In the grand scheme of things, 200 years was relatively young for a forest elf. Despite this, Valerie's years went by like they would for a human. That being, her life felt slow and grueling. She was short for her species as well. While other elves were six feet on average, Valerie was 5'2. Her eyesight was poor too. She had to wear glasses that unfortunately broke thirty years ago and she's been too scared to go into the city to have them replaced. Come to think of it, she's never been in the city. The few encounters she's had with humans were terrifying. Poachers, escaped convicts, thieves, all around creeps. Such is common in the Latrodectus Forest.
Her perspective on humans was entirely negative for the first two centuries of her life. This would all change one hot summer day. The day started out innocuous for Miss Valerie. Her usual routine consisted of getting up at the crack of dawn and beginning her work outside in her dainty little garden. The sun peeked through the trees and gently hugged her skin. For such a hard worker who spent many of her days out in the sun, she was rather pale and didn't have much upper body strength. She lived in a little cottage in the middle of the forest that she started a garden around, despite the soil not being the most fertile. She took care of her crops regularly and loved communicating with the local animals, considering them her only friends. After a couple hours of tending to her crops, she sat down on a tree stump. She sighed, wiping her brow. It usually took her a long day of work to tire herself out like this, but her sleep schedule has been gradually deteriorating for a while now, and as such she became worn out more often.
A beautiful white rabbit approached her. After spending so many decades out here, she was familiar with all the animals of this forest. She even gave them all names as well. This rabbit was known to her as Pierre.
"Bonjour, Pierre!" Valerie smiled. The animals could not actually speak, but Valerie had spent so much time with them she was able to understand their feelings. She sensed concern emanating off of Pierre. He started hopping, and Valerie felt obliged to continue in his direction. She followed the white rabbit, and as the journey became longer she realized that they were nearing the edge of the forest."
Hey wait..." Valerie muttered, a look of concern on her face. "I'm not ready to leave yet..."
"Fluffybutt!" A voice yelled out from the distance.
"Huh?!" Valerie shouted, startled. The bunny ran up to the source of the voice, jumping into his arms.
"There you are, Fluffybutt!" A young boy gently pets the rabbit. "I was wondering where you ran off to."
"Excuse me?" Valerie went into defense mode. She looked around for a gardening tool she could use as a weapon in case she needed to defend herself. That was until she noticed that the human standing before her was just a kid. Valerie had never been around kids before, so she didn't know how to act towards them. She'd seen old movies and read books in the past, which gave her a tiny understanding of what to expect with children, but not enough for her to feel totally confident when it comes to looking out for them.
"Fluffybutt!" The young boy smiled, holding up the rabbit. "I found him out here all alone, and I've been feeding him the past few weeks!"
"I see..." Valerie paused. "Where are your... parents?" Valerie knew what it was like to be orphaned, and she wondered if this was an uncomfortable question for her to be asking. "If you're comfortable sharing, that is..." she awkwardly added.
"Why do you ask, miss? Am I in trouble?"
"Wh-what?!" Valerie was unsure how to respond to this. "No? It's just... rather worrisome seeing someone so young out here by himself." Those words echoed in her mind. Those were words she heard from humans when she was growing up in solitude in the vast green. She even still hears them to this day, due to her short stature causing people to mistake her for a child.
"Mon dieu... what am I going to do about this kid?" Valerie thought to herself. The boy was staring at her with his big green eyes. Valerie sighed.
"What's your name, kid?" She politely inquired.
"My name is Ian. It's a pleasure to meet you." He bowed graciously and extended his hand. Valerie's understanding of human customs was just one thing on a laundry list of skills she lacked confidence in, but regardless she shook his hand and prayed that she didn't greatly offend his entire bloodline or something.
"Well, I'm Valerie. It's... a pleasure to meet you too." She laughed nervously. She considered bowing as well as a sign of respect, but decided against it out of fear of looking pathetic. "He's just a child. What am I so worried about?" She thought to herself once again. Her head was spinning. Her two centuries of isolation have left her a bit awkward around the few visitors she gets. If there's one thing she understands well, though. It's that children aren't capable of harm...right?
Valerie thinks back to what being a child was like for her. She was orphaned from a young age, she doesn't even recall a single memory of her parents. In her mind she concluded that they were slaughtered by human intruders in the forest, a fate many other elves face. In fact, she believed she was the endling of her species. Valerie's upbringing made her completely helpless in the face of danger, yet she always managed to survive. She wondered if it was the same way for human children, although she had her doubts.
She versed herself in human culture quite well. Despite her fear of going into the city herself, she managed to train animal companions to steal things for her. Books, food, weapons, tools, and many more important items. That's how she managed to acquire her now-broken glasses which were very convenient in helping her poor eyesight. Her band of thieves have yet to fetch her a new pair of glasses since she broke them nearly three decades ago. After many long years of fending for herself alone and terrified, she managed to build herself a house, finally able to keep warm with old yet fashionable clothing, as well as cook and garden for herself. She learned all of these things on her own, all from the materials she had animals steal for her. She knew it was wrong, but how else was she to survive? Even at the age of 200, she was a young adult, and still had much to learn.
She'd been lost in thought about the hardships she overcame for minutes now, and the little boy snapped her out of it.
"Miss Valerie?"
"Oh, Je suis désolé! What is it, young Ian?"
"Well, you were asking about how I'm all alone out here... but what about you? Don't you have, I dunno, a family or something?" He had a worried look on his face. Ian did not understand loneliness very well, but even his young mind understood that there was a powerful demon that was haunting Valerie for a while.
"I do not," She admitted. "I've been alone out here ever since I could remember. Surviving on my own, fighting on my own, comforting myself at night. The only real friends I have are the animals you see. Pierre for example."
"Pierre?" Ian tilted his head, confused.
Valerie sighed, "Fluffybutt..."
"Oh, yeah!! He's been taking good care of the both of us I suppose." He giggles.
"Yeah. I guess you could say that." She gave a friendly smile in return. Valerie was relieved, finally coming to the conclusion that the child was no threat to her. Although she still felt uneasy about the whole scenario. Who in their right mind would let a lone child wander out here like this? Even if he wasn't an orphan, and happened to just scamper away from his guardian, Valerie believed that it showed a lack of care and responsibility for the vulnerable. A part of her almost wanted to take this child into her care, but she didn't know the first thing about caring for a child. Not only that, but if his parents were alive, and they found out their child was under an elf's care, what would they do to her? She understood very well that human children were not the type to cause harm or danger to others, but she had firsthand knowledge of the pain and anguish adult humans caused to everything and everyone around them. There were simply too many risks, and she decided that the both of them needed to be alone again.
The interaction stuck with her for months on end. After some time, she gave up her farming duties and dedicated herself to a new role. Not just as the guardian of the forest, but as a watchful protector of any and all children who happen to find themselves lost in that forest. It was her mission to keep them out of danger, and she took it upon herself to return them safe to their families. This required her to occasionally step foot in the city, but she does her best to keep attention away from herself, and keep interactions to a minimum. She remains terrified of humans, but regardless of these fears she does not rest until she is assured that no children are in immediate danger in her vicinity.
