Chapter 15

Their three new elvin companions were Morelen, Lothlan, and Yulen. While the snow had stopped, it was deep in places, so the order of the day had been to make snowshoes. This was something that Dev had done in his childhood, but had not done for several years.

After the snowshoes had been made, the group left the shelter. They made a last check to be sure everything was put back in its place and the room was clean. One of the elves was always in the lead.

They were about a week from Elvenholme and the elves led the two humans from shelter to shelter. Sometimes they arrived well after dark, since traveling on snowshoes was slow. Still, the shelters were comfortable, and they fed the group easily.

One day as they walked, the snow became easier to walk through. Then it disappeared completely, and they removed their snowshoes.

Dev also noticed the quality of the trees seemed to change. Dev was puzzled about these two changes, and was trying to figure it out.

First, while still chilly, it was not as cold as it had been yesterday. That could explain the snow disappearing, but there was still the matter of why the woods seemed, well, different. The trees seemed older, somehow.

"Rufio? Why do these woods seem strange to me?" Dev asked his grandfather finally.

"We are approaching the Heartwood, Dev. This is a special portion of the forest. If you keep your eyes open, you will see things that have not been seen by humans in thousands of years," Rufio explained quietly.

"What is so special about it? I mean, it's like I can feel something, but I am not sure what," Dev said in confusion.

"You are feeling one of the Powers of The Elves. I am just surprised that you can sense it at all," Lothlan responded to Dev's question.

Dev felt wonder as the trees got bigger and the diameter of some of the trunks reached huge proportions! The elves picked up the pace, and seemed anxious. Rufio told Dev this was because they were close to where the elves maintained their city.

One moment it seemed they were deep in forest, the next, Dev walked around the huge trunk of a tree and found himself out of the woods and staring at a city. Unlike a human city, where houses were built sometimes one against another, these houses were separate and each seemed to have plants surrounding it.

This went on for as far as the eye could see! Dev gawked at what he was seeing, trying to take in everything at once.

Dev felt a nudge.

"Come, human. We have far to go, still, if we are to get you to the palace before nightfall," Lothlan told him.

The elven city was spread out, and there were little parks with carefully maintained trees and plants in many locations. Grass was everywhere as were flowers of all sorts, despite the season. Dev also noticed it was not really that cold any longer.

Dev started noticing something strange about the houses as they marched through the city. They had a strange look to them. He asked Rufio about it.

"Lad, that is because Elvenholme is made up of living trees. Every house you see is a living tree, Dev. Some of these houses have taken generations to grow," Rufio responded.

Dev could not image the time or effort, let alone even figure out how one would go about growing trees into the shape of a house, and there had to be thousands of houses! The affinity of the elves to the trees was an awesome thing to experience.

The road they traveled on was made of a shimmering substance that was not rock or stone, yet seemed to have the durability of stone. Trees were everywhere that Dev looked, though not the huge ones that Dev had experienced in the forest itself.

Dev's little group drew attention, and elves stopped what they were doing to stare at the two humans being led towards the huge palace in the distance. While they traveled through the city, Dev craned his head and neck, trying to look everywhere at once.

Finally, as they got close to the palace, Dev asked if it too was grown from a tree.

"No. The palace is grown from many trees that are encouraged to work together to form the whole," Morelen answered.

Dev could not believe what he was seeing. A palace was made of a number of trees all working together? But... they were trees!

Rufio had been watching the expression on Dev's face and guessed at his thoughts.

"Dev, the elves are very close to nature. They are an elder race, much older than we humans. Is it really surprising that they can do and affect nature, in a way we would not even begin to think of?" Rufio asked gently.

"It's a lot to take in all at once. A little warning would have been nice," Dev responded.

Rufio shook his head negatively.

"Would you have believed any of this unless you had seen it for yourself?" Rufio asked reasonably.

Dev thought about that a moment, as they drew closer to the palace.

"No. You're right, no one could imagine this, unless they had seen it," Dev answered truthfully.

They finally got to the palace. At first Dev thought that the two griffins sitting on the palace were carvings, until they moved! There were two live griffins on the palace roof, and they were watching the party approaching!

Griffins were a thing out of legend. He remembered his favorite inn in Westford was the Griffin Inn, and they had painted the head all wrong. A griffin had a head more like an eagle, a short powerful body with four legs, and wings

One of the griffins launched itself off the roof and glided towards them! The party came to a stop and the griffin landed in the road in front of them. It walked to the group, turning its head this way and that. Finally it came to a stop before Rufio.

The griffin opened its beak, and Dev envisioned that sharp beak tearing his grandfather apart!

"Rufio, I see you," the griffin said in a strangely childlike voice.

"Graywing, I see you! You are still hanging around the palace, I see," Rufio commented, scratching the ear tufts of the griffin.