Editing Dark Elf:Volume1 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 4===

A heavy pain pounded in Klaus Knockburn’s head. But that very suffering was proof he still lived.

“Kh…”

He had come to, but he lacked the strength to jump to his feet. He couldn’t remember what was happening or where he was.

“Oww.”

He could tell he was lying on his back deep in the forest. He could see conifer trees too big to reach his arms around and large boulders. It was all covered in green moss, making them all look like one combined mass. It appeared to be daytime, but the light was dim thanks to the branches overhead. Some colorful objects lay at the base of a tree. Red Ghost Turnips and orange Witch Pumpkins measuring more than a meter across were growing there. Their skin was as thick as a shield, making them a poor choice for cooking.

After spending a good long time observing his surroundings, Klaus rolled onto his stomach. What felt like a low pile carpet had to be the green moss. His fingers trembled and the rest of him refused to move. Where was he? Why was he lying in the middle of the forest? More and more questions occurred to him, but they were all swept from his mind a moment later.

A long-eared individual was watching him. The silver-haired, brown-skinned dark elf was w-sitting on the ground and cautiously extending just her head forward to peer at him.

It was Slender.

He cried out in surprise.

She jumped and tried to scoot back while still seated. All she really accomplished was straining her white leather clothing and messing up her sitting position.

“''Y-ykiw? Gaq’w htoim aew numo wkiw, kepiq. Bae vfitog po!!''”

Without straightening back up, she reached out a frantic hand, but scooting back had placed her out of reach of the bow she had left on the ground. She looked like the calm and composed type, but he was quickly learning she was easily flustered. He could not even get up, yet she had nearly fallen over and even had tears in her eyes as she tried to find something to do. She was acting like she had just encountered a violent ruffian.

“What?”

Klaus worked to dredge up the memories inside his smoke-addled mind.

He had nearly been burned at the stake, but then this girl had untied him within all that smoke.

“Did you save me from-”

Her fingertips found the bow on the ground.

A tremor ran down his spine, but he could not even raise his hands to protect his face. He could not move, but the brown girl didn’t even hear him out before running off into the forest.

No one else remained with him.

“Umm.”

He waited a while and started feeling lonely just lying there.

“Um, what is happening to me? I feel all tingly. When will I be able to get up?”

No one answered him.

He only heard the cries of wild birds and the rustling of the forest’s trees.

Then it hit him.

He realized anew that he was alone.

Hopelessly alone.

…''Um, wait. What if I can never move again? What do I do about water and food? What if some crawling bugs swarm me?

It was all too sudden. Once he focused on it, he felt a great pressure like the entire forest was collapsing in on him.

Would he pass out from hunger and then be eaten by an animal?

Would that green moss grow across his pale bones like it did the rocks and trees?

He screamed.

He shouted and yelled. He didn’t stop even when he realized the dark elves might be out searching for him. His voice was swallowed up by the deep forest. Tears fell from his eyes. He had never known being alone could be so terrifying. It affected him so much he grew irrationally angry at the dark elves for not showing up when they were supposed to be chasing after him.

…''Dammit, where is that idiot of a teacher when you need her? We were supposed to be investigating the forest together, so surely she didn’t run away and l-l-l-leave me behind, right!? Ahhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???

Wishing wasn’t going to help. His teacher was never going to come rescue him.

No one was coming. He had to survive on his own. He reached an understanding of his situation while still lying on the ground. The biggest problem for the puny boy was his lack of fire or a weapon.

…''There was Leader, Tear Mole, and…how many others?

He used his fingernails to scrape letters into the moss. He listed out everything he had seen and heard.

…''The hunters and priests wore different clothing. Are the dancers a third category? No, they’re probably part of the priests. Little Girl wore a dress instead, so maybe she’s still an apprentice and doesn’t have an official role yet?

He breathed a heavy sigh. The tingling remained, but he managed to grit his teeth and slowly turn his head on its side. He took an objective view of what he had recorded to help input the information into his mind.

“They had me at their mercy by the river, so why didn’t they kill me then and there? Is that river a holy place, or is there some significance in the use of fire? Boobs, thighs…oh, goddess, I want to put Slender’s entire long ear in my mouth and- ah!?”

Was he drifting over to a wish list of activities because he was out of information to consider? He didn’t remember most of what he had seen and heard. That may have been the smoke’s doing, but he was disappointed in his unreliable memory all the same. He could not remember what it was he couldn’t remember, but he was struck by a vague sense of forgetfulness. He especially regretted failing to observe the details of the burning ritual just because he was so worried about dying. He was a failure of a scientist and he couldn’t even complain if his rotten teacher made fun of him now.

''“Y-ykiw? Gaq’w htoim aew numo wkiw, kepiq. Bae vfitog po!!”

For some reason, Slender’s words after rescuing him from the fire kept replaying in his mind. He didn’t understand what it meant, so it was like having a foreign song stuck in his head.

That memory was so vivid compared to the rest.

Analyzing the dark elf language with so little information would be difficult. It was like a code that a linguist had failed to crack after years of work. But there was definitely meaning hidden there. He could also learn about dark elf customs and culture by observing their clothing and mannerisms.

Customs and culture.

That might not sound like much, but this had all begun with seeing Slender naked.

If he had understood their culture, he could have avoided that landmine. And he could use that knowledge to his advantage. If this rule was important enough for them to take someone’s life without hesitation, then it had to influence the way they thought. For example, if there was some sacred ground or holy place they never visited, he could use it as a hiding spot.

…''But first, I need to get up.

His strength was slowly but surely returning. He focused his mind on his right hand while lying on his stomach. He pressed his palm against the mossy ground and tried to place his body weight on it.

All of a sudden, he no longer felt the ground below it.

“Wahh!? Ahhhhhhhh!!”

His nose slammed into the ground, but the surprise was greater than the pain. He gritted his teeth and desperately suppressed the urge to roll around. He could now see that he was lying right next to the edge of a cliff. If he had slid just a bit more to the side, he would have fallen into that bottomless ravine.

His heart hammered in his chest.

He desperately wanted to run away from all this tension, but his body told him he didn’t have what it took. He had no map, no rope, no knife, and no water bottle. He wanted a bow and a lamp. He needed a tent and a sleeping bag.

…''I need so many tools just to stay alive. Can I really survive if I delve blindly into the forest emptyhanded? Aren’t there some bare minimum of tools you need when camping?

He was alone now, but that was why he needed a solid plan. If he hoped to leave the forest, he needed to travel deeper inside. The only people in the forest with tools were the dark elves. They weren’t going to lend him some if he asked politely, of course. With the exception of Slender, they would probably burn him at the stake. So he needed to sneak in to their village and borrow a map and knife.

Running away was the natural instinct.

But.

He could only attempt to reach their village once in his life. Once he left the forest, he could never try it again.

“Maybe when I reach the village, I’ll look through a window and happen to see Slender engaged in some embarrassing hobby and that can lead to a secret life together.”

He felt like the deep green of the forest was going to crush him to death if he did not speak his fantasies out loud.

Also…

“Where am I?”

He was in the forest. Deep in the forest. The raw nature of the place rejected human life.

It had several different names, including the Dragon’s Forest and Grave Keeper Woods, but one was more well known than the others: the Forest of No Return.

He shook the obvious question out of his heavy head and finally took a look around. The solid boulders were covered in green moss, the thick conifers didn’t look like they would grow any fruit, and some bushes sat low to the ground. He couldn’t spot any kind of landmark, so he had no way of knowing where in the forest he was.

His body felt chilly.

The deep forest was damp and cut off from the sunlight, but would that really affect him this much? The simple cloak he had bought in the royal capital did nothing to keep out the chill. He had assumed his unusual difficulty of movement was due to inhaling so much smoke, but it may have also been all the body heat he had lost while he slept.

He was worried about his chances now. His cloak was not helping as much as the shopkeeper had claimed, but it was meant for someone traveling in a group with firewood, thick tents, and other camping equipment loaded onto a convoy of wagons traveling along a safe road.

And…

“What is this?”

His hand touched something as he pressed it against the mossy ground to support his weight. The glittering gold and small red jewel of a single earring had fallen there.

Had someone lost it? He initially thought of Tear Mole and Short Hair. Those dancers had been covered in jewelry, but he didn’t recall them wearing earrings like this. Elves’ long ears drew the eye, so he could clearly remember this even without any real notes.

“Their ears…”

His own voice reminded him of something.

It reminded him of running across Slender bathing in the nude.

“Oh, right. Slender was wearing one of these when she was bathing!”

There was so much he still didn’t know about Slender. She had not screamed when he saw her naked, but she had not tried to stop the others from setting up the burning ritual. But then she had rigged the dried plants to produce a smokescreen and somehow carried him all the way here.

He had so many questions.

This went beyond language. Some rules he did not understand were at play in the Forest of No Return and he could not even figure out what was happening to him until he figured out what they were. And as the only person here, he was the only one who could do that. He had to get his body and mind moving and risk his life to search out the answers.

“Yeah, I should probably return this to her while I’m at it,” he murmured while rolling the earring around in his hand.

He had business at the dark elf village regardless, so he could leave it for her somewhere while he was there. Even better, he could happen across her there and return it in person.

He was afraid of what might happen in the village, but he wanted to see her again.

…''I mean, she was naked and bathing when I first saw her, so who knows what excitement awaits me the next time. Ohh, I can’t wait. What if she’s all sticky from being trapped in a giant spider web!? Or what if she takes a face full of moth scales that make her fall in love with me!?

The dark elves scared him to death, but Slender didn’t.

That was his conclusion. He didn’t need to overcomplicate things here. He had long dreamed of finding the dark elves, but now he knew she was the only one for him.

“Which means marriage is the only option.”

He only had one chance to find the village in this forest and he would forever lose that chance if he gave up and left. She was the only person in the world he cared about right now, so he wanted to propose to her before he left the Forest of No Return. ''I have to! And then I need to clear a path that connects us forever and ever!!

He gently rolled the jewelry around on his palm. It was made from gold and a red gem. That meant the Forest of No Return was developed enough to create something like this. They had language and they had tools. The only problem was how they were using those things to try and burn him alive. If he could borrow some tools from their village, he could leave the forest alive and clear a path toward marrying his wife-to-be.

He could also use the lost earring. It was metal after all. He collected a large branch lying nearby.

He was not hoping to use it as a handmade spear or fishing rod.

…''I can write on it.

He needed to be careful because pure gold was soft, but he could carve letters into the side of the damp tree branch! It wasn’t as nice as the parchment found back in the royal capital, but this way he could avoid foolishly losing what experience he had gained. Falsely remembering a crucial fact scared him more than anything else.

Yes. The paper and ink pens he was used to were nowhere to be found here.

He checked his pockets, but it looked like all of his possessions aside from his clothing had been confiscated. He didn’t even have his cheap mountain climbing knife, his preserved dried meat, or his student ID. He was surrounded by a seemingly endless expanse of deep forest in all directions. He was beginning to suspect throwing him out here with only the clothes on his back had been a more indirect form of execution.

How would he find the necessities needed to survive and how would he avoid the dark elves who were likely searching for the escapee right this very moment? Leader and Curvy’s bows had not been for sports. Those were projectile weapons used to protect their forest village and to hunt the large animals needed to feed their people. They probably also had several varieties of poison arrow. One hit from those and a human like him was dead. As much as he wanted to research the dark elves, he was tired of having to risk his own neck to do so. Instead of taking each other’s lives, he would much rather work with them to create new life.

“First of all, I’m sick of being alone. This is driving me crazy. I hate it, hate it, hate it!! I swear I’ll find a way to meet and talk with my wife! I swear it! Ideally, she would let me borrow some tools from her village too. I can’t hope to leave the forest if I can’t survive on my own.”

He had to survive.

Otherwise he could never marry Slender.

What was the point of an emotional proposal that ended in their deaths like in the climax of a play? If he died before he got a chance to touch those long, twitching ears, he just knew he would regret it so much he came back as a ghost. So right now, even a small stone or tree branch could be priceless. He had no idea when he would find another metal product.

He was alone and helpless.

He felt horribly unprepared and doubted he could survive this on his own, so he started to imagine the dark forest was pressing in on him from all directions. It made him feel like a small child, but he was terrified of being alone.

“Dammit…”

He slowly gathered his strength and stood up, partially to see how much his body had recovered.

He was scared.

His rotten teacher was always doing crazy things, but this was the first time she had grown completely uncontrollable.

If he was going to venture toward the center of the forest in order to safely escape, the hunters’ bows were of course a threat, but those priests creeped him out too. Not much was known about dark elf magic. What if they could use some kind of invisible curse or secretly track him through astral projection? It might sound absurd, but wasn’t impossible. He couldn’t say anything for sure about them, which scared him.

Especially when the one thing he did know was that they tied humans to logs and set them on fire with torches.

His biggest fear was that the lovely dark elves would have no qualms about using some kind of devastating magic power against a human who looked so much like them.

The royal capital wasn’t exactly peaceful. When he was late to submit a research report and had to walk the dark streets late at night, there was always a chance he would be mugged. But this was different. Just like a traveler attacked by a wild bear, this violence existed outside the human rules he was familiar with. It wasn’t the same as a mugger who attacked while well aware it was wrong.

They might even think this violence was an act of good. The majority was being controlled and the group thought they were doing the right thing. No one cared that they were burning someone alive. This wasn’t a case of a mystery going unresolved – they didn’t even see anything needing to be solved.

And whatever the case, no one would ever know what happened to him if he died here.

Not a single person.

He shuddered and held himself. The ordinary branch he was using to take notes was still in his arms. He greatly regretted working to rationally analyze the fear he had sealed away inside himself.

…''Anyway, I need to find Slender and then leave this forest.

He hated to leave a place full of so many dark elves, but his safety came first. He only had the one chance to search out their village, but as long as he made it there before leaving the forest, he was pretty sure he could come and go as he pleased. So once he knew its location, he could put off a more in-depth investigation until later.

That meant his top priority was his wife. He tucked the note-taking branch below his belt on the side of his hip.

Now, which way to the dark elf village?

To obtain a wife and leave the forest, he wanted some civilized tools like a bow and a map.

“Slender’s navel and thighs were bare. She wasn’t dressed for walking through bushes. The dark elves must use cleared paths – the animal trails.”

The boy began walking. With the green moss looked like a stormy ocean thanks to the boulders it covered. He walked through the tunnel of trees, the overhead rustling of leaves sounding like whispering voices. What was that cloth sack hanging from a branch by a rope? He hesitantly approached and checked inside to find soil. What could that mean? Was it related to some dark elf myth or religion? Maybe an old story about hanging a slain enemy’s severed head from a tree branch?

Just then, he spotted a narrow animal trail created by flattening the underbrush below foot.

He could no longer tell if he was acting based on educated guesses or pure fantasy, but he didn’t think he had let his guard down. There was no sign of pursuit nearby. He couldn’t afford to sprain his ankle out here, so he had been very careful to avoid the gnarled tree roots and the three round stones as he walked.

A dull metallic snap burst up from the ground at his feet.

“Eh?”

He felt no pain. The only things in his head were confusion and a complaint directed at some deity or another. He actually stared in amazement when he looked down.

Something had latched onto his right ankle.

The crude metal contraption was larger than a beast’s jaws.

It was a beartrap meant to capture large animals.

No, it was possible this one had been built to trap humans.