For the next few days, I deliberately spent all my free time over near the elves’ settlement, but I didn’t see the young elf. All I wanted to do was return the bag, and maybe try to learn the secrets of magic. It wasn’t a waste of time though, as I went and walked around the elven settlement. It surprisingly didn’t take up too much space, although that’s probably because they expanded vertically. Even with my superior eyesight, at least compared to when I was a human, I couldn’t really see everything at the tops of the trees.

I have no idea if it is because no one wants to go near the elves, or that the land around the elves is especially fertile, but there were a lot of food nearby. Because of this, I ended up going there to forage all the time.

Six days later, when I was foraging while the sun was setting, I spotted the young elven girl. She was just sitting there with her eyes closed. Wondering if she was just sleeping, I tip-toed over and noticed that she was glowing faintly. It was pretty hard to see though, since the sun was still up.

I had no idea what she was trying to do, but since it probably had something to do with magic, I refrained from interrupting her. Wouldn’t want to be caught up in a magical explosion, would I. I looked around for her bag, but I didn’t see it.

Wait, was that her only bag, and is she trying to use magic to search for it? Now I feel bad, and I don’t even have it on me right now. I wonder how long she will continue to sit there. Maybe I can run home, grab the bag, and deli—

“Kyaaa!” the girl screamed as she fell down onto her back.

Startled by the scream, I jumped back a meter.

“Oh, estas vi. Pardonu, mi ne havas manjazhon.”

As usual, I had no clue what she was saying. But sitting back up, patting her legs, and spreading her arms out wide made it clear what she did want. I decided to oblige as penance for the stolen bag. Not surprisingly, she fluffed my fur as I lay across her lap.

I’m not a pet dog, okay? I thought. Please stop.

To subtly tell her she was overdoing it, I lightly whacked her with my tail repeatedly. She didn’t take the hint though, and continued to pet my back. Enough was enough though, and coupled with the fact that I should be going home soon before my parents get worried, I abruptly stood up to retrieve my basket.

The elf followed me, peeked at the basket, and ate one of the berries right in front of me. She said, “Bongusta!” and continued to eat them while saying saying something in the elven language that she spoke. Given that I did basically steal her bag of nuts the last time, I didn’t really want to do anything to her, so I just ignored it and resumed foraging.

She continued to follow me and continued to speak something to me. I have no idea why she kept talking even though it was clear that I had no idea what she said. At one point, she ran off somewhere, and I thought she finally got bored and left, but she instead returned with a handful of berries and plopped them into my basket.

Unfortunately, she picked a mildly poisonous variety, but looking at her innocent smile and the way she looked so proud of herself, I did not have the heart to remove them from the basket. Concerned that she would snack on the poisonous berries she just gathered, I made sure to keep the basket far out of reach while I continued to search for food.

She looked carefully at every bit of food I grabbed, and made various comments I didn’t understand.

However, when I grabbed one of those neon pink mushrooms and stowed it in my basket, she gasped and yelled, “Chi tio estas venena!” and tried to grab it from the basket. 

Look, I know those are really tasty, but they’re all mine. Not sharing. Besides, the mushrooms don’t taste very good raw anyways.

As she seemed quite insistent in stealing them, I decided to run away, especially since I was almost done with the food gathering anyways. The elf initially chased after me, but stopped and looked at me worriedly after a few hundred meters. I just waved at her and continued.

Once I ran back near my home, I removed the poisonous berries from the basket and left them lying on the floor. I did keep one of them so I could double check with my parents that they are indeed poisonous.

When I got back home, my parents confirmed that yes, it was indeed poisonous. Well, I guess that the elf is too young or sheltered to know what’s edible. Such a shame though, the forest guardians not even being able to differentiate between different plant species.

Night came and it was time to pretend to go to the daily children gatherings. I brought the cloth bag that I stole from the elf with me and began searching for her, although I did wonder if a child as young as her should be out that late.

While wandering the forest, I heard a young girl’s voice shout out. I turned around and saw the elf running over me, looking relieved.

Thinking that she was relieved to see her bag, I handed it over to her, but she looked at it puzzled, before exclaiming, “Ah, mia sako!”

Huh, well clearly, she wasn’t relieved to see the bag, since she looked confused initially. Wonder why then.

“Atendu chi tio!” she yelled, and then took off.

Well that was fast. I guess she just yelled thanks and ran off to put it back home? Well, guess it’s time to explore elsewhere then.