Dragon Wars Book 2 Pt. 01

Yes, but not many. He was not killed by them, at least not alone. He had been shot by Wood Elves, Moon Elves, and forced into retreating wounded into Wild Elf lands where he encroached into their lands to flank us. He found his exit closed. He died when they shot him.

You cannot throw a stone and find a single elven race that was solely responsible for his death. I can say we had no Half-Dragons at that time or Gold Elves at that point out here. Tallion did not reinforce us that day, he was working another border and we had larger numbers.

We were attacked, your Grandfather was not defending his people but leading them into war into other Wild and Wood Elf lands. I was young and not an adult yet. Being attacked and shot at by other Wood Elves and struck by your Grandfather's arrow.

Wood Elf King, vs Wood Elf King, both died in that battle. The other was my father and I was here. You were fed the truth your tribe of Wood Elves believes.

Most of the warriors of that age are dead now. Many dying when the Drow arose and attacked 75+ locations at once across this continent, before the cataclysm!

Know your history. That number grew, but that was the beginning of champions being on the field. Do you want to know where Tallion reinforced out here? One of them was Silent Falls. Yes, your home village. One of his wives was killed in the city and they brought her body back after Tallion killed those involved in her death.

Her ashes, his, and all of his wives who passed were spread over the plains near Silent Falls. His wife that was murdered, was a Half-Elf who was killed the morning after the wedding. She could not even get a funeral in the Moon Elf City he lived in and that disgusted him.

When Tallion died, he wanted no ceremony, no announcement, just his body burned and his ashes scattered on one particular battlefield he helped to protect. You can guess who the Queen called upon to see that it was carried out that way. He saved it from destruction as they had a major breach from the Drow in the area and he contained it.

Throwing himself into the lines and killing 50+ Drow at a time. Coming out, getting healed up, and walking right back into it, day and night for 3 days with no rest. They sealed it, but it was not sealed fully until they got the Dwarven explosives to seal that breach.

He was in a rage over the loss of his wife. As a Blade Singer, being Half-Moon Elf, he took it all out on the Drow. If you had seen him you'd remember him. He stood 7 foot tall and was a time and half as wide as any other Half-Dragon we had or have had."

She looked at him, "You saw the battle in which my Grandfather died? He shot you...as a child?"

General White Oak nodded, "As a child being shot and shot at by his forces. I took an arrow in the leg from your grandfather. I managed to nick him with a shot, right across his cheek. Many of the elders you will be meeting today have painful memories of him.

Out here, in these woods, when whichever enemy comes, if they do not respect life and shoot at children, I don't have much sympathy for them when they die. When those wars end, you have to move beyond that and come together as a people. Most Wood and Wild Elves will still shoot at each other for any encroachment.

Keeping forces within their separate territories. The Wood Elf people united. The Wild Elves I got a lot of the smaller tribes to merge and be at peace amongst themselves. That has been worked but not talked about. It is work I had to do with the Wild Elves.

Your being a champion will change and challenge that. You are officially a Captain of a hunter and investigation squad. That means the city will be paying you. I am covering for who you are. This druid being in your group will cover if you get injured and be your 'means to get your group into Wild Elf lands.' Is there anything you need before we go?"

Shirana Elm looked down, "I remember hearing the stories of this massive Half-Dragon who held the lines out near the breach. He came out from the front line. He had Battle Mages and Arcane Archers shooting at those who broke through as he went back to the clerics.

One created water over him to wash the ground red in his blood and the blood of those he killed, another would heal him up. He would eat something because they insisted. Then turn around and another small group would get up and follow him out for his next lumbering walk back into the battle, 10 minutes and back into the battle.

I had a Grandmother who told me about him. The wife of my Grandfather who had died in fact. She did not challenge the stories told about my Grandfather but told me. 'There are seldom things you see in a war that are truly noble. What the Field Marshal did to protect us was noble.'

I guess it was her way of silently rebelling against the rhetoric that fueled me. I did not learn he was Half Moon Elf until the Academy and was shocked by that fact. I never held a grudge against Half-Dragons, our clerics and druids told us they were to be embraced as a part of our people as ordered by the Gods.

She went back to the lines to fight every day she said, but she would spend a few hours fighting then come home and rest the next day she would do it again. She had a shift she was on for her time on the line. I need a ring for poison protection. I was told to ask you about it as I have a hard time asking for anything."

General White Oak came back with 12 of them, "Poison and paralysis immunity as you are going after the Drow. Sometimes the bolts just petrify you and they kill you later or drag you away into the Underdark. I had my wife craft them for your unit, to be unique. Here is a map. It is for the current continent but shows all of the previous breach sites. Only major cities are marked.

You notice the letters and numbers, just like the Academy grids. Two communication stones, one to me and you, and one for your druid to me. In case you get injured. Keep that available all the time. It will only vibrate until you activate it. No sound on them, no voices giving away your positions. Answer immediately, unless you are tracking. Then as soon as feasible you contact me back."

She nodded, "Alright, if you get killed?"

He sighed, "The Gods will advise you. This second map is enchanted, you roll it out on the ground and it will give you your location, the city names, and village names within 10 miles of you. It won't show you a Wood Elf, Wild Elf, or human border and that is why this meeting is so important. A bag of holding to store all of that with. Keep your crystals in a pouch on your belt or weave the crystal into a bracelet on your wrist. Your choice."

General White Oak unsecured the tent and took her out the back way and into Wild Elf lands. Shirana spotted their archers, "Why are they aiming at us?"

He sighed, "They are aiming at you. They know me, but I come alone, always."

He called out a passphrase to them and they quickly disappeared. Shirana spotted them still watching with bows that were still at the ready. She looked at the General, "More territorial than we are."

He nodded, "More so as leaders of all 12 tribes will be here today. An unusual move for them but dictated by the Gods. Each has 20 guards."

They finally walked into a village with one large building. They walked forward and one went to take her bow and she pulled back, "You cannot have it!"

General White Oak sighed, "Why?"

She looked at him, "It was brought to me a Gold Elf, held in a vault. It is Drake Wood's bow!"

The General waved them off, "She keeps that bow, your elders can challenge the Gods to try and take it from her."

They backed off and looked at the old-looking bow. One of them commented. "It does not look like much."

Shirana glared at him, "I could say the same about you. Yet in another's eyes, they hold you in a special place. I do not see the bow as you do. I see it for what it is because I was chosen to wield it. It conceals itself as we do in the woods. No need to be flashy, or bright all the time. That is not the Wood Elf way or the Wild Elf way."

The General walked her into the tent. They were all surprised to see her in the room with a bow in hand. She heard from the Lady of Dreams, "Here is your first test of faith in matters. That we all work to support you. Hold the Bow over your head and force your will upon it to reveal itself to the Elders and those in the room. Have faith in the fact you were chosen to do so."

Shirana sighed and held the longbow aloft and focused her will upon it until it revealed itself to those in the room who now saw her amulet glowing from under her shirt. She was a champion and she held Drake Wood's Bow. Drake Wood was a Half-Dragon from long ago. He built the bow and led the Wilderness Elves against the Drow as a hero long ago.

He had magical talent from a long-lost line of bow-wielding enchanters and his skills in magic were unparalleled at that time. The bow was set to capture his spirit when he died, never feeling completely welcomed by either side of his heritage and letting him rule over who should wield the bow created by his hands.

He wanted a legacy to unite the wilderness elves as he saw them dividing out, for when the Drow return because they tended to suffer the most. To create this relic for the Wilderness Elves who disowned his mother for bearing him. He returned and united the Wood and Wild Elf tribes that had split off as they came together and killed the Drow by the hundreds.

It required no quiver to be ready but arrows could be used for doing multiple shots. Else it would generate one. The Spirit of Drake Wood appeared in the room in his Half-Dragon form which was starkly different as he was covered in bark skin instead of scales but had their wings. From a now extinct line of Forest Drakes and a Wilderness Elf mother.

Drake Wood spoke, "I created this bow to unite the Elven people of the wilderness. Only in the hands of an elven hero or champion who had Dragonblood in their veins and the heart of protecting the elves of the wilderness. Wood or Wild made no difference to me as they were one when I created this bow.

The Wilderness Elves. The Forest Drakes have long been dead, but she has Dragonblood in her. Put back into a Wood Elf's hands to work to unite the elves of the wilderness against the Drow, yet again. She respects the ways of the ancestors of my time as judged by me.

The bow will appear this way now until she dies and will look like an old worn bow until needed again after she falls. One of the only relics created for your people is in her hands and she alone is chosen to use it. To see to our common enemy, the Drow."

The image faded and the bow did not hide its appearance. Ironwood strength composite longbow with magical runes etched into the bow with thorns still on the outside edge of the bow in case she needed to do a bow strike with it, it would shred an enemy. Shirana spoke, "I will be crossing your lands at times. I will not be alone. A Wild Elf druid has been chosen to join me. 10 others with 2 or more of them being Moon Elves. A ranger and the other an Arcane Archer."

One of the elders stood, "No Arcane Archers, their spells damage the woods!"

She pulled back the bow and fired her arrow into the fire in the middle of the room and it exploded into the earth explosion and snuffed out the fire.

She looked across as they looked at her in shock. She spoke, "I am an Arcane Archer. I will teach this other one spells to not damage the woods. To direct what he or she uses for those spells instead. To work as a Wood Elf Arcane Archer would. Spells I researched when forced to the city Academy to train my Arcane talent.

I did not like their spells so I created new ones for the Wood Elves. I have held them as guarded, but have been told by Rillifane Rallathil to teach these spells to this other Arcane Archer. Rangers, 2 arcane archers including myself, and a druid of the Wild Elves, as dictated to me, by Rillifane Rallathil.

You are going to question me? Are you going to challenge Rillifane Rallathil's will in this matter? Even I cannot do that. I am Captain Shirana Elm and Champion of Rillifane Rallathil. The team I lead will not know who I am and you are not to instruct them otherwise. The druid is the exception, in case I am injured.

She or he will lead us in and be the 'reason' we are allowed across the lands in the eyes of the others I travel with. I can see the enemy, highlight them for the others, and work to bring them down quickly. The Drow will use fireballs and other damaging spells to these woods. They won't hesitate. But like the storm that strikes a tree, some damage is nature is sometimes nature taking its course.

We are here to move and destroy these unnatural creatures when they surface. I will teleport us here if need be to aid the people. But our being welcomed is because of your Wild Elf Druid who will travel with us, potentially into Moon Elf cites at times. They will bend no knee to a Gold Elf King or me. I am merely a Captain of a Hunter Squad and the King does not know who I am by the will of the Gods."

Another Elder, Elder Thorn, though she did not know his name looked at her, "Elm, as in the Blood King Elm?!"

General White Oak looked at them, "Elder Thorn, Don't use that term. King Elm was misguided. He fought with many elves. She is a granddaughter of him, but in her villages, the Moon Elves are the ones believed to have killed him.

History is written by the victors and the survivors. The local Wood Elves of his village wrote it so the Moon Elves took the blame. Yet all have blood on their hands when we attack each other.

That is why you are 12 tribes instead of 15 or 49 when that war was going on as you were killing each other and not just others. Any tribe who claims they did not shed innocent blood in those fights is lying.

I told her it was Wild Elves who put the final arrows into him, but Moon, Wood, and Wild Elves all shot him that day. We are not here about the wars of the past. We are here about the decisions of the Gods."

The Lady of Dreams spoke to Shirana, "The gods have not put a Wild Elf champion on the field because they stand apart. Rillifane Rallathil wants to show that a Wild Elf can be up to this task.

That is why a Wild Elf druid is traveling with you. That they can stand apart but serve the greater whole. Their acceptance of working with others is key to ever getting a Wild Elf champion in the future. Tell them that."

Shirana sighed, "The Lady of Dreams told me something. I am not as trusting of her because of what happened in my personal life and the stories I was told of the Moon Elves killing my Grandfather. Now I know that was not the complete truth after talking with General White Oak. He was there and was shot with an arrow as a child in that battle.

I have no reason to doubt her words on this. Your druid, a Wild Elf, is the key to showing you cooperating in protecting more than your lands, but the lands of all elven people. To show that a Wild Elf champion should be named in the future.

You are all being tested, failure means the Wild elves will never field a champion in this war that is set to run for another 9,800-10,000 years as dictated by Dragon Gods who are fighting it out. Our people will suffer regardless because of this fact.

Our Dragon's Allies who come and breed with your people, the Half-Dragons are to be embraced as a part of your tribe. The Chromatic Dragons would work to rape, kill, and consume your people. Yet Dragonblood is the key to one day wielding this very bow if made a champion on the field. You heard those words from the spirit of Drake Wood himself who inhabits this bow.

I die and this bow returns to the Gods until they find another to put it in their hands. Here is where you prove you are more cooperative than ever before. Else lose your chance to have a Wild Elf champion rise among your ranks, who has to be Dragonblooded. As Drake Wood has also demanded.

My grandfather's wife was a Half-Amethyst Half-Dragon, a neutral Dragon species that are seekers of peace, but she fought the Drow next to Tallion at times. She said to me, 'There are seldom things you see in a war that are truly noble. What the Field Marshal did to protect us was noble.'

She was speaking of Tallion, and not my grandfather. Her silent rebuke of his actions I now know. I did not know it until General White Oak set me straight before coming here. I will work the God's demands and will need to cross your lands at times.

I will fire if fired upon but know you risk more than killing me and those with me. You risk ever having a champion for your isolated people through your actions. If that does not concern those here, then the Gods have truly lost those who hold that opinion. Solonor and Rillifane Rallathil especially.

Everything the General has done to help your people and everything I will do to work the protection of the Elven people. Wild, Wood, Moon, and even Gold Elves. Gold and Moon Elves who I still despise personally for how I was treated at the Academy.

Yet I have been told to not judge a people based upon the actions of some of their kind. I have to set that aside to do these things and judge the individuals who follow me and witness my actions. I was not given a choice in these matters.

It is just my new reality. I will do this and now you must choose to show your people worthy in the eyes of the Gods. As they just put you on notice of the consequences. Are you up to this task?"

Elder Thorn who called her Grandfather the Blood King Elm stood and looked at her in anger and then tried to speak. As he clutched at his chest. Shirana spoke out, "Lady of Dreams let him go and allow him to speak his mind, please! These are not your followers. But Rillifane Rallathil's followers and speaking his mind should be permitted and this should not be a heavy-handed action!"

Shirana heard the Lady of Dreams sigh in her head as he struggled, "He does not have long left in life. Cutting it short would simplify things."

Shirana thought back, "If my words sway the Lady of Dreams, a Moon Elf Goddess, before these people. Then I will have earned what I need to make my case and have him save face for what remaining days he has left owed to him."

The Lady of Dreams released the elf who collapsed but was still alive.

Shirana looked at him, "The Lady of Dreams told me eliminating you would be easier as you do not have many days still ahead of you. I told her you were still owed that time. You have the right to speak your mind. That a Moon Elf Goddess should not take this shortcut in the name of Rillifane Rallathil to make things easy just for me.

This issue you have with me, speak your mind. We will discuss it as Rillifane Rallathil would wish us to do. She still oversees death and could seek it at any time, but I want you to express your opinions as one of the Wilderness elves that Drake Wood called out. We share a common ancestry, nobody is denying that. Express your concerns."

He looked at Shirana who just saved him from the Lady of Dreams wrath and sighed, "I was going to say I could never permit this for an heir of the Blood King Elm. Yet here you are saving my life from being struck down early from The Lady of Dreams. All for being irreverent to the wishes of the Gods."

Shirana nodded, "Can your next elder permit it? If you stepped aside as an elder she or he could permit it. You can hold your grudge against my Grandfather as I have held it wrongly against the Moon Elves my entire life not knowing all of the facts.

I am young enough to see I have to let that go, for that reason. You are stuck in the battles of the past, likely with the loss of many you cared for personally. But I am not my Grandfather. My Grandmother, as I stated, was a peace bringer. One of the Neutral Dragons bore her. If you cannot find it in yourself to move past that objection, would the one that followed be so inclined?"