The Elven Forest

"Should I use Red Cambria’s seed, Mother Lelyah?"

It has been nine years since I woke up here. Nine long and confusing years and I am still unaccustomed to this weird setting. The food, the animals, the people, the houses and even my clothes look like the ones from a fantasy movie. As bad as it would be, I go to sleep every night wishing to wake up in a hospital bed in Yokohama.

I wonder what the world back home looks like now.

"Remember Agafya, Red Cambria cannot be used unless you purify the base first."

"Even if it is just the seeds?"

"The seeds hold 80% of the poison."

"Everything is poisonous here, isn’t it?"

"That is Mother Jörð kind protection, her way of telling the world that only we elves have a right to the sacred forest as her children."

That is right, elves, and it is not as cool as it sounds. The first two years of my new life, I believed I had reincarnated as a normal human in some European orphanage. I was not particularly religious myself, but I knew many people who genuinely believed in reincarnation, so I just assumed they were right and at some point I was going to forget everything about my past life and continue growing up like every other kid.

Being a baby all my senses were still weak, my eyesight in particular was as good as nonexistent. I could only distinguish silhouettes and even the faintest of lights was enough to leave me blind for a couple of minutes. Thanks to that and my general confusion with this whole situation, it was only natural that I assumed that the many women looking after me were human. After all, I had no way of seeing their otherworldly beauty, youth and pointy ears.

"Mother Lelyah, I have finished."

"Wonderful, now taste it."

Wait, what?

"You have to make sure if potion is working as intended. That is, if you are sure you have finished."

Mother Lelyah said as if she could see my hesitation. If we were still in Japan, the fact that I could not taste my potion as if it was just some tea would not even be surprising. I am working on a relaxing potion as part of my studies, a potion often used to anesthetize. If it came out right, it should alleviate all stress and pain on my body, but if I made even the slightest mistake, I could end up dead or terribly ill for the rest of the week.

"Maybe I should revise my formula once more."

"Do not worry Agafya, unless you are gravely mistaken, I know enough spells to cure you."

I am not worried about your ability to cure me, I am worried that this is the first thing you teach nine year olds in this class. Although, it should not surprise me at this point, if there is something I have learned up until now is that the elven society has a quite peculiar set of rules.

The first time I noticed it, was when I turned four and finally could understand their language enough to know that none of the five women taking care of me was my mother. Two of them, Lelyah and Eva, where always referred as “Mother” by the others, like a title, but they never referred to me as their daughter or something even remotely similar. They always called me by my name and never, under any circumstance, hug me, or kissed me or showed me any sign of affection; they were diligent and respectful but I never felt love coming from them, it was as if raising me was just their job. For a while, I assumed that I was correct and they were just some nurses hired by this orphanage.

"Agafya, are you done?"

"I’m about to find out. Wish me luck"

Without even caring anymore, I gulped down a few drops of my potion.

"I will wait for you at the dining hall."

The girl running out of the room not caring enough to stay and see if I die is Lada. I would like to say she is my sister, from looks alone we could even pass as twin sisters. Like every elf, we are identical except for our eye color, mine are greyish green and hers dark blue, and her hair being of a slightly silvery tone.

During my baby years, I was so preoccupied with figuring out where and who I was that it took me a ridiculous amount of time to notice the other baby living in the same room with me. In that moment all clicked inside my head, I was in some kind of orphanage and that is why there are so many caretakers looking after two babies. However, as I grew up I understood my guess was pretty far from reality.

Somewhere around two years ago, when the Mothers finally allowed us to wander inside the village and grated us access to an immense library. I found out the truth, we were not two parentless babies being taken care of at a random facility, our mothers are here, somewhere in the village, I assume them to be amongst the younger elves that I often see around. They ironically do not have the title of Mother and sadly never speak to us children, so I have no way of finding out which one gave birth to me or to Lada. Even more strangely, male elves are not allowed near us. The only ones I have seen so far are a couple of hunters that bring food and other ingredients directly to the Mothers.

The easiest solution to find my parents would be to ask one of the Mothers directly, but I am afraid that is going to make me look like some freak. You see, the only thing that has been clear to me since I started attending my lessons, the thing that is present in every folktale they have forced me to memorize, is that to an elf there is no bigger bond than our race itself. We are all children of our God Jörð. Considering someone to be closer just because they gave birth to you will be an insult to our lineage as elves, thus rendering families an unnecessary concept.

"Oooooh! It’s working!"

I feel my body becoming lighter and a sensation of peace engulf my mind.

"Not so fast."

As soon as Mother Lelyah said that, I lost all strength form my legs and dropped into the floor. I could not even speak properly, I was about to pass completely out.

"You used too much Silver Elk’s dust, I expected you to pass out on the spot."

Mother Lelyah explained while casually casting a spell on me.

"Reflect on your failure today while you have supper. We need you to start moving on to more advance recipes soon."

"I will Mother Lelyah."

She left the room and walked towards the library, leaving me lying on the floor like a piece of cloth.

"How did your lesson go?"

Later at the dining hall, I was trying to start a conversation with Lada.

"I had to study old runes the whole time. Mother Eva couldn’t gather materials yesterday to work on potions."

"How nice, at least studying runes doesn’t put your life in danger."

"I can study runes on my own later, this was an opportunity to learn directly from one of the Mothers."

"You should’ve joined me, it is funnier if we fail and pass out together."

"It would only slow us down."

If we go by mental age, I should be more than fifteen years older than Lada and yet, whenever we talk, it always feels like I am speaking with an old unfriendly grandma.

"Do you want to watch the stars today?"

"If it’s for a few minutes, I don’t mind."

This was my secret technique to get Lada to open up. Thanks to my past life, I knew a lot of ancient stories and mythology. One night, out of boredom, I decided to share one with Lada and the result was unexpected. I awakened her unrivaled curiosity to learn new things and she was eager to hear more of them.

After that, whenever we finished our duties early, we would go out to the forest and watch the stars while I tell her about the different legends of my world. My only worry is that I am running out of stories to tell her and I will have to start making things up eventually. Not that it will make any difference, to her I have been making things up since day one.

"Nice, I will hurry up since I still need to practice mana concentration today."

"See you later."

Lada said to me in her usual monotone voice as I finished my tea and stood up from the table.

Is at moments like this that I can finally relax and think, even if just for a bit, that life here might be better than what I had back home. At least I have Lada by side and two Mothers to guide me.