Night of Souls, Autumn's Reign, ~11,000 B.C.E.

Perhaps I was in over my head.
Perhaps I had miscalculated my chances against the Erlking.
Perhaps She-Who-Wanders had played me the fool, along with everyone else.

Any rational Elf would have thought that. I was not rational.

Maybe I felt I had something to prove.
Maybe I was confident in my new strength.
Maybe my judgement was impaired from the shock of my body slamming against a tree.

The only thing I was certain of was that I hated to lose; I could not let myself be slain by some Goblin raider. Though my aching body collapsed on the ground was screaming otherwise.

"Damn that Growth magic!" I thought.

The pressure I felt emanating from Erlking earlier was his use of Summer magic -the power of growth itself - to increase his strength by an exponential magnitude. That very power is what gave him the power to hunt creatures like the great mammoth.  That last hit of his would have killed a rational Elf who had not spent two years becoming stronger by chasing a bird through the wilds. I was not rational.

My bones creaked as I pushed myself up on my hands and knees. I tasted the familiar sweetness of sap as blood slowly dripped from my mouth. If I could stay alive a little longer, I could exploit his weaknesses. He was no different from any of my other marks. If I could survive...

The shadow of his club fell before me, a rudimentary but effective weapon with one purpose: crushing the skulls of beasts. Fashioned from a log and with a boulder at its head, the shear weight behind it would ensure there was little left of me. I had to be swift.

A surge of needles pulsed through my body as I moved to react, but I did not have time to waste on something so petty as pain. As an ebony cloud of energy enveloped my body, I transformed into a mighty dire wolf, and sprinted out from beneath the falling club. The ground shook as the club slammed into it. I had but a second's time for a a counterattack. I charged forward between his legs, rushing them with my all the speed and force of my hulking frame. When I brushed past him, I ripped at the back of his leg with my powerful jaws, to further unbalance him.

Goblin flesh tastes horrid.

I turned, readying for another pass, but found myself suddenly locked in place. My feet felt as if they had taken root. I shifted back to my normal form, only to find myself bound still. Even taking raven's form, I still felt tethered to the ground. This was bad.

Erlking peered at me. A deep bellow of a laugh echoed from beneath his mammoth skull helmet. Thick, forest green blood dripped from where I bit him, but it seems my attack didn't so much as even make him stagger. Damn it.  There was a glowing white energy emitting from his hands. I had underestimated him. Of course I had. He's the Erlking; as powerful as any Sidhe and mightier than the Ogres. The only ones he fears are the royals themselves. I was hoping to become  one of those people he fears, but at this rate, he will force me to kill him.

I didn't want that. I wanted him humiliated. I wanted the great and mighty Erlking defeated in front of his own Goblins by a lowly outcast. Ever seeking to grow their power, they would view him as weak, and with a constant desire to increase their own strength, but no central force to ground them, the infighting among their kind could last forever. It would be the ultimate revenge against them for being the cause of the attacks on the Woodborn, on my being branded a Pariah; on everything that has transpired. But preserving my life was  more important than sowing chaos.

"Growth comes from Summer;
Roots form a strong Foundation;
Die now, little Elf!"

Foundation magic: the other half of Summer, just as I suspected. It was only natural to assume that someone like the Erlking would have mastered both aspects, unlike his Goblin followers. I looked above; the shadow of his club blocked out the moonlight, and this time I couldn't move.

He was forcing my hand.
I would have to cut the head off this Goblin-scaled snake.

I inhaled deeply and braced for impact.
My eyes remained open, fixated on the Erlking's amber luminaries. A Hunter never loses sight of his mark.

When the pressure was removed I looked up to a dust cloud, and found myself to be relatively unscathed. Once it settled, I stood up and brushed myself off.

Erlking's eyes flashed with fury, while both the Woodborn and the Goblins were clamoring in surprise. She-Who-Wanders grinned ear to ear.

Arawn faced her with a worried glare.

"More of your plan? Pray tell, What have you done?
Go, we did not ask for this help, be gone!

"You named him Pariah: no longer kin.
I simply helped him; find a way again,"

I lifted one foot off the ground and took a step forward. The Earth-shattering power of his Growth magic counterbalanced the the grounding principles of Foundation.

Convenient.

As soon as my foot connected with the soil again, roots sprouted up and yanked me to my knees. They began to glow with a distorted, translucent, white light. They may have been mere roots, but I could feel their grip tightening every second.

Perhaps my initial assessment was incorrect.

It seems Erlking could infuse intertwine Growth and Foundation magic. I suppose that is one of the things that set him up above the rest of his rabble. Truly, it was quite a remarkable feat, worthy of a great foe.

I smirked as his club came down once more however, because unfortunately for him, he was a predictable opponent.

Trees shook from the shockwave of his attack. Our sensitive Woodborn ears still rang from the deafening crack that echoed through the air. Once all had recovered, they were amazed to see me still in place, holding back his club with my, now broken, arm.
That one hurt.
But he fell into my trap.

There was a still silence broken by another cracking sound, followed up with a pop. The boulder that was the head of the club fell into pieces and the log split apart in his hands. Surprisingly not throwing a tantrum, the Erlking crushed what was left of his club with one, firm clutch. A cloud of black nebulous Autumn magic slowly faded away as I lowered my arm. Spiraling amethyst energy surrounded my body.

Those amber feline eyes met my own. He would not say, but he found my capacity to stay alive as intriguing as I found his Summer's harmony. We were two adversaries alike in spirit, so I felt it right to indulge him in the powers he so arrogantly underestimated before I end him.

"You understand now, don't you Erlking? The Woodborn banishing me allowed me to harness the power of Winter: Preservation. Every time you hit me, I used Winter's power to stay alive. The force behind that last strike would surely have killed me regardless, had I not used Autumn magic to change my skin to stone, and reinforced it again with Preservation magic. Afterwards, you did all the work for me. The energy behind your swing was more than enough to destroy that annoying club of yours, all it took was the sacrifice of my arm. I broke my arm, you broke your stick. I suppose that evens the odds now," I boasted.

He did not take kindly to being outwitted. Rage glossed over his eyes and he hollered a roar that could break the veil of death itself. The ground rumbled as he grew twice in size. A tugging sensation on my leg showed that my earthly tethers had survived the impact. In his bloodthirsty baritone, he shouted at me:

"You excite me, Elf!
You may be my best prey yet!
I shall have your head!" 

I grinned. Time to fight back.

When took his first step, the treetops  rustled. He took another, and they rustled again. He took a third step and a falling branch snapped in half on his helmet. I leapt forward like a fox the moment I felt my tethers loosen. Simultaneously, I spotted Erlking reach for me and new roots forming around my foot.

Leaves slowly fell from above and I utilized this. Sapphire energy danced around my fingertips. I waved my hand as fast as I could and the leaves crumbled into thousands of tiny pieces. Barely evading his incoming grasp, I waved my other arm, and the thousands of shredded leaves turned into my favorite tool: wooden stakes.

The thick bone armor protected most of Erlking's body, but it gave me what I most needed: a distraction. He grunted as they stung him from all sides. He was strong enough where they were little more than bug bites, yet he was still irritated by them.

When the rain of spikes finally ended, he growled as he searched for me, assuredly wanting to watch me suffer. It seemed I was an annoyance to him more than anything, and would continue to use this to my advantage.

I sat atop the broken boulder that was once his club, fiddling with a handful of acorns. I flicked one at him and chuckled when it clinked off his helmet. His gutteral growl vibrated the trees as he turned to face me.

"You are quick to anger. And even easier to fool. Not the measure of an ideal Hunter is it? Is everyone in Summer this emotional, or just you?" I mocked from atop my perch.

Immediately I felt my body being pulled down to the boulder by the heaviest foundation magic I had encountered yet. There was no delay in his attack; no moment's pause to revel in the thrill of the fight... He returned to his normal size and focused all of his magic into his arm. Specifically, I could sense the  tug of Foundation magic on his fist. Even if I were to resist the blow like before, I would be bound to his hand where he could attack me until I died.

Clever.

But I was more clever. He had been fighting through belligerent tantrums and not thinking clearly. Hunters do not fight. They analyze, they plan, and they trap. My trap was set and he was none the wiser.

I was a rational Elf.

He struck with lightning speed.
I crushed an acorn in my hand.
The air fractured like ice.
The shimmer of the moon revealed the black energy around the boulder.
His fist connected.
He screamed in pain.
His gauntlet shattered.
I hopped down from the trees above.
He wildly swung at me.
I transformed four more acorns into spears and drove them through the back of his legs and shoulders blades.
He wallowed in anger and pain.
I reveled in his humiliation.

He stared at me with hatred, born from a hate of defeat, but behind his eyes I could see his admiration, even if he did not realize it. I smirked at him, but I know my words were meant for all.

"As a Hunter, you should never underestimate your mark. You did not fathom that I could have possibly mastered both the Preservation aspect of Winter, and its random, chaotic, other half meant to break things down, Entropy. The thought of someone mastering two contradicting magic styles was impossible to you, was it not, Erlking?" I said, snide.

He scowled at me. I cared not and continued on.

"You claim Goblins are the best Hunters, but you forgot the most important aspects of hunting: study your target. From the moment our duel began, I was analyzing you. I took a severe beating just so I could figure out your weakness, and I'll be sure to say it loudly for all of your followers to hear: your magic is based on concentration. Shattering the ground had nothing to do with why I was free from your bonds the first time; it was that brief moment of surprise at seeing me alive that made you lose your focus which freed me. Every time I escaped henceforth, there was something to draw your attention. You must concentrate to use   Foundation."

"His affiliation for Winter is strong.
I hope your intuition is not wrong." I heard Arawn mutter to She-Who-Wanders.

"But as I said before, Entropy was a key part in this plan and I used it from the beginning. Every time you would hit me with your club, I imbued it with Entropy magic until eventually flaws and cracks started forming inside. The larger you grew your club, the larger the faults got, until it finally collapsed under your strength. When you made yourself colossal, I noticed the trees shake under the weight of your steps, so I used Entropy to increase the rattling of a branch until it would break and fall on you. I then used Entropy to shred the falling leaves, so I could multiply the number of stakes I threw at you."

"You should be happy; your Woodborn are safe.
He's a hero now, the one you called waif," She-Who-Wanders responded to Arawn.

Her words did not seem to ease him.

"However, undoubtedly my greatest action was the end of our duel, my lord Erlking. While you were distracted by the stakes, I combined Autumn and Winter once more. In my time in the wild, I grew rather familiar with the nature of hawthorn and Faerie Glamour. First, it occurred to me that the only way I was going to get past your armor, was with your own strength, but I couldn't keep getting hit. So I made you do it for me. All it took was to change your boulder into a giant diamond, then, using an acorn as a medium, I veiled that spot in Glamour, so it looked as if I was sitting on it. Truthfully, I was never there and never bound by your Foundation magic. When you attacked, I crushed the acorn medium, and revealed its true form. While you were stunned by the force of your own might punching a diamond, I took my opportunity to strike. I infused each spear with both Preservation and Entropy, so I could safely pierce through the weakened spots on your armor. And now, you are the one pinned to the ground, defeated, humiliated, outsmarted, and at the mercy of a little Elf," I gloated, as I fiddled my last acorn through my fingers.

I was a rational Elf.

The Goblins began to laugh at him. Pure rage filled his eyes as he scowled at me. He swelled with magic and began growing in size once more, spears falling out as he did so.

"This is not over!
I will kill you, and them too!
I am the-"

The laughing stopped.

My final Entropy infused spear protruded his helmet. The rest of the skull slowly cracked. The amber glow where Erlking's eyes were was now overtaken by the void of blackness. His helmet began to split apart as he collapsed to the ground. I did not care to see what he looked like under there, especially now.

I looked around. All eyes were on me, Goblins and Woodborn alike. She-Who-Wanders was smiling and the first one to move. She wandered over to me and whispered in my ear:

"They expect you to say something."

She then stood quietly in a shadowy spot behind me. A raven landed on her shoulder and cawed. It reminded me of everything I had been through these past two cycles, and what I have become by leaving the Woodborn.

"Woodborn, I just saved your village, not for your sake, but for my own. I came here seeking a new name... But found my kinsmen laying down with their bellies exposed like dogs because they felt bound to our ancient edicts! If my fight proves anything, it is that I will not be forced down. Arawn may be Lord of Autumn but he has mislead all of you! Magic is a gift we are born with! It is our birthright! Do not let him change what it means to be a Fae!"

Quiet whispers began coming from the Woodborn.

"I just killed the Goblin King! All who seek to be liberated from these stifling ancient edicts...Who seek to use magic like they were born to, are welcome to follow me. I will show you how to survive and defend your home in a way that he will not! I can be the leader your deserve, your proper  Elf King!"  I  shouted proudly from the center of the area.

I heard murmuring, and then arguing amongst the Woodborn. There was discord among them. Excellent. It seems some were rational at least. It was, however, Arawn, that stepped forward first.

"Rethink your actions. Power begets war,
And then soon, all fae will meet at death's door.
Tread softly, Elf,
Always check thyself.
Since of Autumn, I'll slay thee, if I must.
Do not force me, as murder is most unjust."

He clenched his staff ready for combat, and I could feel his strength more than ever tonight. My previous battle would barely even have been a warmup, comparatively. Still difference in power, I had come too far to stand down now.

"We fight, then," I said, accepting the fact I would probably share the same fate as Erlking.

Arawn bowed his head before taking a few steps back, ready to strike me with his staff. I surrounded myself with what little magic I had left. But before I could father the energy, She-Who-Wanders appeared between us, the raven sitting on her shoulder staring fiercely at Arawn. She-Who-Wanders grinned at me.

"Queen Mab, Lady of Winter extends an invitation for you to join her in her palace, and offers you and any followers you may have sanctuary in her court," She smiled.

There was a stunned silence from all, including me, until I finally broke it with a hearty laugh.
I was safe.

"I accept her invitation," I told She-Who-Wanders, rationally preserving my future.

I was a rational Elf