Bad news: making it out of the Great Pulha Woodlands took me half a month.
I hadn’t considered how long it could actually take. I had found a river and followed its flow so I would have easy access to water if I ever wanted to wash myself, but maybe that had been a mistake. I’d encountered numerous monsters who had likely come to the river for water, and I had even been attacked by fish. The water spirits alerted me to any imminent danger, but I’d still get chomped if I was too slow.
But that was in the past now. Munching on some fruit, I finally emerged out of the forest and into the outside world. Seeing a wide-open grassland, the view unobstructed by trees as the sunset cast a red glow over the scenery, I was moved to the point of trembling. The word “horizon” sprang to my mind for the first time in what seemed like forever. This was a vast world, stretching on endlessly. It had to come to an end somewhere, of course, but in that moment I couldn’t help but feel otherwise.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to soak in the atmosphere. In the distance, I could see a settlement surrounded by stone walls: a city. I began to walk quickly, hoping to reach it before the gates shut for the night.
“Vistcourt” was written on a board beside the gate. It was probably the name of the town.
“Well, if it isn’t an elf. What are you all spaced out for? Never been to a city before?” Seeing me staring in wide-eyed wonder at the majestic gate and stone walls, a man with a spear—likely a city guard—called out to me, concerned. Perhaps because of the time of day, there were no others at the city gate, making him the first human I had seen in my one hundred and fifty years in this world.
“I was just admiring the gate. Human, this is my first time coming to a city. Did I make it in time? Can I enter?” Though it was no more than intuition, he didn’t seem like a bad person. So I approached with a smile, showing him my hands were empty as I asked to enter the town.
“So it is your first time. There’s a toll if you want to get in, though. Do you know anything about money? If you have identification from another town, it’s twenty coppers to enter. Otherwise, it’s one silver,” the guard said, scratching his head with a frown.
I see. Naturally, unlike other elves, I had memories of living as a human, and so I understood the meaning and significance of currency. However, understanding it didn’t mean I had any, so I shook my head sadly.
“Uh, well, you need money to get into the city. Are you visiting someone who lives here? In that case, I could call them over and they could pay for you.” This guard really did seem to be a nice guy.
Unfortunately, the only reason I had come to this town was because it happened to be the first one I saw after leaving the forest. My only option seemed to be selling the parts of the forest wolf I had harvested and using some of that money to pay for entry. But even so, I wasn’t fond of that idea. I already had my heart set on making something to wear out of them.
“Um, excuse me. May I interrupt?” a voice called out from behind me. I turned around to find a young man and two young women.
How long have they been there?
From my perspective as an elf, all humans were young, but these three were young even by human standards. But on closer inspection, one of the women was actually an elf. There was a chance she was older than me.
The one who had called out to us was the elven woman, looking every bit an adventurer in her leather armor. As the guard and I stared back at her in confusion, she hurriedly pulled me away from the gate by the arm.
“Are you perhaps a high elf, sir?” she asked in a whisper. Elves could see something like a soft glow around high elves. It was a natural result of our immortal souls, so it wasn’t something I could really hide. Not that it was something I would want to hide. I nodded in response to her question, pain written on my face from how forcefully she pulled on my arm.
An expression flitted across her face, a mix of understanding who I was and confusion as to why I was here. I found the look rather interesting, so for the moment I forgave the pain in my arm. Getting angry at a girl over something so trivial would be rather petty of me.
“Um, if it is not too much trouble to ask, may I inquire as to why a person like you would be at a human settlement?” She seemed completely baffled by my presence.
I supposed it wasn’t that strange for her to feel that way. I would doubt my own eyes if I saw another high elf in a human settlement. High elves lived together with the forest, and when they died, they turned into spirits and became one with the natural world. They lived their lives to reach that goal and considered the outside world only a petty distraction. That’s just how high elves were, but I was the exception.
“Yeah, I got sick of the forest. I wanted to see the rest of the world. Oh, you can call me Acer, by the way. That’s what they called me in the Forest Depths.”
When I was a baby, I grabbed a maple leaf carried by the wind out of the air, so they named me Acer. That was more of a nickname than a proper name, though. The elders always called me the Child of the Maple.
Most spirits didn’t take names at all, so high elves didn’t often take names either. But that was rather inconvenient for daily life, so most of us had nicknames. You might think the distinction was only semantic, but if you said that to a high elf, they’d get very upset with you. And by that I mean they would immediately attempt to kill you. So if you had no intention of picking a fight with them, it’d be best to never bring it up.
The elven woman’s expression in response to my words very clearly showed just how bizarre she found me. It was really interesting how much her face gave away what she was thinking. She had likely lived in the outside world for quite some time. The thought that this was how elves became from living out here made me a little happy. It was like seeing a plant that had turned into an animal. That’s not to say there was anything wrong with plants or that animals were inherently better. It was just an interesting thing to see.
The elven woman took a moment to think before speaking again. “Very well, Lord Acer. My name is Airena. Perhaps it is rude for me to take such liberties with a high elf such as yourself, but as a fellow elf, I wish to assist you. Might you leave the resolution of this situation to me?”
It seemed like she wanted to help me. I couldn’t help but wonder why, but I didn’t sense any ill intent from her. Most importantly, the spirits had no complaints about her, so she couldn’t be that bad of an elf.
“Okay, thanks. I was a bit stuck on how I was going to get into town, so that helps a lot. But you don’t have to call me ‘lord’ or whatever.” I held out my right hand, offering a handshake.
Rather than accepting the handshake, however, Airena dropped to one knee, took my hand in both of hers, and pressed it to her forehead.
Okay, that wasn’t what I meant at all. Looks like getting along with elves is going to be a problem after all.
I was thankful she was willing to help, but once I got inside the city, I’d have to part ways with her quickly.