The Gate - Elvish Has Left

Writing in the style of light novel/anime is probably one of the geekiest things you can do (behind the keyboard) and one of the most enjoyable. As usual I fell in love with my characters and couldn't let it go. If you missed the first episode, A New Green Man Appears, Stefan Hanover is hunting in the mountains and finds a gate that leads him to a different world where magic and elves and other anime type characters exist. He finds himself in a land embroiled in a bloody civil war with one way home, and he has no desire to take it.

We find our characters still on the beach at the Blue Sea because that's their favorite place, and Stefan realizes that it's time to meet his future father-in-law who he fears may not like humans. As always, except for the characters that I invented, I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing them and their world from author Takumi Yanai, A-1 Pictures studios, and Sentai Filmworks LLC. who created the source material "Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri"

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

It was a beautiful night on the Blue Sea, the three moons, Trinidad, Antonio, and Concepción, seemed to grow in size as they slowly spun, locked in their strange orbit around themselves. Two lovers splashed in the warm saltwater sea, Lelu, an emotionally shattered elf who was still suffering from her years of imprisonment and torture, and Stefan, a human male who arrived on this world through strange circumstances and was suffering from a strange ailment that left him weak and worn out.

It's been less than two weeks since Lelu and Stefan found themselves entranced by a reaction caused by their own pheromones mingling when suddenly Lelu's elven mind melded with Stefan's mind and they became inexorably bound together mentally, emotionally, and to some point physically. They were separated by their governments and Stefan was being sent back to his own world and the separation almost killed them. Lelu being an elf was so much stronger than Stefan, she also had two very powerful arch-mages who used their healing magic to keep her alive and heal the scars from her incarceration Stefan did not have that care and nearly died.

Now healing, they finally consummated their marriage on a warm evening beach then waded out from shore to rinse off. It took Stefan ages to walk from the shore of the Blue Sea to the base of a large tree that Lelu coaxed him to walk to. He was still as weak as a newborn kitten after their brush with death. "Are you ok?" asked Lelu as they paused, and Stefan leaned against the tree. Although slim and curvy with toothpick arms, Lelu was incredibly strong, and she half carried Stefan to the edge of the forest from the beach where they had made love and played in the surf.

"I'm ok-ish," said Stefan panting.

"I can carry you," she frowned. Being an elf, she has four times the strength of a human being, but she realized that Stefan needed to maintain his pride.

"You can carry me to my funeral," he said silently, his lungs starting to suck in enough oxygen now. He was exhausted from the walk from the sea, his cock was still tingling from the mind warping sex with Lelu not long ago. After making love for the first time, they relaxed in the surf before heading to the forest where Lelu's father waited for them in a cabin. She dropped his backpack and hugged him against the tree. They kissed passionately as a hot freshwater shower started and rinsed the salt and the beach sand from them. When their lips parted, Stefan stepped out of the shower and sighed "Wow! That was unexpected."

"What, the kiss? I love to kiss you," smiled Lelu knowing that he meant the shower. Lelu dug a towel out of his backpack and handed it to Stefan. "Mom and dad built this cabin after they got married, it's really amazing and they worked on it constantly until..."

She closed that part of her mind and Stefan chose not to pressure her about it. Instead, he looked around and saw nothing but trees. "Cabin? I don't see any cabin."

"You're in the cabin silly. This is the basement." She grabbed a vine on the trunk of the tree and pulled. Suddenly the hot shower became a cold shower. "Ooops, sorry, wrong one." She pulled another vine and silently a set of stairs lowered from above. "Can you make it?" she asked, seriously concerned about Stefan's condition.

"Maybe," he said as he looked at the stairs. The stairs were made of incredible craftsmanship, the woodwork was perfect, not a single nail or screw was used, it was all perfect joinery that held this masterpiece of woodwork together. "This is amazing. I know woodwork and this is... simply amazing!" he gushed.

"It's just stairs," she shrugged. "Come on and take it easy." She led him up the stairs that never once creaked or groaned as they slowly climbed. They paused twice for Stefan to catch his breath, but they finally made it to the top of the stairs. When they got there, Lelu tugged a vine and the stairs rose with hydraulic silence, and as it rose the stair steps, the risers, rotated flat and the raised staircase became part of the wooden walkway that they were standing on, twenty feet up in the forest top.

The guard rails of the walkway were low walls made of woven twigs; an ancient craft known as wattle. Here the wattle walls were still alive, leaves grew from the woven twigs creating beautiful living camouflage. The leaves hid all evidence of a cabin and tree top walkway which was why Stefan couldn't see the cabin. The walkway went from tree to tree until they came to an actual building that was built twenty feet above the ground, supported by four sturdy trees that grew close to each other. The cabin had windows on all four walls and gentle amber light flowed from the windows. "Daddy's home!" Lelu said with an odd tinge of sorrow as they crossed the bridge from the walkway to the cabin. She eased an exhausted Stefan onto a bench in front of the cabin. "You wait here, I'll be right out."

As he waited for Lelu he felt the gentle swaying of the trees around him, the leaves illuminated by the three moons lulled him into a pleasant state of near sleep. He laughed, he had heard that the Japanese argued for weeks over whether the Special Region was earth or not and all they had to do was look up, the three moons would have settled the argument. He could tell Lelu was distressed, occasionally he could hear her and her father arguing, and through his bond with Lelu he could feel her sorrow. Something was seriously wrong, she was trying to tell her father something, but he wasn't paying attention.

Finally, she stepped outside, and Stefan struggled to his feet. "We need to go," she said aloud. Something is definitely wrong; Stefan and Lelu never speak aloud unless they actually want someone else to hear what they're saying.

"Why? I want to meet your father."

"He's not up for company," she said sadly.

From inside the cabin Stefan could hear her father call out, "I'm fine, I really am Laylah. Who is out there with you?"

Lelu closed her eyes and took a deep breath then let it out. "Laylah is my sister. He's been so lost since mom and I were captured. I've been trying for a week to convince him that I'm Lelu." She looked like she was going to cry, and Stefan couldn't blame her. Her dad lost his wife and daughter decades ago to the empire. In a raid on their village the empire captured Lelu and her mother, while Lelu's father and sister escaped. Lelu and her mother suffered a similar fate as each other; however, Lelu was held in the dungeons of the imperial palace and was released by Itami, her mother was held elsewhere, and Lelu had no idea where her mother was or how she was being treated.

Like Stefan and Lelu, Lelu's parents are bound to each other, and her dad must suffer through each of the assaults that Lelu's mom suffers. Only his connection with her and his loving and encouragement keeps her alive and sane. "He doesn't believe it's me, he saw me after I was released..." and now she did start to cry. She was tortured, raped, and physically mangled, when she was held by those animals she was horribly abused. It took a week of non-stop healing magic from two of the most powerful arch-mages in the empire to repair most of the physical damage done to Lelu and they're still not done repairing the damage.

Stefan leaned forward until their foreheads met and he put his hands on her temple, and she placed her hands on his temple and together they calmed each other. A week ago, she was fractured, hideously misshapen, horribly fragile, but inside Stefan saw her as the most beautiful woman he's ever met. Now her external beauty has been restored, but inside she's still a fractured, abused girl and he's here for her. "Ok," she said in a tiny voice, "come meet daddy."

Stefan saw her father through Lelu's eyes, a tall, strong elf. He was powerful, an elf that could move the world to a different orbit if his twin girls were too hot or too cold, at least in Lelu's eyes. But the elf Stefan met was a slim, one would say skinny elf who looked to be just a few years older than Lelu. If he were human Stefan would guess his age at twenty-four, but he's approximately three hundred seventy-five years old. "Daddy, this is Stefan, Stefan this is my daddy Dayv Jowns.

"Dave Jones?" Stefan asked Lelu silently.

"Yes, Dayv Jowns." She answered, "It's an honorable name. He was named after an ancient king. He's a big history nut like you."

Dayv smiled and held his hand out, fingers up, palm facing Stefan. An elven handshake is like a gentle high five, palms are pressed together, it's more intimate but less "manly" as Stefan would describe it. He smiled at Stefan and with all good humor said, "What intentions do you have for my daughter Layla?"

Stefan frowned internally, Dayv really thinks that this was Layla, not Lelu. Stefan sighed, but Dayv was a history nut, being a history nut himself he knows how to deal with that. He patted Dayv's hand properly, then before Dayv could sit Stefan bowed low and said, "Veru nalmë, Stefan-mahtar nányë, essë Lelu-nya mir nalmë." He spoke in Quenya, the ancient, magical language of the High Elves. It's said that you cannot lie when speaking in Quenya and he was counting on Dayv's belief in that. What Stefan said was 'We are married, I am Stefan the warrior, my wife is your daughter Lelu, we are bound.'

Dayv stared at Stefan, first his eyes showed humor, then as what Stefan said sunk in Dayv looked shocked, and then he grew sorrowful and fell back into his chair. He looked lost and confused, his blond hair was tangled and matted, his eyes dull and lifeless. And then the scales fell from his eyes, the tall handsome elf holding his daughter's hand was actually... Seething anger boiled up in Dayv, a human in his house? "You humans," he hissed. Stefan knew what was coming. "You humans," Dayv growled. His eyes showed some life finally. "YOU HUMANS!" he shouted. "You take and you pillage, and you burn, and you crush!" He was shouting, spittle flying from his mouth.

All Stefan could do was lower his head and nod. Lelu was in shock, "Daddy, no! He's not like that, he's not from here!"

"They're all the same!" he shouted and jumped up. "Can't you see? He won't even defend himself!"

"How can he with you shouting at him?"

Dayv wheeled on Stefan and growled, "What do you have to say for yourself hu-MAN?"

"Daddy stop!" cried Lelu.

"I just want to know what makes him so damn special."

"Daddy, we are bonded!" screamed Lelu.

Silence reigned for a long, heavy moment, then Dayv snarled at Stefan, "Get out of my house." Without a word Stefan turned and left with Dayv shouting, "GO! GET OUT OF HERE!"

It took Stefan a while to find the right vine to pull to lower the stairs, but he found it just as Lelu came up to him, "I'm sorry," she wept, "It's just that he's been so..."

"Your dad needs you," he said as they hugged. "I won't be far." They stood for a long time, foreheads touching, love and support flowing between them, the reassuring scent of their pheromones bonding and calming them. Then wordlessly Lelu headed back to her father and slowly, painfully Stefan made his way down the stairs, and he followed the sound of the surf to the beach.

About an hour later Stefan was sitting at the edge of the freshwater pool near the beach, he was sitting with his feet in the water and was holding a long stick wishing it was a fishing rod. Dayv stepped up and sat down next to Stefan. "Lelu told me that I could find you here." He took a long deep breath. "I want to apologize," Dayv started.

"Don't. I know what humans did to your people, I can't fix that, but I can try. And I can't imagine what you're going through," Stefan said without looking up. He didn't want to mention Lelu and her mother's captivity. "And then to top it off, your youngest daughter shows up with a grouchy old cuss from a different world, a different species and says that she's bonded to him. It really sucks to be you."

"Life hasn't been easy. I suppose if you had seen Lelu before the mages healed her..."

"I did," said Stefan. "We were bonded over a week before she was healed." Stefan thought about it and laughed, "I smelled her before I saw her, I crawled under a tree that she was in watching for Prince Zorzal's troop movements. I didn't see her, and she jumped down to kill me."

"Why didn't she?" asked Dayv.

"Believe it or not, we smelled each other. A mage told me that our bodies knew that we belonged together and sent out certain odors..."

"The Tak Marhon," said Dayv, "she didn't mention that. Her mother and I hadn't been blessed with the Tak Marhon for weeks after our bonding started."

"I didn't know it had a name," said Stefan. "I saw her for what she was, but what she was on the inside was so much more important to me. I think she's still mad at me a little bit," Stefan laughed. "When I finally awoke, I didn't notice that they restored her body, seeing her heart is much more important to me."

"You see her... heart?" asked Dayv. When Stefan nodded wordlessly Dayv gasped, "The Khid Marhon! It took her mother and I many months to achieve the viewing of the heart. I believe you can talk without speaking. Share feelings and thoughts?" When Stefan nodded, Dayv said "The Dzig Marhon, ours started with a kiss."

"So did ours, quite accidentally. I had killed several soldiers and was feeling very bad," sighed Stefan remembering that hot afternoon. "She leaned in to kiss my tears away and our lips touched." Stefan paused, basking in the memory.

"And...?" Dayv prompted.

"There was this click, or maybe a snap, but people felt it 150 meters away."

Dayv smiled and nodded, "That's how it was for her mother and I... but why were you weeping for killing soldiers?"

Stefan stared at him like he was uneducated. "Soldiers are soldiers. I'm a soldier, I understand what those men were going through, most of them were following orders that they found distasteful, they were probably threatened with death or the death of their family if they didn't follow them. But they were holding slaves and their sergeant was going to kill one, a young elf boy..."

"Lelu told me nothing of this, you released slaves?"

Stefan nodded, "Prisoners actually, but they were probably heading to the slave pens... or wherever Zorzal sends them. Seventy-three humans, elves, warrior bunnies, foxes, cats... seventy-eight if you count the birdcage with five fairies that we found on one of the wagons. There was even a bird... person... whatever."

"Griffon maybe," suggested Dayv. "Did it have a face like a lyon?"

"Nah, didn't have the big cat's face. All I remember is that it was a girl, an annoying little teenager, and the knees bent backwards."

"That would be an Eagon then," Dayv said sagely. "You saved all of those people from a life of pain; I don't understand why you were weeping."

"I made a vow to never take a life again, and I ended thirty-six lives that night."

"Now I'm confused," said Dayv. "You said eleven but you're up to thirty-six?"

"Twenty-five of Zorzal's retreating army saw us headed to Nangda and tried to retake the prisoners and the gold they liberated from Nangda."

They were silent for a long time, then Dayv finally said "You speak Quenya well, but your accent is... interesting."

"Actually, I don't speak Quenya at all, Lelu is translating for me." Stefan tapped his temple. "I tell her what I want to say, then she tells me how to say it in Quenya. She makes me sound smarter than I truly am. She completes me."

"Her mother does the same for me." Dayv stared at the reflection of the moons dancing on the water. "I miss her so much; I don't know how much longer we'll last."

That's when Stefan realized that Dayv's link with Lelu's mother is what kept her alive for the past half century. "Tell her that we're coming for her." A cheer of joy from Lelu could be heard from deep in the forest.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Two travelers slowly materialized in the early evening gloom, they wore gray green cloaks and wore their hoods pulled over their heads, both wore backpacks, and each carried a large staff. The young JSPF Private on guard duty held up a hand and said, "Halt!"

One of the two travelers slowly waved a hand, "We are not the droids you are looking for," he said in Saderan and continued to advance on the gate to the Alnus SDF base.

The guard raised his rifle and cried, "Halt! I am authorized to use deadly force."

The traveler pulled back his hood revealing a face lined with years of care and hard work. "Relax private. Tell Lieutenant Itami that Gunny is here to see him."

The guard didn't move. "Lieutenant Itami isn't here."

The man who called himself Gunny gave that face that all sergeants make when confronted with a particularly stupid private that he's not allowed to hit. "Private, there was a doujinshi convention over the weekend, you and I both know that Lieutenant Itami is going nowhere for the next couple of days because he's got some reading to do. Now you get on that little radio of yours and tell Central Security Control that Gunny is here to collect a debt."

The private stared at the traveler dumbfounded. He was used to taking orders from literally scores of people, but never a Gaijin, a white foreigner. "I'm waiting private," snarled the traveler.

Without moving his eyes from the travelers, the private keyed his radio microphone on his collar and said in Japanese, "CSC, this is gate four, I have someone here who is looking for Itami. He says he is Gunny and has come to collect a debt."

His radio was silent for a long uncomfortable time, then cracked to life. "Someone is on the way," and continued to give instructions. When the radio went silent the surprised looking private lowered his weapon. "Someone is on their way; in the meantime, would you like some tea?"

The second traveler pushed back her hood revealing a spectacularly beautiful elf maiden with metallic silver hair. Her eyes were stunning, one was metallic gold and the other a glowing emerald green. "That would be lovely," she sighed.

Eventually a Humvee arrived and out of it stepped Lieutenant Colonel Osamu Higaki, Lieutenant Itami's commanding officer. The colonel found the guard had set up folding chairs and a table just outside of the gate and was serving the two travelers tea. The travelers looked very familiar to Higaki, quite an uproar was caused when they disappeared. Itami would have been court martialed if Higaki was not there to witness the disappearance himself. "Gunnery Sergeant Hanover! It is good to see you up and moving," said Higaki in surprisingly good English.