Chapter 3: Farmer Life

The silence only lasted a brief period of time before a commotion of sounds, a gasp and laughter cried out from around Grem. The elven woman in front of him sneered before putting away her bow and putting a knife to his throat.

"Your from the Shatteredsoul family, huh? Prove it then." she said mockingly.

"Ok" Grem replied swiftly before saying "show yourself Shattersoul tower.". A large transparent version appeared around all the elves and me before rapidly condensing into the real thing and the ethereal voice sounded loudly. " I detect that old fellows' aura attached to you, young miss, would you perhaps be the Ebonheart family daughter?"

The surprised look on her face as the ethereal voice correctly guessed her relation to her father "yes, that is I. Who are you?"

"I am the Shatteredsoul's tower spirit and he is indeed the son of the Shatteredsoul King and Queen. They used the Shatteredsoul spell split soul world rebirth to hide and cause their young lord to be birthed on a non-magic plane. Upon the completion of his coming to age ceremony he was brought back to once again be the young lord of the Shatteredsoul family." the ethereal voice replied looking at the elven woman.

"My apologies, young lord forgive me? The humans that took control of the vale after the fall of your family are cruel and harsh to the forest causing it to wither into the current state that it is in. Do you know of any ways to help?" the elven woman said sadly.

"Take me to the place where you are having problems. I may be to help, I was a farmer back on earth so I can grow crops and trees without the use of magic. So with the help of your magic and my techniques we should be able to get trees growing soon." Grem said with a smile knowing for the first time he was in a situation where he was useful.

The elven group led him to a forested area that was desolate and bare due to large amounts of foresting from human expansion. Stumps of many ancient trees fill the zone as a flash of sadness rushed over all the elves who looked. Looking at the stumps and the loose soil around the stumps he came to a sudden realization.

"Does the forest ever have a huge fire to get rid of the dead trees or stumps of the fallen trees?" Grem asked them.

"Fire, why would we use fire in our forest? These trees are a part of us and our life force." she quickly replied looking startled.

"Using fire on the forested parts of the vale will break away the topsoil and the roots of the ancient trees so you can begin to plant new ones." Grem said confidently.

"So there really are problems like that? How did humans do it on your planet without magic?" She looked puzzled.

"Using machines and technology that this world lacks but you have magic so it should be even easier. First control burns the area that is barer than those with water and earth magic should work together to roll the soil and ashes with the water to create a really rich fertilizer for the new trees. Then those with plant magic can use it to help them grow quickly. Can y'all do that?" Grem said quickly realizing he was rambling like a loser in front of the beauty.

The eleven woman looked at Grem and weakly smiled saying "if it is that easy then we should be able to handle it.". She gave a loud whistle and the surrounding forest became lively as the trees slowly filled with little faces old and young and a tall sturdy man walked out of the forest before stopping in front of Grem.

"So the Shatteredsoul family managed to save their boy from extinction, huh? That is the best news I have received since the invitation to your birth a couple of months before that attack." the man said before pulling Grem into a strong embrace. "My name is Nym Ebonheart and I am your godfather and the little girl you have been chatting with was supposed to be your wife that your father and I arranged the day we came to an agreement of peace and cooperation."

A tinge of red suddenly coated the elven woman's face and tips of her ears as she turned away from the awkward situation. " Uh hum, father, can we talk about saving our father before you talk about all this nonsense please?" she said, trying to talk her way out of her situation.

"Ah yes, let's do that first we can celebrate tonight. Brothers and sisters of the Ebonheart vale those with fire come forth and torch the desolate land till only ash remains. The ones with earth and water stand ready and keep the fire from spreading onto the forest." Nym said in a very King-like way.

25 young and old faces lined up on the edge of the forest before lighting up flames of different sizes and colors and stood with a pained expression as they began to burn the stumps to ash for about 3 square miles. The day quickly went by as the desolate land slowly was filled with ash and the other elves about 30 of each element of water and earth began to tend and roll the soil that the ashes rested on and as the final light finally touched the horizon as the last bit of land was toiled. All the elves that had helped were exhausted and tired but a satisfied look on their face as a sense of life flowed through the soil once again.

We headed back to the elven village where some mothers and daughters had prepared a large meal for all the tired people who had worked all day. Grem looked around at the village and realized there was no metal throughout the entire village. He looked at Nym and asked "Do y'all use metal at all in your village?"

"Metal is a luxury for us in the Ebonheart vale and our only blacksmith was taken years ago by the Dawold family. So there is no one to forge or use the metal if we find any and we finally quit gathering it." Nym said with a look of regret in his eyes.