Ken stood waiting for her response, the cold of night biting at their skin. The fire crackled loud, disrupting the silence as the meat roasted over it, its delicious smell already seeping out.

He watched her, with her hands clasped together in front of her, playing with her fingers and looking at the floor. She glanced up, but as soon as she met his fixed gaze, she looked down.

"What’s with her? She is acting like I asked her out or something," Ken thought while he looked at her. He stayed waiting patiently because this was information that she could give that would be pretty useful.

Finally, she steadied herself, looking up and meeting his gaze. "Though I find it odd that you have never heard of this, the reason humans hate elves dates back hundreds of years.

A grouping of elves made of powerful elves and a large majority joined hands with the enemies of all existence, the demons, in a movement to destroy humanity. Humans suffered a massive loss, but managed to survive.

That’s why humans hate elves. Even though elves had civil wars against themselves where they killed and banished every elf that worked with the demons, even then that wasn’t enough to quell the rage of humans."

She explained as fast as possible. She assumed that Ken would at least know the demons and so she didn’t need to dive too deep into it.

Ken heard her every word, already imagining how thick the hate must be now. It was very difficult to clear history and make all right again, it was the same on all worlds.

What made it worse, no one could blame the humans for their rage no matter how far it got, because they were the victims, and that gave them leverage through the years.

"I see," Ken said, no particular emotion to be seen, his flat tone of understanding.

Panic formed on her face in an instant. She clenched her fist and waited, expecting the hurling of insults at her and her race for the crimes that they had committed against humanity.

"So what are you doing in the forest? Does your family live around?" Ken asked, a question she wasn’t expecting, so she wasn’t prepared for it. It took her unaware.

"Huh?" she looked at him, wondering if she had misheard him or something.

"I said, does your family live in the forest or something?" he asked again.

She was still stunned for a moment. She opened her mouth and forced the words out. "Didn’t you hear what I said?"

"I was listening to everything. Did you say something that I missed?" Ken replied.

She was even more shocked when she heard that. She took a slow deep breath. "You really aren’t worried that an elf is standing before you, the same race that killed your people?" she asked.

"Two things. First, because people are humans does not mean I share relations with them. Humans exist in many varieties and you’ll learn all are not worth saving.

Secondly, did you kill those humans a hundred years ago?" he asked.

"Well, my peop—"

"Wrong answer. Did you kill them?" he asked her again.

"No," she muttered and shook her head slowly. In the depths of her heart, she still believed that the verdict was coming and he would surely hate her.

"Then that’s all. You have nothing to do with what happened, and frankly I wouldn’t care if you did," Ken said. He walked over to the meat and finally turned it over.

The elf stood there stunned. She kept looking at him, unsure of what to do. She never expected such a carefree, nonchalant reply for an issue that grave.

Ken looked at her. "Tell me your name. Mine is Ken."

"Huh?"

"Your name?" he repeated.

"Oh, sorry, my name is Luna Shade," she said and bowed her head slightly.

"Listen, I like respect and fear a lot, but I like the kind that I earn with my own strength and not for nothing.

Keep your head raised and stop bowing. Besides, you seem older than me," Ken said and fully turned around to look at her.

"So, Lady Luna, you didn’t tell me the answer to the question I asked," Ken said.

"Oh, yes. My family lives here. My whole village stays in this forest. We, like many other elven villages, are spread across the continent and not in our main home," she explained.

Ken paused. He looked at her with confusion. "If you all have a main village, why not return?" he asked.

"That’s where history comes into play. During the war, the elves were displaced. For elves to continue to thrive, they need a connection to the world tree.

So each village or gathering of elves used magic to tap into the world tree, which is at the heart of our home, and grow their own mini versions. But one issue remains, these mini versions, despite being connected to the main tree, are all their own trees now, and after many generations, the elves are changed as well.

We would die if we tried to force a reconnect to the world tree. It sees most of our blood as impure, and so it will not take us back, and that’s why we stay around the extension of itself that will.

That’s why we can’t return. There are methods to return, but they are elves’ secrets and hard to complete." She gave as much detail as Ken would need to understand.

"Ahh, I see," Ken replied, even if he didn’t understand magic, he believed he got the full image of what she was explaining.

"That’s nice to know, but how do humans not find you?" he asked.

"That’s because only an elf or a visitor of an elf can bring someone into the village."

"Hmmm, pretty nice," Ken said and then focused back on his deer meat. He looked up after a few seconds.

"Get somewhere to sit, I’ll be done making this food soon."