After the battle was concluded, I quickly checked the defeated enemies. With my amateurish skills I could only confirm that these zombie hulks were actually carefully crafted from small parts of multiple smaller bodies. I was unable to confirm though, if the raw material came from humans or not. Gut feeling kept hinting towards human-derived sources.

The massive bulks were held together by numerous wires, plates, loops and other pieces of different metals. I could guess that there was bronze, copper, silver, some gold and something, that strangely resembled aluminium. Inside the chest cavities I found fist-sized faceted pieces of smoky crystal, with layers upon layers of thin engravings covering all surfaces in orderly manner, which together formed a three-dimensional pattern in the depths of the crystal. Remembering the flow of magic during battle, I could guess that it was some sort of engine that supported these monstrosities by channeling the outside magic power into the suitable driving force.

The sturdy skulls were actually formed out of thick terrakota-like clay, and inside, the big sickly looking brown brain matter was caved in to make space for a smaller, white-coloured brain. Observing the restrained, but still functional zombie, I suspected that the smaller brain actually was responsible for the general brain activity, as pitifully small as it was, while it gave the commands to the surrounding brown brain matter that further formed the signals to control the body functions. No wonder they acted more like machines than any conscious beings. “Brain over a brain to control one body - modern so-called effective management to its core.” I habitually grumbled in my mind, wiping clean my poleaxe on a tuft of odd-looking bushy leaves.

---

After finishing with my clumsy research, I stomped flat the heads of the last functional hulk and urged Eala to continue with our travel. Now, however, I reserved a significant portion of my attention to observe our surroundings at maximum range. Some echoes from the war that caused the fall of Bial clearly continued to bounce around.

After a while, we reached a river. It was quite wide and before attempting to cross it, I figured that it was a good idea to stop to let Eala have some rest and let her regain some energy. She had not complained, but I could sense that her movements began to dull and she lacked the usual motivation while we talked. After observing the water and finding nothing worthy of attention, I warned Eala about some dangers of tropical rivers and let her enjoy the rest. As she relaxed, she dropped down almost where she stood. The battle seemed to have taken much greater toll from her than I originally thought. Soon, heavy breathing could be heard, as she curled up with her armor on and everything.

I finally had some time to check what changes my armor had undergone.

---

As I got off the scaled armor that had now turned into the similar dark red colour as the poleaxe, I could feel that it had gained something more than general toughness I had expected. And to my dismay, after I removed the armor, I could see that the pants and boots that I had made from raw spirdhide were showing signs of falling apart. Suspicious, I focused my senses on my nose, stimulating all the extra receptors there. Thankfully I had no gag reflex, that leather stank bad! I had failed to notice that in the humid, hot environment, even durable spird hide began to rot. Not to mention, that I had not processed it properly. I had an urge to strip off the stinking rags, as it was unbearably disgusting. It was utterly humiliating to move around and stink like a waste bucket that had been ignored for several hot summer weeks. Quickly glancing at Eala, who was sleeping like a log, I withdrew behind a nearby tree, which hid me quite well by being covered in a thick layer of vines and parasitic plants.

After I got a pile of stinking, mushy rotting leather off me, I hurled the nasty bundle into the river. Try to sue me, Greenpeace - I could almost see fish floating with their bellies up further downstream. Carefully staying behind the bushes, vines and random undergrowth so as to stay out of Eala’s sight in case she woke up, I got into the river and began scrubbing. I did not excrete sweat or anything, but I had no self-cleaning no-stick teflon coating on me either. So I grabbed gravel, sand and whatever I could get from the riverbed and scrubbed hard to get rid of anything that could have left some mark on my skin. River was a quite quick and deep one, so there was almost no mud and rough sand was in ample supply. Thankfully, I had made my skin strong enough to rival the leading protective materials, and I could scrub as much as I wanted. Random splashes and ripples in the water marked the frantic attempts of local minor aquatic wildlife to get away from me. Did I really smell that bad?

---

Finally feeling satisfied, I got out of the water and returned to the upgraded armor. It still retained the look it had before, with scales and studs and everything. And it lacked the parts to reliably cover up the regions I would prefer to keep out of others’ sight. I grabbed the armor with both hands, closed my eyes and concentrated with my full might.

As I focused, I could feel my senses spreading through the armor as if it was a part of me. Then, with slight squirming, it began to expand. Some details changed, unnecessary parts fused together, while the required components took the intended form. Soon, the armor began to look more metallic, as I nudged it to shape itself according to the gothic armor that had impressed me a lot while I was in Vienna with my parents some years ago.

As the ridges appeared and angles became sharper, the form of the breastplate, that was inspired by the armor which used to belong to the Archduke Sigmund of Tirol, became recognizable. But I did not stop there and lengthened the lower rim of the cuirass to form longer faulds and taces that were missing from the original. These slowly morphed into the leg-encasing cuisses, before finishing with light greaves. I also paid attention to my hands, and forced the armor to form elegant, sharp pauldrons that formed petal-shaped extensions on my back to cover the hole in the armor that opened up during hand motions.

I got engrossed in smaller details, as I kept challenging the proper shapes so that the joints and individual pieces would be adjusted correctly, and had to constantly modify the physical properties of the armor. Some parts needed to be more flexible to act as straps, others were solid plates, while third had to actually be not connected to each other. I also enthusiastically set my fantasy free, using the rich material from my memories to follow the patterns and shapes I had seen in museums, movies and the internet.

At the end, I had a full-body armor, which was strongly influenced by 15th-16th century German armor, while making it look to be usable on foot. I also had to reshape it slightly so that I could wear it directly on my body and I made extensive modifications so that it would leave no embarrassing gaps, as I planned to use it instead of clothes until we got somewhere civilized. The armor was also surprisingly thin, as it was created from only a piece of chest armor. Thankfully, the original armor was rather thick, as it was made of scales, so it had enough volume for me to stretch out.

When I stopped processing the armor and opened my eyes to look around before continuing with decorations and minor adjustments, I met the steady gaze of Eala looking at me. When I was concentrating on the armor, I had unconsciously withdrawn the senses I used to observe the surroundings. And it seems, that while I was busy, Eala had actually woken up. And now I was standing stark naked, in front of her. I was not a middle schooler to panic because of being seen naked, not to mention that my body now was carefully custom-made and nothing to be embarrassed about. And there was the armor I held in my hands, somewhat reliably big by now, shielding my lower body from her sight.

“Did you have enough rest?” was the most neutral thing to say. Well, she had not screamed or anything, but had patiently stood and not interrupted while I was working.

“Yes.” Eala nodded. Then she pointed at the armor in my hands: “You made it?”

“No, I modified it. Like the poleaxe.” I corrected her, and warned her: “I am now going to put it on now. Perhaps you go back meanwhile?”

“If I may, I will stay.” Eala calmly looked into my eyes: “You saved my life, I am yours.”

I almost had a coughing fit at such confession. That was a bit sudden, considering that we were more like travelling companions with temporary common goals - that was what I had though. I carefully enquired: “You got no problems looking at me naked?”

“No.”

“Why? Elves are not shy? Natural part of the nature, all that?”

“No, we are usually reserved. But, you are strong, like a great leader. Leaders are to be followed and live openly. Wash on the open, sleep on the open, eat on the open, die on the open.”

“You know, there are only two of us. And I am not leader of elves or anything.”

“But, I follow you. You saved me, I am with you. My dept of life. If you want, I am yours.”, Eala looked at me, and made a slight bow, while touching her eyebrows with her index fingers.

That almost got me flustered, as I quickly analyzed that unexpected situation, frantically thinking about the ancient traditions and values of debt repayment, honor and so on: “Yes, yes. That is why I need your help to get out of this world, that is good enough, you know.”

“Is this all?” Eala looked worried.

“Eala.” I called out to her: “You know, aesthetically, you are certainly extremely beautiful and I would like to fully possess you. But, you know, I told you that my body is different. I can like somebody, but I can’t have chemistry to go and feel passion or other deep feelings. There is not even lust, as awkward as it is.”

“Beautiful?” Eala looked somewhat embarrassed and pleasantly surprised: “In some worlds, we were called ugly.”

I shrugged: “Aesthetics change with time, race and culture. From where I am from, you can be considered unusual, but in a good, exotic sense.” Deciding to steer the conversation towards the safer topic I remarked: ”Oh, and by the way, nice fighting there before.”

“Thank you.” Eala made that small ceremonial bow again: “I will follow you as long as it takes.”

“What do you mean?”

“As long as it takes for me to reach you, Lord.”

…

“You still watching?”

“Yes, Lord.”

“Lord? Where did THAT come from? You called me Victor just fine before”

“I saw your battle power. We bow to those who are very strong or very wise. You do not accept me, so to repay a debt, I will serve you.”

“Where did that change in attitude come from? Suspension bridge effect?” I wondered as I put on the armor. Eala was clearly having a good show, but kept a serious, calm expression. Only her long left ear twitched at the moment she glimpsed a look below my waist. I could clearly see it with my perception, and felt a slight smile rising on my lips. Well, I could have accepted her offer, I was experienced in the matter of stamen and pistils and all that, but ordering your own body to supply blood to required regions and manipulate the pleasure centers was akin to perverse masturbation than a proper intercourse; so I kept mulling about the recent development.

---

I rolled my eyes as I finished putting on my armor while Eala kept attentively observing me, which was even more annoying that her panic when we had first met. I was adjusting minor details of my pauldrons to make them move, fit and look better, when I saw several trees bearing fruit further down along the riverbank. And thanks to modern globalization and giant supermarkets, I could recognize papayas when I saw them.

I was lacking in botanical knowledge as most of the things I currently knew came from school textbooks, popular science magazines, Facebook news feeds and TV programs, which mostly focused on animals rather than details about vegetation. Because of that, all the while, Eala was limited to eating meat, as we had no idea about the local edible plants - I did not know if the local plants were similar to the ones from Earth, and Eala was from a different world altogether. And while she had not complained, I believed she already had trouble forcing the same tough meat down her throat every day.

In a few seconds I reached the trees and used my leg to kick one. The tree trembled and six or so ripe-looking yellow fruits fell down. I used my reaction speed to catch them all before they smashed into the ground and turned to Eala who was startled by my sudden dash. Ah, I had forgotten to inform her when I rushed out.