Inheritance Fanfic - The Precursor Elf

8

At that moment, Iro's voice caught in his throat and he was unable to continue the narrative. He was sitting around a huge banquet table with Arya and a few other elven lords. Beo and Arya's dragon, Firnen, was outside eating a trough of meat each.

"What happened ne-" one of the elves asked.

They came, Beo interrupted. The Wraiths knew we would be celebrating the mid-year vintage. And they attacked while everyone was dazed and drunk. The thing you need to know bout Wraiths is that they do not care for their own lives. They will wait until they have assembled into a massive horde...and then they will swarm. Never retreating. No strategy. It is either victory or death.

At this point, the elves had become slightly pale at the prospect.

Usually, they would start a war by assassinating key figures in their enemy's hierarchy. But do not be fooled. They think of it as sport. They enjoy watching their enemy struggle without direction. They are a plague. A nest of vicious insects that would turn the world into a single nest if they had sufficient numbers.

"So...how did you defeat them?" Arya asked nervously.

"We didn't!" Iro growled, slamming the table with his fist. "I saw my entire race slaughtered! I remember being knocked out and waking up to piles of bones and ruins!"

The entire room was silent. Even the wind had died. You could've dropped a feather and still hear it.

"And I will stop at nothing until I rip the life out of every Wraith," Iro whispered. And every elf in the room heard it.

And I will be there next to you, Beo promised.

*******

An hour later, Arya approached Iro. He sat cross-legged on the ground while he sharpened the tip of his spear. His dragon, Beo, was asleep behind him. The dragon's tail was curled around the lone elf protectively while still giving him personal space.

Firnen had told her much about the pair. But there were still things she wanted to ask without anyone nearby.

"May I?" she said, indicating a spot of grass outside the tail-wall. Iro looked up, then returned to what he was doing. Beo's tail shifted, allowing Arya access.

"Why are all of you so polite?" Iro asked as Arya sat down next to him. She picked at the grass as she considered his question.

"Elves have long lives and even longer memories," she explained. "It is better to avoid a personal grudge that could last centuries, maybe even millennia."

"Is that why you are so close to the natural world?" Iro asked.

Arya nodded. "It helps when you are surrounded by peace and beauty."

There was a long silence before Iro spoke again. "My people ar...were close to nature. But we had a stronger connection to the louder side of nature. Thunderstorms and hurricanes, earthquakes and crashing waves. Over time, the Dark Elves were affected. We built our cities underground or atop the tallest tree that would support them. We relished in the chaotic side of nature."

"And you?" Arya asked.

"I...I saw how nature could help us in times of war. Overgrown trees and vines could block or choke soldiers. Animals could hide among them and strike unseen. More thorns along the branches. Vines that look more like snakes to hide the real ones. How even our people could help us even in death."

"What do you mean?"

"How many humans or other races would come close to a bunch of elves that hung their own skulls from trees? Or impaled on spikes along paths? It was a way for us to protect our home. Silent and eternal."

Arya didn't say anything until she had finished. From the blades of grass, she had constructed a miniature Firnen. Iro finished sharpening his spear and stood up to place it back in Beo's saddlebags.

"What will you do now?" Arya asked him.

Iro was silent for a moment. "I will travel out of the forest for the first time in a couple hundred years. If there were any survivors then they would hide among the humans or dwarves. Maybe even go to the Riders of old."

"The dragon riders have been dead of almost a century. But they're being rebuilt...though no one could reach them until they send word where they are."

"Interesting. But it doesn't change my plan. Find any survivors and kill every last Wraith. For now...that all that matters."