chapt two

Chapter 2



Keysa sat in the tree at the forests edge. The scene below her had left her awestruck. Thousands of soldiers were camped in the valley. Tents, flags, horses and equipment were scattered everywhere. The smell of feces and rotten food wafted up the hill to her nose. Soldiers bathed in the river, they cooked their food and threw the scraps on the ground or tossed bits to the dogs they had with them. The reckless waste of these people was astonishing to her, and she just sat there and watched.
It was no wonder the forest was dying. The life giving water of the river was being turned to a poisonous pit. The entire valley had been stripped of anything green. The grass was worn to dirt, trees were cleared for fires, and not a single flower bloomed as far as she could see.
The young elf girl was exhausted. She had spent her nights traveling, and her days healing what she could along the way. She managed to keep her most of her supplies stocked from the forest until recently. The death was bad here, the poison stronger. Now she had found the cause. But what could she do about it? She had never seen these creatures before, but she was sure they would not just leave by her asking.
A noise in the forest behind her grabbed her attention. She perched on branch and quickly drew her knife. As quick as the thought of a threat came to her, the caracal cat was by her side, ears alert for the source of the noise.
More twigs cracked on the forest floor. Keysa tensed, something was definitely coming her way. Kiska leapt from her branch and was off to investigate. Keysa was sure she was concealed in the tree. A passerby would not be able to see her, but this also left her vision limited by the branches around her.
The crackling of twigs had stopped and she heard no more noises from the forest floor. She didn’t see anyone, or anything pass by her. She could sense her familiar was having no luck finding the source of the noise either.
“You can come down from your tree girl.” The voice startled her and she almost fell from her perch.
“Who’s there?” She questioned as she looked around for the speaker. She spotted the caracal slowly creeping toward the base of her tree. She looked below her at the woman standing directly beneath the branch she was on. The woman was thin and long white hair flowed over her shoulders. The woman did not look around, or even up at her. Her gaze was fixed on the scene in the valley.
Keysa mentally bade her cat to stay where it was. It stopped, but stayed alert, ready to act on any threat toward itself or the elf.
“They’re men, human men.” The woman still stood facing the valley, her gray robes fluttering in the breeze.
Keysa kept her guard up. “I asked you a question. I’m more concerned with who you are.”
“There is no need to be rude, or hostile toward me young elf.” The woman finally looked up into the tree. Her face showed no emotion Keysa could read, but the ice blue eyes seemed to search inside of her.
“I am not young. I am one hundred and ten years old.” Keysa shot back to the woman.
“And for elf-kind, that is young.”
“I am Anih, and an adult in my clan.”
Now the woman smiled up at her. “I know what you are. I have seen your work as you have traveled. The trees you have healed, the sprite you made well. I have seen the seeds you have spread sprout and grow to full bloom in a matter of days. Yes, I know what you are. Now come down from there and we will talk.”
Keysa slowly dropped from her branch and stood only a few feet from the woman. The white-haired woman was tall as well as thin. Her hair fell over her shoulders and down to her waist. Her arms hung at her sides and her hands were relaxed. She could see no threat in this woman. The tension rolled out of her shoulders. Kiska must have sensed the same, for it circled and lay down.
The woman turned from Keysa to take a seat on a recently fallen tree. Green leaves still hung on to the broken trunk. “Now we can talk like civilized creatures.”
The elf looked to her familiar. She could sense hunger from it and gave it permission to hunt. She did not think this woman would harm her. The cat could return from its hunting trip in seconds if needed.
“You are a cautious girl. That may not be a bad trait soon. In time, we may all need to be more cautious.”
How did this woman always seem to know what she was thinking or feeling? “Who are you? I have not seen you in our forest before.”
“I have been here longer that your clan has claimed this land. I am a witch. I have lived many years beyond anyone else of my race. I am older than even your Elder Council, lengthening my years with herbs and magic.”
Keysa sat cross-legged on the ground in front of the woman and picked at the ground with her knife. “You said these soldiers are men? Why are they here?”
“Yes, they are human men. And why they are here is their nature.” The woman shifted her position on the log. “Many centuries ago your people came to this land, over the mountains to the east. The humans drove the elves from there former land. That is what these soldiers do, they conquer.”
Keysa jabbed her knife into the ground. “My people would never give up their home!”
The witch smiled again at Keysa. “Calm yourself child. It had been decided by the councils at that time that it would be easier to move on that to fight. No one desired war. Elf-kind had enough problems of its own and did not need wars with other races.”
Now Keysa looked confused. “You said councils, we only have one elf council.”
“Now you show that ignorance of your age girl. Your clan is not all there is of the elves.”
“What do you mean? There are others besides the Children of the Sky?”
“Oh yes, many. While your tribe lives in the trees and the forests, there are elves that reside in large cities and palaces. There are more yet that live in huts on the grasslands, or even share the mountains with the dwarves.”
“I had no idea. How many elves are there?”
The woman chuckled. “Oh, I can hardly answer that. Thousands maybe, tens of thousands, even millions, no one has counted. But not all elves live the same way. Even beliefs have changed among them. Where as your clan believes in different deities of the forest and earth, some believe there is only one god. It is the same with many races, even these humans. Not all of them believe in the same things either.”
Keysa just sat quietly trying to absorb and understand what she had just heard.
The woman continued to speak. “We do not have time for history lessons now though. These soldiers are here to conquer. They believe everything should belong to them.” The woman stood. “Let us go somewhere else to talk. We will need a plan of where we are to begin.”
Keysa stared at the woman. Was this witch going to help her? What kind of plans could the two of them make? “Where are we going?”
“I have a small clearing I have lived in for quite a few years now. I think you will like it.”
The two companions began to walk, and Kiska bounded around their legs happy to be doing something and going somewhere again.
“You said you have lived here even longer than my clan. How can that be so, we have never seen nor heard of you?” Keysa felt young and naïve asking all these questions. She had no idea there was so much about the world she didn’t know.
“I have moved around and kept myself out of the affairs of others. Though at the same time I have observed. I have managed to keep myself hidden. Though your elders know of me, and they respect my privacy. There is a…. mutual respect between us.”
“I still don’t understand how we would never have noticed your home or even seen you in the forest.” She stopped and spread her arms in a sweeping motion. “We hunt and gather through these entire woods.”
The witch smiled and continued walking. “You will soon see now young Anih. Follow me and I will show you.”
They walked on in silence for a few more miles. The walk seemed forever to Keysa as the problems of the decaying land continued to trouble her. She still saw no answer to stopping the human soldiers. Even if they could, it would take a long time for her clan to heal the forest and the surrounding decay these men have caused. All she could think of is running back to her clan to tell the Elder Council what she had found out.
The old witch stopped abruptly. “Here my child, look and tell me what you see.”
Keysa almost ran right into the back of the witch and had to recover her steps. She looked up and saw a small waterfall spilling over the edge of a hill that looked like someone had cut one side off of it. The top and the sides were lush with green grass and ferns, but the front was solid rock. The waterfall splashed into a small pond that would have been beautiful except for the dirtiness of the water and the scum on the surface of the pond. It seemed as though their path ended here at the pond.
The witch turned a sideways glance at Keysa. “Well, what do you see?”
“I see a waterfall and a pond. Is there something else I should be looking at?” She wondered if maybe the witch was trying to fool her.
“Look again child, you are only seeing what is there, not what isn’t there. Don’t just look with your eyes, feel your situation.”
Keysa had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but she looked around again anyway. The waterfall and the pond were the two most obvious things to see. The hill was covered with the grass, ferns and some smaller flowers, which looked like Dragons Blood, but she couldn’t be sure from here. Maybe she missed something along their path. She looked behind her and saw just trees and shrubs and the lightly worn path they followed. The path came to the pond and just ended, there wasn’t…. no it didn’t end. Underneath the reflective water and the duck weed floating on the surface were stones, stepping-stones. Her gaze followed the line of stones. They led to a small, barely perceptible ledge to the left of the falling water. She smiled to herself, she had figured out the witches’ illusion.
“I am assuming from the grin on your face that you now see more than you did before.”
Keysa was still grinning. “Yes, I see the stones leading up to the ledge there. Is there a cave behind the waterfall?”
“Very good, there is a tunnel behind the water, it leads to my home.”
Well, now she knew where they were going, but she needed to know something else. “Um…. well…. I don’t even know your name.”
“Yes, it seems proper introductions are needed.” The witch flung an arm toward the waterfall. The water seemed to sparkle brightly and then it spread like a curtain to reveal the tunnel behind. “I am Nia, witch woman and a historian of sorts. I am the only one of my kind in this land.” Nia bowed toward the elf girl.
Keysa looked wide-eyed at the witch. Nia had told her she was a witch, but until now had not seen her do any magic. “Oh my, that’s wonderful.” Nia just looked at her as if waiting for something. “Oh, yes. I am Keysa of the Children of the Sky. I am Anih, healer and caregiver to my clan.”
“Well Keysa, shall we continue to my home?”
The young Anih followed behind the witch across the stones. Suddenly she felt anxiety for some reason. “Oh no, Kiska. She doesn’t want to come across the stones.”
Keysa leapt back to the bank. “Kiska, you stay here, I will return for you. I shouldn’t be long.”
The caracal did not look pleased at this decision. Once Keysa started across the rocks again the small cat found a low branch to curl up on for a nap.
As the two companions passed through the waterfall the water once again resumed its normal course. The forest was once again quiet except for the splashing water and the soft purr of the caracal.