A Hero's Rebirth Ch. 03

Chapter 3

"Alright, Narusil, can you teleport us now?" I asked the matron.

I was gathered with Narusil, my two battle matrons (Tavorwen and Creadean), and the six battle maidens I had be granted (Anbethir, Flendreir, Nauveir, Risavis, Ulamir, and Zanantha) outside my home in Ealphamir, city of the Wood Elves.

"Um... I'm not sure that is a great idea from right here..." Narusil cautioned.

"What do you mean?" I asked, taken aback.

"Well, short range teleports, like the ones used to teleport you to the frontlines, are hard to redirect. Most casters won't even try to manipulate those, it's too hard to do anything with it. Long range teleports, like the kind we'd need for our attack on El'Muth'Ran, well, those are easier to manipulate. If detected when the spell is begun, as the teleportation caster reaches through the aether to begin to establish their chosen destination, a hostile caster can manipulate the actual endpoint of the teleportation, oftentimes without the teleportation caster knowing until the teleportation is underway and it is too late to fix." Narusil explained.

I winced, "So they could make us appear somewhere we didn't want?"

"Yes, and the larger the teleport, the further off course a hostile caster can make us arrive." Narusil explained. "They might be able to make us appear in a dungeon... or a volcano... or I heard one of my caster sisters say that one of the more aggressive houses of the shadow elves loves taking teleportations they catch and redirecting them furrows and furrows into the air... which generally is not good for the health of those being teleported."

I winced. That did not seem like a fun way to go.

"Okay, so do we have to walk all the way to El'Muth'Ran?" I verified with some disappointment.

"No." Narusil explained. "Like I said, it wasn't a great idea 'from right here'."

She motioned to the elven city around us.

"You see, in order to pull off the manipulation of a teleportation spell, two things are required. The hostile caster must use divination magic to detect the teleportation, then they must use interjection magic to manipulate the teleportation." Narisil explained, holding up a palm. "If we are here, in Ealphamir," She placed two fingers like a standing individual in the center of her palm. "We are in a place that is easy to guess that teleportation might be attempted from. Shadow Elf casters do all they can to watch the forest for signs of teleportation. We can detect them doing so, enough to use interjection and illusion magic to hide Ealphamir's exact location, though it sounds like they might have gotten that information from the poor sister they enslaved."

"Now, if all their attention is focused here, in Ealphamir, all we have to do is move far enough away," The finger 'person', on her palm, walked up her to her shoulder, "that the seers watching Ealphamir carefully for signs of teleportation miss the signs of our teleportation, because we are outside their field of notice."

"Okay, so then we can teleport to El'Muth'Ran?" I checked.

"We'll want to choose a location far enough away from El'Muth'Ran. Every major city like El'Muth'Ran, or Ealphamir, we watch inside our borders for signs of teleportation being attempted inside our city as well. Detecting a teleportation attempt is only really possible if you are monitoring the point of origination or the point of destination." Narusil explained. "I would think we would want to travel by foot outside the borders of the forest, probably to the southeast, away from El'Muth'Ran, and once we are a few furrows away from the forest, I could teleport us a few furrows away from El'Muth'Ran with minimal risk. The further we move away from our forest, and the further our teleportation destination is from El'Muth'Ran, the safer our teleportation will be." Narusil concluded.

"That makes more sense to me than the standard explanations the battle casters give." Risavis noted. "I had wondered why we didn't just teleport an army into the courtyards of El'Muth'Ran. The sisters of magic always just said something about aetherial interference and propagation vectors."

Narusil nodded, "The Aetherial Interference is the means of causing the teleportation subject to arrive at an undesired location. The propagation vectors determine how far off course a hostile caster can cause the teleportation subject to arrive. It's also one of the reasons why there are few material creations enchanted to utilize teleportation magic. The propagation vectors are larger for static magical effects, and even if Aetherial Interference is detected and a sister of magic is a party to the teleportation, the teleportation would frequently complete prior to the sister reclaiming the Aetherial Tether and re-anchoring it to the desired destination, resulting in either a failed teleportation, either failing completely where the subject remains, only teleporting parts of the subject to one destination or the other, or having the subject lost to the aether all together."

I cringed. The first option didn't sound too bad, but having bits of me appearing here, and bits of me appearing there, didn't sound nice. I didn't imagine being 'lost to the aether' would be pleasant either.

"Alright, then I guess we are hiking through the forest." I accepted. "Tavorwen, we were able to get from a few furrows outside the forest to Ealphamir in less than a day. How long do you think it'll take us to get out the southeast border of the forest?"

Tavorwen was thinking, "Well, the eastern edge of the forest has receded most into a feral woodscape, with the further south we go being worse, so we'll have to be careful. It might take us more than a full day to reach the edge of the forest, then I believe just a few hours travel would be good, to put us outside the range of detection. Would you agree, Narusil?"

Narusil nodded, "That doesn't quite put us in the territory of the Sea Elves, but even the most gifted of seers wouldn't be able to watch that far outside the forest."

"Alright, that's the plan." I looked over my small squad. "Any objections?"

The she-elves warriors saluted, fist over their hearts. "No, Master Thomas."

"Tavorwen, I don't know the woods well enough to take the lead on this. I'll put the command in your hands until we reach our teleportation site." I informed her.

"Yes, Master." Tavorwen declared. She turned to the maidens. "Risavis, you'll be the forward scout. Creadean, you will take the lead with Zanantha and Ulamir. Anbethir, Flendreir and Nauveir, you'll be with me. Nauveir, you take the rear. Flendreir, right flank. Anbethir, left flank. Let's move."

Risavis took off as soon as the words were out Tavorwen's mouth. Creadean and her other maidens then followed, allowing Risavis to get a significant headway. Narusil's owl took to the air, its silent wings making it a ghost, watching us but not even drawing my notice. It felt so incredibly normal to form up and start out, I almost fell into a march. We trudged through the city.

I was glad a few things had remained between earth and my new home. I hadn't been trying to navigate, simply absorbed in observing my immediate surroundings. I had noted a few things. The sun still rose in the east and set in the west. Now, looking for markers as I was trying to begin to establish landmarks and navigation points I realized a few things. The angle of the sun was only right for one thing, we were in the southern hemisphere.

Secondly, and embarrassingly, I noticed that this world, 'Elendel' the angel had called it, had multiple moons. Three moons were in the sky at this moment. One moon looked green, like oxidized copper, the second was rusty colored and the third looked blue, like the oceans of earth visible from orbit. As we walked, I could see that the moons were obviously different sized, and in different orbits, moving at different speeds. They seemed to generally have similarly aligned orbits, and I wondered if the moons formed something like the rings of saturn. I figured if there were actually rings, I would be able to see them. I hadn't really looked at the stars as Tavorwen had guided me from the temple where I'd been summoned to the city, but I'd have to watch now.

We reached the south-western edge of the city and began to descend to the forest floor.

Risavis reached the floor and gave a trilling whistle, then waited for a moment. There was the pittering of paws like a dog answering its master's call. Walking down the steps that wound around the tree's trunk down to the floor, the tree was between me and the sound of the paws, so I couldn't see the pooch until it circled the trunk... And that was when I realized that pooch was a terrible term for Risavis's... pet.

Imagine, if you will, a gray wolf. You have that image? Okay, now, make it stand six feet tall at the shoulder, and roughly as long, snout to rump without the tail. Its gray fur was streaked with black and it had a ridge of reddish fur arching from the base of its neck to down its back. A leather harness held a leather panel on its back, with straps over its shoulders to a plate over its sternum. Then more straps warped around its ribs to hold the harness in place. The wolf's upper canines protruded slightly from its jaws.

As it came running straight at Risavis. When it reached her, without slowing, it lowered its head and Risavis jumped, a foot landing on the wolf's nose before it pushed her up, popping her up like a springboard to where she caught a loop of rope on the leather plate and pulled herself down onto the massive wolf's back and she took off into the trees with a patter of paws.

"What was that?!" I demanded.

"Dire wolf." Tavorwen dismissed. "Many of the scouts tame them. They can be great companions and aids in their work."

The speed the beast moved with was terrifying and awe inspiring.

We reached the floor and started moving out, following the path of the great wolf. I was shocked that I couldn't find a single mark to indicate the great canine had left to show his passing.

"How will she let us know if she finds anything?" I asked.

"Bird calls." Tavorwen answered. "Creadean has worked with her before, she'll know what to listen for. Each troop has their own system of calls and meanings, so that a single compromise won't compromise our entire force."

We took a fairly easy pace, allowing the she-elves to keep a pace that didn't overly tax them. Every hour or so, we rested and Risavis and her dire mount joined us.

"So, what's his name?" I asked, the first time the great wolf plopped down next to her, it's chin on her lap like a great puppy, noting his gender as the wolf did nothing to hide his equipment.

"I call him Irsivir." Risavis answered, scratching behind his great fluffy ears, making him gruff happily.

"How hard is it to feed him?" I wondered.

"Feed him?" Risavis puzzled, "He's a wolf... he feeds himself. Do wolves in your home world need to be fed? I simply let him eat when he needs to and hunt as he needs."

I had to concede there was a point there.

It was interesting trekking across the forest floor. There was a fair amount of smaller plant life among the roots of the enormous trees, but not so much as to really impede our progress.

"So what kinds of dangers are out here?" I asked, adjusting my rifles.

I found them to be most comfortable to carry with the barrel down. The butt of my sniper rose just over my shoulder with the barrel down by my calves. The combat rifle was slung crossbody, but its smaller length meant that while the butt hung at the base of my ribs, the barrel was hanging down around my knees.

"Well, we can't be completely certain." Creadean admitted. "Once our rangers knew every beast living anywhere in our woods, and nothing came or left without us being aware. But now, our numbers are so low, and we so busy, that we can't even track the threats of nature within the parts of the forest we still control."

"Part of the mixed blessing and curse of the forest is that it rests on what is known as a confluence of leylines." Narusil explained. "Each leyline has an elemental affinity as well as a magical affiliation. Leylines spiral like rings around our world, each line anchored in but a single space. This forest is the anchor point of two such lines, a major line of Earth, associated with Augmentation magic, making the earth rich and growth more prolific. This is how we were able to grow the trees so large. The second leyline, a far more minor one, is of water, and is associated with healing. Together the leylines make the local plants and wildlife grow strong and large, like Irsivir. Were he born and raised in another place, he might have grown only to the size and strength of a normal wolf." She held out a hand at roughly the right height for a gray wolf.

"Such beasts, grown to far greater size are known as dire beasts. Such as Irsivir being known as a dire wolf." Creadean continued, "And most of the dangers of the forest are such dire beasts. Like that snake."

She pointed out a snake I would never have noticed, its brown mottled skin blended with the bark of the tree it clung to. It must have been thirty feet long and about five feet thick. Its black eyes watching as we traveled below, too far away to really make an easy meal.

"Other threats include aggressive plants like that bloodleaf or that firesap plant." Flendreir piped up.

The plants indicated looked harmless initially, but then I noticed the threats. The bloodleaf had thorns along the bottom of the leaves that seemed to flatten and extend almost like a viper's fangs, and the leaves swayed despite the still air. I was reminded of some of the carnivorous plants of earth, but with leaves the size of my chest. The firesap plant looked harmless enough until I noticed the charred ground underneath it, where even the root of the great tree it was growing on had been burned away. I was guessing that the sap, when exposed to air, would combust.

"And that is assuming that no other threats have moved in to take advantage of our weakness." Creadean conceded.

"What kinds of things might have moved in?" I wondered.

"Could be about anything." Tavorwen admitted, "The worst would be a forest dragon. They have scales strong enough they are almost invulnerable, and the very language of magic is the language of the dragons. They are naturally magic resistant and can use magic as powerfully as any mage if they have too. Most dragons can breathe out fire, or some other harmful thing that is generally as dangerous as their magic. For example, forest dragons can breathe out a mist of potent acid that, while generally harmless to plant-life, can eat through softer flesh in a moment."

Acid breath, lovely.

"And what are the odds of a forest dragon having moved in?" I demanded.

"Dragons are powerful but reproduce slowly... but then again it has been over a hundred years since we could do a full canvassing of the forest... honestly, I don't know." Creadean admitted.

"What do we do if we run into a dragon?" I pressed.

"We hope we can evade it and it doesn't notice us." Narusil stated bluntly. "Some of the maidens may have some basic training for the possibility of a draconic attack, but the primary tactic is to minimize casualties as we lure the dragon nearer to Ealphamir where the last few remaining anti-dragon artillery weapons remain."

I looked over the grim faces as we walked.

"My rifle was able to take out the wyverns without issue. Wouldn't it be just as effective against the dragons?" I asked in confusion.

Zanantha snorted, "Wyverns are dragons in the same sense that both sparrows and Eagles are birds. Wyverns can be captured and tamed as hatchlings. If you hatch a dragon and try to tame it, the wyrmling will play along until it gets big enough and strong enough to kill their captors, and then they will laugh as they destroy their captors. Dragons are too intelligent to be tamed. The scales of a full dragon are between ten and fifteen times stronger than the scales of a wyvern."

Anbethir interjected, "In all fairness, our records indicate there are types of dragons that used to cooperate with our ancestors. In fact, if I'm remembering my studies correctly, there were more types of dragons that lived in peace with the humanoids in the region than the aggressive and violent dragons that fought against them. The friendlier dragons may have kept the more dangerous ones at bay."

Zanantha laughed, "Yes, but three of the five largest breeds of full dragon are aggressive and violent. Thank the gods that the most powerful dragons are more aligned with us than against us."

This was not encouraging. I wondered if the swap on my bullets from lead projectiles to adamantine projectiles would help, I'd looked at the adamantine and it seemed denser than lead, and as hard as it was it could easily be more armor penetrating. So long as my muzzle velocity was comparable, the range shouldn't be hurt and the penetrating power should be better.

We stopped to rest again.

"One question." I asked. "Why do you use the word 'humanoid' to describe the races like you? Wouldn't 'elvenoid' be a better word? You've never met a human other than me."

The elves all had an almost visceral, or nauseous, reaction to my question.

"Oh gods... Is that what you hear us saying?" Narusil demanded with a shiver.

"Ugh, that translation is... painful." Tavorwen shuddered.

I looked at them.

"Okay, let's see if we can work around your translation magic here..." Narusil thought for a moment. "So the word we use is... aphoril... did you hear that as our word, or yours?"

"Aphoril?" I repeated.

The she-elves winced at my pronunciation, "Close enough... oh, you need to actually learn elvish... But yes, that is our word, it means a creature that is generally intelligent, walks on two legs, has two arms, a single head, a torso that contains its organs, and reproduces sexually and gives live birth. Most also have the females nurse their young." Narusil explained. "Elvenoid..." she shuddered trying to say the word, "That is a nonsense word and just seems wrong on so many levels."

"Is that all that it takes to qualify as a humanoid?" I asked, wondering about gorillas and such.

"It is problematic to generally make the term more exclusive." Tavorwen added, "As if you declare a race non-humanoid, then it is harder to determine which races should receive what levels of care and respect. Though magic sometimes makes that distinction for you."

I was startled, "What do you mean?"

"Well, there are spells that are limited to a specific type of creature, like humanoids or animals. It simplifies the spells and allows a less skilled caster to cast the spell, but if you cast 'paralyze humanoid' on a creature and it works, then the universe has decided that creature is a humanoid, even if you wouldn't think it should apply." Narusil filled me in. "That was one of the determining factors to determine whether the Lizardfolk should be considered humanoids or not. The spells work however, so the universe has determined them to be humanoids."

"Lizard... folk..."" I repeated with disbelief.

"Oh, yes. There are the Clatthree, the Ignodin, Grathgir, Hepthpar, Lakthree, Thraskar and the Wrencthes. They are each unique and often proud people. But due to racial similarities, we generally just call them 'Lizardfolk'." Ulamir stated. "We had been attempting to build some form of diplomatic relations with some of these peoples when the shadow elves emerged and unfortunately caused those negotiations to end when all our diplomats were called home and most of them were slain."

"So how many types of humanoids are there?" I wondered.

"That we know of?" Creadean clarified.

"Well," Narusil thought. "There are the humans, and we elves, the hawkar, the felanin, the lizardfolk, the lorpins, the orcs, and the halfmen."