NPC Code: Red Riding Hood

Chapter 20 - Elven Kingdom

"You may know me already, but I am Queen Guinevere Pendragon, and this is my daughter, Eve Pendragon."

The two of them bowed as they greeted me. Match and I lowered our heads in return, paying our respect for the crown. Queen Guinevere pointed her hands at her daughter, sitting on her lap. Eve gave me a warm smile as she met my eyes. I returned her beam and waved my hand while controlling the horses with the other.

The cart shook, but not enough to break our balance.

Match and Eve both got along with each other, as they shared the same glee. They conversed around the corner about all the things they experienced in life. I could not relate to them since I was talking with the queen.

As we headed forward along the bumpy road, the queen told me about the Elven race and their forest of a kingdom. Elves concealed their empires within the trees, so it was arduous for everyone to find. Only the royal courts and rulers knew the place.

Fortunately for us, we had the queen accompanying our journey.

Elves did not differ from the humans, Guinevere claimed. These elves had pointed ears and a slim body, almost like a twig if they stood at both feet. They armed themselves with daggers and recurves. Elves were not fond of using long blades and bastard swords.

Queen Guinevere told us that the elves were agile creatures living in the jungle. They jumped from one branch after the other within their territory, using the setting to their advantage. Her husband fought the Elven King once and nearly lost his life.

"Good thing it was a sparring match," Guinevere chuckled to herself while the story reminded her of her deceased husband.

There were two categories of elves: the short-eared and the long-eared elves. The long-eared elves protected the forest with their life on the line. They vowed to defend the greenery and maintain a harmonious state between other countries. The short-eared elves became pests to their kind.

Those short-eared elves were not a part of their species and labelled as traitors of the forest. They wanted to wage war against the kingdom and even the entire world. Short-elves wished for nothing more but abundant land and trees, apart from the towering buildings built by the different species.

If you wished to distinguish these two apart, the forest laid a curse on the short-eared elves. Their skin became dark like charcoal, and they ceased to control the forest. Nature refused to heed their calls despite being a knight for the woodlands.

Short-eared elves cannot become long-eared. Redemption was not part of their culture, thus their strife against each other.

According to the legends, these long-eared elves were a third force of the government and acted as mediators during meetings. They refused to side with any faction and maintained their neutral state. But they continued offering trades from various peaceful cities, such as the mainland and other neighbouring kingdoms.

The Elven empire also drew their hatred with the dragonewts.

Humans and elves formed their alliance aeons of years ago. The two shared goodies and other limited products during the scarcity of lands.

But there was one thing that the elves did not allow, is entering their sacred forest.

They feared the players, so the elves shut their doors. They trusted no one but the kingdom and other friendly nations. Only a selected player could enter their realms if they were lucky enough to have an elf character.

Out of one hundred million players, only one of them got the chance of becoming an elf, my system told me.

As I was listening to Guinevere, I saw an incoming arrow racing in our direction. The bolt almost hit me in the neck with a breadth's length. But with the help of my system, I could dodge the arrow in the nick of time.

"An attack?" I grunted, and hauled the ropes tied around the horses, forcing them to stop.

The asses blared a neigh as they felt the cord tightening their necks. It was strenuous for me to control the cart, since the bridge elevated us from the ground. One turn would make our wagon fall in the abyss, leading us to our inevitable doom.

The arrows continued to fire in our direction, aiming for the kill. I tried my best to elude some of them, but the darts were persistent enough to strip the covers open. The bolts split the ceiling in half, creating a vast space for the arrows to hit the insides.

Guinevere used her arcane and materialised a barrier. She was a complete master of light magic; the system told me. It was showing from the scene as I discerned a brilliant light flashing around her arms. I felt no heat coming from the magic, but I knew it was something for me to become afraid of the arcane.

An oval shape appeared from above and became our shield. Guinevere used her other hand to summon another fence that safeguarded my place.

As I turned around, I saw sweat dripping from her face. Guinevere might handle the pressure of controlling two shields at once during combat.

Eve and Match braced themselves against each other while bursting into tears. The two children clasped their hands and prayed for our survival. I grit my teeth and manoeuvred the carriage.

But, alas, an arrow destroyed the wheels.

The cart went sideways and off to the viaduct. My hands let go of the ropes as I hurried to embrace Match around my arms. If we were going down, I wanted to save at least the little girl. Even if I die, I hope Match could still live to see the sun tomorrow.

We felt the surging breeze hitting our face as the wagon slid through the sides. Our eyes widened when we saw the clouds drifting far away from the horizon. The branches attached to the trees hit our back, but not enough to stop our fall.

Everything was so fast that we felt nothing until we reached the ground. With Match swathed around my arms, I closed my eyes and accepted my fall. Guinevere did the same but cast a barrier on the soil to cushion a fall.

Her last ounce of strength saved us from dying. Guinevere's spell broke at once as we came into contact with the light shield waiting beneath. But there was something else that caught us from kissing the ground.

It was a spell that came not from us, but from someone else lingering within the forest.

I looked below my feet and discerned something spinning with intense arcane. My system explained that it was a twister that pushed us upward, avoiding our descent and crashing against the floor.

Someone created the magic, and that someone was hiding behind the barks.

As I shifted my view, I saw a string forming ahead. A petite humanoid figure greeted my eyes at the end of the line, right next to the ancient trees. I looked around me and saw the same shapes observing our position. They wielded enchanted bows ready to fire in our direction if they saw fit.

After a few seconds of hovering mid-air, the tornado disappeared, letting us drop to the ground. Our body collided at the bed of rocks and a pinch of grass cushioning our fall. I turned around and spotted Match, unconscious amidst the occurrence.

She did not receive any wounds from the dive.

"Is that you, Queen Guinevere?" A mannish voice echoed before us as he asked a question.

Guinevere, who was beside me, nodded and answered, "I am the mainland's queen and the wife of King Arthur. With me is my daughter, Eve."

"What do you want from us?" Guinevere added, and prepared a set of spells forming in her hands.

The man who struck up a conversation with us revealed himself from the shadows. I saw the man who had pointed ears stretching from his face. The elf wore an emerald tunic with a branch as his recurve, overflowing with arcane. The middle of his chest had an engraved crest made of a primaeval branch. As we looked closely at the image, we saw an elf's head protruding from the insignia.

"Forgive us, your majesty. We thought of you as the players who wished to trample the empire."

The elf knelt and lowered his head. All his members tailing behind did the same and offered their apologies to the Queen.

With a wave of her hands, Guinevere instructed the elves to raise their heads and forgave them. The representing elf walked up to us and gave us a nod.

"I wish to talk with Elanor," Guinevere commanded.

Her voice shocked every elf in our surroundings. The bloke who talked to us saluted the queen and knelt once again.

"We will escort you inside Nirvana at once!" the elf exclaimed, and ordered his men to guide a path.

Every long-eared elf pranced from the branches and went skywards through the towering trees. The captain elf, whom I guessed, ordered them to guard us while following his back.

Guinevere motioned her hands, telling Match and me to stay beside her.. Eve, her daughter, did the same as we advanced the limitless trees blocking our view.