In two days the small girl had easily stolen the hearts of even the toughest ruffian living in Floret. She had basically been adopted by the seventy people calling this place deep in the Nox Forest home. It was an elvish tradition to not name children until they reached full maturity at their century mark, but people had already started giving her small nicknames like Sprout. The women cooed and spoiled her, even using their recent hall of expensive emerald dragon skin satin and golden ram wool to make a baby blanket. The men have carved an intricate crib with designs of lotus and lilies, with root-like bars to keep her in place. They had even started looting smaller merchants who were more likely to be carrying baby items for the child, even if they had smaller hauls of top quality merchandise. Birk watched in wonder at all of this, even as the largest and most battle hardened elf Aringoth was holding the infant with his hands with tender care, staring at the baby with awe as she wiggled her arms in the air. She was a jovial babe, never crying since that incident with her birth parents-- an incident that the whole village knew to keep quiet with. Birk was on edge, however, anxious for Haldir and Roric to return so they could test the child. It was a young age to test her with the Gaia Orb, but he had to be sure that his intuition was correct. Wood elf children by the age of five touch the orb and will be placed into a power category, going on a power scale of one to five. There were huge gaps from each level, with one being the weakest and five a place only used for a Druid which was exceedingly rare. It was more likely to get struck by lightning every day for the next one hundred years than be born a Druid, and the same went for the other elemental clans around. Warlocks, Oracles and Mages were the clans' own version of Druids, and each had their own unique abilities.
"Elder Birk!" Isla's urgent voice called out, ripping him from his own thoughts. A small gathering was accumulated around a flower patch. He rushed over, realizing that the infant was in Isla's arms.
"What happened?" The elder rushed over to the crowd, panicked that something happened to the girl. Instead, his previous intuition was all but confirmed. Isla was kneeling in front of the patch, the babe in her arms. The thing everything was looking at, was not the child but rather what was on the child. There on the babe's stomach, sat a little green entity. It looked like it was made of balls of green cotton making a comically large head, and a pudgy body with matching arms and legs. It wore a tiger lilly as a makeshift hat, and had small black eyes. Tiny roots were crawling all over its body, but it was just sitting on the baby silently looking at her face, while holding a large golden seeded dandelion.
"Is that a baby Greenman?" He knelt down in awe, motioning everyone else to be quiet. Greenmen were spirits of the forest, guardians of holy ground. They were actually the servants of druids and rarely were seen otherwise as they protected the Gaia Forest, the home of most magical creatures sacred to Druids. Everyone stared as the Greenman stared at the drowsy child before it. It then started poking at her cheeks, making a small sound that was close to the chirp of a bird. Just as it did, the flowers began to move making everyone still. Four more baby Greenmen emerged, each with its own golden dandelion and different flower hat. They looked up at the girl, and began chirping as well. Just as soon as they did they jumped in the air and the dandelions started to glow, circling around the baby like fireflies as they floated. The original Greenman just sat there at first before taking off in the wind with his brethren. Beads of light fell from the sky as they did so, being carried by the wind while chirping amongst each other. Birk did not even need Haldir to return, because he already had his answer. It was also exposed to everyone in the village as most of them sat there in shock, the baby fast asleep in Isla's arms.
"Birk, where did you send Haldir and Roric to?" She spoke up, all eyes on him. He remained silent, as everyone could already guess his intentions. They began whispering amongst themselves, staring at the girl curiously.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Someone from the back spoke up. The older man sighed, ready for the line of questioning.
"I wanted to be sure before we said anything." They seemed dissatisfied with that answer.
"We may be a bunch of crooks, but we are still family in this village. You should have told us," Aringoth spoke up, stroking his black beard as he looked at his wife Isla with concern. Birk wanted to say that he had not done it because she did not want her to be exploited, or sold. He felt like this answer would just outrage the public, but in reality it was the truth.
"Everyone here knows that if word of a Druid got out, the royal family would be collecting her as their weapon," A young woman from the back stood up. Birk recognized her as Aela, Haldir's twin sister. She was a black widow, where her brother was a much more complicated assassin but they both shared the same black hair and warm beige skin and hooded eyes. He deflated as she reached his own conclusion, but in a softer what than he would have worded it.
"Aringoth, didn't we find some bits of golem stone in that last merchant raid?" Aela asked the large man. He began to nod and Birk perked up. He was unaware that golem stone was found, as it was simultaneously invaluable and worthless. Golem stone could be used to make powerful weapons, giving the wielder magical abilities that were useful to giants as they were magically deficient. Elves would almost never use it, as it was useless to them except for one purpose-- magic suppression. The older you got, the more magical flow you would push out marking your rank. Some elves often ate golem stone or dug some into their bodies to hide their wavelength to resist drafting into the royal magical force. They still had their power, but it was either diminished greatly or barely even registered to the people around them.
"You want to feed a baby golem stone?" Isla gasped and held her to her chest.
"Or put it in her?" Aringoth looked more surprised than his wife. Aela shrugged and looked almost coldly at the girl.
"It seems like the only option."
"What about an earring?" The voice made Birk spin to see Haldir and Roric standing behind the crowd, holding a thick piece of leather wrapping something round.
"She's going to need her markings once we do this," He approached with the package, "But she's too young to do it the traditional way. If we craft the bits into a single earring, she can remove it when she's older and live her life rather than forcing her or having to scrounge up more golem stone when it begins to wear off." Haldir's points made complete sense. It seemed like the most humane and sensible way to do things. The glow of the Greenman's light began to fade the closer Haldir got to Isla. He held out the ball and unwrapped it in front of the sleeping child. It was a piercing green, the colour identical to the babies eyes. A bright almost blinding emerald, reflecting what little sunlight there was and glaring at the onlookers.
"Let's find out if we need to do this though." As if magnetic the girl woke to Haldir's words and reached out for him with a large smile on her face. Everyone relaxed and softened when she did, but her fingers brushed the orb as she reached. The orb began to glow a soft white light making Birk think he was wrong as it was a common sign for one star elves. Then it began burning gold, and bursting with starlight. It blinded everyone and some people screamed as an intense wind kicked up. Then there was the immense pressure, it felt like someone was kneeling on Birk's chest with the intensity. In a flash the light died, the roaring wind that kicked up dust and leaves ceased, and everyone was disheveled and feeling the pressure. The girl, however, was unaffected. Not even a hair was out of place, and she was still trying to reach for Haldir. Haldir looked like he had been caught in a sudden storm, his face twisted in shock at the reaction and his short hair pushed all the way back and in shambles from the wind. Isla- the next closest target- was similar. Her copper hair in the braid had completely come out and was wild, and her clothes were ragged and out of place. The baby started to throw a bit of a fit as she waved her arms at Haldir.
"Here, you take her." Birk's voice was shaky as he gingerly took the orb from his hands and wrapped it so Haldir could pick up the fussy baby. She relaxed in his arms and fell asleep in seconds as everyone stood there in silence.
"I-I'm going to go make that earring." Aringoth stammered, wobbly on his feet from the pressure. And at that moment, the village made a solemn vow even though no one ever spoke a word and the sleeping baby was the most precious thing to each of them at that moment.