The Larakesh Baby

Once upon a time in the land of Atheria, there was a princess Nea and a princess Lulu and they went on the most amazing adventures. Nea and Lulu had just freed an old elf lady from being enslaved by a curse. It had happened inside an old enchanted elven keep, when she had decided to keep the yellow Tornadian crystal for herself and not use it to heal Atheria. She didn’t know that though and neither did Nea and Lulu. They would learn more about the old enchanted elven keeps in another adventure. 

As soon as they healed the old elf, she turned back to her normal elf self. For she really was a sweet old lady elf inside but also very sad. And she began to cry just being around Nea, Lulu and Wahl.

“Why are you so sad?” Lulu asked. 

“Well, a long time ago I had a baby girl, a very special little girl. And I lost her, and I couldn’t find her. I have spent years searching Atheria for her, high and low, and have not been able to find her. You haven’t by chance seen her?”

Nea and Lulu looked at each other. And then they looked at Wahl, who just shrugged. 

“Can you tell us more about her?” asked Nea.

“She’d be about fifteen. Her name is Olivia. The only thing I have left of hers is this.” And she held out a small baby blanked with a griffin emblem on it. “Will you help me find her?”

“We can try.” Said Nea. 

Wahl looked at the princesses and was getting sad because he still wanted to find his own family. And he wondered if he would ever find them, and if the wish he made at the well would ever come true.

The old elf walked them down the mountain and into the elf town of Larakesh on the beach. It was a beautiful small down on the beach, but what they didn’t know is that they also bred griffins here. 

“It’s no use trying to get over the mountains by foot. It’d take you days and put you all in danger. Over here we travel back and forth by griffin. Let me talk to my friend and we’ll get you a ride.” 

In no time she was back with a large majestic griffin for the the adventurers to ride. This griffin, unlike the other two they met, was trained and a nice friendly griffin.

“Please take this blanket and find my daughter!”

When the princesses saw the blanket they took note of the fabric and that it had an emblem of griffin on it.

“These places - these towers - are sacred for us elves. I was told that when my daughter was born, she had a birthmark on her wrist. Please remember that, maybe that will help you find her!” 

And with that the adventurers took flight atop a friendly griffin over Tortura Bay and back home. As they were flying, Wahl couldn’t help notice that he had a birthmark on his wrist too and he was almost fifteen years old too.

But he didn’t say anything about it, because he was a little nervous and shy about his birthmark. When he was young, other ogres used to make fun of him for having it. He often tried to hide it, because he didn’t want anybody else to make fun of him. 

And he thought, “Maybe, maybe this girl elf was made fun of too. Maybe she’d understand what it’s like to be teased because of a birthmark.”

When they landed, the first thing the princesses did was send word to all the kingdoms about the lost baby elf. Guess who they heard back from? They got word from Princess Ellery to come quickly to Morrenvale she had news of the lost elf baby. 

So they traveled as quickly as they could to Morrenvale. 

As soon as they arrived, she gave them both a huge hug.

“How are things? And how has your adventure been? It has been so long since I’ve seen you. I’ve missed you so, so much! Come on in, let’s have some tea and talk.”

And she signaled for them to all be careful what they say in public and wait until they were safe. Moorenvale wasn’t always the safest place for ogres and Ellery wanted to be safe when talking about the lost baby girl elf. 

When they were safelly inside Ellery’s castle and in her special quarters, they were able to talk freely. 

“So you’re looking for the lost girl elf? You two go on THE most amazing adventures!” she exclaimed. “I overheard my father talking about it once but I couldn’t make sense of what he was saying.”

“Well, all we really have is this special blanket to go on. And the fact that she had a birthmark on her wrist.” 

Ellery gasped. “I don’t know where you got that, but I’ve seen one just like it.”

“Where?” they asked. 

“Jo’s place.” She said. 

“Jo, the older lady, who was really good with plants and lived just outside of Morrenvale?” Nea asked.

Jo also happened to be the keeper of the green Terrainian Crystal. 

When they got to Jo’s cottage, Jo was there and sat them down. Only she was moving quite a bit slower than normal and even coughed a few times getting everything ready for her guests.

“Jo, can you tell us anything about a lost baby girl elf? The girl this blanket belongs too?” asked Ellery.

Jo slowly nodded. “A long time ago, there was an elf warrior who lived in the elven keep above Larakesh. She was pregnant and very sick. So sick that everybody was afraid that her baby would get sick too. Hickory, the inventor, and I were sent to watch over her and bring her babies to her brother to care for them.”

“Them?” asked Nea.

“Yes, you see she had twins. A girl and a boy. We were asked to take them to him as it would be safer to raise them, for a time, away from her illness. The sickness was affecting all the elves in Larakesh but not humans. So we could take them without any risk. And we did, we took them to Oleander.”

“The wise elf in the forest?”

She nodded.

“Hickory and I left them with Oleander. Unfortunately, he was raided after the Invasion of Forevermore by ogres and they were lost.” 

“Is that all you know?” asked Nea. 

“Their mother also went mad with rage because of the sickness. It was making elves very, very angry. We never told her about the boy - no one who knew the story ever did. With the girl lost and her mother not well, we thought what good would it do. Maybe we were wrong.” 

Nea, Lulu and Wahl got up to leave. 

“Wait! I’m coming with you!” said Ellery. “I want to get to the bottom of this too.”

So Ellery joined them on their journey into the woods and to find Oleander the wise old elf. One thing Lula meant to ask Jo about but didn’t was, why she wasn’t with the dwarfs healing the other temples. But she was too distracted thinking about their current adventure to think of it in time. 

When they arrived at Oleander’s hut, they knocked on the door. [Knock, knock, knock.]

The old elf slowly opened the door. 

“Back for the griffins?” he asked.

Lulu, so excited to see them, ran right past him to the nest, where three baby griffins fumbled over each other and skittered about. 

“Not quite.” Said Nea. “We’d like to know about the twin baby elves from Larakesh.”

To that the old man’s eyes go wide and he started to cry.

“They’re lost forever. Taken from us by ogres.” He said, trying not to look at Wahl. “There was a small band, a strong one that had learned to use magic. They were seeking revenge after loosing their families in the invasion.” 

“Do you remember any of them?” Asked Ellery.

“They had a sorceress, Tor’Og. She was very powerful.”

“She took them?” 

His eyes started to well up with tears and he looked away. “Yes, she TOOK them!” he said in anger. “She took both of them. Walter and Olivia.” 

“Walter?”

“Yes, the boy and the girl, Olivia.” 

But before he could continue, there was a sound from outside and the griffins bolted out the front door. 

“O’Lah? Paul?” asked Nea, seeing their two friends walking up to the hut.

“Nea of Sparland, Lulu of Sparland, Ellery of Morrenvale!” Paul said, “And who is this fine ogre?”

“Wahl of Traycod.” He said, confidently greeting Paul. 

“Why, hello, Wahl of Traycod. And this ...” 

“Is O’Lah of Ubbin.” O’Lah interrupted with a smile. Paul was still getting used to the fact that O’Lah preferred to introduce herself and where she came from, rather than anyone else. 

As O’Lah stretched out her hand and shook Wahl’s, Oleander squinted. It was at that moment too that the girls saw it. Both ogres O’Lah and Wahl had similar birthmarks on their wrists. 

“Wahl-ter and O’lah-via?” asked Lulu, letting their names blur into the baby elf names. She hadn’t fully put it together in her head. She was more asking herself out loud while she was thinking it. 

No one had noticed but Oleander had backed up and was sitting on a chair in the corner. He put his hand to his forehead and was shaking his head. 

“She turned you both into ogres. A family for a family.” He said out loud, remembering her cryptic words from long ago. The ogre sorceress hadn’t taken the elf babies and harmed them, she had turned them into ogres.

It was no secret that Oleander didn’t like ogres after losing family in the invasion and then his niece and nephew afterwords.  
 
“The lost babies of Larakesh.” Paul said out loud.

O’Lah looked at him, surprised. “You mean, I’m an elf?”

Wahl just looked at O’Lah and began to tear up. “That means you’re my sister!”

“And you’re my brother!” she said.

The two hugged, a very very big hug. They had both separately always felt a little different than other ogres, like they didn’t quite fit in. However, knowing there was someone else like them who could understand made all the difference in the world to them.  

By now, Oleander was crying. “Will you two ever forgive me? I tried to find you - but was looking in all the wrong places?”

Nea, Lulu, Ellery and Paul decided to give the two ogres and Oleander some space inside the hut. They were going to need some time to catch up. After some discussion, they realized that Walter and Olivia must have been given ogre names when they were baby ogres that related to their  elven birth names. 

When the three of them had been able to catch up and reconcile, Oleander made everyone a large elven dinner, but with some ogre food as well. And the two siblings were so excited to catch up on their lives and their adventures and they had both decided that they would need to go see their long lost birth mother as soon as possible. 

The End.