The Guardian Elves of Notalla

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished. Maeron studied it, crouching down and directing his sight along the unnatural flow. From this angle, the waterfall appeared to melt into the sky. It was surreal, unnerving, and beautiful at once.

Maeron dipped his fingers into the water and shut his eyes so that he could listen to what the reverse current had to say. Whispers and broken words were all that he had received. "...soon...help..."

As the Guardian Elf to Tomaly village, the panicked humans would ask for an explanation. Unfortunately, the other Guardian Elves of Notalla were not as attuned to Nature as their ancestors had been. Somehow, Maeron--the youngest of five--had developed the ability to listen to what the elements wanted to communicate. His three brothers and one sister preferred to engage in human activities, some of them leaving Notalla to live in human cities. Because they had all surrendered their mother's role as Guardian, it had fallen onto Maeron's shoulders by default.

Still feeling the water's flow, he attempted to listen for anything else that the river might want to say.

Nothing.

Aside from the words 'soon' and 'help,' everything else was...backwards. He would have to find a way to decode it all if he wanted to get any sign of where the Queen might have gone.

Maeron stood from his position, stretching his lanky form and swiping aside his long crystal-white ponytail. He had to return to the Tomaly village with at least some news. Some of the fish died from swimming against the reversed current, birds were disturbed, and the forest wildlife became unnerved at the unnatural sight of water floating toward the cloudless firmament up above.

Chaos would reign soon if nothing was done about this.

As Maeron took a step away from the river, something gripped his ankle, nearly causing him to tumble. He glanced back, seeing the aura of a watery hand.

"Water Elf..." an echoing female voice rang. "...you can hear me, can you not?"

Maeron released a small breath. "Yes."

"My sisters have tried to communicate with your brethren...but they could not hear. The Air Elf, the Mountain Elf, the Desert Elf...all could not hear. Yet somehow...you can."

Maeron had never questioned how he could hear what Nature had to say. He merely accepted it, and he had to admit that he was disappointed when his oldest brother chose to ignore it all and move to the city. Being the oldest, his brother had the gift to hear Nature the loudest. He had actually been the only one of the siblings with the ability to communicate with the elements...until Maeron turned six, and he heard the river speak to him. No one would have ever expected such a gift to skip over his other three siblings and land on him. In fact, none of them believed that he even possessed such a gift.

"What...what is it that you wish to tell me?" Maeron asked.

The land of Notalla was divided into separate regions. There was the sky village, the mountain village, the desert village, and the forest village. By default, Maeron was guardian of the latter after his mother had passed and his siblings had left. The other guardians were the Winged Elf, Aíre; the Seismic Elf, Terra; and the Smoke Elf, Gaisras--all three the Air, Mountain, and Desert Elves respectively. Their lineage had once been powerful, but somehow they had distanced themselves from their elements over time.

"The Nightmare Lord has taken our Queen," the river's waters said. "Without the world's defenses, she had no methods of protecting herself."

"Nightmare Lord?" Maeron asked. That...that had just been a myth. Just a bogeyman, right?

"Yes. Lord of All Chaos. Destroyer of Worlds. Taking our Queen was only a first step in his plan. He probably did not expect for there to be one elf who could still communicate with us..."

"Probably because he expected the Water Elf Guardian to be my brother..." Maeron says mostly to himself.

"Yes. And had it been your brother, the Queen would be dead...and her world...dying. Because you are the Guardian, she is merely asleep, only to awaken if you can manage to unite the Air, Mountain, and Desert Elves and get them to listen to their respective elements."

"How...how am I supposed to do that? I'm not that experienced. They're so much older than me, and they won't..." Maeron sighed softly. "They're not going to listen to me."

"As the river, I can help you to get them to listen. But remember that my time is running out. My course has gone backwards, and soon...I will grow silent..."

Maeron's sky blue gaze moved over that reverse-flowing river before he slowly crouched down again. Though he doubted that he could convince the centuries-old other guardians, he cared about his home of Notalla and its people: all the humans he had come to protect since his siblings left.

It was why he dipped his fingers into the flowing waters again and spoke to the river spirit who claimed that it would help him. "Tell me where I need to start."