As if Sydney couldn't get any weirder tonight there were some strange forces felt. First of all there was absolutely no wind, everything felt completely dead. Second was the fact that there were 13 elves in a park and the 3rd was that at 9 Pm it should be dark but tonight it seemed like still broad daylight. Dimitri and the others were talking about some kind of summoning; Jake had no idea what they were talking about or what he was going to be in for. Dimitri turned "see you on the other side friend" and drew an arrow that Jake didn't notice before. Once again it was different to all the others. It was stone but not normal grey coloured stone, it was more diamond like; on the end it had a large oval shaped red glowing orb with things moving inside of it. Dimitri loaded it into his bow and in an instant had shot it directly into Jake's heart.
Had didn't even have time to know what was happening it was like a flash and he was shot but now there wasn't an arrow to be seen, no blood, not even a hole where the arrow had penetrated the flesh and even more bizarre then the rest he was no longer in the Sydney park but instead now lay in an open green field with a few stone archways around. Dimitri walked through one of the archways, he wasn't on the other side and walked through he had just fully appeared out of nowhere through the mouth of this arch. "Gateways" Dimitri said simply "they allow transport from one place to another, kind of like a teleport you could say". This place was weird Jake thought. Here he appears in a meadow, nothing but gateways around except for a long dirt path heading into thick woods. "Welcome to Gilo Eusderf" Dimitri said welcomingly.
Within minutes the other elves had joined them in the center of the circle. "So what was with the arrow?" Jake asked Dimitri. "You have not been to our world before, you have the mark but not the blood, the arrow I shot you with contained the blood of the land and allowed to you come to our land. Without any other questions asked Jake and the group started down the path towards the woods.
Normally Jake would have been thinking why me, why am I the chosen one, why do I have the responsibility but all he could do was marvel at the beauty of this place he was now in, if only his parents and psychologist could see this place and know he wasn't crazy. He now actually felt like he was in a place where he belonged. As he got closer to the forest's edge he couldn't help but stare at the tree's, the most outstanding of them all were like willow trees, they had all the branches hanging down only they were brilliant orange and red colors.
They were almost at the forest now, no longer then 5 minutes away, they were slowly jogging, Jake struggled at some points to keep up with the elves they weren't used to traveling at human speed. They made it the forests edge, the canopy seemed hundreds of meters high with occasional lower leveled trees.
Dimitri turned to face Jake," you have to realize that our lands are unbalanced, disrupted by a force of alternate beliefs, they want power not peace, they wish to rule these lands, all nations are corrupted with power but its whether you chose to do what is right or be a ruler of force that chooses what side you are on. Elves as you know are about nature and keeping the balance. We are not all magical though and god like though as the legends may tell, we to get corrupted by power. Jake we are in a war with the enemies, in this world at the moment we have 3 sides, those fighting for freedom of the land and the people, those fighting for ruling the land and those who are neutral and are not currently in the war. The enemy have a few elves amongst them so don't be fooled we are not all fighting for the freedom only the majority. Word has spread the we have a new power, and that is you, no one understands how all this goes, the mark, the summons, the power all we know is the side with the marked one has an advantage in the war but because of this you are in great danger in these lands"
Jake really wasn't fazed by this one bit, this was what he was always waiting for in life an opportunity to be in a fantasy world, have what he liked to call a fantasy escape. "You watch my back and I watch yours" he whispered to Dimitri who just smiled and kept walking. The groups pace had slowed quite a bit by this time. They were more cautious now, they weren't in an open field now the enemy had a place to hide, a place to ambush from. The forest kept getting thicker and thicker as the group walked in, he saw another bird that looked like the legendary phoenix, It had a long forked flowing tail, the most beautiful orange and black colors you had ever seen wit a dark stripe of purple down both sides, "what is that bird he called to Dimitri" who replied "a phoenix, they are all over these parts". Jake stared at the bird as he ran, it had to be one of the most beautiful sites he sad ever seen before in his life. The groups pace slowed, "lunchtime" Dimitri called, thank god thought Jake, they must have been walking for hours by this time and he hadn't eaten since the following day, come to think of it he didn't even realize it was Friday now.
As the group sat around on some soft, moss covered boulders in the middle of a forest everything just felt right, felt how it should Jake thought. Here there were no cars, the hustle and bustle of people running around everywhere trying desperately to get from one meeting to another in a limited time space, this was natural, this was what the gold old days must have been like before earth was ruined. It was then that his thoughts were interrupted by an elf handing out food, main course was kind of like our pocket bread, but moister, filled with all sorts of berries with varied flavors, it literally melted in the mouth. After that apples were offered to whoever wanted them before the group set off once more.
Jake had no idea where they were going, what to expect when they got there, this war that's going on, would it be like our wars, effecting everyone around, battlegrounds to avoid, did they have guns here? He started to realize how little he actually knew about the place. Once again his thoughts were interrupted, this time by Dimitri. "Check the perimeter, if it's all good then shout out the all clear and we can speed things up again" Dimitri yelled. Immediately elves were running everywhere, followed a few minutes later by the all clear. Dimitri started into the woods, Jake went to follow but another elf gently pulled him back.
Dimitri returned shortly with a horse for each elf and Jake. They were beautiful, Jake got given a white stallion by the name of Stealth and Dimitri up front was riding the biggest stallion Jake had ever seen. The thing was massive! It was a real healthy brown color with big black pupils. It had a thick tail full of hair and was obviously well cared for, the horse had battle wounds though, scars on the legs and torso.
A few hours later with a beautiful golden orange sunset behind them the group came in sight of a town. It looked like something Jake had seen in a medieval book. The buildings were all made of stone, with thatched hay roofs, he was actually surprised to find that they had glass windows, mind you they couldn't open though. The towns people came out to welcome the group on there arrival, all of them elves but none Yeil Jake noticed. The elves in the group jumped off there horses and started hugging people and shaking hands, a few people gathered round Jake asking things like is he the ones, is this the creature who will win us the war? Jake in a way felt like he was being treated like more of a display then a person but it was still amazing to have these complete strangers standing around him admiring him for some bizarre reason.
But what came next took Jake by even more surprise, there was another human here, a human, and to top it off it was a female human, the most beautiful lady he had ever laid eyes on, she was just a tad shorter then he was, skinny but not like anorexic or anything, had beautiful brown red hair that flowed down just past her shoulders, she was incredible!
Jake dismounted from his horse and immediately strode over to where she was standing, he had seen her emerge from inside a very large house, at least twice the size of all the other buildings, the windows were plentiful, it had a beautiful garden around it, it looked like something a millionaire could own back home. As Jake approached she smiled, and Jake just couldn't quite believe his luck, all of a sudden more questions popped into his mind, if there is another human here, could there be more? Are they from my world? But as usual his thoughts where interrupted.
"Hi, you must be the human everyone is talking about, I'm Emma" she had an Australian accent.
"Hi I'm Jake, your not from this place are you?" came Jakes reply
"No I'm from your world, Australia actually, same as you" her voice was magical to Jake.
He was instantly falling in love with this girl. He couldn't believe it, all the years he was on earth he had never felt like this. He had had flings with girls in the past, it never felt write though and it never lasted long, but even just meeting this lady here he felt things he had never felt before. He was almost sure he was in love.
"TO ARMS"
Immediately people were running for shelter, he just realized Emma was running for her home, he saw a large green creature running strait at her though, it looked massive, with crooked yellowy brown teeth, arms as wide as tree branches, must have been 6 foot 4 with its sword raised above its head.
Looking around Jake spotted a smallish looking creature, a Gnome, it was tiny, it must have been only 3 or 4 foot tall, one of the enemies! it was running with a sword twice the size of it! Jake ran strait at it and knocked it clean off its feet, took its weapon, the silver blade glistening in the sunlight and charged at the big green creature now almost at the love of his life. He could see he wasn't going to make it so raising the sword above his head he threw it with all his might.
The sword flung thru the air as if it was something in a movie and then it struck.
"Oh shite!"
The sword had hit the creature alright but it with the handle instead of the blade which had the effect of the creature forgetting all about Emma but now charging directly at Jake who now stood there weaponless not knowing what to do. He looked around desperately for help, people were fighting everywhere, all the elves he was traveling with were all engaged with heavy combat, civilians were all hiding in there homes for shelter and any brave man in the town had swords or bows and were occupied by the flood of enemies trying to make there way into the village.
He had two choices as far as he could see, try and take down the enemy or run, running from a 6 foot 4 creature seemed pointless as it would surely catch up, it may have been big but it had some speed behind it, so Jake decided on option one, he ran straight at the creature.
He was only a mere 5 foot from the creature when he suddenly dropped to the ground and rolled, the creature having no idea what happened tripped strait over the top of him and hit the ground, Jake immediately jumped on top of the creature who had lost its sword in the fall and Jake gave him a beautiful left hook right in the jaw. Followed by 2 quick left hooks and finished by a direct right hand straight into the creatures nose, snapping it back into its scull, blood flew everywhere, covering Jake's shirt but the creature was stone dead. He had one!
He looked around at the scene about, one dead, massive green creature, who by the cries of the ogre is dead! He guessed was an ogre, was lying stone cold in the ground. A few elves were sticking there heads up behind there windows to see what was happening, Emma was running towards him, the battle in the over side of the town was still raging hot, arrows flying everywhere, swords glistening in the afternoon sunset, the clinging noises of swords clashing, and Dimitri had fallen off his horse!
Emma thru her arms around Jake and thanked him for saving her life, she was looking him directly in the eyes now. Jake had pretty much forgotten completely about the battle going on around them and was just embracing her in his arms. She was slowly getting closer and closer to him, Jake knew what was happening, she was going to kiss him, he couldn't believe his luck, he closed his eyes, there lips were about to meet, a scream, not that high pitch scream of a girls or anything but a scream of pain. The voice cut into Jake sending a chill down his spine, he immediately pulled back from Emma, "Dimitri" he whispered to himself.
Emma just looked at him completely confused, she had no idea what was currently going on. She just kind of stood there and looked at him.
Jake was already running for the ogre's sword, picked it up and ran flat out at the battle with the swords blade flat to his shoulder. Two gnomes ran at Jake, with there swords raised above there heads, Jake took one big swing, it curved down at a perfect angle slicing across the body of both Gnomes, just at waist length. Blood was pouring out of the gashes, Jake jumped over the bodies and kept running.
Dimitri was lying on the ground an arrow thru his leg, two goblins were moving in on him, Dimitri must have lost his weapon in the fall as he had nothing to defend himself with. Jake smashed into the back of one goblin sending him stumbling forwards, he kicked the second right in the calf muscle, bringing him down on his knee's, with a flash Jake brought the handle of his sword right onto the head of the goblin knocking him out cold.
The other goblin was now back on its feet ready to go, it swung its sword at Jake, but it was deflected by his sword, Jake gave it one back with a quick lunge straight at its gut, but it blocked it with its shield, resulting in Jake losing his sword as it was now impaled into a wooden shield and he could not retrieve it, with a revolting smack! The goblins head snapped back and its body was left have convulsions on the ground. One of the elves from the town had smacked an arrow directly into the forehead of the goblin.
Jake's eyes were wondering all over the town, he couldn't spot Emma anywhere. The town now sat around a massive bonfire in the centre of the town burning all the bodies of those lost in the fire. Dimitri was patched up by a local elf and was now hobbling around using a walking stick to support the wait of his left side. A tuna mournay was made for tea, it was beautiful, and bowls of it were handed around to everyone around the fire. It was delicious. The bowl of food was handed to Jake over his shoulder when he had received it and it wasn't until he got asked by a voice behind him asking him how he liked it did he realize who had given it to him.
It was late into the night now and most of the townsfolk were in bed, it had been a big afternoon for them all, the fire was still burning strong, the warmth of it was beautiful compared to the crisp cool air away from it. There were only 5 people left around the fire now, 3 elves on the far side of it feeding the last remaining bodies into the devouring flames, and Jake and Emma on the over side, talking into the night, Emma held close by Jake. They talked about life back on earth, what it was like here, what Jake had yet to expect to find here, places to go, general things about themselves. They had to be a perfect match.
The crow of a rooster rang throughout the crisp early morning air, the sun was just starting to rise and Jake awoke out on the ground, with a long stretch and a few yawns Jake pulled himself together and got up to start the day. Dimitri came out half an hour later and started to cook breakfast. Emma was still sound asleep in her house. Jake decided to go for a stroll around the town and check the place out before everyone awoke.
The trees in the woods were a magnificent site in the early morning light, the leaves with early morning due sat so quietly and peaceful. Another phoenix passed over Jakes head at the edge of the woods, it didn't matter how many times you saw them they were still the most magnificent creatures. With all the events that had unfolded the previous day it just didn't feel like he had only been there a day, this place he was in now felt like home.
Jake returned to town an hour later, most of the town was up now, Emma saw him and came running over and jumped into his arms. Dimitri looked over and smiled before continuing whatever it was he was doing.
The day was generally pretty relaxed, Jake just talked with Emma, went for a ride, the townspeople did general repairs from the previous days battle. Dimitri took it fairly easy because of his leg and the rest of the elves from the group that went to get Jake were given a day of relaxation.
That night after dinner Dimitri got up to make an announcement, all went quiet.
"As you know we now have the marked one on our side, the enemy knows this, alas the attack on the town yesterday! Jake by his world Eusderf by ours thru his life into the face of danger yesterday and has joined the battle, he is on our side. We do not know how to harness his power, which is something he will learn over time, until then we offer him protection. As a reward for his bravery yesterday our princess would like to hand him this"
Emma got up and walked over to where Dimitri was standing and pick up a package wrapped in green linen. She handed it over to Jake with a few words of thanks.
"A princess"
The words just kind of blurted out, it was completely unexpected. He had fallen in love with a princess! Emma just smiled at him and told him to open his gift.
Inside were the most beautiful swords he had ever laid eyes on. Both were identical, they had a steel blade, recently polished, the blade were about 3 inches thick and curved in a slight arc backwards. Directly up the center were ancient runic incantations. The handle was black with red gems in it.
Dimitri continued.
"Tomorrow at dawn we head into battle, we have been alerted that there are enemy forces 50 miles east of the town. Any volunteers that wish to come please sign up, we expect to be gone for at least a week. Any provisions the town could supply would be much appreciated."
At this there was much talk throughout the town. You could see the excitement in the younger elves at the talk of battle. They to could have the chance to be heroes. Worried wife's and mothers talked to there husbands and children, plead them no to go. Even Emma, the princess held Jake in her arms and told him that she would plea to Dimitri to have him stay until he had further training.
Animals scurried away from the path, frightened by the site of 200 elves and a human riding through there woods. Jake and Dimitri rode up front. Jake was a sight to be seen now, the princess had given him some royal clothes and he now looked like a warrior. Swords by his side, a shield on his back that he had looted from the previous battle, and royal embroidered clothes. He looked like a leader and already the people were starting to treat him like one.
50 miles could have been done easily in a day but the group wanted element of surprise therefore avoiding path's to stay unseen. At night the group would set up a camp with scouts around the perimeter. Jake missed Emma so much, they had only been together two days but every moment spent away from her felt like an eternity.
With the fast healing that elves have Dimitri was almost fully recovered by the 3rd night. They planed to attack on the 5th day. Thus being away 11 days in total.
On the 4th morning Jake awoke early and went for another stroll through the woods. He heard a high pitch squealing noise and ran to investigate. He first came across a pile of ashes but couldn't see anything burnt. Strange he thought, that's when he saw it, a baby phoenix, just shed, just burnt out to be reborn and also about to be eaten by a wolf. At the sight of Jake the wolf turned and ran into the woods. Jake took the phoenix and returned to camp.
Not long after he got back the group was heading off again, it was a lot quieter today, battle would commence tomorrow. Most were nervous, a couple of the younger elves were more exited then nervous and were making jokes up the back, the elves that had
been in war before just shook there head at them.
The camp was set up, dinner had been served, Dimitri was going over the last minute tactics with whoever wanted to listen. Some elves preferred to get some last minute target practice in or have a duel with swords. Jake sat in his tent thinking about Emma, about how much he missed her and how he was going to come out of battle alive tomorrow so he could return to see. He longed to hold her one last time before battle, to say the words I love you before throwing himself into the face of danger. Outside the fire raged like the flames of hell, ready to consume the week that fell.
The camp went silent, all were asleep, a battle to await them the next day. Jake couldn't sleep, he was too mixed up inside. He was nervous about going into war but in the same sense exited. He wanted to be back with Emma, being able to hold her close, but he also wanted to be here for the battle. He pulled one of his swords over and twirled it above him until he eventually dozed off.
