Balti:

In the deep hills,
In the forest,
there live the land-lords
made of stone

In the deep hills,
in the forest,
there is a circle
cursed and blessed and forgotten

In the deep hills,
in the forest
there live the nymphs
in every tree, rock, and brook

In the deep hills,
in the forest,
there came five strangers
who lived and lost underneath the leaves

Keffa had never strayed this far from the village before. And now, it seemed there wasn't much chance of him making it back. The town of Eje was perched among  mountains, and Keffa was accustomed to navigating across huge mountaintops, but nothing like this ocean of green he found himself in now.

It had been a normal day, up til about an hour ago, when he had spotted a gryphon high above him in the sky, swooping lazily in S-patterns to and fro. Hoping to find its nest (and the beautiful gems that were often woven into them) he had followed it as best as he could manage. But upon its notice of him, it had turned hostile (he had been much closer to the nest, and the chicks, than he realized) and dove at him. Realizing his only option was to throw himself down, Keffa had done so... and landed upon loose stones that took him careening off the edge of a cliff.

He'd woken up ten minutes later and a hundred feet lower, in the middle of some kind of canyon-forest. An enormous web of moss had caught his fall, but his pack had not been so fortunate. Its contents were spilled across the forest floor, and what wasn't damaged had scattered off. Fortunately, his small hunting bow was still strapped to his chest, and hadn't been broken.

Keffa tried his best to wrangle free, but couldn't quite manage it. He lay in the moss, his head sinking back in acceptance. He realized there wasn't much he could do, and as the night stars fell upon the sky, he began to wonder if there was any chance he'd see his home again, if he'd ever see Alice again.

Me:

"I know a ssong that getss on everybody'ss nervess... Everybody'ss nervess, yess, on everybody'ss nervess..." A hissy, somewhat feminine voice spoke from the right side of a mouth filled with sharp, uneven teeth. At the same time, the left side begged in a firm, masculine voice,

"Please make it stop. For the love of all that we stand for, stop singing, Alhevun!"

Above that mouth was a singular eye. The mouth and eye were placed on what looked like a floating head, topped with ten eyestalks. They floated within that canyon forest, seeing the sights with their 360-degree vision.

Following them was a drow male, in "acquired" black and red armor. Who let him out of the kitchen? As he walked a few paces behind them, he turned his head every so often, likely just to look at the scenery. Even though the beholder had likely already seen the trapped person, the male lagging behind got their attention, "Merfevur. Alhevun. Look."

They turned so that their largest eye could see the trapped something-or-other. "Let uss eat it," said the right, while the left suggested, "Let us burn it!" They gasped and said in unison, "We shall freeze it!"

The dark elf sighed and drew a blade, the coloration matching that of the armor. "Let me take care of this." He walked closer to the trapped person thing and asked him,

"Do you follow the forces of good?"

The male pursed his lips and glared down at the entangled person. "That's not an answer," he pointed out. He moved that blade closer, just enough to get close to the skin without touching it. He cut at some of the things keeping the poor guy down, only to stop before the guy would be able to use any of his limbs.

"I don't know if I could be considered your 'friend', surface dweller. Not yet," he hissed, using 'surface dweller' because his language had no word for what Keffa was. "This time, would you like to answer the question I asked you?" he asked ever so sweetly. A soft prod with the blade, perhaps, would further his point.

"Can we freeze it?" came from the beholder.

The drow answered their question with a, "Maybe."

The male gave an exasperated sigh and cut the rest of it, despite the guy's answer. "Wish you had been evil," he muttered. "I could have used the ally. I see little threat in a hunter, but cross me and answer to my blade." He shrugged. "Oh, well. I could always use a pet that doesn't talk to themselves." He tapped his foot, making his sword very noticeable.

"Get up," he ordered.

A hiss came from the other creature, "We are not your petss."

The male sighed. "Of course not."

The elf motioned toward the beholder. "They are Merfevur and Alhevun. Use both names, or the other one might zap you with something." He winked at the strange creature known as Keffa. "And refer to them as two people. That's what they are." He scoffed. "Pet, come. At my heel." Typical. He comes to the surface and acts like he owns the place. The ones that curbstomped his people long ago would beg to differ...

The beholder went back to being the lookouts and moving around the nearby area. "Movement in the Southwest!" Merfevur exclaimed after a moment or two.
"That'ss the elf, you idiot," Alhevun groaned. At times like that, she wished she had a palm with which she could slap the other entity in their body.

They argued with themselves in their language, one known to anyone of their species.

Helpful advice from the elf, "When they start arguing like that, tune them out. They can't hear you when they're doing that, anyway." He still motioned for the guy to follow.

The answer to Keffa's internal question...

...was 'no'. Perhaps he should have been more worried about the armored, angry-looking dark elf stabbing him in the gut for disobedience rather than whether or not he should 'trust' said dark elf.

The dark elf's expression turned sour when he was asked who he was. "You may call me N." He raised a single eyebrow before he asked, "And what in the hell are you? You look like a rivvil after my cousin is through with them, without being ripped apart."

"Oh, no, I'm obviously a Deva," he said with a face that was much less than amused. "How could I not be an elf!?" He grumbled to himself in Drow about how surface dwellers were stupid and didn't deserve this land.

At the sound of their names, the Beholder... still argued with themselves. Perhaps they really couldn't hear anything else when they argued.

Naut'ssinssrinil scratched his head. "What the hell's a Lenter?" His language didn't have a word for that! He muttered to himself before he explained. "Some mutated human experiment gone wrong?"

"Okay. I'm going to explain this to you very slowly. I'm a Drow. A Dark Elf. Me and the married couple over there, we come from the Underdark. You may not have any Darthiir in these mountains, but I've been underneath them for..." He counted on his fingers a little. "350 years. Why am I here? Because the rest of the Drow may kindly fuck themselves. I didn't want to stay down there. Illithid offspring." At the mention of Illithid, he shuddered.

"If you don't have darksight, by the way," he finished, "I'll have to point at you and laugh." He looked up at the setting sun.

The Beholder seemed to have finished their argument and went back to looking around by staying in place. "You know what we could use?" the bolder voice on the left side asked.
"Ale?" asked the softer one on the right.
"Exactly!" replied Merfevur.

N rolled his eyes. Last time those two got drunk, they tried to disintegrate a drider and ended up hitting the wall behind her instead.

Ahhh. Kender. Very... very tall kender. Naut exhaled sharply. "Perhaps I misspoke. The females of my kind can go die for all I care. One of them named me 'Not Wanted'. I'm allowed to be bitter about that." Drow were, of course, superior in his mind. However, he really wouldn't mind cross-breeding, because drow women were... drow women. Who would want that?

How did he survive...? What kind of question was that? He survived by eating, breathing... etc. "I'm obviously not alone. I have those two. They're more than enough assistance." In entertainment, anyway. He somehow found the one Beholder that wouldn't zap first and ask questions later. "They cook food while they kill it."

He beamed as he said that last bit, as if that fact was especially fun to watch.

Meanwhile, the married couple started to explore a little more. They floated around like bosses, just checking for anything- or anyone of interest.

"Them?" Naut thought back a little ways. "Mm, we met after they had some choice words for a superior of theirs." He chuckled before he considered explaining how he got out of there. "We found out we had the same goals and that working together would help achieve those goals. We still do." So did the Red Dragon Disciple they met. However, that quickling was long gone by then.

"Mm, never been to any plains. One thing you'll learn is that Beholders are powerful enough to mold the earth as they see fit. You might not see any large caves around now, but as I said..." He shook his head slightly.

The dark elf followed the floating aberration once he saw they were beginning to move on without him.

Now, why was he in the forest? He liked the forest. A lot. However, he wasn't going to say that.