Stay a bit longer with the Dryads [Two Months]

Malevia, at first the name sounded so foreign and different for you it took quite awhile before you attached it to your identity. Ealeve first took you out of the hut and showed you the home the dryads built for themselves deep in the forest. She explained that the village is built alongside the shadow of some of the oldest trees in the forest as old as the dryads themselves. She introduced you to a few others of her people, but all in all there are quite a few of them. You believe there to be about one hundred or so. They looked at you suspiciously with their purple eyes. "Some of our kind do not believe I should've granted you this gift," Ealeve explained to you one day, "Our duty is to protect the forest and to bring in an outsider, and give her our most sacred gift as repayment for a harm we may have done in that line of duty, brings a huge danger to ourselves and the forest."

Regardless their suspicion, in the following months you are taught how to hunt far better than you've ever learned from the lessons you've stolen while listening to your former father instruct your brother. Being an elf has made you so nimble that you find yourself easily able to keep up with most animals without losing a single breath. Your improved sight makes your aim with the bow impeccable and you soon enough find yourself able to keep up with the dryads themselves. "Be careful, while you may be fast and nimble, most creatures such as humans, orks, and any animals influenced by demons are far stronger than any elf," you were warned once.

"One of our duties is to hunt down and minimize the damage inflicted by demonic corruption in the forest," Ealeve explained to you after you hunted down a huge wolf bristling with horns, "This animal was touched by the corruption on the Eastern side of the forest and it became feral and extremely powerful, if we did not hunt it down it would've spread it here as well."
"What causes this corruption?" You ask.
"Long ago, when the elves, as you know them today, first became warlike and indulged in their baser instincts their natural affinity to magic drew on something far darker. The power only indulged to demons they managed to tap into for their purposes of war, and as they did so the male part of nature, the satyrs, became corrupted with this same magic. So, in all old forests there is a cold war of sorts between the dryads who try to maintain the old order, and the satyrs who corrupt and transform the forest into areas of demonic influence."
"I heard a similar story when I was, well, human," you say.
"Yes, that is why now a-days we are wary of bestowing our gift ever again upon humans," Ealeve responds.

Following your conversation with Ealeve she decided to teach you the ways of magic. You didn't notice it before, but as an elf you can sense the magical aura of yourself and your surroundings. She taught you how to manipulate the aura surrounding natural objects such as plants to give yourself more energy for the hunt or to heal yourself from injuries. She sends you to a more magically acute area of the dryads land, but before you are to enter it she warns you, "If you see a black tree, avoid it, we managed to trap a satyr there for future study."

You enter the dryads' most powerful area of the forest and sense the natural power emanating from these incredibly ancient trees. You are basking in it and practice summoning a plant or two from the ground, before by accident you stumble across a giant, dead tree. You remember her warning, but decide to take a look regardless. The tree itself must've been amongst the oldest in the forest so to circle around it's dead husk takes you almost ten minutes. As you make it to the other side, you gasp as you notice an-almost human face looking at you. His eyes are red and his hair black, mangled and long. His body must be at least six feet, but it is stuck and trapped into the tree itself. You notice his wicked long horns and the half-goat part of his body including his wicked hooves attached to their end. The eyes just look at you as you say, "So, this is a satyr."
"Yes," it, he responds in a croaked voice as a result of lack of use for hundreds of years.
You jump at the sounds of his voice and he smiles as he notices his apprehension, "Don't worry young-elf woman. I'm not getting out of here," he says.
"I was warned about you," you respond.
"Warned, huh, leave it to the dryads to continue in their fear of that which they don't understand," he says.
"What's to understand? You are a satyr and wherever you go you bring corruption and ****," you respond to him as you regain your courage.
"That's what they would have you believe," he says.
"What do you mean?" You ask out of curiosity.
"What they call corruption and ****, I call change. All things must end and transform into something new, just as your life as a human ended and you were transformed into your far better elf state," he responds.
"How do you know about that?"
"I can sense it from your emotions and some of your thoughts that I feel still lingering in your mind; you are unsure of yourself still, not so surprising as you are living among the suspicious dryads," he answers.
"You can sense emotions and thoughts?"
"As I feel emotion and I am able to also sense it in others and from emotion infer what you are thinking," he says. "Have the dryads not taught you how to do this?" He asks.
"No," you respond.
"Well, that is because they cannot as their only emotions are fear and suspicion. Tell me, in their hunts did you even notice any joy as they killed an animal they so fear?"
You try to recall any sign of emotion in the dryad and you honestly answer, "No."
"That is because they do not indulge or understand it. They do not feel or even live, and most assuredly they do not appreciate beauty that one such as yourself has. The dryads are holding back your natural power and they will continue to find some reason to keep you with them.," he says.
"I do not believe you."
"You will soon enough, but enough of the dryads. What is your name?"
"Malevia," you respond.
"A pleasure, my name is, was, Lavius and I was once the leader of the satyrs in these woods. I will offer you something far greater than the dryads can. I offer you my knowledge and teachings freely. They will make you far stronger than the dryads can," he says.
"At what cost?" You ask.
"None, if you take my offer now. If you come back again, once you realize the dryads' plans to keep you here forever, then there will be a cost."
"What type of cost?"
"You will find out if you refuse me now," he says. "Look at it this way, learning a bit from me on the side while you are still learning from the dryads will cost you nothing, and they will not suspect as they cannot sense emotions."
You'd be lying to yourself if you were not tempted, and this cost he talks about sounds not very enjoyable should you come back later.