He lived in an elven village in the forest with his sister, Malae. They were young still when the humans first came and scouted out the area near their village, thinking it a good place for a village of their own. The elves mounted a defense and when the humans came with their axes to clear the trees to make their new home, the elves were there to stop them. They tried reasoning with the humans but the humans were there to claim, not to negotiate. A battle ensued when the humans brought reinforcements and set the forest ablaze. The elves fought bravely, but the humans outnumbered them and they were forced into a retreat, having already suffered losses. He fought with a great ferocity, determined not to fail before the eyes of Melora, and one by one, he felled human foes, ever noting the strange crenulated symbols emblazoned on the weapons of some of the most powerful of them. Before the battle was up, he had heard the name of the goddess Erathis called by the cleric and warriors who wore her crest and when he closed his eyes, overtaken by the loss of blood, he knew he would not forget the name, the symbol, or the evil of the people who followed this horrible goddess. He would not forget the atrocities of she that dared promote the expansion of civilization at the cost of the wild.

When he awakened the battle was long cold. He rose and looked around to view many dead elves and humans... but his sister was nowhere to be found.
The elves found quickly that the arrival of their new neighbors was destroying their way of life. The humans settled in, and with them came the forge which let its black clouds of smoke into the clear sky, the felling of trees without necessity, and soon, the huntsmen had begun to lay traps for the animals in the forest.
The elves chose to retreat into the forest, deeper into the wilds of Melora's realm, and they were certain that this was a better place for them. Too deep, far too wild for the humans to follow. He went with them... and his sister was not amoung them. His heart blamed Erathis for her disappearance. Surely she had been taken by the humans and he meant to retrieve her. He returned to the new human village and in secret, spied upon those living there now... and his sister was neither amoung them. She was not to be found... and Erathis was certainly to blame.

Decades passed and he had chosen to live on with his kin in the deep of the forest, far from the humans who had destroyed their previous life... But he was never at peace. He could no longer truly dwell in the village amoung his kin, for his heart ever drew him back to the wilds, into the outskirts of his home, ever to look upon the horizon. While his kin believed they were too far from civilization to ever be threatened again, his heart would always be suspicious, always waiting for the day when the humans would come again, reaching deeper into Melora's bossom to tear at her heart once more... He became a ranger, at home in the wilds, and ever ready and alert. He knew he had found a new place for himself, as a protector, a guardian, ever vigilant over his people and ever ready to face the threat of humanity if... when it came again.

One morning he awoke... listening to the sounds around him, he knew already that something was wrong... something had disturbed his sleep... and his eyes lifted to view his surroundings... something was out of place... the forest was quiet... still... as the rabbit when the fox is near. He rose and began immediately to seek the source of this feeling... striding silently through the trees. He began to notice the signs... small things... simple things... things that even his kin would have missed. He hurried from the area, picking up speed as his heart too began to race with the suspicions of what he would find any moment now too close to his home... too deep into Melora's realm for his comfort... And so he was unsurprised, even as the fury built in his chest, when his strides carried him to the edge of the clearing... the clearing that had not been there when last he'd traveled this way.... and out beyond the clearing, amid the broken remains of trees... he could see there in the distance, the humans removing the fallen remains of the forest... clearing the earth for their new home. Fire lighted his eyes... and he rushed back to his village to warn his fellows and rouse them to defense. But his kin would not be roused. Many years before when last they had fought with the humans, they had been defeated, and suffered great losses. And now they were even fewer than before... and the humans would be even more numerous. They would not fight... they would retreat deeper into the forest and find a place so wild that the humans would surely never follow...

But he would not be convinced that the humans would ever stop... that they would ever cease to follow. And if they kept giving ground, kept running away... one day there would be no more forest to hide deeper in. He would not stand by yet again and watch these humans destroy his home... In his heart, he knew, his goddess demanded his actions... even as he gathered his scant belongings and readied himself for his journey. He would go out into the world and become strong... and one day, he would turn on the followers of Erathis and bring her down from the heavens by cutting the legs from under her. He would destroy this horrid faith that corrupted human hearts to this terrible path. He had never believed all humans to be bad. He knew that one group of humans was as different from the next as the aroma of one kind of flower is different from another. But while he would not hold the race of mankind to blame for the actions of some (as many more foolish elves would tend to do) he also knew that humans were easily corrupted, easily lead to believe in the ideals of others... and that the followers of Erathis, not the humans themselves, were thus to blame. He would put an end to this faith... and undermining the goddess herself, he would one day be strong enough to ensure that she would never again cut at his beloved goddess and the realm of her heart.

Thus, he set out on his adventures, determined to become powerful and seek justice in the name of the wild.

Disclaimer and Copyright: This short story is completely original. This is my work and my art. If there is any similarity to another work it is merely coincidence. Please do not distribute, copy, or otherwise steal this work. If you do, I curse Swedish Fish on you.

"Goodnight" Copyright (2007) Arsiei Rei Darksbane