Life and Times of a Telvarin Ranger - Chp 1, On The Trail of a Grawl
She rose to her full height, her knees never having reached the ground, and stared forward. What were these Grawl thinking? They were getting too close to Ascalon. It would be a matter of time before they would all be destroyed. And it would take a fair percentage of their number to get past the Elementals that guarded Wizard's Folly, the Western approach to Ascalon.
No, it had to be something different. Grawl, while extremely blood-thirsty, rarely did anything without a purpose. Except Alora couldn't see the Grawl profiting in attacking Ascalon. There were simply too many guards to defend the fair city. Alora frowned. There was something going on here, something sinister and she didn't like it.
She started forward at a slow trot, thinking over what she had observed from the tracks. The Grawl were obviously well-equipped. That suggested that this wasn't a raiding party, but part of a well-organized offensive. At least four of the sets of tracks indicated by the footwear, tread, and general impression that they were a different kind of Grawl from a different region of Ascalon known as Ulodytes. Another twenty-one were ordinary Grawl. In addition to that, there were also fifteen ordinary Grawl that were accompanying the entire group.
And the Grawl weren't from around here, either. She'd caught up to them and observed them from a distance on several occasions. To the untrained eye, they looked exactly the same as any other Grawl. To her experienced eye, however, she could see that the bead patterns were different, and that the Grawl had different physical characteristics than those seen normally in Ascalon's immediate vicinity.
Alora brushed her brown hair away from her eyes, and adjusted her mask. She was a member of the Telvarin sect of Rangers. While there were several Telvarin Ranger Guilds, the Telvarin way of life was primarily just that--a way of life, rather than a group of people. The Telvarin Rangers were very strict, and Alora was no exception. One of the most prominent of these restrictions was never removing their mask in front of any living thing except for plants, and to only use a bow for offense or self-defense. That was another thing that differentiated Telvarin Rangers from other rangers. Their belief that all plants-flowers, grass, trees, brush-were all alive.
However, that did not mean that the Telvarin Rangers were afraid to draw upon the resources of plants for whatever they needed. Instead, it tempered their use of plants, and ensured that every possible use of plants would be utilized, instead of using just portions of plants, and leaving the rest to rot or be eaten by something else.
However, because of their notorious xenophobia, Telvarin Rangers were the subject of many strange tales and myths, and were generally given a wide berth if possible, and scorned outright if not. Even among the rest of the Rangers that roamed the human-controlled areas of Tyria.
Of course, that was truly a mistake, as few realized how extensive the Telvarin Ranger network really was. The Telvarin Rangers actually had men several hundred miles north of the Great North Wall, in the depths of Charr territory. Of course, not many reported to others about what they saw. That was the life of a Telvarin Ranger. They thought of themselves as those that would someday tip the balance of the cosmic scales. However, they knew that within their lifetime, it would not be possible. And they were content to wait, millennia if need be, to change the world to their own ends.
Of course, that was not to imply that they were malevolent. They simply realized that mankind, at its very core, was weak. Men were weak because of their greed. Where greed went, dissension soon followed. And where dissension dwelled, collapse was imminent. The Telvarin Rangers had quickly adopted a code to protect themselves from greed. They swore to leave every worldly possession behind, except what was absolutely necessary for survival When they had once been proud members of society, and had said these things, they had been shunned, and all but cast out of human society. So thy had left of their own accord, and had become literal and figurative hermits. Often a male and a female Telvarin Ranger would meet, marry, and have children, and thus carry on the Telvarin way of life.
As time went on, more and more of the Telvarins' children wanted to pursue other careers, and Telvarin Monks, Warriors, Elementalists, Mesmers, and Necromancers began to appear. As the numbers of the non-Ranger Telvarins grew, the rules of the Telvarin among that particular group changed. Masks became optional, and sometimes openly scorned. Bows fell into disuse. Some even began to marry non-Telvarins, a practice which most of the Telvarin were quick to condemn.
Then the first of the Guild Wars began, and the Telvarin scattered, as their number had been a prime target for those that wished to prove themselves worthy simply by the number of victories they had, as they were disliked by nearly all. The Telvarin became almost synonymous with elusive things, as the Telvarin, Ranger and non-Ranger alike, faded into the background, and could be found only in the hardest-to-reach areas.
Their priority on the average Guild Warrior's list dropped considerably, until only rarely did a Telvarin have to fight. The Guild Wars still raged, but the Telvarin were no longer hunted, and they were able to move more freely. So now they roamed the wilds, waiting until mankind came to their senses. Waiting for some catastrophic event to make the world realize that they were right. That mankind was, in fact, greedy in their very nature, and that greed led to dissension. The Guild Wars were their proof.
Of the few Telvarin she had seen in her lifetime, many predicted the downfall of humanity within only a few years. Alora wasn't certain if they were correct, but she knew that it would happen, and probably sooner rather than later.
Alora slowed as she noted that at this point, the Grawl had slowed as well. Just ahead, she could see why. The scattered stones of several Stone Elementals bore silent witness to the ferocity of the Grawl raiding party. She stopped to examine the battlefield, and stopped when she came to a collection of larger stones. This had obviously been the leader of the Stone Elementals. A Hulking Stone Elemental, as the Ascalonians called them, had been slain here, and its Enchanted Lodestone bleaching in the sun.
Alora knelt down and said several words for the fallen Stone Elementals, picked up the Enchanted Lodestones that were strewn where they had fallen around the battlefield, and promised, as if they could hear her, the fallen Elementals that the Lodestones would find their way back to others of their kind.
But then there was no time to lose. Alora got to her feet and jogged on, and noted with some interest that the battle had taken some time, although no Grawl had been killed. However, judging by the amount of Grawl blood she had seen on the battlefield, it had been a horrific battle for both sides.
And it was about to get worse for the Grawl, she saw with a smile. They were nearly five minutes ahead of her, she saw. If she timed things right, she could get to the Academy Monk outpost, warn them of the danger and tell them to flee, then get into hiding before the Grawl passed by. Then she would be in perfect condition to continue to trail them, and wait for a sufficient force to be assembled to stop them.
Then she would strike, and only then. Attacking now or when the Grawl were engaged with the Academy Monks would be suicide, she knew, and she knew that she would play a role in defeating the Grawl. She would only have one chance to strike, because as soon as she did, she would draw attention to herself. She would have to make sure that when she did draw attention, she would not be the center of too many Grawl.
This would be a delicate balancing game. Except that in this game, there wasn't any fun. And if she failed, people would die.
She couldn't allow that. It was her duty as a Telvarin Ranger to prevent that.
That was, after all, the duty of a Telvarin Ranger. To serve and protect.
