One Day in Skeldergate Forest

-Verden, Skeldergate Forest. Afternoon, -547 DBeforeTR-

It was a mystery just how old Skeldergate was. Many of the gigantic, knotted trees were unfathomably ancient and had stood long before the Two Kingdoms were even a couple of prehistoric hamlets. Emerald moss and brown and yellow lichen that had never felt the tread of man grew thick on the forest floor amid a diverse explosion of plant and animal life. In a small secluded glen nestled in the heart of the timeless wood, Orla of the Carling clan awoke from one of her languid afternoon naps. The overhead sun was bright and cheery, but the hot summer rays hardly broke through the thick canopy of branches, keeping the temperature perfectly comfortable throughout the surrounding narrow valley.

She yawned and absently blinked her eyes at the monarch butterflies floating above her blonde head, sipping from the colourful wildflowers that bloomed around where she lay in a soft cushion of moss and undergrowth. Smiling serenely, she sat up and slowly stretched her own translucent, insect-like wings. Like many Faerie elves she was a night creature, but she also rather enjoyed this time of the day when the birds were all singing and a sun-warmed breeze wafted through the trees, carrying with it the sweet forest smells. Her family had lived in Skeldergate for thousands of years, starting with her great-grandparents. And though she wondered sometimes what other parts of the world might be like, she couldn't ever imagine wanting to live anywhere else.

Orla lazily rose to her feet, flapped her wings, and flew up into the verdant treetops. She was a small-boned and petite woman, only five feet two inches high. She wore a filmy dress of caterpillar silk that left her slim arms and legs bare. She had a bob of wheat-blonde hair that framed a pretty, almost cherubic face that featured dimpled cheeks, silver-blue eyes, and pink-white skin the colour of moonlight, luminous and pale in the shaded glen.

Her age appeared to be somewhere in her twenties, though she was in reality several centuries older than that; barring accidents and murder, her kind could live for a millennia or more. Despite her considerable years lived, there was an angelic innocence about her. It did not come from naivete, but a gentle wisdom that preferred to look beyond the bad and only see the good that there was in life; if one appreciated the wonders of the world there was little room for the petty feelings of hatred and malice that deluded and consumed the younger races, causing so much war and strife.

As Orla sat on a thick oak branch, idly dangling her legs over the edge and thinking what she should have for dinner, she suddenly heard a great commotion below; something pounding fast through the forest. She looked down and spotted a large buck deer with a majestic set of antlers, running hard, as if being chased. She soon heard its pursuers crashing through the underbrush not far behind.

She immediately sensed that they were humans, which was a bit of a surprise. Townsfolk rarely ventured this deep into the untamed wilderness where there were no farms or settlements to be found for a great many miles. Orla in fact had not seen any humans in quite a few years. Not since Queen Thalia declared war on King Asgurt and bloody battles had been waged throughout the whole land, even in the old-growth forests. The whole thing had been horrible and she was continually thankful peace had been tenuously holding for a number of years between the opposing kingdoms.

Now Orla wondered who these particular hunters might be and for what reason they had dared travel so far out here. Her eyes glowed with a silvery eldritch light as she laid a quick glamour spell upon herself so that she would appear to be nothing more than a small nightingale, letting her fly down close to the group of people without being noticed.

(OOC – This if you're wondering is the beginning of a flashback story SilverCloud invited me to write with her. It takes takes place more than a year before the present time in the game. I'll write for Kalena when I get home later today. I already had this post written in my inbox. It would be nice if this little side-plot inspires others here to also write some stories taking place in the near or distant past. Kline and Simon's encounter during the ambush on the Verden General, Auriel's struggles during the Mage War and things like that could be written or even played out somewhat. The possibilities are almost endless.)