The Tour

Brand woke up the next morning feeling remarkably refreshed. It almost felt as if his entire world didn't get flipped upside down yesterday. Getting out of bed, Brand stretched out reaching his fingers towards the ceiling. He then used the restroom and wandered around the little guest house for a while.

Brand didn't want to go walking around the elven village of Masarch by himself, seeing as how he had no money, and didn't really know where anything was. He decided to just wait for Alreya to come pick him up like she had said she was going to do yesterday.

While he waited, Brand thought about the meeting with the elders of the village that would be happening later today. What would they decide to do with him? Would they kick him out into the forest to fend for himself? Would he be executed? Fed to a dragon maybe? "Probably not." Brand answered himself in his head. "I doubt they'd treat me so well only to off me or abandon me just like that." he reasoned. These elves seemed like a good group of people, but then again, this was a world that he had close to zero experience with.

Just when Brand was debating with himself over possible outcomes, a sharp knock sounded on the front door. He opened the door and in stepped Alreya with a bag of food. They both said their good mornings and then Alreya took the bag over to the kitchen table. While she unloaded the contents she motioned for Brand to sit down. Out of the bag came some weird looking fruit and some bread. Alreya then went to one of the cupboards and took out a couple of wooden cups. Chanting some strange words, she held her hand over the cups and water poured out and filled them to the brim.

When she was finished Alreya handed Brand a cup and they began to eat. After they ate in silence for a little bit, Alreya looked at Brand. "The elders will not be ready for us until later in the afternoon. I was told to look after you until then." she told him.

"Great." Brand responded. "So what will we do until then?" he asked.

"I could show you around the village for a start." Alreya said. "And then I was thinking of getting some archery practice in today. I got permission to take you along with me. After that we can stop by my home and eat lunch with my mother. By then the elders should be ready for us."

"Lunch with your mom?" Brand asked. "Aren't we moving a little too fast?"

"Moving too fast?" Alreya repeated with an eyebrow raised. "Too fast for what? What are you talking about?"

"Nothing." Brand said as he scolded himself internally. "Just a bad joke from Earth. Anyway, don't you live at the top of a tree? How will I get up there?"

Ignoring the poor humor that she didn't understand, Alreya replied "My mother and I will carry you. You might be a little too heavy for either of us alone, but together we can fly you to the top of the tree we live in."

"That sounds like it'll be awesome." Brand thought sarcastically as he rolled his eyes imperceptibly. Alreya and Brand finished eating and made their way outside.

The day passed rather quickly as Alreya showed Brand the finer points of the village. She first showed him the market and workshop row that contained the tailor, carpenter, brewery, and blacksmith. She then showed him one of the taverns he had been told about yesterday. And finally she showed him the klon yak barn and the stables. The barn was incredibly big and built with special magical wards that prevented the yaks from cloning while inside. It was very impressive, but the stables were even more fascinating for Brand.

"Are those unicorns!?" Brand demanded excitedly. Inside the stables were a few horses with a single distinguishable horn on their heads.

"Yes, they are." Alreya chuckled looking a little confused. "Why are you so excited about it?"

"These are one of the most popular mythical creatures back on Earth." Brand replied. "Probably second only to dragons." He moved a little closer to one of the powerful looking unicorns. They looked a lot more intimidating up close. Nothing like the girly reputation they had achieved on Earth.

After admiring the magical animals for a little while longer, Brand followed Alreya to the training grounds of the village. When they arrived there were a couple of elves sparring with wooden swords and a few that were in a separate area that seemed to be designated for magical combat as the elves inside were busy shooting fire balls or freezing practice dummies. When they walked over to the archery range, they found it devoid of archers.

"For some reason I thought this place would have more people in it." Brand said what he was thinking out loud.

Alreya's face sank a little bit as she gave a reason for the nearly empty training grounds. "Most of the elves that would have been training here have gone off to fight in the war with the empire. Including my father."

Brand winced as he realized he'd put his foot in his mouth. "I'm sorry." he told Alreya earnestly.

"Thank you, but you do not have to be." Alreya said suddenly smiling again. "It is part of life here and I am proud that my father fights to protect us all. I hope to join him someday soon."

It hit Brand that while this village seemed like a happy, magical paradise on the surface, it was still at war. And he assumed that war was hell no matter what world you are from.

Alreya grabbed the bow she had been carrying on her back and told Brand to retrieve a practice bow from a shed nearby. She said the bow would be the perfect size since Brand was the size of a large elf. Brand had noticed he was the tallest one in the elven village even though his was only a few inches over five feet. Most of the elves he had seen were just a little under five feet tall including Alreya.

Grabbing a bow from the shed, Brand quickly hurried back to the range. Alreya began to shoot arrows downrange while Brand attempted to do the same. It didn't end well. After mercilessly laughing at him, Alreya gave Brand some quick instruction and soon he was just narrowly missing the targets which was an enormous improvement from earlier.

Soon Brand's arms were completely fatigued and they ended the archery practice. Putting away his bow, Brand followed Alreya to the base of the tree where her home was. Telling Brand to stay put, Alreya flew up to fetch her mother. After a minute of waiting, Alreya and an elf who looked a little older but very similar to Alreya flew down to where Brand was. Alreya introduced them. "Mother this is Brand, the human I told you about. Brand, this is my mother Maneya."

"Hello. It's nice to meet you." Brand greeted her a little nervously.

"The pleasure is all mine." Maneya replied warmly. Before he could say another thing, the mother-daughter duo each grabbed one of Brand's arms, and kicked off of the ground catching Brand off guard and dragging him into the air.