“The world constantly changes. You either change along with it, or get left behind.” - Saying attributed to Xain Haroone, First of his Name, Emperor of the Al-Shan Empire, circa 689 FP.

“Back when I was a young lass all we had for tools and weapons were things made of wood and stone,” reminisced Iqualea with a shake of her head. “What few metal tools we possess we mostly acquired from unfortunate caravans which met their ends to the beasts along the way, or things acquired from raids by the previous generation. It probably makes more sense when you put that into perspective on why something like what my late partner left me here is considered a veritable treasure.”

The middle-aged elven woman punctuated her words by lifting the greatsword in question. At nearly two meters long and made out of good steel considering its well-preserved condition after centuries of usage, the weapon was indeed quite something. Even if it was elsewhere, in places where metal was abundant and commonplace, it would still fetch a fine sum.

For the elves of Hrinsfjord who used to subsist off far worse, it was indeed a treasure in every sense of the word.

“Your people seem to have quite a few of them now, though?” noted Kino with some curiosity. “Metal tools and weapons, I mean.”

“We got those over the past couple centuries from trading with the human villages nearby, yes,” replied Iqualea with a nod. “It turns out that there are many things only found deeper in the forests and hills where the humans didn’t dare tread that are quite valuable to them or their trading partners in the west. We mostly collect those and have them trade it for us in exchange for various goods and tools that make life easier for us.”

“Aren’t you worried that they might devalue your goods since they’re the one in charge of the trading most of the time?” asked Rhys

“That probably happens with the less reliable representatives, or maybe the merchants in the west would haggle things down and give us less than your so-called ‘market price’, sure,” admitted Iqualea openly. “But consider it from our perspective. We have no use for the items we traded off, so for us, they have literally no value whatsoever. That we get useful things for them is already a win for us, no matter what. Besides, it’s not exactly hard to collect them. Those areas the humans fear are our ancestral hunting grounds to begin with.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“I guess it makes sense when you put it that way,” noted Rhys in acquiescence. “You’re basically profiting off something you consider useless trash. Clever.”

“Supposedly the humans like to decorate their homes with those skulls, or make baubles out of the antlers and horns we find too brittle to be of use, to each their own, I guess,” said Iqualea. “Our people profit quite a bit from the trade, so we have no real complaints.”

“What is the reason you have to deal with beast tides so often anyway?” asked Eilonwy. “I remember that they also had plenty of beasts in the forests of Elmaiya, but those rarely cause beast tides to the point that it threatens entire villages.”

“Ah, your question’s answer is mostly due to one thing, girl: Resources,” stated Iqualea in reply. “Elmaiya has lush jungles and far more fertile land compared to what we have here in Vinjaun. There are plenty for the beasts to live off, and even if their numbers swell, there is still plenty of room in the forest to accommodate them.”

“Our lands are much harsher, and the regions that the beasts could survive in are fewer, often fought over by different packs, to boot. Where Elmaiya has room and abundance enough to accommodate far more beasts than what currently roams their forests, our forests always teeter more on the breaking point. Every once in a while a pack will find itself having too many members to survive off its territory. What do you think would happen at that point?”

“They’d try to grab territory from other packs?” guessed Eilonwy.

“That is one of the possibilities, if they are strong enough. Otherwise they might drive off the weakest members of the pack. Either way, the results are the same. We got hungry and desperate predators that see our villages and people as their last recourse to survival. These are what we usually call the smaller beast tides.”

“Sometimes, though, some sort of natural disaster would trigger a beast migration on a far larger scale. It might be an avalanche, or perhaps a stream dried up for some reason. We never really checked too closely on the cause, other than the ones that happened to take place nearby. The effects are typically the same, though. A large horde of beasts would be driven out of their territories, hungry and desperate. Sometimes the horde would collapse on itself as they preyed on each other to survive, but more often, they would attack the villages nearby.”

“So those are the larger beast tides you mentioned previously, right?”

“That is so. I have lived through around a dozen such beast tides in my five or so centuries, so it was not like they are all that common, especially for shorter-lived humans, but they aren’t exactly uncommon either. Hrinsfjord is fortunate in that we happen to live close to a couple other villages that we have good relationships with. I have seen at least seven other villages fall to such tides. It doesn’t matter whether you’re human, elf, orc, goblin, or whatever. Here we can only survive if we work with each other.”

“How did you survive prior to cooperating with the human villages, though? If I remember right they’re pretty recent additions to this region,” asked Áine.

“Sure, the humans are new allies to us, but the goblins and orcs have lived in this region about as long as we elves have done. Early on there were indeed many conflicts between us, but after a while, especially after we have seen what happens to those who refuse to work with each other no matter what, we buried the hatchet and started to cooperate.”

“It was a bit messy at first, with all the bad blood between us and them, but after several generations passed, all those were forgotten, and we embraced each other as friends and allies nowadays.”