Emeraldglen

When Rayla and Callum set out for Emeraldglen, they had seen a few other places already.
They had had their fair share of fun and sex, and they felt quite relaxed as they rode towards their next destination and the setting sun.
"So, here we come to the boring part of our lovely trip," chirped the Elf woman purposedly looking far away in the distance.
"Nonsense, Rayla. This will be highly entertaining and instructive. The Earthblood Elves' cultures is so fascinating. I'm excited!"
"What's so fascinating about those bampots?"
"Bampots? Honey, this is below you. They are just simple people, your kind of people by the way."

"Uh, no? My people are the Moonshadow Elves, not just any Elves. Totally, totally different. We are cool, skilled warriors and most of all, beautiful, just like me, your hot Moonshadow Elf wife. All Earthblood Elves care about is growing their trees and plants. And gardens. And flowers. And grass... ugh, how they love their grass, it's actually maddening and quite unsettling."
"Yeah, yeah, I get the point, they have a very big, big green thumb. But Terry assured me we will be having fun. There is a big upcoming ceremony or festival or something like that."
"Ugh, Terry, he's like... the king of bampots," groaned Rayla picturing in her mind the ever-smiling, round face of their Earthblood Elf acquaintance.

"Oh, come on, you said he was kind of funny back then."
"He is kind of funny, just... the negative kind. You know, the kind of funny you can make fun of? Possibly behind his back?"
Callum turned to give his wife a reproachful glance.
"Well, he's my friend. Our friend, I should say. You're being mean now."
"It's just a guy we met," shrugged Rayla.
"We have been exchanging letters for years!" cried Callum to his wife who seemed totally not on his page with all this.
"Fine then. He will be just my friend from now on," he sighed, "But please, Honey, at least be nice to him for the time we're here. I've heard he's has made a position for himself at the temple."
"I'll try," sighed Rayla," But don't expect me to laugh at his stupid jokes."
"You know? I think he had a crush on you back then. That's why he kept telling you jokes and wanted so bad to impress you. He kind of confessed it to me when I wrote him we were getting married."
"Ha, that's why he was so clingy all the time? Whatever," offered Rayla dismissively.
"Oh! Are you blushing now? But... " Callum looked closely at his wife, squiting his eyes"... you did know already, uh?"
"Well, yeah, I kinda figured that out, you know, with time. I have these looks but it's not like I am some dumb, castle-dewlling, Human maiden..."
"You sure aren't, Honey," smirked Caullm.
They kept on riding in silence for a bit, as the road curved just next a cliff overlooking a lush, green vale and then came down to a slope into a cool, shady thicket.

"Anyway, mr. high and above, I know perfectly what you are doing. It's useless to try to distract me."
"What?" asked Callum casually.
"You wanted to come here just to give it another shot at connecting with the Earth Arcanum, Callum. Admit it." Rayla shot a glance to her husband who smiled back nervously.
"Wha-Whaaat? I mean, no way! How did you come up with such a crazy idea, Honey?"
"Yeah, because you would never ruin our Honeymoonshadow for your obsessive interest in Primal Magic, right?"
To be honest, Rayla was quite ok with her nerdy husband wanting to spend some time studying the Earth Arcanum, she just wanted to tease him and make sure so that he wouldn't neglect her too much to wander off among some ancient ruins.
It was their Honeymoonshadow after all, not a field study trip.

Emeraldglen, or The Emeraldglen, can be considered the capital of the Earthblood Elves Nation.
It's hardly a city with walls and a castle like Lux Aurea or the Human Kingdoms' Capitals.
The whole vale sits into the dead caldera of an enormous volcano, several miles of diameter, long estinguished.
Due to the soil being especially fertile, all manners of plant an trees have grown here. In ancient times a lush and verdant jungle filled the vale and it has stayed that way for millenia.
It was then that Earthblood Elves moved in, before the first chapter of the Human history was even written.
They came to worship the Elder One, a tree so big and old, its bough swayed out of the jungle of hundreds of feet.
Over the centuries the Elves built a temple next to the tree, and their houses. In time they managed to mold the whole jungle into a beautiful garden.
Thus they live since then, in armony with the nature.
The Earthblood Elves are the most numeros among the elven races of Xadia, and the largest part of its them live in Emeraldglen, which to the stranger has still the look of lush jungle dotted with houses and gardrden as far as the eyes can see.

It was sundown when Rayla and Callum finally reached the bottom of the vale, the air was getting cool.
The rays of the sun, blocked by the rocky rim surrounding it, had stopped lightening their path by some time already.
The road ahead pointed towards the center of the vale, where a colossal tree sprung out from jungle, it's bough aflame with the red light of the setting sun.
"Look there! It's so big! Mark my words, Honey, this will be grand!"
"Mark my words, Love, this will be... such a bore. For me at least," sighed Rayla wisftully looking at her husband getting so worked up already.
She loved him that way after all, didn't she?