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The war was still going on. Ogres and Elves have fought for a long time and they would continue to do so. For some reason the hatred between the two species was deeply ingrained.
Bodies lay around the broken gate, the ogres just had one of their assaults on the Elven Island and it had been a partly successful one. They had breached the Elven gate and managed to get into the city Penteza, where the elven warriors, together with half elves and dark elves were able to hold them back.
“This has got to end!” an Elven commander grumbled. “Today they got behind our gate, look at how it looks! We might not hold them of the next time.”
“Maybe if we asked the exiled elves…” one of the half elves started, but he was quickly interrupted by the commander.
“They were exiled for a reason. Besides, we need our troops at Exella plains, to fight off the giants from the mountains. The timing of this assault could not have come at a worst time.”
One of the dark elves glared at the others. “We need to strike, teach those ogres a lesson they will never forget!”
The war wouldn’t end, there was to much hatred between them. The commander would love to teach those filthy ogres a lesson, but now with the giants and the broken gate, he didn’t want to start another massive and undoubtedly bloody assault. He sighed and looked at the gate. That was their first priority, the gate had to be fixed. The elven warriors, dark elves and half elves were still arguing. The commander gazed towards the trees of Penteza forest he could see in the distance, the tree leaves whispering in the wind. An idea started to form.
“Enough!” the commander shouted. “Here is my plan...”
Some time later
The dark elves entered the ogre cave and sneaked into the outpost. Vorghs and Barghrags grabbed their weapons, but they weren’t fast enough and were quickly killed. They could hear noises of a party in Ogre town, the reason why so few Ogres were at the outpost. They were celebrating their victory and didn’t expect an attack so quickly. Instead of going to the town, the dark elves went past the lake to the lava lake, where the ogres made their weapons.
“Ready?” the dark elf whispered to the elven mage.
The mage took some gems from his pouch and started mumbling words till they were glowing. Then he threw them on the ground. As the gems shattered, trees started to appear. More and more trees, until the lava lake was inaccessible.
Quickly the elves left again. The ogres were strong fighters and not to bad smiths, but they were terrible woodcutters. If they needed more supplies, they had to cut away the forest first. That would hold them of for some time, and give the Elves enough time to fix the gate.
The ogres would never be able to do it themselves, they would need to call in help from outside the cave. Call in the human woodcutters.
A few days later
The elven commander stood like a statue, clearly agitated, but trying to keep in control. The path to the forest, to their forest was blocked by rocks. One of the ogre shamans must have done this. Like they had blocked of the way to their Lava Lake. Now Penteza forest was unreachable, unless the could clear the path. But elves were no skilled miners. Sure, they had their own pickaxe, but honesty commanded him to admit the ogres were far better miners.
“We should kill them all!” a dark elf exclaimed. “We can’t let them get away with this! Commander, just give the order and I will go in their cave with my fellow elves and I …”
“Silent!” the commander interrupted him. “We will get back at them. But this action is clearly their response to what we did to them.” He gazed towards the fixed gate. “I’m sure they’ll be waiting for us, we shouldn’t rush into battle.”
“I don’t think we should fight at all,” a half elf mumbled.
The other elves looked at him and he shrugged. Of course they wouldn’t listen to him, they never did. The hate between elves and ogres was a long one. Both sides claimed the others started it, but no-one was willing to end it.
“We shouldn’t engage in battle,” the half-elf tried again. “It’ll just lead to more aggression, more battle, more death.”
“Weakling,” the dark elf growled. “Always the same with you pacifist half elves. They won’t stop fighting. We should strike first, so they won’t have the chance to fight us.”
The commander felt a headache rising. It was always like this, the half-elves didn’t really understand the hate between the races, though they were the first to defend the lands against raids. The dark elves were aggressive, more aggressive then was good for them. The elven warriors stood silent behind him. They would follow his command, whatever he’d decide. He knew they hated the ogres as much as he did, but they kept their anger in control.
“If we offered a reward, I’m sure the humans would be willing to lend us a hand in clearing the path.” The half elf, who had some human blood, looked at the other elves. “If we ask them, the path to our forest will be cleared in no-time.”
“Do it,” the commander said. “Send a word to the humans. And I need a few scouts to go in the caves, to see what the ogres are up to. I’m sure they’re planning an attack, they will want to strike when we are clearing the path to our forest. We should be ready for that.”
The elven commander was correct, the ogres were planning an attack, but with the humans on the island they decided against attacking. The human warriors were known to attack both ogres and elves alike, they didn't need much provocation for that. For now there would be no attack.