A child elf with golden locks sits outside the gates of a palace of magnificient beauty, in the private gardens located at the border of a forest. She bites and chews her nails, even though she knows her mother will scold her all evening just as she would if the child had broken one of the many pendants or rings she wears. That is how serious biting nails is.

She can't keep her eye of the horizon. She scrutinizes every detail she can see, and hopes to spot but a sign of movement, a change in colour, a dot different from another. She sits, chews, and waits.

As the sun melts into the trees, a shadow appears, a black shape blocking out the sunlight. It grows and the child smiles. The shape gets so close the sun is naught but some rays shining other the shapes shoulders. The child looks up and recognises the sweet fatherly smile that draws on the elf's face.

"I'm back, my little gem"

The girl springs with infantine energy, and hugs the man by his waist. She can feel the cold touch of elven silvermail on her cheeks, and can smell the sweat and battle smoke which has settled itself in the elf's cape. He holds her by the hand and together and they enter the palace.

Around the palace, people whisper of the return of one of the highest ranking nobles from a twenty year-long war, victorious.

Those twenty years, even for an elf, had been long. Everyday, she had sat outside, in the gardens, waiting for her father. Everyday, at nightfall, she came back inside, and her mother, who had taken up most of the roles her husband had left behind for the war, told her that there was no point in waiting the next day.

However, one morning, her mother, with an excited smile, told young teredrift that the wait was over. The girl's eyes slowly watered with happiness...

Almost every thought the little one had had been directed to her father, a figure for which she felt deep affection and awe. Her mother, for twenty years, read out the letters her husband sent home, informing them of the defeats and victories the sun elf army had experienced, telling them who and of which family had particularly distinguished himself in battle, and who fell gloriously. Young Teredrift's eyes sparkled as she listened to these tales of mighty adventure, and all day she would daydream about her father, in shining silvermail, swirling, giving blow after blow, slaying foe after foe, with dance like orchestration and beauty. She imagined him confronted with the worst foes, the most impressive armies, the most powerful and most ingenious commanders, and always, she imagined that one day, triumphant he would return.

That day did come.

On that day of almost total joy, did her fate take a drastic turn, even though it would be a long time before she realised it...

For a long while, when her father was still leading the elven army, he had been writing about a young and remarkable sun elf, barely in adulthood, son to another wealthy and influential noble. That young elf had, on numerous occasions, displayed both valour and skill, and the father was taking more and more a strange interest in the young man. For a long time, Teredrift admired this person as another hero, a loyal companion to her father.

In one particular letter, the father related how some seemingly invincible enemy had knocked the lord off his horse and routed the horsemen serving directly under him. As the opponent approached the lord to give him a final and fatal blow, the young elf sprang from seemingly nowhere, slew the beast and rallied the troupe. The father henceforth felt obliged to reward in a personal way the young elf. He did not, however disclose the nature of the reward until he returned.

As soon as the father was settled in his own house, he told his wife, and his daughter, that he had promised teredrift's hand in marriage with the young man. He assured her that he was both attractive and kind, and would they would be perfect one for another, and for both families. It had long been a tradition within certain important sun elf families to marry a daughter or a son to another's offspring, in order to maintain solidity within the military and political structures of the lands. What was even more extraordinary with this situation was that the father's family would gain nothing out of the link, it was thus a selfless act to find her daughter the best husband possible.

Teredrift had no reason to object either, as she deeply admired and felt grateful for a man who had saved her dearest being on earth. The prospect of marriage both pleased her and him, and for a while, nothing seemed able to disrupt their destiny of joy.

That same day, her father noticed that Teredrift had conserved every letter relating his battles and adventures under her bed. For a long time, he had never considered Teredrift's taste for literature and stories more than a childish mean of occupying time. But now, he understood that the feather would be Teredrift's destiny.

Like any wise and kind father, he thought it best to encourage and nurture Teredrift's passion, and that same afternoon, from the massive palace library, he pulled out a book with a gold plaited cover, ornated with engravings and family heraldry, but with not a word written inside it.

As the sun set, he summoned young Teredrift to the highest tower, and said :

"My little gem, I was keeping this book in order to relate my later days, but I think that you will make a better use of it. From this day onwards, this is your journal"

He then handed the book to Teredrift. Being far too small and weak to hold the massive weight of the tome however, it fell on her foot and broke one of her toes.

From that day on, she wrote the events of the day, the things she saw, and interspaced there are a few attempts at poetry, here and there.

One particular entry says

1273 DR

Something happened to me...I met someone.

the next entry says this

1275 DR

I hate my father, he whom I loved so much. His stern gaze, his cold heart...I can't bear it. I have cried everyday for the last two years. I bear within me my impending doom.

My father has been cruel ever since he found out. Not a warm word or a smile. Only painful stares. He looks at me as if I am some monster...

maybe I am..

the following entry continues

I am a monster...I have bore a monster and now it is out. My marriage is wrecked, I am to be exiled. The child ! Ah abhorrèd sight...I cannot bear to look at it...it is truely a monster! My father can't hide the truth to everyone anymore...I am damned and doomed !

the following entry continues

The child has been taken away from me. My father has declared to the family and the rest of the world that the child and I died at that horrid moment. I have been taken away from my house, I have lost everything but my first name. I am forbidden from saying the name of my family. I was pushed into a dark dark cave.

Deep down, I know now that I still love him. I must find him again...find him...again

A fair number of entries repeat the same things, albeit in a more anguished and guilt ridden manner, a lot of them describe her ventures in the Underdark. After a long number, one stands out

1373 DR

It is now one hundred years since I was 114, the time has come. I must bring him back. I know now what he was.

In the last few pages of her journal, one entry says

I have killed my friend. Kaddaz is also guilty. I never believed that Kyle, one of my closest friends, would turn out like that. It truly shocked me...and deep down I heard Gargashaära, my love's voice, calling for blood. I couldn't let Kyle live after what he had done to me, but I am torn by my feelings for him. I don't know what to do...

A later entry says

I've made my mind up. I'm getting out. I'm going to find the one who started my misery, and end it there. I must find him.