Dev and Rufio were traveling along the Western Road. They had left Westford just that morning and was making their way towards Spriggans. That is where they would pick up the trail of the Elves.
Rufio was leading a third horse on a lead. It had backpacks on it, as the two would stable their horses in Spriggans, and then walk westward from there. Rufio said they could not take horses where they were going, thus the reason for the packs.
Rufio was as good as his word. He started teaching Dev the Elvish language on the trip to Spriggans. By the time they got there, Dev had a good idea of the names of things. For example he could name several types of leaves, a rock, a stick, a horse, a saddle, reins, food items, the sky, clouds, the morning, the middle of the day, the evening, the sun, the moon, and so on.
Rufio helped Dev's learning, with a small spell to help facilitate the memorization of the words. After he had memorized the names of things, Rufio started him in on verbs. Dev had never taken the time to break down talking into parts of speech. It was much more complicated than he had realized.
After stabling the horses and walking westward for a couple days, Dev was always ready to stop and make camp by late afternoon. They did not have a proper tent. Rufio had two large pieces of canvas, one to a person, and they made a lean-to out of them.
"You have gotten lazy in the army, Devlin," Rufio told his grandson.
"I wouldn't have thought it, but I am out of condition for this type of work," Dev responded sheepishly.
Rufio snorted and started cooking them a meal over an open fire, which was mostly coals. It was simple fair, porridge and cheese with bread.
"Tomorrow we might want to hunt some meat," Rufio stated as he divided the porridge into two copper bowls.
"Why do you have copper bowls? Aren't they a bit expensive and extravagant for camping out?" Dev asked curiously.
"Wooden bowls absorb whatever you put into them. They soak up food residue like a sponge. Unless you clean them very thoroughly, you will have left over food from previous meals, and I have found this can often cause sickness.
"With the copper bowls, I know it is clean when I clean it, and you can see if it is not clean. More people get ill over dirty plates, than you could ever imagine," Rufio told his grandson.
Dev nodded thoughtfully. He had seen the way wooden bowls seemed to absorb stew juices or even soups. It made sense when he thought about it. Another thing his grandfather had given him was an unusual silverware set. There was a knife, a spoon, and another thing with two prongs coming out the end of it, that you could use to spear meat with. Most useful and ingenious.
Days turned into a week, and then another week. The weather was cold. A light snow fell occasionally, which they marched through without thought. While Dev walked, Rufio continued the language lessons in Elvish.
Rufio was looking at the sky one afternoon, when he said they had to get to shelter, and quickly. Dev asked what was wrong, and Rufio didn't answer. He just increased his pace and even stopped teaching Dev Elvish.
They pushed on, and then it started to snow, hard. Rufio cursed, and increased the pace a bit. He was moving through the forest at a pace that was almost impossible for Dev to follow. How the man managed not to trip over roots or get snagged by the underbrush was impressive.
"Why are we hurrying, and where are we going?" Dev asked his grandfather a bit breathlessly.
"I recognized the signs that an Elf shelter is located not far from here. We need to get there before the storm hits. It's going to be a bad storm," Rufio said, and increased the pace again.
There had been signs? Dev had not noticed anything indicating that a shelter was located anywhere near here. As they moved through the forest, the snow started coming down thicker and heavier.
Dev thought the snow in the woods was beautiful. Huge flakes drifted down silently and it didn't even feel that cold. There was a sort of muffled quality to the forest now, and that too was interesting to Dev.
Rufio paused a moment, looked around and muttered, "Ah ha!"
He went to a pile of brush that was laying against a huge tree. He pulled at the brush, and it came away, revealing a hole that was located under the tree.
"Come on, go in," Rufio told Dev.
Shrugging to himself, Dev removed his pack and entered the hole. It was pitch black inside, and Dev came to a halt quickly. Rufio came in behind Dev, and pulled the brush door closed behind himself.
"Lethem," Rufio said in Elvish, and light bloomed inside the dark hole.
Dev gasped at what he saw. First, a silver shimmering light seemed to spring into being at Rufio's command. Then there was the fact that they were inside a well appointed room! While the tree had been large, the room was far larger than the tree was in diameter. This did not make sense to Dev.
Rufio chuckled at the expression on Dev's face.
"You are privileged more than you know, to be in an Elf shelter. This will serve us well until the storm passes," Rufio said.
Dev looked around in amazement. There were ledges that seemed to have grown out of the wall or maybe carved out, he was unsure. They were just the right size to sleep on. The interior wood seemed to glow with an inner light of some sort.
There was a pool of water that Rufio went over and dipped a cup into. He drank it down and refilled it. As he finished the second cup he looked at Dev.
"The water is fresh. It is replaced every day by an ingenious little system I have never figured out. Here is something else that is interesting, which is done by a spell," Rufio said and went to a part of the wall of the tree.
He pressed on it, and it opened with a little click. Dev's eyes widened as he saw what was contained within. There were pottery bowls full of nuts of all types as well as berries. It seemed that an entire season of nuts and berries was there, and fresh! There was also something like ground flour.
"How?" Dev asked as he ate a fresh strawberry.
"It's a spell to keep whatever is placed within the cavity fresh. I can do the same spell, but it does not last as long as when an Elf casts it. I'm not sure why," Rufio said with a slight frown.
Dev didn't care about the magic spells, he was busy eating fresh berries, which tasted like heaven to him after the meals that he had been eating lately.
"Slow down. We can make a very good meal with the supplies in here and what we have brought," Rufio said cheerfully.
They ate a meal that evening that was the best Dev had tasted in a long while. When Rufio had the ingredients, he was a better cook than most. He grilled a rabbit over glowing stones, made fresh bread with the flour located in the special cavity, then at the end of the meal they had a selection of nuts and berries.
They were careful to clean up after themselves. Rufio told him that they had to keep the place clean, out of respect to the Elves, their unknowing hosts. Dev went out to the brush door and opened it. Snow was falling heavily. Sighing, he re-closed the brush door.
He notice that when he opened the brush door, a blast of cold air had hit him in the face, yet when he closed it, no cold air seemed to get in. Now that was an interesting spell. He looked with his magical sight, and saw weavings of magic, but did not understand what he was seeing.
He went back to Rufio and reported that it was still snowing heavily.
"We might have to stay here a few days. We should be ok for about a week, after that, we might have to do a bit of hunting," Rufio stated.
They talked a bit, and Dev asked his grandfather about his life since he disappeared from the guild. Rufio responded that he had gone west to the Elves for a while, and stayed with them for thirty years. After that he thought that people would have forgotten about him, so that he could go about in human controlled realms, unnoticed.
Finally they got tired enough to turn in for the night. Dev thought the ledge made for sleeping would be hard, but the top was some sort of spongy material that proved to be most comfortable. Rufio put out the light when they were both in bed, and Dev fell asleep quickly.
Dev opened his eyes to the light being on, and a sword being held to his throat! The person holding the sword to his throat was an Elf! Dev opened his mouth to say something when Rufio spoke up, and spoke rapidly in Elvish. It was much to fast for Dev to understand, but the Elf holding the sword to Dev's throat reluctantly withdrew it.
Dev slowly sat up and noticed that there were three Elves in the shelter. All were frowning at the presence of the two humans. One Elf was conversing with Rufio and Dev thought he heard the name Rufio Telgar during a spate of Elvish.
Finally, Rufio switched to Common Speech, and Dev was much more comfortable with that.
"As I said, I am Rufio Telgar, and this is my grandson, Devlin Cantor. We seek Aorel Strelia. My grandson has a message from the king of Darlonther for him," Rufio stated.
"Darlonther! That human nest has been nothing but trouble for the house of Strelia," an Elf spat at Rufio.
"That is up to Prince Strelia to decide, isn't it? Has Strelia fallen? Is there now another lord risen to take Strelia's place?" Rufio asked.
"No. Strelia still rules the Elves," the same Elf responded.
"Then should not Strelia make this decision?" Rufio asked reasonably.
"Perhaps Strelia should not be bothered by the likes of you," the Elf said darkly.
"So! I who have been adopted in the house Strelia... I who have been deemed 'Elf Friend' by the Queen... I am to be dismissed? Will you murder me and my grandson? Have the Elven fallen so low?" Rufio asked with contempt.
This started an argument between the three Elves. Rufio got up and went to dip water from the pool that was still full of fresh water. He drained the cup and watched as the Elves continued to argue.
"Enough. I and my grandson will go to Elvenholme, and see whom we must see. It will be up to those over us, whether I have the right to be there, let alone to appear in the city," Rufio stated calmly.
Dev watched the byplay with interest and a bit of worry. He reviewed the spells he had memorized and wondered if he would be in a fight shortly. His sword was out of reach from where he was sitting, so he would have to rely on magic.
Finally, things calmed down and tensions eased. It was decided that perhaps it was best if the Prince or Queen did indeed settle this, particularly if Rufio was who he claimed to be.
After that decision was made, the Elves seemed much more friendly. It was an astonishing about face to Dev's way of thinking. One minute they were threatening them, the next the Elves were making a meal, even including the two humans.
"We will be here for at least today. Morelen here has weather sense and he says the storm will break, later tonight. That means we stay until tomorrow at least," the Elf who had held a sword to Dev's throat said in a friendly manner.
Dev watched in silence as the Elves made the meal. Yet when they were done, he could not have explained or even copied what they did. The inside of the room smelled heavenly and Dev's mouth watered.
He ate something called 'way bread' which was slightly sweet, and tasted very good indeed. Just eating two of them seemed to fill Dev's stomach, and he sighed with contentment.
"That tasted very good, thank you," Dev said to the Elves.
The Elves laughed at that.
"Yes, humans have long wanted to know how to make 'way bread'. We do not give out the recipe to just anyone. It keeps for a long time, travels well, and is very nutritious to Elf and man alike," one of the Elves said.
"Actually, I think my recipe is better. But since I did not have the ingredients, I have not made any," Rufio said.
The Elves expressed incredulity and scoffed at that, until Rufio asked for some of the Elves' makings they had brought with them. He proceeded to make 'way bread' at least as good, if not better than the first two that Devlin had tasted.
Edited by TeNderLoin
Volentrin