Jessie and Joel stood at the border to the land of the elves. From the road, it appeared to be just another forest like any other. With trees of different shapes and sizes, and the occasional woodland creature running through it. Standing at the edge, it felt different to them. Up close, there was a misty fog rolling through the trees and they could feel a different energy emanating from the forest.

  They stepped into the forest and the hairs on their arms tingled, and the mist that was surrounding them seemed to breathe in and out as the light breeze went across them. The breeze was cold and unwelcoming and sent chills through them. The forest was darker than by the road and it started to feel ominous. Jessie wanted to turn back, but Joel urged her to continue further.

  The deeper they went into the realm of the fair folk, the thicker the misty fog seemed to grow. It became harder for them to see where they were going. They bumped into trees and into each other. Tor-kenna, in her owl form, was perched on Jessie’s shoulder. She leapt to the ground and took her human form.

  “My owl eyes are of no use. I am blinded by this fog.” She changed into her wolf form after giving instructions to hold on to her tail. They followed her through the mist, guided only by the sounds of the forest. They passed a tree that looked familiar to Jessie. It wasn’t a very large tree, but it had a distinctive branch with three forks on it. It reminded her of a tree by her home that she used to climb.

  They continued to follow Tor-kenna into the unknown. After some time, they passed the same tree as before. “I believe we are going in circles,” said Jessie. “I am certain we have passed this tree twice before,” she continued. Tor-kenna returned to her human form and said, “I have noticed that as well.”

  They decided to change the direction they were going, but after a short while, they were back standing next to the same tree. Frustration began to fill Joel and he took off running in a different direction, leaving the others behind. "We need to stay together!" shouted Jessie to her brother. After a few minutes, Jessie heard him scream. She and Tor-kenna started running in the same direction and for a brief moment the fog was gone. The forest floor fell from below her feet and they were falling.

  She screamed out. She heard Tor-kenna howling as they fell. They hit the ground and started to roll down a long hill. They tumbled over and over, gaining speed as they rolled. Jessie screamed as she rolled. She could no longer hear the screams of her brother and the howls of Tor-kenna had stopped. She stopped suddenly with a hard thud into the side of a rock that was covered with soft, bushy moss.

  She yelled for Tor-kenna and Joel. The fog was gone, but she could not see either of them. She was surprised to find that she didn't have a single cut or scratch on her after the long tumble to the bottom. She searched around for the other two. She heard them yelling for her in the distance. As she stood, looking around, she could see that she had fallen into a deep hole.

  The hole reminded her of a well. The sides were too smooth to climb and too high for her to reach the edge. The only thing at the bottom of it was her and dirt. Joel began to answer her and she found out that he too was in a similar hole in the ground. Tor-kenna yelled out, "There is a magical barrier over the well. I am unable to fly out." Jessie began to think to herself, " This must be an elven trap," as she sat down next to the wall, trying to calm herself.

  They remained trapped in the wells for hours. They had lost everything that they had brought with them in the fall. They had no food and no water. As Jessie sat in the bottom of the empty well, wishing that the elves would come and discover them, she began to get hungry. She hadn't eaten since before they left camp and she was also becoming thirsty.

  She looked around the pit and saw a strawberry bush that was filled with strawberries. She loved eating strawberries and her hunger was bothering her. She crawled over to the bush and began eating the juicy strawberries. She ate all of them very quickly. She was no longer hungry and her thirst had gone away.

  She called for her brother and told him what had happened and found that it had happened for him and Tor-kenna as well. They remained in the bottom of their pits through the night. When they became hungry, the strawberries would sprout again. Jessie and the others tried to stay awake, but when the moon was high, they fell asleep.

  Jessie awoke to the sound of a horn blowing. She heard shouting in a language that she was unfamiliar with. She could hear what sounded like hoof beats coming from outside of her pit. She stood and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She began shouting to whomever was outside of the pit to help her.

  She watched outside of her hole trying to see what was going on. It became silent for a moment. She yelled out again for help. She stopped to listen. She began to hear what sounded like someone singing at the top of the pit. She looked above her. She couldn't see who was singing, but she saw vines that were growing quickly, down into the pit.

  The vines were growing longer and thicker as they stretched downward into the pit and began moving towards her. Jessie scrambled as far away as she could, but the vines followed her. She began to scream as the vines wrapped themselves around her tightly. She tried to pry them off of her, but they only became tighter.

  When the singing stopped. Jessie was hanging at the bottom of the pit with her feet dangling just off the ground. Her arms and legs were bound tight and she couldn't move. A vine had made its way over her mouth and she couldn't scream or speak. The voice from above began to sing again. As the song drifted through her ears, the vines began to constrict and pull her up, out of the pit.

  When Jessie's head emerged from the pit, she could see that her brother and Tor-kenna were hanging from vines and being raised from the pits that they were in as well. The vine over her mouth fell away. See looked around at her captors. There were three of them. They were all wearing the same leather armor that was the color of the forest; trimmed in gold and silver. The only difference that she could see between them was the shape of their helms.

  They were riding on the backs of the most magnificent stags she had ever seen. One was a brilliant white color that seemed to radiate light as it stood in the sunlight. Its rider was a tall thin elf with blonde hair. His helm was shaped to look like an eagle in flight. The beak stretched out to cover his brow, and the wings stretched behind as if in a dive.

  The other two elves rode stags that were red. One had a helm shaped as a swan swimming on a lake, while the other was the shape of an owl's head whose eyes seemed to pierce through to one's spirit. The rider of the white stag, who Jessie assumed was the leader, said, "State your business, or perish."

  Joel tried to speak, but his mouth was still covered by the vines. "We are travelers on route to the sea," said Jessie. "Why did you forsake the road and sully our lands, human?" asked the elf. "We took a shortcut through the forest to save time," replied Jessie. The vines that had wrapped around her head began to shrivel and fall away.

  She shook herself, trying to free the rest of her body, but it was no use. The vines held firm. "Jessie? Is that you?" asked the elf with the owl shaped helm. She removed her helm and Jessie saw that it was Kara riding one of the red stags. "Release them!" she said. "What of the teyea? Do you wish her released as well?" asked the one with the eagle helm.

  "Leave the teyea for now, Greygon" began Kara. "It's been nearly five hundred years since she last entered our lands. I have questions for her." The elves began to sing again. The vines began to unravel themselves from around Jessie and Joel. "What are you two doing here?" asked Kara, in a scolding manner that signified her fondness for them and emphasized the worry that she and their friends shared.

  She pulled them aside from the others and waited for an answer. "We went on our own quest," stated Jessie in a tone sounding like that of a spoiled child. "We wanted our own adventure. Everyone else from home has been out of the Sanctum many times. We were always left behind. We wanted to do something to help."

  "You two are far too young and inexperienced to go off on your own," scolded Kara. She took them further aside and began to whisper, "Wilhelm and the other members of the Brotherhood have been searching for you. They are sick with worry. They found the carcass of a bear near an abandoned camp, and they've thought you two dead since that time," said Kara, trying to explain her frustration with them.

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  Kara looked at the woman who was still bound by the vines and asked, "Why are you traveling with the teyea?" "Teyea?" asked Jessie. "It is what we call her. It means wicked person," replied Kara. Jessie said, "She saved our lives when the bear that you spoke of entered our camp. We call her Tor-kenna because she can change her appearance."

  "Take them to my home. I will see to them when I finish here, and get them something to eat," said Kara to the others and then to the twins, she said, "We will speak more of this when I see you again." With that said, Jessie and Joel mounted the stags and left for the elven village with Greygon and the other elf.

  When the twins arrived at the elven village, they were fascinated by the way the elves constructed their homes and other buildings. There were no pins or nails used to fasten them together. Their structures seemed to be grown from the trees. They were made by what can only be described as weaving the trees together, as if by magic. The communal buildings of the village were low to the ground and formed from the trunks of trees that grew tightly together at the base and twisted together, higher up, before spreading out to join the rest of the canopy of trees.

  The homes of the elves were spread out through the canopy. From the base of the trees, limbs grew out from the trunks in an upward spiral, forming a living staircase. Near the top, the tree branches in the canopy intertwined with one another, lacing themselves together, forming walls and ceilings for the dwellings. The elves, being agile in nature, easily managed to climb limb from limb in the treetops as if they were walking on the ground below.

  Greygon and Ama, the elf that wore the swan helm, led the twins to Kara's tree and gave them food as instructed by Kara. They left the twins in the tree and returned to where Kara was. The twins ate what they could and then fell asleep waiting for Kara. Neither of them had slept very well being at the bottom of their pits the night before, and they hadn't been sleeping well, at all, since they had left the safety of the Sanctum. They missed their friends; their family; their beds.

  They hadn't seen a bed since they had left their rooms at the Sanctum, and it didn't take long for either of them to fall deep into sleep after they had eaten. They awoke hours later to Tor-kenna being shown into Kara's home by Ama. They spoke briefly of what had happened to her, and after a few minutes, she transformed into an owl. She flew through a window that was shaped by the branches of the wall and perched on a single branch just outside. She bowed her head, tucking it under a wing, and she fell asleep.

  The twins tried to go back to sleep as well, but we're unable to do so. They tried to go and explore the village, but Ama was waiting for them at the base of the tree. She had been positioned there to keep the twins from wandering around and getting lost before Kara could return. Ama was happy to walk with them wherever they wanted to go, but the two of them did not feel like having a chaperon while they ventured around the village. They returned to Kara's tree house to wait. Boredom overtook them, and they fell asleep again.

  *****

  Kara had been gone for most of the day. She had interrogated Tor-kenna the teyea for several hours, but did her no harm. Kara was nearly one hundred and fifty years old, and the crimes of the teyea had occurred long before she was born. She knew what the histories told about her crimes in the days before the elven exodus from Tenroha. Her atrocious crimes occurred even before Jemot was exiled.

  Elves have an innate sense for fettering out deception. Kara was especially gifted in this and had felt that Tor-kenna was being truthful in her answers. Once she was satisfied with the questioning of her, Kara sent Tor-kenna to join the twins at her home. She then completed the remainder of her daily tasks before returning to her dwelling and the twins. Just before she entered her home that was high in the forest canopy, she sent a message to Wilhelm and informed him that she had located the twins.

  She entered her house in the trees and found the twins resting on her bed. Ordinarily this would have upset her, but she had grown fond of the mischievous younglings, as she referred to them, and assumed that they were exhausted from their ordeal. She gently woke them to ask where Tor-kenna was. Jessie opened her eyes and glanced out of the window. She then pointed to the owl that was asleep on the limb.

  She had the twins follow her into the village so she could discuss the history of Tor-kenna with them. Even though the teyea had passed Kara's questioning, she was nervous to trust her knowing her past. She carefully kept a close watch for the owl as she told them about her past and what she had done to deserve her fate. As they walked, the three of them passed through the village and went out into the forest.

  They stopped at a brook that flowed from beneath the large Sentinel Tree. The elven lands contained two of the massive trees, and this was the one closest to the village. Kara knelt and drank from the brook and told the twins to do the same. "It's sweet!" exclaimed Joel. "It is," began Kara, "The water from this brook passes under both of our Sentinel Trees. The magic centered within them causes the waters to become sweet, and they have some minor healing abilities. Aches and pain go away and if washed with the water, small cuts can be healed almost instantly.

  The trio had sat on a fallen log and began talking more about the twins' new friend. "What did she do that was so bad," asked Jessie, who was the closest to Tor-kenna. "Most of what she has done is too vile to speak of, but know this young ones, the elders of my people, many generations ago, placed the curse upon her. The elders removed her memories so that she would forget who she was in order for her to begin anew."

  "They did not remove the connection that she possessed with magic, but instead, they redirected it and channeled it into her shape shifting ability, while accidentally making her nearly immortal. The histories say that she was once an elf like me, but she did terrible things to the peoples of the world. She was sentenced to an eternity of helping others in need until she had helped twice the amount of people that of whom she had wronged."

  "What did you mean by nearly immortal?" asked Joel. Kara explained, "If she were to fall and be killed in the act of helping someone, no matter how small the act, she would be reborn as a new animal with the ability to switch into any of her previous forms at will." "She lived among the elves in the form of a raven for many years not knowing anything of her curse until she saved the life of one of the younglings in the village. The youngling had fallen into a deep pit and broken his legs. The raven heard the cries for help and drew the attention of a hunter that was nearby. Once the child was saved, the teyea, I mean, the one you call Tor-kenna, fell into a deep sleep."

  "When she awoke, she was in her human form and became confused and angered by not knowing what was happening to her. By nightfall, she had returned to the raven form, for she can only remain a human for short intervals of time. Feeling even more confused, she flew away from our lands. She returned several times, trying to find the answers that she sought. She would remain nearby, asking questions that only a few could answer. Not long after she had left for the third time, the elves that were aware of what had transpired with her had left for the lands to the east, far beyond the borders of Tenroha."

  "Why are you telling us all of this?" asked Jessie. "Only to warn you. I know where you are headed, and you must not allow her to follow you. If she can take control of one of the amulets, she could restore her memories and become more powerful than she was before her punishment," replied Kara. "In the olden days, she was charming, but deceitful; cunning, but evil," said Kara as she continued. Kara then said, "I sense in her no malice nor deceit for now, but if she regains her memories, Jemot would become the least of our worries."

  They returned to the home of Kara for an evening meal. They woke Tor-kenna from her perch to join them. After they ate the twins told her of their adventure and how they had met Tor-kenna. After the twins gesticulated their tale by moving around the room, waving their hands, and jumping around, Greygon returned after retrieving the twin's belongings from where they had dropped them at the trap.

  Kara made, for them, tea to help them sleep. She then regaled them with an elven tale to help them to fall asleep. Before she had finished, Jessie and Joel had gone to sleep. She covered them with their bed rolls and then she went and laid in her bed. Tor-kenna returned to her perch as an owl, and again tucked her head to sleep.

  Like most elves, Kara required little sleep. She had awoken well before the others and went into the village to begin her day. She made arrangements for the twins to be escorted to the human village by the sea. It was called Dragon's Point because it was the closest part of the human realm to the dragons' lands. It was a thriving sea port town that transported elven wares to the rest of the realm. Elves have no use for money amongst themselves, but when dealing with humans or dwarves, it was a necessity. They used the port to acquire the gold and silver that they needed in the human world.

  She returned to her dwelling at sunrise to wake the twins. While they were eating their breakfast of fresh fruit, Kara tried to convince them to return to the Sanctum. They refused to go. They wanted to finish the mission that they set up on themselves. Kara anticipated this, and that is why she made arrangements for the escort.

  At midday, Kara led them to the edge of the village where the escorts awaited. Greygon was to take them to Dragon's Point along with a shipment of elven made pots, knives, bows, and a few swords to be traded for in the town. Kara had arranged for Greygon to steal away from the twins and convince the ship's captains not to hire them, and Kara hoped that if the twins were unable to leave the port, that they would return to the Sanctum.

  With the orders given to Greygon, the twins and Tor-kenna set out with the elven escort. Tor-kenna, as a wolf, had proven herself large enough for the twins to ride, but she frightened the mounts of the elves, so they rode on the stags with the elves. They traveled for two days before they entered the human settlement that sat on the cusp of the two different worlds.