After a week of travel the group of elves around the party seemed to have grown with elves that seemed to come from out of the trees. The party came to a city that was nothing like Dean had ever seen. The buildings were made not from logs, but from the living trees themselves. The walls of the city were also made from living trees that were intertwined so as no space could be seen in or out of the city. Was this done by magic? If it was not the amount of time it would take was staggering to Dean. As the group entered the city Dean discovered that there were no streets, as he had known in Lloleyn, instead there were rows of perfectly pruned hedge paths. Outside of the houses, built right into the existing trees or on the tree itself, there were immaculate gardens. In the center of the city was, what Dean thought, a huge palace built right into several enormous oaks that spiraled up to meet the sky. Coming out of the palace were several figures. Dean’s eyes grew wide; one of the figures was Aranor!
“Aranor is it really you!” Dean exclaimed. Aranor looked over himself and said, “The last time I checked I was still me.”
“But I thought you had died when The-place-that-is-no-more was destroyed?” Dean said amazed.
“I’m dead?” Aranor said with a mild confusion
“He’s obviously not dead Dean, he’s standing right here.” Jerick said.
“I can see that, I’m just glad he’s not, when Elana told us that he was here I didn’t know what to think.” Dean said.
“Oh so I’m not dead then.” Aranor said. “Well now that we’ve figured that out what brings you here.” Aranor had always been cryptic that way. Then Dean saw it; Aranor had the ears of an elf! Elf or no elf Dean had his mentor back. As the Jerick explained to him about the tablet, which Dean handed him as he was standing by his mentor’s side once again. Aranor took the tablet and put it in his robes, saying that the king wished an audience with the party to determine the fate of the group, for trespassing on elven soil. They were lead, by Aranor, into the palace and taken to their rooms. In Dean’s room were his spell books lying on the bed, as if they belonged there. That night at dinner Dean learned that Aranor seemed to be posing as an elf, and had escaped Lloleyn just before the comet had hit. Dean also asked about his parents, to which Dean got another of Aranor’s cryptic answers. Finally, everything settled down and everyone went to bed by the request of Aranor, who stated “You all have a big day tomorrow with the audience, I suggest you all be on your best behavior in front of the king. Now good night.” |
