War of the Races Ch. 30

"We beg your pardon, Lord Sinaan," Svartsilki apologized with a bow of her head as they both closed their additional eyes, making the foreheads appear smooth once more.

"There is nothing to apologize for," Sinaan replied with a wave of his hand dismissing the thought of possible annoyance, "I find your eyes, all of your eyes, very attractive, and useful. Do not worry yourself at all over your appearance. I accept you for who you are, and that means all of your eyes, legs, and body. Besides right now we need all of your senses and ability to track and catch up to our brethren."

"Thank you sir," Svartsilki answered with Gloa saying the same only seconds later, "Then if you don't mind my presumptuousness, I believe we found the camp. There are small scattered fire pits as well as very clear markings in the grass where tents were pitched."

"There is also sign of foot traffic as well as svartalf scent everywhere," Gloa added, "Further across the clearing there is also the heavier scent of fires and cooking."

"And the smell of sex is so thick we can almost taste it," Svartsilki said her tone tinged with wry bitterness.

"Really?" Sinaan replied, his eyes widening in surprise as he asked, "Are our scents and the smell of our... unions... usually so pungent to you and other Animals."

"Yes!" Gloa answered, while Svartsilki said, "No!"

They glanced at each other, then Svartsilki continued with a sigh, "Yes we can always smell your scent of sweat and pheromones. They are different but both are easily traceable, and yes we can smell when you have copulated. We can smell you and whoever you have lain with, and the same for females. Sometimes when a female is in estras we can even smell the scent of every man she has ever lain with. It is very overpowering, and so, most of us... Animals... that are particularly sensitive try to reduce our senses as much as we can when around Primes."

"I see," Sinaan mumbled as he scrutinized them, then waved his hand and said, "I am pretty certain that Aalyn continued leading the militia south, but to make sure go scout ahead and see."

Svartsilki and Gloa both nodded before scurrying away, as Gloa hissed in a low voice he wasn't supposed to hear, "Why did you have to say all that? Short and sweet! That is how you answer nobles, short and sweet! Look, now there is no telling how he is going to treat us now..."

Svartsilki's reply was lost to him as they moved out of earshot, but when he turned around Aldrnari's expression said that she agreed with them. Her hazel eyes met his for a minute and he could see her strength, pride, and determination in them before she remembered her station and cast her eyes down with an embarrassed whisper, "Apologies my lord."

Sinaan shook his head. He thought to reach out and lift her chin up so that her steady gaze met his, but her whole body was taut in anticipation of being struck. Instead he commanded, "Lift your head up and look at me."

It took a few seconds before she complied. Once she did so, the steel in her red, gold, and green gaze blazed before he said, "You are a strong woman, and you are loyal. Let me be the judge of what I consider belligerent behavior. Until then, I expect clear, honest, answers from you, and I hope... friendship."

"What do you mean by... friendship," Aldrnari asked, her voice tense with suspicion.

Sinaan gave her a level look before answering, "I am not the Faline brothers, what I said is what I meant."

Aldrnari's gaze didn't falter for several seconds. They stood their eyes locked until she finally nodded and said, "I hope that we may be friends too."

Svartsilki and Gloa returned within seconds of Forelain's arrival with Sulabha, Fjallindae, Ra'Shaal, and the rest of Forelain's guard. Preempting questions, Sinaan explained, "This was where Aalyn's regiment camp was. They have left. Most likely they are only a few hours ahead of us. With our group being smaller I believe we can overtake them before nightfall, but if not, then we will not be far behind when they stop to make camp."

When Sinaan finished and neither Forelain nor any of the other ladies asked any questions, Svartsilki spoke up, "Gloa and I found the tracks of the main army leading south, just as you said Sinaan. However, we also found traces of a much smaller force leading off to the south east."

Turning to Forelain, Sinaan went to one knee and placed his hand to heart and the other where a sword would have been if he had one. Sulabha, Fjallindae, and Ra'Shaal watched expressionlessly, but after a second of shock Aldrnari, then Svartsilki and Gloa, and then all the rest of Forelain's guard knelt with hand to heart before Sinaan asked, "Matron of House Faline, wife, where should we go? One path will catch us up to my sisters and the svartalf militia? The other path might lead us to House Faline's wayward soldiers?"

Forelain Faline smiled broadly as she walked over and placed her hand on Sinaan's shoulder before signing...

----(!)----

The sunset, a fiery red ball hard to see behind the foggy gloom shrouding the Dragon's Spine Mountains as large drums beat. Male and female bears sang in deep harmonic melodies and danced around a large burning pyre to mourn their dead. With the setting sun the gates would be closing soon and then only one guard would be left on duty while the rest joined the celebration. I knew what was happening outside. Coella and Shahad were out there singing and dancing, celebrating being alive, and mourning the loss of their dead.

"What are you thinking?" Huxian asked me from her bed.

After giving birth to six pups, Eferhilda gave Huxian a small round stone hut to stay in and recuperate. A bed of leather skins was quickly spread out, and this is where Huxian and I have been for the greater part of the afternoon and evening. On the bed with Huxian were five of our offspring, each with a string tied around a wrist or ankle to indicate the order of their births.

At the moment, Huxian had the two males on each of her breasts nursing, while I held my eldest daughter. Her name was Rena and she was beautiful. She was so small. Barely larger than my hands. She had my mothers soft, smooth, moonlight white skin. Her legs were a hybridization of humanoid and fox, completely bare of fur but starting at the ankle her foot was long and slim while the balls of her feet and toes were humanoid. She had a long fluffy tail that was pure white, and a single strip of fur that ran up her spine to the nap of her neck. Rena was also born with a full head of pure white hair that already reached her elbows. Her eyebrows and eyelashes were pure white, and then there were her ears. They were long and triangular. A perfect mix of alfari and fox, and covered in fine white fur.

Rena was not unique in the absence of fur on her body either. All six babies were bare skinned in their own way. Balgair, my first born son, had my chestnut skin with Huxian's sandy blonde hair and fur. Lisa, my second daughter, had my mother's moonlight white skin and her midnight black hair with matching fur on her tail. Devoss, my second son and fourth born, had pink skin like his mother, Huxian, and my golden wheat colored hair and fur. Sionnach, my third daughter, skin was a dark gray, almost blue, while her hair and fur was pure white. And Azeria, my fourth daughter and sixth child from Huxian, her skin was a dark chestnut. Even darker than my skin, and her hair and fur was a fiery golden red.

"I was just thinking that Coella and Shahad must be enjoying themselves," I answered.

Huxian looked up from Balgair and Devoss. Her brows were pinched but her mouth was smiling, a little uncertain as she replied, "Do you wish to join them?"

"No," I said with a shake of my head, "I am right where I want to be. In my previous life I died without so much as a girlfriend, much less children. This! What you have done. What we have done. It's amazing!"

"Yes it is," Huxian agreed with a nod, then chuckled as she added, "And maybe next year I will give you six more..." She left it as both a statement of possibility and a question.

"Really?" I asked, my face a study of consternation and interest, "You can get... You would want to get... with children again so soon after a litter this large?"

"Yes," Huxian answered simply as she laughed. Her glacial blue eyes twinkled in the lamp light. She glowed with maternity.

A knock on the door was preceded by three women entering the room. Each one was currently breastfeeding her own children or capable of lactating as need arose.

"I will take Rena," The first woman said as the other women picked up the babies from the bed. Once they had a babe on each breast, the one that took Rena added, "Lord Viridian, the Kunnigr-volva wishes to see you."

"Kunnigr-volva?" I replied questioningly.

"It means wise witch," Huxian explained, "It must be their Wise-woman, Medicine woman, or Wisdom. Different villages will have different names."

"Oh, Eferhilda," I said.

"Yes," The milk maid answered with a stern nod, "She is waiting for your arrival in the dining hall with our chieftain."

"I see," I said as I stood up, but before I left I walked over and put my hand on the strange dokkalfar woman's head.

She had been asleep since we rescued her. Placing my hand on her chest I could feel that she was still breathing. Standing up, I kissed Huxian, and then left.

The dining hall was in as much a state of gaiety as all of the rest of the village. Coella and Shahad were sitting at an exterior table, talking loudly and laughing. Well, Coella was at least, while Shahad's pheromones gave a similar impression of jubilation. They looked up in time to see me and wave as I walked past.

"Lord Viridian!" Chief Fyrsil shouted as I approached. He was all smiles as he waved for me to come sit in a seat beside him. On the other side of the chair I was to take a seat beside Orsa. On her other side sat Eferhilda, her mother and instructor in the ways of shamanism.

Making my way over, I sat down as everyone in the hall cheered. Fyrsil poured me a tankard of honey wine while Orsa fed me from a large plate of food as Chief Fyrsil shouted for everyone to hear, "Praise be to Gaia for lord Viridian's auspicious arrival!"

Eferhilda raised her tankard of mead shout in approval which was then echoed by all those in the dining hall.

Cheering continued until their chieftain waved his hands that he had more to say, "Kunnigr-volva Eferhilda, my beloved wife, received a vision from Gaia telling us to hide until her champion's arrival!"

More cheers thundered all the way out into the pavilion until Chief Fyrsil waved his people to a loudly buzzing semblance of quiet before he continued, "Who would have thought that our salvation would be at the hands of this... tiny... villralfar... prime? I certainly didn't! Nor did I anticipate that he would be a Druid of Annwyn, or the Champion of the goddesses Gaia and Seline! And yet, here he is! A Druid that is more like us than any prime that has come before him! An ally such as he, what can I give him as a reward for coming to our aid? What can I give him... that might bind him to us as an ally?"

The cheering became laughter, then shouting as Chief Fyrsil made his declaration. Before the end the cheers, shouting, and laughter harmonized into a thrum of foot stomping, drum beating, and voices chanting, "Orsa! Orsa! Orsa! Orsa!"

Orsa tore a large piece of cooked meat from a thigh bone with a determined expression, she held it high in the air as everyone cheered, and then she devoured it in a fury. Once she was done eating she offered some of the meat to me. Regrettably, I turned down the meat, to which she growled, "What? Is it not good enough for you, am I not good enough for you, my Lord Druid?"

Of course, this was our marriage ceremony!

"On the contrary," I tried to explain, "I am very honored that your father would count me worthy of receiving his most precious treasure, his daughter, as my wife. However, it is also my practice to not eat anything that can literally beg me not to kill it."

Orsa blinked in confusion as she looked from me to the meat in her hand and tossed it onto the plate in front of her before asking, "For the next seven days you will only eat from my hand. If you will not eat this, then what will you eat?"

"Vegetables, fruit, honey," I answered without any hint of sarcasm, "I will also eat products from Animals such as cheese, butter, and milk."

Orsa stared for a long moment like she saw a puzzle that didn't make sense to her, then blinked her eyes, the confusion was gone, and she grabbed a handful of roasted long beans. Dipping them in honey she offered one to me and I accepted gratefully. Announcements and news of Orsa's marriage to the savior Druid-lord from the Valelands went out from the great dining hall and all of Earthmother's Den cheered and sang. From the nearest bear all the way to those standing guard on the walls.

The celebration extended well into the night until Coella and Shahad finally retreated back to the hut given to Huxian. Moving quietly so as to not wake Huxian or the babies, they found their pallets beside the sleeping dokkalfar Oracle, and slipped under the covers to find some sleep before the swiftly approaching dawn arrived.

Outside, amid all the revelry, a small party of six arrived at the north gate.