In this way I kept following the elves for at least an hour.

I was able to note bits of their ill tempered conversation. Apparently they had been ordered by the elf king to carry a live siren all the way to the settlement where the players and elves lived.

The elf king wanted to ceremonially sacrifice the siren and use her heart in some ritual. The aim behind this was to flip the bad luck plaguing the elves and the players lately.

The four elves had been able to catch the siren, but at a cost. They had lost a friend, the fifth member of the group. They had found two sirens together, and even though they had been able to catch one of them by surprising her from behind, the other siren had already enthralled their friend and whisked him away.

I remembered the siren on the island eating an elf, and reckoned this was the backstory.

“Curse it!”

The leading elf stumbled on a root, hollered expletives as he wrestled with his balance, and fell.

His three companions as well as the female in the sac toppled down.

A hand with sharp long nails tore through the sac. It reached the sword of one of the elves, and used the newfound weapon to make the tear bigger. I was able to glimpse a female face of striking beauty.

“No!” the dismal cry of an elf followed.

Even from a distance I could feel a certain attraction towards the siren. She had cast her charm on three of the elves.

I had to remove my gaze from her with a lot of effort.

The fourth elf, also the leading one, had fallen face first, so that he was looking away from the siren and was unaffected by her dark powers.

He must have realized that the siren had bewitched his friends. He gathered himself and darted from the spot, abandoning his friends to their fate, since any attempt to save them was futile. The siren asked the three elves to free her and they robotically obeyed.

My attraction towards the siren converted into a disgusted horror, as she slit the necks of the three elves one by one. She stopped her charm, so that I could see her true form now. She opened her mouth wide, a blackhole from which there was no return. The feasting commenced.

The survivor elf was hiding behind a tree and watching his friends being consumed. He was to blame for it all. If only he had been careful with his step, the others would not have met such pitiful ends.

He wiped his sweaty face and sidled away. I followed. One elf was enough to lead me to the player settlement. I had to pass considerably close to the siren so as not to lose track of him. She looked sharply at me, her mouth stuffed with elf. But she didn’t bother charming me. She already had enough to eat, or perhaps my changing affinities confused her.

I reckoned that the only reason that I had been able to run from the physician earlier was because of my changing affinities. There was no way to escape the magic of a siren if you were close to her, unless like the survivor you were facing away.

The elf kept staggering forwards all night. He was exhausted, tripping too many times to count. Fear was his only fuel. He didn’t rest once. He was scared the siren would catch up to him if he slept.

Eventually the first rays of the morning sun shot down through the canopy of the forest. Still the legs of the elf kept taking one step after another. I had to maintain more care now, lest he saw me. But thankfully the elf was tired enough that he was oblivious to my presence.

Towards late morning, things took a different turn altogether.

I heard some shouts, and apparently the elf heard these too. He whirled around to see where the sounds were coming from. He froze, his eyes going wide. I noticed a vibration in the ground. The elf sprinted.

“I can’t understand why I am stuck with you! What sins have I committed to deserve a life like this?” a loud female voice was complaining.

“Like I want to be stuck with you!” a male voice snapped.

A gray mass, that could have only been the body of a stone giant, towered above the short trees.

Bono and Bui.

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Bui was royally pissed at the head that was Bono attached to her arm. “I am tired of your non-stop blah blah!”

“And I'm tired of being swung about by you all the time!”

“Argghh!” Bui yelled.

Bui grabbed hold of a tree top and with a swift moment of her hand she removed half the leaves on the tree— and stuffed it all inside Bono’s mouth.

Find your better half, they say. Nothing greater than love, they say.

As Bono was coughing out the leaves, the sky darkened as a great net appeared in the air above Bui. It was sparking with electricity and as it fell on her, she cried out and crashed to the ground, snapping dozens of trees like matchsticks in the process.

“Quick! Quick!” voices called out.

I could see shapes moving between the trees. Humans— Players!

As Bui moaned and writhed in pain, the players fastened the ends of the net to the ground with hooks. The players were all wearing thick gloves which protected them from the current in the net.

I glimpsed a familiar face in the group of players.

Sam, my brother.

He too had gloves in his hands, and it was beyond a doubt that he was in the party capturing Bui. All the same he was standing away from the rest with a reluctant expression.

The next moment, things went south for the party of players.

Bono locked his mouth on one of the hooks and pulled it out from the soil and spat it away, freeing one part of the net.

Bui, weak as she was, acted quickly and slipped out of the net and collapsed on the ground next to it.

The players rushed to remove the other hooks so they could throw the net again on Bui, before she regained her strength.