Of the First World, and the Eladrin

In the time between times, when the veil between worlds is thin, the First World began, and this was the way of it.
Twilight. Silence. In the Great Wood.
Endless and mighty was the Great Wood, and through it flowed the ever-running year in its eternal cycle. The growth and bloom of Spring matured into the strength of Summer that faded into the splendorous riot of color that is Autumn, which finally yielded to the long quiet of Winter, and in its time Winter released its grip and the world grew again. And all this in silence so deep that a whisper might have echoed for miles among those trees. Only the sighing of the wind, the soft fall of leaves, the slow creak of growing things broke that silence.
And then... life!
As Spring took hold and the world grew bright and green, there was a Maid running through the Great Wood. She was swift as the river and light as starlight, unclad, and her hair was silver, and she ran on and on through the wood. How long she ran no one knows for the days were not counted in that twilit place. Then, of a sudden, she burst into a glade of cherry blossoms, sending a spray of flowers through the air.
And she stopped, and gaped at the beauty. Then she laughed for the joy of it, and her laughter rang through the whole of the wood.
And there was a stag.
It was great and proud and sleek, with mighty antlers, as of an old wise forest king, and it looked at the Maid, and she looked a the stag. And both had joy in their eyes. And they ran. Who ran first I cannot say, but the stage leapt through the wood and the Maid raced after, thundering hooves and bare feet. And as the stag felt the thrill it lifted its head and bellowed, and birds burst from the trees all around in all colors and shapes and plumage, and their first song woke the sun, and daylight burst into a world that had never known it. And the Maid laughed her long clear laugh in the joy of the chase, and her laugh was answered by the baying of hounds that came racing through the trees to join her, and love woke in their hearts for her and all who would look like her, for her laughter had made them know who they were. And they nor their descendants have ever forgotten that first chase, and always they seek to begin it again.
On they raced now in a growing music, for as the stag ran, the beating of its hooves woke creatures from the undergrowth, hares and foxes and squirrels and all manner of creatures went racing through the wood and up into the trees. And the noise of the chase grew for the Maid's following had grown as wolves and bears ran at her side, while in the trees above great cats and forest drakes raced from branch to branch. In the sky above hawks and eagles dove and wheeled and shrieked for joy as the birds danced in the air above and among them.
And then all stopped, for in the long chase the Spring had wound away and Summer had come, and the Mother was there, and the chase halted, and all stood still and waited for her. The great cats walked to the Mother and lay down at her feet in contentment at the quiet she had restored, for they knew in their hearts that something in the riotous chase was not for them and longed to move with the silence of their kind through the Great Wood and see all there was to be seen.
Maid came to Mother, and together they went among the animals, and named them and showed them their places in the Great Wood and taught them to find others of their kind so that in the Spring their might be cubs and fledglings. But the Maid had not really wanted to end the run, and she had a mischief in her, and some beasts she taught wrong, telling the lion it belonged with the eagle or the bear that it belonged with the owl. So when the next Spring came and the young were born, there were griffons and owlbears and other strange creatures in the great chase.
All that Summer and into Autumn they taught the beasts, but soon Autumn dropped it's last bright leaves and the frost came, and the Crone arrived. And many animals they taught to sleep until the great chase should come again in the Spring, and others they taught to gather in the winter when the plants did not grow, and some they put to sleep that did not wake in the Spring, for that is the way of it.
Now the Crone knew what was to come, and as the summer passed the Mother grew great with child and in the Spring she gave birth. To her children, the Three taught the way of the Great Wood, and the care of the animals, and the joy of the chase. And these children were the first race of elves - the Eladrin. While many elves to come would go into other worlds, the Eladrin remained in the first world to tend the beasts and serve the Three.
And so life came to the Great Wood of the first world, which mortals call the Feywild. And every Spring it resounds to the joy of the Great Chase that mortals celebrate in the Wild Hunt every year. And in the Summer the animals meet and mate and in Autumn the Eladrin gather the harvest of fruit from the trees and the animals store up for winter. And in Winter many of them sleep, and some do not wake in the Spring.
For that is the way of it.