Genelan woke with a grimace; the room was too cold. He noticed with some irritation that his bed fur had slipped off the bed. No wonder he was frozen.
Lifting his head in the dark, the bleary-eyed youth was able to discern a part of the fur peeking at him from the side of the bed. With a snort of exasperation he yanked the fur up and deftly settled it into place with a shake of his arm. He grimaced again as he felt the cold fur envelope him and felt the hairs on his legs start to rise. Oh well. There was a good hour till dawn. He'd be toasty soon enough if the damn fur didn't slip off for a third time.
Turning over, Genelan instantly realized that he was too alert to go back to sleep. He closed his eyes and thought about how tired he was, and how good it would feel to get more sleep, but after a couple minutes the lack of results made him give up.
"Stupid, stinking, slippery bed fur." Annoyed by his inadvertent alliteration, Genelan sat up, pounded the blanket and reached for his clothes hanging from the bedpost. He got up and dressed quietly, for his brother Ranelan slept on the other side of the room.
The thought of his eleven-year-old brother brought another frown to his face as Genelan slipped on his tunic and pulled on his pants. Genelan, six years older than his brother and three years younger than his sister Vale, always felt inadequate in comparison to them. Miss Perfect Supreme Vale and First in His Class Ranelan were always doted on by his parents, and all the attention they got made Genelan feel like an unwanted guest in his own house at times. A variation of this even happened outside the house: when he walked through his native city of Risus, people greeted him as either Vale's or Ranelan's brother, but they couldn't seem to remember his name half the time. It made him feel like he was not a person, just a thing to be compared to and defined by his siblings, and Genelan could not help but smirk wryly as he put on some socks.
Genelan involuntarily sucked in his guts when he put on his belt, for it made the cold fabric of his clothes press into him. All his clothes were dyed deep blue with woad; his belt and boots were a darker blue. This color, his favorite, flattered his tanned, swarthyish complexion and went with his eyes; blue wasn't his favorite color just because it looked good on him, though - Genelan was definitely not that egotistical.
After lacing his boots, Genelan washed his face, quickly depilated the scant stubble that had appeared overnight, and after rinsing he ran his wet fingers through his black hair as the water dripped down his clean face. Patting his face dry with a towel, Genelan recalled bedtime stories of brave Elves, and, remembering that he was part Elf, he looked up from the towel in surprised thought. If I did something important, like the Elves, I'd be recognized as more than Vale Vil Nough's younger brother. I'd be Genelan Vil Nough, he thought.
Dismissing such absurd thoughts and looking in a mirror, Genelan noted once more that his Elven features were quite easy to see, although practically all the Elf blood had been bred out of him. Most Elves were short and light while he was tall and dark, but nevertheless his ears were pointed and his eyebrows slanted deeply. There was also that Elven grace about his finely boned features, he noticed. He was slim but not ectomorphic; lithe and graceful in the Elven manner but not prepubescent looking. Not slim, but... maybe lean?
Genelan mentally chastised himself for his preoccupation with his convoluted lineage and resultant reflection in the mirror, and he went to the kitchen for an unhurried breakfast, starting by brewing himself a cup of tea made from home-grown mint. This was the week's end and there was no school, so he wasn't about to get indigestion by eating too fast because he might be late for some bloody class.
Genelan got some green grapes, barley bread, cheddar cheese and commenced consuming. As he sedately swallowed, his thoughts kept returning to Elves. They were always formidable in battle and possessed immense resources of Power and Magic; everyone had heard of Darl, the Elf who killed thousands of Trolls at the mountain pass which was subsequently named after him. The battle at the Pass of Darl was the battle which turned the tide of the second Elven-Troglodyte War and which made the Elves the victors a year later. Unfortunately, Darl himself lost his life in combat soon after that famous fight. Every sentient being had heard of the tale. If only there was a tale about him, Genelan! Shades, thinking that way was absurd, but if that's what it took for people to know who he was...
Genelan's train of thought trailed off as the related legend of Seliro's Sapphire - though it was not really a legend in that it was all true - popped into his head. Seliro, Darl's sister and a sorceress, had secretly followed her sibling to the pass because of her protectiveness. At the same time Darl noticed Seliro approaching him, unshielded and unaware of the Trolls that were in hiding, Seliro was shot down by an enemy arrow. The inch-in-diameter sapphire she had worn was stained by her blood, and Darl, knowing the how dangerous the Trolls would be if they had something stained with the blood of such a powerful woman, took the jewel and wore it. This jewel gave him enough Power and luck to win the battle at the Pass (though all historians agreed that Darl could have won without the jewel); lest he become too reliant on its Power, Darl buried Seliro's Sapphire in the foul Farlight Forest soon after the battle.
Farlight Forest, only three miles down the Risus River, which flowed past just beyond the outskirts of the city.
Before he could reconsider or rationalize his way into losing his courage, Genelan started getting ready. He found a sleeping bag in the storage room and a pack to hold his stuff. He gathered more blue clothes and more of the stuff he had for breakfast, even packing dried mint. A scimitar, a short sword, some medicines, and he was ready.
Walking out the door, Genelan whistled for his canine Ridath to come and headed in the general direction of the nearby Farlight Forest.

"Where's that idiot?" muttered Vale. "He's not anywhere in the city and no one's seen him around. Of course," she continued with righteous asperity, "barely any of the townsfolk even knew who 'Genelan' was until we mentioned that he was 'that dark kid who's related to us.' Ugh! Ridath too - has someone kidnapped them both?" The moonlight shone off of Vale's blond hair as she paced in the garden with fury, almost expiring with exasperation. "The brat walked off, never thinking about how he might worry us!"
She turned to face her parents. Her father Horon was attempting to gladden her overreacting, grieving/groaning mother Gerinale, who was gesticulating like a distraught baby and crying just as loud.
Vale sighed and went up to her mother. "Mom, Genelan's all right. He's stupid, but he's not dumb." As the three, including Vale herself, tried to puzzle out that statement, Ranelan hurried up to them. Ranelan was blond like Vale and had Vale's pale complexion, but his eyes were a cloudy gray-blue while Vale's were deep green.
"Mom, Dad, Vale, I remember now! Genelan woke up before dawn! I saw him; I was awake. He went downstairs and soon after he rushed back up and got some clothes and his sword. He had a pack on his back, so I just thought he was going fishing or something and I went back to sleep."
"You dummy," cried Vale in relief, "why didn't you say so sooner? At least now we know that he disappeared on purpose. Maybe he did go to the river to fish." Vale frowned. "But why isn't he back yet? And why would he need a sword at the river?" Gerinale resumed her weeping and Vale her pacing.
Vale stopped and looked at her parents. Her eyes were wide with fear and her already white face had drained of whatever color it had due to the conclusion her quick mind had come to.
"The only place where he'd need a sword," she began shakily, "is Farlight Forest."
At this thought, Gerinale's crying grew louder, but it stopped mid-sob as she saw Ridath come running toward them.

Genelan sat in his sleeping bag, feeling very stupid. Make that extremely stupid. Over two weeks of walking through the woods, making his way through mucky marshes, and going against gobs of gargantuan creatures - each time coming out feeling like he was just barely alive, for even though he had some combative Power to support him the Forest dampened his abilities - had given him a bad cold and high fever. The continuous light mist was no help either: it felt clammy and irritated him for no other reason than that it made the entire place humid and close. Without the help of the light of the three moons peeking through the trees he would have gotten lost at night. The salves he had brought were almost all used up on his multiple wounds; his tea was almost gone too, and in the heart of the woods the water was too foul to drink. Fortunately he had warm clothes, medicines, and a sleeping bag, or he would have been dead by now. He had even lost Ridath, who had run away in fright the first night. Well, Ridath would be a lot happier anywhere other than here.
For what seemed like the thousandth time, Genelan reviewed Seliro's saddening story in his mind. The sapphire was said to be secluded in a cave next to a giant fallen tree as hollow as a reed, but there had been no fallen trees anywhere in the forest, not even a stump. Obviously the marshes and the sticky-soft ground that was nearly everywhere eventually swallowed up any trace of whatever fallen trees that might have been present at the time Darl hid the jewel. As it was, Genelan was very lucky to have found a hard-packed dry spot of earth for his sleeping bag each night.
The youth sighed and looked to his left.
He was able to discern, far off, a large/long cylindrical object lying on its side.
Staring at the thing as if in a trance, Genelan put on his boots, wiped his nose, broke up his "camp," and started walking toward the object, carrying the remainder of his depleted provisions on his back. The mist seemed to give way to him as he walked and the object became less of a long blob and more like... Well, more like...
A tree.
Genelan stared at the tree. Even fallen it was taller than him, and he was no shorty. Why, if the tree were standing it would take six of him with arms outstretched to encircle its trunk.
Genelan circled - or rather, ovalled - the tree, always facing the fallen giant. His ovalling stopped when he felt himself bump into a wall of rock; since it was so mist-obscured and dark and since he had been staring at the fallen tree he didn't notice that there was a rock wall there till he felt the jolt of it running into his back. He surmised that the reason this particular tree hadn't sunk into the earth and disappeared was because it was so near this rock wall and thus the ground it had fallen on would most likely be quite hard, if it was not completely rock under the pile of leaves and twigs that was piled up on the forest floor.
The rock wall, as far as he could tell, was smooth except for an opening at the bottom. It was just right for a small man to go through... Yes, it was a cave.
After a moment's hesitation, Genelan hummed a high falsetto note. As he hummed, a small ball of white light, the size of a grape but much brighter than a torch, appeared above his hand. It floated and kept the same distance between itself and Genelan's hand as Genelan moved. Even if the Forest dampened all aspects of his Power, he could do at least this much, and once again Genelan thanked his Elven blood profusely.
As he began to walk into the cave, various types of insects gathered around the light and around Genelan. After some cursing, Genelan hummed the same high note and the ball of light grew. He slowly slid his voice down a chromatic scale and the light yellowed, sort of like parchment aging. By the time he had reached his normal voice range, the light had reddened into orange.
When his hum was so low that his chest felt like it was throbbing, Genelan stopped humming. The light was now a glowing red and now all the insects had gone, not being attracted to red light. This color would be better anyway in preventing creatures from sensing his presence.
With a cursory wipe at his nose, Genelan ducked his head and went in.

Vale paused in her reading to go and check on her mother, who was napping in the next room. Gerinale had aged much in such a short time period.
Sighing with a loudness that threatened to wake her mother, Vale returned to the room and dropped back into her chair and resumed reading her raunchy romance book about two Elven princesses who were in love with each other. She couldn't focus on the book though, for her thoughts kept going back to Genelan; it was almost three weeks now since he had vanished. She had tried levitating and flying over the Forest on the offchance that she might spot him, but from a couple hundred feet in the air the forest just looked like a huge, dark stormcloud to her, and she couldn't fly any lower or the Forest's curious dampening effect would affect her flying ability.
Vale heard a knock on the front door and rose mechanically but gracefully to answer it. She was the typical Elf: light (though quite a few Elves were not light, Genelan having been the perfect example - that is to say, being the perfect example, for Vale refused to believe her brother was dead), slight, short, slender, and graceful, with ears pointed and eyebrows slanted. Her parents and Ranelan looked nothing like Elves though, except that Ranelan's ears were a little bit pointed. She and Genelan were the two that looked like Elves and had their innate Magic and Power. Ranelan had shown some signs of telepathy at a very early age, but sadly they disappeared fast after he had learned to talk proficiently with his voice instead.
Vale opened the door and barely believed what she saw.
Genelan was standing there, but he was different. He looked happier, worn and tired to be sure but at the same time filled with a robust energy, and a new strength and a sense of unwavering balance seemed to exude from him.
All Vale could do was to jump up and down like a little girl. She tried to scream, but she was crying hard while was Genelan hugging her and no scream could come out of her closed throat.
But when Vale saw what Genelan was holding in his hand, she stopped bouncing, grinned like a fool, and really screamed.
Vale could hear her mother approaching from the next room to see what was the matter.