Terry

Terry had been in a state of excitement for weeks since, in his last letter, his Human pen friend Callum had finally said he would be finally accepting his hospitality. He had waited for six long years, six, for Callum and Rayla to accept his invitation. That much time had passed since he had returned to the glen. Being with them, if only for a few months, had been the time of his life.

Back then he was just a boy, younger than both his friends. A sapling, round, chatty, and more than anything else naive.
He didn't know much of the world. Traveling, if not for trade, was generally frowned upon by his people. Despite this, he had set out on his own with this idea to have his grand adventure. The Elders had thought he had gone mad, that they had wasted time in teaching him Magic, something in which he was a true talent already as a child, but he was so driven.

The life of a young Earthblood Elf was usually very different.
They were attached to the land they grew, they married early, and settled down just about as early. Often they stayed close to their parents and relatives, building these big families or clans neighboring and living as a community.
Terry tough was an orphan, a thing very uncommon among Earthblood Elves, who didn't fight nor meddle with matters of war. They were peaceful people: if one died was mostly of old age, or for the very occasional working accident. Even illness was very rare.

The mystery about his parents' **** was what initially sparked young's Terry fascination for the outside world. They were travelers, a profession deemed risky by definition, yet it was not common for them to go missing just like that. There had been a brief period of speculation at the village when Terry was just a baby left in the care of an aunt by his father, but then, when he had grown enough to start asking questions, he had met a wall of silence.
The Elders, having found no real answer regarding his parents' ****, believed to protect him and the village through oblivion.
This only fostered the boy's curiosity, specifically for everything that was taboo.

At twelve, he was already a full-fledged Earth Mage, but also an outcast to his people, it was then that he set out from the glen.
He met Rayla and Callum on the road, helped them in the quest to locate and ultimately vanquish a small rogue faction of Sunfire Elves bent on avenging Lux Aurea's defilement.
He knew they probably found him a bit annoying back then, but he looked up so much to them.
They were their heroes, and he like to imagine his parents to be just like that, beautiful and brave.

That was then, a few things had changed in the meantime. He had changed for starters. He was a man now. Had a lovely wife too.
Yet he felt like a psyched kid at the prospect of seeing them again.
Would they had been able to recognize him after all this time, he wondered.
Had they changed too?