Chapter 3

The Elder arrived shortly after the evening meal had been completed and the cleanup finished. Tama was worried about this visit from Elder. Her parents looked sad and very worried, even more so than when Eaglsclaw had visited. She helped clean up and Willow allowed her to light one of the lanterns. When there was a quiet knock at the door, Willow told Tama to answer it this time.

Tama went over to the door and asked, "Who is it please."

"It is Elder little Tama. May I enter your home?"

"Mama, it is the Elder, he is asking permission to enter."

"Let him in dear," said Willow.

"Come in Elder, enter our home and be welcome."

"Thank you Tama.

"Mama, Papa. I present to you Elder."

"Why so formal Tama," asked the Elder.

"This is the first time Mama has ever let me get the door for a visitor, so I wanted to make sure I did it right so as not to offend."

"Well I would say she has taught you well. You did everything just right Tama."

Tama beamed with pleasure at the compliment and spread her arm for him to enter the main room and to take a seat at the table.

"Axemen, it is good to see you again. I have tried to avoid meeting with you as much as possible on the off chance you might remember me from back home in Kelethin. I will see that that changes now. You and Willow have a treasure here beyond measure.

"I knew you in Kelethin? I am sorry Elder, but I don't recall your face or the sound of your voice," said Axemen.

"Well, that is to be expected I guess. I have done much to change both so to remain hidden as much as you yourself have. You gave up your looks and future to protect your wife and unborn daughter. That is a level of commitment that few are willing to make at any time my boy."

"We trained together at the range for several months under your mother's tutelage. She was a real taskmaster too. I went on to join the Kelethin guard, while you began your advanced bow ability's training. By the way, did ever manage to learn the flame strike without burning your eyebrows off?"

Tama turned and looked at her father. She was looking hard and saw the marks were burns had once scarred his face.

"No Elder, I never did, and that was one of the reasons I had to leave the ranger training. I just can't control the mana flow to make the abilities work right."

"What is Flame Strike father?" asked Tama.

"That is were you gather your energy, your Mana, then channel it, gather in the tip of the arrow. Once the arrow has been released the magic flame ignites and explodes on contact with the target. It increases the damage of the arrow many times over. I was never able to master it. It would explode as soon as I would release the arrow. My face was seriously burned a few times, as were my hands.

"Papa that had to hurt a lot didn't it," looking closely at his face.

"Yes Tama, it did hurt and sometimes it still does. The magical fire never lets go once it burns you. I can never gather my mana again. If I were to try the fire will get hot again and I will burn. That is why I could never be a Ranger like my Mother Tama."

Tama looked at her father with tears in her eyes, and took him in her arms and held him. He realized she was crying and did not know what to do. He looked at Willow and Elder for direction. Elder just remained calm and did not say anything. Willow on the other hand simply held his hand.

After a few minutes, Tama let go, wiped her eyes and sniffed a bit. "I am sorry Elder, I didn't mean to cause this interruption."

"This is part of what you needed to know Tama. Axemen, you do know that your mana problems can be fixed now. The arts have advance considerably in the last few years."

"Yes Elder, I do know that ways have been discovered, but to seek out that aid I would have to admit who I really am, and for that I could not risk my family's safety. Also, I don't have the money it would cost to have the problem fixed."

"Yes, both valid points. Now Tama, I am going to tell you what happened to your Granddame that day. It is a sad and sickening story. Are you sure you want to hear this, and are the two of you sure she should hear all of it at such a young age."

"We are sure Elder," said Willow. "She needs to know the truth now, from those that were there, not what the schools and council will tell her later."

"Very well then Tama, the Elven have been at a state of war with the Orcs known as the Crushbone. It is a small empire to the east of the Greater Faydark and they are not friendly to any other peoples. They were there long before the Elven arrived in the Fey. The Elven never tried to claim the Greater Faydark. The reason for that was the Fey. The Pixies, Brownies and Fairy were here long before Orcs and the little folk made it clear that the Greater Faydark valley was off limits."

When our ancestors came here, they did not try to take over the valley as their own. They built their homes to fit in with the wood and the little folk did not object to that. Sadly, the Orcs saw the Elven arrival and welcome as an intrusion in what they believe to be their territory. The first assaults were small and minor. Then over time they would send larger and more heavily armed groups across the mountains to attack us.

What we did not know then much to our great despair, the Orcs had been tunneling under the mountains for generations to make invasion easier. The tunnel exited in a small valley at the east edge of the Faydark. They quickly built it up as a small fortress and began building the army to invade the Faydark in order to capture, enslave and destroy all other races here. Once we learned of the invasion, we sent scout teams to investigate the camps.

Your Granddame was part of the early information collection teams. Her main expedition group was discovered and captured after several days of observation. She was on over watch and knew they needed rescuing. The fortress guard's commander was a young Orc, grandson of Emperor Crush. She watched as a female brought a young Orc child to show to him. He became very agitated, grabbed the child and crushed its head with has bare hands and tossed it to the dogs in a nearby pen. That action set her in motion to save her people from certain death at the hands of an animal.

Your Granddame went in that night and nearly wiped out the entire fortress guard. As it turned out, the Orcs had not yet learned that keeping a solid guard force out and awake at night was a good thing. She killed a young guard commander. He was not their brightest, but his father vowed to avenge his son's death regardless of the reason for his being killed.

He lead his forces out to the outer watch and over ran it. He ordered all the captured slaughtered and the heads removed and brought along in sacks. He did the same to two villages along the route as well. His actions in what he did to the women, those that were with child that made him into Monster to the rest of the world of living beings, he had the unborn babies cut out and fed to the wolves.

Tama started to turn a bit green at that and ran outside. Willow went out after her to try to calm Tama down. She found her daughter curled in a ball under one of the trees, rocking and crying. She took her in her arms softly sang her the lullaby her mother had sung to her when she was upset and hurting.

Back inside, "Maybe I should stop now Axemen. She is not yet strong enough for the entire truth of that Tunare cursed day."

"No, she needs to hear it all now or she will get it in bits and the anger and hate will fester. Better to get it over with now and put her back together as a young child" said Axemen.

"Very well then, I will continue if she feels she can handle it. Now, how are you holding up, I know that some of this is new to you as well Axemen. Tamalain was not faultless in this event as you are learning."

"I was aware that she had upset the Orcs, but not how or why.

"Well she was wanted mainly for the one death. Ah, there you are child." Willow returned holding weeping scared baby girl in her arms. "Will you be able to continue? I am sorry to say that there is worse yet to come."

Tama looked at Elder with large tear filled eyes, "I have to know. She calls to me in my dreams, not for revenge, but to simply know the truth."

"Very well then child. About three days into the chase, the Orcs caught up to the scouting party. They killed all but Tamalain, and they took the heads of the rest. The Orcs tortured and raped her brutally. She survived all of that and more. They forced her to watch as they sacked a third village. They came upon it in the dark so were able to destroy all in it easily. He did to the pregnant women there as he had done to first two villages."