The End and the Beginning

[Thaelis]

He lifted his head and felt the wind rush past his ears, his long silver-white hair streaming out behind him for a moment like the tail of some stray comet. Strange...he never left his hair untied; it was messy and conspicuous, and made it difficult to blend in with the shadows, where he was most at ease.

As he looked out across the grassy hillside a flash of movement in the corner of his vision caught his attention suddenly and without pause to think about why, he found himself running full pace towards the treeline. The Elf couldn't remember ever having run so fast in his some hundred and twenty years of life. His legs, which should have been burning and cramping, felt as if they were as light as a Kotala-bird feather.

On he ran. As he came ever closer to the forest, sounds and smells reached out to him tantalizingly, as if inviting him to enter it. The scent of the trees and moss and soil after fresh rain mingled together with another more familiar fragrance of Lharast flowers, just like the ones that used to grow behind his parent's treehome. But that was impossible, he silently told himself; the flowers only grew in the High Forest, hundreds of miles away.

Shaking his head a little as if to bring clarity to the veritable jumble of senses, he oriented himself towards where the shadow had disappeared and set off again at a jog, eyes flicking over the tracks in the rich muddy earth as he ran.

The forest canopy was thick, scant few beams of sunlight dappled the path on which he ran, and for a while only the sounds of birds chirping, his footfalls and the sound of his breathing were his company, lulling him into a trance-like rythm. Soon enough, the path ahead started to brighten until finally he emerged into a clearing, squinting as his eyes adjusted from the gloom.

In front of him stood the most magnificent deer he had ever laid eyes on, with a gleaming dark chestnut coat and snowy-white antlers. It stood nibbling on the tall green grass blanketing the clearing, apparently oblivious to his presence. In well-practiced motion he drew and knocked an arrow, his heart beating a little faster in anticipation of the kill.

Silently, he mouthed the words that he always did, praising the Great Oak for his bounty and thanking his quarry for its gift of life. Just then, the deer's head swung around and two eyes resembling nothing but yellow flames regarded him coolly. His first thought was not of fear, but that the eyes reminded him so much of Kelian's eyes.

Wait...who?

Did he used to know someone by that name?

As quickly as the thought had come it seemed to slip inexorably away, like trying to remember a dream after waking.

As he lowered the bow the deer hesitated for just a moment and then, as if freed from a spell, sprinted into the trees, disappearing. Lost in his own thoughts, he didn't see which way it went. But that was alright. The wind rustled the tops of the trees, and the smell of Lharast flowers returned, this time even stronger than before. A familiar and welcoming feeling washed over him, and somehow he knew that everything was just as it should be.