Dawn watched the trader watching her and smiled to herself. It was always strange to be seen for what she looked like instead of for what she did. She wasn’t sure if one was better than the other, really. Power brought respect, but fear as well, and looks brought attention, but rarely respect. Still, “pretty witch” wasn’t the worst thing to be known as.<br/><br/>“Curious about my story, lass? Ever heard of the first elf?” The trader asked with a wink.<br/><br/>She tried hard not to roll her eyes and managed a nod instead. She’d heard stories about the so-called “first elf” before. She’d believed them, once, but that was long before she’d met any actual elves. As far as she could tell, elves were people like anyone else… well, “anyone else” who was particularly in tune with magic and prone to slight bouts of insanity. They didn’t seem to have anything to do with shaping the earth or sky.<br/><br/>“A traveller three towns over had seen her. The first elf. The one who gave birth and shaped the world. Hands as great claws to shape the earth, horns to carry the sky, and her skin coloured like ash from her lover the sun.”<br/><br/>Dawn’s eyes narrowed. A truth framed by lies, a single musical note in a chorus of noise. Maybe this traveller had tied the weight of legend to something he’d actually seen. There was only one elf she’d ever known to be anything like the creature the man had described.<i>Muse.</i>After searching for so long…<br/><br/>“Twenty feet tall, and adorned with the stars themselves! I got one of the stars that fell from the man.” But Dawn’s eyes went wide when the trader drew a familiar trinket from his pocket, and she for a moment, she looked every bit the innocent farmgirl he believed her to be.<br/><br/>“That isn’t yours,” she whispered. There were traces of magic around the jewel, ethereal footprints of an elf whose voice spun songs beyond memory. The gem itself sang an ancient song it had carried through the ages.<br/><br/>Dawn let out a breath she hadn’t noticed she’d holding and brushed a strand of her black behind an ear. This was a sign, for good or ill, that she had to go. She mulled over the man’s words in her head, already faded and distant. Three towns over… “A man in Mist’s Hollow saw her? Where? When?” She shook her head.<i>Too many questions.</i>“What do you want for the jewel? I need to give it back to her and it could help me find the way.”<br/><br/>She paused, put a defiant hand on her hip, then pushed her coinpurse at him. “Just take it all and tell me<i>everything</i>.”<br/><br/>She was already thinking ahead. She had plenty of concoctions ready. She could label the important ones and the villagers would be okay for a time just taking something when they needed it. The explosive vials would be enough to scare away any bandits, probably. And she was sure Anton would let her borrow Moonlight if she asked. On horseback, she could outrun most of the problems of the road and get to Mist’s Hollow in no time.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>