"Taro, why were we stuck with patrol duty~?"
"Just be quiet Jara and bear with it. It was decided by the elders since we were attacked not too long ago and are lacking manpower."
"Aren't you miss rational~? Ahhhhh, this is so annoying~."
"..."
Jara was an elf with a boyish beauty despite being a girl. She was of average height for an elf, about 170 centimeters tall. She had blonde hair that was cut short and tanned skin from being outside in the sun for a long time that was dissimilar to other elves. Furthermore, she had an unrefined way of talking reminiscent of a commoner and was well muscled with chiseled abs and toned body. The only regal part about her was her purple eyes, which shimmer like the abyssal night sky. Despite her obvious harshness, she was a very beautiful woman and was popular with a certain group of people, especially the muscle fetishists.
In contrast to Jara, Taro was a refined and dignified elf. The main reason for this was her noble background. She was born and raised as a noble of the elves and was always conscientious of how she spoke and acted. She was taller than Jara at 180 centimeters tall. While being fit, it wasn't to the degree of Jara's condition, it was a muscle proportion that was well-toned and showed her training and dedication to train herself. Additionally, she had long blonde hair and clear blue eyes like a cloudless summer day sky. She could be described as a regal presence, where Jara was more of a rough soldier.
The last one, the one who didn't speak all the while, was named Beyra. Unlike her elven brethren, she had silver hair, like the light flowing from the night's second moon and red eyes like bloodstone. The combination was unusual as most elves had blonde hair, some with hair closer to brown, and blue eyes, ranging from green to blue to purple. This led to many of the elves to become wary of her appearance and some believed she was cursed. Due to this, it led to her having a closed-off personality even to those who meant well to her. From the repetitive shunning, badmouthing, beatings, etc. her personality had retreated and all she displayed was the minimum reaction to communicate and function. It was truly a sad existence.
"Neeeeh~ Beyra? What do you think? Don't you think this is unfair?? Right? Why do we have to patrol while the boys are goofing off? I wanna goof off too~."
"..."
"Tch. Fucking mute. At least acknowledge when someone's talking to you, you cursed bastard."
"..."
Beyra didn't even hear Jara's cursing. She was focused solely on patrolling and wasn't interested in conversing with people not taking their duty seriously.
That's right. Despite being an outcast, Beyra loved the elven nation and took her job seriously, unlike Jara. Despite all she had to endure, she was an optimistic person, at least internally. She never showed any of her emotions so no one knew what she was thinking or how she felt. Many assumed she was either mute or basically an empty shell just barely functioning. So, the seemingly harsh words from Jara would barely phase her, if not for Beyra outright ignoring her.
However, Taro didn't scold Jara for her harsh language towards Beyra, despite her noble standing. Although she didn't agree with Jara's behavior, she understood where it was coming from. Anyway...
"Let's focus on patrolling instead of having pointless quarreling."
"Whatever~."
"..."
Walking through the forest, there were no creatures that they'd normally find. Taro was on guard at the unusual situation; the other two were the same.
"... It's so quiet. What's going on?" Jara whispered to Taro, breaking the eerie silence.
"I don't know, but be careful. We don't know what could be lurking out there. If there is anything we can't handle, we immediately retreat back to the city. Understood?"
Jara nodded while Beyra stayed silent.
As the three of them walked around the corner opening up into a path clearing, Jara asked "Why does it feel like we're being watched? It's making me feel anxious..."
"I get what you're saying. It feels like it's coming from further down the path. I can sense something," replied Taro.
"..." Beyra just intently stared in the direction of the path.
They walked forward along the path, getting closer to the uneasy feeling coming from further ahead on the path. They didn't know what or if anything was there, but they all felt as if something was watching them, which usually meant that either danger was near or someone or something was watching them. For what purpose, they didn't know.
When they were a couple of meters along the path, the bushes in front of them started rustling. They instantly became tense. Taro took out her bow, Jara her ax, and Beyra her twin swords.
They stared intently at the shuddering leaves on the bushes, waiting for the creature to reveal itself.
Suddenly!
A forest rabbit pops out...
"Phew~ That really scared me~. I thought some horrible beast would spring out from the bushes." Jara was the first one to talk, losing tension.
Taro followed up, "It was just a rabbit, but we should still be vigilant. There might still be predators waiting for us."
"Creature?" It was Beyra's voice.
Jara and Taro were startled out of their complacency and immediately stared ahead again. Beyra would rarely speak and when she did it would only be for something meaningful. Whenever she spoke while patrolling, there was always an animal there either ready to attack or lying in wait. So, when Beyra alerted them with her voice, they immediately tensed up, bring back the just dispelled tension, getting ready to fight. The "creature" Beyra mentioned left them questioning, they'd never seen it before.
There was a tall man with hawk-like, green-brown eyes, messy, charcoal-grey hair, and slightly golden skin. He was wearing leather armor that looked like it had been sitting out in the rain for a week. His hands were up in the air, but he was so tall that it felt intimidating.
The most shocking thing though, his ears were rounded! This man didn't look like an elf at all! To be honest, every feature about him was the antithesis of elven attributes. His hair was so dark it was anything but blonde. His eyes, while having a hint of green, were too dark to be an elf's. His skin, far from fair, looked similar to Jara's sun-tanned skin, not like a typical elf. The only thing somewhat similar was his height. While elves typically didn't grow that tall, it wasn't too uncommon for them to be that tall. But, as stated, virtually everything about this man was completely backward when compared to an elf.
Suddenly, the man opened his mouth, which looked like an attempted to speak to them, and projected a sound, "C̶͇̊ͅa̸̝͐n̷̛̩͐ ̸͖͈͒̀y̶̯͂o̷̩͆̓ű̸͙̳ ̶̙̄u̵̦͖̒n̷̩͝d̸̖̥̽̕e̸̗̓r̸̨̤͠ṣ̵͐͝t̵̂ͅa̷̦̚ń̴̫ḍ̶̯̃̚ ̵̬̰͋̈́m̴͖͝ë̶͓̖?̵͍̺͑̊"
The sound was so discordant to the elves' ears that they felt like it was scratching at their eardrums, it was almost painful!
"Urgh..! What was that? A sonic attack?"
"No, I think he, or it, was trying to communicate with us. Does this creature not speak the common language?"
"..."
The creature sighed as he realized they didn't understand him. Slowly, he squatted down and started to draw in the dirt. He drew some symbols that looked like language and drew an arrow towards himself. It seemed that it was his name, at least that was the group's interpretation of his actions.
Realizing that this creature was intelligent enough to write and speak, the Jara and Taro looked at each other in agreement. They decided wordlessly to take him back to the village for the elders to deal with him.
The main reason they decided against killing him was that he was the first creature capable of intelligent conversation they'd encountered, aside from mythical creatures, like dragons. The only other "intelligent" creatures to speak of were goblins and the like, but they didn't speak the common language and didn't display the mental capacity to do so, even the goblin lords didn't. So, the creature before them was really a special being. They needed to bring him back to the elders, they couldn't miss such a rare happenstance.
"Carefully approach him and try to tell him we'll take him to our city."
"Awww~ I don't want to get near him. What if he suddenly lashes out? Beyra should do it. She doesn't care anyway."
"Hey! That's too much! I know you hold those beliefs, but this could be a potentially dangerous situation and you're the most physically capable one among us."
"Tch. Beyra is quite capable too, right? I bet she could overpower me with that accursed strength. "
"..."
In the end, Beyra approached the man wordlessly, she had decided to approach the creature before Jara and Taro were done arguing. As Jara said, Beyra didn't care, not even having a sense of nervousness when approaching. The creature, seeing her coming closer, looked alert. He didn't know what was happening or why this girl would suddenly approach him holding two swords without saying a word. From a glance, one could tell he seemed nervous and intimidated from Beyra's approach.
"..."
Beyra stood before him and signaled for him to follow them. He seemed relieved when he saw this, sighing letting go of the tension. Certain signals seemed universal as Beyra had just motioned her body in the direction of the group, which the creature innately interpreted as a sign to follow or come with them.
The four of them walked through the silent forest, not speaking a word adding to the silence. All the while, Taro and Jara kept glancing at the creature, as if to say 'we're watching you, don't try anything funny.'
They walked through the forest for around a half-hour until the foliage began to thin out and the ground began to clear out into an open grassy area.
The man looked excited as he looked into the clearing. It was the elven city! You couldn't see a happier expression on a person anywhere in the world other than the face this man was making at that moment.
"Taro! Where the hell did you find that person? He looks ragged and sickly!"
The elf that shouted this was the guard patrolling the walls that surrounded the elven village. His name was Jera, Jara's older brother. Like Jara, he was a muscle head with a masculine appearance uncommon among elves. To be honest he looked like a blonde human, but with pointy ears and violet purple eyes like the sunset. If you took away his ears, if you didn't know better, you would think he was just a really handsome human, without the elegant typicality of elves.
"We found him in the forest. He doesn't seem to speak the common language, but he does seem to know some language and doesn't seem hostile. We're going to take him to the elders to see what we should do with him."
"Hmm. I see. Well if you say he's harmless then it must be true, gahaha!" Jera let off a stereotypical muscle head laugh as the four entered through the gates taller than pine trees.
"What is that? It's so tall. But he looks similar to us."
"I don't know. Maybe it's some new creature that that forest produced."
"But to think it'd make something so similar to us."
As the four walked through town, people muttered as they stared at the man in the middle of the three girls. They were all curious about his identity and if this was a new creature produced by the forest.
As the four walked through town, they headed toward the middle where a massive tree resided. The tree was so massive that if you craned your neck all the way back you wouldn't be able to see the top. This was what the elves called the World Tree. One of the special things about it was that it had an ego and it could converse with other beings. At the base of the World Tree was where the elders resided and where the man's fate would be determined.
The man gulped as they got closer to the base of the World Tree. The sheer size was daunting and filled him with a sense of intimidation, but he quickly shook that off and looked forward with a burning determination in his eyes. He felt excitement!
"Weird creature," Beyra spoke as the man was filled with excitement.