The Village

Following behind Alreya through the village of Masarch, Brand kept looking around. The various tree houses were magnificent in his opinion. It finally was starting to hit him that he was in a fantasy world and not just some weird dream or hallucination. "This seems more like a town than a village to be honest with you." Brand said as they walked.

"The elves of the Ostish Forest usually just call any settlement that isn't a major city a village. There lives just about 5000 elves in this village." Alreya confirmed.

After walking a little bit longer through the pathways between the trees and buildings, the duo came to the biggest tree Brand had ever seen. On the tree, he spotted a huge door and multiple windows leading upward. It looked as though the giant tree had been hollowed out and turned into a large building.

When they came to the foot of the tree in front of the door, Alreya told Brand "Wait here. I'll be back for you as soon as possible. After saying that she chanted something under her breath and made a pushing motion with her right hand towards the door. The big door shuddered and swung open. Alreya disappeared inside the tree and the door swung closed again leaving Brand to wait patiently outside.

Soon Brand began to grow a little restless and was thinking about trying to open the door when what sounded like a deep horn rang throughout the village. Confused, he tried to locate the source of the blast when all of a sudden the door swung ajar and Alreya reappeared. "The elders have been summoned." she told him. "They will discuss amongst themselves first and then we will be summoned to the main chamber. Then you can tell them what you told me."

Standing to the side, Brand and Alreya watched as elves of various ages, genders, and eye colors either walked or flew into the tree. Seeing someone she recognized, Alreya smiled and waved as a middle aged looking elf with the same blue eyes as her. He smiled and waved back as he entered the giant tree.

"Someone you know?" Brand asked. He guessed it was her father from his age and appearance.

"That was my grandfather, Aldroro." Alreya replied.

"Grandfather?" Brand said impressed. "So I guess some things I know about elves are true. You guys must live for a long time."

"All elves usually live around 300 years." stated Alreya matter of factly. "And that is longer than most other races. Although if one becomes a dragon rider, then they also are granted a long life. 350 years with some being able to live until 400."

Brand smirked. "The perks of being a dragon rider seem to just keep increasing and increasing."

"It's true." Alreya said. "If you are able to become a dragon rider then you are already counted among the very fortunate. And speaking of dragon riders..." she trailed off.

Just then a huge shadow swooped in between the trees. The ground shook as a massive creature landed just a stones throw away from Brand. He fell to the ground as it raised its head and Brand could see that its skull was just as big as he was. The creature was covered from head to tail in bluish scales and had two big wings connected to its front legs. Its hind legs were as think as small tree trunks. It was a beautiful yet terrible looking animal. Brand's breath was completely taken away as he guessed that this, was a dragon. A young looking elf who was sitting at the base of the dragon's neck and who was wearing a very nice set of blue armor used his wings to fly off of his mount and towards the entrance of the tree. As soon as his rider was out of sight, the dragon spread its wings and took off soaring back past the trees and out of sight.

Brand was completely speechless so Alreya offered "That was Calreme and his wyvern mount Thuum. They are the protectors of this village. Every village in the Ostish is assigned at least one dragon rider protector. The higher you are on the Guild of Dragons' rankings, the bigger the village you can get assigned."

A bit confused, Brand muttered "A wyvern? Wasn't that a dragon?"

"A wyvern is a dragon." Alreya answered. "There are many different kinds of dragons. Serpents, lindworms, hydras, drakes, drakons, wyrms, lungs, etc. You can tell Thuum was a wyvern because his wings also serve as his front legs. Wyverns are very common around the Ostish Forest. That's why most of the elves from here that become dragon riders are wyvern riders."

"I see. Either way that was amazing! I don't know whether I was more excited or terrified. What a monster he was." Brand exclaimed.

A while after the wyvern had come and gone, Alreya and Brand were summoned. Walking inside the tree, Brand marveled at the excellent carvings of different dragons and elves that had been made in the wood surrounding the various rooms. Going straight back and up some stairs, they entered a large room.

There were two rows of elves sitting on wooden chairs that had been carved from the tree on either side that included Alreya's grandfather. And at the head of the room was an extremely old looking elf who had lost most of his hair sitting on the biggest chair in the room. Next to him sitting on a slightly smaller chair was the grim looking Calreme. Standing in front of all of these elves, Brand started to get nervous.

The old elf started to speak. "I am Stelro. The grand elder of this village. I welcome you to Masarch Brand. Thank you for coming to speak with us. Alreya has told us a little about you, but we would like to hear your story from your own lips as to how you found yourself in our forest. If you would be so kind as to start at the beginning?" Stelro said gently but firmly.

"Umm... yes... er... hello. I'm Brand." Brand stuttered. "Yes. As to how I found myself in your forest. Um... it all started on Earth I guess." At this statement, quite a few of the elders started to murmur and speak in hushed tones.

After being silenced by the grand elder, Stelro urged Brand to continue. Brand looking around started from the beginning and recounted all of his time up until now. After he finished the room was silent for a while until Stelro finally broke the silence. "Brand, I for one believe you are telling the truth, and even though I didn't understand a great deal of your story, I did understand a little. If nobody has any objections..." he paused and looked at Calreme who simply turned his head firmly to the side. "then I would like to ask Alreya to kindly escort you to one of the guest houses where you can stay while we here discuss this matter further. Thank you again for cooperating with us Brand."

At that, Alreya showed Brand out of the room and then out of the giant tree. "Good job back there." Alreya said to Brand. "Although you seemed like baby bucklebrook at the beginning." she chuckled.

"Hardy har har." Brand replied. "I'm not even going to ask what that is. Anyway, why am I getting a guest house and not like a room at an inn or something?"

"We don't get enough visitors to really need an inn." Alreya answered. "So we just keep a couple houses open and clean enough for the occasional guest."

"That's awesome." Brand told her. "And I am really tired. But is there anywhere to get some food first? Because I am starving."