Most of the elves had beautiful bows which looked like they were part of trees. It had veins around them adding a beautiful texture to it but Nobody could guess that it was a part of the bow.
"Wait! We are not here to fight," Hearing Nikol's words, all of the elves looked confused but they quickly went back to their attacking positions.
"Don't lie, if you're not then why are you taking our kids hostage," Nikol understood that they misunderstood this whole situation. He tried to explain it but before he could do that Susu interfered.
"It's not true sister, I'm not forced," Hearing her voice, the elves showed a confused look.
"We were attacked by dark elves, these people helped us and attacked dark elves, they are good people," Susu walked in their direction while talking as other elves started to observe Nikol and his group.
Their eyes stopped at their ears as they showed a confused look.
"Who are you? You people are not elves," It was their leader-like figure who questioned us. Even though Susu gave her words, the other elves didn't drop their guard as they were wary of them.
Nikol decided to talk on behalf of others but he was heavily guarded by Lydia and Alva.
"We are not enemies nor do we have any ill intentions,"
Still, most of the elves didn't look like they believed his words.
"Believe them, sister, they won't harm us," Susu and the other kids kept insisting on their leader-like figure until she had to believe their words.
*Sigh
"Everyone drop your weapons," Under her orders, everyone started to look at us with interest as they didn't have any reason to be hostile anymore.
"But which race are you from? I can tell you're not an elf and especially with that skin colour equal to the dark elves," She said while pointing at Lydia.
"We are humans," Everyone was confused about them since they didn't know about any other race as a result of being isolated from others for so long.
"Hoh~ humans, my name is Zenda Grusha, I would like it if you can call me Zenda," She said in her normal haughty voice.
Nikol didn't feel offended as he had seen the same type of behaviour in many girls he met in the past and he knew most of them were trying to keep their impression.
If she was unreasonable he might feel irritated but he understood the difference between being unreasonable and cautious.
"I'm thankful for helping our children, I honestly don't know what would happen to them if it's not for you guys," Right after they dropped their weapons, she looked at Nikol and his crew with a grateful look.
"No big deal besides we know how vile these dark elves are, we don't want to see anyone suffering because of them," Zenda just relaxed hearing his answer.
She understood why Nikol and his group helped them. Since they had a common enemy they were easily able to understand each other but still, Zenda was reluctant to invite them into the kingdom.
"Sister, Nikol said he wants to talk with my mother and he wants to help us with the dark elf problem," Even though Zenda heard Susu's words she had a troubled face like she didn't know what to do.
Nikol and his crew were expecting her to decline their offer but suddenly unexpected happen.
One of the trees in the wall started to act like it was alive. It was such a bizarre sight for everyone in Nikol's group but all the elves acted as if it is a normal thing.
Suddenly a branch started to grow out of this tree and it reached toward Zenda's direction as it stopped before it hit her but it was too close to her ear.
Zenda acted as if the tree talked to her, she nodded her head from time to time showing something was happening. This went on for a few minutes until suddenly, the branch went back to the tree and disappeared.
"Nikol, what happened just now?" Alva whispered thinking something was going on. She felt weird seeing how she acted with that tree like it was something above their league.
"It sure is wired, maybe it is some kind of magic," Emily answered her question.
They whispered among each other until they saw Zenda coming in their direction. Other elf guards also followed her just like how Lydia and how her girls acted.
"I'm sorry for keeping you here like this, if you like would you like to come inside?" Everyone was surprised by her completely opposite looks.
It was like someone ordered her something, even though she had a smile on her face it wasn't a genuine one. Alva and Emily didn't catch this but Lydia and Nikol were easily able to spot her fake smile.
"Lydia, something is going on," Nikol whispered so others won't hear him.
"I know, should we follow them or fall back?" She wasn't ok with getting surrounded by a whole kingdom. Lydia was confident about her skills but she wasn't overestimating herself.
"If this is genuine it will be our loss, I don't think they have any reason to harm us so why don't we follow them and see what is happening?" Nikol didn't want to go back without results and he was pretty sure even though this doesn't look real, they won't try to harm them because they had no reason to do so.
After both of them agreed with each other, Nikol started following Zenda as he answered her words.
"We would be happy and honoured to be friends with the elf race," Showing a little sign of respect they entered something which looked like a paradise.
"..."
Everyone was speechless by the beauty in front of them. It was like they entered a completely different universe. Many beautiful flowers with sweet scents bloomed everywhere giving a spectacular scene to anyone who looked at them.
The huge trees were surrounding this beautiful place and animals were roaming freely like they didn't even know the outside cruel world existed.
"What is this?" Alva and Emily both had their mouths open for the second time but this time even flies entered it without their knowledge.
"We welcome you to our eleven kingdoms, please don't think of this as your home as this isn't so be careful with what you touch," One of the elves tried to put her haughty attitude in front of Nikol's group but she was quickly corrected by Zenda who showed a sorry expression.
"I'm really sorry, she didn't mean any of that, it's just they are not used to meeting outside people," If this was a normal meeting Lydia would have made a huge scene out of this but she decided to leave it to Nikol.
"It's alright, we have our own troublemakers in our group, I would personally punish them if they do something like that," Zenda felt more comfortable with Nikol, more they talked as they started to open up with each other.
While they were following these elves suddenly Nikol felt some movements inside his pocket.
*Yawn
"I feel so refreshed, where's this place? This place has so much mana," Arti tried to come out of his pocket but Nikol quickly pushed her back as he didn't want others to see her until he confirm they are allies.
"Don't come out, this is an order, if you come out I will crush you seriously this time," Arti didn't even get to peek as Nikol quickly pushed her back.
"Ouch, why do you always treat me like this? *Sobs, I'm going to cry," Nikol felt bad seeing her but he knew she wasn't being serious so he ignored it.
Zenda noticed the strange behaviour of Nikol but she just ignored it as she thought he was just uncomfortable with this new environment.
While Alva and the group went with the flow, Nikol decided to talk with Zenda to find some information. He was curious about elves as well.
"Zenda, how bad is the dark elf threat for your race?" Quickly catching up with her, Nikol decided to talk with her.
"We are not heavily suffering because of this wall but lots of our kids got kidnapped by them,"
"We ordered them not to play outside the wall but they always do it," Her words had a hint of sadness mixed with them.
"Don't worry we will be able to find them," Hearing his words, Zenda gave him a genuine smile this time.
"How bad is it for your human race? You came from the south of the forest right?" Curious about their new friends, Zenda asked.
"We are suffering very badly, a lot of our kids, and adults lost their lives because of this, I don't think we are dealing with the same group but it's definitely the same race,"
Both Nikol and Zenda started feeling some sort of companionship while talking as they started to blame the dark elves. Soon they realised they are not that different.
"So I assume you came all this way to meet us?" Hearing Zenda's question, Nikol decided to talk about their objective but suddenly they stopped near a grandeur-looking building which looked like it was straight out of fantasy art.
Different kinds of beautiful flowers were prepared on both sides while vines which had a thorny nature wrapped around the whole building like it was intentional.
"Sorry Nikol, let's talk later, first we must meet her," Zenda said with an apologising look making Nikol confused.
"Meet who?"
"Our queen,"