Long couldn't move faster than a slow walk, Drake was limping whenever his left foot hit the ground (one of his toes had been cut off) and Yin was also walking slower than he would be if he was at 100%. Radcliffe was the only one in good health, but after so many hours of walking, even his spirits were dampened.

So, they were lost, hurt and tired. And what was worst was that they had left their camping equipment at the last site so they could move more quickly. They (according to Yin's directions) should have been out of the forest by now and thought they wouldn't need their equipment. And it was getting dark.

"Has anybody thought of where we'll sleep tonight?" asked Drake.

"No" answered Yin. "But if I'm right. . ."

"NO!" said all three of the other men.

Yin looked shocked, then depressed. No one else cared. They were all too tired and hurt and bored. So, Yin just looked down at his feet and kept quiet.

They trudged along and soon it was pitch black. They didn't want to stop, though, as they had nowhere to rest. Suddenly, Long (who was behind Radcliffe, who was in the lead) heard a thump behind him. He whirled about, and saw Yin and Drake slumped to the ground. They were unconscious.

"Radcliffe, look!" he stood there and waited for Radcliffe to walk up beside him.

When Radcliffe didn't come, Long turned around to see him, but couldn't find him at first. He looked around, and then he saw a glimmer down on the ground. It was Radcliffe's sword, and Radcliffe was on the ground next to it! Long backed up in shock, then he turned around in a full circle.

"Wherever you are, come out!" yelled Long to the unknown assailants.

He waited for a response but got none. A quick flash to the right! He whirled to inspect the area, but found nothing. His assailants were fast. He settled down in a combat stance, and focussed his thoughts. He brought his mental patterns in synch with his physical movements, and suddenly it all became slower. The world around him seemed to move in slow motion, and then he saw them.

There were three of them. They all had pointed ears, and blue hair. They were moving extremely fast, but Long could follow them. One of them charged at him from the left. He moved his arm up to block it, and the 'man' looked stunned. Long the swung out with his right hand, and struck the man's nose with his palm. The man went down with a thud, but Long soon followed him. The pain in his body had gotten to a point that he couldn't take it, and with the added stress of the fighting, he couldn't take it.

That and an arrow had struck him in the ribs. He could hardly feel it with the pain in the rest of his body. He was lying there, clutching the arrow, when the world went black as a boot connected with the side of his head.

Long awoke and he felt good. For the first time in over a week, he felt good. The pain in his arms, chest, and ribs was gone. He looked down to see that they were still bandaged, but they felt great. He sat up on the bed that he was on, and looked around the room.

It was a small room, with a window to his right, and a door in front of him. The walls and floor were made of wood. There was no furniture in the room, other than the bed, and the door was slightly ajar. He could hear voices coming from the other room.

"What do you mean, he's not one of them?" asked a gruff old man's voice.

"He does not bear their uniform, nor does he have any of their marks or crests" said answered the voice of a calm man.

"Well, in any case, he is our guest" said the voice of a woman. "We should at least let him know where he is and who we are."

"No!" said the gruff voice. "We should bring them back to where we found them, and then we should be gone with them!"

Long was starting to get curious about the conversation, so he got up and out of the bed, and crept to the door. He saw, now, that he was in only his boxers, and that his uniform was gone.

"First we should wait for them to wake up" said the calm voice. "Then we could ask them some questions."

Long peeked out of the door a bit to see the people who were talking.

"I agree" said the woman.

"NO!" said the gruff man. "I am the Chief and what I say goes! They could pose a threat to us. We must. . ."

During that sentence, Long, who had been leaning over to get a better look of the conversationalists, fell face first to the ground. The door swung open, and the people who were talking could see him lying there. The woman let out a small giggle, the calm man just sat there looking at Long, and the gruff man reached for a small sword at his hip.

Long picked himself off of the ground, and bowed to the people, or what could pass for people. They had colored hair (the woman had green, the two men had red) and pointed ears. "Sorry for interrupting" apologized Long. He stood up, and saw that the woman was now smiling, the calm man was still just sitting there, and the gruff man had his sword out all the way.

"Colt, put the sword away" said the woman.

"No, not until he can prove he's not an enemy" responded Colt. He turned from the woman to Long, and pointed the sword at him. "You've got twenty seconds to explain why you were in our forest before I cut you from ear to ear."

Long gulped and began. "My name is Long Chan-Chan. I am a travelling martial artist on route to Muse. I am originally from the Scarl. . . Toran Republic. I studied with my uncle for a while, then came to Jowston to train at the Buddha's Temple. I am heading to Muse, as I said before, to help defend it from Highland. I guess me and my companions got lost on the way."

Colt kept his sword there, and Long gulped again. If he goes for my throat, I'll have to defend myself thought Long. But the sword never came. Colt put it back in its scabbard, and then nodded.

"That'll do for now" he said.

The woman smiled again, and approached Long. "Well, hello Long" she said. "I'm Willadean, and this is Colt, our village chief and Clemente." She pointed to the gruff man and the calm man. "This place that you are in is called Elf Village. It is a place where Elves live in peace and harmony with nature. The part of the forest that you had wandered into was actually an extension of our village. I apologize on behalf of my people for the attack on you and your friends."

"That's okay" said Long. "If it is true that we were trespassing in your village, then it is I that must apologise to you. I'm sorry if we've caused you any misgreavences."

"Hmm" sad Colt. "Very polite for a human."

Willadean shot him a stern look and he quieted up. Long could see something of an 'I'm the boss, but she commands' type relationship. Colt may have been the village Chief, but Willadean seemed to command him most of the time. Long smirked at the absurdity of it. A woman in command. He would never find himself in a situation where a woman would command him.

"If I may ask, where are my friends?" asked Long.

"They are being held in our prison" said Colt. "They were in better shape than you, and were more of a threat as well. We had to detain them. We can take you to see them."

"And release them" added Willadean.

Colt frowned at her, but didn't say a word. She smiled at Long, and motioned for him to follow the departing Colt. Willadean fell into step behind him, and Clemente took the rear.

Once they stepped outside, it took Long a moment to realize that something was wrong. It was a bit cold outside, and he could feel quite a breeze. Then it hit him. He didn't have any clothes on! He back-flipped over Clemente and landed in the doorway. He backed up slowly and went back into the house.

Colt sprang into the house, his sword drawn, ready to attack Long. Then it hit him as well. He chuckled and put his sword away. He walked up to Long.

"You are about my size" said Colt. "Come on."

He brought Long to a room, and pulled some pants out of a dresser. He took a shirt off of a hanger, then he threw both articles of clothing at Long. Long caught them effortlessly, and put them on.

The pants were a light shade of green, and the shirt was dark green without sleeves. He didn't like the color green at all, so he felt uncomfortable in the clothes.

Yet, they fit, and he couldn't complain. He walked out of the house, and Colt joined him. They two others were still there, and Willadean had a huge smile on her face.

They began the walk to the prison, again.

Drake was mad. He had been locked in this jail for a while now, and he didn't like jails. He had seen his fair share of them, and had conned his way out of quite a few as well. They made him fell uncomfortable, with the metal bars and all.

He looked behind him, and saw the other three occupants of the only cell in the prison. One of them was Yin Chiong, a new addition to their group. He had been the head instructor of the destroyed Buddha's Temple. He resembled Long in more ways than one, except that he was a bit taller. At the moment, Yin was looking intently at the guard outside of the cell.

Another occupant was Radcliffe. Drake hardly knew the man, yet he trusted him with his life. Radcliffe had saved him, Long and Yin when they had been fighting in a battle. Though Radcliffe was a former member of the Temple of the Silver Moon, and seemed a bit distant at times, Drake ranked him on his personal trust list in the top four (the other three being Long, Yin and Wakaba). He was sitting beside Yin, deep in meditation.

The fourth occupant of the cell was an unknown. He was wearing a Highland uniform, but his armour had been stripped off, and all he had was the uniform part. He looked detached, and was just staring at a spot on the floor.

Drake hadn't seen or heard about Long since he had woken up. He hoped that Long was okay, but he would have to verify that. "Hey you! Elf man!" he yelled to the guard.

The pointed eared Elf walked over to Drake. "Whaddya want?" asked the guard.

"Just this" said Drake. His hands shot out of the cell, and grabbed the guard by the shirt. He then pulled hard, and the guard's face slammed against the bars. The guard slumped unconscious, and Drake searched his pockets. His hand came out with the key. He unlocked the door, and Yin walked over to him. Radcliffe must've heard the guard hit the floor, because he snapped out of his meditation, and joined them.

"What do we do with him?" asked Drake, of the Highland soldier. He was now looking right at them.

"He's the enemy" said Yin. "Let's leave him."

"I have a feeling about him" said Drake. "I think we should bring him with us."

They both looked to Radcliffe, who shrugged, indicating he didn't care, and Drake motioned for the soldier to join them. "Can we trust you not to hurt us until we get out?" he asked of the soldier.

"Sure. Whatever" said the soldier.

Drake nodded, and led the way. They exited the building, and saw numerous surprised faces. They kept going, but were stopped by a group of armed Elves.

"Stop, prisoners!" yelled the one in the middle. "If you return quietly, we won't hurt you!"

"Yeah right!" yelled Drake. He charged at the lead man, but came up short, as an elf beside the lead one hit him on the side of the head with the flat of his blade. Drake slumped to the ground.

The other three men put their arms in the air, knowing that the elves were quite too fast for them. The elves were about to usher them back to their cell, but stopped when they saw Long and the others round a corner. Long saw Drake on the ground, and rushed to his side. Colt and Clemente approached the guards, while Willadean joined Long at Drake's side.

"He's just unconscious" said Long. He got up and looked at Radcliffe and Yin. "Hi guys."

They nodded in acknowledgement, and dropped their hands.

"Well, I guess your friends had the same idea that we had" said Willadean. "We should get your friend to a bed."

Long nodded, and picked Drake up. He slung him over his shoulder, and followed Willadean, who walked away. Radcliffe, Yin, and the soldier followed Long, but Colt stopped the soldier and sent him back to his cell with a few guards. Clemente followed Long and the group at a safe distance, while Colt took up the rear with the rest of the guards. There would need to be some explaining to do.

Long set Drake down on a bed, and then turned to the rest of the group. They all sat on whatever they could find, but Long opted to stand. He walked over to Yin, and stood beside him. Colt, who was also standing, walked into the middle of the room, and turned to Long.

"Now, how about a real explanation about why you are here?" asked Colt of Long.

"Okay, but first you tell us about this enemy that you mistook us for" replied Long.

Colt looked to Clemente who nodded, and so he began.

"A few, oh I don't know, hundred years ago, our people came to this forest, and constructed this village" started Colt. "We lived in peace for the first few generations, but then something happened. We began mutating. The first few mutations were only physical. The skin was paler, the hair was black, and the ears were longer. We accepted them as part of our society. Then the personalities began changing. They got more and more violent and more dependant on new technologies. They hid themselves, and travelled among humans. They forgot about the nature and left. We finally decided to forget about them. Fifty years ago, when my father was Chief of this village, and I was a new born, they came back. They had a human army to complement them. They actually only had about a dozen elves, self-titled 'Dark Elves', but they had a lot more humans. They all bore the same outfit, as well. We figured they were an army of mercenaries. But they never left. They stayed, and became integrated into the Dark Elves' society. Another mutation was that the Dark Elves have a telepathic ability. They can read minds. They used this advantage as a weapon and started a war with us. They wanted to take over our territory and drive us out. We resisted and proved to be a lot more effective than their human army. So, here we are at a stand-off. They have the numbers advantage, but we are better skilled. The only problem is that lately, there have been numerous half-breeds, to combine the humans natural skills, with Elf speed and the telepathic ability. We are in trouble."

Long thought about Colt's description of these forces, and then it hit him. He recognized those features from somewhere! Now if only he could remember from where. . .

"Oh damn" said Long.

"What's wrong?" asked Colt.

"Those uniforms wouldn't have to be blue with orange underneath?" asked Long, hoping he was wrong.

"You are absolutely right" answered Colt. "How did you know?"

"Yeah, how did you know, Long?" asked Yin.

Long took a moment to stop swearing softly under his breath to turn and face Yin. "Let's just say we should be seeing a lot more of our friends the Black Star Squad. One of their members wear that uniform. He was Loki's apprentice."

"Oh damn" said Yin.

"This couldn't get worse" added Radcliffe.

Just then a guard burst into the door, and yelled something ineligible. Colt asked him to repeat himself, and the guard said much slower.

"The Dark Elves are attacking, and they have more troops than they've ever sent at us" said the guard. He hurried back outside, and Colt followed close behind him. Clemente followed after Colt, and Willadean walked into the back room to check on Drake. Long and his two companions were the only ones left in the room.

"I stand corrected" said Radcliffe.

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"Long Chan-Chan" and "Suikoden 2" are (C) Konami This chapter was posted on September 23, 2000