Tonight I shall tell you the beginning of an incredible tale!
My name is Ireth, I am a hearth elf raised to fit even the most noble halls ever known to elvenkind. That was my mother's job: she used to teach all little elves to fit anywhere they wanted to. She could also teach those elves who could and wanted to learn magic and music.
Even though my mother tried hard, she could never convince my stubborn personality to behave like a noble: I have always had a quite unique personality, not fit at all to noblety, therefore, I convinced my father, the best archer in our halls, to teach me archery. The first time I got a bow in my hands, I felt like I had been missing a limb my whole life. And that's also what happened when my mother gave me the lute.
I was, then, nearly complete. I had the bow and the lute, and that's what I loved most in life. Magic also came easily for me, even though I had never been the most patient among us.
But, well, something was missing... something I could not explain, a hole in my heart, something that made me feel incomplete. I decided then to travel the world as a skald: I wanted to bring happiness and hope to people all over the world with my music and telling stories. I felt really good when I could see all the eyes staring at me, paying attention to every move I took; the audience that can barely keep their mouths shut, listening to adventures and songs.
And that's how I became complete: in one of my trips, I got in real trouble when a gang tried to rob me and I was saved when I thought I was doomed. A hearth elf who used to live in a really far away forest from where I was raised saved me and became my husband, the light of my life, the one who made my heart complete. He was the piece that was missing: Mahtan Elensar.
Life's been good with Mahtan, we travel around the world bringing happiness and love wherever we go, however, as the winter falls upon us and as each day gets colder than the previous one, we had to start doing small jobs to get some money, because what we earned with music was not enough for both of us.
We decided to join a party to protect and deliver some flour (which has been pretty valuable these days). We accepted the terms even though they were not the best and joined the party with Tryg, Randal, Amara and her beautiful and loyal snow leopard.
The job, that looked pretty simple in the beginning, turned out to be as troublesome as an avalanche for a city between the mountains: we had to fight hungry wild orcs on the road... they were pretty tough and even Mahtan couldn't intimidate them.
We found, then, an abandoned tower to spend the night in. Mahtan was brave enough to go inside all by himself and investigate what had happened there and you won't believe what he found, my dear audience... He found lots of skeletons and... BLOOD! Yes, blood! Blood everywhere!
Even though there were skeletons and blood on the floor and walls upstairs, downstairs was a little cleaner and was a good place for us and the poor horses to rest and get away from the cold night out.
You might be thinking we were crazy to spend the night there with nothing else to protect us besides our weapons, but we didn't really have any other option, for it was getting dark and Sigel knows what kinds of creatures hide in the forest in the cold and dark days we've been having lately.
As we thought, it was indeed a good place to hide, and get some good rest for the next day to come because, oh Lord Sigel, we would surely need it!
We traveled to Dunross to get the flour we were supposed to deliver, but when we got there we found out there was a plague in the city. Rats! Rats everywhere! The guards wouldn't let anyone in because the town was in quarantine but we managed to convince him we could help the people, however we had never been so wrong. As soon as we stepped in the town we realized it was doomed: its people was helpless and hopeless. I tried to give them some music but it was useless, they wouldn't dance or get better or happier, for they knew their lives would end soon. I was hopeless and heartbroken to know there was absolutely nothing I could do for those people, therefore I got back to where the party was so we could get the carts ready to go.
Then chaos began. There were people running, panicking, screaming on every single inch of that town. The reason? Thousands of rats, big, small, homungus, were invading the city. There were so many of them you could barely see the ground anymore. Amara and I managed to protect the horses while the men and the snow leopard would protect the ones in the cart. Those strong enough could pull some villagers up into the cart, but small as it was, we could only save four of them...
It was an awful day for all of us... feeling so hopeless, running from rats, we couldn't barely escape from. It was humiliating but we did what was asked of us: we got the flour and safely got it out of town.
But now it's time for us to take our kids inside and take our rests, for it's getting dark and cold, and the light and warmth of our fire won't be enough to protect us.
Meet me here on the morrow if you are willing to know what happened next on our glorious adventure!
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