In the Shadow of the Elven Kingdom: An Elven Fantasy Novella by Alden Odessa

Author:Alden Odessa [Odessa, Alden]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2018-10-13T00:00:00+00:00

I had visitors, but not the kind that I was hoping for, and not in my dreams.

Once again, I heard them before I saw them, then I smelled them before I could see them. My eyes bolted open, and unfortunately, I was not quick to my feet. In my sleep, my leg had gotten worse. Letting the leg set, and not circulating blood through it, had done it no favors; tightening and swelling until it was stiff as one of these trees. I groaned in pain as I reached for my Gladeswords.

I hobbled to my feet, but it was clear that I had little fight left in me. The pain in my leg was throbbing, and I knew that my mobility would be non-existent. Whoever it was that was here to take from me would be picking low hanging fruit.

I welcomed this battle, honestly. I had conceded myself to dying a lonely death, by a fire, sweating out the infection as it gradually took my life.

Drying in battle was going to be a welcomed death.

My attackers came into the light of my fire, and I had never seen anything like them and I have no idea what they were.

They were short and stubby, about five feet tall; they had green skin and large, fat noses. They wore leather vests and pants. Their weapons were simple enough. Clubs with spikes sticking out of them, I have no idea what the spikes were made of, but they looked like a stone, sharpened. A few of them had similar looking knives, not steel, but stone, sharpened to a fine point.

There were four of them. I don't know their strengths, and more importantly, I didn't know their weaknesses. I sized them up, I noticed they were not wearing shoes, but it looked like this was a lifestyle choice and not a weakness. Their skin looked thick, weathered. It looked old, and their eyes were black, perhaps that was just how their eyes looked in the firelight, but I suspected that their eyes were deep pools of darkness.

They had facial hair, thick beards, also black, and they had the same black hair, although thinner, on their exposed arms. Their skin was covered in lines of time, I had no idea how old these beasts were, but they looked ancient. And ugly. They were horribly ugly and had teeth with sharp points protruding from the bottom of their mouth. Even with their mouth closed, the teeth still stuck out.

"Who are you?" I called out, once again, the monsters that lived in this forest gave no voice to their needs. "What are you?" I followed up.

These did not look like fast creatures, nor intelligent. Were it that I was at full strength I doubt they would be much of a battle. I think my swords would have made quick work of them. This could be a false assumption; the last attackers had taught me to not judge an enemies strength by their appearance. Were I to get

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