Rollvag, although tired from the march out of the mountains, stood up among you and spoke eloquently: "Elkin, the bounty of your generosity overwhelms us. We can think of many words to say thank you, yet, they may sound too hollow, or too insincere, or too vacuous. Gratitude is difficult to convey, especially from those who have not seen the sun, or felt the wind, or heard the gentle flows of a stream in a long time. Freedom in itself is enough to earn our undying respect, admiration, and, yes, gratitude; and if you just melted away into the forest without a trace, you will still hold our loyalty in your hands. But no, you have given us food, and weapons, and comfort. You teach us and help us and ask for nothing in return. To top it all off, you call us `Elfin,' a gift, nay, an honor, we hope to live up to. For that alone is enough for thanks. Is there more to be said? Yes, I think there is. Among my people, we have a custom. When you have been the recipient of a great honor, you must acknowledge that honor with a small token. It need not be big, or extravagant, or exclusive, only that it reflects that which you have received. So what have we for you? Our lutar? Nay, that was yours. A shrill, nay, not that either. What then? What indeed. Elkin, I present to you a mallet and chisel, symbols of our captivity, and your bravery. It is a small enough token, yet I think that these may aid you. Some where, some day, you will need them, and you will remember them. Please, I shall not need them, nor will I have them back. They are yours as we are. Finally, among our people is a custom of greeting -- a hand shake. Yet, you deserve more than greeting, and we have a custom of respect -- a wrist crossing. I offer you my forearm, Elkin. Should you take it, our wrists shall cross. You shall bolster the respect of myself, and my family, and my descendants -- and we shall come to your aid immediately, without hesitation, no matter what the distance, no matter what the need. The wrist crossing is our most solemn custom. Elkin, I offer my forearm." Elkin smiled broadly and said: "Quick and heartily! Show me how to do this wrist crossing before this precious moment is lost!" Elkin and Rollvag crossed their right wrists, gripping eachothers' forearms. Elkin and the other elf, who goes by the name Myriel, then danced about excitedly, crossing wrists and shaking everyone's hands also, including eachother's. They sang: "Crossing wrists! Crossing wrists! What a fine tah-do! A thing so true, and greeting too, while happy in our hearts!" (Elves are a little nuts sometimes.) Your stay with the two elves was invigorating. Each day was filled with training activities. You ate scrumptious coney, grouse and trout with wild vegetables, berries, and nuts. Even the crayfish tasted delicious. On Duco Duca Forcil, you celebrated by feasting on a roasted wild turkey (caught in a net by Cher). On the sixteenth day you completed your training and Myriel bid you good bye. (With more wrist crossings, of course). Through it all, the weather was mild. On two days, the third and the ninth, it rained for half a day and half a night. When you looked around yourselves, you saw sharp, craggy mountains with snow-capped peaks everywhere. You could also see that just a small distance to the east lay the beginning of a green luscious valley with more mountains on both sides of it. Beautiful, full grown trees stood around your little camp. Here and there cedars, beeches, oaks and pines spread out between meadows and thickets; perfect for game... What did you train for? (you ask?) Kuros trained in the bow and spear, learned how to survive in the wilderness, and studied in the rudiments of hunting and tracking. Longsilver practiced with the shriken (Spear), elected to become a superior tracker, and acquired a handy knowledge of stalking, scouting and hunting. Cher also practiced with the spear, majored in woods survival, and learned to be an able bow man, fire starter, and cook. Rollvag did not study with the spear, but had Elkin teach him to use the kar and lutar to the limits of Elkin's ability. Rollvag also elected to learn a bit about the arts of scouting fishing and trapping. Byc, who was already a huntsman, kept busy by keeping your group well supplied; he gave a hunting lesson or two also. Last of all, Tara seemed content practicing with her martial arts and mending clothing and leather. Concerning the reed whistles, two of you were able to successfully discover their purpose, although quite by accident: Rollvag and Longsilver sat by the water's edge, one hundred feet downstream of the water fall. They acted like a couple of old school buddies. Longsilver looked at Rollvag and said: "Whistles usually call things to you; like dogs for example. Perhaps this one calls something from the woods. If you wanted something, what would it be?" "A steed!" answered Rollvag excitedly. Rollvag quickly blew air through his whistle, but nothing happened. Only the silent vibration occurred. "No, I guess that won't work," said Rollvag dejectedly. Longsilver continued talking on the theme: "I'd like a companion and I don't want a horse. I was thinking maybe of a hawk. Let me try mine." With that, Longsilver blew air into the reed for several seconds. Again, it made no sound, and just vibrated. For several minutes more, nothing happened. All they heard was the quiet gurgling of the stream. "Oh well," said Rollvag, "Maybe it does something else." Suddenly, two high pitched cries echoed around them. "Kee! kee!" The cries startled Rollvag and Longsilver. When they looked in the direction of the sound, a large Red-Tailed Hawk landed on the top of a pine tree just above and behind them. The Hawk perched there, calling sharply while it avidly looked for something. Fast Rollvag made a motion to stand up quickly and shout at it. Rollvag managed to bellow "Helloow the..." before Longsilver leapt up and covered Rollvag's mouth. Longsilver whispered: "Slowly now, go and get me some rabbit strips." Rollvag walked off quietly. Then Longsilver blew his whistle one more time while the hawk looked at him squarely. The Hawk spoke in the language of hawks and said "Scree! Kee! What have you for mee?" Longsilver was amazed that the Hawk could talk and that he could understand it. Longsilver spoke gently: "Scree! Kee!, Mr. Hawk, I am Longsilver. Would you keep me company for a while?" "Kee, Kee, Glad-ee-ly," answered the Hawk much more quietly. The Hawk became very curious, opened its broad wings, and glided deftly down to a lower branch just above Longsilver. Just then, Rollvag returned with the strips, and slowly handed them to Longsilver, who put a strip on his shoulder. This was too much for the Hawk, who chirped "Scree, yee feed mee, kee!" It hopped on Longsilver's shoulder. In this way, it became Longsilver's friend. Rollvag later tried his whistle and received a sturdy Eagle as his companion. Together, Rollvag and Longsilver found that their companions could respond to them if within shouting distance, and would always return from a longer distance if the whistle was blown. One last thing: The Hawk and the Eagle seemed somehow to be able to change size... Throughout your stay with the Elves, no one harried or harassed you. None of the Drogs had followed you through the water pas- sage. Longsilver, puzzled by this, asked Elkin "Sir, why have the Drog not followed us?" Elkin answered gravely. "The water passage through the mountains has always been guarded and your passage through the mountains has been sealed off. I can tell you no more than this: If you Elfin, should ever need an emergency passage, a way may be found; though why you would want to fight them again, I know not." Elkin spent time talking to each one of you individually. Basically, he encouraged Cher to fly and to be a scout for the group, because of her small size and great strength; Kuros to practice a certain number of his old lessons; Longsilver to be wood wise; and Rollvag to think logically. Finally, on the seventeenth day, he called you all together for an evening camp- fire. You all sat around and listened to the crackle of the fire, while you watched the warm glows on your cheerie faces. Elkin folded his legs and began to speak: "Elfin, I speak to you while we are at peace, but from now on peace will be a treasured thing for you. You have done well in your training, but let me remind you that you must support each other until you develop your skills. For example, the survivalists, Kuros and Cher, must help Rollvag and Longsilver build shelters until I may teach them this skill. Also, Cher and Tara are your only cooks and fire-starters. You will understand what I mean soon." "Also, you must know that Rollvag has asked me some questions that I will now answer in front of all of you." "The first one is: `Who are your enemies, Elkin?' My enemies are those who oppose the forces of good. In this age, there are mainly six groups whose presence, customs, actions and attitudes are in opposition to good. The Drog Barbarians, the Dolo War- locks, the Dorfus Marsh People, the Ingbad Jungle Tribes, the North Mountain Ice Pirates, and the Eastern Plains Hill Bandits." "On the side of good are the Tzor Riders of the Marsh; the Nomads of the Northern Glaciers (Ki), Eastern Plains (Koriki), Southeastern Desert (Nori), and Northern Plains (Uri); The men of the North (Toridar) and South (Kindar) Kingdoms; The Lawful Mountain Giantmen (Stor); and small, scattered tribes of Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Fairies, and Pixies. There are other unusual creations on both sides." "Don't worry," added Elkin, "let's just say that one of you will be able to tell good from evil." Arveta Supplement: Someone you might meet Back to Arveta Table of Contents Back to Arveta List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Abram Paradies. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com