Revisions here, there, and everywhere.

Two weeks. Two weeks was all she had to turn this half-elf hybrid into something that resembled a warrior: a daunting task for sure. After all, Echidna didn't work well with others and this boy was clumsy. Not to mention terribly incompetent at just about any type of fighting. All in all, he was totally useless.

Echidna eyed the ten-year old boy haphazardly swinging a training sword out in the rain beyond the cover of the forest's trees. His hands were bleeding from gripping the rough wooden handle for the last six hours, as were his bare feet from grinding on the rough ground. The boy never quit, she would at least give him that. But why? Why did he try so hard? What were his reasons? Even the two-week time period had been set by the boy himself, not her. But why...?

"Sis!"

Echidna's train of thought was interrupted by the boy's misused name for her. "What?"

The boy dropped his sword to the ground, panting heavily, and looking about as miserable as a dejected puppy. "Am I doing good, Sis? Am I getting better?"

Despite a titanic act of will, Echidna still failed to hold back a genuine smile. The boy was endearing, she'd give him that as well. She walked out into the rain next to her unofficial apprentice and patted him on the head. "Sure thing Lucas. You're doing great."

She wasn't quite sure why, but that made him smile like nothing she had ever said to him before. And something about that bright smile made her happier than it probably should have.

As Alleyne's short tale came to a close, Church found himself glad he had asked the woman about her old acquaintances. Currently, she was telling him about a kid that had once lived in this forest, though he had left some time ago.

"So how long ago was that?"

Church posed the question just to be sure: the way Alleyne described it, all of this had taken place quite some time ago.

She responded quickly, almost as though she hadn't even really thought about the answer. Church couldn't help but wonder if the Elven captain planned out all of her conversations beforehand.

"Not as long as you think. It was within the last decade."

Within the last decade? She said that like it was nothing. Church wondered if she knew that a decade was about half of his lifespan: a lot could happen in ten years, but Alleyne spoke of it more like hours. He gazed out at the forest from the treetop perch he had found Alleyne brooding on. Luckily, he had become pretty good at climbing trees since he had arrived in this expansive forest.

A question he hadn't thought of asking yet popped into his mind. "Um, Alleyne?"

"Hm?"

He truly wondered if he should ask a woman this kind of thing. "How old are you, exactly?"

His conversational partner glanced at him with a strange look in her eyes. "Why do you ask?"

Church didn't really want to tell her why, so as usual, he fell back to his primary contingency plan: bullshit. "Well, it's just that I do end up spending a lot of time around you, since you help me and all, so I thought I should at least know a little bit about you. If you're comfortable with it, that is."

The elf looked away and replied nonchalantly. "A thousand."

"Excuse me?"

She returned her penetrating gaze to Church because he sounded confused. "A thousand. My age. I'm a thousand years old, give or take a few years."

Church just stared at her blankly, his face frozen in a blank expression. A thousand? Like... one, zero, zero, zero? Nearly fifty times his own age? "R-really...Uh...Wow."

Alleyne cocked an eyebrow at him, unsure of why he was so put off. "Does that bother you?"

Afraid that he had insulted her, Church quickly thought of a way to salvage the conversation. "N-no... I just didn't think someone as beautiful as you would have lived so long, that's all!"

It took Church a moment to realize what he had just said to her. He glanced over at Allaeyne to see if she had caught the word beautiful in that sentence. She was looking away from him, so he couldn't really see her face, but he did see just a little bit of blush on the side of her cheeks. He really hoped he hadn't overstepped his boundaries or anything.

But if Alleyne was bothered by it, it didn't show. She merely responded to his previous awkward statement with a strange lack of emotion. "We elves live a long time. By our standards, I am still fairly young: about twenty-nine or thirty in human years."

"Ah...I see." Church couldn't think of anything better to say.

Thinking he might recover from this awkward moment by rerouting the conversation to its original topic, Church brought the conversation full circle. "So this Lucas kid...do you know where he is now?"

Alleyne's voice was as steady as always, but her face showed a deep sadness as she replied. "No. After his village was destroyed, he left the forest for some undefined reason. Revenge, most likely."

Church was slightly confused by this. "Destroyed? What happened? Besides, I thought Syr, Syrin..."

"Syrinidell."

"Right. I thought Syrinidell was the only village in the forest?"

Alleyne gave him a look that said, 'that was a stupid assumption' as she answered. "This forest is quite massive. In fact, it covers almost the entire central region of this continent. Assuming there is only one village is quite..."

"Stupid?" Church interrupted.

She glared at him, perhaps offended that Church had thought she would say such a thing. "I wasn't going to say that."

"But you were thinking it?" He retorted.

"No."

Now there was even more silence between the two. Church was a little worried: his previous conversations with Alleyne had always been easy and smooth. This was unsually tense and awkward. "Look, if this is a subject you don't want to talk about..."

She waved off the rest of his sentence. "No, no...it's fine. Don't assume that I do not enjoy talking to you, Church. You are very...interesting."

Church wasn't exactly sure what she meant by that, but he hoped it was good. "I-interesting?"

This time she looked directly at him as she spoke, but she didn't elaborate further. "Yes. Interesting."

As much as Church liked looking directly into her stunning cobalt eyes, it was also kind of unnerving. Alleyne had a very powerful gaze, whether it was intentional or not. He decided to once again return to the original subject. "So what about the village?"

The blonde looked away from him again and back out into the trees. Perhaps she found it easier to talk about the past when she looked out into the distance like that? "How about I start from the beginning? Although I myself don't know the whole story."

"Sure."

Alleyne flicked her her azure gaze over to him to make sure he was paying attention before she started. "Alright. I believe it was... twenty years ago. There used to be a human village near the northern outskirts of the forest, on the nearby plains of the continent. They never really bothered us: they cut down a few trees on the rim of the forest, but we knew that was necessary, so we tolerated it and let them be."

"Unfortunately, the village was attacked by a notorious group of raiders that used to roam that area. We've long since dealt with them, but at the time, we refused to involve ourselves with human affairs at all. The village was destroyed, and we didn't discover it until a few days after the attack. The entire populace had been slaughtered, save for one woman, a young teenage girl, who was just barely alive."

Church wondered just how long this story would be. Of course, he didn't mind just sitting next to Alleyne and listening to her. Her voice was the suave work of angels after all.

"So we brought her back here to Syrinidell: only so she could rest and then leave, but at the time, there were no other nearby human settlements and nowhere she could go. Besides, she was very grateful for our aid, and was always trying to help around the village, so we allowed her to stay. She was the only human to truly reside with us in centuries."

Church interrupted with a quick question. "Did you know her?"

Alleyne shifted her gaze away from whatever tree she had been staring at, a little thrown off by the interruption in her story. "Yes. Well, I knew her, but not personally, no."

"I see. Sorry, continue."

She nodded and returned her gaze to where it had previously been. "She stayed with us for roughly five years, and at some point in that time, she fell in love with one of the elves here, a man by the name of Elwindl. Although everyone knows about it now, we didn't then: she and Elwindl kept their love a secret. In that fifth year, the two of them brought forth a child, much to the surprise of the village, considering that none of us were aware of their relationship."

Not incompetent with observation himself, Church found it easy to guess who that baby was. "And that was Lucas, right?"

She nodded. "Exactly. Of course, the council did not approve of his birth. They are completely anti-human, and despise half-elves with human blood in them. The only thing that kept them in check after Lucas' birth was the will of the villagers. That's the only thing even now, actually."

The mention of their hatred for half-breeds reminded Church of Nowa, and the thought of it made him a little angry. But more immediately, Alleyne's claim of the Council being anti-human worried him. "They don't want me here, do they? I don't need to worry about being stabbed in my sleep, right?"

Alleyne gave him a very slight grin. "No. Not even they would try something like that." Then she gave him a look that he could have sworn was almost sly. "Besides, if they did, I would protect you. After all, I cannot allow anyone to harm my guest, now can I?"

Church didn't know how to take that comment, since he was unsure of what emotion he was reading into. "B-back to the story now..."

He thought he might of heard a very slight laugh just then, so small it may have been completely imaginary. Even if it was, it was certainly a wonderful sound...

It was difficult to tell, since Alleyne did not seem like the kind of person to laugh at all. Furthermore, she was serious again in a heartbeat, leading Church to believe that he really had just imagined her reaction. "Right, back to the story. After giving birth to Lucas, his mother fell terribly ill. Soon after, Elwindl left her, bribed by the council and convinced that his wife was already dead anyway."

"That's terrible."

Alleyne sighed. "Indeed. However, Elwindl was right. Just a few days after he left, Lucas' mother died. For eight years after that, the half-elf, half-human baby was kept under the care of various...nannies, if you will. He never truly got attached to any of them. By either pure coincidence or unfortunate circumstance, he was just old enough when it came time for me to choose an apprentice."

Church already knew were this was going. "Let me guess. It was between Lucas and-"

She finished for him. "Nowa. And you already know who I chose."

"But why her? What made Nowa a better choice than Lucas?"

The question seemed to give Alleyne pause. "A better choice...? Perhaps she wasn't. Truthfully, I think Lucas may have made a better apprentice. He was more focused, more determined...but also more hateful. After I chose Nowa, he despised the council, he despised me, and most of all he despised his father. The one who deserted him."

"What about after that? After he lost out to Nowa, did someone else take him in?"

Alleyne nodded her affirmation. "Yes, though not by who I would've expected. It was a friend: well, I wouldn't say friend, exactly. That woman is a disgrace. Anyway, it was another elf from Calibara in the south named Echidna. She took Lucas in after I didn't, though she never did say why. This is where the story gets less detailed, as I know little of the exact happenings after this. Echidna trained Lucas for the next four years, until he was twelve. I know that Lucas looked up to Echidna as though she were a big sister to him, but I don't know if she felt the same. Either way, she disappeared on him after those four years. After that abandonment, Lucas was found by a man who I believe he now sees as his step-father. This man took Lucas to his own village elsewhere in the forest, and Lucas has lived there ever since. Until it was destroyed, at the very least."

Church absorbed every bit of information he could. He vaguely recalled meeting someone named Lucas recently, but he couldn't remember where or how. Maybe his tumble down the mountainside had done more damage than he thought... "And so we come full circle. How was his village destroyed?"

He could see small traces of anger in Alleyne's features, but she was as composed as always. "By a servant of the Swamp Witch, a powerful entity that rules the land northeast of Syrinidell. This servant razed the village and the surrounding forest, only to be fought off by Nowa and some...other assistance."

"She must have been pretty powerful to do so much damage. What was she?"

"A wraith."

Church mentally added that term to his ever growing list of mythical creatures he had never thought existed. Elves, witches, and now 'wraiths' too. "You mean like a ghost?"

"Hmm...they are similar, but a wraith has more of a physical presence."

Church figured he had a lot of learning to do, if even the afterlife creatures had such distinctions. "I see. Did you ever find out who it was?"

"Yes. Like I said, it was the foremost of the servants of the Swamp Witch, a wraith named A-"

Church couldn't catch the name as a voice from below interrupted their conversation. One he recognized as Nowa. "Captain! Elder Taowrol said he needs to see you!"

Alleyne motioned to Nowa that she was coming and gave Church a fleeting glance before leaping from the tree branch the two of them were sitting on. She called back up to him from the ground beside her apprentice. "You can do whatever you'd like now, Church. I'll be back later."

He waved down to his two elven friends. "Alright! I'll see you back at your place!"

As the two trotted off, Church wished that Alleyne had at least helped him down. It was already a long climb up, never mind going back the other way.

Church once again submerged himself in the secluded pool away from the main village. He was truly grateful that Alleyne and Nowa had told him about it, although honestly, Nowa had told him first and Alleyne had just gone along with it. But nevertheless, he was grateful.

As his head sunk slowly under the water, so did Church's mind sink into a type of ignorant bliss, as he completely lost focus on his surroundings and retreated into his own thoughts. He didn't know how long he stayed like that, but when it was interrupted, the ex-solider noticed that the sun had sunk quite a bit lower than it had been. He wasn't sure what had disturbed him either. Maybe it was that sense of unease at the base of his skull, that slight tingling that signaled something was amiss.

Either way, he was no longer comfortable in the pool, so Church proceeded to exit it and dress himself, though he felt even more wary as he finished doing so. He didn't know what was amiss, but something was definitely off...

"You know, I'm not really all that fond of men, but even I have to admit that you're pretty cute. Maybe Alleyne's finally learning to appreciate people in the looks department?"

Rather than focusing on the words themselves, Church analyzed the sultry voice before even turning to face its source. Female, middle-aged, and about fifteen feet behind him and two feet to his left. With his own protection in mind, Church grabbed a good fist-sized rock from the ground and prepared for a vital first-shot at someone he could already tell was not his friend.

"Surely you aren't going to throw a rock at me? You can't really think that's going to work..."

Church didn't really know whether it was going to work or not, but anything was worth a shot. If he caught her off guard...

He spun around and side-armed his projectile right at the woman, not even taking the time to look at her appearance. He simply located her position and let loose. Fortunately, his aim when throwing just about anything was solid. The rock flew at his target's face before Church could even see whose face it was.

The rock flew straight and true, crossing the distance between the two of them in mere seconds. The impact would certainly break a bone or two... had the projectile not been caught in his target's hand. The mysterious woman had caught the projectile mere inches from her face. Now Church used to play baseball pretty seriously, and everyone back home knew him as the fastball master. That rock had been flying, at the minimal, at least fifty miles per hour, and she had caught it barehanded.

The woman lowered her hand and tossed the makeshift projectile into the pool beside her, allowing Church to get a good look at her for the first time in the thirty seconds he had known her. Quite a strange woman, for sure. Almost as strange as Melona, but he didn't think anyone could tie with his pink friend in that category.

She had green hair tied into a ponytail, although her bangs were of a significantly lighter shade. Her eyes were a dark crimson, which struck Church as unusual in itself. She was clearly an elf, with long pointed ears, but they seemed different from Alleyne's somehow, and her skin was far more tan than either of the elves Church had fraternized with. Like nearly every woman he had met so far, she was scantily clad in a white vest with scaly green pauldrons that left little of her admittedly immense cleavage to the imagination. She wore long white thigh high boots as well, and wrapped around her waist was what honest-to-god looked like a snake. Christ, what was wrong with this world? She grinned at him, but it reminded him of the first time Melona had smiled at him. Like he more of an object than a person.

The strange woman spoke first. "Okay, I'll admit, that was pretty impressive. It never would have worked, but at least you've got one hell of an arm on you. A for effort."

Church took a few steps towards the elven woman, shortening the distance between them considerably. "Who the hell are you? I can tell already that you aren't here for pleasantries."

The snake around the woman's waist hissed at him, proving that it was indeed alive. Did she have nothing on at all under that thing? Church wasn't necesarrily complaining since this woman was the textbook definition of a seductive vixen with the incredible body she had. "Now that's rude of you. After all, you threw a rock at me before even saying hello. Isn't it ironic for you to talk about pleasantries?"

Church unconsciously took another step towards the woman, despite acknowledging that being too close to her was likely a bad idea.

Whatever the reason for his one step, it brought Church dangerously close to his adversary. As he came nearer, the elf rushed him, seemingly covering ten steps in the time it took Church to cover one. Whoever this woman was, she was blindingly fast, as she had gone from ten feet in front of him to just behind him in the blink of an eye. Before Church even knew what was going on, he was pinned to the ground, one arm near its breaking point in his assailant's iron grip, and the other arm bracing himself, keeping his face from tasting the dirt.

The woman ran a finger along the side of Church's face, confident that he was subdued and unable to resist. "You can throw, but you aren't very fast are you? You're more of a long-range fighter. Too bad I'm already this close then, huh?"

Church could feel his arm bending in painfully wrong directions as his attacker twisted it. No doubt she was tearing muscle and stressing bone. He could barely grunt out a response through the pain. "W-who are you?"

The woman laughed just a little at his question. "Are you really in any position to be asking questions, considering that I'm on top? Hm...but I will tell you one thing. Your friends, those two who you're living with right now, are in some serious danger."

The mention of this caused a dangerous sense of violence to flare up in Church. It was just too bad that he had no means of actuating it. "Is that a threat?"

The woman twisted his arm again to silence him. "Let me finish. They're in danger, but there is a way to protect them. In two weeks, meet me in front of the council courtyard. We'll fight there. And since you're so slow, I'll even give you a little handicap. All you have to do to win is touch me. If you can do that, then they'll be left alone. You'll be there, won't you?"

Church grunted in pain and anger. "Of course I will."

Content with his answer, she released his arm and began to walk back towards the trees. But after a few steps, she stopped and glanced back at Church. "Oh, right: I'm Echidna in case you were wondering. See you in two weeks, if you do actually show up."

Church just watched as the woman walked back into the trees.

Echidna huh...I get the feeling you're going to be a huge problem in the future... but there's no way I can back down now...

Revision complete. Little to no change...