Done!
Because it's become a thing I do (lovingly called "The Tawmis-Verse" by folks in this thread!) I was able to "loosely" connect yours to
another person's origin that I just wrote! So you can read that one too and get a "piece" of your own history (explains the Treants and the Druid Council).
Other than that, I had fun writing this... even the tragic piece of survival on both sides...
Please leave feedback! What you love, what you hate, anything! I thrive on feedback of any kind!
Enjoy!
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Humans.
They’re wretched and wasteful, with their short lives compared to that of an Elf, they had so little regard for tomorrow, always living in the moment of now. They would decimate a forest, without considering the impact to the world, to the plants, to the wildlife, raping the land and robbing these people and animals of their homes.
I wasn’t always this vengeful. From the moment I was born, I can almost swear I heard my father warning me about the ways of “The Men Beyond The Woods” or his favorite slur, “the round ears.” Living in Chondalwood Forest, I was surrounded by Ghostwise Halflings, Satyr, Treants, and other tribes of Elves, all of which called Chondalwood Forest home. They all told me about the evils of Humans, and I refused to listen to it. Humans could not be as evil as everyone seemed to make them out to be.
All of these stories always involved Male Humans doing these horrible things, so I wanted to know how Female Humans were.
At the age of sixteen, I got my answer. My father was a Druid and taught me how to live off the land and track people and animals in the woods. While my father focused on the Balance of Nature using Magic, I wanted to be more direct in the event it came to a fight. I learned how to use not one, but two swords, in the event I was ever disarmed. My father was not pleased with me since he did not think it was right for women to be using weapons and getting so close and upfront in fights. This is the first I had heard him make such statements, so I think it had more to do with the fact that I was placing myself in danger.
My father knows how to say things so it sounds like one thing but he means something else.
The snapping sound of a twig snapped me back to reality.
I was busy tracking what appeared to be a thin human who had somehow gotten around the Treants in the Northern Border, which was no easy feat. The Treants were almost impossible to see when they were sitting still unless you knew what to look for. But something had made the Treants more violent the last few months. I had heard my father at the Druid’s Council arguing about the Treants after a Ghostwise Halfling had brought up the observation. When Tor Delaron, someone whom my father knew and respected, spoke up, it was a landslide of other voices now all agreeing that they’d seen the same thing. There was a good chance whatever was impacting the Treants was making them restless and easier to spot.
Then I saw her – a human woman! She was wearing a cloak that shimmered, making her difficult to see. But there she was with a bow and arrow in hand. I saw her pull the string back and my eyes followed where the arrow was pointed – and there, in a small cave was a black panther on her side allowing her cubs to drink from her nipples.
“No!” I shouted, but it was already too late. The sound of my voice had alerted the panther mother, who lifted her head, just in time to get an arrow in her throat. I rushed out from my hiding place and tackled the human woman and shoved my dagger through her right hand. “What have you done?” I growled.
The woman screamed in pain as my dagger pierced her hand and pinned it to the ground. “I am so sorry,” she cried, “my children – they’re starving. They don’t feed us at the shelter! I was desperate!”
“Look!” I violently turned her head, not even caring if I snapped her neck in the process and made her look at the panther she’d slain. “Look! She has three cubs! Three cubs that now – like your children – will starve because of you!”
“I wouldn’t have hurt the cubs,” she cried as I pulled out my dagger. She held her hand to her bleeding palm.
“Wouldn’t have hurt them? Wouldn’t have hurt them? You’ve doomed them by killing their mother! You would be merciful if you did kill them at this point!” I was foaming at the mouth, beyond furious. I placed the dagger against her throat, so close, applying so much pressure, that it cut and began to bleed. “I should kill you – I should kill you and let your children starve and die! It would only be perfect! It would be the Balance!”
I jumped off the woman and pointed, “Get out. Get out of my sight. If I ever see you again, in these woods or out there in the world, I do not care if your children are watching, I will kill you. So run. Run far away. And pray our paths do not ever cross again.”
As the woman ran north, I shouted, “Stop! Go this way!” and pointed to the west. If she kept running North she would run into the Treants who had been blood thirsty. Perhaps that’s what she deserved, honestly. I turned my gaze to the slain panther and her cubs. I reached down and picked up all three cubs and returned home.
My father was furious with me and scolded me saying that I should not have revealed myself. Neither should I have taken the cubs. I should have let nature decide their fate. I told my father that Nature had decided their fate by putting me there. Two of the cubs died within two weeks, the third, and the runt of the litter however survived. She treated me like her mother and rubbed against me and purred wildly. I named her Skyshadow, because of her crystal blue eyes and dark fur.
Despite my searing hatred of humans, I realize it comes from an ignorance of not knowing how their world works. My name is Shalendra Valsys, and with my best friend, Skyshadow, I will go out to the world beyond the woods and learn about this strange world…