A nudge broke the sleep in his mind. His eye cracked open. It was dark. Because it was night. He didn’t hear anything. All was calm. His eye closed again.
Another nudge. His eye popped open. Black. Quiet. Why was he being bothered? Wait. No stars. Clouds? No. Too dark. Not night dark. Smoke? FIRE?
Llondelus was up in an instant. The smoke filled his lungs and he heard his coughing echo inside his head. He couldn’t hear!
A quick touch of his ear revealed the problem. Tightly packed leaves. Knollean had pulled this trick before. With a prod, these balls of leaves fell apart, bringing the unmuted sounds of the forest to his ears. The crackling fire, the collision of ashed branches against the ground… The screams… And Knollean.
“Llondelus! By the Bark you’re up! Quickly! Ye must leave!”
“Knollean! What’s going on? Are you on fire?”
“There’s not enough time! Run and never look back!”
“No! There’s a lake nearby! We can still save you! I’m not giving up on you!” He started on his way down, but a branch shifted into his path.
“LISTEN TO ME YOU DURNED FOOL ELF!” It was louder than he had ever heard Knollean before. “You can’t put the fire out! They’ll just light it again! Can’t you tell this is an attack? I couldn’t sense them until it was too late! Now you need to go!”
“I need to warn the others!”
“Use yer ears! They’re already dead! The only thing you can do is save yourself! Now go!” With that command, the branch retreated from his path.
“I… I can’t.” Llondelus climbed back into his home. “My family is gone. And I’m not going to leave you to burn alone Knollean. I’m staying here.”
“So ye want us both to die, when instead you could be saving us both?” A little laugh escaped from Knollean. “If you scamper down to the 3rd branch from the bottom, you might still be able to save us. Get my heart, and get us out of here!”
“Your… Heart? Trees don’t…”
“GET MOVING!” With Knollean’s command, the reality came crashing back in. The third lowest branch was very near the fire… He needed to hurry. With all the speed he could muster, Llondelus launched out of his home and down the tree, using branches to control his descent.
The third lowest branch was on fire, as Llondelus learned as he landed on it. The branch separated from the trunk upon impact. He caught hold of the branch above and watched as it fell the final few meters to crash against the forest floor, fanning the flames back for a brief moment before they clawed hungrily over the fresh corpse.
“Perfect! Inside! Hurry!” Llondelus could hear Knollean’s voice losing strength. Without hesitation he put his arm inside, down to the elbow. He felt around, until he found something… Odd. He pulled, with all the strength he could muster, with the flames creeping ever closer.
It moved.
He pulled, propping his feet against the bark. Suddenly it broke free, sending him tumbling back and down to the ground. The pain arcked through his body, racing from his back to his extremities.
After a few labored breaths, he stood and started to race away from the fire. Away from his family and his home. He didn’t know if he had truly saved Knollean, or if this “heart of the tree” was some ruse to get him moving. Regardless, he clutched that piece of home to his chest as he ran and sobbed.
Until he heard the voice.
It cut through the music of the dying forest much as it cut through his mind. “We got a runner!”
Common. Human? It sounded like his parents’ description of their speech. Rough, almost as gutteral as the orcs that entered the forest from time to time. Another voice cut through the air. “Kill it!”
Suddenly a clearing. Bodies in the darkness. A pair of eyes glowing red. Then one body lunged forward, catching Llondelus off guard. He was flung back, his piece of Knollean still clutched to his chest.
He scrambled up, his back against a tree as three of the humans approached. He held the stick up horizontally in front of himself, warding against an attack. “Would you look at that, fellas? Elf-boy was running home with a stick! Fat lot o’ good that’ll do ya against this!”
The sound of metal scraping rung in Llondelus’sensitive ears as the man drew a blade. He charged in without warning, an overhead chop aimed at taking the elf’s defense from him.
Metal struck metal as the weapons collided, Knollean’s heart repelled the attack and more, snapping the aggressor’s blade. Without a thought to the movement, Llondelus stabbed out at the man, the end of the stick jabbing into his gut. The man fell back, and in the moonlight Llondelus could see blood coating the end of his… Sword?
He took a moment to observe the blade. It was indeed made of wood, and as the blood would attest, sharp. He couldn’t admire the blade as the other two men were converging on him. With a single swipe of the blade, he sent both of them to the ground as well. Then the red eyes approached. Llondelus blocked an overhead blow, followed quickly by a slash from his left. He threw a backhanded slice, which was blocked in return. This opponent was more skilled than the others.
They stepped in with a strike on his right, easily blocked, but the dagger he saw too late. He could have sworn he heard Knollean screaming his name as he caught the glint out of the corner of his eye.
He knew it was going to hurt. He didn’t realize how much. He saw the red-eyed creature sheath its blades and walk away, signaling to the others to follow. His vision faded to black. His last thought was an apology. He had failed Knollean.
