The afternoon sun shone down upon the world, its golden rays coating everything in a glorious light, illuminating the bright white Elven architecture of Ellendaleth with a glowing halo of light. The walls seemed to radiate this brightness, nearly forcing onlookers to turn away, and the buildings towering behind the walls, growing steadily higher as they went, reflected it outward like mirrors. It was a surreal view, even for those whom had seen it all their lives. It never failed to astound.<br/><br/>A gentle breeze accompanied this sunlight, rustling the orange and yellow leaves of the trees that lined the road, both those still on their branches and those that had fallen from them, coating the ground beneath them with a rainbow of warm colours and crunchy noises constantly heard as young High Elven children raced in and out between them. It was a peaceful scene; that of a warm autumn day, with the adults and their horses, carts and wagons travelling to and from the great capital of the Elves.<br/><br/>At the gates themselves guards stood, covered in full plate armour even during the hottest part of the day, checking each person's belongings over to ensure that nothing untoward or illegal made its way in to the city. Both of these guards held spears in their right hands and large, intimidating tower shields in their left. As usual a line had formed to get in to the city, each person being waved through in to the tunnel in the city wall only after their items and belongings had been checked over.<br/><br/>Here at the southern entrance to Ellendaleth, the vast majority of those waiting to enter were merchants, arriving after a long trip from elsewhere in the land. In the morning it was mainly farmers and others from the nearby village and surrounding farmland come to sell their wares, but this late in the day they had already been and gone, or had been and were in the process of leaving. The line to leave was nowhere near as long and those on that side of the large highway of a road were trundling through the tunnel and out of the city at a rapid rate, the majority of them waved through immediately upon the guards' seeing that they had no wares that needed searching through.<br/><br/>There were more than simple merchants, of course. It was, after all, the capital of the High Elven Kingdom. Smattered throughout the line waiting to enter the city were all kinds of people. Soldiers, mercenaries, civilians from far off places, villagers on their way in to the city to have themselves a big night out, and even a woman that was very clearly a mage of some kind. She wore the typical white and gold robes of the Order of the Magi, but this one was strange. She rode no horse and had no entourage or servants; she was on foot, walking along the paved, yet somehow still dusty, road.<br/><br/>But of course she was only one among many. There were all kinds of people: those looking for adventures, those ending adventures, and those seeking no adventures whatsoever, but of course adventures would always find them, big or small. Whether they consisted of a night out drinking and stumbling around the city or an epic quest to save some mythical princess, adventure found everyone, even those who did not want it.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>