Legends of Belariath
Windira
The Sylph and the Caravan
It all began many years ago in the clouds high in the sky... Mryll burst through the fluffy white cloud, giggling as the soft wetness clung to her form when suddenly the cloud was riddled with holes, a group of young sylphs giggling as their ascent peaked. Slowly their upper momentum halted traveling slightly forward before they started to dive, letting gravity bring them closer to earth before they leveled darting through the trees of the forest, their laughter filling the air, the hands brushing softly the branches and leaves.
The sentry growled as he looked up, the branches above him swaying, “damn birds” he mutters to himself. “Hey Flint, head back to camp, its my turn on watch.” Flint turns grinning to the newcomer, the man smaller than him by a few inches at roughly six feet. the brown eyes and hair slightly lighter than his, a lopsided grin on the newcomers face. “Thanks Kerse, now don't get to startled the animals have been active today.” Flint says with a laugh slapping his companion on the arm good-naturedly. Flint then heads through the woods towards camp, looking up into the trees as he thinks he hears what sounds like a giggle.
Mryll darts behind a tree dropping through its branches giggling as she catches her breath, she freezes as she hears something large moving towards her, she jumps to her feet her head peeking out from behind the tree.
Flint tries to move quietly towards the sound but is unaccustomed to moving silently in the woods. He notices the voice had moved to the ground and was clearly a woman’s laugh, he finds it easier to locate it. As he grows close the voice grows silent, he comes to a small clearing and notices a beautiful face peeking at him from behind the tree.
Mryll giggles as she sees the man, her face breaking into a smile. She pulls her head behind the tree, giggling before poking it out once more seeing the man approaching her, with a giggle and a smile, and she shoots upward, breaking through the canopy and the night sky beyond. Joining her friends, but the presence of the man, swaying lightly on her mind.
Flint smiles as he approaches the face, as it ducks behind the tree, he sees it appear once more for a moment, when he is about halfway across the clearing, then hears the branches rustling once more. When he finally gets to look behind the tree nothing is their, no sign is left of that beautiful face that he had seen. He searches desperately for tracks on the ground, but is unable to find any, with a sigh, he makes his way back to camp, before turning in for the night, his armor and his boots left at the foot of his sleeping roll. His sleep is undisturbed, except for the occasional breeze, his dreams filled with the laughter of that mysterious girl. He awakes in the morning to a great commotion, voices yelling all around his small tent, he bursts out of the tent in just his skivvies preparing for attack, to be greeted with mass confusion. Equipment is everywhere, shoes and boots hanging from trees, breastplates laced around others, other tents jumping around as if alive.
Mryll smiles as she follows the man back silently above him, no one ever looks up. After she finds the location of the Caravan, she sets to work, some of her fellow sylphs joining in after not to long. Silently they move through the camp, nothing but deeper shadows, little forms poking into the tents of the sleeping guards, grabbing their equipment and clothes, and pulling it into the night, hanging it high in the trees, or dressing the trees in the clothes. Small mending kits were found, and crudely the flaps to tents were sewn shut. Taking a relatively short amount of time the sylphs giggled to float back into the sky, the sentries never the wiser. They giggles as they watch the mayhem from their pranks, high in the sky or hidden in the trees. After a long morning the caravan gets under way, but this time with more people than it began, the sylphs following from the sky, not wanting this bit of fun to end.
Flint’s next day was pretty uneventful, nothing more happened since everything in camp mysteriously went to pieces. No one was met on the road, and the day well…was boring, but the sight that greeted him the next morning was similar to the last, and the sentries swore that they had seen no one come or go. The guards were just lucky that nothing had been stolen, but simply misplaced. With the new pranks, came a day much more eventful than the last. Someone one had loosened the ties on the wagon to the horses, so at the thunder in the middle of a clear day, the horses spooked pulling free and darted, it took most of the day to round them up, and the entire time, people were tripping and stumbling into each other, Guards getting into fights, when they swore that another guard had insulted them. All in all, the day was chaos.
The sylphs enjoyed every minute of the past couple of days, their small forms darting between the trees and the tents, setting everything amiss. They were the culprits behind every one of the pranks which had plagued the caravan over the last few days. Through a combination of magic and mischief they had managed to make just about everything that could go wrong, go wrong, and much more. They watched somewhat resigned as the caravan moved from the trees, but that did not last for long, as soon their laughter was bright again, as they continued on their game of tag between them.