Chapter 20

Dear readers, this novel will contain a magical world of supernaturals which would be different from the human world. Do check the reference Images of every newly introduce thing in the comment section.

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Leeora and the human girl reached the Forest of the Elves as soon as they travelled past the palace walls. On the way, the elf elder didn’t try to talk to her and merely let her curiously look around her surroundings.

The human girl did not even hide her emotions at the majestic sight she was seeing—luscious trees with leaves a vibrant green and trunks strong and tall, colourful bunch of mushrooms and flowers randomly blooming about, and small animals like squirrels peering, birds singing and rabbits innocently hopping about.

She observed each and every one of them carefully, amazed by the lively atmosphere of the forest. For as long as she could remember, she had lived within that dead mountain, where all she could see were dead trees with white barks and rotten logs. The only other inhabitants of such a barren place were vultures, crows and insects.

Soon, her mouth was left gaping open upon the sight of the largest trees she had ever seen. Their trunks were so wide, it might need at least twenty adults to wrap their arms around its body to hug the entire trunk. On each of those trees were what seemed to be houses, and interconnecting each house were hanging bridges created of vines and tree branches.

As she continued to ride Lusca the Stag, she could see children with pointed ears running and playing with other animals in the forest. She heard laughter and music and the most beautiful people with pointed ears bustling about, merrily talking to each other. Though they looked over when they noticed her passing, they were not glaring at her or shooting looks of disgust towards her. They were curious, mostly wary since there was an outsider.

Leeora smiled, seeing her reaction. “Welcome to Ronan, one of the cities of Agartha and the home of the Wood Elf Clan. It is a place which you will also call your home starting from now.”

The elves observed this outsider. If she were an adult woman, the Wood Elf Clan might have openly shown disgust and hostility towards her, but based on her appearance, the outsider might be only about fourteen or fifteen years in terms of human age. She was but an infant for elves whose lifespans were as long as a thousand years.

Her injured appearance made her look pale and frail, and her thin body looked starved. Not to mention, she looked pitiful because of her bandages and clothes, and this caused many of the adult elves to feel sorry for her. The fact that Leeora, their clan leader, was also escorting her also lessened their ill feelings towards this human guest.

“Is that her? The female Erlos is talking about?”

“The woman the King brought to his bed?”

“I don’t think so?”

Thanks to Erlos’ antics, gossip had spread among the palace servants that their king had brought a woman to his bed. Some of these servants also lived in Ronan, and they shared the gossip to their family and friends.

This made many of these elves to be curious about this controversial human female, wondering what was so special about her. To their disappointment, all they saw was one wounded young girl who looked so nervous she was almost hugging the neck of the stag she was riding. These triggered maternal instincts in many of the hearts of the female elves.

The physique of elves was taller than humans, and this young girl who was already small for her age seemed even smaller to their eyes.

‘A female visited their king’s bed? This little one? That Erlos deserves a beating!”

Since Leeora was their clan leader, no one openly asked her reasons for bringing a human to their city. Leeora didn’t introduce her to anyone for now as she knew nothing about this girl. She didn’t even know her name. The girl hadn’t spoken yet, and it made the elf wonder if she was mute.

Soon enough, they seemed to have reached the most central part of the city where the largest trees were found. It was also the part of Ronan that had the most elves and other races. After passing through what seemed like a plaza, Leeora pointed towards one large tree with vines hanging. The trees here were so large, that their trunks could support two shelters, one at the bottom and another nearer the crown of the tree.

“That will be your new home.” The elder pointed to the largest and most majestic tree shelter that was connected to her new house by a hanging bridge., “That one is where I live. You can come to me anytime by crossing that bridge.”

The human girl simply stared at it, but it was hard to understand her simply by looking at her expression. Leeora was contemplating over how to make her talk, or even say her name. If she had problems speaking, it made her wonder if the human girl could write.

“Shall we go to your home?” Leeora asked, hoping to hear her answer, but the girl simply looked at her.

“Do you want to ask something?” Leeora asked as her last attempt to make her talk.

The girl moved her gaze towards the house, then looked at the ground, and then again looked at Leeora. The elf elder knew what this human was asking but she was trying her luck on making her talk.

‘It seems like she’s truly mute.’

At first, Leeora wasn’t sure. After all, it was possible she simply refused to talk because she was surrounded by strangers. However, after repeated attempts yesterday and today, the human girl was yet to even let out a word.

‘A pity, but don’t worry little one. People here will treat you like family.’

Fortunately, the human girl was not deaf and could clearly understand what she was talking about. However, Leeora was still hoping that the girl could talk. Perhaps she should give her a few more days to build trust with her. For the meantime, she would treat her as a mute.

‘I wonder if I shall give her a temporary name since we don’t know what she’s called.’