As he contemplated his next move, the unfortunate insect gripped tightly against his fingers, a figure moved through the shadows, and a graceful feminine figure quickly emerged from within the darkness, bathed in the ardent glow of the pale blue light.
It was a woman with a tall, slender, and elegant physique, her skin a bit dark, like the night sky, with piercing silver eyes.
What caught his attention the most, though, was her sharply pointed ears and her clothing, which, though slightly revealing, was dark and intricate.
He gazed in awe as her voice, lacking in emotion, echoed in the silent darkness.
"Who are you? And what happened to you?"
Despite hearing her question clearly, he refused to speak, but only because he was too stunned to do so. What he was seeing made absolutely no sense to him.
"A… A dark elf?"
He instantly covered his mouth with his hand, unintentionally throwing in the bug he had been holding earlier. Quite unintentionally, he had voiced his thoughts, and all he got from the woman standing opposite him was a resentful glare.
She walked closer to him, her voice just as flat as it had been the first time.
"Who are you?"
He lingered for a while and then slowly lowered his hand from his lips, a look of confusion on his delicate face. He tried desperately to think of something to tell her.
"I'm… I'm… I think I might be lost."
His lips trembled as he spoke, both in glee and dread. He was an avid reader of books, after all, and though it filled him with nothing but pure ecstasy to see a dark elf in the flesh, he couldn't help but be dreadfully aware of the menacing lady standing before him.
She threw another resentful gaze at him and then turned around, walking back into the darkness from where she had just come. But after a few steps, she stopped and said a few words.
"Well, whatever means by which you found your way, I'd suggest you leave immediately."
His eyes widened at her words, and then he opened his mouth wide and tried to speak, but the bug he had consumed earlier choked him, causing him to cough violently.
He gripped his neck and continued to cough until his discomfort finally subsided, but before that could happen, the elf had already left, leaving him with nothing but a new set of questions.
There were so many things he wanted to ask her: why were they in the middle of a tunnel? How had she come down here? What was the strange blue light illuminating the area where he knelt?
And as he thought of these questions, new memories began flooding his mind. One of a small, peaceful town with ivory walls and marbled streets, a peaceful night, and atop a mountain, he sat with a woman sitting next to him.
She pulled him closer and pointed to the stars up in the sky. As she did so, she gently caressed his cheeks, then leaned in and whispered some words into his ear.
Words that didn't make sense to him. It wasn't that she was inaudible; he heard what she said loud and clear, but he couldn't make sense of what she meant; rather, a single word continued to ring in his mind.
"Shining star."
He frowned and then tried to get up from the ground.
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't. His legs and hands gave in, and his breathing was getting worse as well. This sensation was strange to him, even though he was in pain; all he could feel was drowsiness and extreme fatigue.
With a frown still on his face, he glanced at the visible parts of his body, first at his arms. There was a gaping hole in his shoulder, and his entire arm was smeared with crimson, the blood having dried up a while ago.
He looked further to the side in shock at the hole that was in his chest and further down to the side of his abdomen. He couldn't imagine the blood loss wounds of such scale would cause him and knew that he shouldn't have been able to move, but strangely, he could.
"What the hell is happening?"
He mumbled, trying to get up once again, but it was still to no avail. Then he heaved a sigh, got on all fours, and decided to crawl instead.
It had turned out to be a bad idea given the terrain he was moving on, but he didn't have a choice. He knew better than to not heed the warning of a strange, mystical creature he had met in the middle of a dark tunnel.
However, he had a problem.
"How the hell do I get out of here?"
He glanced around the place once again, still unable to see anything. So far, he hadn't seen anything that could pose a threat to him or could explain the existence of the elf he had just seen—though those were only the majority of his worries at the moment.
Painfully gritting his teeth, he began to crawl forward, heading further in the opposite direction of where he had started, away from the light. Occasionally he would wring his face and groan in pain as the hard edges of the rocks on the ground continued to graze his palms and knees.
After a while, though, he caught sight of another blue light burning in the distance. This one was brighter than the last and illuminated a wider area, allowing him to catch faint glimpses of the surrounding walls.
He got closer to it and then sat down on the floor in a bid to catch his breath as he glanced around him at the glimpses of intricate engravings on the walls, at the red-brown rocks littered on the ground, and at the numerous insects crawling on the ground.
His mind wandered as he stared at the tiny creatures, and then a frown settled on his face as he remembered what the first one had tasted like. But it had done well to keep his hunger at bay, at the very least.
After resting for a while, he bent down and placed his palms on the ground once again. His wounded shoulder ached, but he endured it, determined to find his way out of the tunnel.
And just as he lifted his hand in a bid to continue moving forward, a familiar female voice resounded behind him, firm and void of any emotions.
"Stop."
He stopped abruptly, now able to hear faint footsteps coming from the distance, but they weren't that of a single person like he had heard the first time the dark elf appeared. He was hearing two distinct sets of footsteps.
Slowly, he turned around, finally able to see who it was with the elf lady, and as soon as he did, his eyes widened and his jaw almost dropped.
Walking toward him at a steady pace was another elf, but unlike the other one, she possessed smooth ivory skin, and her body was of supple fullness. Her hair was golden brown, her eyes curved and a faint crimson, and similar to every elf he knew, she had pointed ears.
To her right was the dark elf she had met earlier, and unlike the intricately designed dark outfit she wore, the elf standing next to her was wearing a plain green dress that reached slightly above her ankles.
They stopped and glanced at him for a moment before continuing forward.
However, along the way, the dark elf pointed to her and her partner and said a few words.
"I'm Luna, and this is Essie."
'Is that an introduction?'
He frowned at the thought of it, but it was only for a moment, as two delicate hands were suddenly placed on either side of his face, and a pleasant feeling instantly washed over him.
He felt the pain, fatigue, and drowsiness all disappear in a flash, and in the next moment, the holes and broken bones in his body healed. He was as good as new.
However, Essie didn't seem too pleased as she quickly backed away from him, clasping her fingers around the tip of her nose.
She gasped as soon as she was far away from him, and then her voice echoed with resounding displeasure.
"Heavens, he reeks!"