Chapter 4

The moon rose that night in the clouded sky as two elves emerged from their hollow in search of food. Times were difficult now days forcing them to resort to nighttime hunting. The elves darted throughout the trees in search of food, without disturbing so much as a leaf. They paused for a moment by a small hovel of fallen logs.

"Listen," said one of the elves to the other. "Something's moving in the logs."

"Quiet Hanberry!" scolded the second elf.

Hanberry was quieted; he crawled across the ground silently toward the collection of fallen trees, careful not to disturb whatever was inside. He peeked over the logs, and gasped in surprise.

"Fawn!! It's a human girl, sleeping!" exclaimed Hanberry in a rather loud whisper.

Fawn frowned, "Don't be ridiculous, humans rarely dare enter these parts of the forest."

"But it is!" Hanberry insisted.

Fawn gave the young elf a doubtful look and peered over the log. He jumped back at the sight of the girl, sputtering in shock.

Hanberry giggled, his dark eyes gleaming playfully in the moonlight, "You're silly!"

"Sh! We don't want to wake her up, she could be dangerous," Fawn warned.

"Aw, she looks nice enough. I bet she's lost. Can we help her out, pretty please? We can take her back to our house and take care of her, ooh it'd be soo much fun!" Hanberry squealed.

"I don't know, we'll have to check with her, she's a human being, not a pet Hanberry."

"Oh boy, oh boy!" he cried bouncing up and down.

He crawled into the hovel and tapped the sleeping girl on the shoulder. "Hey miss, wake up!"

The girl awoke with Hanberry's face three inches above her own. He beady eyes were starring directly into hers. A moment of confusion cross her face, and then her eyes widened with fright, she began to scream.

Her cry was soon echoed by the young elf. "Fawn! She's loud and scary."

The girl stopped screaming and looked the two small elves timidly peering at her. She sat up and began plucking leaves out of her red hair.

Hanberry quickly spotted the silver circlet around her head and squealed, "Ooh, are you a princess?"

The girl didn't respond. She bit her lip, an unsure look crossing her face.

"I'm Hanberry and this is Fawn!" the young elf told her excitedly. "We just wanted to see if you needed help!"

The girl smiled, "Pleased to meet you Hanberry. My name is Jane."

The elderly elf looked at the girl over his glasses, considering her for moment. "You really shouldn't be out sleeping in the forest like this, Miss Jane. It can be mighty dangerous in these parts."

"I'll be all right," Jane assured Fawn.

Fawn considered her for a moment, "Why are you out her anyway?"

"Oh, well, I, um, I'm going to visit my grandmother," she stuttered.

The old elf smirked ate her blatant lie. "Now my dear, I realize we all must be careful of whom we trust in these parts, but I assure you, whatever your secret is, it's safe with me."

Jane bit her lip, unsure of what she should do. Could she trust the elf? Sure, he looked harmless enough, but looks could be deceiving. Then again she reasoned, eve if she could not trust the elf, there was no use lying about it, she had no where to go for the present time.

Jane looked around a bit nervously and said in a low tone, "I'm running away from Nilande."

"I think you'd best tell me the whole story," the elf told her. "But come with me, it isn't safe to talk so freely out in the open like this. Come along Hanberry, we must be going now."

Fawn took Jane by the arm and led her along through the forest, as Hanberry tagged along after them. Jane found that the old elf moved with surprising agility, and at time she had trouble keeping up with him. They moved quickly through the twists and turns in the forest. Jane quickly lost track of where she was and lost all sense of direction.

"Just a bit further, Miss Jane," Fawn assured her. He smiled kindly at her.

Soon they came upon a giant willow tree and there they stopped. Fawn let go of Jane's arm and approached the giant thick trunk of the tree. He placed is small palm upon the and quietly muttered something. The tree parted revealing a staircase, leading down into the earth.

"With the trouble in the forest lately, we've been forced underground," Fawn told her.

He led her down the stairway into the dark depths below.

"Here we are," Fawn told her.

"Um, Fawn, I can't see anything," Jane told him timidly.

She squinted in the pitch black darkness.

"Oh heaven's me, I forgot, you can't see as well in the dark as we can. Hanberry fetch a lantern and light it, and do be careful with the match with time."

Jane heard Hanberry scurry off. In a corner, a lantern was suddenly illuminated.

Fawn was standing by a small pot-belly stove with a copper kettle.

"A little tea for our chat," Fawn said.

Jane looked around the small underground cavern. Two beds were off in one corner, side by side. Near the beds were a pot-belly stove, and a wooden table with four chairs. In the corner opposite the beds, was a shelf filled with various odds and ends, and in front of it two arm chairs with a table in between them.

"Please have a seat at the table," Fawn offered.

Jane sat down. Fawn poured her a cup of tea.

"Now, start at the beginning my dear."

Jane told him the whole story, beginning with her social situation and being forced to marry Quince and ending with her decision to run way and her flight through the forest. Throughout the story, Fawn listened carefully, without interruption, except to tell Hanberry to be quiet, who interrupted frequently. But Jane didn't mind, he was young and didn't know better yet.

After she had finished, Fawn said to her, "Well you were very right to get away from that situation. He sounds like a very nasty man.:

"Oh, he's awful," Jane shuddered.

"Well, you're welcome to stay with us," Fawn offered. "We'd be happy to have you."

"Oh please, stay Jane!" Hanberry pleaded. "We'd have so much fun!"

Jane giggled, "Oh all right, Hanberry, I'll stay with you."

And quickly Jane became a part off the family. She would watch over young Hanberry and play games with him. She tended to the cooking and cleaning for Fawn while he would deal with matters regarding the wood elves.

Initially, many of the wood elves were skeptical of the Jane. But soon she was an accepted member of the community. Jane could understand their caution regarding her. Most of their contact with humans had been unpleasant.

Since the rise of the Evil Lord, the forest had become a dangerous place. Many awful creatures roamed freely about, causing havoc for the elves. In addition, there had been many mysterious killings of community members while they were out in the forest alone.

"It's that witch, Sabine," Hanberry told her one day. That was the general consensus amount the elves.

"Who's Sabine?" Jane asked wide-eyed.

"She's a mean old, ugly witch. She's got loads of warts and scraggly hair, and she's really fat!" he told her.

"Have you ever seen her?" she asked.

"No!" he answered. "But that's good, cause I'd be dead! She kills people when they're by themselves. So we can't ever go outside alone."

"I guess not!" Jane said. "Oh my goodness, that Sabine is a terrible witch."

One of the members of the community was particularly frightened of Sabine, having a run with her once before. He was so paranoid she would come to finish him off, that he would never leave his house for a moment alone.

No one could blame him. Poor Clyde, he was actually a wood elf from another community. He had been the last remaining member after Sabine's attacks had ravaged the town.

Clyde was an excellent story teller. Hanberry loved to go and visit him and listen to his stories. Jane would often take him there. Soon Jane and Clyde became good friends.

One day, when Fawn was out with Hanberry. Jane decided to visit Clyde on her own.

"What a pleasant surprise from such a pretty girl!" Clyde exclaimed when she entered.

Jane blushed, "I thought I might like to hear one of your magnificent stories."

"Oh well I'd love to tell you a story. Say, why don't we go for a little walk. It's such a lovely day and with you by my side I won't have to worry about Sabine!"

"Well I think that's a great idea!" Jane exclaimed.

And the pair headed out into the sunny day. Sun shone through the trees, warming the forest floor. It was a glorious day.

The two had been wandering for quite some time when they realized how far way from the community they had gotten. The sun was beginning to dip lower now.

"Oh my!" Jane exclaimed. "We really should head back down you think?"

"Not quite yet," Clyde said smoothly. He somehow sounded different than he had before.

Jane turned to look at him and he was pointed a wooden wand at her.

"What are you doing Clyde?" Jane asked.

He half smiled at her. "I know your story Jane, why you ran away from Nilande. You must be punished."

"What?" Jane asked full of confusion. "I don't understand."

Just then a tall slender woman appeared between the two of them.

"S-sabine!" Clyde stuttered.

Jane was shocked. This woman was the old ugly witch everyone feared? Sabine was a tall woman with long black hair flowing down her back and piercing crystal blue eyes. She was very pale with a stern look about her. She was by no means ugly; in fact, she could be described as an eerie sort of beautiful. Her eyes seemed to have the power to pierce through you.

"Clyde, you have caused enough trouble. I have been hunting you down to stop this at once."

The elf shook nervously, "Y-you can't stop me."

Sabine quietly chuckled, "Now Clyde, you know that isn't true. I've been hunting you down for quite some time now. Your evasion has really tried my patience. I'm afraid I can't let this little operation you have going to go on any longer."

The elf tried to dash away but he was frozen in mid step. He began to whimper. "Oh please Sabine don't, the Evil Lord tricked me into it."

Sabine rolled her eyes. "You don't honestly expect me to believe that do you?"

"Please Sabine, let me go!" he pleaded.

Without flinching, the witch opened her palm and blew a fist full of powder at him. The elf fell to the ground. An expression of terror was frozen upon his now blue face.

Jane stood trembling in fear. She starred at Sabine, unsure of what could happen next.