BlondeAmbition4RP
Primadonna Girl
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2016
- Posts
- 3,242
The Kingdom in the Trees
Lariana’s slippered feet barely made a sound upon the wooden pathway beneath them as she hurried back to her chambers, their steps as nimble and sure footed as a doe bounding through the forest as she ascended the stairway. The sound of her doors shutting soon resonated loudly however as she slammed them behind her upon entering.
Her pale silvery blonde hair shined like moonlight as it fell in gentle waves to the small of her back, yet her naturally fair skin was lightly tanned and had clearly been touched by the sun. If one looked closely there was even the faintest dusting of freckles upon the bridge of her nose and the tops of her high cheekbones, evidence of her great love of hunting and being outdoors. At present she wore a long flowing gown of glimmering purple cloth that swirled around her and brought out the violet in her dark-lashed and slightly upturned eyes, her delicate brow currently furrowed in obvious anger and frustration.
“So how did the talk with your father go?” Evaleen, her lady’s maid and closest friend, asked in a sarcastic tone.
While Lariana appreciated her friend’s attempt to lighten the mood, it didn’t help any.
“Not well,” she replied with a frown.
“But you said in your latest vision you saw-“
“He wouldn’t even listen to it!” Lariana replied, cutting her friend off, “Every time I try to speak to him about what I’ve seen in my visions it’s another excuse not to get involved: First he insisted that they weren’t visions, merely nightmares. Then he said that if I had developed the gift of sight that some of our people possess and was truly having visions I must be misinterpreting what I saw. Now he says that even if I am correct in my interpretations the elves shouldn’t get involved, we should just let the humans deal with it since the tunnels are part of their kingdom, and that it isn’t our problem to worry about…but it is.”
Lariana sighed, her expression somber as she moved across the room to walk out onto her private balcony, Evaleen following behind her. All around her in the evening shadows beneath the thick canopy of the Elder Trees shone Meldamiriel, the capital city of the elvish kingdom. Built by her ancestors before her, the city had been crafted into the very trees themselves; countless homes, businesses, and other buildings nestled within the very branches of the giant trees and extending out from them on platforms while others had been carved into the very trees themselves. All of them connected by various intricately carved walkways and platforms. She looked out at the city around her, so vast that even her keen elven eyes could not take it all in.
“Something is happening within the tunnels Evaleen, and whatever it is exactly that my visions are warning me of I can sense that it is something that will affect all of us, both elf and human kingdoms alike. If my father will not send anyone to investigate then I am forced to do so myself…but how would I even begin? Without a guide where would I even start?!” she cried out in exasperation.
“Kanark.”
“Excuse me?”
“The Neutral city of Kanark,” Evaleen replied, “My elder brother Almon recently returned from a trading trip there and mentioned that while he’d been in a tavern one night during his stay a man names Voltaire had tried to recruit him for an expedition that he was leading deep within the tunnels. Said he planned to go deeper than anyone had ever gone before and was in need of able bodied people to join his crew. Apparently he’d really wanted some elves to join as well, likely due to the fact that our senses are naturally sharper than humans, but that he’d been having problems getting any to enlist. Naturally Almon turned him down as well…but if you were going to join his crew you’d have to leave quickly, the day Almon mentioned the man was planning on leaving for the expedition is only a fortnight from now, and you know your father doesn’t like you leaving the palace without an escort. How exactly do you plan on getting there in the first place?”
“You just leave that up to me,” Lariana told her friend as a bright smile suddenly spread across her face.
“Now…did your brother happen to mention where the meeting point for the expedition crew was supposed to be?”
-----------------------------------------------
TWO WEEKS LATER
Lariana walked briskly through the markets of Kanark, headed in the direction that she had been told she would find the tavern called The Wooden Bastard, and there the man called Voltaire and his crew that her friend Evaleen had told her of. She was attired in her friend Evaleen’s own hunting garb that she wore whenever accompanying Lariana on one of her many excursions, a quiver of arrows strapped to her back with her own bow and fighting knifes stored securely inside. Luckily the two women were both of similar height and build, though while Lariana’s locks shone light and silver Evaleen’s were glossy and dark like a raven’s wings, so Lariana had braided back her hair to keep the long strands tucked away and then been careful to keep the green hood pulled up to conceal it and the rest of her features while slipping out first from the palace, then the city of Meldamiriel, and then from her father’s kingdom all together. Even now in Kanark, far away from anyone that might recognize her, she hesitated to lower it.
It was difficult not to allow herself to become distracted by all of the strange and exciting sights, sounds, and smells surrounding her. It was rare that she was able to travel outside of her own city and she had certainly never been allowed outside of her father’s kingdom before, not even to one of the Neutral cities like this one. As such it was her first time ever being in a city where humans also dwelled. The stories that her father and others had told her about the wars between their two races had always made them sound like such a crude and brutish lot, but elves here in Kanark seemed to be getting along with them well enough.
At last she reached the tavern and at once spotted a group of men loading up a wooden cart with supplies out front. One of the men she noted seemed to be in charge of the others, looking off of a sheet of paper in his hands and occasionally giving an order to one of the others. She wondered if this might be the man that she was looking for.
“Excuse me,” she called out as she approached him, “Are you the man called Voltaire? He is to be leading an expedition and I would like to join his crew. I was told that he was in need of elves to enlist.”
For the first time since leaving the palace she pulled back her hood in the presence of others, revealing herself to the man’s gaze.
Lariana’s slippered feet barely made a sound upon the wooden pathway beneath them as she hurried back to her chambers, their steps as nimble and sure footed as a doe bounding through the forest as she ascended the stairway. The sound of her doors shutting soon resonated loudly however as she slammed them behind her upon entering.
Her pale silvery blonde hair shined like moonlight as it fell in gentle waves to the small of her back, yet her naturally fair skin was lightly tanned and had clearly been touched by the sun. If one looked closely there was even the faintest dusting of freckles upon the bridge of her nose and the tops of her high cheekbones, evidence of her great love of hunting and being outdoors. At present she wore a long flowing gown of glimmering purple cloth that swirled around her and brought out the violet in her dark-lashed and slightly upturned eyes, her delicate brow currently furrowed in obvious anger and frustration.
“So how did the talk with your father go?” Evaleen, her lady’s maid and closest friend, asked in a sarcastic tone.
While Lariana appreciated her friend’s attempt to lighten the mood, it didn’t help any.
“Not well,” she replied with a frown.
“But you said in your latest vision you saw-“
“He wouldn’t even listen to it!” Lariana replied, cutting her friend off, “Every time I try to speak to him about what I’ve seen in my visions it’s another excuse not to get involved: First he insisted that they weren’t visions, merely nightmares. Then he said that if I had developed the gift of sight that some of our people possess and was truly having visions I must be misinterpreting what I saw. Now he says that even if I am correct in my interpretations the elves shouldn’t get involved, we should just let the humans deal with it since the tunnels are part of their kingdom, and that it isn’t our problem to worry about…but it is.”
Lariana sighed, her expression somber as she moved across the room to walk out onto her private balcony, Evaleen following behind her. All around her in the evening shadows beneath the thick canopy of the Elder Trees shone Meldamiriel, the capital city of the elvish kingdom. Built by her ancestors before her, the city had been crafted into the very trees themselves; countless homes, businesses, and other buildings nestled within the very branches of the giant trees and extending out from them on platforms while others had been carved into the very trees themselves. All of them connected by various intricately carved walkways and platforms. She looked out at the city around her, so vast that even her keen elven eyes could not take it all in.
“Something is happening within the tunnels Evaleen, and whatever it is exactly that my visions are warning me of I can sense that it is something that will affect all of us, both elf and human kingdoms alike. If my father will not send anyone to investigate then I am forced to do so myself…but how would I even begin? Without a guide where would I even start?!” she cried out in exasperation.
“Kanark.”
“Excuse me?”
“The Neutral city of Kanark,” Evaleen replied, “My elder brother Almon recently returned from a trading trip there and mentioned that while he’d been in a tavern one night during his stay a man names Voltaire had tried to recruit him for an expedition that he was leading deep within the tunnels. Said he planned to go deeper than anyone had ever gone before and was in need of able bodied people to join his crew. Apparently he’d really wanted some elves to join as well, likely due to the fact that our senses are naturally sharper than humans, but that he’d been having problems getting any to enlist. Naturally Almon turned him down as well…but if you were going to join his crew you’d have to leave quickly, the day Almon mentioned the man was planning on leaving for the expedition is only a fortnight from now, and you know your father doesn’t like you leaving the palace without an escort. How exactly do you plan on getting there in the first place?”
“You just leave that up to me,” Lariana told her friend as a bright smile suddenly spread across her face.
“Now…did your brother happen to mention where the meeting point for the expedition crew was supposed to be?”
-----------------------------------------------
TWO WEEKS LATER
Lariana walked briskly through the markets of Kanark, headed in the direction that she had been told she would find the tavern called The Wooden Bastard, and there the man called Voltaire and his crew that her friend Evaleen had told her of. She was attired in her friend Evaleen’s own hunting garb that she wore whenever accompanying Lariana on one of her many excursions, a quiver of arrows strapped to her back with her own bow and fighting knifes stored securely inside. Luckily the two women were both of similar height and build, though while Lariana’s locks shone light and silver Evaleen’s were glossy and dark like a raven’s wings, so Lariana had braided back her hair to keep the long strands tucked away and then been careful to keep the green hood pulled up to conceal it and the rest of her features while slipping out first from the palace, then the city of Meldamiriel, and then from her father’s kingdom all together. Even now in Kanark, far away from anyone that might recognize her, she hesitated to lower it.
It was difficult not to allow herself to become distracted by all of the strange and exciting sights, sounds, and smells surrounding her. It was rare that she was able to travel outside of her own city and she had certainly never been allowed outside of her father’s kingdom before, not even to one of the Neutral cities like this one. As such it was her first time ever being in a city where humans also dwelled. The stories that her father and others had told her about the wars between their two races had always made them sound like such a crude and brutish lot, but elves here in Kanark seemed to be getting along with them well enough.
At last she reached the tavern and at once spotted a group of men loading up a wooden cart with supplies out front. One of the men she noted seemed to be in charge of the others, looking off of a sheet of paper in his hands and occasionally giving an order to one of the others. She wondered if this might be the man that she was looking for.
“Excuse me,” she called out as she approached him, “Are you the man called Voltaire? He is to be leading an expedition and I would like to join his crew. I was told that he was in need of elves to enlist.”
For the first time since leaving the palace she pulled back her hood in the presence of others, revealing herself to the man’s gaze.