Chapter one.
A rainy day, a normal rainy day it had been for the fair-haired elfin girl that had slept in a cave near the forest edge. As the Daystar went under and the two moons revealed themselves in the still orange colored sky, the elfin girl awoke. Quickly dressing herself, she left her den to make her way to her human friend. Through the seasons, the elfin girl had befriended a human cubling, barely taller than the elf herself. The child had given the elf clothes and dried meat. Not enough to keep neither the elf nor her wolf-friend fed, though, it was better than nothing. The elf never went in the forest as her wolf-friend did not like it for some strange reason, so the elf could not hunt nor could the wolf.
The cloak the elfin girl had gotten from her friend was long, so the sleeves covered the girl's four-fingered hands, and the hood of the cloak could be used to hide her elfin ears. Still, she had a scarf wrapped around her head, tightening her ears to her head. It felt extremely uncomfortable, yet she did not have another choice.
The elfin girl quickly patted her white furred wolf-friend and left to the village of the 'five-fingered'. As the elf reached her normal meeting place with the human cubling, she stopped in her tracks. Not only facing her human friend but also an older man. Twice her size.
They found out, that was the only thought that raced through the elf's mind. Her eyes widened as she saw the man's weapon. A sharp, wooden object. Sharp enough to cut through her flesh that she was sure off.
The man walked up to her, roughly pulling her hood of her head and her scarf, revealing her pointy elfin ears. Yet this elf had fought her whole life to survive, she was a tough one. She grabbed her scarf back and dodged the fist of the man. What she had forgotten, though, was that a human never attacked on its own. She was hit from a back with a wooden knot. The air hit out of her lungs by the impact. Though, this elfin girl's strength was fist to fist combats. She jumped up from the ground right to the man whom had stood behind her friend and hit him. Dodging quickly as he was about to stab her with the sharp weapon. Still, she was stabbed. Right underneath her ribs in her side.
Right before the men could hit her once again, Snowfall the elf's wolf-friend, jumped out of the bushes and she snarled at the men, leaving them flabbergasted for a second, so that the elf could climb onto her only true friend. Before they reached the bushes, one of the men threw his spear, and it hit Snowfall, whom became fatally wounded. As the elf noticed, tears began making their way down her cheeks. The humans didn't follow them yet, maybe scared for the creatures that were said to be in the forest. It had been the only way out for the duo, and Snowfall had known there was no way in surviving when not finding shelter in the dark forest.
There still would only stay one alive, the elfin girl. The wolf had quickly died from the injury. The only thing the elf could do was send her apologies and howl. The tears streaming down her cheeks as the elfin girl howled for her lost wolf-friend, the one that had raised her.
After howling throughout the whole night, the elfin girl ripped her cloak apart and wrapped a piece of fabric around her waist, trying to stop the wound for bleeding. She started her quest to find the other half of the tribe she was born in, the wolf-friend that dared to life in the forest.
The weakened elfin girl was forced to leap from tree to tree as the humans had started their search for her. It took a lot of the elf's strength but after ten minutes leaping through the forest, she decided to wait until the night. Maybe her wolf-friend would then react to her sending and she could easily walk on the ground.
It seemed days before the Daystar went under again. All day the elfin girl had tried to contact her wolf-friend, her brother, through sending. Never had she gotten a response. She knew, however that her wolf-friend, Woodcracker was alive and well. But as the setting Daystar turned the blue sky orange again, the fair haired elf felt a painful thought cross her mind. Woodcracker sent and she received. Now knowing where he was and that he had gotten himself in trouble with a pack of wolves, the injured elf rushed to the place where her friend was.
Running over the cold ground felt more comfortable for the injured elf than leaping through the trees. Feeling the presence of her wolf-friend nearing, the elfin girl pushed bushed away, hearing anxious creatures and fighting wolves. As the fair-haired elf appeared through the bushes, her growling was heard as she noticed her wolf-friend fighting another wolf. It seemed as if the wolf Woodcracker was fighting 'belonged' to the dark-brown haired boy with the band tied around his head in a similar way like the elfin girl wore her band. Though, as she used it to tie her ears against her head, he used it to prevent his long, wild hair to cover his eye-sight. The elfin boy seemed to be enjoying the fight a little too much in her eyes, as his wolf was clearly winning. Not something that was a surprise as Woodcracker had been starving, just as the girl herself. Without hesitation the elfin girl jumped forward, in the nasty fight, between the two fighting wolves before grabbing her wolf-friend by its fur.
*Woodcracker! Stop this nonsense!* the sending of the elfin girl unknown to the tribe she had just set foot in was not locked. She had noticed all the glowing elfin eyes staring at her, and she wanted them to know she wasn't going to let her wolf fight.
"Get her away from there! Dart's wolf doesn't give up easily, he won't just stop!" an elfin maiden with orange hair and a green scarf tied around her head exclaimed.
The fair-haired elfin girl succeed in roughly pushing her wolf-friend away, she was not in the mood for a stupid fight that shouldn't have happened. As the gasps of elves were heard, the girl turned around, snarling as she stared straight into the eyes of the wolf as black as night jump toward her. She seemed to be more like a wolf than any elf of the tribe that had called themselves the Wolfriders.
The elf bared her teeth as she growled, ready to apparently attack the wolf. She had fought with wolves before and she wasn't scared to do so again, even if she was badly injured. When the girl had gotten into the attacking position, her wound on her side had opened again, badly as the whole hadn't even closed a slightest inch. To everyone's surprise, the wolf that had been about to attack the girl had now only let her lean on him after he had licked the wound. The elfin girl softly smiled as she patted the wolf before turning to her wolf-friend, whom stood with his tail between his legs.
*Stupid beast! Always getting yourself into trouble we do not want!* the elf said to her wolf-friend as she hit its head with a hard force that once again surprised the other elves. No one of the tribe had dared to ever hit their wolf-friends as rough as she had just done.
*Snowfall is gone, my friend. I need you and you turn to fight.* Tears were glistening in the eyes of the injured elf as she buried her face in the fur of her wolf-friend. It was a touchy moment for the elves that were watching for as most of them had lost at least one wolf-friend through their lives. They knew how it felt for some to lose a wolf-friend and her sending it hadn't made that feeling hidden.
The moment was ruined however by the sudden pain again below her ribs and then by the elfin boy that had been named Dart.
"With all the respect, Cutter, you cannot allow this stranger to just butt in and stop a position fight," Dart blurted out, staring at the fair-haired male elf, which was wearing a fur vest and a chief's lock it seemed. As the language the elves were speaking was exactly the same language in which the girl sent, she could understand everything Dart blurted to his chief. Before the chief could answer, the elfin girl pushed herself up from her wolf and then pressed against her open wound, looking straight at Dart as worried voices spoke out about her health.
*Do not worry about that, for as I will leave and so will Woodcracker.* the girl sent. The surrounding elves had gotten slightly suspicious as their noses had caught the scent of blood yet no one spoke out about it before Dart could answer.
"Cutter, you cannot allow it! They were in the middle of a fight!" Dart exclaimed, some elves nodded yet others shook their heads.
*An unfair fight. Do not forget to add that! Woodcracker has not eaten properly since the last two seasons!* the sending aimed straight at Dart as the girl had not even faced the chief once. The girl pressed her hand against the wound as she shook her head and turned her back toward all the unknown elves. Now she left, not wanting to spend another moment with the boy whom wanted her to actually lose her last friend.
"Cutter! She cannot leave, she is wounded. She will die!" An elfin maiden with a dark skin said.
*I'll recover.*
The chief called Cutter walked slowly up to the elfin girl. His deep blue eyes staring deep into her bright turquoise eyes.
*What is your name, cub?* Cutter sent to the girl, still not locked. Every elf in the tribe had the right to know how this unknown elf was named.
*The humans living just outside this forest have given me the name Gráinne; it has something to do with terror. Yet I am not a cub, Cutter.* the elfin girl replied through sending.
*Why do you only send and not speak, Gráinne?* Cutter ignored her as she told him she was not a cub. It had surprised her that the chief had not forced her to speak and actually decided to send as the girl seemed more comfortable with that.
*As I have been raised solemnly by wolves, I have never used my voice for communicating besides howling.* Gráinne answered as a crooked smile appeared on her lips, yet it faded quickly as the heavy pain returned.
"Let us help you, Gráinne. We have a healer in our midst, she can heal you," Cutter spoke as he pointed at the dark-tinned maiden. Gráinne shook her head, but still got down from her mount as she felt how he shook underneath her weight.
*I do not need help.* Gráinne sent as she hadn't noticed how she had grown weaker by the minute.
"If you do not let me heal the wound you have beneath your ribs, and you will keep your eating patterns as they are now, you will maybe be able to stay alive until the Daystar rises twice," the healer said as she suddenly looked pleading at Dart, the one that stood closest to Gráinne as Cutter had walked back to the healer.
At first, Dart shook his head, but then he let out a sigh and walked up to Gráinne after Woodcracker had pushed her a little closer to the leader with his head.
"Don't struggle, it will make it more painful if you do," Dart spoke before gently picking Gráinne up as he walked closer to the Father Tree Holt and leaped into it to bring the girl to the healer's den. Dart had been forced by his father, whom later turned out to be called Strongbow, through locked sending. Dart really seemed to dislike Gráinne yet as he carried her he did study the elf. Her small hollow face, covered with blood, her short dress that had been ragged by the humans as they attacked her, making the one-piece into a skirt and a top. It revealed her ribs that stuck out of her body. Cutter had seen Gráinne's status as well as Dart but Cutter seemed to be more worried than Dart had been as he laid Gráinne on the fur and immediately left.
"Leetah, you must be able to heal her right?" Cutter spoke as he looked at the healer.
"I most certainly can, beloved. But she must stay here and eat properly. It will have no effect to heal her if she doesn't," Leetah, the healer, spoke.
*But I cannot stay, for Woodcracker's safety. I do not belong in an elfin family.* The sending of Gráinne was weak as she felt the fur against her body, followed straight by the soft, healing hands of Leetah. She felt at peace as the slowly drifted into sleep.