The Elevated Tree

09 Await

Shanda and I got up from our rest (elves don't really sleep) refreshed and stretched the stiffness out of our limbs by some light Rimgar. That didn't quite do it, so she suggested we go for a short run before repast so I could see greater Dolanaar. Leaving her cloak, she tucked her sarong in her belt and we took off into the fields. Our barefeet (we left our footwear behind too) were instantly soaked from the dew, but it felt wonderful. Before I knew it, it had become a contest, a race, and we changed our random running into hard sprinting. We let the contours of the land guide us, slightly downhill to the western half Al'ameth Lake. We had to skirt a few treeroots and obvious nightsaber dens. By the time we'd reached waters edge, I was breathing deeply and had a slight sheen of sweat on my chest, though my mother was barely winded. I don't know how she kept in shape with all the meditating and talking she did in her class. She had stopped short as well, and with an inviting look at me, slowly waded into the shallows of the lake.

The pools in the glen were shallow, warm but refreshing, and quite clean. This was different: there was a current, and much more silt on the bottom than I was used to. Cattails waved near us in the morning breeze. I went in up to my knees and stopped, not wanting to get my only pair of breeches wet. My mother had brought some clothes with her to Dolanaar, but not many. There was ample time and opportunity to launder our things in any elf lifestyle.

She pointed out some schools of Brilliant Smallfish swimming nearby, nibbling at things on the surface. "Look how the schools stay away from us by a certain distance?" she observed.

I nodded. I liked wildlife, but I'd never fished, nor eaten much of it (our diet was pretty natural), so I'd never been very interested in fishlife. I was enjoying squeezing the silt between my toes when she also pointed to a group of Timberling foundlings tottering around on the opposite shore. They looked like they were picking something off the ground, but it was hard to tell at that distance.

With a sigh, she turned and waded out, shaking water off her long, powerful legs. I did the same, probably with less finesse, and we walked back. Though the sabers were still sleeping, we did spy a Webcrawler spider just coming down from its home in the boughs. It gave me the creeps to think that an animal half my size did most of its living above my head without my knowledge.

We got our cloaks and footwear (my mom wore boots) from our room and shared a quick repast standing by the opening to the back field. Moonrage and his table of...things had disappeared during the night, supposedly sequestered wherever priests from here stored important things. I hadn't seen signs of a cellar in this lodge, but I hadn't had time to explore either.

The man himself though, was nearby, deep in discussion with another elf. Instead of interrupt them, my mother thought we should seek our her counterparts in the tree first. The griffons outside it were awake and ruffling their beautiful plumage when we went past. "Sometime, we'll have you ride on one," my mother promised. "Messengers are allowed to use them if they need to go all the way to Darnassus."

I was thrilled at the idea. "Surely there's something they need to know today," I insisted. "We're short on Kimchi? Master Moonrage has developed irreparable apathy? Innkeeper Keldamyr has developed an unhealthy crush on Priestess Shanda?"

She laughed at this until the last, then shot me a semi-strict corrective glance. "I said, we'll get you on one someday. You don't have to invent tasks or issues."

The thought of flight both thrilled and terrified me. To have a different outlook on life than just....ground level all the time. Then again, would I really trust an animal with my life like that? I knew they were smarter than birds, though not totally sentient. Kind of like our tamed and ridable Sabercats. Cognizant of the riders preferences, but still independent in a wild way. These thoughts took us up all the way to the top of the tree, where only Master Swiftroot was.