Bush Elves
Signet's scouts and the region's great losers — devastated by Scolopendra while the high elves went untouched.
Story so far
Signet sends more Bush Elves out alongside a few others to spread through the jungle around Carl's party as it walks back to Point Mongo, screening for any lingering Hunters. They are the invisible half of the escort; only the Were-Castors walk in company.
Their history is the grievance that fuels the whole trailside argument. When Scolopendra's Nine-Tier Attack rolled over the region, the bush elves were devastated, while the High Elves rode it out intact in their castle behind stolen magic — 'the elves came out of it smelling like water lilies.' The poem Clint Smashgrab recites about the high elves cowering deep in their castle, protected by what they took, is bush-elf folk memory, taught the way a nursery rhyme is taught.
Appearance
Not described directly in this chapter; deployed as a dispersed screen of scouts through the jungle rather than as a visible escort.
Role
Signet's scouting and screening force around the party, and the population whose ruin by Scolopendra defines local resentment of the high elves.
Relationships
Sources — 4 recorded facts, by chapter
- The forest's defeated commoner elves, physically near-identical to High Elves but marked by wrinkles, hunched backs, and resignation.
- Second most common race of the Kapok district after the Ursine, seen scattered through the river town.
- Forty jungle elves in Signet's coalition, wary of loose dinosaurs and unimpressed by outworld manners.
- Signet's scouts and the region's great losers — devastated by Scolopendra while the high elves went untouched.