"Legend of the Four" by Ana Maria Salinas Norbakk

Many centuries ago, when human race was young and dwarven and elven race was already old there was a poet and bard that traveled many lands and countries.

He was vain and selfish, not believing that anyone was worthy enough for his love and his songs, and one day he decided to let silence fall upon him until he found someone that he considered worthy of loving him.

Many a year did he wander alone, people still respecting him for the songs he used to sing, but as time wore away their memory they started to forget the many songs that had delighted them and his name was relegated to oblivion.

The bard saw this and slowly he also forgot who he was, staying in silence for many, many years, more like a walking ghost than anything else. People stopped mentioning him and when he passed by they hardly noticed him anymore.

So time did pass and the bard grew older and sand deeper into the nothingness that his life had become, a life of silence.

Then one day as he was sitting on a rock trying to remember who he was, he saw a revelation, an angel maybe. It was a maiden, fair as the fairest of lilies that blossom in the spring dancing over the moor and laughing joyfully.

The bard slowly lifted his head and followed the maid in her dance, his eyes rested on her and he was puzzled, she was small enough to be a dwarf, that was certain, yet the long ears and the lithe figure was that of an elf, the shining beauty coming from her finely sculptured features was that of the most noble of elven race.

Slowly he stood up and called out, his voice slow and cracked after the many years of disuse. "Oh tell me beautiful fairy...what is your name?" He asked in common, as that was the first language to come to his mind.

The maiden stopped dancing and turned to look at him, her hair was like a golden waterfall and her eyes were shimmering blue like the summer sky. A soft smile parted her lips as she called back, speaking in the language of human "Erelen".

That was all, the magical moment was broken as the silence was shattered by the thunders of an approaching storm. Quick as silver Erelen disappeared between the trees leaving the bard behind, tasting her sweet name a thousand times as he looked up at the stormy skies, not realizing she was gone.

Imagine his despair when he saw that the little fae was no longer there, and even more he despaired when he felt inside his chest the quivering feeling of wings beating, of love finally awaking. For now that he had forgotten his fame and his vanity his eyes were finally open to the beauty of the world without thinking for a second about what it was worth.

"Maybe she wasn't a human" he mused and he decided to ask the dwarves in their mines if they had seen his darling love.

The mines in all the mountains were visited by the bard, and the same answer was repeated in all of them, there was no such maid in any of the dwarven cities.

Now the bard decided to seek out his love among the light people, the elves. He wandered all the paths and all the forests and asked as light elf as well as drow about his darling love, but the people of the forest did not know, and the people of the plains had no answer to give him.

With his heart heavy he decided to go to the deepest of forests and ask the high elves. The journey was long and perilous, yet he found the hidden castle of the high elves, the people of the sun, the moon and the stars.

Yet no answer could he find among the brightest of creatures and he left the castle with a broken heart.

Returning to the human village where he first saw her he mourned her loss as if she had died.

The bard started to waste away, not wanting to eat nor sleep, just staying alone on the moor where he had first seen her, waiting in vain for the day she would once more appear.

A day became a week, a week became a month and he was still waiting. Until one day, sick and weak, he decided to search for her again, but this time he would leave a trail behind in case she was also looking for him.

Once more he sought the human cities and once more he did not find trace of her, but he left behind a parchment written in human language for her to find.

Then the tired steps of the bard lead him to the dwarven mines and cities once more, where he sought every passage, every house, before he carved something on the entrance wall of the biggest city, in dwarven language.

More dead than alive he sought out the elven cities in the forests and the plains, desperately asking for her, yet having no answer. Behind he left a banner in blood red silk, words in elven woven into the fabric with silver.

As a living ghost he wandered toward the deep forest to seek out the high elves one more time, hoping for an answer, yet halfway there his strength failed him an he fell to the ground, knowing this was his last moments he grabbed a rock and carved one last message into a tree that stood tall in front of him, the green sap glowing like emeralds in the trunk. As soon as he finished this his spirit left his body and he died.

He was found by the high elven scouts the next day, a smile of bliss on his lips as if in his final moment he had found what he had been seeking for, finding in death the peace that he lacked in life.