~DRACO~

The next four days passed quickly, Draco getting used to his new self and new reality. During this time he learned a lot about Elves, their culture, lands and others, his lessons were not to start until next week but Aillard told him a lot and he could not stop himself from absorbing all this knowledge, he also spent a lot of time in the library browsing through different books.

His schooling was scheduled to begin after the upcoming Summer Festival, one of the four largest and most important holidays celebrated by the elves, each holiday having a different meaning and emphasis. The summer festival was a day festival, everyone celebrated from sunrise to sunset, the only time to rest was at noon when the elves lay down on the ground and basked in the light for an hour, they believed that the sun gave them power and life and they had to fill themselves with it for the next year. The Autumn Festival was a harvest festival because at that time of the year the harvest was the most magnificent, the participants prepared various dishes and then usually gathered in the manor houses to feast. The Winter Festival was a festival of the night, the only festival that was not accompanied by laughter and fun, on this winter night everyone stayed in their homes, if anyone went outside it was believed that they would be cursed and die miserably. It is also believed that it is in this night that the most terrible creatures come out of the abyss to sow fear and confusion, one of them was to be a beast that appeared at midnight somewhere in the land and then wandered for the next three hours until it found someone's house. This meant that the elves and other creatures kept vigil all night, the festival ended at sunrise and with the first rays of the sun everyone went out to see if anyone's house was visited by a beast. The last festival was the feast of spring, the feast of life and renewal, a feast that was held in each city a little differently because it did not have firm rules, but the common element was bonfires and dancing around them.

One evening walking by the woods one of the nymphs with great indignation dragged him home and at once brought him to Aillard, it was that evening that he learned that this world in spite of its beauty can be very dangerous, at least so he was told. Next to the manor house where Draco now lived was the Star Forest, the second largest forest in the kingdom, it got its name from the huge number of skylights that made it seem as if the trees had no crowns and only the starry sky stretched above them when it got dark. The only indication that the shining points above them were not really stars was that they were all moving in different directions. Which would be impossible with real stars. This forest was supposed to be safer than the sloping forest, which was one of the largest habitats of monsters and other creatures not sympathetic to elves or other creatures, another reason was that due to its proximity to the manor, the guards working for Aillard combed it, ensuring that no unwanted guest appeared too close to the estate. However, this was not enough, the monsters liked to move between the forests of the big and small ones, and it also happened that one of the guards did not return. For this, it was safest not to approach it all the more for someone like Draco, not knowing too much about the inhabitants of such forests or knowing how to defend themselves from them.

That morning as for the past few days he was awakened by the sunshine on his face when Nicol came to uncover his windows in the morning, then helped him comb and pin up his hair so it wouldn't bother him. Then Nicol would leave and he would get dressed, the clothes he had in his wardrobe and the ones the elves wore were a combination of wizard robes and muggle clothes with a touch of medieval, for the rest this style suited the interior of the house perfectly.

Last night at dinner Aill had told him that Folen would be arriving in the morning, considering the hustle and bustle that had woken Draco up in the middle of the night I guess he arrived earlier than he should have.

All the elves he'd seen so far, and several had passed through the house, though most of them hadn't even exchanged a word with him, came to Aillard spent an hour or two in his office and then left. Some happy and others with angry faces and slamming doors, regardless, all beautiful, with aristocratic features. He had read in one of the books that it was one of the most recognizable features of the elves, along with their pointed ears, and written next to it was "let not their beautiful face deceive you, remaining unmoved when murderous intentions hide behind it". Most surprisingly it was one of the books that Aill had suggested to him.

In the whole book there was not a single favorable opinion about elves, from the same book he learned that elves are long-lived and practically immortal, they can be twenty thousand years old and still look twenty years old. With this information he began to wonder how old Aillard really was, to the eye looking no older than this twenty years. She learned that King Jachon ruled in Nemaki, because of their long lives kings rarely changed due to old age. Usually this was due to intrigues wrought by pretenders to the throne, although one family has always ruled by knocking each other out, sons of fathers, nephews of uncles, nevertheless for the last three generations the crown has been passed voluntarily from father to son. He learned a few things about geography from the book, the capital of Nenmaki was Goldmare with a huge royal palace being the king's residence, the castle was beautiful, Draco stared at the detailed illustrations repeatedly appearing in the book. He would like to see him live someday, although the chances were slim because he was at the opposite end of the country, in this land no form of teleportation works and a normal journey would take an extremely long time, and in addition he would like to return home instead of planning on staying here, he had not lost hope. The only elf he had a longer conversation with was Aill, his main fear was that because of his "being new" some elf he met in the future would lead him astray and he wouldn't even realize it.

Leaving the room he headed for the dining room, but yesterday's events were playing out in his mind. He wondered how the green eyed elf would treat him tonight, last night right after dinner you could tell Draco made a scene. When he got to this land because of his change into an elf he slept for almost a week and after a few days spent here the day when he should return home from his summer residence fell. This was the reason for his anger, after dinner he started the conversation by saying that he should go home because his parents would be worried about him and would be looking for him, he continued his argument for another ten minutes. The other elf listened to him patiently and then briefly answered him with a simple "no". Draco then started screaming that he wasn't his prisoner and couldn't keep him here, Aillard tried to explain to him that it was for his own good but the blond wouldn't listen. In short order they were both shouting at each other, the blond man repeating like a mantra that no one could keep him here against his will or that someone would be looking for him, while Aillard repeated with equal intensity that this choice was not Draco's to make and that he needed to learn how to survive first. Then the shouts were joined by flying plates and cups, this exchange was interrupted by an extremely angry Somir shouting at them even louder than themselves that they would demolish the whole dining room in this way, and then he chased them out of there directing each of them in a different direction. That night Draco did a lot of thinking, he even considered running away, but gave up without considering the creatures he might encounter on his way and so wouldn't know how to get home from here. The other thing Aillard said in a burst of anger that stuck in his mind was that he couldn't let him go until he learned to control his new abilities because he could hurt others and even himself, could he really unknowingly hurt himself, was he a danger to himself, he wouldn't want to be afraid of hurting someone, he didn't want to be afraid of himself.

As he walked through the door to the dining room, his musings were interrupted by a collision with another person.

- I'm sorry - he burst out quickly without even raising his eyes from the floor because he expected that the person he would bump into would be Aillard, and with him now he certainly did not want to talk.

- I should say sorry. - The other person said

With mildly noticeable surprise, he lifted his gaze from the ground as a lighter noticeably younger voice spoke to him instead of Aill's deep voice.

-I don't think we've met, I'm Folen Ilwens- A boy a little shorter than him in appearance, about fifteen or sixteen years old with bright red hair and almost as bright orange eyes, extends his hand to him.

- Draco Malfoy," he replied shaking his outstretched hand

- So you're the one from the copper gates - Draco only tilted his head in surprise at the boy's enthusiastic statement, the boy noticed that the blond didn't know what he meant.

- I mean, you turned into one of us by falling into a special cave. This cave in the old days was called the copper gate, I understand why the gate but where did the copper come from. Maybe they used to make something out of copper there, or maybe they mined it from there, I don't know, in any chronicles they don't write about it exactly. There used to be three such gates, now only one remains, the most famous was the one in Scotland unfortunately it was destroyed by wizards. Long ago mortals, unaware of the existence of such gates, created a superstition that in that area elves kidnapped people to their realm and swapped places with them, many people died because of this belief. Due to Christianity entering the area at that time, such beliefs began to be exterminated and elves became just an interesting story from the past. Coming back to kidnapping and swapping, even though only King Felaern, father of the present King Jachon, forbade keeping people as slave servants, yet until then even slaves were taken mostly from halfworld, just as now human servants and workers are taken, but no longer slaves. And the rest about switching places with them must be total bullshit, the elves of old would never want to...

- don't torture him with lectures Folen- Aillard's voice came from the dining room, interrupting the young man's intricate story

The redhead made an offended face at that statement and then headed back to the dining room with Draco following him.

-N/A-

if you have any observations, suggestions or questions, don't forget to write them in the comments

sorry for the mistakes, English is not my first language