Chapter Sixty-four

Troubles of the Forest

Our group talked together as we prepared to retire for the night, sharing what we had discovered. I mentioned that King Moonfeather had been to the Tree, not doing anything, and E'ran suggested that we talk to him.

Melima looked at me. "I saw you talking with the rogue. Would you please inform us about what you were talking about?"

"Yeah. So, the rogue actually trained my father."

"I think your parents know something."

"I think so too, I just don't know how to contact them right now. It's going to take a bit."

Ari'yasa asked me about why I left my parents. I related my story of joining Darion's party, and that Raishan had been overrun by the Goblin and Orc invasion.

"I'm so sorry," Sephra said. "Do you know if they're still alive?"

"Actually, I did just find out for sure that my father is, and I'd assume they'd stay together. The rogue has a knife my father gave him that when he puts it in the fire at night it glows if my father is alive."

I explained a little more about what I'd found out about my parents, and what had happened because my mother disappeared. "I found out that going to the Wood Elven capital is probably a bad idea for me, my mother's family are kind of outcasts at this point. My relative here won't even go there without being under disguise.

"The wood elves are based on a matriarchy, at least originally, until my mother disappeared. That kind of stirred the waters, and now they have a council. And some of the families of the council want it to stay that way. There was a coup that caused that to be set up."

Melima mentioned that she'd had it ingrained in her that she would be next in line, there was going to be change in the High Elven kingdom and it would no longer be strictly a patriarchy. "But then my powers started to show, and I thought it was personal that I was no longer the heir, but maybe it was political."

"Interesting, because the wood elves went the opposite way," I said.

"Does that make you, Tawariell, a princess too?" Melima asked.

"I'm pretty far down the line, but yes. My mother had at least a few siblings above her. But we have no idea where the rest of the Lussanen family is either. We don't know if they've been killed, captured, hiding, or what."

There was a tent that was available to use, but I felt more comfortable for the time being to stay in the dome. I doubted anyone would do us harm, but I was still a little uneasy about Vax. I knew he was a good friend of my father, but did he resent me for his disappearance?

The next morning there was breakfast available for us. There was a spread of a variety of meats, and though most were unfamiliar to me, they were delicious. We chit-chatted with the guards that were off duty. Most of them had been there a long time.

Nieven told us of a path that was a more direct route to Felspring. It was a little more dangerous, but it was about a half-day's journey faster, we'd reach the outskirts of the city in about a day. Dolanaar was two days away down the main road, not that I wanted to head that direction until we could talk to King Moonfeather. I hoped he knew more about what might be going on with my family.

We decided to take the shorter path. We felt like time was of the essence, and Keothi welcomed the possibility of fighting something along the way. As we traveled, Sephra asked Melima a bunch of questions about their father and their plan to talk to him once they got there.

Melima said we'd have to keep Sephra out of the throne room, it was enchanted to dispel at least illusions, and her true form would be revealed. Hopefully we'd be able to meet with him somewhere else, which with Melima being his daughter would be a little more likely to be possible.

Sephra asked how Melima's mother would feel about finding out about her husband being in love before her. Melima said that it had been an arranged marriage, though they knew each other long before they were married. I mentioned that depending on how they held the conversation with their father, Melima's mother might not even have to find out.

The further into the forest we traveled, the denser it got. The road was not very wide. Occasionally the trees would open into small meadows, but they were few and far between. The smell of the leaves and dirt was intoxicating.

Jörgen kept trying to walk either in front of me, at the front of the group, or behind Keothi at the back. I pulled him back the next time he walked in front of me. "Squishy wizard, why do you insist on walking in the most dangerous spots?"

"I'm old, I gotta live exciting."

"You already make life exciting, you don't have to make it more exciting."

"It's the only way."

"Our life is already exciting, you don't need to make it more," I laughed.

"When you get this old, you'll find out."

"You're only five years older than me."

"Yeah, but you act like you're twelve," Jörgen said with a twinkle in his eye.

"I do not!" We talked about the life spans of humans and elves and when we reach adulthood. We figured that I was about the equivalent of a seventeen-year-old human, almost an adult. My life had been so strange.

I had a lot on my mind. I was royalty. I might be of the last of the Wood Elven royalty. My father not only was a ranger and a rogue, but he'd saved my life. He'd trained me, and I had no idea! And his friends, they were incredible! In a way, I felt like I was carrying on his legacy as a White Guard as I set out to save the Tree.

But even after all that, I still didn't feel that we were any closer to figuring out what was going on. We'd found out a lot about what wasn't working. I was confident we'd be able to learn more from King Moonfeather. He seemed so mysterious.

Melima and I were talking at the front, discussing what we'd learned, and our next plans. Jörgen told us he was hearing something up ahead. We all paused to listen. Heavy footfalls, something big was coming. Somethings, there were more than one. We kept moving, but I was ready to duck into the trees if we needed to.

Finally, we saw them. Three giants. Two fat ones, and one that was muscular and covered in boils, it was incredibly ugly and disfigured. The ugly one had chains around his wrists and was being led along by the fat ones.

What really caught my eye though, was the red robes of the figure behind them. The same type of robes Brox'l Tor had been wearing in the church of Loltha. But it wasn't a human that was wearing them, it was a drow. He had the symbol of Loltha on his forehead.

They were coming from the north, towards us, the path, and the Tree. I pulled our group into the trees to our right. My blood started to boil at the sight of the mage. This was further proof that Loltha had something to do with what was going on. I whispered to Melima next to me, "if you think it's a bad idea to attack them you'd better convince me really fast."

"Well, we have the element of surprise. That's better than them seeing us, and..." She paused. "Yes."

She cast a spell and turned invisible as we ducked behind the trees. We waited as they got closer, and they got on the path. The drow stopped and said something in a deep, guttural language. Keothi whispered to us, "he is speaking in Giant."

He listened a moment longer. "They are going to take the path."

We quickly decided to make a distraction, then have someone sneak up behind the drow and capture him in our orb. Melima handed the orb to Jörgen, with it suddenly appearing in his hand as she let go of it. "Don't touch the orb inside, just the cloth," she whispered.

I readied to cast a new spell at whichever creature it would seem most useful on after seeing their reactions. Keothi stepped behind me with his warhammer at the ready. "The deformed one is a fomorian, a dangerous type of giant."

The drow gave a creepy smile and looked around. Jörgen appeared behind him in a mist and shoved the orb towards him. The Drow mage dodged out of the way as a bright light appeared in the east, blabbering sounds emanating from it. The giants all looked towards the light with cocked heads. Perfect.

Sephra appeared next to the drow in a flash of light. He turned to look at her, then froze in place. He didn't even seem to be breathing. Jörgen handed the orb to Sephra, and she pushed it into the mage's face. The mage vanished in an instant. We'd captured him, now we had to find a way to get him out and interrogate him safely.

Keothi ran forward, smashing his hammer into the chest and shoulder of the fat giant that was in front. The giant let go of the chain and pulled out a ginormous club, smashing it into Keothi's gut, then into the ground.

The fomorian looked at Sephra, then smashed into her with a huge club. He was chained, but also had a weapon?

Melima appeared in the middle of the path, hurling a lightning bolt at the two fat giants. The energy went through the giant in front, causing the skins he was wearing to singe, then struck the other giant.

I changed my mind as to which spell I wanted to use, I was mad. I mustered all the magical energy that I could as I held my medallion and traced a sigil in the air, muttering an incantation, "soves bluthel!" I then hurled a bolt of radiant energy at the fomorian. It hit him with a burst of light, leaving him with a faint glow around him.

He shook his head and grunted, glaring in my direction. I muttered under my breath to activate my bowstring.

Keothi struck the giant next to him a couple more times. The giant was starting to look bruised, but was still holding his ground. He started shaking his head and looking to the sky.

The other giant took a couple of whacks at Jörgen, but its club bounced on an invisible barrier. Sephra grabbed him and disappeared in a flash. A flash behind me told me they were safely out of reach.

The ugly giant gave Melima a look with a strange glint in his eye. Her skin started to bubble and deform, looking much like his own.

He lumbered forward and clobbered Keothi with a greatclub. A streak of lightning flashed beside them, hitting the other two giants.

A massive ball of fire erupted next to me, engulfing all three giants and catching the trees on fire. The tree above me was half aflame, raining ash on me. I hopped on my broom and moved away from both my friends and the road, skirting around the flames. I rose a couple of stories into the air once I was across the fire from the giants.

I cast my mark on the fomorian, feeling the familiar power of natural magic, and fired a set of arrows at him. The first arrow burst into flame as it left my bow, then entered the upper back of the giant. My second arrow struck right beneath the first. The fomorian reached back at the pain.

Keothi swung his hammer into the gut of the giant in front of him, then brought it back over and crushed it into the giant's skull. The giant crumpled towards the fomorian, he wasn't going to be moving anymore. Keothi grunted. "Just imagine if I was also that big."

He glared at the ugly fomorian, which pulled up his club and roared with a terrible screech. Vines erupted from the ground, wrapping their way around the fomorian's legs. The other giant looked around, grunting something, then nearly stepped on the corpse of the dead giant as it swung at Keothi. It tripped on the first swing, but stuck the goliath right in the side on the second. It looked like he was swinging a tree, the club was so huge.

A small ball of fire hit a flaming tree by the fomorian, and a ghostly hound appeared by the other giant. The fomorian reached and pushed the tree over, right on top of my friends. I could see Jörgen, Naidaroe, and Sephra pinned underneath.

I'd thought we'd been doing well up to that point, but started to think we might be in trouble. I didn't have any spells ready that could extinguish flames, though I knew there was one I could cast if I had meditated on it. I heard Jörgen beneath me, "looks like I'll get the fiery death I wanted…"

The hound tore into the giant, knocking him slightly off balance. Melima ran to the fallen tree, pulling out a decanter. A geyser of water sprayed out, extinguishing the flames around our friends. She then turned and threw a bolt of fire at the fomorian. Jörgen puffed into a mist and reappeared right next to Melima, dripping wet, but no longer under the smouldering tree.

The flames beneath me started licking at my feet. I flew higher, getting away from the heat. I knew Keothi couldn't keep taking hits without some help. I shouted to him, "you almost won against an elite guard, you can take these giants!"

The medallion on my chest briefly grew warmer, and Keothi cracked his neck. Bahamut would help him last a little bit longer. I threw my hand down towards the fomorian. "Ofdio ixen!"

Radiant flames descended on the foul giant, leaving him looking beaten and scorched. The flames from the trees around him were still licking at him, but the vines around him prevented his escape.

I heard Naidaroe beneath me, "you are confined only by the walls you build yourself."

A flash of light came from where she'd been trapped, and she appeared behind the giants with another flash, safely out of their reach.

Keothi lifted his hammer again, quicker than normal. He struck the brutish giant in the leg, then the other leg, then both arms, finally hitting him in the jaw. The giant buckled and wiped blood from his mouth. He was still alive, though just barely.

The giant yelled in Keothi's face, then smashed into his shoulder with his club. He swung for the other side, but planted the club into the ground instead. The fomorian took advantage of Keothi's attention being drawn somewhere else, landing two solid hits to his side and shoulder. It was a good thing I'd healed him.

The hound bit and pulled at the bleeding giant, but he remained standing, barely. These things were tougher than I'd taken them for. Keothi wasn't looking much better, how much longer was he going to last?

Melima ran beneath me and started dousing the flames. They were spreading quickly, and the smoke was getting higher, just starting to reach me, five storeys in the air. "Tawariell, can you take over fire duty? Keothi's not looking good, but I can take his spot."

Jörgen shouted to our war chief, as he sprayed acid on the giants, "big guy, need help?"

"I've got this!" Keothi replied. He didn't want help, but something had to be done. If we could just keep him from getting hit...

A thought crossed my mind, the new power from Bahamut had so many ways I could use it. I flew towards the fomorian, shouting at him as I did. "Grovel!"

The tone of my voice surprised me, almost echoing out of my mouth. The fomorian somehow ignored my command, instead bellowing and reaching up to bang on his head. I flew right above him, right where he could reach me, but he didn't even look in my direction.

The other giant roared in pain, looking around him. He turned to run, but the hound grabbed his leg, tripping him, then jumped on his back and sunk its teeth into his neck. The hound howled, then disappeared into black mist. That left just the fomorian to take care of, and he looked mad.

Keothi scored a few more strikes on him, with the last one landing on the giant's arm, then stepped out of his reach. The fomorian swung at him, but too high. The giant was bleeding from his mouth and a few blisters that had popped, and his skin was deep purple in places. Surely, he couldn't last much longer.

Ari'yasa ran up to the fomorian and there was a crack of thunder, which rumbled the earth beneath him. He was now bleeding from out of his ears. He started pulling at the vines frantically, trying to get out.

Sephra threw three small fireballs, two of them hitting the fomorian. He groaned in agony as he continued to pull at the vines. He broke away and started to run. Ari'yasa drew her scimitar and plunged it into his side. He took a few staggering steps, then collapsed right underneath me.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Not only were we all safe, these giants wouldn't be able to cause any more trouble in the forest. There were enough other things doing that already.