Chapter 14: Dwarfs and Gnomes
Hunter had helped the group evade several outposts of Arissa's Army as they made their way further south, that did have an encounter or two with some small groups of soldiers but had been able to easily defeat them and left them either unconscious or tied up to any surrounding trees that the team thought was really funny, They had stopped in a few small towns while they looked for the resistance and were always pointed in the direction people had heard they were last in. Kaedan, Omari, and Dick no longer felt it was necessary to wear their cloaks to hide their faces since Hunter had told them that it was only his personal opinion of royalty when they had first met him; most of the people they had come across had recognized them either from the history books or the wanted posters they had been shown throughout history giving the people hope that their true rulers had finally returned to their land. The three royal siblings had helped the small towns they came across as they did the first town they came too by healing the injured, refurbishing the gardens, and helping to unpollute any water source they had
"How do you intend to kill Arissa when you get close enough to her?" Hunter asked as they traveled to the next town that they could find to get directions to the resistance members
"With this" Kaedan pointed to the staff attached to his back
"You plan to kill her with a staff?" He lifted an eyebrow at them
"It's not an ordinary staff, it channels the power of a sorcerer with the sphere" Bruce explained to him "Arissa used it to kill them in a life 88 years ago"
"That's something else i've been wanting to ask you three which was a main reason why i didn't like the royals" He looked to the siblings seeing he had their attention "Why did you wait so long to come back? I mean i doubt you're any stronger now than you were in any other lifetimes, and you say you've lives 97 other times so what convinced you to come back now other than their help?" He motioned to the heroes
Omari looked to her two brothers before answering "Well you know that we reincarnate each time were killed, well during our first death 500 years ago Arissa gained immortality and each time she kills us she gets stronger and prolongs her immortality, the only possible way we could kill her is if we had a relic that had been used to kill us in a past life"
"And lucky for us our friend J'ohnn here" Dick motioned to Martian Manhunter "He kept the staff that he saw killed us all these years until he met us again in this life"
"I guess that makes sense"
"So where exactly are we now?" Wally asked seeing that they were coming towards a forest that looked to be filled with life unlike any others they had seen so far
"Umm" Kaedan pulled out a map he had gotten from a library in a town they had stopped in "It looks like we're nearing the mythic forest"
"Isn't everything mythic in this world?" Artemis lifted an eyebrow
"You don't have animals like ours in your world?" Hunter asked
"Right, this is normal for you guys" Zatanna remembered
"Things like unicorns and fairies are mostly myths on their world" Omari informed him
"Why do they call it the mythic forest if there are mythical things living all over the world?" Conner asked
"I don't think it was called 'The Mythic Forest' back in 1495 but i think this was the forest people claimed to be a sort of sanctuary for pixies"
"What's the difference between fairies and pixies anyway?" M'gann asked out of curiosity
"Fairies are the same size as us but pixies are about only as big as a person's hand" Dick explained
"Oh"
In a large village with concrete walls built around the houses there was the HQ of the resistance, they had made a refugee city out of their center, the reason Arissa's men had never come across the large city was because they had a camoflauge system set around the walls that protected the city and as a precaution they had built an underground center as a way to hide if Arissa's men should ever notice the camouflage around the city they would think it was abandoned
"I did not think you would survive after you were taken Fredrick" One of the members of the resistance greeted the resistance member that had been captured by the dark army when he along with several others had been sent to infiltrate a shipment to the palace that they could use in their fight against the army
"I thought so too my friend, but i along with my son were sent to the Stronghold as a mercy by Queen Arissa"
"I hardly think being sent to the Stronghold is a mercy" The leader of the resistance Gale as most people called him "But how are you here if you were sent to the Stronghold, no one has ever been able to escape from the horrific place"
"A miracle i thought at first, a couple of children had broken into the prison, they managed to the sent everyone free along with destroying the entire building"
"How could a couple of children pull something like that off?"
"I thought the same thing at first until i saw who was with them, while i was escaping with my son through the front gates i saw the warden was surrounded by three powerful sorcerers, i didn't get a good look of them at first until i later heard from Harkado that it was in fact Prince Konshen, Princess Oshiana, and Prince Ranver that had put together the plan to free the prisoners and destroy the prison"
This shocked everyone in the room, they had heard that the royal siblings had reincarnated into another realm over the last few centuries but they never would have thought they would return to Rolasia, they had searched for the first few years of the resistance for the three sorcerers but were never able to find them, rumors had spread that Arissa held them captive when they were reborn and would never have any hope of rescuing them. Now they had managed to evade the Queen and destroy The stronghold that not even the resistance has ever been able to do
"It was lie that they were being held prisoner at the palace then?"
"Apparently so"
"Do you know where they are now Fredrick?" Gale asked, they could be a valuable asset to the resistance and maybe finally put this world back in a peaceful place once again
"Harkado told me they had heard of the resistance while they were staying in a nearby village and had gone to search for us, they have a plan of their own to kill Queen Arissa"
"What do you want to do Gale?"
Gale thought about it, the last few generations of his family had worked to put an end to Arissa's reign and now there was a chance in his lifetime to do as his family had vowed, with the royal siblings help he could finally bring peace to the people, he just had to find them first before the armies did
"I want to put out a search to all of our men that are on the outside, i want them to keep a lookout for Prince Konshen and his two siblings and if they find them i want them to be brought to this city"
"Yes sir"
"This place is so beautiful" Zatanna looked around the lively forest
"I remember when every forest was like this" Omari looked around too see butterflies, birds, and squirrels making their way through their home
"There are still some places that the dark army has not made it too yet, i guess this is one of the places" Hunter said
"I'm surprised no one has chosen to come to live in places like this" Dinah didn't see any signs of humanoid life anywhere
"Why don't we set up camp here?" Dick asked
"Great idea" M'gann cheered
None of them had noticed that they were being watched by people in the bushes as they conversed about staying in the mystic forest
"Finally my feet are getting so tired" Wally collapsed to the ground
"That's surprising coming from a speedster like you" Artemis lifted an eyebrow at him
"I think i saw a spring somewhere that way" Kaedan pointed to the left "I'm gonna go see if we can get some water"
"I'll go with you" Omari stood up to follow him
"I don't think any of us should be going anywhere alone" Hunter said
"I haven't seen one soldier in miles" Dick frowned at him
"Yes, but you never know what else could b-"
Before he could finish that sentence they were attacked by people that had come out from trees and bushes that had surrounded them, the others were caught in nets that had been rooted to the ground, Hunter was tied to a tree and Kaedan, Omari, and Dick were sprung off their feet and left to hang upside down from a tree
"What the-" Omari sputtered before she got a look at their captures in her upside down vision
It was a bunch of Dwarfs and Gnomes that were known to live in the forests back in their first life, guess that hadn't changed in the last five centuries
"Oh no, Dwarfs" Hunter moaned
One of the dwarfs chuckled at the sight of Hunter "This is our lucky day, Hunter it's been a long time hasn't it?"
"You know them?" J'ohnn asked the huntsman
"Somewhat" He shrugged then turned his gaze back to their captures "Come on Ben, is this how you treat an old friend?"
"Oh, no no no, this is how i treat a friend" Ben then hit his mallet against Hunter's stomach making him groan and the others chuckle at him
One of the gnomes walked over to the others "You have some strong looking friends"
"And who are these others you have with you?" Ben asked turning his gaze to them
"Fellow Hunters or captives?"
"This man is helping us" Kaedan argued
"We should just kill them" One of them offered
"Right, they'll cause nothing but trouble for us"
"Yeah, skewer the men and leave the women, i don't like killing girls"
"I do"
"Good"
"Why don't we start with her" One of them walked up to Omari
"Leave her alone Drew" Another dwarf told him
"Which one of us gets to finish off Hunter?"
"Why don't you cut me loose and i'll show you which one of you can take me?" Hunter growled
"Tell them who you are guys they'll listen to you!" Conner looked over to the upside down sorcerers
"I doubt that they barely ever payed attention to the laws back then either" Dick scoffed
"I have to lead these people to the resistance, it's not safe for you if we remain here" Hunter tried to persuade them
"My heart bleeds for you, we should shut them up and feed them to the wolves"
"Yeah!"
"Who are they anyway?" a dwarf with a hatchet over his shoulder asked
"They are assets to the cause"
"Oh are they huh?" They chuckled
"The Queen's men hunt us, none of this will matter if they follow us into this forest" Omari yelled
"Who cares"
"You support the Queen's reign?" Kaldur asked
"Oh, we have no love for the queen"
"Then you fight against her?" Bruce asked
"No one fights against her"
"We lost everything when King Caermont was killed
"We fight only for ourselves"
"Our father was King Caermont" Kaedan told them
There was a small pause of silence after he said that before one of the Gnomes scoffed in disbelief but was silenced by the other dwarfs and gnomes as they looked to each other, they had also heard the rumors from neighboring lands that the royal siblings were reborn whenever they died, some of them tilted their heads to get a good look at the 3 from their upside down position
"Hue, does he speak the truth?" One of the Gnomes whispered to a Dwarf that was mostly silent during the entire altercation
Hue frowned and stepped closer to the three taking in their appearance "Yes, they are of royal blood, they are destined to be our saviors...i see an end to our struggles within them"
There was a long silence among the group before they heard a shout from the edge of the forest, Omari hadn't been lying when she said that Arissa's men were hunting them, after they had destroyed the Stronghold there was word from the palace that they were to be captured and brought to Arissa which is why they had been moving so fast through each village they came across
"They found us!" Dinah yelled
"You need to let us go! If you don't we'll all be killed!" Hunter yelled
One of the dwarfs looked trough his binoculars and looked too see men dressed in black armor making their way through the forest in their direction riding along on Griffins "Cut them all loose!" he yelled tot he others and they did so with their hatches and knives all of them scrambling to their feet and getting ready for the fight
"Follow us!" Hue yelled to them
They frowned but agreed to follow them as not to damage any of the surrounding nature, they went down to a small ravine and at the edge there were some vines that had been made to look like an overgrown bush in front of an underground passageway, most of them had to crouch down to make it through the entrance before they put the vines back in place to mask them
They hid inside the small passage as they heard above them the men pause where they had been tied up, they heard a man say something before listening to the sounds of them riding off
"Thank you" M'gann thanked them
"You're welcome" Hue nodded to her
"I guess it's too risky to go outside now, do you have a place we can stay down here while we wait them out?" Dick asked
"Sure"
Please Review!
I would like it if Arissa had a 16 year old daughter that wanted to prove herself worthy to her mother by going after the group in the later chapters