Rune groaned and shifted, feeling cold hard ground before he slipped back into his unconscious.

"The son of the fire elf king has come," A primly dressed human with his strangely white skin said before he ushered Rune into a room. His own long gold robes that contrasted his bronzed skin looked out of place here. The humans were dark haired, a few with lighter, bark colored hair. His hair though fell in a mass of gold and copper to just beneath his pointed ears. He felt them stare at him and he just held himself higher. Although short with a delicate face that made him look half the age of these humans (and he might very well have been), he wore the marks of cougar claws on his face and one of the cat's claws in his ear. With such a badge, he could hold his head high even in this meeting with those that viewed him as less worthy.

"My father sent me to reach an agreement between our peoples," Rune said. An older man with a circlet of gold on his head gestured for him to sit. Rune did. The man offered a plate of meat and fruits along with wine. Rune turned his nose up at the meat, but out of politeness, he did taste the fruit. After all, this was a political meeting. It did not due to offend the host. As they talked though, the prince's voice became more distant to his ears. He thought for a second that he heard a cougar screaming in the distance. Was it the guardian spirit he knew in his dreams or Malaka, his friend whom he left at the city's gates? He never had a chance to find out.

Rune blinked his eyes open again. The cat-like pupils in them widened, but even then, he saw only the hintest of outlines that told him he sat in a dark, small room. His wrists had been chained to a wall that felt damp and in ill repair. Where was he? What had happened to the meeting? It took him only one more second of thought to realize the truth. It had been a trap. The humans used him. But to what end?

Name: Grey
Age: 20



Grey stared around the room, confused. He couldn't figure out why he'd been brought here. He was an elf, yes, but he'd been raised by a human family. He couldn't offer any information, not that he would have even if he could. The Elven kingdoms had been peaceful to this point. It was the human race who wanted a war, and Grey wouldn't be a part of destroying his own race. Not when they'd done nothing wrong.

Grey woke up shackled in a small cell. It seemed that since he wasn't going to talk, they were going to keep him here. He looked around to see other small cells, full of other elves. He'd never seen others like him and he was amazed. His ice white skin and pale blue hair looked odd and out of place compared to the bronze skin and catlike eyes of the woodland elves. The fire elves looked almost like elementals with their red skin and flame filled eyes. Their clothes were odd compared to his too. They all had long robes and his human clothes stuck out.

Grey was pulled from his thoughts are the prison guards came back carrying a particularly regal looking elf. They put him in a cell that seemed to be even smaller and highly secured compared to the others in the prison. The circlet led him to believe this elf might be royalty of some sort.

Rune pulled fruitlessly on his shackles. It was overkill wasn't it? He was behind a locked door and it seemed that he couldn't get out even with his hands. Did they think him strong? Or like they needed to treat him the same as the fire elves whose tribe he came from? But Rune was no fire elf. For all the regalness he had, it had been given to him, an infant taken in by a prince. He sighed and gave up on trying to release himself from his bonds.

He could see a little of his surroundings and realized more elves had been captured in cells lining the walls. When did such an offense happen?! He ground his teeth together as his spirit rose up. He wanted to harm someone, but he could not. Instead, he just laid his head against the wall. There were faint sounds on the other side and he realized he must be next to a cell too. "Hello?" he called through the wall. It wasn't made of stone, but of the wood and plaster that humans had taken to using. The cells themselves were probably a room not originally meant for this purpose. Rune spotted a hole in the wall and squinted at it.

Grey looked around some more, wondering about the recent prisoner. Surely he wasn't dead, but it seemed he hadn't come to yet. He'd been trying for about an hour to talk to the other prisoners, but they hadn't seemed very responsive. A couple of them nodded his way, but most ignored him completely. Eventually he just sighed and kept quiet. There was no point in continuing to talk if no one was listening.

Grey heard rustling of the chains in the next cell and he perked up. It sounded like the regal looking elf had woken up. "Hello?" He heard from the cell next to him. "Hello!" He called back, peeking through the hole in the next cell. "My name is Grey. Are you feeling ok? It looked like you were out cold when they brought you in. What's your name?"

The hole wasn't even a hand's width in size, but it was more than enough to press an eye to. Warily, Rune stared through the hole, trying to figure out just what sort of person lay on the other side. "Grey?" It didn't sound like the sort of name his own tribe would use. What sort of elf was this? Was he an elf at all? Rune could only tell from the voice that the owner was in fact male. "I'm alright. It must have just been a drug..." He trailed off, trying to remember everything that led up to this point. He'd been drinking wine one second and here the next. He had a few hazy seconds in between, but he blinked them away, not sure now was appropriate of a time to inspect them.

"My name is Rune. I'm the prince of the fire tribe. My father sent me to talk to the humans, but I don't think they much cared to talk." He sighed, though he refused to sound weak and kept his pride even now. "Do you know what they're doing to us here?"

"I'm alright. It must have just been a drug." Came a reply. "My name is Rune. I'm prince of the fire tribe. My father sent me to talk to the humans. But I don't think they much cared to talk." Grey heard Rune sigh. "Do you know what they're doing to us here?" Grey thought for a moment.

"I'm not exactly sure as to what their plans are, but when they brought me in they wanted information about my kingdom. I was born to the Ice elves. What they didn't realize is that I didn't grow up in my homeland. I was adopted by a human family before I was even old enough to remember anything."


"I know as of late the humans have been very hostile towards any magic being, but it seems they have it out for the elves more than any race. They've been trying to find ways to start a war with the Elven kingdoms. Even elves living in the human cities haven't been safe as of late. I was kidnapped right from the street on my way home." He sighed "They'll find any reason they can to kill us all if they get the chance. As long as the government can continue spreading fear they'll get their war."

Rune sat quietly for a minute as he pondered that. He knew there were hostilities, but he didn't think it had come to this point. Were his people so in the dark about the human's greed? But if it was war they wanted, then it would be a long and bloody one. Elves had a policy of peace for centuries past, but they had wiles and magic that humans did not possess. It would not be an easy victory, if the humans could even manage that. And it did not explain the captives here at a prince's personal estate. Perhaps Rune, who would force his father's hand, but not as many elves as he saw here. Something else must be going on.

"I do not think now is the time to remain calm. My father will be angry and come for me, but I fear something more sinister might be going on. If we can stop this war from preceding, then we must. I fear for all the elves captured here." He couldn't speak for them all; he did not even know these elves, but he was raised to one day take the reigns of his tribe so despite his young age, he would act in charge.

"I do not think now is the time to remain calm. My father will be angry and come for me, but I fear something more sinister might be going on. If we can stop this war from preceding, then we must. I fear for all the elves captured here."

"I agree, but what can we do when we're stuck in here? I don't see how we could possible get out considering the security." He looked around for possible weaknesses in the prison bars. They weren't made of the strongest material.

"You know, I might could freeze the bars in order to make the wood brittle. It's not garanteed, but it's better than doing nothing." Grey was highly aware that ice wouldn't be as effective as fire would be against wood, but he decided to try regardless. He lifted his hands to the bars, closed his eyes and concentrated, managing to encase the prison cell in ice. He kicked the newly frozen wood, but to no avail.

"Ok, well, we know that won't work. Any other ideas?"

Rune listened carefully as Grey expressed his plan and put it into action. When it didn't go through, he sighed and relaxed from where he'd been trying fruitlessly so see something through the little hole in the wall. "You're an ice elf then? These bars are just wood..." He trailed off as he thought. Were there not fire elves captured here along with others? Why had no one escaped? Even if they remained drugged, the humans had no technology that could rival an elf's magic. At least, not that he knew of.

He reached out and kicked the door to his cell. It didn't even as much as rattle in its frame. This seemed so pointless. Looking out through the bars though, he could see just how listless the other elves looked. The one he talked to seemed energetic unlike them. It made Rune wonder. "How long have you been here? Do you know why the others are like that?"