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<span>Spoiler: <span class="bbCodeSpoiler-button-title">Aleena</span></span>
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</div>For Aleena the vision had felt very real… She had woken up in the group dwelling in a cold sweat, sitting up and looking around quickly. The room was large and filled with natural greenery and furnishings made by the natural jungle trees and other flora that grew abundantly in this section of the village. This large structure was used as a barracks where the clan’s scouts slept when they weren't home or out exploring the wilds. Everyone else was sleeping, it appeared… She pressed a hand to her chest and she could feel her heart still racing… She swung her legs and she let herself fall from the upper level bunk, landing effortlessly on the ground and she moved to pull on some buckskin breeches and a tunic before she slung the belt that held her short sword about her waist and she slipped outside…<br/><br/>She quickly moved up to the heights of the jungle trees and swung along the vines towards the center of the village. To an outside no village would be visible, but to those who lived here the place was vibrant and full of somewhat concealed dwellings of all shapes and sides. Only at the village center where the Great River snaked through did it look like a community, with several huts of all shapes and sizes formed along the water’s edge. Aleena swung onto one of the many suspended bridges overhead before she ran down the length of it into what was the community square and gathering point.<br/><br/>She ran across the square to a large building, running past the night sentry… “Hey, where…!” She started to say but by the time she realized what had happened she was inside… The sentry moved quickly but quietly after her. Inside there was a large common room with bedchambers for several of the elders along the perimeter, the sentry immediately noticed one door was open… When she reached the door and she peered inside he would see Aleena sitting on the edge of the bed with one of the elders… “It’s okay… My dear… She’s my granddaughter… Go back to pretending you’re alert” she said rather angrily at the sentry… The young female sentry shot Aleena a rather angry look, and the young scout only shrugged apologetically…<br/><br/>Until the sun had risen in the sky, Aleena remained at her grandmother’s bedside talking about the vision. Not for a moment was there any doubt in the elderly elf mind at its significance. But she also told her to keep it quiet. There were many on the council who would dismiss it as a dream. The Jungle Elves, like many of the other elves, were isolationists, and they had pulled themselves as far away from the outside world as possible. Those fools would dismiss it as just a dream and put an end to the conversation then and there. The elderly elf told Aleen to quietly prepare for a long journey. The sunken temple, she believed, in better times had been called ‘The Citadel’, and it was here that old clans gathered to discuss important matters. The last gathering of the clans before the end had taken place there, and it was there that the decision had been made to flee the city and the kingdom before it fell completely.<br/><hr class="bbc-hr"/><br/>And so a few days later Aleena did indeed leave the safety of the jungle village and she headed to the northwest, towards the ancient ruins of what was the elven kingdom. It was not an easy journey, but she was no mere elf girl. She was a scout, a talented one at that with some skill with abjuration magics to compliment her more mundane skills. She was more than capable of hunting and foraging. She could sleep in the canopies and the high boughts of the pines and larger spruce. She traveled mostly by night, until she reached the Great Forest that had once housed the great elven civilization.<br/><br/>Everything had become overgrown over the centuries since. The roads were barely identifiable and most structures had fallen into piles of rubble, often covered in moss or fresh layers of topsoil upon which trees and other vegetation had taken root. Occasionally a wall could be seen, or a set of stairs to nowhere; a column or completely broken and defaced statue had tumbled and could be seen just lying there in the middle of nothing. For someone as young as Aleena, someone who had never known this world, it was a truly fascinating, sobering and sad place to be. Her grandmother had told her about this world and of how beautiful it had been before the War. Now the entire forest seemed more like a graveyard.<br/><br/>Some sections of the forest had been burned by the orcs, and these areas had regrown for the most part, though it remained a young forest. Animals were abundant, and yet there remained hints of the orcs passing, suggesting they still came to the forest to hunt. Other parts of the forest seemed ancient, with massive oaks that looked as old as time. It was easy to envision the generations of young elves that might have froliked within its shade. Lovers, poets and children might have lain at its base during a happier time. As she stood beneath the tree that sat upon a hillock she could look over the sprawling ruins of the city below. It was a bright sunny day and she had a cloth wrapped around her head covering her eyes. She could see through the cloth well enough, and without it, the sun would no doubt give her a headache.<br/><br/>The city must have been massive, she thought as she looked at it. It had been laid out in a circular pattern with all roads leading towards its center, where it was said the royal palace sat. The city’s spires once rose up high into the sky, but no more, as they had all long since tumbled town. There were many structures still standing but they were all in terrible conditions, in fact as she stood and looked the city over she witnessed a section of a building collapsing, creating a large cloud of dust in the distance. She could only frown, as she hoped it was just time that had caused it to fall, and not some foul beast or monster… She knew she had to keep moving and in the distance, south of the royal palace she could see the domed roof of The Citadel…<br/><div class="bbCodeSpoiler">
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</div><br/>So on she went, the outskirts of the city first, after navigating the slopes and perhaps an hour later the terrain became much rougher. Moss and brush covered rubble and debris was everywhere along what should have once been a busy thoroughfare. More statues were seen, some broken and most defaced. She was careful as she moved and she even spotted a small pile of skulls. The lack of moss would suggest it was a more recent decoration to the ruins… With a sigh she moved on, spotting some occasional sections of trees carved into the likeness of faces, many elfish in nature. It was impossible to tell when these had been made…<br/><div class="bbCodeSpoiler">
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</div><br/>And so Aleena continued on her way, moving deeper into the ruins, trying to keep to the shadows as much as possible and avoiding any obviously open areas. The closer she got to the dome of the citadel the more scared she got. She was soon trembling as she stepped out of the shadows and she gazed upon the stained glass of the dome’s top. What a wondrous thing it must have been in its day, she thought. Now many of the panes were broken and the rays of the late afternoon sun were flowing through to the floor below. She could see what looked like an opening with stone stairs leading down into the structure… She took a few steps in that direction and she suddenly froze as she heard movement in the area, coming from all around her…<br/><div class="bbCodeSpoiler">
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