DUTY AND DEDICATION

The Illusus forest, a forest that many say is just a myth, is home to many creatures. At the top hierarchy are the elves. These elves are rumored to be immortal, and are said to be defenders of the forest to these creatures. While these rumors and tales may be true, this story is not about the daily life in the forest; this story is about its fall.

Arandur, the village’s chief, and his group were nearing the end of their patrol rounds in their section of the forest.
“Hmm…,” mused Arandur as the group came nearer to the village, “there seems to be fewer monsters around this area today.”
“You’re correct sir,” said the tall lanky female elf in his group, Lanneth. “We have been noticing that the monsters have been moving around the forest in irregular patterns.”
“Do the other patrol groups know of this information?” he asked sharply. “If the others do not know, then we must warn them now.”
Right after he had ordered his group to go tell the other groups of this information, a loud scream pierced the air.
“Hurry!” commanded Arandur as he rushed into the direction of the scream.
As he came nearer to where the scream originated an explosion of bright green light surrounded an area of the forest and blinded him. Once the bright spots cleared from his eyes, he saw a white-haired female elf, Hannasiel, on the ground with burnt hands and a look of surprise on her face. Next to her was a burnt corpse of a monster.
“Sister!” cried Arandur as he kneeled down and looked for any other injuries Hannasiel sustained. “Are you alright? What had happened?”
Hannsiel looked as if she was in a daze; however, she had came to once Arandur called out to her.
“I..,” she hesitated. How can she explain the fact that she had killed the monster next to her with a blast of energy? She did not even know how she had done that. Arandur noticed her increasing anxiety.
“Shh, Sister,” he said soothingly, “If are not able to say it right now, then it is perhaps best if you were to say it later, in front the elders.”
Hannasiel nodded and walked back into the village with Arandur and the rest of the elves. She and her group had went into the healer’s tent to check whatever remaining injuries they had sustained. Arandur informed the elders of this incident and was told to tell the rest of the village. Afterwards the elders had told him to have Hannasiel in tomorrow’s weekly council meeting. Arandur checked on Hannasiel before he went to his home, then he prayed to the forest gods. Once he finished his daily evening prayers, he went to bed.
The next morning, Arandur was woken up by his younger twin sisters, Gothweniel and Útíradiel, who told him that Hannasiel has fully healed and is about to talk to the elders. Arandur then quickly rushed to get ready and meet up with his sister at the council meeting.

Thirty minutes later, it was now Hannasiel’s time to report to the elders of yesterday’s incident. Once she has finished explaining yesterday's events, the elders were silent. Then, one of them spoke up.
“Do you know what had caused that blast of energy?” asked the elder in dark red robes with gold trimmings.
“I am not exactly sure sir,” she said, “But I believe that it had happened after I had sent a prayer to the forest gods for help and focused on the energy within the forest itself.”
The elders looked at each other, then the elder in maroon colored robes stood up.
He said, “We have not heard of anything like this before. Right now, it would be best if you, Hannasiel Oussearaheal, were to study this… energy.”
Hannasiel bowed and tried to thank the elders. “Thank you si-”
“However,” he interrupted her, “there are some guidelines to follow in order to do this task. First, you must have a group of researchers with at least six to eight people. Second, you must always record and report your findings to us. Third, if there are any reported incidents where someone has gotten injured, any research and experiments are to be stopped and discontinued immediately. And lastly, you and your group members must ALWAYS remember to do their daily duties to the forest and their nightly prayers. Do you accept these terms, Hannasiel Oussearaheal?”
Hannasiel nodded and said, “I, Hannasiel Oussearaheal, accept these terms and the responsibility that comes with it.”
The elder in the middle with emerald green robes stood and said, “The council is dismissed.”
As the elders left the council area, Hannasiel turned to Arandur and excitedly said, “This is amazing Arandur! I cannot believe that I get to- wait why are you upset?”
Arandur was frowning; he did not like the events that had transpired right now.
“I do not like that you are going to study something that could potentially cause fatal harm to you,” he said, “This could also distract you from your duties, or cause you to be easily exhausted.”
Hannasiel sighed. “Aran, my dear brother, we both know that no matter what there will always be potential risks whenever something new is needed to be researched; it is for the best of our village that I must researched this… ‘Magic’,” then Hannasiel smirked and said teasingly, “Is little Arandur jealous that I am going to spend more time with my research members than him?”
“W-What?!” sputtered Arandur. “Urgh, shut your mouth sister.”
“Well, Ultie and Gothie are waiting for us with our probably cold breakfast, so let’s hurry back home.”
Hannasiel started to walk towards the Oussearaheal home. Arandur walked alongside her; however, he still carried a worried frown on his face.
Despite Hanna’s worries, I cannot help but feel that there is something wrong with this ‘magic’, Arandur thought as the two neared their house. While it does seem useful, it could cause all of us to eventually die. ...Or maybe that might be my crazy imagination speaking. However, there is nothing I can do but ignore the incident and pretend that nothing ever happened.
As he thought more about Hannasiel’s situation, he went through his daily duties to the forest.

A week later the elders called for a meeting with every elf in the village square. Alongside the elders was Hannasiel carrying a paper with names written down on it. Once the whispers and mutterings in the crowd stopped, the elders had began the meeting.
“We have called upon you today with news that interest you,” said the leader of the elders, Zalon, “ This elf here, Hannasiel, has discovered an interesting concept that may change the way we elves have lived forever. It is called ‘magic’.”
Before Zalon could explain any further, the crowd erupted into a buzz of shouts and worried mutters. Before it could evolved any further, however, a shout of “SILENCE!” stopped them in their tracks. Zalon harrumphed and went on to explain the incident Hannasiel described to them before. Afterwards, the crowd was silent as Hannasiel explained why she is here and the reason for the meeting today.
“I am here to call upon a list of elves that I believed could help me in researching magic. Please step forward to me once I have called your name.” Then she read off the names from the parchment, “Gothweniel Oussearaheal, Útíradiel Oussearaheal, Koehro Heasialtin, Yavin Killenddare, Ilsan Banniaear, and Throon Dryeartlithar. Please step forward.”
All five elves have stepped towards Hannasiel.
“Do you accept the responsibility of being the ones who could change the future of our village for good or bad?”
The six elves looked at each other then nodded towards Throon, as if he was the leader of their group.
Throon looked at Hannasiel straight in the eye and kneeled down saying, “We accept.”
The rest of the elves clapped, though many carried bemused expressions of their faces. The elders called for the meeting to end and the crowd dispersed, leaving Hannasiel and her research members to be the only ones in the village square. Hannasiel told her research members to follow her into her family house; it will be their lab for experimenting with magic until they could set up an actual lab.

After five days Arandur’s patience was starting to wear thin. Hannasiel and her group have been in the living room every afternoon each day supposedly “experimenting with magic”, and were overall a great distraction to his duties and his relaxation time. It was time to kick them out of the house.
Arandur walked into the living room where he had heard some laughter coming from his sisters. When he had enter the room, they had gone quiet.
“Hannasiel, my dear sister, would you mind if I have a word with you privately?” he said through gritted teeth.
Hannasiel hesitantly nodded and followed Arandur into his room. She sat down on his bed and kept staring at him while he locked the door.
“What did you want to talk about in private with me, brother?” she asked.
“I do not want your group to be here every single day in the living room chatting. I understand that what you are talking about could be important to all of the village, but I want you all out of my house.”
She narrowed her eye. “We do not have a la-”
He interrupted her. “Actually, yes you do. The other elves finished construction on the labs today, it is now ready for you and your group’s use. Now go.”
“...Fine,” she frowned, “I don’t understand what has gotten into you these days. Sometimes it is as if you are a completely different person.”
Arandur said nothing as he watched her leave his room and eventually the house, with her group of research members trailing behind her. He was once again alone.

A few weeks passed and with day sunrise there always seems to be a new development in Hannasiel’s magical studies. Arandur always tries to ignore them, but he can’t help but hear the occasional excited whispers of what you could do with magic. It seems lately that all the elves were talking about was the fact that the Magical Research Group, MRG for short, discovered a spell that can make an elf levitate. He scoffed at this rumor.
Arandur also tried to persuade the other elves that magic is useless, and that they do not need magic to have an interesting life. In the middle of the afternoon, Arandur had a group gathered; he was telling them about how they didn’t need magic.
Then he had said, “The rumors about this new spell that can make an elf float in the air should not have so much focus to it. We are elves of the Illusus forest; our attention should be to taking care of the forest, not this rumor.” While many had taken his words to heart, many the elves curiosity towards magic was still great.
The next day, Gothweniel and Útíradiel went to the plaza square with runes inscribed on their arms and chalk in their hands. The two started inscribing runes, which are similar to the ones on their arms, and drew many circles surrounding the runes. Once they were finished drawing their ritual circle, Gothweniel and Útíradiel walked into it, and started chanting in an ancient language. Their voices became louder and louder as their speed of their chanting went faster. Once they walked to the center the circle started to glow. Then Gothweniel and Útíradiel slowly started floating in the air; the now two levitating elves started performing various tricks to draw more elves into the crowd. Once the performance was over, the crowd burst into applause. Once they dispersed the elves kept talking excitedly about the earlier events; Arandur’s words from yesterday were now considered irrelevant. Overall, the elves interest in magic to grew even further.
Still, what mostly plagued Arandur was the fact that he had not interacted with his sisters since he had kicked them from his- no their home. He had felt immense guilt since then and now seemed like the perfect time to apologize for his idiotic actions. With that on his mind, he immediately headed towards the MRG labs.
Once Arandur entered the MRG labs, he was hit by the intense smell of something burning. However, before he was about to let out an exclamation of surprise, Hannasiel strode towards him and took him by the arm.
“Well, it seems like the village chief has finally came in to check up on us!” she said merrily among looks of blankness within her group. Not one of them even dared to look at  Arandur, who was being dragged around. Once again, Arandur felt a wave of guilt wash over him.
It’s my fault that they’re acting like this, so get your act together and apologize before you say something idiotic again, he thought to himself.
“Hannasiel, Útíradiel, Gothweniel, Koehro, Yavin, Ilsan, and Throon. I am so, so sorry that I have kicked all of you out of the house. It was very idiotic of me to do so when you all have just barely gotten to know each other and were not even prepared to fully research magic at that stage. Once again, I am sorry.” he said quietly, his voice filled with emotion.
The group had stopped what they were doing and stared at him; however, they had not said anything yet. Arandur’s heart sank. Had he said something wrong? Did he offend any of them? What is they actu-
“Ara, brother, we already forgave you a while ago, said Gothweniel with a grin. Wait? What? Did he hear her correctly?
“Yeah, we figured that we probably pissed you off with being in the living room practically every hour, everyday, “ explained Gothweniel’s twin, Útíradiel, as she saw the look of disbelief fill his face.
“Well, since that’s now settled, let’s finish this apology with a nice group hug,” Hannasiel said cheerily as all of his siblings and even the group members seem to close in on him and give him a crushing hug. Once they had all let go, Arandur’s face was flushed.
“Er, since I have done what I wanted to do here, I will take my leave now,” he said quickly and rushed to get out of the lab. As he walked to his group for their bi-weekly border patrol, his thoughts kept straying to the MRG and their subject, magic.
I had forgotten my second reason for wanting to talk to them. Now I have to wait like the others if the new magic they discovered is actual… wait. Why am I thinking about that? It’s not like I WANT to learn magic or anything.
Once Arandur met with his group, they went into their designated area in the forest for their patrols. However, a small voice in his head couldn’t help but comment on his thoughts.
Yeah, you’re definitely not interested in the inner workings of magic so much that you believe that you hate it-

-It was his fault his group got ambushed; all because of his damn daydreaming about magic and everything related to it. Now, his second-in-command, his right hand elf, Lanneth is going to die because of his mistake. He felt his des-
“Sir! SIR! Stop dawdling and focus on carrying Lanneth, I’ll be able to heal her once we reach a safe clearing in the area,” a young male elf, who was in his patrol group, said sharply.
Arandur’s neck snapped towards him, “You can?” he murmured, as if the words he heard were being submerged in water.
“Yes, now hurry! We mustn’t lose time or else we will lose her.”
Arandur and the elf sped towards the nearest forest clearing they could find. Once they have found it, he gently placed Lanneth down on the ground and watched the young elf begin to heal her. The elf had placed his hands on Lanneth’s chest wound and closed his eyes. Then he softly chanted in an ancient language. As he continued chanting, his hands started glowing green and Lanneth’s wound started to heal. After five minutes, the wound was fully healed. Lanneth eyes were slowly blinking as she slowly woke up, but Arandur swiftly stopped her.
“Lannie, it is me, Arandur, your friend,” he said softly as he slowly pushed her back into the ground, “ you have suffered a near fatal wound, and would have died if not for this elf here.”
Lanneth said nothing and only let out a low groan of pain as Arandur picked her up  bridal-style. As the three left the forest into the village thoughts of the young elf’s healing magic quickly wrapped around his head. It was as if the chain that had locked the thoughts about magic has loosened in his brain; he wanted-no needed to learn that magic. It will be for the good of the village if everyone learns about magic. Then incidents like Lanneth’s will not usually end with death and despair. With those thoughts on his mind, once he put Lanneth in the infirmary, he decided he will go to Hannasiel and her group in order for them to teach him all about magic.
I will learn everything about magic, he thought, even if I have to skip some of my daily duties and nightly prayers every once in a while. After all, a few days of not doing my duties will not kill me.
Several weeks later and Arandur was proficient enough in magic that he is no longer considered an amateur in it. He still performs his duties and prayers; however, they happen less and less now because of how much effort he has to put in order to be able to use magic.
When he begins to go into the forest, Arandur notices that there are hardly any elves around the village and that the ones who are outside look pale and sickly. He makes an inquiry about this to Rumuhar, the young male elf who saved Lanneth’s life.
Rumuhar answers, “There has been a sudden decrease in the amount the elves who go outside nowadays. There are many theories for this- a disease being spread around, a curse, the use of magic draining people’s life force-but no one knows the actual reason for this. I have a theory of my own, but I believe the main populace will vehemently disagree with me.”
Arandur rebutted at his last sentence. “I am sure that the others will do no such thing. Besides, you’re with friends, we will not react as badly as you believe everyone else will.”
Rumuhar sighed, then he signalled everyone to follow him. He lead the group into a quiet clearing that is off the path of their patrol. He then pointed to a couple of trees that seem to be dying.
“These trees,” he said then pointed to others that also do not look very healthy, “are the trees that are connected to our villagers. You know what happens when the trees die.”
Arandur went silent for a moment. Then he asked, “Do you know what is causing this?”
“Well, isn’t it obvious Sir?” Rumuhar said sarcastically, “Do you know how many elves patrol the forest everyday, or even at all? Or were you too busy playing with magic to notice this?”
The village chief frowned. “I d-”
“Hardly any!” the shorter elf cried. “Most are so busy wanting to learn about magic and improving themselves that they completely forget what is most important: our duties. Then they say in their little heads ‘Oh well, I can do it tomorrow’ but then they don’t. And this happens again and again and again, and they don’t  realize that because of not performing their duties to the forest and praying at night is weakening them until their mind and body extremely sick and weak.”
Arandur tries to calm Rumuhar down, in fear that his voice will attract monsters, but he is too angry to stop his rant. “And you! You are no better yourself, Sir.” He pointed at Arandur and continued ranting, his voice getting louder and louder, “you are the village chief. You are supposed to be an example of what we elves should do in order to keep the village, and since lately all you’ve been doing is studying about magic and using magic and magic this and that well then it’s no surprise that the elves have been growing weaker and weaker.”
The group went quiet; even the breeze that had blown on their faces had stopped.
Arandur breaks the silence. “Well then, it seems that you were correct after all, no one will agree with you on your theory, including me.” He then motions everyone to follow him back into the direction of the village; Rumuhar reluctantly follows him back, muttering small curses directed to Arandur.
Four days later, Útíradiel dies. A funeral was scheduled to happen after a week; Arandur and his siblings were too shocked from their sibling’s death that they did not question what caused her death until Gothweniel dies.
Hannasiel was practically unresponsive while mourning for her little sisters; Arandur was the only elf who could get her out of her state. However, it was only because of the mention of their dead siblings names.
“Wait, what did you just say right now?” Hannasiel asked quietly, her mind trying to remember the conversation she had not paid attention to.
“I had asked what caused their deaths,” replied Arandur. He would have been in the same state Hannasiel had if it wasn’t for Rumuhar’s rant repeating in his head, mocking him for not paying attention to his words.
“I… I do not know,” she admitted slowly, but then she spoke quickly as if she had realized what the answer is, “I knew that recently they had stopped going and border patrols and praying altogether. Then, the two had gotten sicker and weaker up until they died. There was something off about them, though. They both looked as if they knew that something was wrong with them and tried to hide it as best as they could.”
Arandur said to her, “Do you know what the cause of death was though? Or if it is possible to stop it?”
“No and possibly yes,” she said though she looked uncomfortable when she answered the second question. “I believe there might be a way to ‘cheat’ death, but I need to research more about the other levels of magic in order to be able to make it work.”
“I will help you, sister.” he said to her and then patted on her shoulder in comfort. “Do not worry, we will find this way to cheat death and then no one will have to suffer like our family has.”

It took Arandur four months, two-thirds of the elves dying, and Hannasiel’s death in order to realize that focussing on magic is killing them all and that they should’ve been focussing on their duties; however, it was too late for them. Most, if not all elves have weakened significantly since everyone had started using it.
Arandur’s health spiraled down quickly when he had joined Hannasiel and her group in hopes that they may one day find a way to stop death.
We were too foolish and arrogant to realize our mistake, he thought as he looked around what was left of the village, and because of that the whole village suffered.
The creatures that lived in the forest quickly noticed the lack of elves travelling around the forest; they also saw the sudden decrease in trees blocking the dying village and started terrorizing it almost daily. Arandur and the rest of the elves did their best to stop the creatures into killing them all; however, they were unable to prevent the few deaths that happen each time the creatures directly attack the village and trees.
No elf has gone into the forest once the creatures started attacking them, fearing that they will be killed if they go, and many have lost faith in gods enough that they no longer pray to them.

Arandur was dying; he can feel it. Things moved around him in a slow moving action, like he no longer exists in the same plane as time does. He has long given up on hoping that they will survive. However, if he lets the others know this, then they will lose the will to live and any leftover hope of ever surviving. He has to do his part.
Arandur quickly heard the sounds of screams coming to his left and ran into that direction. A gigantic oval shaped and green colored monster with thin arms and legs is currently killing off any elf that is near it and destroying everything in his way, including the trees.
The weakened village chief had shot multiple blasts of magical energy at the monster but it had dodged every one. He was able to land a hit at it; nevertheless, it was not a very strong blast. The blast only seemed to make the monster angrier and it roared. Then the monster charged at Arandur. This time, Arandur had focussed everything into the magical blast in his hand and threw it at the green monster. The blast hit the monster dead on in the dead and killed it; however the blast had a strong knockback. This knockback sent the corpse crashing into a tree, Arandur’s tree.
Arandur grasped his chest in pain and collapsed as the background started blurring together. As his life force slowly wasted away, his thoughts went from his dead loved ones to his regrets.
He does his best to say his last words as much as he can. “I... am sorr...y my fri...ends, I… have fail…”
The last thing he sees and hears are the dead bodies of elves that were alive before the village was attacked and the screams and gurgles of the ones who are currently suffering.
The world went black.