Author notes:
I have proofread and edited as best I could, but mistakes always make it through.
As always, your feedback and thoughts are welcome; I hope you enjoy reading this part.
Now for a few warnings that might be minor spoilers:
This chapter contains F/F elements. Future parts are going to include amazon chicks with dicks. No futa on female sex in this part, unfortunately. More will be added to this as needed when the story progresses further; I cannot guarantee that a future section will not contain something that offends you.
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Please do not repost this story without the author's permission.
Also, all individuals engaged in sexual activities are of ages 18 and above.
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Chapter-1:
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The Northern Swallow Woods was located as the name would suggest to the northern border of Wrishiria, a recently thriving and prosperous kingdom on the Ores continent.
Although it was not always so, in recent years, the Wrishirians were finally at peace with their neighbors to the west and east. It only took a unified goal to make them set aside their differences and dislike for one another, and that goal was conquest.
Their kings cast their eyes to the north where the non-humans lived. Believing them and their Gods to be inferior in every possible way to their own people and the Gods and Goddesses of humanity, the three kingdoms formed a coalition to invade and plunder their northerly neighbors.
Thus, it was when they were given a bloody nose and driven back to their own lands, the three kingdoms were forced to sign the treaty, declaring a hundred years of peace with all the parties that signed.
Having lost most of their forces and no expedient and efficient way of replenishing their numbers for the foreseeable future, the coalition agreed to sue for peace and disbanded.
It remained to be seen if the peace will last and if lessons learned will be forgotten, as old grudges were not wholly forgotten and new grudges were still fresh in the minds of humanity.
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The massive primal forest was dominated by oak, beech, ash, lime, and yew trees. The forest floor was teeming with fauna and flora aplenty if one was adventurous enough, one could find many hidden wonders in the bowels of this magical forest.
But not many would dare breach the invisible border where the trees of this forest began. Only the most adventurous or foolhardy, along with some criminal elements with no other place to go would venture trough.
The Northern Swallow Woods was home to all kinds of plants and wildlife, both benign and malignant and would often prey on the inexperienced and unwary.
The most formidable of these inhabitants were the humanoids of which the Goblins, Elves, and amazons were the most numerous, found in the presence of their own kind, living in tight-knit groups and clans of various sizes.
-Excerpts from the book: An Adventurer's guide to Ores, by The Diviner of Discovery.
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The Jade Elves were named after one of the rivers that flowed through the forest where they first settled. Like most of their woodland kin, they made their homes high up in the ancient trees, upon great wooden platforms with vine-fiber spun ropes and wooden bridges to connect each house and building, only when necessity called for it, would something be built on the forest floor.
The blacksmith and boyer, along with the carpenter and potter were some of these buildings. The forest floor was also where the elves built the shrine of their Goddess, Imera, daughter Goddess to the Godly husband and wife pair, Zolo and Gumerea.
In the middle of the village was the market square, it served as a gathering point in festivities as well as a gathering spot for merchants to hawk their goods with loud voices calling out their prices at stalls built all around the circumference. Its lively atmosphere was only matched by the local watering hole.
Near the bank of the steadily flowing river and the village dock, sat the inn and the stables. Although the stables were for visitors from other tribes and clans, as well as the occasional amazon ambassadors. Human merchants primarily came and left by shallow water boats and barges, so they had no need to stable any horses of their own.
The Deepest Crossing was the inn's name, built on the Jade Beck river, was also named for the bridge the elves have constructed to cross the rapid waters to the opposite bank.
The four-story building was the only of its kind in the village doubling as a tavern as well a place for fortune seekers and visitors to get a room. Its stout walls built with river rock and mortar along with timber worked by the elves in elegant patterns. As the only place that visitors could stay while visiting, the Deepest Crossing was busy at all hours, and one could hear men and women making merry most nights after a hard day of haggling. Suffice it to say, the only elves busier than the innkeeper and his family were the Elder Council.
Just outside the village, beyond the closest outpost manned by eleven rangers, between the tall trees and thick vegetation was a lush green clearing that held all manner of plants, herbs, and fruits, both common and rare.
At the center of this clearing was a brook that ran off somewhere in the Jade Beck. Next, to this brook, its roots planted deep into the fertile soils, stood a young oak tree, offering shade to the sole occupant leaning against its stout body.
A beautiful nymph, with creamy skin of the same color as the tree that she was resting against comfortably, busy weaving away at a wooden basket her face a picture of innocence as she hummed a wordless tune along with the songbirds that sat in the trees and looked upon the youthful nature spirit.
A refreshing spring breeze swept through the forest and past the clearing, lightly ruffling red hair, giving the illusion of living flames on top of her head.
The young dryad had just reached the age of eighteen summers this spring, and as dryad births are a rare thing, this made her the most youthful of the dryads living currently in this forest, at least as far as the village inhabitants could tell, after all even seeing a dryad is a rare thing much less having one living near a village.
The Jade Elves' rangers brought her back with them to the village after they set out to repel bandits from their territory.
Amongst the possessions of the brigands was a mother dryad, dead but still clutching a young one to her bosom in an attempt to protect her child when two stray crossbow bolts from bandits pierced the tent they were kept in.
The point and fire weapons were a favorite in bandit groups that could afford them. They did not require the same amount of training a competent longbowman would take to be proficient like professional soldiers and elven rangers.
That being said, in this encampment, bolts would often find friends just as often as foes in the panic that ensued that day.
Being away from her tree for so long and no ability to plant a new one in the bandit camp meant that the bolts struck mortal wounds.
The leader of the group buried the mother under an oak tree and took the babe with him back to their village to be raised like she was born an elven child, at least at first. They named her after the first of her kind, Kelaria.
Children in most elven clans were communally raised by adults, and vital and life-changing decisions were decided by the Elder Council of the clan.
Kelaria had the characteristics of most of her kind, she was quiet and shy, if not more shy than most, with a whimsical sense of humor and loved to play pranks on the unwary on occasion, usually with the help of a furry friend.
Kelaria lived in the village proper until she started to develop and the need to plant her own tree grew great, that was the excuse the Elders waited for to relocate her further away from the village proper.
Another factor was Kelaria's increasing disdain of wearing clothes and the increasingly admiring looks she received from the village men and women that forced the Council to intervene.
Kelaria was not bothered in the slightest when the Elders moved her into her own clearing and delighted in living under her tree in the beautiful place she cultivated for herself and the freedom it provided her.
A visiting druid took an interest in a young Kelaria's nature and showed her what plants and herbs she could grow by herself and which properties were suitable for which ailments. Most of the village's herbal ingredients thus came from the dryad's grove.
But growing herbs and medicinal plants were not the only things Kelaria kept herself busy with, she also learned basket weaving from her friend Yrneha and now far surpassed her friend's apprentice level expertise.
Kelaria found that she could encourage the trees around her to grow a few extra limbs for her weaving, and they always went about this task eagerly like faithful hounds eager for their master's attention.
Kelaria was told she was blessed by Zolo and Gumerea when the Elders noticed how plantlife and animals would always bend to her will.
