"Elves of the Northern Vale" A Tundrawolf Story

The Land of Plenty

    The Tundra Wolves that returned were intelligent and filled with the Wild Wolf Magic. They were able to carve out a home on the Tundra where their ancestors had once lived. In their minds eye they could still see the huge trees of the Wolfswood all about them. From their fathers, fathers memories, that went back to a time even before the Wolfswood, the great trees were all around as they traveled the old trails just as their forefathers had done. They made paths through the snow that zig zagged around trees that were no longer there. To men that do not know the Tundra Wolves they called their intelligence just a better instinct. But the Elves and the men that bonded with the Tundras knew better as they caught glimpses of the wonderful memories that guided the great wolves.

     Before the Fell Ice the Elves were also friends to two very small races of people that lived from the vast plains in the east to the shores of the Great Water in the west. The Elves called them the Pixens and the Esari. The main realm of the Pixens were known as the Emerald Aisles while the Esari lived all throughout what are now called the Tallspine Mountains. They lived in the vast forest of gossamar trees that covered the Tallspines and surrounding lands.

     The wee Pixens and the Esari rode on the backs of many animals in those days because they were their friends and these friends helped to keep them safe. In the north they rode the big furry Dire Wolves when they needed to travel the Wolfswood. Throughout the gossamar forests where the large Red Wing Hawks made their home the Esari and the Pixens were small enough to jump on the backs of these big raptors and fly the skies. In the mountains they made friends with the little three toed horses that called the forested mountain sides and the high meadows their home. They rode on their backs as they ran swiftly up cliff sides like a wild mountain goat.

     The Pixens were a very wee people, only growing as tall as an Elf's ankle boot. They were truly a magical people whom the Elves say are related to the Fae Folk of the Emerald Isles. They are a secretive race that can disappear like a whisper and not be found if they do not wish it. The closest kin to the Pixens are the Esari and they are the only reason that they travel away from their home on the Isles.

     When the Fell Ice came and covered the world it was said that the Pixens one and all returned to their homeland, never to be seen again in the lands of the north. But after the Ice and as man moved into the northlands it is said by many that the wee Pixens still travel and live in the lands of the Snow Forest. Many a man that has traveled and hunted the forest tells a tale of seeing a wee Pixen's house from the corner of his eye. Some say they see a small cottage with white smoke curling out of the chimney and the smell of bread cooking in the air. When they turn a second later to get a good look they see everything is gone, even the smell, as if it had never been. When they search the ground at where they thought that had seen the tiny house they would usually only find a small hollow mound on the earth that could have been home to a  squirrel, if they even found that.

     The larger cousins to the Pixens, the Esari, did not travel the same path as the wee Pixens. They were a carefree race of very small people with the tallest maybe reaching an Elven knee. They had the look of being small men with the only difference being their pointed swept back ears. Their skin browned in the sun as they ran, rode and flew through their gossamar forests with their long hair flowing down their backs. They were a beautiful little people and very endeared to the Elves who watched guard over the lands of the Pixens and Esari. The only thing that the Esari took serious were their jobs as tree shepards and the caring for their beloved gossamar trees that ran throughout the wide land of the North. They made their homes in the trees and received everything they needed from them to survive.

     When the Fell Ice started its advance the many tribes of Esari came together and made their plans to survive the deadly cold. Two-thirds of their people decided to travel the way of the Dire Wolves and the Red Wing Hawks and migrate south to warmer lands, staying ahead of the cold. The other Esari took to the caves under the Tallspine Mountains, growing varieties of mushrooms, fishing in underground pools and hunting the little furry things that had the same idea to survive the cold. They traveled down tunnels that led to the molten bowls of the earth, fires even the Fell Ice could never put out. They built their homes close to the warmth away from the freeze. Both groups of Esari carried with them thousands of seeds from the gossamar tree for they knew the great forests would be destroyed. Over many generations they protected the seeds from vermin and rot, dreaming of the day they could replant the forests of old.