Christian looked at the elves and walked up to the one who looked the oldest.
"What's your name?" he asked the oldest elf, one of the two males. "Who is the leader of the group as well? Also, please eat as much food as you want. We have enough food from our crops to go around here. No pressure to leave right away either. We know it's dangerous out there in the Forest of Hellfire."
"The name is Durlan," the older, rough and muscular-looking male elf replied back to Christian in between bites of food. "I am the appointed leader of this group, though it is not an official thing. They just elected me and looked up to me for direction since I'm the oldest. Thank you so much for saving us from those demons."
"Of course," Christian replied back with a smile. "We would never let anybody in need go without help. Would you mind explaining how you ended up getting chased by those demons and your story regarding your background and the group?"
All the elves paused their eating as they listened to him ask the question. Durlan looked back and forth between all the other elves in the group, and they nodded to him. Durlan looked at Christian while setting down his wooden plate that was full of food.
"Well," Durlan began to say as he stretched his back. "It all began really several years ago. Elves primarily live in the Republic of Elvandor, which sits south of the Demon Lord Empire. As you can guess, Elvandor is a republic based on democracy."
Christian and the others nodded in response.
"The Demon Lord hates democracy and loves monarchy. He does not understand why the people should help determine the future of their countries. Anyways, the reason I am saying this is because the Demon Lord Empire decided to launch a frontal assault on the elf villages on the outskirts of Elvandor's borders."
Castiel chimed in, "I do not mean to interrupt, but I want to inform everybody that the real reason the Demon Lord decided to attack Elvandor was not to conquer the nation, but to force them into an unequal business contract where the Empire would stop the attacks in exchange for Elvandor's finest agriculture specialists. The elves are known to have the best earth and nature magic on all the continents, and the Empire does not have any good people who know agriculture the way they do."
"No, it is okay," Durlan said. "I did not even know that information about why they attacked. I just can tell you about what I and the others experienced. Would you all like to know more about that and how it led to what we can do today?"
"Please tell us," Christian said as he sat down across from Durlan on the other log across the campfire. He offered Durlan another cup of water from the well. The leader of the elf group thanked him as he accepted the cup and took a long sip before answering.
"I think it is best to let Haldir, the strongest of us, explain our value of what we can do today and our mission," Durlan said to everybody as he gestured to the younger male elf who had quite a presence to him. Everybody turned their attention to the strongest elf of the group.
Haldir looked at everybody around the campsite. All eyes were on him. He surveyed the group and gently pulled in the female elf next to him close with his arm around her. From the way it looked, and the rings on their fingers, it seemed like they were married.
"This is my wife Elara," Haldir began to speak. "I almost lost her when the demons attacked our homeland. If we want to be specific, when they started to attack the village we lived in our entire lives. All the memories we built there were crushed all in a matter of minutes. Since our villages were remote, reinforcements came in too late to arrive to save the majority of people in the villages."
The visible mood around the campfire became dimmer. The faces of the other elves were solemn. Christian and the others felt compassion for them. It was hard losing the place and people you know as home vanish before your eyes in flames.
Haldir continued speaking. "We all scattered during the attacks. We all were looking just to survive. We ran away from Elvandor because if we tried to run toward the inner cities, the demons would have flanked us. We were smart enough to know they had traps, so we did the one thing they wouldn't expect. We traveled directly into the Demon Lord's territory."
Seraphina chimed in, "That was quite brave of you all. That's an extremely dangerous decision."
The strongest elf of the group nodded in agreement. "Exactly. They wouldn't have even dreamed we would make the decision to walk face first into their territory. That is why we did it. We laid low and traveled around in places that would agree to hide us in exchange for our hunting services or agricultural abilities that are unique to us. We became jacks of all trades while we were at it. That is why we know how to construct things, cook, clean well, navigate, you name it. We may not be masters at each, but we can do each fairly well."
Haldir took a sip of water with his free hand and gestured toward his wife.
Elara looked at Christian and the others around the campfire with a smile. "I agree with my husband. We can truly do anything. All of us had to survive out there on our own as a group. We found each other in the Demon Lord Empire as we all had the same idea of escaping into the enemy's country. Once we found each other, we formed our own pack and then survived for years as the war on the borders of the country continued on and off for a long while."
Christian nodded. "I see, I understand. Do you know at all about the Demon Lord Empire's civil war with the dragons many years ago?"
"Yeah, we do," she responded back to him. "The Demon Lord decided to attack the border of Elvandor at the same time they tried to get the dragons and their keepers to submit to them. He thought he could be successful in conquering more of the continent for himself, but he was wrong in his judgment. He got too greedy. We have been nomadic for a while now, but we want to settle down."
Christian sensed what they were implying. "Settle down? Like here?"
All the elves turned toward Durlan. The wise, older but muscular elf stood up.
He started walking toward him.
Christian had a feeling of what was coming.
Should we let them live with us? He thought to himself.
His peaceful life was about to become a little more complicated.