Trail of Tears

Stormroot gazed out to the lake below. His people were playing in the sun and water, laughing and singing. Well, the children certainly were. The few young elves of the Fastness were playing like the world was theirs, like the Forest still loved them. The few mothers stood smiling quietly while games of hide and seek were carried out with great intensity. 

His reverie was broken by the door opening. "Briarwhisper, what news?" He didn't need to look...the elven scout was the only one who would ever dare enter without a summons or a request. So much had changed since Oakhilt had died.

"You did not come to the pairing. We missed you. Raven missed you. All of Istrith missed you."

Briar

Stormroot continued looking over the forest glade that was his charge, of the children that were not his. In fact, no elf had been born in the Viaspen for years, even before the Fall of Oakhilt. A curious feeling crept over him; uncomfortable, troubling. His face grew taught. 

"Stormroot, options have been presented to you over the years: Gaius has offered sanctuary and friendship, the Court of Aodhan would welcome us all home, the Lady Mornya has welcomed us as well. You asked me what news? That which you showed me those years ago in the ancient etchings of the Shrine, nothing less than Cyfandir. It is time to go, we have no home here."

Stormroot thought back to driving his sword into the heart of Ferigno, riding him down as he plummeted to the earth like a falling star, stabbing deeper into the dragon's heart until they struck ground. He remembered Oakhilt's reticence to make common cause with the humans, no matter what their peril might be. Briarwhisper persisted in his requests to aid Drakon and save the Borderlands so to protect the Fastness...and eventually Oakhilt agreed. He died from that agreement as much as he did from a foul human wizard's evil spell. It was the last spell Dairin would ever cast, though, as Drakon split him completely in two with a single mighty sword strike. The evil vanquished that day ended any threat of violence against the elves and earned Drakon an elven name as friend. It did not truly gain them peace, however.

"As you have said,  Briarwhisper, it is time to go. Shall we ride together again and exact the price of Ferigno's terror upon his mother? Revenge is a human endeavor, perhaps we have been too long here in their company. It seems they are rubbing off on me even as you seem to become more the proper Argollean," mused Stormroot.

Briar laughed. There was a tinkling in his laugh which Stormroot had never heard before. "Aye, Stormroot, time spent at the Court of Aodhan is time well spent indeed. Would you seek revenge on the wind or lightning? Why, then, seek vengeance for Oakhilt? No, Cyfandir is ours and Aisoth has borrowed it long enough. We have need of it now and so we shall take it back without need of revenge. Istrith is our home and beckons us."

"And, even as we are being forced to leave our home here, you bear no anger towards the humans, toward Drakon for his abandoning our friendship? The Hierophant is continuing the rituals at the Shrine for the benefit of them?" Stormroot's face grew dark, and fire flashed in his eyes. 

Briar cocked his head a bit and stared. "Curious. You have been around them too long. There is a curse afflicting our kind just across the Krysivor, not a two day's journey from here. Drakon was concerned for you, for all of us, that this curse might come for us as well. It seems his concern was well founded. It also seems the timing is perfect for us to go. The Forest has spoken for many years now of how the singing would stop. Oakhilt was seeking the cause and it was driving him mad. Yet, he was himself a part of the cause. Our rituals have ceased here and so now our infants are no more. Oakhilt sought ever more esoteric knowledge and power in his experiments. He became so distanced, he forgot to dance. He forgot our songs. The trees have told me this, the Hierophant has confirmed it. I know why you did not come to the pairing: you knew you would never come back once you entered the dance. Come, Stormroot, it is time we go. I would yet sing and dance with you again as in our youth."

With that, Briar left...

And Stormroot began packing.