The csh of steel, ughter, the feeling of hands against him,

  “Tis only a light jest, surely the great Hasslet is not as delicate as gss?”

  The dull throb he feels at the back of his head,

  A bright doorway, silver eyes stare back and a cruel smirk, beautiful, yay, but dark and fey.

  The sound of birds chirping, of insects, a forest, alive, and then…Hasslet wakes up.

  It is a struggle at first, trying to push back against the throbbing he feels at the back of his head as if waking up from a long dream, he finally opens his eyes. He is in a forest but besides that everything else is difficult to make out.

  Tall trees block the skies and only allow a sliver of sunlight to illuminate the forest. Hasslet’s first coherent thought is-

  “Dull, everything is so dull,” with great effort Hasslet tries to sit up, only to realize he is surrounded by foliage, this could not be, was he discarded in a bush? “Surely some sort of jest to put me in a bush.”

  Once his thoughts have been gathered, he takes in the world around him, dull and dark but, the forest is alive, he makes to stand up but quickly sits back down, his head, the dull pain, he reaches for it and feels warm liquid, blood.

  He stares down at his hand, in disbelief, what could have done this?

  A quiet sigh and slight movement drag him out of his thoughts and when he looks to his side, there ys a human, he was already quite certain this was not his realm, the human next to him all but confirms it.

  Hasslet does nothing, not that he could if he wanted to, the situation was all so bizarre to him, lost in a foreign pce with an injury and ying next to what was clearly a human girl, the Gods were most certainly not in his favor. If he were to be so bold to presume, he would surely think they ugh at his misfortune. He could pinpoint the exact cause of all this, listening to Adair.

  Once again his thoughts are halted as it becomes apparent that the human was leaving the realm of sleep. Hasslet’s study of their nguage was sure to come in handy.

  The faint rays of sunlight against Perryn’s face forced her to wake up, lingering in the forest was not going to aid I her in finding the town. She sits up and lets out a rge yawn, that seems to have triggered the sleeping beauty, a mixture of sound, somewhere between a snort and ugh makes Perryn instantly alert.

  She quickly turns towards to the sound and sure enough, her Elven friend is wide awake, leaves and such sticking to his golden hair, it did little to deter his beauty.

  They stare at each other for what felt like an eternity, like they had both been pced under and enchantment oblivious to the world around them.

  Perryn decides to make the first move. She slowly begins reaching out to him and he snaps back into reality, like a spell broken. He leans away from her and further into his leafy home, the look on his face can only be described as discomfort, clearly, Perryn had messed up somewhere, that or her little Elf friend was just like her, ying eyes on a specie they never thought they would see.

  Seeing his clear discomfort, Perryn begins to move away from him until he lets out a shout, truly the only way Perryn could describe the sound made, before she can make sense of what is going on, the Elf starts prancing about, twirling and bowing, he starts to sing, a nguage Perryn obviously is not familiar with.

  She is once again pced under a spell, the birds above fly below and effortlessly sync with the Elf’s song chirping in all the right pces, the forest creatures from birds and rabbits to fawns and foxes keep a safe distance as they watch the Elf continue his dance. The one-word Perryn had managed to grab, as it was repeated quite often, was “Hasslet”.

  With a final twirl and an over exaggerated bow, the wondrous melody had come to an end, Perryn could do nothing but stare in shock, she was baffled really. She wants to believe that this encounter was all but a dream as, she has passed that phase.

  The long silence between them is once again broken by her,

  “I…did not quite catch what was said, it was a lovely song nevertheless.” There, an appropriate response, though she was not certain the Elf even understood her.

  The Elf slowly blinks, a sudden realization and a slight frown-

  “Forgive me fair dy, I speaketh my mother tongue when I meant to sing in the tongue of man,” the Elf twirls once more and gets into a familiar position, “I shall sing once more in a tongue thou would be familiar with.”

  Before he could go any further Perryn points out the obvious,

  “Are you aware you are bleeding? All that twirling and bowing cannot possibly be good for you.”

  The Elf blinks once more before he sways, he falls to floor, a puppet whose strings have been cut. The forest creatures scatter, no longer dazzled by the Elf's performance.

  Perryn cautiously makes her way towards him, honestly from all she had read about Fae creatures she thought he would have been healed by now. She gently reaches out to him again, to provide some sort of comfort and this time there is no discomfort present.

  “Tis unlike me to behave in such a manner, if introductions are to be had, mine name is Hasslet.”

  Perryn was ready to do the same until she remembered those books, being bound to a Fae once your name was given. She stares at him, skeptical of his intentions.

  He did not seem like those wicked Fae she read about, then again, it was not unheard of to be deceived by such beauty.

  As if sensing her thoughts, Hasslet argued back, “Tis not the way of us Elves to hold thy name in contract, my word I give to you.”

  After a moment of hesitation, Perryn sighed, “If that is so, you can call me Perryn.”

  He gave a soft smile at that, humans, such peculiar creatures.