Chapter 2:  The Healer

            Liena sighed contently. The twilight was a pleasant one. The breeze was warm with the heavy sent of summer flowers, a fragrance very different from the sweltering smells of dung and grease that permeated the village. That is why she had moved here closer to the woods she felt so tied to. Liana loved them and relished in them. Only rarely did she deal with the villages by making medicinal herbs and embroidered trinkets and goods to sell to the village merchants.

            It was with this endeavor in mind that she was taking a brisk walk in the twilight, breathing in the refreshing breeze. She enjoyed this daily walk through the forest. Not only did it give her time to think, it gave her an opportunity to look for herbs. The traders had warned her though. The woods were no place for a woman, especially with dark elf attacks increasing. The twilight brought their madness upon the outskirts of the village. Every night brought them closer to Brook End's Valley. What were they planning? She did not know, so she focused on the work at hand. Things in the forest would be as they were. The spirits of the forest were all that she needed. The Drow would pass her over. Who would bother a tiny hermit's hollow in the woods? If the villagers called upon her, she would help them.

            A tiny bed of white cloves caught her eye as the brambling voices of the small river caught her ear. The little clovers were flourishing on the river's overflow. Like little stars in the growing night sky, the clovers twinkled against the emerald bank. Liena knelt, pulling her white woven skirts beneath her, and began picking them for the perfume she intended to make and sell the next day.

            Liena froze. Something was not right. The river babbled louder to her, almost as if it were trying to talk to her. Liena stroked a curly piece of auburn hair behind her ear, her soft lavender eyes searched the river's edge. Nothing but the quiet sounds of dusk nature. The little clover flowers waved in the wind, beckoning towards the east. The night creatures grew softer as she padded slowly towards an old oak tree that grew at the river's edge. It's bark was growing black with the coming darkness of night. The old oak whispered to her silently.  Liena eyed the mushrooms that grew at the tree's front and gathered in a cove at the tree's roots near the brook's edge. She gasped when she saw what lay there.

            It was the likeness of a man clad in armor, a warrior. The suit of unearthly metal reflected the water's ripples and the stars in the night sky. He looked pale, starlight cast in his white skin. The man's eyes were closed tightly, his mouth lay slackly open, a thin trail of blood winding down his chin. Liena paused. Some poor soul left by highwaymen in the woods. She gasped again when she saw his ears. They swept out to pointed tips marking him as a creature she'd only heard stories about as a child. He was an Elf.

            Liena crept slowly around the oak tree's side and closer to the fallen figure. She observed him cautiously. The Elves were not always known to be kind to the human lot. He did not move. She detected nothing from him. When Liena crept further around his side, it was then she noticed the blade peeking from his back. It had pierced the back of the armor, leaving cracks along the reflected starshine. With renewed courage, she knelt beside his figure and put a gentle hand to his chest. Under her palm, she felt the faintest hint of breath escaping his chest. He was alive!

            Upon that realization, she lifted him up with the gentlest of care, draping his arm across her neck. She used all her might to lift him. No matter the lot, elf or man, she was sworn to help anyone in need. As a healer, it was her rite and duty. A small hope for the Elf bloomed in her when he groaned as she raised him. It was a sign of life!

             And now there was no time to waste.

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