Wind howled through the small opening to the cave. It wasn’t anything particularly bad for this time of year, but the noise made it seem as though there was a storm outside. Harsh winds were rare so deep into the forests around Valenveil, but everyone who lived there knew that it would pass.
The trees were sturdy enough to survive any storm thrown at them, and the people of Valenveil had built their houses with such storms in mind. Very few buildings breached the high tree tops, and those that did were kept to the thickest, sturdiest trees that were naturally higher than the rest.
But the trees had an even better purpose.
Although the wood elves had their homes in the trees above ground, a whole manner of creatures had their homes deep below the surface. The deep seated tree roots allowed for separated homes and tunnels into the dirt.
Ezrus was just one of those creatures. A tiny cave opening was the only thing that allowed for anything above ground to enter the winding caverns and passages of the city below.
It was a good home, as long as you were able to live without sunlight. Ezrus spent most of his days in the burrows he called his own, with very little interaction with anyone else. For some, that would have been a deal breaker, but Ezrus liked the quiet life. It meant he could read all of the books adventurers left in some of the more open caverns, or try out those strange magics that washed up from the small stream in the rocks.
Those that he did see were usually the quiet kind. He wasn’t sure if it was because they, like him, weren’t big conversationalists, or if it was actually down to the fact that he just couldn’t understand them.
The most memorable was a strange creature that he’d never seen before. Its dark, void like body had squeezed in through a gap that Ezrus hadn’t even realised was there…
[to be continued]
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