There are six questions that are generally asked when you encounter another person when you are on a journey. On some trips, you won't be asked all of them, and on others you may be asked many more questions than the basic six. Each person you meet during your journey may ask you one of them, some of them, or none of them. During the travels that I shall relate to you, I was asked only five of the six questions, but I shall answer all six nonetheless.
The first question you are likely to encounter in myriad forms and languages, asked along the road, at the property line of a farm, or from the gate of a massive fortress no matter what world you are on is "Who are you?"
"Who are you?", as well as being the favorite question of a hooka smoking caterpillar is the favorite question of the first alien species I encountered. But, I am getting ahead of myself.
When they ask you this question, most people will be satisfied with a short answer, such as your name.
To understand who I am, you must first know what I am. To know what I am, you must first suspend disbelief, as what I am is completely unbelievable in this age of computers and cell phones and other such technological wonders that have been created with little thought of the costs and consequences.
Long ago, before this modern age of science, in a time that falls roughly between history and legend and is a mix of both, Earth was populated by at least four different sentient species, one of which is man. Two of the species that had co-existed reasonably well for ages were roughly the same shape and size, with a head, two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears, a nose, a mouth, a pair of hands with ten fingers each and a pair of feet with ten toes each. The third species, well, the third could be just about any shape and size it wanted to be. The fourth species was reptilian and looked very much so, though there was speculation that they were merely members of the third species who preferred that form for whatever reason.
After the virtual extinction of three of these races who had already been rather reclusive more than seven centuries ago while man was stumbling out of the Dark Ages, our kind fell completely into the realm of myth and legend which we had already occupied to a great extent due to abilities we had possessed that had seemed miraculous to the minds of man, and all true accounts of us were taken as such. Time, oral tradition which invariably changes the stories which are passed down over the generations, and the popular fiction of several ages have distorted the facts of what we were.
For those who are wondering why archaeologists haven't discovered our existence, they have, and have mistaken it for human activity. With one species having a near identical bone structure, another having no bone structure at all, and the third possibly being the second in a much larger and scalier and more winged disguise than usual...
The first of the three sentient species that are gone from the world - if one doesn't count the small handful of half-breeds who survived the dying off - was roughly the same shape and size as the humans they sometimes lived alongside, and whose world they sometimes wandered through from time to time. Unlike the humans whose lives were like those of mayflies in their eyes however, these beings could live for millenia without dying of old age. A member of that race was thousands of times more likely to die of illness or injury (accidental or otherwise) than to reach an age that would be old enough to kill.
For such a long lived species, they left very little behind. It was probably because they had such long lives and so many years to contemplate the consequences of their actions before they made them that their dwelling places were so transitory. Even stone crumbles to dust one day, and wood, cloth, and animal hides are so much easier to repair, and so much easier to cast aside when they could no longer be fixed.
The second of the species that no longer walk the Earth were able to take almost any shape or form that they wished. They had a tendency towards being merry pranksters who would often take the most outlandish shapes they or anyone else could think of just for the heck of it. Some people loved them, some people hated them, and a great many didn't realize that they existed because they could pass themselves off as any human or animal they desired.
When it came to those who could change their shape at will, having a skeleton would have been something of a drawback. The species that most closely resembled their true and natural shape was the jellyfish. With little need to make things of their own and little to leave behind after they died, their passing left almost no impression on the physical world, and pretty much all there is to remember them by is the mark they and thier frequent mischief made on human mythology.
The third species that is no more - though they could have just as easily been members of the second species who had taken that shape for their own personal amusement - had been a species of intelligent reptile to whom flying wasn't an impossibility, though how they did it was up for debate. Upon reaching space and learning of other races who possessed strange abilities of their own, one of the running theories became that they were telekinetic.
If any of their remains have been found, nobody is talking.
In this day and age of film where regional myths, legends, and superstitions are made known to the whole world, it is possible that you may be able to recognize at least two of these species from the scant information provided, and equally possible that you would scoff and call me mad for claiming that they had existed.
As for me...Well, while I call one of the lost races my kind, that is only half true. I am actually one of the small handful of half-breeds that survived. Before you get up in arms about the impossibility of mixing different species, one must point out the mule, the liger, and several other hybrid creatures. Quite often, the resulting hybrid will possess the best traits of both of his or her parents, and be sterile or so close to sterile that it doesn't really matter. I'm no exception.
Over the millenia there have been tales of immortals in both legend and popular fiction who wander through the world without leaving a mark on it, unable to go home because the people who made it home have long since been buried, and the places in which they had once lived have long since crumpled to dust and lay forgotten like the kingdom of the once great Ozymandias. I guess I could be considered to be one of them.
As for who I am, though I have gone by many names throughout my long life, I was born Publius Caelius Caldus, and I am what your kind would quite likely call an Elf.
I shall now tell you exactly why my kind are gone from your world...
Edited 1-26-12