The old ways

"Fallon." Odin's booming voice cut through the trees, sending Forrest animals scattering and birds protesting into the sky above the trees. "You're day dreaming. Again." The larger of the two men finished, shaking his shaggy head of dark  brown hair. 
The prophet had gifted the well built young man with impossible strength. It was this reason that the Chief had chosen him to be Fallon's right hand man. It was all under the understanding that it was only until  Fallon came into his own. The Chief never caught on to the fact that the two had become best friends. The occasional ribbing not withstanding.

“Yeah? And what you gonna do about it, bear?” Fallon shot back with a smirk as he returned his attention to the dear carcass he was currently skinning. Fallon was nowhere near as large as his best friend, he was lean with dark hair that was always falling into his deep green eyes. Finding a woman to take to his bed was not the problem, it was finding one who’s family would deem him worthy of their gifted daughter. Fallon’s mother had been killed when he was just a small child, an attack on their village by the greasy beast. That was as much as his father would tell him.

"Beat your head in, sire. We don't have time for daydreaming. It's almost night and those damn elves will be out to hunt." Odin growled. They two young men had crossed into a land that didn't belong to them to hunt. It was going to cause trouble if they were caught. They didn't need the blessings if the prophet to know that.

“Oh really! When was the last time anyone saw an elf?” Fallon replied with a snort, stopping what he was doing when he saw another deer pass by deeper in the trees. The young man drew his bow, watching its movements. “Elves are just a story to keep children from straying and drawing the great beast to us.”

Even Odin stopped talking. This deer was pure white. The stuff of myth. He'd never seen a doe like that before. He willed the prince to shoot it. If they came home with a beast like this, the prince wouls surely have his pick of the women.

Lilly saw that the human men had spotted her doe form too late. Her nostrils flared. Her elder sister was going to kill her if she survived this. She'd been warned to stay out of the woods. But she couldn't help herself. She was curious about the humans, especially the dark haired one. He was far too lovely to ignore.

Fallon’s bow Lowered slightly, though his fingers were still pulled on the string. He had never seen anything so beautiful. “You see that, right?” He breathed, wondering if this was his gift; madness.

Lilly wasn’t as alone as she thought in her secret trek in the woods. The elder sister she was so concerned about had always kept a watchful eye on her younger sibling. Right in that moment there was a crow in the treetops, as dark as the doe was light.

"I do!" Odin grabbed Fallon's shoulders and forced him to fire the shot. The arrow struck home, sliding neatly into the first and second rib. The doe turned her head, fixing the prince with a look of pure betrayal before she fell to the ground. 
"We need that hide." Odin told his friend.

Fallon stared wide eyed in the direction the doe had fallen. He had killed countless animals, but this one just felt wrong. Like he had killed something he shouldn’t have. “We had enough hide!” He hissed, already moving through the trees in the hopes that he could save the creature. The prince would be met with an onslaught of attacks from a large crow on the way before is suddenly disappeared. 

“Lilly... don’t do this to me...” A dark haired female was leaning over the fallen doe, slender fingers shaking as she went against her gut instinct to wrench the offending arrow free.

Odin had the odd feeling that he'd forced the prince to do something unforgivable.
When he saw the dark haired woman leaning over the white doe his heart dropped into stomach. "Prophet be damned...an elf..."

Strange eyes narrowed at the intruder, the colour around the pupil started off a soft teal colour and faded to a dark lavender as it wash outwards through the iris. And those eyes, the ones that watched both humans as their owner leaned over the doe? They were filled with bitter hatred and a white hot anger in that moment. 
It took the young looking woman several moments to determine what her course of action would be, and in those moments she took in the human aggressors, assessing them easily enough to dictate that she would not leave them unscathed. “You were fools to leave your safe little farm, humans.” She warned, an ornate silver dagger flying though the air without a sound, embedding in Fallon’s upper thigh.

Odin had been trained from childhood to protect Fallon. His prince's injury sent him into motion. Despite his size he was quick and he and the dark haired woman were soon sprawled on the forest floor. "Who do you think you are?" He snarled in her face. "You will die for that."

The dark haired woman narrowed her eyes at the large man now pinning her to the forest floor. “I think I am the one who will put you out of your misery, beast.” She sneered, slamming her forehead against Odin’s nose and rolling him beneath her, a second dagger pressed to his throat as she straddled his hips. “You people think everything is yours to take! Have you not done enough damage already?!”

Fallon could feel the searing pain in his leg, though was wise enough not to pull the dagger out. He had fallen down beside the white doe, and now he was so close to her... he knew more than ever how wrong it had been to harm her. “Please... forgive me...” He breathed, stroking her nose gently.

"we saw the doe first, woman." Odin hissed, his ice colored eyes glittering as he stared up at the woman he was wrestling with. "I don't know who you think you you are!"

The doe was shivering in pain, her light gray eyes barely open. "Not...you..." She breathed. "I should have...obeyed..."

The dark haired elf smiled when the large man beneath her assumed this was all over who laid claim to the body of another. “How very human of you.” She replied, the silver of her blade cutting into his throat slightly. “I saw you, you already took one life from the forest, but that was not enough! You took what you thought was beautiful, and so assumed belonged to you!”

Fallon nearly choked when he heard the doe speak. “Prophet save me... I have defiled one of the gods...” he breathed, leaning over the doe now and manipulating the arrow enough that the head could be slid back the way it had entered the body.

"Where do you elves get off thinking you own all the forests?" Odin snapped, glaring up at the strangely beautiful elf.

The moment the arrow left the deer's body, her form glittered and tiny eleve5ln body

The elf with the dagger to Odinks throat laughed, though it was far from mirthful. “How many furs do you really need to wear?” She sneered, flicking at Odinks clothing with the hand that didn’t hold the blade. “Humans will never know how to co exist with any creature!”

Fallon scooted back, his piercing blue eyes wide when he saw the long haired beauty the doe had suddenly become. “Prophet save me...” he breathed as he edged closer again, rough fingers hovering over the young woman’s face.

"It's not just about what we wear it's about status. You dirt dwelling elves wouldn't understand that." Odin growled. 

"The prophet was...an elf..." The little creature breathed. "You humans...are so strange..."

The elf above Odin looked down at him, those strange eyes seeming to see more than he realised. “You wear the corpses of the forest to prove you’re the biggest bastard?” She sneered.

“Hush!” Fallon hissed, pressing a hand over the elf’s mouth to ensure she didn’t say something so blasphemous again and have Odin come for her head. “Not possible, but also not important right now. You need help... there are no elf villages near by, are there?”

Odin's ice colored eyes searched the dark haired elf's face. For a moment he couldn't help but smile. "You elves are strange. Now if you please, it's getting dark and I need to get my master home."

The white haired woman gave him a dark look, her light eyes going toward the hand pressed to her mouth. She couldn't tell him anything if he wouldn't let her.

The dark haired elf’s pert nose wrinkled up in disgust. “You’re a slave? And still dare to force yourself on forest creatures?” She sneered, not yet letting him up.

Fallon saw where her eyes had darted to, and remove do his hand, slowly holding both of them up at eye level so she could see he wasn’t going to hurt her. “I can take you back to my village, if yours isn’t nearby?” He sgguested gently.

"You were planning to attack my prince, elf. What did you expect me to do?" Odin shot back, shifting ever so slightly. They weren't alone anymore. He could feel it. 

Odin was right to worry. A tall white haired elf appeared as if from nowhere and slammed a heavy fist into Falon's jaw. He simply stepped over the human when he went sprawling. "What have you done, girl?" The man hissed, turning to glare at the elf woman across from him. "There child, father has you now." He breathed, turning back to the injured elf who still lay gasping in the foliage nearby.

The elf who had been pinning Odin to the forest floor had instantly peeled herself away from him and was knelt on the ground, her head bowed at the male elf. “Forgive me, your majesty... Lily was close to human land again, I tried to keep her safe, but...” her head seemed to bow a little lower, knowing she was going to be blamed for something the other girl had caused. If Odin was looking closely enough, he would see her slender fist was balled around the blade she had been holding against his throat. She was holding it tight enough that deep red blood was dripping into the leaves.
Fallon was left dazed for a painfully long moment, not quite sure what had just hit him. He had been hit by Odin before during training, but that was worse. It had come out of nowhere, and now as he sat up as was staring at the male elf who looked a lot like the female he had been trying to help.

"It was your role to keep her away! Once again you have failed me." The elder man hissed. "Now look what you've done. Lily is a delicate thing. She will not survive..." He turned on Fallon, yanking him up by his hair. "What did you do to my daughter, human?" He snarled, his ice colored eyes nearly white with his hate and rage. 
Odin had been so close to reaching out to the elven woman who had bested him when the male went for his prince. He leapt to his feet, only to be held fast by two elven guards. It would take all their strength to hold him there.

The dark haired elf was apparently accustomed to biting her tongue when reproached in this manner. “She was in doe form, your majesty, the humans were hunting in the area even before she ventured too close.” She breathed, not sure why she was defending these creatures. 
Fallon narrowed his eyes at the tall elf before him, instantly able to see the family resembalance. “These are our hunting grounds, how are we supposed to know that any creature we kill is actually one of your people?” He asked the elf king calmly.

"Did your father teach you nothing about not shooting an arrow at things that do not look like the others?" The elf king roared, not calm in the slightest. "What you have done is an act of war, boy!" He grabbed Falon by the chin and forced him to look into his eyes. "How about I shoot you with an arrow because you are now on my lands. I could say..."
"I'll rip your heart out! Get your fucking hands off him!" Odin screamed, now struggling harder. The smaller elves were barely able to hold onto him.

“Your majesty, if I may...” The dark haired elf was at the king’s side in a few light footed strides, her teal and violet eyes glancing between the king and the lean young human he now held. “Rather than war, perhaps I should return to their village, and explain to their chief that you are holding him accountable for this boy’s crime?” She suggested calmly. “You keep the boy as leverage until we can take the situation under control? Lily needs a healer, wasting time with these humans is not appropriate for her, or our king.”

"Fine." Erath looked at his eldest daughter for a long moment, trying to decide what he wanted to do. Killing one of these humans was bound to make him feel better. "As you wish. Take that one with you. If he won't go, kill him." His order made he scooped up his youngest child, snarling at the blood pooled beneath her. "If she does, you die." He told the human prince, his lips peeled back from his teeth in a hateful sneer.

Erath’s eldest daughter sighed internally, but nodded in agreement before glancing across at the mountain of a man her father spoke of. “Yes... your majesty.” She replied with a respectful bow of her head before picking her own bow up from where she had allowed it to fall to the ground earlier. What she didn’t yet know, was that it was a two day journey back to the village these two humans had come from.
Fallon nodded his head in Odin’s direction, trying to assure his friend, and bodyguard, that this was all fine. He didn’t want war any more than the fe ale elf had seemed to.

"And Raven," Erath paused, his white hair flowing over his shoulder as he looked back. "If you should decide to do something I would do, you have my blessing." He purred.