In the morning after their arrival, Zilo, Jin, Leo, and the rest of the crew walked into the city. The captain spoke with Leo as they approached an open plaza and said, "Me and the boys will be lookin for some food for the trip back, can you and yours meet us here tomorrow morning."
"Sounds good with us, we just have something to look into." The captain nods then looks back to his men and shouts, "Alright boys, we need an inn, and some rations for a month, get looking, and we set off tomorrow." His orders are met with a collection of shouts, mostly encouraging.
The elves in the area had seen the crew before, but now they have the elves' full attention as the crew begins to scatter across the city. The watching elves let out some insulting sounding murmurs. Zilo looks at the gold, green and blue structured area that looks to have been more grown than constructed.
The craftsmanship looked far beyond anything men could perform, with a radiant like elegance. Zilo turns to Leo and asks, "So I've never been to an elf city, but I've read about them. Are they really wise beyond any other race?"
Leo makes a reluctant face and says, "Well, living for centuries would do that for any race, but elves are also sorta... kinda..."
"From the sounds of their whispers they think we are below them." Says Jin with twitching ears and a grimace on his face. Zilo looks back to Leo and says, "So they're Jerks." Leo nods.
Zilo looks around the square and says, "Well, I think I'll try and make us more welcome with a few songs, that always worked before." Jin and Leo nod as Jin says, "We'll start asking around, meet us at the gate before sunset." Zilo nods as his friends head out.
Zilo's reception for most of the day seemed rather cold, as he tried to reflect his environment with epic elegant pieces. Around mid-day, a small group of elvish children began watching Zilo from afar. Zilo noticed their curiosity and decided to begin playing a very happy and whimsical melody that he knew they couldn't resist.
The children began to dance around each other and circle around Zilo, who began dancing along with them. Zilo is impressed with how light and daintily the elves dance. the smiles on their faces made Zilo's own face also beam with whimsy.
With a flourish and a twirl Zilo and the children land on their back staring up into the sky. The bard and kids laugh and giggle while the elven adults look on at them. One of the boys sits up and looks at Zilo.
"Sir, that was a fantastic song."
"Thank you young ones, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
One of the elven girls sits up and makes an insulted face at Zilo, "Hey, I'm not young!" Zilo chucks as he sits up and looks to the girl, "Well my lady I apologize, pray tell how old are you." Zilo smiles at her, as she responds, "I'm thirty-four."
Zilo's eyes go wide, as the girl looks to be more around the age of five, at least by human standards. Zilo looks to all the children, and they all in a random group of shouts they all shout out how old they all are, each being around the ages of early thirties.
The kids all stare at Zilo expectantly and the bard rubs his neck, and says, "I'm merely twenty-seven." all the children point and laugh at Zilo, as the bard stands and wipes the grass off his shoulders. One of the girls stops laughing as Zilo stands and says, "Well, sir it looks like you are the youngster here."
Zilo bows to the kids and says, "It seems I am, never let it be said that Zilo, The Master of Strings didn't respect his elders." The children all pop up their flowy clothing in a smug fashion. One of the shorter looking boys tugs on Zilo's pants and asks, "Sir Zilo, you're a bard aren't you?"
Zilo smiles and says, "Why yes I am. We are rather rare around these realms, but in my home, we are trained from a young age." The elves crowd around Zilo and begin to exclaim in awe. Zilo thinks of how to use the children to his advantage.
"Well you all know what I do, so its only fair if you tell me what you all do."
"We haven't picked our trades yet sir, we start those when we turn seventy." remarks a boy frowning with his friends
Zilo places his hand to his chin and then snaps his fingers as he says, "In that case how about your parents, what do they do?" The elves all smile and begin shouting their parent's profession, and Zilo manages to pick out the profession he was searching for, 'soldier'.
Zilo spins around to a small elven girl and kneels down to her, and says, "A solider you say? Is it your father?"
"No, mother is an archer in the new general's rear guard."
Zilo flicks out Harmony and says, "I'm something of an archer as well, my lady. I would love to meet with her and compare notes." The kids watch as Harmony forms into it's mystic longbow form, and they clap as it shines. The girl Zilo spoke to looks down to the ground and looks dejected.
"Father says that Mother is bound to her general and he was called upon to fight the forces of evil to the north on the mountains, so she isn't home right now."
Zilo's eyes widen again, "That sounds like a noble calling, you should be very proud." Says Zilo as he lifts the girl's gaze by the chin, The girl smiles to the bard with sweet innocent little eyes. Zilo had what he needed and rose to tell the children goodbye, but it was not to be...
"My father crafts swords for the army! He's the finest craftsman in the city."
"Mother grows crops and readies them for the market. She's a really good cook."
"Father tames elk out of the forest and bonds with them. I once rode on one this big!"
Zilo wasn't much able to make his way away. For the rest of the day he had to listen to the careers of the rest of the elf children's parents. Once that was done he tells the children good day, and Zilo needs to rush. As he rounds the corner he notices that Jin and Leo are being carted away by a small group of elf guards.
Zilo hides away as the group passes and he tails them to to a large elven building that Zilo assumes is the prison and he stands and lets out a dejected sigh before saying, "Well, time to go to work."
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