It's been awhile. I can't tell you in years, I was pretty old before I learned how to measure time like that. Heck, I can't even tell you how old I am; maybe about twenty? It's just a guess. Judging from my size, and maturity. I might age faster than what you'd call a "normal" person, since half of what I am lives its entire life in about a third or less of how much time a "normal" person would live theirs. What I can tell you, is that my name is Elias. I am a half-beast. Fox, to be exact. Yeah, "half-beast"-- that kind of phrase sets some people off. I hope you're not that kind of person, you look nice enough, willing to listen. You wanted to know more about me, where I came from an' all, right? Well, here we go, then... *letting out a sigh, he adjusts his hat and leans back a bit on the rock upon which he is sitting*

Oh, wait. I was already starting the story... I trailed off again. Sorry, sorry, I do that sometimes. Some people say I talk a lot... forgive me, I don't get to talk very often as it is, and I really like to when I can. But--enough of that. It's been awhile, as I was saying. I can't remember too clearly, but we had a little village, a little tribe of us, way out in the woods somewhere. Don't ask me where, I haven't the slightest... it's been a long time, and I didn't identify areas the way you guys do, back then. We just had our own little world, we didn't have direct names for most of the locales; you've got, "that lake with the shiney water out near the big black stump", or "the clearing a good ways past the log bridge", all that kind of stuff. Anyway, those were nice times. We just lived off the land, see, we ate what came to us or what we could grow. We were pretty simple, but in a good way, not barbaric, like a lot of people tend to think. It's not that were weren't as advanced as you guys, just... we went about things in a different way. We went the "natural" approach. Contrary to popular belief, we lived in houses not much unlike yours, and we built them ourselves, as a community. Everyone was pretty close. It was nice, as I said. Real mellow.

I just hung out for awhile, I can't tell you much about back then, though it was my favorite time of my life, probably. Weird, huh? Anyway, when I was growing up, my dad told me this story about this guy named Elias--from way back sometime, he was one of the greatest pioneering half-beasts that actually went around, travelling, exploring, mingling with humans... all that kind of stuff. Up to that point, we really kept away from humans a lot, and there were fights... but gradually, some of us got out more, and slowly began to understand humans, and have them understand us more. Elias was one of the greatest guys like that, he was real smooth. Lots of people liked him, even humans that had otherwise hated half-beasts. I'm not clear what he looked like, but supposedly he was a real suave, tall grey fox... went around with a cape and a plumed hat. *adjusting his own hat, Elias chuckles* Yeah... all I need is a bigger stature, and grey fur... but, oh, anyway.

So, I could tell you all about that guy and other cool stories, but that's for another time. Basically, my dad said, he thinks I could be just like that some day if I tried. I could go around, be the kind of man that's remembered for a long time for all the great things he did, be known and loved by all kinds of people... and we need a new guy like that, he'd tell me. It seems there haven't been many beast-men mingling much with humans for awhile, again... So anyway, he pretty much said, that was gonna be my name. Elias. I thought at first, 'why not give me a unique name, not just name me after some old guy?', but as time went on I began to really respect and like that name. As you can see...

But alas, funny s'it may be, one of my good buddies, a wolf half-beast, happened to get that very same name just around the same time I did! Sure, he was grey, but he wasn't a fox at all! And he wasn't suave, like me, see! He was big, and tough... a real nice guy, a good pal, but he wasn't no Elias. So we sat down and talked about it one day, and he decided that from that point on, he'd be known as Ellias--with two L's. I thought that was really silly, but it went on like that. That guy was kind of weird, but I really did like him...

Oh, again, I could tell you all kinds of stuff from this era of time--but I don't want you to doze off until I get the major stuff outta the way, y'know! *pats your face* C'mon, buddy! Don't go to sleep YET!

Here, here, I'll get to the good part. It was.. I dunno, I was a good deal older by this time. What you guys'd call a teenager. So, these big guys with axes were coming down choppin' trees real close to our village! I thought, pshaw, we live way far away from anyone else.. these guys must be lost. But would ya believe it, some stupid kingdom of humans decided they were expanding outward and OUR forest just happened to be in their way! It's really funny to me, y'know, because stories like this happen so much, between beast-men and humans. But see, we didn't just get mad and fight 'em like most of our kind like to do in that kind of situation. We talked with 'em, a lot of people in our village tried to tell them we'd move to another, deeper part of the forest if they wanted. They said no, "we will continue to expand, and explore! You have no place in our lands, mongrels!" etc etc., just like some old story right out of a book. Only, it wasn't cheesy like that... since, y'know, it was real and all.

But we didn't fight. We were smart. My mom and dad were telling me, I should sail away somewhere and start a nice, adventurous life, they'd take care of everything here; they didn't want me to worry. But, in all honestly, I was in a bit of a rage at those stupid guys, thinking they're all-important now that human exploration and adventuring and civil expansion and all those other bibble-babble phrases like that were popping up... basically, humans, as you most likely know, are getting obsessed with building outwards, and exploring more, and... I dunno, why do they have to infringe on US so much? Do they ever stop to think WE feel the same things as THEM?! Oh, oh, sorry, I was trailin' off again, ya gotta catch me when I do that!

This is when I started really gettin' into shape, and started carvin' out little wood bows and stuff to mess with. I started shooting as fellas that got too close for comfort, or that just looked at me with these big ugly greasy faces that just made me wanna scream... so I screamed, and shot an arrow in their foot. Basically, me and a bunch of guys kept doing that kind of stuff, and the parents were starting to get mad ... one day, a bunch of the elders took us to this big nice rocky place up at the top of a waterfall, and had us "think about how to keep our anger within ourselves when it's unneeded" and all that crock... but it ends up, they were having a big 'negotiations' meet with the kingdom that day, and... yeah, when we got back.... *whispers about how he's using too many sentences that'd use ellipses if this were in written form, then lightly taps your face again* Hey, hey, c'mon, we're getting somewhere, don't go to sleep yet!

Yeah, our place was all messed up, lots of stuff was taken from our pads and the town in general looked like it has been ransacked by a force that, while angry, wasn't specifically interested in a lot we had to offer. Lousy people probably thought they were too good for our stuff! Naw, though, we were PISSED. It's hard to talk about stuff like that nowadays--I try not to let it bother me, I try not to let a lot of stuff bother me. But... yeah. It was obvious there wasn't really a fight or battle there, there was no blood and no real signs of struggle. I knew for sure that our families gave 'emselves up, agreed to do whatever that kingdom wanted 'em to do as long as they left us alone. Didn't take me long to figure out they probably wanted us to high-tail it outta there or the humans wouldn't hold to their promise for long... I was seriously ready to tear some heads, but I thought I could use that anger just as well if I used it to finally push myself off this old land and go start a real nice life somewhere else. I was practically cryin', trying to hold myself back, though; a lot of us, they ran toward the human domain with looks in their eyes like they didn't care if they came back or not, as long as they snapped a couple necks in their jaws. I'm gonna miss those guys.

I'm not sure how many of us really left, but I remember Double-L leaving, on some little podunk raft, with a look on his face like he was gonna break the raft itself in two if it looked at him sideways. I kind of wanted to talk to him, I kind of wanted to talk to a bunch of people, but before I wasted any more time, I shoved off in one of these little fishing canoe things we had around... and just rowed 'till I passed out.

I can't tell you much of the voyage, all I can say is that I remember almost nothing, I was in one gigantic half-dead daze, I never drank or ate a single thing as I was too stupid to bring anything like that, and by the end of it, I honestly cannot tell you if it was a storm, a pirate attack, a sea monster, or what, but the next thing I remembered was waking up on a beach with some punk pouring this awful purple liquid down my throat--gross as it was, it gave me enough strength to get back on my feet, talk to the dude and start looking for something to feed my hollow stomach... what do you call those purple things anyway? Tonics? Ugh, this is why I practiced healing magic, dude. But I'll get to that later...

Speaking of later... *yawn* wow, that took way longer than I thought. So, now you know the origins of the elusive... sly... Elias. Come 'round again, and I'll... tell ya about the rest... then you'll know all about... why I'm in the situation.. I'm in and.... all o' that... you're asleep already anyway.... wonder how long.... ya been... cheapskate....

*falling to the base of the rock, he lays down, shifting his hat to the front of his face as he puts his hands behind his head*

I... sure talk a lot....