Chapter 1 Union of Dark & Light

Roisin Putnam, we are sorry to inform you that your insurance will not cover the cost of the second surgery your physician is requesting, the last voicemail I received before my battery died on my cell. That was months ago and now I'm living what's left of my life on my terms.

I finally made it up the large incline, my calves burned, my long red hair glued to my forehead, and beads of sweat rolled down the space between my small breasts. My eyes scan the vast expanse of land, falling on a grove of thick large trees in the distance. My brow raises as I catch the movement within the branches. Fairies I chuckle internally. Always the believer in the mythical, at the age of 28, I should be well past the thoughts of such fanciful creatures. I squint my eyes more, hoping it will help my vision become more focused. Several birds flap their wings into the blue sky to flee whatever is making its way through the densely covered branches. I hear a loud high-pitched whistle and purse my lips, tilting my head to the side. It wasn't a noise that should be heard in the area and I would know I'd been hiking for weeks and hadn't seen another living being. I shake my head and continue my trek, following the small creek down into a beautiful flower-filled valley below.

I will have to pick a spot to camp for the night. I look at the setting sun and figure I have two hours to pitch my pup tent and collect wood for a small fire. I spotted a relatively flat dirt area and set up camp. I gathered wood and made a small fire.

I rubbed at my sore muscles. When I decided to sell all my earthly possessions after the cancer diagnosis and head out to nowhere, I never realized I would end up in a foreign country all alone and living literally off the land.

Being a herbalist and having a vast knowledge of edible and medicinal plants has helped a lot and I could hunt with my bow and arrows. I was happy, leaving behind the stress of the chaotic world had actually calmed my restless spirit. I never felt like I belonged in the modern world and my train of thought and beliefs were frowned upon. Yeah, I believed there was more to this dull world and I planned to discover it all on my own.

I look down at my hiking boots and frown at the wear on them. I'd need to get new ones, how, who knows, my cell service didn't work out here, besides the fact I hadn't charged it with my mini solar unit.

I yawn and climb into my small pup tent. I was about to close my eyes when the sounds of muffled steps made my eyes widen. I scoot around and peek outside. My green eyes adjust to the night. I scan the area around my camp and can't see anything but my ears perk at the muffled voices of someone speaking. I scowl, I grab my Bowie knife and wiggle out of my tent. I was never one to back down from a fight, I blame it on my Irish heritage.

I raised the knife and rotated around. I couldn't see or hear anything so I relaxed and went back into my tent and eventually fell asleep.

The morning sun cast a blue glow inside my small blue-colored tent. I stretched and yawned. Crawling out of my sleeping bag. I peek outside and push myself up to stand. I looked at the creek and decided to clean myself and attempt to wash my extra set of clothes. I'm contemplating whether or not to bathe. No one is here so I strip and walk into the very cool water. It's just deep enough to sit in and have the water reach my breasts. I tilt my head back and let my hair float in the slow current. I finished and put on a clean flannel and sweats. I put on my hiking boots without socks and started washing my dirty laundry. I scrubbed them against the stones hoping the dirt would come out without soap. Gathering the wet items I look for a tree with low branches to hang them from, find one, and spread them out to dry. I returned to my camp and gasped, there are large bare footprints covering the entire area. What in the fuck. My mind is racing to figure out what in the world. I didn't walk around barefoot. My brow creases and I scan the area. I didn't remember them being there when I woke up this morning.

"Show yourself, I know you are there," I shout into the air. I grab my knife and tilt my head, I can hear rustling to the right of me.

I turned quickly and my eyes widened. I drop my knife and raise my hands in surrender. Three very tall and unique-looking men had arrows pointed in my direction. I looked at them and they all had unusual colored eyes and were talking in a strange language. Their hair was long and straight. The biggest one had platinum blonde hair and the other two had black hair. Their clothing was made of intricately designed leather and they were barefoot.

"Listen I didn't do anything wrong here and I don't want any trouble," I squeak. The blonde-haired one scowls at me.

"You are on our lands and should not be, no human can enter here." I laughed at that, they must be some weird cult. They found my laughter offensive and all three frowned at me. They walked around me and started going through my things.

"Hey wait a minute, you don't need to go through my things," I yell, getting pissed. The blonde one lifts my bow, and arrows and laughs looking at me.

"You can't know how to use this little female," he chuckles. I walk up and grab them from him in a huff, my eyes burning into his.

"I'm very good at using this, I've earned gold medals, thank you very much," I sneer. He cocks his blonde eyebrow at me and rolls his purple-looking eyes. One of the black-haired men held up a pair of my underwear and I readied my bow, pulling the arrow back and aiming it at him.

"Drop it and get the fuck out of my stuff," I growl. I should have paid attention to the blonde one, he grabbed me from behind and restrained me. I thrashed about in his grasp.

"Let me go," I yell, kicking my legs, causing my hiking boots to fly off and hit one of the black-haired men in his face. He wrestled my bow from my arms and wrapped my wrists with a long strand of leather. Next, a piece of gray cloth was wrapped around my mouth. I glared at the blonde asshole and he just smirks at me. He spoke to the others in a strange language and lifted me like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder. I watched as the two dark-haired men gathered my things and we started moving. Great, I'm being kidnapped.

My stomach hurt from the constant bumping into the hard shoulder of the man carrying me. I can't believe they are walking so far without any appearance of tiring. We reached the grove of large trees and they started to climb. My eyes are bulging looking at the ground as it is fading away. I'm hanging precariously over his shoulder and my weight doesn't seem to bother him. I close my eyes as we jump from branch to branch. I only know from the wind flowing through my finally drying hair. When I feel safe enough to open my eyes. We are on what looks like a large covered wooden floor with a wooden fence surrounding it. Mister asshole set me on the floor and the other two set all my belongings next to me, minus my bow, arrows, and knife which they still had in their hands. I lift my tied hands and try to rip the fabric from my mouth. I'm cursing under my breath.

"I'll remove that if you will answer my questions," the blonde states. I look up and nod. He untied the gag and I stretched my jaw, my eyes looking around for an escape.

"Don't try and run, you will fall to your death," a black-haired one says with a laugh. I sigh and sit on the floor, looking up at my captors. They stand looking down at me speaking their language.

"What is your name, female," the blonde asks. "Roisin," I mumble.

"I am Torin, this is Cadac and that is Adrit, the one you hit with your foot covering," the blonde states. I nod my head at all three. My stomach rumbled and I turned red. I wave towards my backpack gauging their reaction and slowly pull it towards me. Digging through the pockets I find my pine nuts and begin shoveling several into my mouth. I'm crunching noisily and Torin holds his palm out towards me.

"Do you want some?" I asked him. He nodded and I put several in his hand. He looks at it, sniffs it, and grinning puts them into his mouth. He's nodding while chewing and starts telling the others something in their language. They all look at me smiling, making me feel uncomfortable.

"What is this place," I ask Torin as I stand and walk around the open area, looking out to see nothing but leaves and branches. We were high off the ground, I couldn't see the bottom as I looked over the rail.

"We are forest elves, this is one of our dwellings," he states. I start to chuckle. "Elves aren't real, you don't have pointed," I snapped my mouth shut as Torin lifted his hair and I noticed his pointy ears.

"Holy shit," I gasped, feeling lightheaded and crumpled to the floor. When I opened my eyes all three of them were staring down at me with frowns on their faces. I sit up, my head still a little foggy.

"You're all for real elves and not some dressed-up cult of weirdos," I mumble looking up at Torin. He nods his head at me and I shake my head.

"I thought elves were small tiny creatures not tall and big," I raised my hand at them and they laughed.

"We are not small, well we are as infants," he smirks.

"We want to understand how you entered our land, normally humans get uneased when they near it, why are you different," Cadac states looking at me oddly. I think about why I'm different and smile.

"I've always been a little odd, plus I'm dying so maybe my mind is just fucking with me at this point," I frown and rub my eyes.

"Why did you kidnap me?" I mumble. "Because you should not be here in the first place and we are going to find out why or how you are," Adrit sighs.

"So I'm your prisoner until you all can figure that out," I scowl, looking at all three of them. They start talking in elvish I assume and shake their heads at me. "You're not a prisoner, more like a special guest," Torin smiles. I roll my eyes and frown.

"Do you have a restroom?" I ask. Torin offered his hand to me and I cautiously placed mine in his. He pulls me up over his shoulder and starts running through the tree branches. My eyes closed tightly as the wind whipped my hair around. When we stop I'm in front of a hole in a tree.

"You can't be serious," I frown and side-glance at Torin. I wave my hand for him to turn around and I do my business. I'd been doing it outside for months so it didn't bother me too much.

"All done," I grin, only to be hoisted again and rushed through the trees. We returned to the platform.

"Is this where I'm staying," I question. They all three chat again and I dig through my bag and grab my journal and pen. I rest against a post and sketch a picture of the three of them. I noticed Cadac has a red streak in his black hair, so now I can tell him and Adrit apart. I'm smiling to myself when I feel someone hovering above me watching me draw. I look up and Torin is watching what I'm doing. I close my journal and press it to my chest. He's holding my bow and arrows and smiling at me.

"We need to see how well you can use this before we decide where you will stay," he grins. Ok, so it's some sort of test, whatever. I stand up and grab my things from his hand. I see Adrit in the distance holding up something red. I cock my brow and look at Torin.

"You want me to shoot an arrow at Adrit?" I chuckle. He frowns and yells something in elvish to Adrit. I see him attach the red object to a branch and quickly move away. I watched as the red thing moved with the breeze, they weren't going easy on me.

"You may attempt it now, female," Torin smirks, putting his hands behind his back as he watches. I pulled back my bow and gauge the wind, and distance, releasing the arrow, it nicked the red object and I frowned. I did it again but this time I calmed myself and sure as shit I hit it. My proof is embedded in the bark of the tree behind it. I look up at Torin's surprised face and laugh. He yells to Adrit and another object is fastened to a branch.

"I can do this all day long big guy," I grin, and hit it dead center. I did it again and again, apparently I proved it wasn't dumb luck because Torin finally acknowledged my skills.

"Impressive for a female," he mumbles, eyeing me curiously. He spoke to the other two and they lined up and looked at me. "You may choose whom you wish to reside with," Adrit mumbles unhappily, apparently still upset from my boot smashing his face earlier. I raised my brow as my eyes glanced over the three of them.

"Which of you is closer to a restroom," I mumble. Torin and Cadac both raised a hand. Ok blonde or black, which do I want to stay with.

"I'll draw straws between you two," I mumble, noticing relief on Adrit's face. I go through my bag and explain to Adrit what to do with the toothpicks. I leave one plain for Torin and color the bottom of the other for Cadac. I turned while he completed the small task.

"Ready," Adrit grins. I turned and looked at the hidden toothpicks in his hand. I go to reach for one and hear Torin clear his throat. I eyed him and picked the other, pulling out the blank toothpick. Well fuck me I frown and look up at him.

"Guess we're roommate's, hope you don't snore," I mumble, going to grab my damp clothes from my pile of things. He frowns and pulls me up over his shoulder and we race off into the trees.