"Yes, as I was saying, us elves are generally a peaceful group, and prefer to not get involved in any flict that we avoid. If Rathnd decides on some form of flict, we'll stay out of it, as I'm sure most of the other elves will as well. We'll just sit back, as we've done in all other flicts in the past. After seeing your vilge and talking with you, I don't see your try as an aggressive threat, so I believe that any defensive pacts that Rathnd would attempt to invoke are null in this case."

  "Well, that's a relief at least." I let out a sigh before asking, "You wouldn't happen to be ied in some trade? I don't know if we have much to offer, but living on an isnd has its drawbacks, so we're always looking for new imports."

  "Well, as long as there isn't flict, we'd be willing to iate for some things, although given the distahe price won't be cheap."

  "I expected as mubsp; I have a few questions that are relevant to what we'd be ied in trading for, but they'll likely lead to long discussions, so please feel free to stop the discussion at any time if it seems like it's taking too long."

  "Hah! That's uo be a problem. If anything, most versations are far too short. I said before that the other races are far too caught up fighting over minor details, well they're all also too impatient. Perhaps its their shorter lifespans that are the reason for this, but I'd be happy to talk for days." Elora says with a sincere smile.

  I take a look at Shasta, and I tell she's not looking forward to the potentiality of an exceedingly long versation. I feel like I've gotten access to a great wealth of knowledge, and I'd like to extract as much as I even if Shasta might have to suffer through transting it. I'll give her some form of pensation afterwards to make up for the invenience.

  "Well, I don't know about days, but I'm more than happy to talk for a long time. First, if you wouldn't mind enlightening me about what life is like where you're from? That will probably give me the best insight into what goods we might be ied in trading for."

  "Life in the elven nds is quite different from life iher two tis and here. Foremost, we live in harmony with nature much more thaher two races, and more than you appear to. Not that we are opposed to the other ways of life. In fact, many elves choose to spend some portion of their lives living among those other races. We do not have any domestiimals, a mostly pnts, though we do hunt and have small amounts of meat in our diet. Cutting down trees is a hazard in the great forests of the elven tis due to their sheer size and age, so the wood we cook with is gathered from naturally fallen branches. Some among us have the ability to manipute nature to some degree, which is used to help with housing or pnt growth."

  As Shasta was repeating what Elora said, I ended up borrowing a sheet of paper myself, and using some charcoal to make notes. So mufo, and so much more that I want to ask based of that info.

  "I'm quite impressed with the quality of your clothes. For a people who don't have domestiimals, the quality is superb. What is it made of, if you don't mind me asking?"

  "Specialty silk-vine. It's a particurly difficult pnt to cultivate in a way that makes it useful for clothing. We have druids who keep stant ma of the pnts to ehey're growing in the correct way. They're proo thiing and knotting if you don't keep a stant eye on them, but if managed properly, you get this wonderfully strong and light vihat is so thin you'd think it was hair."

  "Ah, probably not something we could mahen. Do all elves have a set of clothes like that? I believe the other elf I met, Ambel Elloetta, was wearing more normal clothing."

  "Ah, no. This is actually quite expensive, as an emissary I have a few sets of it, but generally most people don't wear this. I mauries, it's bee quite normal for us to import woolen clothing from the other two tis, although many elves still wear leather from hunted animals. In the past we also made woven clothes from a species of vine simir to the silk-vine, although it hasn't been cultivated in some time, at least not within any of the more civilized groups. It wasn't quite as tricky to grow, but it's still much less vehat just trading for wool."

  "I see, so we'll be uo be able to cultivate any of those pnts. What of the pnts you eat? What sorts of pnts are those?"

  "We have many varieties of pnts we cultivate, but they tend to e in three types. The first are fruiting vines. We grow them weaving through the opies of the great forest, harvesting their fruiting bodies when ripe. They e in many varieties of fruit, but sidering the differen climate and distao you isnd, as well as the different enviro, I don't believe that any of those vines could grow here, nor would the fruit st on the long journey. The sed type are a sort of parasitit which burrows into the wood of the great forest trees, surviving off their nutrients, after some time, their main bodies are harvested aen. We have strict requirements on how many of those we grow on a giveo make sure we don't tax their life forubsp; The trees here are far too different from the great trees to support any of those pnts as well."

  As Shasta transtes all this, Elora has a slightly telling smile on her face, like she knows that the item is going to be something I'm ied in.

  "Finally, the third type. These pnts live off deg matter. When a small portion of their spores are dusted over dead pnt matter, they'll eventually produce a fruiting body out of it, as long as there is enough dead matter. There are a few varieties that we have of this, including two which prefer to use dead animal matter. I think these pnts you might be ied in, as they're pretty hardy, and be useful for breaking down dead matter. I've noticed that your small forests here have floors littered with dead pnt matter, and all that could be used frowing food in the form of these pnts."

  That definitely sounds like fungi, until the modern era fungi were sidered pnts so I'm not surprised they're called that. Plus who knows, maybe these are just weird pnts. Thinking about it further, there is quite the ck of fungal species on the isnd. Sure, I've seen mold and mildew, but no fruiting bodied fungus.

  If we get our hands on edible fungi, I'm sure we could farm it quite effectively. We could easily excavate underground farm locations where the fungi could be grorovided with plenty of deg matter. Whe trees, outside of the wood itself, the leaves and roots are currently burned, and could instead be used for making food. Nevermind all the fish skeletons and skins that we currently have to deal with as waste.

  "Yes, we're very ied in these pnts. I'll make a o return to this subject fotiations ter. I've heard you mention a few times the great forests where you're from. Could you eborate on them? I've only ever seerees here. What makes the great forests different?"

  "The great forests are uo our part of the world. The trees grow to nearly a thousaall, and a little over a hundred feet wide. They live for much lohan us elves do. Our lifespans reaearly seven-hundred years, and although we've seerees die, we've never seehat was a seedling die within our recorded history. As I'm sure you've heard by now, the other races cut trees down. However, cutting a great tree dows in a painful death for anyone who does so. The other races call it levelling siess. We've learo manipute the trees to keep them alive and live with them, rather than against them. The floor of the forest is as dark as a moonlit night during the middle of the day, and most of us live among the opies, although we do desd for various reasons. Save for a few unique locations, the great forest spans the entire ti without break."

  That definitely puts things in perspective. I guess I don't know how long us demons live for, and none of us have died of old age yet, so I have no insight into how much longer my life is. That sudden realization gave me a sudden sense of dread, but I moved passed it to tihe versation.