Life After Undeath

“This story is called Zombies & Elves, and I’ve only created the first 4 chapters at this point. Perhaps I’ll tell y’all more of the tale once I have more of it completed, but for now I’ll recall from memory everything that I’ve come up with so far…

Chapter 1: Reasons

A long time ago, there was a distant world which was inhabited by many zombies and elves.

The zombies and elves lived in constant harmony with one another, and were able to coexist in relative happiness without too much trouble.

But, as is the case in far too many worlds, this peace had broken down over time; and they had became very fierce enemies.

Once upon a time, they had lived together; but they were now separated and had laws against any crossing of the borders that separated elves and zombies.

Wars over who owned what, who’d wronged who, and who should own what were numerous and had become a simple fact of life.

Just 1,000 years after having lived in such harmony with one another, not a single zombie or elf even knew that there used to be peace and collaboration between them; so great was the current divide.

In one particularly bloody battle, elves and zombies were killing each other as quickly as they could; and, when the fighting had finally ended at nightfall, all who still could headed back to their camps.

But, one zombie and one elf had been knocked out cold, and were trapped under fallen trees within a close proximity of one another. Both awoke, within about a half hour of each other, and tried their best to escape from under the fallen trees that were weighing down their torsos, feet, and hands.

However, neither were having too much success; and (unsurprisingly), within a short amount of time, they began screaming and hurling insults at one another; both blaming one another for the hardships of their kind.

Somehow, they weren’t even sure how, it dawned on both of them that the struggles of the elves were very similar to those of the zombies; and that the atrocities experienced by zombies were not too different from those that elves had experienced during their lives.

A badger named Plop heard the verbal friendship that was beginning to blossom between them, and decided to free them from under the fallen trees and work with them to try to bring about peace between elves and zombies.

The idiotic wars between zombies and elves were constantly causing problems for others (such as the badgers!), and it would be best for all if there were to be peace.

The elf and zombie agreed to Plop’s proposal, though their hopes weren’t high that success would materialize.

Sure, they’d somehow become friends, but it seemed like a probably insurmountable challenge to get zombies and elves in general to have epiphanies that would move them towards harmony and away from their misguided notion that there were important reasons to fight…

Chapter 2: Weakened

“This is stupid! That branch can’t support your weight!”

“We have to get the letter back, and it’s the only way!”

Jeb tried to hold Dara back from climbing out onto the branch, but it was too late.

“Get back here!” “No! I’m getting it, and you’ll be glad that I didn’t listen to what you did say!”

Suddenly, the branch broke, but didn’t detach completely.

“Nooooo!” Jeb yelled, trying to reach his arm out to Dara, but but failing miserably.

Suddenly, a zombie was beside him! Okay… so, now they were both going to die!

But, the zombie was pulling out his own intestines, for some reason. But, why?

The intestines were able to function as a rope, and the zombie tossed it down to Dara.

Like any reasonable elf, she loathed zombies, but it seemed like her only chance at survival was to accept his unexpected offer.

Soon, Dara had gotten safely back to the top of the cliff, and the zombie dashed off before her and Jeb could ask why a zombie would save an elf.

Elves and zombies were sworn enemies! It made no sense that they’d just received seemingly unconditional life-saving help.

When the two of them returned home, they told others about the zombie who seemed to want to save elves instead of kill them.

Some believed their story, and some didn’t; but, overall, that community’s animosity towards zombies was ever so slightly weakened…

Chapter 3: Discovery

The zombies chased after the elf who had so rudely crossed their border!

This was not leading to them catching the elf, though; for, the elf was faster.

“I think that this elf is leading us into a trap!” one zombie said.

“Within our own borders? I think not.” another zombie replied, with a shake of her head.

The elf disappeared into a secret passageway that was disguised as a tree.

The zombies followed her in, hoping that she’d be trapped now, and they could get to some “questioning.”

They couldn’t find the elf, but they did find some strange and ancient looking documents.

They were written in an ancient variation of the zombies’ current language.

They forgot about the elf, as they pored over their fascinating find;

for, modern day zombies didn’t have much (if any) information about what had happened during this period of time.

They were shocked to discover that there appeared to have been a lot of collaboration and friendship between zombies and elves when these documents had been written.

It didn’t make any sense, though! Had that elf intentionally led them here to trick them?

They decided to hire an archeologist to inspect the documents and determine whether they were authentic or not.

If true, a find like this could cause not just a little controversy among zombies in general, and would probably cause quite a lot…

Chapter 4: Brainstorming

Plop, Rayne, and Earl all discussed the status of their mission to get the zombies and elves to go back to the peace that they’d had in times of old.

Their work had borne some fruit, especially the way that Rayne had led some zombies into discovering ancient documents that contained proof that elves and zombies hadn’t always been enemies, which was different from what both zombies and elves had been told.

Neither zombies nor elves in general were taking this discovery to mean that peace was possible nowadays, though; for, they saw modern times as being too different from other times in history.

They were at least having to confront the idea that peace was conceivable, though, which was something that’d previously been very taboo among both elves and zombies.

In addition to the historical revelations changing the dynamics that were at play a bit, Earl having saved an elf’s life had led to the community of that elf being more open to a peace like the one that had existed in the past being restored.

They were absolutely not openly advocating for it, mind you; but, the curriculum in their schools had shifted in a way that was noticeably less anti-zombie than any curriculums that other elf communities were using to educate each other.

Earl, Plop, and Rayne certainly hadn’t been working alone in their efforts to move the needle towards peace; and many beings of many different species were assisting them in their efforts.

For, harmony between zombies and elves would benefit quite a lot of various creatures.

They continued brainstorming and looking out for more opportunities that might arise, in regards to improving relations between elves and zombies.

It sometimes seemed like an impossible goal that they were working towards; but, they knew that it wasn’t impossible, just unlikely…”

“I sure do hope that peace can eventually be reached between the characters in your story,” I said to Griff, “but it sounds like it’s going to be quite a tough road to get there.”

“For sure.” Osiris agreed, and then asked, “Are the zombies in your story former humans like us, did they turn into zombies from a species other than humans, or are they just naturally zombies? Also, are they permanent zombies, or do they have an antidote that will unzombie them after thousands of years?”

“I hope that peace can be achieved too!;” Griff agreed, “but, yes, it will be quite a tough road indeed. And, as far as the questions go, only what’s in the story is canon; which means that even if I did throw some answers out there they could end up being overturned by how the story ends up going.

But, anyway!, enough talk about my story for now! Does anyone else have a tale to share?”

“I may as well go next.” I offered, and began to tell a tale…