Excerpt:

His feet pounded as he ran through the forest trying to get home as fast as
possible. It had taken longer than an hour to find the herbs which would reduce
his mother's pain and every lost minute meant longer in the pain of childbirth.
Formen knew his mother would be in more pain than normal for the elves, he was a
large baby and delievering him without any help damaged her. The village healer
did say she should be fine delieving this baby, but the uncertainty made him
want to be at his mother's side.

This morning when Aelor went into labor the family had been unprepared in the
grove of trees they called their home. The baby was not expected for another
month, so the herbs which would make this hard labor bearable had not been
collected. Formen was sent off to find these as his father took care of his
wife. That had been an hour and a half ago, and only now was he beginning to get
near the area this village of elves lived in. It would be at least another 15
minutes before he could get home.

After dodging through the trees another 5 minutes Formen came upon one of the
younger members of the village attempting to hide.

"Hey, you up in that tree, want to help me out?" Formen yelled up the tree
hoping to get someone who had not been running the past almost two hours to run
ahead and alert his family to put water on the fire.

"Aww, you weren't supposed to see me. I heard footsteps and wanted to surprise
whoever it was."

"You aren't doing poorly at hiding. If I hadn't ran directly by this tree I may
not have seen you. But you could get better, " he said trying to think of a fair
trade. "I may be able to help you get better, I am older and have had more
practice. And you remind me of me when I was younger. I don't get to have a
sibling to play with who is old enough yet."

"Would you?!"

"I could. Would you help me with something first though? You seem a fast little
elf, could you run to my family family and tell them to put the water on and
that I'll be there soon? My mother is having a baby now and this is stuff to
help her."

The young elf seemed pleased to be asked and jumped at the oppertunity to help
and get training in return. "You live in the grove of the large oaks?"

"Yeah, how did you know that?"

"I may be more sneaky than you thought," he called back as he ran off.

"Great, now I have a stalker, at least he's nice. He seems fun too. And he'll
get the message ahead." Formen said to himself as he set off again, at a slower pace
now, towards his family's home.