Chapter 1:
Abi-Gale's pointy ears twitched. She did not expect to hear the sound of fluttering wings out here. It was after the very silence that she and her brother had been sent to investigate.
It had all started twelve days ago. It was at the height of summer. The trees, the flowers, the grass, everything was supposed to be in bloom. Instead, everything was dying. The rot that had claimed the flora of the enchanted forest did not seem to spread to the animals nor the wood elves nor any of the other magical races that inhabited it (if the stories of merchants can be relied on that is). Still, everyone agreed that the rot must be magical yet it wasn't chaos. The trees that surrounded her right now were dead and leafless, letting more sunlight than usual reach the forest floor but there were no plants there to bask in it. Yet further west, the trees had disappeared altogether while in the east there were still untouched greenery. Meaning the rot had its source by the sunset.
Harv-Vey, her father and chieftain had sent her and her brother Ty-Larr to found out what this magical rot was and if possible, find a cure.
She heard the flutter of wings again, closer this time. She unlashed her bow off her shoulder and drew an ivory-tipped arrow out of her quiver. She aimed the weapon in the direction of the sound.
Her brother started laughing. "Abby, you've gone so long without firing that magic bow of yours that you're getting withdrawals. Either that or you've become one of those siblings that chases away any possible in-law."
When Abby saw the winged creature she lowered her bow. It was Nai of Ohmi, a fairy and her brother's lover. "Ty!" Nai called out before diving towards the young elf. Nai had long, silky hair that shinned in the sunlight just like her wings did. Her silver-green dressed fluttered in the wind as she descended right into Ty-Larr's open arms.
"Nai!" He called out as he caught her by her hips. "What are you doing here?"
"I-I heard that you were leaving so I came to say goodbye. Also, I packed a little lunch bag for you." She said blushing and presented her lover a bag made of moth silk. "There's some fruits and sugarplum bread in there."
Ty gave the bag's content a look-over before smiling brightly at his winged lover. "This is great Nai. Thank you." He strapped the bag to his belt. "I'll think of you when I eat it."
"Also…" Nai lowered her head for a moment, her face turning crimson. "Please, please come back when you've finished. I don't think I could live without you."
"Don't worry, my love." Ty declared and pulled his soulmate closer. "I'll stop the rot for my people and for my forest but I'll return for you." He sealed his promise with a passionate kiss.
Abby looked on impatiently. The soulmark on her brother's hand, a red arrow with wings, shimmered in a way that hurt her eyes. Nai had an identical mark on her hand, she knew. When Ty had first found his soulmate, Abby had been happy for him but at this point she coulnt help but feel jealous. 'Soulmarks…Red Strings of Fate…childish nonsense.' The ponytailed elf thought bitterly. Abby had never cared much for romance but as she got older everyone around her seemed to be getting their soulmarks and join with their soulmates, she started to feel increasingly more excluded. 'Will I ever find my soulmate?'
Her brother's romance was like something out of the tales her mother told her as a babe. Soulamates that crossed racial lines were rare but not unheard off. Her parents had never cared that their son's intended was a fairy. They were just happy he'd found such a kind and loving girl to mate with. Nai's parents thou were a different matter. The Fairies were a proud people and if they found out that Nai's soulmate was a wood elf she could be labelled a defect. For that reason the two kept their relationship hidden from her people and only had rendezvous in the deepest of woods and caverns.
Nai untangled herself from her lover's embrace, gave his hands a sweet squeeze before flying away. Ty's longing eyes followed her till she was out of sight.
Abby walked up to him. "Damn, Ty. You two have the rest of your lives to be together, you don't have to waste it all on long goodbyes."
"I'm happy you're more confident about that than me, sister." Ty said as he started walking. It was rare for the spikey-haired elf to admit any sort of doubt and it stunned his sister for a moment before she followed after him.
The two kept walking thru the woods. In normal times, wood elves would jump from tree to tree with the confidence and agility of squirrels but things were different now. Now the trees were rotten and their branches too unstable to step on. It frustrated Abby how slowly their trek was going and it wasn't the only thing that was driving her mad. An elf's hearing was twenty times more sensitive than a human yet right now she couldn't hear anything. Before the rot, the enchanted forest was full of sound. Birds and crickets would be singing, frogs would be croaking, bees be buzzing and on occasion a lustful elk would chime in with a bombastic roar. To Abby, the forest was a musical hall and the animals its chorus.
An idea suddenly lifted her spirit. "Race you to that hill, brother." She chirped before sprinting. Her brother smiled and ran after her. Abby and her brother wore similar clothes. Capes made of moss over tunics made of animal hides, fastened to their hips and wrists by leather belts. Both also carried bows and quiver belts over their shoulders.
The siblings kept marching day and night. Wood elves had more stamina than humans and had night vision as good as cats (they did eventually get tired thou).
It did not take long for them to reach the tree limit. Now, nothing but wasteland lied before them. "Before, this was all forest." Abby stated.
"Yeah, as far as the eye could see. All the way to the ocean." Ty concurred with the same crescent tone of voice. Abi-Gale placed a hand on his shoulder as they left the comfort of the forest for the first time of their lives.
The landscape the elf siblings now treaded on was barren with the only plant matter being dead twigs and grass with hills and the occasional lake being the only things to break up the monotony. Abby felt increasingly uncomfortable in this exposed environment but she kept those feelings to herself.
On the seventh night of their journey, they stumbled upon a camp of humans. Abby had at first been worried that they were soldiers but a quick look at their clothes as well as their oxcarts indicated they were peasants. After greeting them, a grizzly man that appeared to be their ringleader welcomed them to sit by the campfire.
"So you all left your home because of the rot?" Ty asked after the peasants had told them their story.
The leader nodded solemnly. "The rot destroyed our crops and no matter what we sowed it would just witter and die. We're moving south now, far away from the rot…and him."
"Who?" Abby asked, her head and ears peaking.
The grizzly man lifted his bowl of soup to his lips and poured it down his gullet. He gazed back at the wood elves, broth running down his jaw. "The one responsible for all this. The Child of the Rot."
Abby exchanged looks with her brother. This was it. Their first crucial clue. "Have you seen this Child of the Rot?" Ty asked the man.
"I have, we all have." The man answered and his followers nodded with fear in their eyes. "He stepped out on our field one night, hollering like a madman and everything around him decayed before he slipped back into the night."
Abby felt a chill go down her spine. "What did he look like?"
"Like a gaunt child or a young man with tattered clothes and bleak hair. His eyes were like two full moons reflected in puddles blood. His skin was as dark as tar and stank like rotten flesh."
"A ghoul." Ty suggested.
"If he is, isn't like any ghoul I've ever heard of." The grizzly man stated.
A peasant woman spoke up. "He's a demon who hates all living and seek to destroy nature itself."
Abby had had enough. She stood up abruptly, fist clenched and eyes narrowed. She turned away from the others. "I'll go scouting. I'll be back within the hour." She vented, anger brewing under her breath. She walked away, disappearing into the darkness of the night.
An uncomfortable silence ascended on the male wood elf and the travellers. After a while, a young man with a thin beard broke the silence. "It's not like things were going so well for us even before the Child of the Rot appeared."
Ty blinked. "What do you mean?"
The young man took a spoonful of soup before answering. "Blight. It took almost half our crops before the rot even set in."
"Huh. What sort of crops did you people grow?" Ty asked and their conversation continued.
Abby meanwhile had moved past a couple of hills, now the peasants were as out of sight to her she was to them. Her fist clenched so tightly her nails were denting the skin of her palm. Her mouth clenched in a hard scowl. She couldn't understand it. Why would anyone want to destroy nature?
All wood elves loved the forest, it was where they found the ingredients for their food and their medicine and material for their huts and clothes but to Abby it was more than that. It was an endless source of curiosity and adventure. It was a part of her just like she was a part of it. It was in a way the closest she had to a soulmate. She declared then and there that she hated this Child of Rot with all of her being.
A sudden grunt shook her out of her thoughts. Gazing out into the night, Abby spotted a boar digging in the soil. It was one of few beasts she had seen on her mission. It wasn't a very impressing animal. It was skinny and not very big, probably starving. 'If that boar reaches the camp it could spell trouble.' She unmounted her bow but then saw that the string had started to wear. She decided to replace it.
Abby had braided her rusty red hair into an elegant ponytail which some would call it needlessly long, it did reach all the way down to her ankles after all but those people did not know that elf hair possessed certain magical qualities. She pulled a strand of hair off her ponytail and strung it between the tips of her bow. She then fished an arrow out of her quiver and took aim.
For a fleeting moment, she imagined the boar to be the Child of the Rot.
Her arrow penetrated its skull with speed and force that a human hunter never could be capable of. The animal was dead before even hitting the ground. Abby smiled with satisfaction before strolling up to her quarry and heaved it onto her shoulder. She then started walking back to camp. "I hope humans like bacon in the morning as much as I do."
