Chapter 2

The next day our Elven princess awoke to have the sun shining in her room, which made it very bright. She arose out of bed and went to the window; there she saw a huge garden, full of wondrous flowers and many fruit trees all ripe. It was amazing; many elves were watering and doing many other things to maintain the beautiful plants. There were many gardens and flowers in her world but none as beautiful as this.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" said a voice behind her.
"Can you try knocking, next time?" she said looking surprised at Laus.
"I'm sorry!" he said looking sorry indeed. "There's usually no one here in the morning. I like to come and look at my mother's garden."
He looked very depressed when he said those last words about his mother. Aril walked over to him. He forced a smile and she smiled back.
"My mother passed away, about a century ago." he said in a sad voice. "This was her room. When I was a small child I use to come in here every morning to look at the flowers with her and father. Father moved out soon after my mother died no being able to remember the memories."
"I'm very sorry!" Aril said looking ready to cry.
Laus walked over to the window and watched the workers in the garden. Both of them stood motionless for about three minutes looking at the garden together. Fajina came into the room to announce breakfast. They went down many sets of stairs, through many rooms to get to the dining hall. Everyone that Aril met was there along with a few younger looking elves. All of them looked up at Laus and Aril. Caius invited Aril to sit some where close to him so they can discuss the news from the High Elf King. Laus took a seat next to a young elf with shiny black hair.
"Who's the girl?" the elf asked curiously.
"She's the one you rescued." Laus replied.
"Really? She looked different in the dark."
"Of course she did stupid." said an elf across the table from Laus.
"Oh give Braios a brake, Urias." said a girl with a golden pony tail.
"I wasn't talking to you, Lorriana." replied Urias.
"Would you two please stop bickering!" snapped a drow elf a little bit farther down the table.
"Shut up!" Laus said under his breath so that only they could hear. "All of you." he added when he saw them laughing at Urias. They all went quiet.
"So why was she in the forest yesterday?" asked Braios inquisitively.
"She was sent to warn us of those things." Laus answered.
"A little bit late wasn't she?" said Lorriana looking darkly at the Elven princess.
"She was attacked." said Laus throwing Lorriana a very disgusted look. "Her companions were taken prisoners and her horse was killed."
"Oops."
"Yeah, big oops." said the drow also looking disgusted.
"Uh, guys, not to be rood, but were do at the range." said Braios looking at the sun.
They all looked at each other and gobbled all their food in a snap. They all got up to leave taking their bows to the rest of the table. Aril was sent to join them. They all got on their horses (Aril had to borrow one) and left, Braios leading. Aril noticed that they were all carrying bows and arrows. The drow, named Osirian, was also carrying a large sword with golden blades (it had blades on both sides) that were giving off an eerie black glow; drow magic no doubt. The strangest set of weapons was that of Braios. They were all wooden, including the entire sword. The arrows had myhril tips and the rest of the arrow head had strange designs carved into it. The rest had normal Elven weapons, and shield and armor.
They finally reached their destination after about thirty minutes. It was a large flat field with grass as green as emeralds. There was a path through the grass that lead to a training range. There were many elves about Aril's age all training; some were shooting arrows others were using there weapons and some were making weapons. They all got of there horses and left them to graze.
"Hey, Osirian!" yelled Laus drawing his sword. "I'll fight you."
"Ok." Osirian agreed and drew his enchanted sword.
"I'm goin' to the archery range." declared Lorriana, walking towards a set of targets that looked like winged humans. Braios and Aril followed her, Laus and Osirian already fighting as if there lives depended on it. As they drew closer to the targets, Aril noticed that they were made of marble that was shining powerfully in the sunlight. Lorriana took out her first arrow and fired at one of the targets; it went half way in. Aril looked stunned. Braios looked at her and chuckled.
"It's not that amazing." he said smiling at Aril. "All our archers can shoot clean trough that. She was just warming up; she didn't even pull the string back all the way."
"Can you?" she asked looking at her with large eyes.
Braios got up and picked an arrow out of his bag; drew his bow back up to his cheek bone and let go. The arrow went through and got stuck into the ground behind the target. Aril was utterly amazed, staring at the arrow stuck into the soil. Braios gave another small chuckle and smiled. Laus and Osirian came jogging to them gaping for breath; they both fell and on there backs breathing heavily. Laus' right arm was bleeding and Osirian's as well.
"That right slash you made really made a mark." Laus said looking at his arm. "Cut clean trough the armor."
"Thanks!" Osirian replied still gaping for breath. "But I think yours cut deeper."
"Well thank you." Laus said resting his head on the soft, green grass. He closed his eyes concentrating hard. His wound healed instantly. Osirian just looked at his wound and it healed. "We better go fix these arm guards."
"In a second, just let me catch my breath." Osirian said.
"Hey, Lorriana!" Braios yelled.
"What?" Lorriana yelled back, coming to them.
"Let's fight." Braios suggested. Lorriana nodded, and drew her sword that shinned like the sun.
They went over to the spot where Laus and Osirian were fighting before, and Braios drew his sword, which had designs just like the arrow head. They faced each other and asked Aril, who had followed them, to give the signal. As soon as she said "GO!", Lorriana jumped high into the air and raised her sword over her head. She cut down and Braios defended with one his arm guard, and slashed with his wooden sword. Lorriana defended with her arm guard, still pushing into Braios with her sword. Braios jumped back and Lorriana almost fell forward. She straitened out and drew her sword up. Braios ran towards her with a tremendous amount of speed and performed a left slash, which was blocked by Lorriana. The wooden sword didn't have so much as a scratch, and was really living some marks in Lorriana's equipment.
"Time to finish this." Braios said, preparing to run again.
He ran towards his foe jumped over her, and performed a rotating slash which knocked Lorriana to the ground. She lay there motionless a deep mark was made in her armor (they didn't used mythril, so they wouldn't damage it). Braios looked a little unsatisfied, because he could've taken her out with that hit. Lorriana got up and staring running towards Braios, who ran towards her faster than anyone had ever seen him run. He thrust the bottom edge of his sword forward, which was met by Lorriana's sword. He stopped with a slide and jumped at the elf girl who brought her sword up to defend, but Braios' last attack had been to much for the weak sword; the top half of the sword fell to the ground and Lorriana caught the attack in her chest and was knocked to the floor on her back. The armor was broken and her chest was bleeding hard. Aril got up and Braios ran to Lorriana and touched her wound gently which was instantly healed by the elf's magic.
The main thing learned by the Elven princess that day was that Wood Elves knew how to fight better then anyone else.