Chapter 105 Leaf
Third Person Point of View
Leaf was lucky to be born. She wasn’t a full-blooded dark elf, her skin wasn’t the midnight black they were known for, but more of a chocolaty color because her father was an elf… Which shouldn’t have been possible. Full-blooded dark elves were matriarchal in nature; they viewed men as lesser, even the male dark elves were treated as lesser and only good for making pure-blooded female dark elves.
It was a fluke; her mother fell in love with a normal elf, which should have been almost impossible, and they somehow had her in a single night a passion. Both the elf and dark elf races were known for their difficulty conceiving children. Many elves spend years actively trying to conceive before they finally do, and they did so on a whim the first and last time they had sex.
Their love wasn’t meant to be. The reason her mother had any chance to develop feelings for her father was that she was on the run from the dark elf inquisition. Her lover saved her life many times, and that was why she slept with him. He didn’t even know she was pregnant when he sacrificed his life to buy her time to escape, killing many strong dark elves in the process to slow their chase.
She made it to the elf fortress in the forest, and only because of a handwritten note by the male elf, who just so happened to be the elf queen's brother, was she allowed in. Her being heavily pregnant at the time might have swayed the decision as well. As quickly as she came, she was forced to flee to draw away the dark elf's attention from the village, only leaving behind her daughter to be raised by her aunt from then on.
Leaf’s childhood wasn’t that bad. She was different from all the other elves, which alienated her, but she was safe; that was more than some children born into slavery could ask for. She wasn’t bullied; anyone foolish enough to do so was quickly dealt with by the elite guards protecting her. The only person who truly loved her was the queen.
There was always that distance, because she was different; no one got close to her. Only after she left the forest fortress and made her own way in the world did she start getting unwanted advances from men. Thankfully, she had the schadenfreude tendencies that dark elves were known for. Any male who tried to take advantage of her was quickly humiliated; those who were persistent were dealt with permanently.
Elves were good at protecting their own; their life expectancy was much, much higher than other races because of how they behaved when they were young. Whatever class they received, the entire village would help them reach the uncommon rank as quickly as they could because the stats becoming an uncommon class provided would double their lifespan at the bare minimum.
She was already above most other adventurers by the time she started; that was why she could fight back instead of what happened to most female adventurers who were by themselves. Still, slowly, over the next ten or so years, she delved into dungeons like her life depended on it. Grinding to the rare quality before she finally realized how unfulfilled she was with fighting.
Almost all of her life, she loved one thing more than anything else. Reading books, she got that trait from her father. After becoming strong enough to protect herself and her loved ones, she gave up on getting stronger. It would be decades to go from rare to epic, and she didn’t want to risk her life any longer now that she viewed fighting as a hassle.
Decades later, she met Berry, who clung to her as one of the other elves outside of the elven forest fortress. Berry viewed her as an older sister, and the barrier Leaf put up slowly started to chip away. Only after Cherry was born, and she was made her godmother, did her aloof attitude finally break. She could smile and get along with someone… As long as they were a mostly quiet child.
More years passed, and the baby grew older. She liked books as well, but not nearly as much as her ‘aunty’ did. Aunt Leaf taught her the best she could, but it was clear that Cherry was not meant for fighting; she was far too charismatic to go splunking into dungeons. Leaf was proven right as Cherry gained a food-preservation class.
She could have lived her entire life that way, slowly and leisurely reading books while playing secondary guard to the village in case Marcus wasn’t around. In all her time in the village, she had never needed to step in, only the few times when women were abducted by goblins did she rush into the dungeon to kill them. That was when the man showed up.
A silly little farmer with no right to be successful on the border of the village moved in. And she couldn’t understand why he was so successful until she tried some of his crops. Reading was one of her favorite things to do, but now she could read while eating carrot sticks or celery. Eating was always a hassle for her, and only after she found food delicious enough to meet her standards did she start to enjoy eating.
Slowly, she grew to like the boy more and more, the hard-working boy who came and asked for books; that was something almost no other villagers did. It gave her more books to read that she didn’t have to apply to have shipped temporarily as well. Permanent books were always good to add to the library, and even though it was on subjects she didn’t really care for, she read and re-read them just because that was how she was.
That was when it happened. Her slow and leisurely life ended abruptly when the bandits invaded. Only then did she regret not grinding a few dozen more levels than she had; it might have shifted the fight even further in their favor if she did, but she would have lost. No, the entire village might have burned to the ground if it weren’t for the farmer.
She couldn’t believe it. Everything that happened, they were sitting ducks in that house just waiting for a miracle, and then the farmer created a miracle. He fucked her back to health, healing the broken bone and strengthening her in the process. A doomed fight suddenly shifted to their favor; the virginity she had protected for over a century was taken, and in its place was a hope, hope for the future, and living to see another day.
It was still tentative; at any point, they could have lost, but it shifted in their favor, no doubt because of the abnormally high luck and abnormally strong combatants the farmer had created through his wives, and Leaf wanted a piece of that as well. She tried to keep it casual, tried not to fall in love, but with the farmboy, the handsome, big dicked farmboy, it was impossible, as every time he thrust into her, she fell deeper and deeper in love with him.
Now she had his child, the feeling of joy was so great it made her sick with fear. She had gone so long just living that she didn’t know what to do when she was that happy for that long. All she knew was she had to keep getting stronger; she needed the strength to protect her family, even if another dragon showed up.