Map of the World where the protagonists travel.

Into The Shadowlands

Ordella the High Elf

The Companions

Alone she wouldn't have a chance there.

No surface elf would and especially a female ,warrior or not.

Only someone that he knew the forest was possible to survive.

His large lean tale made a sudden but silent movement from time to time to scare some large flying insects that tried to approach his sleeping protege.

The male griffon grey eyes was scanning the shadows around them.

It was a dangerous place.

And he knew enough to be anxious , especially during this night.

This was the place from where the first werewolves came in the Free Realms almost two thousand years before according with the ancient scrolls.

However he was a large and powerful creature with grey coloured body larger and more muscular than any lion.

But still he wasn't the largest creature here and his knowledge over the centuries made him cautious every time that he chose a path or place in the ground to spend the night.

The gryphon couldn't find any cave or tree suitable for the exhausted female elf where she could sleep safely.

They had to risk themselves in the ground again.

And the forest was becoming thicker and thicker as they continued their way searching for the hidden valley of Arda.

In this place knew that they would be able to rest and heal their wounds.

His left wing was injured and despite the fact that he could fly in need he preferred to preserve his strength for the uncertainty of the future.

The Valena was becoming better and better every day and soon she could walk alone without the need to carry her on his back.

All her vanity and pettiness had given place to stoicall attitude and compliance in order to survive.

The poison started to abandon her body.

Her previous strength and agility had returned to her as the one night followed the other in this silent and mysterious place.

Her cream coloured dress was dirty from the days that she spent in the nature and in her hands scratches from the wild vegetation marked her smooth complexion now.

Her bare feet was starting to become sore by the long walking but she couldn't find anything to protect them.

Spark had told her from the beginning to step only where he stepped first to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Scorpions and spiders weren't rare in the full of moisture ground ,hiding behind the leaves and waiting for the unwary and careless to step in the wrong place ...

Valena was really afraid in this place.
But she was trying to look brave in front of him.

She was a royal after all and this was her duty , to be courageous not a coward.

The male gryphon was constantly worrying about his recently recovered friend.

He carried her,kept her warm close to his body during the nights and sheltered her under his wings from the heavy rain in the evenings.

She wasn't a warrior or hunter and she didn't choose this kind of adventures.

Right now Valena was the only person who mattered in his long life.

And deep inside his soul it was something more than a friendship that he always felt for her.

However this was impossible to become true.

And he knew it.

And Valena was not the only person that he loved in his life despite the fact that he was a griffon and not a human or elf.

He felt something for her friend Ordella once.

But she was already in love.

In love with her drow friend Sylvar who left to find his destiny disappearing from her innocent small world.

Sylvar didn't know about her fillings.

No-one knew , not even the fierce griffon to whom she owned her life and he was her closest friend since childhood.

Together they had managed to pass undetected through the territories of the Children of the Mist or Naldynne Elves.

In appearance they were smaller in height than the other elves and lived in small independent tribes isolated from the other kingdoms.

The Naldynne was actually a the first specie of elves that accepted some of the marriages between humans and their kind.

They also supported the humans after the fall of Isynalion the ancient capital city of Moon Elves with their own provisions,horses and female healers during their wars against the trolls of the marshlands.

But after their victory the human kings believing that the elf healers was actually witches with supernatural abilities imprisoned and tormented them in order to reveal their secret powers.

The alliance with the humans ended bitterly and they decided to ban them from their lands.

But instead they had an unexpected punishment that sealed their fate.

They had broken the rules of purity and violated the neutral position of their race.

The other elfs decided their exile from their misty valleys in the west almost four centuries before the current events.

Eventually they found shelter in the edges of the Misty Jungle that made their new home.

And indeed their new environment was tough and full of dangers that made them adapt and forget many of their previous comforts.

But they kept at least some of their traditions and their written language from their distant homeland.

They were always mysterious and elusive humanoids who usually didn't welcome strangers because of the raids that they suffered half a century before.

The Slave Hunters and their mercenary army that came from the deserts of the east almost destroyed their societies.

No alliance could protect them.

This elves and especially the females were skillful hunters but not warriors like the other elvish kingdoms which they maintained permanent warrior forces for their survival.

Many were captured with lies, fake promises of peace and later ambushes and traps.

The males were slaughtered and their women and children were taken captives in the south during this dark for them years.

They fought hard and eventually the invaders left them in peace but their losses was terrible.

They never fully recovered from this slaughter.

In the end they had lost almost all their male population and since then their name changed to the Daughters Of the Forest.

The elf girl and Spark in the begging marched during the night to avoid the natives but soon the forest became too dangerous for that.

Distant screams that looked like human during the night made the gryphon realize the presence of a very unique creature here in Shadow Forests.

Ape-like creatures ,which walked upright ,twise the high of a human and strong enough to break a deer back with one blow, were hunted in this woods.

The creatures were nocturnal and their large red eyes gave them vision even better than shadowcats.

They were covered with black smelly fur but there faces was much more like humans rather than a usual ape or other similar beasts.

Some of the natives claimed that they were actually human races disguised as animals.

Other ,especially the southern humans who lived in settlements near the Ankara lakes refer to them simply as the "devil apes ".

The creatures were also known for their habits to kidnap young women from the tribes of the Forest Daughters or the human settlements that located in the lake areas.

The women who were taken from this creatures sometimes gave birth deformed infants which rarely survived long.

For that reason the natives elf tribes who lived there never wandered in the forest during the nightfall.

And almost all the female elfs except the elderly ones ,carried spears and bows in order to protect themselves.

Although some women were disappeared without trace every few months and very few of them escaped back in their people alive to tell the story.

The Daughters of the Forest fought this creatures bravely and often managed to kill some of them.

They did it clearly for revenge.

For every Forest Daughter who was taken during the night one of the beasts was hunted down and killed during the day.

Both sides had the advantage but only to lose it after dawn or sunset.

And this war continued during the years unstoppable and brutal.

The southern humans never understood what this creature's were exactly.

Some claimed that their were in fact deities and they shouldn't fight them.

Rumours said also that in one particular isolated settlement the villagers offered a young girl ,usually a servant or second daughter, as a sacrifice.

There in a secret cave every new moon they sacrificed one of their own women usually second daughters or foreign women who just came there traveling with the rare merchant caravans.

And this to avoid the war as they claimed, with another carnivorous ape like creature, even larger than an cave bear, the Grey Giant.

They chained the chosen victim in the rock and if after three nights the beast didn't devour her they spare her life.

If not ... she was just gone.

Valena didn't know anything about all this dangers that lurked in the forest.

She was sleeping peacefully laying comfortably in her gryphon hairy back while Spark silently continued his way through the bushes following a narrow animal path that he found yesterday.

All the night passed like that without an insident.

It was early in the morning.

The exhausted gryphon was searching now for the distant stream that he could smell not very far away.

Suddenly he stopped and froze in his position.

He had heard something in the top branches of a tree not far from them.

He instantly growled and his muscles prepared to pose his heavy body in a fighting stance.

If there was pack of shergas his presence wouldn't be enough to keep them away.

They had possibly already sensed her presence.

The gryphon was determined to fight if he must to protect her !

He wouldn't be able to fly with his injured wing with her in his back and it was useless to hide the girl now.

The small lemur like creatures with the glowing yellow eyes usually hunted their prey when they where in large numbers.

But as far as he could see , it was only one creature that moved in the thick with dark leaves, canopies.

"Something is there but what ! "he thought looking with all of his senses in full alert and his large horse like ears stretching behind with anger and frustration.

Chapter 4

Into the Woods

Sylvar moved silently in the dark shadows of the forest.

He didn't know the place.

But he knew the ways of the hunter and he had traveled many dangerous places like this in the past.

The beast and monsters of this unexplored forest didn't scare him.

He knew how to avoid them.

Their strengths and weaknesses.

Their senses which was better than his and their habits that made them predictable to the experience hunter.

Hours now he followed a muddy path through the brushes that he noticed a pair of trails more unique than anything that he saw for weeks there.

It was the footprint of a large animal with claws so large and sharp that seemed unsuitable for land animal.

And next to them a pair of small barefoot footprints.

"Human footprints and probably female" he thought after a while.

"-That is very strange !" he whispered looking around worrying that something may took advantage from the distraction of his attention to approach him.

But nothing happened.

I have to take a look around" he thought noticing that he still didn't see any river that he could follow today.

Rivers was one of the few things that he could count to help him found his way out of here.

The moisture made the air thick and unpleasant and near the ground flies and other insects bigger than a human fist was flying all around every time that he attempted to cross the dense vegetation.

He wanted to avoid the snakes too.

"You ugly shit ! "he shouted yesterday as a yellowish snake approached him too close to his face as he was sleeping in the wet and full of insects forest floor.

He killed the vapour but he lost his sleep for the rest of the night.

He wanted to escape this hell.

With determination he jumped in one of the lower branches of a palm tree and started to climb.

He needed an advantage point that he could spot possible threats or distant settlements.

It was a long climb.

But he didn't find what he was expected.

The Cave

Bairrfhionn* and Elleth** scouted the area around the dark cave entrance for days.

The huge old trees around them were quiet.

Even the small stream where the white honeybirds washed their feathers yesterday looked empty from life today.

"A bad omen from the ancestors" , Elleth thought with sadness as her heart pumped wildly in her chest.

Elleth moved closer in her position.

She stepped carefully with her small bare feet between the huge black thorns of the branches where she was hiding for hours.

Her large emerald eyes was looking anxiously towards the dark opening.

The cave was like a hideous dragon mouth full with sharp grey teeth waiting for his prey to come closer.

The young female elf was an epitome of beauty even between her clan , the Forest Daughters.

With shinny wavy purple hair falling over in her olive shoulders and a slender athletic body was a very beautiful image for anyone lucky enough to see her.

If he was able to spot her of course.

She was short in height but a very skillful hunter.

A long scar marked her smooth complexion on the left side of her calf proved her dangerous encounters with the local wildlife in the past.

Elleth was ready to make her move.

Suddenly she jumped rolling in the ground and ran silently in the position where Bairrfhionn was waiting.

He was perfectly camouflaged beneath a net of branches and brown fallen leaves.

She gently touched his darker in skin shoulder.

- "I can't see nothing.
But the trucks are everywhere.
I have to search this place.
I am going in ... now ! " she whispered with excitement in her soft melodic voice.

The male elf still hidden and perfectly still nodded silently.

Elleth wore the magical , as she believed, bracelets made from black ferret furs around her ankles and wrists.

Her tribe spiritual leader said that this could protect her from the evil spirits that lurked in the darkness.

She needed reassurance for this mission.

Something that she could use to calm herself even a little bit.

The fear of an ambush was always possible and the night was coming.

Her pointed ears were listening every sound that could mean a possible threat for her or her companion.

"I must be fast ", she thought eagerly.

Next to the hidden male a small green sack was half berried with leaves.

The girl pulled out a small glassy bottle which shined with a unique blue hue like a jewelry.

She emptied the content in her palms with fast determine movements.

It was a golden coloured liquid.

She smeared her face and hands with this sweet tasted liquid made from Yahava plants.

That could cover her scent from the animals of the forest.

Most of them at least , she hoped.

Then she pulled out a crystal which was glowing with a strange soft purple light.

The when she placed it near her heart the light became stronger and a sly smile curved in her lips.

She hid the crystal in her belt and finally she took the final object that she needed from her mission.

It was a special small crossbow with encryptions and symbols of her tribe made from black heart tree.

A accurate and deadly weapon that she had already used in the past.

She adjust it with straps in her back carefully.

She will definitely need it if the creatures were there.

She couldn't surpress a shudder in the thought of her taken from the same monstrous beings.

This creatures took her friend Aaliyah, the Arrow of the Morning , as they called her in her Clan.

After a successful hunt ,where she had killed two of them ,before the dusk and carried their heads back to her people.

But the retreated hunting party didn't made it back to their camp before the nightfall.

She sighed and the pain of that memory returned worst than ever in her mind now.

Tears filled her eyes.

She will avenge them !

Fear ...fear wasn't for the hunters !
Not for her.
Not now at least.

Elleth didn't lose more time.

She ran quickly towards the entrance of the cave and soon she disappeared into the darkness.

*Marksman inCeltic language

** In Tolkien's levish lexicon, Ellon means "elf-man", and Elleth "elf-woman".

The Awakening of the Dead

She was walking carefully with the dim reddish light of her crystal, lighting her way towards the darkness.

Her bare feet could feel the roughness of the cold ground beneath her where small unseen spiderlike insects crawled between the rocks.

This small bloodthirsty creatures was following her path fealing her presence and attracted by the warmth of her body.

She was brave enough to come down here but for how long she could preserve her courage ?

Her heart now was pumping so intensely that she was afraid that the creature's will hear her approaching.

Elleth eyes was scanning anxiously the black walls and sharp wet stalagmites around her.

No bats so far.

That's was not a good sign , she knew it.

A mysterious smell was coming from the depths of the cave.

It was like rotten fruits or something similar.

She was close.

The girl prepared her crossbow and continued in slower pace to avoid a possible ambush.

Suddenly she saw something that made her froze.

The female elf turned her back and almost vomited holding her neck with her left hand.

Her hands and knees were trembling.

In front of her a body laid still in the stones.

It was a corpse.

An elf , probably female dead for weeks ,was rotting half buried in the ground.

The stench was horrible.

And all around , bones and skulls of other elves ,some larger and some thin and delicant , possibly belonged to children.

There were some human bones too but not so many as her kind ...

The elf couldn't identify any of them.

This was just too much for her and her head started buzzing from the shock.

She couldn't continue .

The girl was sure now about the identity of the monsters which did that to her people ...

The terror from what she saw made her sick again.

She moved her gaze away from this horrible scene ...

The young female turned and ran towards the entrance with all the energy that she could find this moment.

Elleth, stumbled over some jagged rocks in her way.

She almost fell but filled with adrenaline she continued running until she saw the pale light of the moon near the entrance.

After few minutes that looked like ages she stopped outside of the terrible cave panting.

She was still alive !

"We have to leave this place and return with more warriors ! " Elleth thought as she tried to calm herself.

She looked around.

Where was her male companion ?

He left ?

She ran so fast towards the position where her companion was , that her feet almost didn't touch the soft wet soil of the forest.

The night was dangerous in the jungle and even climbing high up in the trees an elf wasn't safe ...

He didn't show up when she appeared in the entrance as they planned ...

At last she found him still laying perfectly still in his advantage point where they both observed the cave entrance two hours before.

"We have to go ! Why you are still here ! " she whispered with her eyes wide open from fear !

She stretched her delicate arm and touched him in the shoulder as before.

No answer.

She felt her hand wet with a hot purple liquid.

Elleth looked her fingers with surprise.

This ... this was his blood !

Her feet was unable to move from terror and pain.

He was her only surviving brother after the death of her parents.

And perhaps the last young male in all the Clan after the War of Tears many decades before.

Black hairy figures were all around her now ...

She could feel their dreadful presence.

Too many of them !

She kneeled and closed her wet emerald eyes for a moment.

It was this her fate as an elvish princess ?

She will be taken like the rest ?