The Elf and the Kitsune (reserved)

[ERedBoyd]

Balin The Swift leapt through crept through the northern shire forests of Breem, quite close to the borders of the notorious Troll Kings studying and watching and listening for sounds of any kind of invasion or intrusion into the lands of the wood elves for which he was a scout of. More than 20 scouts had been dispatched to the west scout camps near the Barrow falls which flowed from the west into the Troll Kings realms. with a bow in his hand with an arrow notched on it, he was prepared to strike any enemy from afar. If the enemy came too close whe sported two long daggers for which he was equally lethal with.

He had been with this camp for nearly a month now, following a particular routine. The bands of scouts would return to base camp at night once they siren charms were placed. The siren charms were designed to make a loud screeching sound should a troll, ogre, Gremlin, or dark knight drew too close to it. At night they would sit around their camp fires, enjoy a few meals based on what they could scavenge, sleep and then post out in random patterns throughout the forest. Should any invader, bandit, or foreign army were to be detected, he would be charged with launching a screech arrow directly into the air which would send a terrible scream through the entire forest, alerting all to invaders.

Today, Balin was dispatched to monitor and observe the Barrow Falls directly. It was normally once of his favorite assignments. He had located a perch up near the top of the falls that he would sit down in, giving him access all the way down the river. No one would get past him from that perch.

He found his spot and then took a seat on it, pulling out a Gold apple to munch on as he looked out and watched. For nearly 4 hours, he saw nothing but animals along the river's edge.... and was just about to think that this would be just another day on duty. He was just starting to think about that roll of lamen bread being roasted lightly over the fire with a piece of quail from his catch earlier when he heard the scream. His instinct was a scream arrow or a screeching charm... but a second later realized that wasn't the sound at all. It was the sound of ... an animal of some kind... like a dog or fox. He kept his eyes open watching the river when he first saw her....

A small red looking fox darted from the tree-line leaping from stone to stone over the river... making leaps no normal animal should be able to make.... till it got to the other side of the water.... about 5 seconds behind the small creature... 3 large black dire wolves darted out barking and howling and screaming in rage as they took to the river as well! He stood up and watched closely as the dire wolves made it over the river current to the other side, but slower so the fox creature had about 15 seconds up on them. The fox headed up the river towards the falls. That was a foolish move as the falls were essentially cliffs that made a giant semi-circle. There was no escape on this path that he had been aware of.

He dropped down a couple of feet to get a better shot, notching an arrow. What the dire wolves lost in the water, they quickly gained on the ground closing quickly on the creature! THere was no way the fox thing was going to make it to safety at this point so he pulled his bow to his face, drew back the bow and counted.... 3.... 2... 1....

He loosed the first arrow and it flew in a giant arch in the air.... and landed mid shoulder of the middle wolf! It stumbled and fell, flipping over and over, knocking the legs out from the third wolf in the back. He drew another arrow and was just about to fire again when the first dire wolf leapt through the air and landed on the fox! The red thing screamed in pain as the wolf went to bite at it, catching it's neck solidly! A half a second later, it released it's bite and went slump... a scout arrow buried in the middle of it's skull.

The fox thing didn't move though as the first dire wolf died and as the third wolf gained it's traction again, he had had another arrow notched.... the third wolf looked past the prey to the attacker of his pack... stopped it's attack.... then turned and ran off.... dire wolves were incredibly intelligent.

Balin let his eyes lock on the fox and waited.... and waited... it didn't move for several minutes and he feared it had died... then to his amazement, saw it's paw move..... It was weak... it was hurt.... and it was alone. He leaped down the path along the waterfall... ready to see if he could help the creature.... and cut off some dire wolf steaks for dinner.

 

[katalynn]

Shaysuri woke up in a strange and unfamiliar place with a severe, pounding migraine. She is still very young and full of curiosity. However, she has no idea how she got here. Never, in all her nearly 300 years, has she ever left the boundaries of her home. There was never a reason to leave everything she could ever want, or need was there… At home. Not to mention safety… or so she thought. This pounding migraine is telling her otherwise, it almost feels as though she was drugged somehow. There is a sharp pain in her neck, most likely from a dart from what she could assume. However, there is no time to figure out what happened when a pack of dire wolves caught onto her trail.

Instinct was to obviously use her magic to make the wolves go away. Unfortunately, somehow her magic had been weakened or hopefully temporarily bound, she didn’t know. There is no time to figure that one out either, she needed to run. And ran she did, normally, once she crosses the river…. In her homelands… She would be safe from the rare occasion of things that hunt, nothing ever crosses her river. Here, however… She quickly realized that creatures with ill intentions can cross this river. Her next move was the waterfall, hoping to find a little cave she could climb into, where the wolves couldn’t reach her.

Again, unfortunately, that didn’t happen either. Instead, she ran into the cliffside wall and no holes, burrows, or caves at all that she could escape into. Before she knew it, one of the wolves managed to grab her from behind, shaking her a few times before it let go. The last thing Shaysuri saw was the wolf falling to the ground, followed by the darkness as her eyes closed. It would be sometime until she tried to wake up, hearing the water next to her, believing she caught the scent of something other than the wolves. However, all she could taste, and smell was the blood from being tossed around by the wolf.

In the eyes of a human with no magical sight, Shaysuri looks like a normal everyday red and white fox. Those that do have experience in magical sight will notice that she isn’t a normal fox. There is a golden symbol on her forehead, the white fur has a light blue hue to it, instead of one tail, she has two tails flickering with energy symbols at the tips. Her eyes are like looking into either fire or an amber crystal.

It would be at least another hour before she fully wakes up to the smell of cooked food. At first it confused her, the fire and smoke throwing her off for a couple of minutes before she could focus. At first seeing the human figure on the other side of the fire naturally made her want to bolt and hide. However, her head is pounding and when she tried to stand up, she got dizzy and also her paw screamed at her. She didn’t remember hurting her left front paw, yet she couldn’t stand on it very well. It didn’t seem broken, but it did cause her to whimper when she made a second attempt to stand up.

 

[ERedBoyd]

Balin was not any elf that was particularly special. Just a male born in the great tree on the lower levels, who had grown up learning about nature and his people, not really standing out that much. He had taken the same educational opportunities as the others, usually taught to read and write by his parents and a tutor... he had learned early on he had two really exceptional talents... the first being his lethality with a bow and the other was his keen eyesight. This made him an ideal scout which they picked up on quickly. When an elf reaches young adult, the human age of 13, they were removed from their parents and sent to a general training camp to learn how to fight and defend oneself... they were taught of the glories of his lands and the leaders above them. After two years, they were sent to either a scout school, warrior school, medical school, command school, or the naturalistic academy.

When he looked at the injured fox laying near him on the ground, he only saw a fox... at least... mostly. He did notice some kind of strange mark on it's forehead, but little else different. When he had brought the beast back to his camp, it was near dead. Others in the camp had mistaken the fox as their meal for that night but he quickly corrected that assumption right quickly. He had laid the injured animal next to him, in his jacket by the fire and pulled out his herb bag. He had a few small bandages and some herbs to help with healing. Basically enough to get him back to the camp medic, Folkin. He examined her from head to tail and spotted her ankle also damaged so he applied the herbal mix to the cut and bandaged it gently.

He checked the neck where she had been bitten and to his surprise, there was no puncture wounds of broken bones. As hard as she had been bitten and as much as she was flung around in it's jaw, he was shocked she wasn't dead. That had been a hard shake!

Once she was tended to though, he noticed the others wanting to look at her like she was the blue plate special... and he reached into his pack and pulled out cloth wrapped steaks, each over an inch thick which came from the Dire wolves flanks themselves. This made him a celebrity for the day and took the heat off of his new friend becoming a meal.

He cut a few chunks of his own steak off and repackaged it. Foxes were carnivores after all and when she woke up, would be hungry. The lead scout and Commander of the camp, Vilo, came around and knelt down looking at the fox. Vilo was one of the most experienced soldiers and scouts in the field and was wise and respected by the entire camp. He said, "What happened here?"

"She got attacked by dire wolves... I saved her. Going to heal her up and send her on her way." Balin said as he stroked her fur.

"Best keep her on a leash for now son...." Vilo said calmly and stroked her ear, "She is a cute one though. But if she panics and hurts someone... we would have to put her down. Understand?"

Balin nodded, "I understand sir." He pulled out a small length of rope, made a small loop in it and wrapped it around her neck and secured it with a stake from his tent. He was sure she wouldn't like it, but the commander was right. It was for her own good for now. He laid a small bowl he used for his soups and stews on the ground next to her filled with water and set the steaks pieces near her as well. Hopefully, that would counter her anger when she learned of the hoop around her neck.

It was a couple hours later when she began to stir once more. Her eyes flickered open and shut taking in her assessment. He laid on his side facing her with a small smile on his face stroking her fur saying, "Hey there pretty... you are safe.... I am taking care of you... no need to fight.... you are safe here. I am just helping you get better and I will send you on your way." He was not sure why he was talking to a fox, but that symbol on her forehead told him there was more to this animal that met the eye... He kept coaxing her softly and gently as she woke....