Isana squeezed in closer to me for support and protection as we were escorted by a phalanx of exotically dressed people with pointy ears through a thick, deep and peaceful wood. There was something about the place, an all pervading sense of calm and tranquility that seemed to permeate the air like a fog. The canopy of leaves over our heads was a green so vivid that it was almost surreal. There were motes of sparking dust that caught the sunlight that shone though in shafts and turned the air a liquid honey-gold. The floor of the forest to either side was thick and quiet with moist earth, fallen leaves and the occasional moss-covered rock jutting up here and there. There were also flowers growing on vines strung almost artistically through the branches of the trees and growing in thick clumps along the ground that were so bright they seemed to glow... that might have been just a trick of the light, or it might not have. The air was filled with the scents of forest overlaid by the exotic-sweet smell of those flowers. Even some of the trees here and there looked a little bit like giant flowers, but I must have been imagining that part.
The otherworldly people guiding and escorting us didn't make a single sound or cause even the barest ripple of movement in the greenery around us, but I could sense them all around us, their strange reiatsus flickering along my skin and their scents borne on the light breeze that whispered through the trees. Our escorts seemed to glide over the ground, not a leaf stirred or a bush rustled as they passed. It was strange to watch and I felt positively gangly next to them. I tried to remind myself that they were probably centuries older than I was and like Byakuya Kuchiki, they probably had a lot of experience in making other people feel unconsciously inferior to them.
Neither of us even noticed the city until we were almost inside of it. One moment we were walking along an ordinary woodland trail next to a valley with a stream in the bottom of it and a tumble of boulders with piles of greenery and then when we looked up again the boulders and shrubs had turned to houses and the gravel-filled tiny stream-beds for what would ordinarily have been dried-up snowmelt run-off had turned to pathways leading from abode to abode. Well, I guessed they were houses anyway, they weren't like anything I had ever seen or thought of as a house, they still looked like they were part of the surroundings, but it was like looking at something sideways, there were windows and doors cleverly hidden in them now, relying upon light and shadow and optical illusion to hide them. Strange place, this.
We were led down through what I thought might be the center of the town or village or city... hard to tell how big or small it was when so much of it looked like it was part of the rest of the forest. We followed the stream down to the tumble of boulders and discovered once we looked twice at it that the boulders were really a very large sort of house, led round to the side, we crossed what looked like a ring of mushrooms and were brought before a large glen in the woods. The air was thick and heavy with the scent of power and a strange magic.
:Whoever or whatever built this Realm is nearby,: I thought.
Isana seemed to sense it too somehow, it was hard to ignore it was a pressure on the skin a thick feeling like warm fog.
Our escort suddenly stopped and as one, knelt down on one knee and bowed their heads. Isana and I exchanged a look, wondering what they were bowing at, when between one blink and the next two matching thrones appeared on a natural dais of flat rock before us. They looked like two natural chairs had grown up out of the ground, like a tree stump had had vines of pure gold that sparkled in the sunlight weave into a comfortable seat around them, but instead of being wood and leaf the plants were made of gold and studded with gem-encrusted flowers that sparkled like stars in the sky (only more brightly) that still managed to look so real I could reach out an' pick one.
I looked up to meet the eyes of two of the most impossibly beautiful people I had ever seen before. I mean, I'd been around some strangely attractive people both in the Siereitei and out of it, but none of them were even a patch on these two. Their features looked like they'd been carved by the hand of a genius that only came along once every four hundred years on a quest for the essence of True Beauty. Their faces were perfectly proportioned and without flaw, they didn't have to move but I could tell that every gesture and movement would be perfection. It was also an intimidating sort of beauty. I'd never thought of beauty as being intimidating before but this was somehow.
"Mortals," the one on the left said.
I could tell it was a she, though the two of them were almost like twins in thier androgynous good looks this one exuded an aura of femininity.
"How wonderful."
"It's been a long time," the one to the right said agreeably.
His voice was light, but masculine... both were eerily musical.
Abruptly the circle that defined the glen was filled with people. I didn't know how they had gotten there or where they had come from, but all of them, save the guards who had escorted us were wearing the most intricate of finery. They were all to a person very beautiful, but not quite as beautiful as the ones who stood before me, or maybe it was just that the ones seated on the thrones had an aura of power was so overwhelming that it literally froze me up, just like my first encounter with the Kuchiki.
"We have heard that you seek passage through our Realm, mortals," the man-creature said.
It wasn't a human, I didn't know what it-
"Elves!" Isana said, sounding happy and excited for some reason.
I Looked a question over at her.
"Elves, fairies, the Fair Folk, the sidhe," she clarified. At my blank expression she rolled a hand and added "Y'know, Titania and Oberon and Puck..."
"Um, noo," I said truthfully.
"You've never heard of them?" she asked, her tone sounding like she couldn't believe it. "But everyone's heard of them!"
"I guess I'm not everyone," I grumbled.
Isana quickly gave me a run down on what elves were supposed to be, apparently a lot of different things, some said that they stole children from out of cribs and replaced them with little terrors, others said that they were the protectors of children, some said that they ran this thing called the Wild Hunt which tracked down people who had done evil things and dragged them off to Hell and others said that they were merely inclined to mischief or that some tales even had them as helpers and guides to lost travelers. Most Teutonic legends agreed that they lived in 'barrows' in a place called 'underhill.' Modern tales had them as wise and powerfully magical, and that they could not withstand the touch of cold iron. They were also said to be inclined to meddle secretly in Human affairs, and always on the lookout for something to alleviate the boredom of living for centuries on end.
"Why don't they just get jobs like me?" I muttered.
"Renji, they can probably hear you," she muttered back.
I looked up cautiously at our hosts but their ethereally beautiful faces gave nothing away.
"So," I said awkwardly, trying to get things moving along. "I can see you're all on guard against the Shadows, that's good. I suppose that makes us allies, or leastwise not enemies since we got a common enemy. I know I wouldn't want one of the Faded using my Realm as a gateway either, I guess, so what do you say you just let us pass right on through and we'll track down that Shadow for you and take care of him?"
"Real smooth," Isana said sarcastically when my proposal fell flat by dint of a complete lack of reaction from the crowd around me.
It seemed like they were all staring in shock at me.
"I think you've managed to offend them somehow," she added after a long, strangely tense moment. "Better apologize."
Er, ah," I scratched the back of my head nervously.
Isana nudged me again.
"Sorry about that," I said. "I can come off as being pretty abrupt sometimes. My Captain is always telling me I'm hopeless when it comes ta stuff like this. How's about we cut to the chase? You an' me have both got a Shadow problem. I'm offerin' ta axe it for ya if you'll let me just track it across yer realm. How does that sound to ya?"
The most beautiful woman in the world blinked twice at me and then abruptly pealed out with a laugh that sounded like the music of that "heaven" that a lot of mortals were always going on about. The court around me just as abruptly followed suit. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
"The Mortal definitely shows a tendency toward War Manners," the male elf said, sounding amused.
"We would hear your story, Mortal, considering that you bear a Zanpaktou but have a Mortal Body, and yet you wear an Earth-bond collar around your neck tied to this mortal woman... your story is bound to be the most interesting We have heard in some time."
"I'm kind of in a hur-"
Isana nudged me and looked hard at me with a look that suggested that it would be better for me to play along. Considering the fact that we were surrounded by armed guards at the moment, I guess I was inclined to agree with her.
"It might seem a little odd, but I'm actually a Soul Reaper," I started. "Sixth Squad Lieutenant Renji Abarai..."
I started my story with my quest to find out what had happened to the missing children, through being attacked by a Shadow and waking up in the Mortal Realm bound into a mortal body, rescuing Isana, tracking down info on the Shadows (I left out all the details on what they were figuring that the Elves probably already knew) then being bound by that damn mountain spirit to serve as Miss Isana's bodyguard in our merry little quest across the Dangai. The fight in the Court of Genbu, my side-trip to the Katschei's Realm and subsequent defeat of him, and the fact that Miss Isana could summon Guardian Spirits that had entered into contracts with her.
"...And that's how we came to cross your Realm after the Shadow," I finished a little while later.
"How very intriguing," the elf-king said. (It definitely seemed to me that the guy on the golden leaf-chair was the one running this joint.)
"Shall we keep them?" the elf-queen asked eagerly.
"You know the rules," the man replied. "We may not keep any mortal that does not wish to stay and must aid those of good intent across our realm, but..."
There was always a but.
"One does not cross a Realm without offering recompense for the hospitality of the owners," the Lady finished, looking eagerly at me.
"Now we're talking!" I said in relief. "What can I get for ya?"
I figured they'd be like the Court of Genbu, go somewhere and fetch something, maybe have a good fight or two and bring whatever they wanted back to them.
"You are a high-ranked Soul Reaper," the elf-king said. "It is a matter of great curiosity to me to see whether or not my own knights are on a par equal to yours or if they are in fact the better fighters."
The Queen looked delighted and clapped her delicate perfect hands excitedly.
"A tourney milord? How wonderful!"
I'd heard of "tourneys" before, a grin widened across my face. They were fights.
"Sounds great ta me!" I said cheerfully, drawing myself up. "I'll take on anyone who wants ta give it a go."
I was always ready for a good fight.
"Oh this is not proper," the elf-queen said. "There are Ways."
"Yeah," Isana agreed quickly. "I took part in a ren-faire once or twice too, and the knights are supposed to have the favor of ladies and there has to be spectators and prizes..."
"Just so," the elf-queen agreed, nodding firmly.
Must be a girl thing.
"You must be wearied from your journey thus far," the elf-king said. "Mortal Reaper, we wish a most excellent fight, so you and your mistress shall eat and rest up in accomodations nearby while the appropriate venue is prepared for the tournament."
I was all for some food. I looked a question over at Isana to see if she minded the delay and she just shrugged as if to say "what else can we do?" and nodded.
We followed one of the androgynous archers over to a nearby cleft in the rough cliffside only to discover that it was a kind of guest house. There was a low table in the main room that was laid out with food, all the other details of the room were unimportant to me though Isana certainly seemed inclined to comment on the decoration. She was also inclined to explore around a bit first. There was a doorway on either side of the room, the left side and the right side with two doors in each, one isana informed me led to a very nice bedroom and I breifly heard her exclaim in delight over seeing a real bath... I wouldn't mind one myself. Bathing in streams and lakes along the way wasn't terrible for me, at least I was staying clean, but nuthin' beat a nice hot water bath either. I'd be investigating that as soon as I was full up. The food there was stargen and exotic but none of it was spicy so I dug in. Isana joined me a little bit later gushing about how gorgeous the place was and how everything matched and worked well together, I listened to her with half an ear while I finished filling my stomach. The food was a nice change from the ramen and dried up edibles Isana had packed. Granted, Mortals had an amazing variety of pre-packaged food, but still...
"I'm fer a bath," I said, bowing politely to her while I picked a side at random.
I scrubbed myself twice over, happy to have ample hot water to bathe with instead of cold (which wasn't pleasant at all) and then let myself in for a good soak and rinsed again. I decided to forego dirtying another pair of clothes just for sleeping in and walked straight through the bathroom into the attached bedroom and flopped down into the featherbed waiting for me and pulled the thick covers up over me. It wasn't long after that I knew sleep.
Yeah, yeah, "not another filler arc!" But it's fun so you're stuck for it. I just want you all to know that this has no real purpose whatsoever to the overall story line, it's just fun to imagine and fun to write. We can't have big, scary doom hanging around all the time now can we? Well, to be perfectly accurate, some of the events do have some small bearing but there isn't anything truly major happening until a couple more chapters. I hope you all enjoy reading it anyway.