The Gate - Elvish Has Left

They were traveling during the daytime because the grasslands have many ruts and creeks hidden by the grass that would jar the sleepers and break an axle or even a horse's leg if hit at night. That evening when they stopped for dinner Glencove tried to start a fire. She collected what fuel she could find in the open grassland, several dead bush branches and dried beeson chips. She stacked them up and located some dried lichen for kindling and started scratching flint against steel.

"No fire!" Carny demanded. "It draws wolves." Carny opened her pack that Lelei La Lelena had enchanted and reached deep into it. It appeared that her arm went deeper into the backpack than the backpack would normally allow. She extracted two canvas bags, opening them she showed that one contained red crystals about a foot long and as big around as a roll of quarters, the other bag contained purple crystals of the same size. Carny laid the crystals side by side alternating red and purple crystals.

"So?" asked Glencove. The crystals didn't appear to be doing anything.

"Now watch. This is some of momma's elf magic and some of my magic." She took the swamp duck eggs that Jolietta gathered and scrambled them in a bowl. Then she took an iron frying pan and laid it on the crystals which began to glow softly. She pulled a pack of herbs and seasonings from her backpack and added some to the eggs and beat them briskly. Then taking some bacon from her pack she chopped it up fine and sprinkled the chopped bacon in the pan. Soon the bacon began to sizzle, the pan was heating because of the magical radiation from the crystals. "Steel pans work also but cast iron are the best," Carny said as she stirred in the eggs and worked them around to get all the bacon goodness in them. Soon all were feasting on the best scrambled eggs they had ever tasted.

After cleaning up with water she drew from a nearby creek and ran through a filter then heated in an iron pot over the crystals, Carny crawled between Stefan and Lelu and went back to sleep.

"I made the eggs just the way you like them poppa," said Carny as she waded out into the warm sea to wash her hands then waved at momma and poppa up on the beach. They were laying on a blanket in the shade and were curled up together as young lovers would do. She finished washing up then ran up to the beach and snuggled up with them.

The mage inspected the crystals in awe. This wasn't warrior bunny magic, and it wasn't elven magic, where did this come from? She was told that "Poppa" was a green man, but he wasn't from the same tribe as the Itami green men. She had heard that "poppa's" tribe was much more powerful than the Itami tribe, do they have magic? Did he bring these crystals across the divide?

"No, I told you, the green men don't have magic, they have machines. We got those crystals from Mister Kato."

"Carny? What are you doing in my head?" The mage was shocked, a warrior bunny was in her head!

The sexy little warrior bunny looked at the mage innocently, "I didn't take anything, I'm just telling you.

"Rabbit! Tell me how you speak to me like an elf!"

"How would you know how an elf talks? You're a warrior bunny like me... right?"

Glencove and Jolietta stared at the wizen mage who appeared to be arguing with empty space. "They were right," gasped Glencove, "you are a witch."

Jolietta sat on the driver seat of the wagon and grinned, her cute, pixyish face came aglow when she smiled like that. "I've never seen a witch before."

The mage looked even older. "I'm not a witch," she said. "You need to know that this trip may not be simple duty for you two. I know that you signed up with us to help us with Stefan and Lelu, but I think we won't be needing that kind of help any more. If you'd like to head back to the hutch, please go now, because we will be entering elf territory and there may be no safe returning."

Once upon a time the relationship between elves and demi-humans like warrior bunnies, foxes, and cats was cordial, even friendly, but with the upswelling of the empire in recent centuries, they no longer saw each other as allies. As the empire carved the continent into shreds and the gods Harvey and Emroy continued to battle each other, elves and demi-humans began to treat each other as enemies.

"If there's a chance that you and Carny are in danger, then I will be there for you," said Glencove.

"Me too," said Jolietta bravely, "As my gran used to say, in for a penny, in for a pound." From a pocket in her smock, she produced a short stick that was shaped and sharpened against a flat rock into a wooden dagger.

"This isn't a tale that you will tell your kit and grandkids," insisted the mage, "you may not come back."

"The empire captured the last two bucks they had at this hutch," said Glencove. "They hunt us foxes down with their hounds, our reynards lead them away from us vixens and our kits and the reynards never come back, there's going to be no more kits or kittens to entertain with stories."

The mage knew that what Glencove said wasn't theater, it was the truth, that hutch was done for. Most of the mage's work was supporting suicidal bunnies who'd reached the end of their fertility with no kits. Warrior bunnies don't live for war, they live for their babies, their kits, and to suddenly realize that they've lived their seven decades of fertility and have had no progeny to gather around themselves was soul shattering. "I..." the mage started, then realized that telling these two warrior bunnies to go back to their hutch was useless, this journey may be a one-way trip and end in a pool of blood, but it will be better than going back to grow old and die with your hutch mates weeping for the children that never were.

Carny climbed out of the back of the wagon and clumsily fell to the ground, she grunted as she landed on her back. Glencove and the mage started toward her, but Carny waved them away and worked her way to her feet. Then reaching over the rear board of the wagon she grabbed Stefan's backpack and shoved her hand into it. She reached deep, deep into the pack and pulled out two steel knives, each was nearly as long as Stefan's gladius sword. Each knife was in a leather sheath and was from the SDF armament shop and Carny handed a knife each to Glencove and Jolietta. The ban on metal weapons was put in place years before Glencove was born so both demi-humans were unfamiliar with the heft of a quality blade. "Poppa says you can have them, but he wants me to put them back if you die," said Carny.

Glencove and Jolietta both laughed at Carny's remark, but the mage snarled "She wasn't joking, this is going to get ugly." The laughing cat and fox stopped their chuckling, both knew that the mage never joked about anything.

Carny sagged slowly to the ground and sat cross legged in front of the large iron Dutch oven that had a half dozen maroon and mauve heat crystals on the lid, they glowed softly in the darkness, warming up the iron and baking a Journey Cake, an elven bread that was delicious and filling and perfect to eat when on a long trip. "Might as well show them auntie," Carny said. "They need to get used to it before we get to Vinnofri."

The mage sighed. She had no idea how Carny figured it out, but she guessed that Lelu had something to do with it. The mage unwound the shawl from her shoulders and somehow her appearance changed as naturally as a leaf gently fluttering on a tree in a slight breeze. She was no longer the old, tired bunny that groaned with each pain wracked step, but now she was a tall, curvaceous elven maiden. She had beautiful light golden skin, long sexy legs, rounded hips, a narrow waist, and large breasts. Her face is beautiful, high cheekbones, a tiny nose, and her face was rounded perfectly to a pointed chin, her eyes sparkled and shimmered metallic silver and her hair was a beautiful, shining gold. Not blond, not yellow, but perfectly polished metallic gold, in the same way her twin sister's hair was metallic silver.

"Who are you?" gasped Joliette.

The elf sighed, "I am Layla Barada Tu Tamuz."

While they were entranced by Layla's transformation, Lelu had eased out of the wagon. She was loath to leave Stefan alone, but this was almost as important. She stepped up to Layla, her near identical mirror image and the elven women stared at each other, studying each other's face. Layla stood trembling as Lelu wrapped her arms around her. "Oh, gods how I missed you!" gasped Lelu.

Slowly, almost reluctantly Layla's arms wrapped around Lelu, and she whispered hoarsely, "I am so sorry..." and they hugged tightly, shuddering in a combination of sorrow and excitement.

"That's my auntie Layla," said Carny happily to Jolietta and Glencove.

"Please don't tell me that you're the witch who hired the guards to kill Stefan and bring me..." sobbed Lelu.

"I'm sorry sweety, I wanted you back, I miss you," wept Layla. "I didn't want him killed, just out of the way."

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

Vinnofri, the last great Elf city of the north, was hidden in the depths of the great forest Silva Bleak and protected by the ramparts of an ancient dwarven mine. The elves won the war against the dwarves and drove them out of the elves sacred forest and into the mountains of ice and snow, the mountains whose names must not be said aloud, or they will send the great rivers of ice to scour the lowlands. Unfortunately, the elves did not win the war against the humans and were forced to move their entire city to a location the humans could never reach them. And now the small party of three warrior bunnies, two elven maidens and one near death human must reach the most secure location on the continent.

Two moonless nights after revealing herself the party found themselves at the edge of the Sylvan Bleak Forest. As she helped a woozy Carny clean up the campsite Layla caught Glencove packing her bag. "Where are you going?"

Glencove sucked up a deep draught of air and set her jaw firm. "I'm going back to the hutch. I'm going to let them all know what you are."

"That's not going to happen, even if I let you live and you make it back to the hutch, Tesson Culp will be looking for you. She's not going to let you ruin everything we have established." Layla wasn't using a threatening tone of voice, she let her staff do the talking for her. The staff she carried as a bunny mage had a large knot of wood at the end making the staff look like a threatening club. When she revealed herself, that knot became a large, rounded piece of mármaros, the forbidden mineral. Mármaros is a white opaque rock that humans used to use for sculpting until they discovered the hard way that mármaros had an inner life that elven mages can access. Two hundred years ago the first imperial palace was destroyed when the statues of their proud ancestors came to life and attacked.

The sphere of mármaros on Layla's staff began to glow with a soft white light, not a threatening light, but unexpected. "Douse that!" demanded Glencove, "You'll bring down every..." Suddenly a beam of opaque white light reached out from Layla's staff and touched Glencove's forehead.

Tesson Culp turned and frowned, "Why are you here Glencove? Didn't I give you a task to perform?"

Glencove looked around and gasped, she was surrounded by black, the only thing she could see was the leader of their hutch, Tesson Culp. "What kind of witchcraft is this?" gasped Glencove.

"It's elven magic, you blithering fox," snarled Tesson. "Do you need to know the name of the spell she used also?

"But... but... but the mage! She's not a bunny!" gasped Glencove.

Tesson shrugged her ancient shoulders. "I know, and she never said she was a bunny. What's your point?"

"She's an elf! She's an elven mage!"

Tesson nodded and smiled happily. "They're the very best kind of mage."

"But she knows our secrets! She'll tell the elves!"

"She will tell them what secrets dear vixen? How to make a salad out of sawgrass? How to sharpen a stick with a flat rock?" Tesson Culp was taunting Glencove now.

"But... but... but..."

"Pull yourself together Glencove, you're wearing steel on your hip. You're the first demi-human to do so in generations." She pointed at the large Japanese blade hanging from Glencove's belt, "Show us that you've earned that honor."

"But Tesson, she deceived us!"

"She deceived some of us," said Tesson, "the leadership of the hutch knew her for who she is." Tesson stepped closer to Glencove and spoke in a softer voice. "For the past fifty years the elven mage Layla Barada Tu Tamuz has been hiding among us. While we gave her shelter, she honed her craft and grew in strength. And as she increased in power she cured our ills, mended our bones, delivered our kits." Tesson Culp seemed to grow in size as she lectured Glencove. "Our races are in decline, the elves, and the warrior bunnies, and the foxes, and the cats, and it is up to You and Jolietta to reverse that trend. You must get the human man to Vinnofri alive, and if he lives You must accompany him to the lair of Zorzal El Caesar where the treasure of the Warrior Bunny race and the Fox race is held and bring it back here! If you do this, You will save two races."

Glencove started at Tesson Culp in complete shock, her mouth hung open as she stared at the old bunny. "Yes mom," she gulped. Tesson never reminds her, but Glencove will never forget how the old bunny found her in an empty fox den waiting for her parents to come home, but they never did. Jolietta came to the hutch in a similar way.

Tesson Culp smiled and ruffled Glencove's hair. "Now there's a good vixen. You were always my favorite. Now go! Go play with your little friends!"

"Yes mom," Glencove said as the image faded returning Glencove to their camp at the edge of the Silva Bleak Forest. The elven mage Layla Barada Tu Tamuz just smiled sadly and said, "Sorry, I didn't want to bring your mom in on this."

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

They found the entrance to the Silva Bleak Forest easily, it was a narrow, but well-manicured path through the forest that just happened to open before them. They were in the forest just a short time when it seemed like the path closed behind them and they were swallowed by black. Oddly enough, it didn't seem to bother Duck Soup or Cocoanut, they strolled along like they were walking under the shining sun.

As they drew closer to Vinnofri Lelu was more active which meant that Carny spent more time asleep with Stefan trying to keep him alive. The idea was to join him in his "vacation" at the sea and interact with him, keeping his mind active. Unfortunately, Carny was a warrior bunny, and they don't handle the worlds of elven mysticism very well. Quite often she would awake and inform Lelu that "He is slipping." These announcements caused Lelu to lay down next to Stefan, which is where she wanted to be anyhow, and convince him to hang to his tenuous grip on life.

The forest was pitch black and stifling hot and Lelu decided to try "faerie vision" again. As they did with the vast grasslands, the fairies Orla and Tana scouted ahead, and Lelu was able to look through their eyes at the obstacles ahead through her emerald eye, but there were no obstacles, the path was straight, smooth, and horribly narrow. Lelu quickly realized that the fairies could see quite a bit, it was almost like being in the forest weeks ago before she and Stefan were stricken. She wondered if there was some form of sorcery making the trip invisible to elves and bunnies.

For close to the wagon illumination, Layla's staff provided a soft white light all around them, but that light was gobbled up by the forest, so it was nearly impossible to see anything but tree trunks on either side of the wagon and pitch black beyond those trees. Ahead of them stretched the path, but they could barely see a wagon length ahead of their horses' noses.

"Why are you doing this?" Layla asked Lelu.

Lelu turned to look at Layla slowly. "I have to," she said softly. "If he goes, I go... and I think I want to go now." Her strength was waning, she wished she knew what was going on but whatever was sucking the life out of her was also sucking the age out of her. She now looked decades younger than her identical twin sister, but it seems to be adding age to Stefan. He's only awake a few minutes a day now, and in that time she and Carny work hard to get him to eat and drink before he slips back unconsciousness.

Suddenly the fairies Orla and Tana returned chittering and singing, "We're here!"

"We're always here you silly bugs," said Jolietta. "No matter where you are, you're always here."

Ignoring the warrior bunny Orla and Tana danced over Lelu and Layla's heads. "We're here! We're here!"

"I don't understand," said an exhausted Lelu, "we should have days more to travel."

Her sister shook her head. "Travel to Vinnofri isn't a matter of time or distance, but a matter of need."

"Well, I'm told we need them," sighed Lelu, glad this strange ordeal was over. She almost cried with relief, she's only known Stefan for months of his life, but through their bond she's emotionally known him his entire life and to see a strong, vital man brought down like this was heartbreaking. She was so tired... but it's over. Even if they die, they can finally rest. "Our need is opening the path?"

"No, that's not how it's done," Layla said. "They don't care if we need them, all that matters is if they need us. Haven't you noticed how the path just opened before us? If they didn't want us, we'd never see the city gates."

Before long the forest opened up, and it literally opened up. Glencove and Jolietta were walking alongside Duck Soup and Cocoanut and saw shafts of light appearing in the dark ahead. The light was from sunlight reflecting off light gray stone beyond the trees, they were visible to the bunnies because the trees were moving out of their way.

And suddenly the trees all stepped aside; they were out of the forest. Ahead of them sat the Unnamed Mountains and the ruins of Serak Torvuk, the last great dwarven mine. Ahead of them lay a gate in a huge wall of light gray rock, huge, sculpted faces framed the sides of the gate. Ghastly and alien they terrified Glencove and Jolietta, "What are those?" gasped Jolietta.

"Dwarves," shrugged Layla. Decades of studying arcane texts prepared her for such sights.

Now the path was a smooth stone road beneath the wagon. Duck Soup and Cocoanut's hooves clattered on the smooth stone road, it looked like a floor as one would see in a grand palace, and it was slowly descending. Lelu looked back and saw that the wall was solid behind them. Did the gate make a noise when it closed? If so, was it drowned out by the clattering by the hooves of the horses?

The path led them underground, it was like following a wide avenue between two buildings but there was a ceiling over their heads. The ceiling was covered with pipes, tubes, beams, and cables, and they were all made from tarnished golden metal. Strange devices lurked in the shadows, Lelu tried to show them to Stefan as he drifted to wakefulness, and all he told her was that they were "machines."

Over the clatter of the horse's hooves could be heard a more sinister clattering of machines that were following them in the shadows. Lelu looked back at one with her emerald eye and what she saw terrified her, it was like a large metal spider that was carrying a javelin on its back. The spider followed them closely as if daring someone to come and fight, but they didn't attack. Lelu got the feeling that they were making sure no one deviated from their assigned path, and she chose not to look back again. Eventually they could hear water as it dripped from overhead pipes and gushing in culverts below them, and then a strange growling began to echo off the dark walls, but that turned out to be Carny snoring.