He was sleep-gazing. That was the name given to the elven version of sleeping, with his eyes open and his senses alert, but his mind resting. If he had been fully awake, he would have noticed her when she was a half mile away, but it so happened that she landed in the dead of night.

His name was Rillon. He was young, barely forty years old. His body still glowed with the golden aura of all elf children, although it was now just a shadow of what it had been a mere ten years ago. In another five years, it would vanish completely.

He had lived his life in Osilon, a small out-of-the-way city. He had learned reading, magic and swordsmanship at the age of ten. Being the only child in the whole city then, he had received special care and attention during his education, making him more intelligent and powerful than many other elves, most of whom had been been raised with at least one other child.

It was his first month of guard duty. All elves must guard the forest at least six years in their long immortal lives. Simply to get it over with, Rillon had volunteered to guard the forest by the lake Isenstar. The lake was guarded by three elves. Rillon guarded the west edge of the northern shore, one of his partners was in charge of the center, and the third watched the east. As it was, all three were sleep-gazing, since even in the realm of dreams, they were quite alert to the outside world.

Rillon had his view blocked by a tree, so he didn't see her overly dramatic crash-landing onto the sandy ground that was more ocean beach than lake shore, considering Isenstar was one of the three largest lakes in Alagaesia. It was only when a bat flapped by him, screeching ultrasound, that he was jolted out of his dream state. The first thing he did was send out his mind to search for anything abnormal. He wove his way through the maze of sleeping plants and nocturnal animals, then turned back and scanned the lake. He noticed, almost immediately, the impenetrable mind by the lake. A human, but with exceptional mind defenses.

Silently, the elf stood up on the tree branch he had been resting on and silently leapt to the edge of the giant forest that was Du Weldenvarden. A young female human lay on the ground in a deep sleep. She was wearing a black sleeveless shirt and shorts, both made of the elven fabric lamarae. A dagger with a black hilt and scabbard was on her lower right leg.

The first thing Rillon did was contact Islanzadi. All the guards had orders to tell the queen if there was a single thing that wasn't normal. This was certainly something out of the ordinary, since the ordinary typically consisted of absolutely nothing happening.

He whispered a few words, and an image of the queen's face appeared on the bark of the tree. Queen Islanzadi had eyebrows slanted upwards, bright red lips, and pure black hair tied back with a diamond diadem resting upon it. She carried herself proudly, even more so than most other monarchs.

"Astra esterni ono thelduin, may good fortune rule over you," Rillon said, touching his bottom lip with two fingers in the typical elven greeting.

"Atra du evarinya ono varda, may the stars watch over you," Islanzadi said, likewise touching her cherry-red lip.

He twisted his hand until a peculiar position by his waist. "Un atra mor'ranr lifa unin hjarta onr, and may peace live in your heart."

The queen nodded, then asked in the ancient language, "What is it, Rillon?"

"A human," he answered.

"Just one?"

"Yes, a young female, about fourteen or fifteen years of age."

"What is she doing on this side of Isenstar?"

"...Sleeping. Her mind is well protected, and she wears lamarae."

"How and when did she get there?"

"I am not sure when or how, but she seems worn out. She doesn't look like she swam across the lake, but nor does it seem like she walked along the shore."

"Ah." There was a pause. "Do not show yourself unless she enters the forest. If she does, capture her. If not, watch her and report to me every two hours until she leaves."

"Yes, Islanzadi Drottning," Rillon said, then he released the magic that allowed him to communicate with the queen and turned back to face the lake. The sun was already showing over the horizon, and Rillon put his back against the tree and watched.

I had this annoying feeling that I was being watched. It definitely wasn't the trees, since they probably didn't care about me unless I started hacking at them with a chainsaw. It wasn't the buggies either. At least, I figured it wasn't the bugs. I hoped it wasn't the bugs. Do you know how creepy it would be if there were bugs watching you, with their big bulging buggy eyes? Yeah, creepy, I know.

So, now to bring you up to speed. It's the morning of the day after the day when I escaped Shruikan. In other words, it was the morning of the second day I had spent away from the stupid oversized flying lizard. I mean, really, who gets scared away with insults? That thing was really anticlimactic when you think about it.

Well, anyways, I had flown through the night, then stopped at Bullridge sometime in the morning and gotten a bunch of food. Then I had slept for a few hours in an inn. Some soldiers woke me up around late morning, chased me out of town, and then I had flown off. I got to Gil'ead about, when? Evening. Trust me, I was infinitely glad to see my old buddies the Ra'zac there, but I had to leave before we could get together and talk about the good old times, like when I sorta nearly murdered their parents. Seeing as their flying parents were somewhere else, there wasn't much they could do but glare and hiss as I flew across the lake.

Yeah, so, right now, I'm hungry. And it just so happens that Du Weldenvarden, which is this insanely large forest, is next to Isenstar. And as far as I know, forest equals food. Therefore, I'm going into the stupid forest. I'll stay near the lake, though, since Fritos still isn't here yet, but he should know that I'll get bored pretty quickly and wander off. If he doesn't, then that's his problem.

I was thinking of drinking at the lake, but then I saw all the birds flying around above it and thought better of it. I did not want to spend three hours retching and gagging because I had swallowed a bunch of eagle splat. They're decent birds, yeah, but their poop isn't halfway as majestic as they are. I turned my back on the lake and walked up the shore.

Du Weldenvarden's about half a mile away from where I had landed. Under normal circumstances, I would have flown, but my legs needed the exercise, and I had only just noticed how tired and sore my wings were. Besides, I still felt like there was something watching me.

Ten minutes later, I was standing in front of the trees(yes, I'm a slow walker). I was about to go into the forest, but then I saw a shadow dart into the topmost branches of the tree in front of me, so fast that I almost missed it. I was about to pass it off as a squirrel, but then I remembered the last time I had assumed something. Namely, when I thought Brom was a fox and got a sword at my throat as a result.

I was still pretty sure that it wasn't anything important, but I decided to check it out anyways. I reached out with my mind and felt resistance from a mind that was similar to Arya's and Fritos'. Great. Curse my luck.

"I know you're there," I said in a monotone, rolling my eyes.

Just like I had expected, someone responded in the musical voice that I had come to associate with elves, "Do not take another step, human. If you value your life, turn back now."

Being the rebellious little jerk that I was, I took another step.

I only had time to put my hand on my dagger before an elf jumped down from the tree, his sword touching my neck.

"Meh, I hate elves," I muttered.

"I warned you," the elf said flatly.

"You know what?" I said. "Screw this."

I jumped backwards before the elf knew what I was doing and flapped my wings. I was already above the trees when I heard someone cry, "Letta!"

My wings froze, and I plummeted. Luckily, I wasn't too high up, just a few inches above the taller trees. I dropped like a stone through the leaf canopy, the branches whipping in my face, my arms and legs flailing around. I managed to grab onto a tree limb, and my left arm felt like it was being pulled out of its socket as I came to an abrupt halt. Cursing, I pulled myself onto the thick branch and lay there. Whoever it was had released the magic, and I was able to fold my wings against my back.

I looked up and saw an elf crouching calmly in front of me, looking completely relaxed, a weird glow surrounding his body. He was holding a strung bow, with the arrow pointing at my face.

"I really really hate you," I told him.

Just then, the first elf jumped onto a branch next to the one we were on.

"Blah blah," the first elf said. He had long glistening black hair tied into a ponytail and bright green cat-shaped eyes. He said more gibberish.

"Blah," the one with the bow replied, not taking his golden eyes off me. "Blah blah blah."

The elf with the ponytail, who looked like he was order than the glowing one, nodded mutely.

I rolled off the branch and landed on the forest floor on all fours. I immediately leapt up and tried to run deeper into the forest, but the younger elf said again, almost lazily, "Letta."

"Eff you," I said, trying to get my limbs to respond. They were stupid and didn't. "Can't you stupid little elves lay off on the magic for once?"

The elves landed gracefully next to me. The younger one dropped his arrow into the quiver on his back and put the bow in next to it.

"So, human, what were you doing by Isenstar?" he asked. I decided to call him Shiny until he told me his name.

"What's it to you?" I snapped at him.

The other elf(I'm going to call him Fluffy) said, "Let us not waste any more time here."

Shiny held up a hand in the universal gesture for "wait." "Ah, but human, we are the ones with the magic. You would do well to answer us."

I had to hold back the urge to tell him that I had the Force. "I was waiting for someone, 'kay? Happy now?"

"Who?" Fluffy asked.

"Fritos," I answered. The two elves gave me blank looks. "You know, that elf in Uru'baen?"

Fluffy said something unpronounceable.

"Yeah, whatever you said."

"He was coming to meet you here?" asked Fluffy.

"Who is Heoufgehbfigfarkfhkrrfhi, Loshar?" Shiny asked. Okay, so Fluffy was Loshar. Got it.

Loshar shook his head. "Not now."

Shiny shrugged, then turned back to me. "What are you called?"

"Hi," I said.

"You are called Hi," Loshar said flatly.

"Hi."

Loshar shook his head hopelessly. "Are all humans like you?"

"Hi."

"I do not think we are getting anything else out of her," Shiny said. "We should go."

Loshar nodded agreement. He whistled, and three white horses materialized out of the trees.

"Get on," Shiny told me, releasing the magic that stopped me from moving. I thought about making another run for it, but I wasn't in the mood to get magicked again, so I clambered onto the horse nearest me. It whinnied and shifted uncomfortably.

"Hold your hand in front of her nose," he said, and, with nothing better to do, I did that. The horse sniffed me, then snorted and licked my hand. I drew it back.

"Letta," Shiny said, and I was stuck again.

"Spammer," I said irritably. "Besides, how the hell am I supposed to ride a horse if I can't move?"

Both elves ignored me. They hopped onto the remaining horses, and Shiny released the magic again.

"Don't try anything," Loshar warned me. "We'll be behind you the whole time."

"Stuff it," I growled at him.

Then the horses set off, ambling in what I assumed was the right direction.