Chapter Fifty-five

Unexpected Visitors

It was a clear day the next morning. It felt like it might become humid, but nothing too bad, especially being in the mountains. The path we were on wasn't too wide, but wide enough for a cart to come down, which it looked like wasn't an uncommon occurrence.

There were several spots along the road where grass and other plants were pushed down into the road by animals. Nothing too big, it looked like this was a fairly well-traveled route.

It only took us about two hours to reach the base of the mountain on the west side. The trees ended, and a grassland began. As far as I could see into the horizon were rolling hills and grass. The forest continued towards the north and south.

We knew we had to head towards the north, and while I would have preferred to travel inside the forest, staying out of sight of anything on the plains, everyone else wanted to travel along the treeline.

We walked north, following the treeline. It was quiet, not much of anything going on. Around midday the sun crested over the trees, chasing away the shadows and bathing us in sunlight.

Ahead in the distance, one of the hills looked different from the rest. It was higher, but dropped suddenly in the middle, lower than I could see. It reminded me of an anthill. It was several stone's throw from the trees, but still uncomfortably close.

I flew into the trees to scout ahead, flying just below the canopy. The top of the hill looked like a ring, with a large hole in the center dropping into the earth. I scanned the landscape for something similar, something that it might connect to farther into the grasslands. There was another spot that looked like it did the same thing, but I couldn't tell for sure with how far away it was.

Some type of creatures were coming out of the hole. They came to the ridge, moved around a little bit, then returned down the hole.

Returning to my friends and telling them what I saw, we all wanted to be cautious and avoid whatever was in the giant anthill. I knew there were other things we could do to avoid detection. "There were a lot of things coming out of that. Let's go into the forest a little bit and try to keep quiet as we move."

The branches in the forest were lower than most everyone was used to, and I had to guide us through in a way that we could stay quiet, but still keep a steady pace.

After about two hours, I felt that we'd be past the hill and safely out of sight. I cut our path towards the treeline again. I heard hoofbeats as the sun started to set. There were horses nearby, with armored riders. I could hear their armor clinking.

Ari'yasa pointed them out to me, riding alongside us in the forest. They passed us, going farther north. The horses didn't have riders, the riders were one with the horse. I remembered my parents mentioning something like them in stories, centaurs. Half man, half horse, they lived in forests, and while not as intelligent as most races, were still much smarter than beasts, and had their own civilization.

"Guys, these are centaurs. Half horse, half people. They're territorial, we should probably give them some space," Ari'yasa said.

About a mile ahead of us was a small village. Was that where they were heading? I took our course away from the forest, creating more distance between us and the centaurs.

The centaurs came out from the forest, halfway between us and the village. We paused to see where they were going. As they emerged from the forest, they turned towards us. There were eight of them. Two of them had bows slung over their shoulders, and two were holding spears or pikes, though not in an aggressive stance. Several of them were armored, one of them having a large chestplate.

We paused and held our position, showing no signs of aggression. Even Keothi just kept his hammer in a loose grip at his side. I didn't want to fight them if we didn't have to. I asked Melima to join me at the front, she was much better at talking to people than I was.

The centaurs rode up and surrounded us. They were tall enough that they could look Keothi straight in the face. The centaur with the chestplate came forward to the front of our group. He had a longsword on his side and had an air of authority about him.

He stopped just in front of Melima and I. "Identify yourselves. Who are you? What is your business here?"

"Greetings," Melima said, "we are peaceful and weary travelers on our way to Felspring, seeking refuge, protection, and trade."

"And we're hungry!" Jörgen shouted from behind us.

"Pardon my friend," Melima said. I winced, hopefully our wizard wouldn't accidentally insult the centaurs.

"Protection from what?" the centaur asked.

"From the wiles of the forest. We are unfamiliar with this territory and we have encountered already some dangerous things that we would like to not have to fight alone again if needs be."

The centaur took a step back. "Why did you enter the forest, a while back?"

"We felt threatened by a large hill with creatures and a hole in the top. To avoid danger in that regard we entered into the forest, which we have among us one who is proficient with navigating through forested areas." Melima gestured towards me.

The centaur stood a little more relaxed. "Indeed, the grassland is a dangerous place. Many dangers await you in that area. It is safe in the road you have taken, but be wary. There are many creatures in both forest and grassland who would wish to eat you."

"Would you be able to give us some insight on what those might be? Your wisdom and experience in this place are pivotal to our survival," Melima asked.

The centaur addressing us looked to the other centaurs and gave a gentle nod. They stood at ease. He turned his attention back to us. "To introduce myself, I am Tauryn, of the Centaur clan. That hill you saw earlier was an ankheg hill. In large numbers, they can be very dangerous."

He told us of other creatures we might find in the grasslands. Bestial creatures, subterranean creatures, one of which, a creature with an extremely hard shell on its back, I recognized the description of from a dream I'd had. A bulette. I'd rather not have remembered that dream. He also told us of some creatures we might find in the forest, some I was familiar with, some I'd never heard of.

After he explained some history of his clan, Melima apologized and bowed. "Tauryn, I apologize for not introducing myself earlier. My name is Melima Moonfeather, I am from Felspring. These are my acquaintances and associates and friends..."

Tauryn returned her bow, one of his front legs kneeling on the ground. "Indeed, a Moonfeather. We have not seen the high elves this far south in many hundred years. It is a strange thing to see so many out and about. Strange things happened in the last few years. Particularly in the last few months."

"Indeed, that is what we are journeying to find and to resolve," she replied. "There have been many difficult days, and many righteous adventures, and we are thrilled to run into such noble and incredible people as yourselves. We know that you have so much wisdom and knowledge of nature and of history, and we are excited and thrilled to learn of your experiences and what you've noticed going on from your perspective."

"We are not as knowledgeable in the ways of the world, we tend to stay to our mountains and hills and forests, but is there anything that your group is in need of at this time that we might be able to help with?"

"Is there anything of particular note that has been happening that might be good for us to be aware of?" I asked.

"Yeah, what strange things have been occurring in your forest that have been different? Other than us randomly showing up," Melima asked.

"Well, besides other adventurers and other travelers being on the move more than usual, there have been strange movements in the mountains, the creatures that live high in the peaks. There have also been a lot of the beast creatures out on the plains that have been having more unusual movements than they normally do. They have been traveling faster, quicker, and at a more, shall we say, alarmed pace. We're not sure why. Other sages in our tribe have tried to discern what is happening, and we are ourselves not sure yet."

He offered to let us stay in their village, several miles back from the way we came, or to escort us to the nearby village ahead of us. It was not of their tribe, but they had agreements and trade with them. It was populated by gnomes, humans, and some elves. It was mostly wood elves though. Melima wasn't sure how she'd be received by them, and I was worried about how much I evidently looked like the wood elf royal family.

Though it would set us back a few hours, we decided we'd be better off staying with the centaurs. We already knew they were friendly to us, and we might be able to learn more about the area.

It took us a little longer to get there than they had anticipated, we didn't move as fast as they did, but we got there before sundown. Their camp was on a slight plateau and set into the side of the mountain.

All of their buildings were much taller than the ones I was used to, and it looked like there were a lot of common houses. The village itself was fairly small. They invited us to join them for their meal, which was a nice spread, and the meat was well seasoned.

Jörgen asked one of their military leaders, a centaur with long black hair and a brownish-black body, about what types of creatures were in the area, and what we should watch out for.

The centaur wasn't taking kindly to Jörgen's manner of speech, but Melima went over as well and things seemed to go better. She arranged for a couple of centaurs to escort us to the treeline of the Elven forest, on the southern edge of the Wood Elven territory.

Naidaroe found barrels of wine and a hookah, which I kept my distance from. Towards the end of the night I heard her shouting, and a centaur bolted behind the houses and into the forest with Naidaroe on his back, hollering with glee. They returned a few minutes later, Naidaroe with a huge smile on her face.

Keothi found the cook and started chatting about food. I found one of the centaurs that had escorted us to the village, one that had been carrying a bow, and asked about how they hunted and tracked. Most of their tactics were very similar to what I did, following tracks, watching for broken branches, listening for waterways, and the like.

They did string their bows differently than I did. He handed me one, and it seemed to have more power to it. I couldn't tell if it came from the way it was strung, or the way the bow itself was built, but I was impressed.

Towards the end of the evening, Melima, Jörgen, Ari'yasa, and Naidaroe put on a magic show. The centaurs were impressed with the different types of magic. They were most familiar with the nature-based magic Ari'yasa was using and hadn't seen some of the things the others were doing.

We gratefully accepted their offer of lodging for the night. They had accommodations for visitors, and even Keothi was able to have a bed that he fit on. Some of the centaurs had created frames and put hay, moss, and other material inside the frame that they were able to fit on, and there was one that Keothi could use.

. . .

The centaurs provided a meal for us the next morning, and we set out. Our escorts led us more along the mountain side of the forest, which was fairly easy travel. It felt strange to have the sun at my back as we followed the mountain range. I was used to mountains being towards the north, not the east.

The centaurs let us know that we would probably pass close to Dolanaar, the Wood Elven capital. I was hoping that we wouldn't have to pass through it, I wanted to learn more about who I might be before I potentially met some of my family.

They told us that over the last four months, the land had been changing and becoming darker. Creatures were starting to rise from the underdark and wreak havoc on the surface. The people of the grasslands were only able to defend themselves with the help of the centaurs and roaming patrols from the northern forest.

It seemed to me that whatever was going on was much bigger than I'd thought, and beginning to affect more than just the elves, though my people were probably the main target. Brox'l Tor had told me that my people would be the first to go, not the only ones, and Bahamut had talked about division amongst more than just the elves.

The enormity of our task began to feel heavy to me, and we still didn't know exactly what we were up against, or what we needed to do exactly. I knew we could do it, whatever it was. We had to, were destined to, I was just growing frustrated at our lack of understanding.

On our fourth day of travel, our centaur guides led us through the forest away from the mountains until we reached the grasslands. A large forest grew along the horizon to the north. It started suddenly, as if it had been cut. It was dense and tall, taller than the forest we had been traveling through.

We reached the forest a little before sunset. Bromuld, one of the centaurs, planted his pike into the ground, then spoke in Elvish, "this is our journey's end. We go no farther."

I turned to look at the forest. The centaurs had told us that even in good times, it was treacherous. I turned back towards the centaurs, but they were already galloping away from us.

They'd told us that Felspring was nearly directly north from us, but that would lead us through some of the most dangerous parts of the forest. Other options for travel were to go to Dolanaar, towards the northwest, through a less dangerous part of the forest, or to follow the treeline west to a road that went to Dolanaar, but the road was half a day's journey from where we were.

Melima asked me if I wanted to go to Dolanaar and visit my family, but I really didn't like that idea. "The only contact I have on this continent that I even know their name is actually a high elf that my father told me about. Based on the fact that Tofor Brotoras could recognize me from my features it makes me wonder how quickly I would be recognized in Dolanaar when I don't even know who I am."

Besides the potential of political danger in Dolanaar, which I didn't know how to navigate, I was feeling an urgency to get to Felspring as soon as possible, we'd already wasted so much time. Everyone else felt better about going straight north as well, so we decided on that route. We camped there for the night, choosing not to venture into the forest at night, when it would be even more dangerous.