Games of the Powerful

by William E Samela

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  The dawn rose crisp and clear but the entire in camp ignored it or wished it would go away. Most pulled their blankets over their heads to block the sun and went back to sleep. The fire had long since gone out but it seemed no one cared. Shortly one could hear the snoring and the deep breathing of people fast asleep. The elf lay hidden in a small strand of trees watching them and looking across the river toward the burned out trading post and the large wooden bridge spanning both sides. One of those sleeping he knew Leadyl, daughter of Ameysthia, daughter of Kallan, brother of Ash and friend of Elvey. He looked at the adult wolf and the cub lying next to a young woman with blond hair cascading down the side of her face. From this distance, she looked beautiful for a human, but something bothered him about her but he could not put his figure on what it is. Three other humans lay wrapped in their blankets, one with Leadyl and another lying next to but on separate blankets to one he did not know that appeared to have elf blood and another human in addition to a dwarf all spread out sleeping soundly.

  He gathered his imagination reaching out to the two wolves and introduced himself causing them to jump up with their ears perked staring in his direction. Elvey has a special talent with animals; using his power of imagination he can communicate with them, speak to them in ways that few can. He told them he is a friend of Leadyl's and would they allow him to enter the camp assuring them he meant them no harm and that he would leave his weapons as a show of goodwill. He could sense something odd with the pup and she explained to him that she bonded to the female next to her, now he knew what bothered him about the human girl she was like him but unlike him too. He congratulated her and asked her what her name was and she told him Aethelwine. He introduced himself as Elvey and in the discourse that followed discovered the adult wolfs name was Farwalker. Leaving his weapons and backpack where he had been hiding, he walked slowing and quietly toward the camp. He did not want to wake anyone too abruptly or he may find a sword or knife shoved in his face.

  Sitting at the edge of camp Aethelwine came to him first letting him scratch her under her chin. Farwalker sniffed him and sat next to him watching him closely. “You do not trust me yet majestic one, and the little one is far too trusting it seems,” he thought to them. Farwalker could understand this elf perfectly and it unnerved him for he was not used to speaking in this manner. Celedryl could speak in his language such that it is but this he did not like. In Farwalker's mind, he did not trust Elvey, something lurked inside him hovering around his spirit he did not like. “Aethelwine your den mother speaks to you in this fashion does she not,” he thought to her and she wagged her tail affirmatively.

  “Elvey, why are you here bothering me so early in the morning?” Leadyl asked sleepily.

  “Leadyl the sun has long been up and the cook fires are still out. Do you plan to sleep the day away?” Stirring and sitting up in their blankets at the sound of voices most of the camp was beginning to wake except Mitch who snuggled closer to Leadyl. Danielle, Hobnobby, and Celedryl wore questioning looks on their face wondering who had invaded their camp so early in the morning, while Cormyr seemed angry and Ethan looked very suspicious. Cormyr cursed himself for a fool for letting someone get this close to camp unannounced and not posting a guard during the night vowing it would not happen again.

  “My love we have a bothersome but welcome visitor in our camp so we are forced to rise from our blankets and greet him,” Leadyl said to Mitch both reluctantly sitting up in their blankets.

  “Who is your mate Leadyl, I sense he is not of our world?" Elvey asked bluntly.

  “Mitch please say hello to my childhood friend, Elvey you are correct he is not of this world but comes from another,” Leadyl replied. Realizing how famished they are they quickly introduced each other to Elvey, lighted the cook fires and prepared to make breakfast. While they were eating, the newcomers retold their stories for Elvey’s benefit while the others piped up at appropriate times interjecting what they will.

  Elvey is tall for an elf with a slender whipcord body that allowed him to run like a deer through the forest. He is a creature of the forest as much as he is an elf. His ability to talk to all the animals at his choosing sometimes made it very hard for him to hunt and kill them for food. The first time it happened he was out hunting alone, intending to make his first kill and bring home a trophy buck to show off his prowess to his friends and especially Leadyl. On that fateful day, he had been tracking an evasive buck for more than three hours when the forest suddenly came alive and he could hear every animal speaking among each other and to him in cacophony of voices that nearly drove him insane.

  Trying to sneak away unscathed the beautiful animal, at its peril moved from the deep cover protecting him thereby allowing Elvey a clear shot. The bowstring sang when he let loose his arrow flying true striking the majestic the ten-point buck; suddenly he could feel the animal’s pain dropping him to his knees in shock. Stumbling to the stricken animal, he knelt next to him holding his head in his lap stroking its fur while tears ran down his cheeks watching this once proud animal’s eyes glaze over in death. The buck telling him right before he died that he was past his prime and it is time for a younger buck to take his place at the head of the herd nearly took him to the precipice of folly; if not for Leadyl, he might have gone insane.

  He could not bring himself to butcher the animal for its meat or take its enormous antlers for a trophy. With his bare hands bleeding from numerous cuts and abrasions, he cleared away the undergrowth and rocks to make a fitting burial place for this king of the forest. He interred the animal there with rocks and small boulders making up the tomb. The bow and arrow that killed him was set upright in the rocks as part of the memorial where Elvey sat until Leadyl found him.

  She stayed with him for days coaxing and helping him understand what was happening to him. He finally began closing out the voices one animal at a time by imagining doors that he could open and close at will keeping the voices out until he wanted to hear them. With time and practice, he would know which to open for the animal he wanted to talk with. Finally, at the end of three days, he learned one important fact he loved Leadyl. At first, the admission shocked him then he realized that he has loved her all his life. His knew in his heart that his love for her was not to be, so he never told her of it keeping it a closely guarded secret.

  Afterward, he often went to the memorial imagining he could still hear in his mind the last thoughts of majestic creature he had slain. He eventually came to terms that he is a hunter like any other hunter and that the strong will survive. The forest animals understand this as much as he does. He never used his skills to hunt for the excitement or pleasure of killing; he only killed what he needed to eat and to survive. He tried to hunt only the weak to cull the herds and keep them strong. On one memorable hunt, he was tracking a bear severely wounded by a lion suffering from the injury it had received. Following the blood trail deep into the woods, he trapped the bear in a copse of trees and rocks. Imagining the bear behind the door, he opened it telling the bear that he is a great adversary. If the lion had not injured him, he would have proved very hard to kill and his death will be as merciful as it can be. The bear was very grateful because its wound was very grievous and painful.

  “Leadyl I have been following you since your cabin,” Elvey volunteered during a lull in conversation, making those sitting around the campfire turn and look at him with suspicion and in Mitch's case anger.

  “Elvey how long have I known you?”

  “All our lives Leadyl,” he answered cautiously.

  “I sensed you nearby the moment I stepped out of the cabin. I knew you were keeping the more dangerous creatures of the forest away from us too.”

  “You were there when we killed the ork Elvey?” Mitch asked angrily.

  “No Mitch, I was dressing a coney and trying not to starve while you were nestled with Leadyl,” Elvey responded angrily. Leadyl had never seen Elvey act this way for he was at most times an affable per
son, never cross with people. She wondered what has befallen him to make him act so unlike him.

  “He was not there Mitch I can attest to that,” Leadyl said trying to mollify Mitch and defend Elvey.

  “Leadyl, I am not a child nor am I one to say untruths in defense of myself so please do not defend me,” he retorted storming off into the strand of woods where he had left his bow and backpack. Leadyl stood there with a shocked expression on her face while Mitch looked very angry.

  “What is wrong with Elvey?” Leadyl asked to no one in particular.

  “He is in love with you Leadyl, you must see that,” Danielle said moving to stand next to her.

  “Does he not know I do not love him?”

  “He might not Leadyl or he has hopes that you might and if you do not love him then you must go to him and tell him so,” Danielle said with a dour expression on her face.

  “I have never enticed him into thinking I would love him in any fashion other than as a friend loves a friend.” Danielle stared at her with that stern expression and Mitch had an expectant look on his face. Sighing loudly, she marched off into the strand of trees to talk to Elvey before this got any harder than it already is. When she found him, he was squatting next to a pine bough with a stick in his hand poking at the pine needles on the ground. She stood there a moment before speaking not sure how to start waiting for him to look up and acknowledge her presence. She had to do this kindheartedly ensuring that he remained her friend but he must understand there could not be any love between them other than friendship.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked plaintively.

  “You have a mate now Leadyl what is there to discuss,” he retorted indignantly.

  “We have much to discuss Elvey!” She was starting to get angry desperately trying to curb her anger before anything was said that would cause irreparable damage to their friendship.

  “What you want to discuss that you have been lying with him,” he angrily sneered standing to face her with an angry expression on his face.

  “Me having a mate is what has you so bothered Elvey Everswift? I am a free woman and I will give myself to whomever I choose! I love him as my mate and if you cannot abide by that then it is you that will break our friendship forever,” she admonished angrily storming back to the camp leaving Elvey alone with a sullen expression on his face watching her race off into the trees.

  “I sense you still wish to have her as your mate,” an eerie voice said from behind him and to one side of the pine tree. Taken by surprise he quickly spun toward the voice with his dagger in his hand. He is astounded that he did not hear anyone approach this close to him for standing next to the pine tree is a dark figure wearing a cowl hiding their features lending to the aura of pervasive evil he could now sense emanating from whatever it is hiding behind the cowl.

  “Who are you and what do you want of me?” Elvey asked nervously.

  “We want the same thing do we not?” the evil sounding voice hissed.

  “What do you mean?” Elvey asked tentatively with fear tingeing his voice. He knew he should run now and not look back for standing before him is evil personified. He felt it deep inside his heart but his curiosity got the best of him so he remained to hear this enigmatic creature out.

  “We both want him dead do we not?”

  “Who do you mean?”

  “Come, come Elvey I am not a dolt that I do not know what is in your heart. I can sense these things. You want her lover dead as much as I do,” he said lover in a way that sent spikes of hatred ripping through him like spears.

  “Not true I could never hurt Leadyl,” he replied knowing that statement was partially true, he did want her lover dead more than anything.

  “Do not play games with me! I can feel your hatred welling up inside you like an over flowing well,” the thing before him hissed angrily. Elvey felt a new kind of fear, a fear so intense it turned his mind and body to mush nearly making him collapse then as quickly as it struck him, it released him. “Enough of this, in a very short time a chance will present itself that could hasten her lover’s death and we will get what we want. All you have to do is protect Leadyl the love of your heart and let her lover die. The others can die too all for the better. Only then will you be able to flee back to her cabin in the forest that you love so much and live your lives in the peace that you desire,” the dark wizard concluded in a silky and tempting tone. Elvey felt his heart leap in anticipation at the thought relishing it with all his passion and hatred combined.