Lord Elve Kneebroken was standing on a tall platform, set upon the branches of an ancient forest. It allowed him to see far.
A long distance away, smoke was coming out of human lands and battlefields. The birds whispered of screams and the wind, of war. But what was unusual, is that it was happening too quickly, like an unstoppable wave of destruction.
Two days he stood on the platform, observing and thinking.
This was not like the slow and steady encroachment of the Seven Hilleans, it was too large scale for bandit raids, it was unlike any other known force.
Already he was receiving reports of officers being assassinated, of scouts missing, and border guards dead. They were being attacked, and judging by the speed of the advance, this was no normal attack.
The signs were clear. A large wave was on the horizon, a “Tsunami”, as some of the foreigners called it. A disaster, even if one not of natural origin.
And once he understood the type of threat he was facing, the decision was obvious. It is useless to fight a tsunami, you escape and endure it, for everything that comes quickly will also fade away quickly.
He ordered for an emergency evacuation, for the elves to hide in their ancestral forests, to hide and wait until this was over. Some protested, afraid to leave their homes, grown too complacent to city life… and were left behind.
When the Tenebrans arrived, they found basically no resistance, only a couple of stragglers of no importance. They easily got past the unmanned walls, and entered the empty homes.
They declared it a decisive victory, having no losses on their end (except from a couple of unlucky warriors who tripped and twisted their ankles), and all strategic objectives successfully accomplished except one: to kill the elven leaders.
They scouted and searched in the forests, but were unable to find anyone. The army was needed somewhere else, and so they left a token occupational force.
The elves knew they could defeat them, but waited still. If they attacked now, a bigger army would have been sent immediately.
The plan was simple. They would wait until the whole threat was over – until the Tenebran leader was dead, and the newly created nation fragmented, or strike at the right moment and accomplish this.
It was inevitable, for this was the destiny of any such hastily created kingdom. A quick rise begets a quick fall.
Afterall, what were a few decades for a long-lived elf? Heck, for most elves, this wasn’t even the first time this had happened…