Laanye looked over at her sister. "Come on. I'm so bored of staying here when we can explore!" she said.

Laanyae gave her a look. "We're not allowed to leave the fire flower meadow, Lesser Faydark (supposedly) isn't the safest place in the world. And we were asked to pick the best fire flowers for the princess' welcome back arrangement." she said, while obviously wanting to explore.

"Sis, they've kept us cooped up all our lives. Why can't we explore. We won't go far." Laanye said.

Laanyae sighed, and gave into the inevitable. "Okay, but we don't go far." she said.

"Of course we won't." Laanye said. "Not too far." she also added under her breath.
Laanye and Laanyae, twin sisters brought up by faeries, headed off to explore.

Unknown to them, they were not alone. 4 pairs of eyes watched them, and the ones watching them laughed, but with no humor.

************************************************** **********

The twins trudged along, looking through the beautiful forest and gasping at all the huge trees, and once they thought they saw a unicorn. It was growing dark fast, and Laanye and Laanyae didn't realize because they were carrying lightstones. By the time they realized night had fallen, it was too late.

They were really getting nervous now, but neither wanted to chicken out for fear her sister would laugh at her. At every rustle of a bush, they jumped. Every time the wind howled they paled. This wasn't the friendly Lesser Faydark woods they had been seeing all day, this was the dangerous Lesser Faydark woods, the forbidden forest. And now they were seeing why they weren't allowed out here. This was all they could take. "Sis, let's go back. Please!" they said at the same time. They turned around, and started retracing their steps, but they had taken too many twists and turns. They were lost, alone in the woods, with nothing to protect them, and no chance of getting back.

Laanye started crying, and Laanyae dropped to the ground, holding her head in her hands. So when the attack came, they didn't know it before it was much too late to fight back.

ay Tunare Bless You With
Sunny Skies and Dry Roads

Lyrebyrd Falconspirit
Dreamer, Writer and Holder
of the One True Magic.

<As you may have figured out, these two are Laanye and Laanyae, the little sisters of Lyrebyrd and Peregryne. Not telling anymore, this is their story, not mine.>

The attack included the twins getting jumped by 4 warrior types, with inky skin, and red eyes.

"Okay little children, come with us quietly and it will be better for you. Don't co-operate and we will be forced to hurt you." a man with a steely voice, as if he couldn't care less which way they came.

Laanye bit the hand of the man holding her, and Laanyae stamped on the foot of the man holding her. Both of the men let go, and the twins grabbed hands and ran into the dark, forbidding woods.

"GET THEM YOU FOOLS! WE CAN"T LET THEM GET AWAY!!!" the steely voiced man yelled.

A burst of fire and snow came down on the following men, but Laanye and Laanyae didn't stop to watch. They just kept running.

************************************************** **********

Snowsong looked at Treeflame. <That's a start. They'll never know who saved them, and they'll survive to join up with the others for the quest.> the silver wolf said, wagging her tail. <Yup. The rest is up to them now.> the firebird Treeflame agreed. A colomn of snow and fire enveloped them, and silver wolf and fire bird both disapeared.

************************************************** **********

Laanye and Laanyae finally stopped to take a breath and looked behind them, searching for their pursuers. No sign of them. "What were those men? They weren't faeries, unicorns, bears, or wolves....and they're not like us." Laanye asked. "I don't know what they are any more then you do." Laanyae answered.

A little brown person started wandering across the little clearing the twins were in. "Hello. Are you a faerie who lost her wings?" Laanye asked.

"You insult me by calling me a faerie?! You will feel the wrath of a brownie for that insult!" the person cried angrily. Laanye and Laanyae were blasted by magic. The world spun around and went black.

***

Laanye and Laanyae woke up (which they hadn't expected to) to a *bed* of moss under them and their heads resting in a nook between tree roots. There was an odd dream-like air about the place. The place appeared to be a grove, circled by trees, with no visible way out. Neither of the twins were scared though, because the place seemed safer then the woods, and if they died there, they would have been happy, for the place was even more beautiful and full of life then the friendly part of the woods.

"Where are we?" Laanyae asked, kinda dreamily.

"I don't know, and I don't care. If this is the growth plane, I'm not sorry I'm dead." Laanye said, dreamily as well.

"I don't feel dead. Just sore. And my head hurts. You wouldn't have headaches in the growth plane." Laanyae said, still dreamily, having a hard time not talking dreamily, because it was a dreamy place, like a great dream.

Laanye smiled and walked around, looking for the way they came in. Laanyae just sat with her back to a tree, watching the wind blow peacefully through the trees.

Suddenly a flash of light and a young girl appeared in the tree above Laanyae. The girl hopped down. She wasn't so young after all, she appeared to be older then the twins, just shorter then the twins. The girl looked around the clearing curiously, not appearing to notice the twins.

"Not again. Phooey. Next time I get a call to a place, it had better not be here. I'm kinda getting sick of this place. I wonder why I was called here this ti...." the girl said, stopping in mid-sentance as she saw the twins. Her eyes narrowed.

"Did you two call me? If you did I'm going to be very annoyed. I was in the middle of heading to Kelethin." she said, kinda like she was annoyed. "Oh never mind. I wasn't pulled by two girls. I was pulled by Tunare. Shoot. Now why would she put two young high elf twins with no magical training in here?" she asked rhetorically.

"Uhh, we don't know. Is this the growth plane? Or did we get dropped in Altra's back yard?" Laanye asked.

The girl looked at the twins and started laughing. She laughed and laughed and laughed, while the twins stared at her.

"Oh boy. That's the first laugh I've had since I found that rogue trying to take my morning star." she said, wiping her eyes, which had been watering. "Your not in the growth plane, but this could be considered Altra's back yard. It's not real like most places. It's certainly not easy to get to. Typically, I can only come here when I'm called. It's called the Grove, and no, I can't explain it, but Altra created it the same way the planes were created, except on a much smaller scale. There is a house here, but only Tunare's high druidess can take people there, and she only does that when she feels the need to, otherwise they are sent here to heal and rest. No, don't ask me anymore, it's druidic lore that I'm not qualified to explain." she said.

"How do we get out, and back to the fire flower meadow? And who and what are you? We're Laanye and Laanyae." Laanyae said.

The girl stared at her. "What am I? I can understand who am I, but what? Havn't you ever met a woodelf? Or have you been cooped up in Felwithe all your lives?" she asked, narrowing her eyes again.

"Where's Felwithe? The faeries never mentioned any place like that." Laanye asked.

"Faeries?????????? What do faeries have to do with anything?" the girl asked, extremly startled.

"Well, they brought us up since we were little. We don't even know who our parents are." Laanyae said.

The girl sighed heavily. "My name is Lyrebyrd Falconspirit. I am a woodelf druid of Tunare. Where do you want to go?" she asked.

"We'd like to go back to the faeries, if that's not too much trouble." Laanye said.

"Wellllll..... I wouldn't mind going to new places without getting beaten up for once." Laanyae said.

Lyrebyrd smiled. "I'll take you back to the faeries for now." She sketched runes in the air and said something in Combine. A green flash of light and the twins and the girl were standing in the faerie village.

"Laanyae! Laanye! Your back! Are you alright?! LYREBYRD! What are you doing here?" a faerie guard exclaimed.

Lyrebyrd smiled. "They're fine. A little too adventurous, but not damaged beyond bruises, a little bit of brownie fire burns and a headache. They ended up in the Grove and I was called to meet them." she answered.

"The Grove? Wow. They must have been lucky to make it there." a faerie exclaimed.

"Not lucky. Just apparently going to play an important part of something later in their lives." Lyrebyrd answered.

The twins were hustled off by a group of faeries to be fixed up. Lyrebyrd bowed to the princess and said "A word with you M'Lady?" the princess nodded and flew over to a little clearing out of earshot.

"M'Lady, I'm sure you know this already, but they need training in mage spells, for they have it open and ready to use. That means they can no longer remain here. They must learn more of the world outside." Lyrebyrd said, half pleading, half feeling guilty for wanting to take them from their childhood home.

The faerie princess nodded. "I have known for a long time this would happen. They must get the training, and they must learn more. All I require is that you and Peregryne take full responsibility for them, maybe even adopt them as sisters." the princess said.

"I take the responsibility onto myself for the care and training of the twin soon to be mages." Lyrebyrd said formally.

The princess nodded. "As soon as they are ready, they will go to felwithe with you for training."

<The twins got trained in their magic and the outside world.>

ay Tunare Bless You With
Sunny Skies and Dry Roads

Lyrebyrd Falconspirit
Dreamer, Writer and Holder
of the One True Magic.