The Truth

Fanella felt at peace within the borders of the kingdom. She had given each tree a name and had found a spot only she knew about. It was behind a large waterfall that was muffled by the surrounding nature.

Fanella whispers her story as the nearby animals gather, pulled in by her alluring voice.

"Our story starts with a boy. One who wished to decide his own fate and he only believed in things he saw with his own eyes. His name was Rilien. He had only heard stories before that day, ones that spoke of humans and curses. Humans were said not to know what love was and so to which they were driven to kill, steal, and curse the gods." She takes a deep breath as she knew what was to come. The wind no longer howled as if it too was listening in.

"That fateful day the elf made his rounds on the Borderline. He was to to check on the fire ants who protected the Elven Kingdom from unwanted personnel. Soon he stumbled on a girl who seemed to wander a tad too close. She was odd in the fact he had never seen anything like her. He realized she had to be a human. Her behavior intrigued him. How tripping on a rock would cause her to bleed. Humans were fragile and there was no way they were what the stories made them out to be. Rilien was not going to let one encounter with the race make his whole judgement on them, but from what he saw, she was going to give them a chance. He called out to the human girl and when she looked towards the voice she turned bright red and stood still. Seeing this drastic change in color he too felt odd. Nothing he had ever felt before. He placed his hand on his stomach and again looked up to the girl. He took a step forward as the girl ran. He never got a chance to ask her her name." The elven girl stops wondering what it must have been like in that moment.

"Each day at that time he went to the border to wait for the girl. He wanted to see if she was alright. An elvens body can take a lot more abuse, than a humans. Their skin is thicker and their blood is warmer, and they feel less pain. On the fifth day he saw the girl again and this time asked if she was ok. She nodded and slowly came closer before being told to stop. Rilien warned her of the fire ants and had them make a path for her. He knew humans were not allowed in the elven kingdom, but this girl was harmless. He asked her why she turned bright red the last time and she turned even brighter. She told him and asked questions herself. It was clear from the questions she was asking that she had no mal intent towards the elven. Even if she told other humans, knowing how elvens age wouldn't help them defeat the Elven. They laughed and told each other of the stories that they had heard about the other species for the whole day. He sent her home while it was still light out and sent some fire ants with her to help her get home.

She began to come more often and all they did was talk. She had just moved to a nearby village and had not yet made any friends. She considered Rilien the only one. She was the first one to know Rilien for himself and not the future king.

After several months she told him of a festival her town was throwing and how she didn't want to go alone. Rilien asked if he could go with her and she told him no immediately. His chest hurt when she said it and how she said it so fast. She told him of how the village people would capture him if they found him and they would take him far away. She told him that here he was safe and have him his first hug with a human. She left to get ready for the festival and he left for his cloak, but he didn't know someone had sent someone to watch his encounters with the human. The elf watching over him was a long time acquaintance that he trained with.

So as Rilien snuck out of the Elven border, the other followed close behind. A cloak was all he needed since it was lined with a crystal thread , he would not be seen by those he did not want to see him. He followed the path the girl always took and soon found singing and dancing and lights. Laughter filled the streets as he skimmed them for his girl. And as he found her it was clearly worse than he thought. His heart dropped, she was all alone. She had not told him a lie.He approached her slowly until she saw him and got really excited before getting really scared. She chased him into a nearby house.

"I told you not to come!" She begins closing all the windows.

"It's alright." He laughed. " This cloak will only let whoever I want to be able to see me." He explained as she grew a big smile.

"Don't you ever scare me like that." She grew angry in the next second.

"Do all humans get angry when they are happy?" He asks laughing.

"Only when we love someone enough." She shares.

"I hope you know love is a big word in the Elven Kingdom." He shares.

"It's a big word here as well." She explains as he pulls her into his cloak for a hug as his heart begins to pound.

Chaos began to rattle the door.They thought it was just the festival until they heard what the chant said.

"Elven, Elven, Elven." Cheers the crowd.

"Did you bring someone with you?" The girl looked terrified as Rilien shook his head. They peeked outside to find his partner get continuously stabbed, the villagers laughed noting which ones pierced elven skin, despite the fact the elven was already gone, to the next realm. With that the girl cried believing Rilien would go after his partner. Instead he was gone. Disappeared before even giving her the final look of betrayal. Humans were worse than the stories. He destroyed the cloak and made sure that no cloak would ever be made, for him it was a reminder of how truly evil humans were."

A small doe came close to allow Fanella to pet her, but she felt what question was being asked.

"No little one, I do not believe the same. Not every human wants to see the world burn. The god of equality created them, do I believe for how much evil they do, the others do that much good. Each human has to fight with themselves to decide, but taking a life there is no coming back from. It should never get that far. I agree those ones should follow their victims into the ground." Fanella nodded and laughed as water panther approached her. She placed her hand and began to stroke his soft fur.

"No no no. I feel it too, bud. With his hatred... its ruining the kingdom." She sighed as the water panther pushed into her softly as to comfort her.

"I know. Maeron will get through to him." She felt a shiver down her spine. The air was starting to mirror their future king.