ok, we are a bit hungry but I think that wild hog you just killed could solve it" he said as he looked at the dead animal in front of him.
"Glad to hear that" The elf woman said "Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Sylvana and as you may have already noticed, I'm an elf".
"Yeah, we noticed, my name is Ascalon and this is my best friend Lyle", Ascalon said as he pointed out at himself and his friend.
"Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, and… what brings two humans to be in a forest like this at such hours?" Sylvana asked.
"We were travelling towards the capital of Lisbea" Ascalon answered "What about you?"
"What a funny coincidence, I'm heading towards the capital of Lisbea as well" Sylvana responded. Ascalon chuckled, agreeing that it was indeed a funny coincidence. "Hey, since I killed the hog for you, would you mind sharing it? I would like to eat something else than just the wild berries I packed with me"
Ascalon doubted a bit, he looked at Lyle who nodded. "Well, I guess it's fair, and as a sign of my- our good will" Ascalon said before heading towards the tree he had chopped down earlier and cut a piece of the log for Sylvana to sit on it. "There you have it"
"Thanks, I appreciate the gesture" Sylvana responded.
The three of them took pieces of meat from the wild hog Sylvana had killed and cooked it on the fire Ascalon had made. It was decent, not delicious, just decent. It could satiate their hunger and didn't taste like ashes, so there was nothing to complain about.
"I have a doubt" Ascalon said as he finished his piece of meat, Sylvana and Lyle still had a good chunk left. "What were you doing roaming in the darkness?"
"Well, to be honest, I'm usually not aware of the time of the day, and most of the time how dark it is doesn't really affect me so I was just gonna continue my way until I noticed you two" Sylvana responded.
Both the blonde and the black haired guy were visibly confused at the elf's statement. "Elves have night vision or something like that?" Ascalon asked.
"Huh? Oh no, I'm blind" Sylvana answered, confusing Lyle and Ascalon even more.
"Blind?" Lyle asked.
"Well, technically, but not really" Sylvana responded, she then ate another piece of her chunk of meat, she swallowed the meat and continued talking "I'm what is known as a guardian elf, I was trained to a protector, upon completing my training I was offered to drink a potion that would blind me, but in exchange all my others senses sharpened and my eyes didn't become completely useless, I can still see things as long as they emanate magic"
"So, you can only see magic?" Ascalon asked.
"Yes, it is a way to put it. And in case you don't believe what I'm saying, despite not having seen you use any magic, I know you both make use of dark magic for the energy emanating from your bodies". Sylvana answered.
"Wow, that's impressive" Lyle declared "It must be cool to have that vision".
"Well, it has its pros and its cons, I cannot see the magic I emanate which causes that I can see through my eyelids which is kinda annoying…" Sylvana said.
"And how is that of being a guardian elf?" Ascalon asked with genuine curiosity, Lyle looked at Sylvana, he was curious as well.
Being a guardian elf isn't something the woman considered a big deal, so she decided to tell them how it was. "Well, it's not that much of a big thing really, I highly doubt it differentiates from the training done for the soldiers of your kingdoms. I guess one of the major differences is that once the training has been completed you are assigned a duty to complete. And, we're offered two potions to drink, it is not obligatory to do so but most of us do drink them".
"One of them is the eye thing you mentioned, right?" Lyle asked.
"Yes", Sylvana answered.
"And what is the other one?" Lyle asked as he took another piece of meat into his mouth.
"The anti-aging potion" Sylvana responded "It's a potion that stops our aging as the name implies".
"Wait, there are anti-aging potions? And they work?" Ascalon asked, surprised by the fact.
"There are, yes. And they work perfectly, as I am an example of it. I'm 32 years old and yet I look just like I did when I was 13, or at least I think I do, I haven't seen myself since I was… well… 13", Sylvana said.
This statement really confused both Ascalon and Lyle, causing the latter to almost choke on the piece of meat he was eating.
"Is there something wrong?" The elf asked.
"13?" Ascalon asked in disbelief.
"Oh, I get the confusion, elves' lifespans are shorter than humans, naturally we age faster than you do, in fact, unlike humans who reach adulthood around the age of 18, we reach adulthood by the age of 10" Sylvana clarified.
"Huh, we didn't know that", Ascalon said.
"How much do elves live?" He asked.
"For what I know the most an elf has managed to live without the anti-aging potion is up to 50 years old" The elf answered.
"If you have that potion, why don't all elves take it?" Lyle asked.
Sylvana was a bit surprised by the question, but she knew the answer very well.
"The potion is made only for guardians, on average, us elves are weaker than the human race. Even our stronger warriors are way behind most of human warriors, hence why is necessary that we live for a longer time, besides our perception of time is different than yours, not to mention that our nature is in general more passive than the human nature, by the age of 80 most guardian elves decide to retire and take a potion to revert the effects of the anti-aging potion, if not before. It is also worth mentioning that the potion only works on elves, despite our similitudes as species, a human would gain little to no benefit from drinking that potion"
The friends were surprised, they barely knew anything about the elves, and weren't expecting them to be this interesting, and how their nature differed so much from humans. If humanity could have access to something like that… it would be chaos, that's what Ascalon thought.
It was already late, so they put out the fire and lied in the grass to rest for the night. If anything tried to approach them, Sylvana would see it coming from far away. The night was spent without much going on, Sylvana and Ascalon had a good sleep, Lyle not so much.
Lyle woke up earlier than Sylvana and Ascalon. He looked at the sun rising in the sky, at first when he opened his eyes he wished that everything that happened yesterday happened to be nothing but a nightmare, but there he was, in the middle of a clear spot on a forest, his village burned down, almost everyone he once knew and loved was dead and he had decided to embark on a journey of revenge towards the responsible of it.
The young swordsman didn't have much time to himself as Sylvana woke up, followed by Ascalon, they had eaten almost the entirety of the wild hog last night so they had no need for breakfast.
After some morning stretches, Sylvana speaks up. "You said you were heading to the capital, right?".
Lyle responded with a turned down tone "Right".
"In that case, may I accompany you in your journey? We all have the same destination and I think it would be safer the more we are in case we came across bandits or something like that" Sylvana suggested.
Neither of the friends had any real objection against the idea so they decided to let the elf accompany them. And so, the three of them began walking towards the exit of that dense forest, prepared to continue their journey towards the capital of Lisbea.