The Secret Village of the Elves Read online

  The Chase

  It all started with a glance away from a textbook. A boy, barely a man, in college for ecological studies sat in a tree, still for hours except for the flip of pages and the occasional scratch of a pencil. There Jacob laid as he had so many times in the past in the forest he grew up. The sun was beginning to set and soon he would need to go home. He glanced away to look at the watch his parents gave him for his birthday and that’s when he saw her.

  She wasn’t unlike anything he’d ever seen. After all, while he liked to be old fashioned he wasn’t ignorant to the internet and its whiles. However, that didn’t make seeing it in flesh and blood any less startling. Her perfectly browned skin, kissed by hours, if not days spent in the sun, tight, leather clothing that showed off every flexing muscle underneath, a lithe body that moved through the forest silently, and all connected to a girl who now crouched under the tree he stayed in.

  He barely moved, just as he would with any wild animal encounter in the forest, and tried to get a better look at her. He couldn’t make a sound though, lest he suddenly spook her. After all, he doubted the leathers belonged to some crazed larper who was out here with a group. No, they looked all too authentic and tight, the latter of which made his cheeks burn a deep crimson.

  He couldn’t just ignore it though. She was short, low to the ground, and a little past him now that he properly took her in. Her black hair stopped at her neck, letting her back, which strained against the tight strings keeping her clothes on. Well, it strained. Her ass, which looked to be sculpted out of marble and could probably be used as a lethal weapon with how firm it was, straight up seemed like it had the clothes on it molded over rather than pulled or slipped.

  He purposefully took long, slow breaths in to help dry out his mouth, lest a loud swallow gave him away as he forced his eyes away from that piece of art. His eyes kept drifting up to her head for some reason, when they weren’t taking in the fact that she must have zero body fat, and it was as she tucked a bit of black hair behind her ears that it finally hit him what was off.

  She had pointed ears.

  Jacob almost dropped his textbook in shock from the fact, but his hand caught it just before he would have had to pull on the paper and possibly torn it. However, the momentary heart attack seemed to have been enough as she froze, her hand still in midair as she stayed perfectly still.

  The two stayed as they were, hunter and hunted, for minutes as they both thought of the best approach to take. For Jacob, he assumed that staying up here was his best bet. After all, while he couldn’t see any knives or weapons on her, he could only see her right side. If she was right handed than her weapon would be on her left hand side. Well, unless she carried spares, something he didn’t want to think about right now.

  Luckily for him, the girl never looked up. Instead she raised herself to a half crouching position and laid herself against the tree he was on. She breathed softly, her heated sighs catching his ears just barely. That seemed… strange. Was she sick? She was obviously some sort of hunter or tracker so it made sense that she’d at least be as good as he was at this stuff. After all, he would hope an elvish tracker was still better than some modern foresters.

  It didn’t matter too much though. Not now at least as her face contorted. He could practically hear the curse she must have wanted to say but instead she merely crouched back down and began making her way around the edge of the clearing before disappearing on the far side.

  Five.

  His father would have told him to leave her alone, something he strongly considered doing.

  Four.

  She could be dangerous, she obviously didn’t want to be seen, and he had no idea if this was just some trick.

  Three.

  Not only that, but Jacob had never been very good with women, let alone one so beautiful…

  Two.

  No, he should just leave her be. Let well enough alone.

  One.

  And Jacob dropped silently from the tree, leaving his backpack and books hanging from the branch he had been on. His eyes raised up, burning with curiosity as he gained some ground by going straight to the point where he had last seen her. It was early fall, maybe a month into the school year, and so the ground had plenty of leaves that wanted to snap and crack under his weight. If he was gentle enough though, he could make it appear to just be the random cracks of those of the animals around him rather than some almost six foot human.

  Something the elf must have known as well as he stopped where he had seen her. Her steps were almost imperceptible to the naked eye as they mixed themselves in with the rolling weight of the leaves below them. However, he knew her direction as well and if she was sick… There. He wouldn’t have spotted it had he not expected it, in fact he still wasn’t sure he wasn’t making it up, but he could see the smallest indent where she may have pushed her weight down just too far. The heel print was too large, and too incomplete, to just be another animal. It had to be her… he hoped.

  And so this was how he had to go for what felt like forever. Wherever she was going was deep into the forest, but each time he checked his watch it seemed almost to slow more and more, even as his heart raced faster and faster. It was… It was a nice return after so many days and weeks spent without his father. Without the hunts and expeditions they would go on through these woods. When time would slow as all you focused on was your quarry.

  It was an hour and a half later that he finally had to stop. It wasn’t because he’d lost the trail. In fact, it had gotten easier and easier the longer the trail had gone on, almost to the point where he was able to break into a light jog after her. He hadn’t had school today and had left before the sun was up. After his hike he would guess he was maybe thirty miles into the forest, a lot deeper than what most of the town idiots down the mountain would go through just for a nice place to sit.

  But now his ears twitched and his feet stopped dead in their tracks as he heard a voice. It was deep for a female’s and he doubted it came from the one he’d been tracking. No, she had sounded slightly higher in pitch from her breaths, but he could definitely make out, “Here.”

  He lowered himself as much as his legs would allow him without going prone, knowing the leaves would give him away, but it quickly became apparent that that didn’t matter. They knew he was here, somehow, and there was no getting around it as the one he’d been trailing spoke.

  “What do you mean, master? I even checked the trees and they said nothing was out of place.”

  “You asked the wrong question. I asked them if there was a being I couldn’t see. They said yes. A human even.”

  For a moment Jacob lost the second voice as they obviously dropped their volume, but they also got cut off by their ‘master’s’ voice barking back, “Because you almost led him straight to us and so we must do something about him.”

  Oh.

  “What, like kill him?”

  No.

  “What? Are you- I- Come- Ah!” He jumped at the shout of anger from the deeper voice before he watched the majority of the remaining leaves on a tree drop from the force that the owner must have hit it with. “No! We do not take lives. No longer at least and you know that, or do you not listen to your stories either! No, the trees say he belongs here, so we will do something… different.”

  “I don’t like the sounds of that.”

  “To be fair, I don’t know if I do either!”

  Both girls became silent as Jacob said anything. He could have stayed quiet of course, but there was no point. They knew he was there and they would decide his fate with or without him. There was no reason for him to decide without.

  Unfortunately the voices vanished at that point to
o and Jacob wasn’t about to show himself. Not only was he afraid he might only make them decide against him, he was afraid they may act faster than. No, he had to stay sti-

  “How fortunate for you.”

  It was the deeper voice. The master. He had heard literally nothing as she approached and he almost turned his head. It was only her harsh, “No,” that stopped him as he kept his head staring straight like a good boy.

  “Normally, we would perhaps eliminate your memories. Make it so you know nothing of what you saw. After all, even if you had not spotted Amelia’s ears, you have now heard of our connection as well. However, such a process is dangerous, taxing, and neither of our specialties. We are far more prepared for more…” She paused as cold iron pressed against the back of Jacob’s neck, threatening to puncture it at any moment as she finished with, “drastic measures. As you heard though, we don’t like to resort to those.”

  Jacob swallowed hard, wishing she had maybe retracted the knife as she said the statement, but no. It stayed right there, because of course it did. “So… What are you going to do?”

  He heard that same slight limp that had given the younger of the two elves away as he asked the question. She was just to his right, on the other side of the tree from him. Was she as scared as him? He hoped not. He hadn’t meant to make her so afraid after all. Was this her first time seeing a human? He was so curious now, but he also acknowledged that now wasn’t the time. Not while he waited for his verdict.

  “Will you keep this a secret?”

  “Yes, but who would even believe m-” He barely got out any of the opinion he normally had about anything interesting he saw in the woods before a fist smashed into his back, collapsing him onto the ground as it felt like the blunt end of a ballista had tried to shatter his spine.

  “Don’t whine; you’re fine. And trust me, people will believe. Their curiosity is too strong, just like yours was. Not all of them will merely try to track us though, or be by themselves. That’s when problems start.”

  He coughed as he tried to get his lungs working again, but he did manage a nod inbetween gasps and groans. After all, she had a point about him showing up and ‘hot elf babes might exist’ was a pretty tempting argument, even to someone as… nervous as him.

  “You still said yes though, and the trees tell me that you aren’t lying. In fact, they try to claim you don’t lie, which is oddly opinionated of them. It’s that reason, the fact they didn’t tell my apprentice in spite of her poorly worded question, that I even consider doing this.”

  “Doing what, master?”

  Jacob took a sharp breath, his mind drifting to the internet for a moment before he shut his eyes and silently prayed that they didn’t say to take him to their village to be a breeding machine. After all, his life was enough of a fantasy book right now, so why not throw that in too?

  “Letting Amelia take you out of the forest and, if she so desires, allowing her to continue to talk to you where she found you.”

  There was a long pause before both Amelia and Jacob stated the same, simple question at the same time.

  “What?”

  The Way Back

  It was a simple explanation, at least on Jacob’s end. He was so deep that he could get genuinely hurt and if they wanted to avoid that, he would need a guide. Not only that, but if the two became friends, Jacob would have all the better reason to not wish to reveal their secrets. Not that Amelia liked all of this, but the reminder that it was her weakness that put them in this position was a strong one. So, in the end, the short, elf girl finally came around the tree and revealed herself.

  And Jacob felt his breath catch. She was maybe two feet shorter than him with short, slightly spiky black hair which reminded him of his neck length, brown hair. Her eyes were a piercing blue with a small scar just below one of them. Her face was about as sharp as the rest of her body, possibly from the continued lack of any fat, even there. That could also be Jacob projecting based on her hot, steely gazing that ran through him like a knife through butter.

  He could now confirm that she did indeed wear leather armor as her top, likely with a tunic of some sort beneath it, that started just above her shorts and made its way over her shoulders and collarbone, but not quite to the neck. That way her neck would keep full motion he imagined but she could be properly protected from at least knives like what he had in his back pocket. Then there was the small bumps where her chest was. The armor and tunic likely would hold them back, but that would still mean they were handfuls at most and…. Jacob turned red as he realized he’d begun to stare at them.

  Amelia for her part just rolled her eyes as she ignored the heat on her own cheeks that her tan helped hide. Hers was far deeper than what Jacob had on his own bronzed skin, as she was out in the sun almost all day everyday. Even when Jacob spent most of the day in the sun he was still in the shade when hiding in a tree. Not that the tall, strong boy had nothing… No, she wasn’t to think like that. She just had to get him out. “Well, we have a long way to go. We’ll be jogging to help with that.”

  Jacob nodded before glancing at the trees around them and then the sky. “I’m guessing your connection or whatever will be helping us find our way?”

  Amelia didn’t even answer as she took off, instead barking out, “Keep up or get lost and piss me off. The choice is yours.”

  Jacob prepared to give her chase again before the deeper voice of Amelia’s master barked, “Be nice and friendly. I know it’s hard for you but this is an opportunity for us all!”

  Amelia was quiet and still for a moment, standing in silhouette by the setting sun in the distance. It was breathtaking as a small breeze that had been blowing throughout the day gently played with her hair, letting the black wisps wave towards Jacob. They beckoned him to come, as if the chase was perhaps a game.

  A game he would be all too happy to play as he broke into a quick jog after her. There was a pause on the younger elf’s face as she looked beyond the boy, before a grin split across her face and she took off back into the forest with Jacob right behind.

  Amelia slipped between the trees like a smooth breeze, bending to the trees obstruction rather than trying to force them away. It was a thing of beauty as she bounded through the forest, her hands, feet, everything being used to make sure she moved as smoothly as possible. She was also nimble and had a climbing speed that Jacob could not hope to match as she sometimes would shoot up a tree, leap to another, and then fly across the ground as she left that one to head back to the ground.

  Jacob on the other hand was still only human, despite how much time he had spent in the forest. He didn’t hear the nature’s word asking him to go anywhere. He didn’t have the sixth sense that told him where every root, twig, rock, and more was to avoid them in this wooded homeland. No, he had simply years of being taught how to move, either for escaping animals or for track and field. After all, one didn’t need to know how to fight if you could just get away from it.

  Both had their merits. While Amelia was flashy and showed off a lot, she was still able to actually use the geography to her advantage as she leapt and bound across the forest floor. Jacob on the other hand had to focus so much of his attention on that same ground that she glided across to make sure he didn’t hit a pocket or duvet, something made even worse by the leaves on the ground. He made steadier progress though, and he had one other advantage on her.

  The fact that he was almost seven feet tall, and she was closer to five.

  She yelped as his long stride came into view, only before his next step brought his body into view for the startled elf. He reached out to touch Amelia, just a boop on the head to prove he had her beat, but he had forgotten something. She was an elf, a thing not belonging to this world. A thing that knew one response to being caught.

  Just as swiftly as he had suddenly been there for her, she brought a fist around and slammed it into his exposed side, her knuckles cracking into his ribs. Maybe if he’d had armor like hers that’d be okay, but he sti
ll only wore a loose t-shirt and jeans. That meant he got hit with the full force of this trained scout’s hard jab that knocked him off balance and soon crashing across the floor as he fell hard.

  Amelia froze, her training screeching against something she wasn’t certain of in the moment. After all, her training dictated that if she was suddenly spotted, she was to lose sight by any means possible and vanish. She would take a longer route back to the village that would take her to a post that was supposed to be manned by a warrior at all times and then check the area tomorrow. If they were still there, they were to be observed, but silently and a priest would be brought to wipe their memory.

  “Be nice and friendly. I know it’s hard for you but this is an opportunity for us all!”

  Her legs stayed tense as she still wanted to run. To take off and follow her training. Her training that would take her ten minutes to get back to the post. Her training that… would get her smacked by her master. Fuck.

  Jacob groaned as he got up, luckily having stopped about a half a foot from cracking his skull against one of the trees around them. Instead it was mostly his ankles,legs, and sides that hurt. Nothing felt broken, though his ribs might have been bruised by the hard thump, and he was fairly certain he would at least be close to limping afterward.

  And then the angelic, brown face of Amelia came over his. “Stay still. I can make sure you’re-”

  Jacob reached up and tapped her on the nose as he went, “Boop. I win.”

  She blinked a few times before her face turned bright red and she shoved her fist straight into his stomach, grinding it in as she yelled, “What is wrong with you?”

  He tried to say something but really all he could do was gasp for air as he found the air knocked out of him again. It was even worse as he wanted to laugh from having noticed the blush. That only got him another punch when the first strangled chortle made it out though.

  Once he did catch his breath, and Amelia didn’t punish him for it, he did respond with, “I thought we were p-p-playing around. It’s not like… It’s not like I can ask you too much, right?”