Finding The World
Long long ago on a piece of paper that was thrown into the garbage by a nobleman wishing for some spring cleaning of his bulging drawers full of things to be sorted and things to be looked at occasionally or even, perhaps, not at all, there is a story of a happy woodsman and a lonely elf. This paper was the only one that was written on about this story, the only one with the details, and had a curious maid failed to save it from being burnt it would have gone up in flames and would have never been remembered by anyone again.
But, the maid did pick it up, and she shared the story with her friends and in time those friends would bring it up as a curious little story to tell to their equally curious little darlings. And this continued in this strange little way, just like most strange little stories are told, and it was eventually forgotten by everyone that it was a real story at all.
It became a fairy tale.
And while there are some fairies within it, this story was very real to its inhabitants and so, I believe it is only fair to tell it the way that it had happened to them. Let's start with the love letters that were exchanged at the beginning between the woodsman and left at the roots of the personal tree of a wood elf named...Madeleine.
While this particular species of wood elves that Madeleine was from was quite alright with remaining a tree throughout their whole lives, as many are wont to do, there are times that some will feel the need to...stretch their legs, per say.
And it was on one fine day with the sun making her particularly drowsy and content in the heat that Madeleine transformed from her tree self to her more human looking self, and it was on this day that a passing lumberjack happened to see her.
Now, many people, perhaps, might have passed by this certain phenomenon. They might have been scared of being tempted into a fairy ring of mushrooms and then being forced to dance for a hundred years until everyone they know, then knew, is old or dead, but not this human. This human, named Alfred, was an adventurous sort-he liked to call himself a hero. Plus, he was captured by the blond curls that flowed down her back, and the glimpse of vivid purple eyes framed within. So he followed Madeleine.
Madeleine had gone all the way to a beach bordering a small and quiet lake nearby without noticing her foolish, and handsome, blond stalker. It was only when that self-proclaimed "hero" was screaming in terror from a creature that had risen up from the lake by her to eat him did she notice him, and then have to go save him. Foolish hero.
Foolish love-struck hero.
Although, that part of the story he hadn't yet realized for himself.