The human version of the events of two generations passed was probably very different than the elven version.  Though Rook had no reason to doubt the version she'd heard numerous times from her grandfather and then her father.  

[i]The rock trolls, orcs, and ogres united under a single banner, calling themselves the Bloodcrushers.  They pushed south and launched an assault on the northern elven territories, their sheer numbers were enough to threaten to overrun them completely.  The elves, fighting desperately to hold back the tide of the Bloodcrushers, had reached out to the human kingdoms to the west, pleading for help, offering fertile land if only the humans would send aid.  The human armies heeded the call of their allies, bringing thousands of cavalry to aid the elves.  And together, they pushed back the horde, though hundreds of human soldiers lost their lives.  

And then the elves refused their promise, offering only a small token of land, an insult really to the memory of the hundreds who had died to save elven lives.  After months of failed negotiations, the human lords grew impatient at the haughty elven nobles.  They banded together and took the promised land by force.  Already diminished by the fight with the Bloodcrushers, the elves ceded quickly.   

While there was tension for decades, slowly relations were getting better. [/i] 

However, Rook wasn't thinking of her history lessons as she fought her way through a tangle of briars that tore at her shirt.  She was thinking only of putting distance between herself and Marius.  She thought she heard something moving ahead.  Hoping it was Kaiden, she pushed her way forward...