1 ❧ text; backdated a few days

[woodking]

[The penmanship is bold, but neat and without added flourishes. Well, he'd been told that this was a communication devise, and the previous pages did seem to back that up, so it seemed a good place to begin asking questions.]

Are there any here who have the tools needed in shaping a bow? At the moment I have nothing but a sword, and it is not suited for fine work.

A sword alone may do to an extent, but this forest is... unnatural, and I would wish for more than it

[Suddenly the writing stops, and Thranduil's voice picks up as he accidentally switches to dictating.]

Legolas?

[A squeaking sound greets him, and after a few seconds there's a sound of footsteps, and some background noise. Maybe a minute later he returns to the journal and sees the additions. Well, whatever.]

Is is it usual, here, to find animals wearing ribbons wandering without their mothers?

[action]

[Anyone out in the forest may find Thranduil with a small, very pale elk calf next to him. It has a bright red gold-trimmed ribbon tied around its neck and he is wondering where he's supposed to find milk for it.]

Comments

dictated

[woodking]

Where?

Dictated - I'm lazy and don't know where to look for this info

[wizard_redfive]

It's not that far from here.

[Insert directions to an area on the castle grounds]

dictated forever unless something changes nah bro you're good

[woodking]

[He looks over the directions with some interest.]

What is it like, this range?

most of this is how I picture it shush

[wizard_redfive]

All right, I guess, though the fields are currently covered in snow. Most of it is open space with targets, though there is a building with supplies and additional target areas if the weather is bad. The space is open for practice with a variety of weapons, but mostly archery and guns. There's rarely more than one or two other people there at a time though, which is nice. [When you're just starting out at least.]

it workssss

[woodking]

Guns?

[It's not a familiar word to him, but ah well.]

They, then, have supplies to craft your own weapon? Or only ones already completed?

good :3

[wizard_redfive]

Modern firearms. Well... relatively modern. [By a few hundred years or so.]

Maybe, though you'd have to check. They might have tools to make weapons, but you'll probably need to collect the wood yourself.

[woodking]

They are not something I had encountered.

[He leaves it at that; there's enough here that he hasn't, after all. But from the sound of it they're ranged weapons, and might be worth looking into.]

That...

[He hesitates; normally it would not be a problem, but normally he'd be able to tell which trees were good, which were evil, which would not mind losing wood and which would attempt revenge for the act. To cut wood in a strange forest was not necessarily the wisest act - he could take a sapling, but that did not solve the problem of the other trees.]

I would not have expected otherwise.

[wizard_redfive]

It doesn't surprise me. They don't seem to have existed on Middle Earth.

[Dairine pauses. Odd to hear a royal like him hesitate. In cases like Roshaun, it usually indicates some uncomfortable uncertainty or fear. However, he wouldn't like her pointing out potential weakness, so she won't here.]

I figured as much. No doubt you've already noticed the forest near the castle.

[woodking]

I am currently living there - yes, I have noticed it.

[There's a little amusement in his voice, though kind enough.]

Though I do not know if I shall remain. The trees and creatures here are silent, but do not feel friendly. Take care, should you tread there.

Dairine, no, play nice

[wizard_redfive]

Wow, seriously? Is the forest royal enough for you?

[Eyebrow raised at Mister Kingship picking a forest over the castle for his haughty home. But Dairine drops the snark as his next words sink in. This is serious news.]

Really? They're silent?

dair no

[woodking]

A cave in a forest was my home before I was brought here, and had been for thousands of years. My halls are lovely, and the spaces are airy and vast, and they have been worked by extraordinary craftsman and laid with enchantments and therein are things of beauty, but it is still just a cave. I have not lived anywhere as lavish as the castle for many thousands of years.

[Or anywhere made of stone and mortar for a very, very long time. It was slightly uncomfortable, to be surrounded by it when he was so unused to it.]

The only thing I have encountered which will speak to me is the fawn which just arrived.

sobs

[wizard_redfive]

[There is a considerable pause as Dairine mulls over this information.]

So... let's see if I got this straight... You're a nature-lover who lives in an extra fancy cave.

Huh. [Now that she thinks of it, Dairine cannot recall hearing the trees speak at all. She had always assumed it was just something to do with the Dead Zone, since she rarely went into the woods outside of expeditions. But now she's not so sure.] Do plants and animals usually speak to you?

[woodking]

The description works as well as any, I suppose.

I am a Wood-elf.

[It's spoken like that should be enough to be getting on with. He does continue, at least.]

And more, the forest where I make my home is overshadowed. If, there, I could not understand the birds then I would have far less information from the outside world. If I could not understand the trees, to know which were malicious and which were kind, it would be another source of danger.

[wizard_redfive]

Oh? Is that the more official term for hippie elves?

An overshadowed forest? [Wow, that's intense. Dairine was aware the Lone One overshadowed all kinds of people, but a whole group of trees? Overshadowed wizards were bad enough. She shivers.] Are you sure the same thing is happening here?

[woodking]

It's the term for what I and my people are. We live among the trees.

[He's not clicking with your wavelength, Dair.]

I am far from sure that this is the same thing. The forest is not silent at home, and the malevolence of the trees and the forces behind it much more prevalent. Nor have I encountered any of the Great Spiders, though their presence is only one symptom among many.

What I know is what I have shared - that the forest is silent, and not friendly.

[wizard_redfive]

I thought you said you lived in a cave. ["Among the trees" makes her think of elves living in the branches. But there are other things on her mind.]

Great Spiders?

[Dairine recalls Nita's warning to her, the one she had gotten from Darryl about giant bugs. Unfriendly bugs, and how they meant trouble. But then her thoughts turn to a different thing Nita told her about, much farther back. The forest she had seen during her Ordeal and how silent it had been.]

Are you sure it is being silent out of unfriendliness and not fear?

[woodking]

But must not caves be found somewhere themselves? And my home is in a great forest, where the caverns where I live are in the north-east, near a river, under the hills.

The Spiders came with the Shadow, as a spreading plague. They are dangerous, and are evil, but are difficult to kill, and impossible to wholly eradicate.

[It's a strange question, and he's not entirely sure what to make of it.]

I'm sure of nothing, save that it will not speak to me, but it does not feel kind.

[wizard_redfive]

Huh. With a word like "wood elves" I would have expected you to be living in the trees. Well, when they were friendly, at any rate. Why not call yourselves "cave elves" then?

Hm. [She's not sure if those spiders are the "bugs" Neets was referring to, seeing as prophetic dreams are difficult enough to decipher on the first-person basis. Having it come to her through two people just makes things downright vague and generally unhelpful.] I'll keep that in mind.

Interesting. I didn't noticed any distrust from the woods before, but then again I rarely go there unless I'm heading into the Dead Zone. [In which the oppressive feeling could easily be mistaken for the Dead Zone's effect. Also her Wizard's Speech doesn't work out there, so she wouldn't bother trying to understand it.]

[woodking]

Many of my people do. But it is difficult to store wealth, or stores of food, or prisoners, or many other things that a kingdom needs in trees.

They do not seem to be here, at least. [That was, at least, something nice.]

Most humans are not sensitive enough to the moods and thoughts of the trees to notice anything of them.

[wizard_redfive]

[She rolls her eyes. He had to bring up the wealth, didn't he.] I guess.

Well, that's a relief. [If that premonition had been about Paradisa, she isn't sure what she'd do. ...Of course, that means that she'll still have to deal with giant bugs once she gets home. Rats.]

Maybe not. But wizards are.

[woodking]

[It was a practical consideration of running a kingdom - would she have preferred it had he pretended he and all his people were paupers?

Still, that is something of note. There is a pause.]

You speak as though wizards are Men.

[And that was just not true.]

[wizard_redfive]

[But how does she knows he's spending that wealth on the kingdom and not keeping it for himself, huh? She hasn't seen his kingdom or how he rules, after all.

Dairine bristles a little at his tone but keeps her voice calmly matter-of-fact.]

Some wizards are. And some are women.

[woodking]

[Of course not; it was only common sense. It was only the way a kingdom must be run, if it was to remain tied together.

That statement is inaccurate, but that is not what confuses him most, more, even, than her previous words.]

What has gender to do with it?

[wizard_redfive]

[And now Dairine is just confused.]

That's what I was saying.

[woodking]

[... well then.]

There are no wizards who are women - they appear in the guise of old men, but are not of the race of Men. They are wizards.

[How is this complicated?]