“What was that gas that you used to defeat them? It seemed quite effective” Luke asked Dahani. They were standing over the three captives a little more than a hundred meters away from the border near the site of the goblin massacre. They chose this spot because it was far enough from the border to make it impossible to sneak on them. Also due to their suspicion on the elves having a settlement nearby. They had tied their captives using some rope he retrieved from his house. As a second precautionary measure, they buried their bows with his quagmire spell and broke every arrow. At first, they considered taking them from their own use, but neither Luke nor Dahani were proficient in the bow. Besides, these weapon may have some enchantment to allow only one user to wield it.

The forest elves were slightly shorter than Dahani with a lanky build that made them seem starved. By the healthy look of their faces, Luke could be certain that they weren’t actually. They seemed to have adapted in a particular way to the forest. He had discovered while tying them up that their bodies were as light as they looked. He guessed that the lightness helped increase their speed, make less noise and leave few marks while traveling. Despite this, the muscles on their arms and backs were easy to notice, a consequence of training with the bow, probably. Their skin colour was lighter than the Nuaga, resembling tree bark pretty well.

“It’s a kind of fast acting soporific. It isn’t that strong, it causes the victim to be asleep for only a few minutes, but it is enough to escape or restrain the enemies. The downside is that it doesn’t recognize friend or foe and that I can control it in a small area around me.” She said. True enough, just after she finished speaking, the three elves started waking up. It wasn’t long before the tried to breakthrough the ropes. Seeing the futility of their attempt, they calmed down and stared daggers at their captors. The sound of grinding teeth could be heard clearly through the air.

“Who are you? Why did you enter my forest? Luke asked with barely contained fury. It was more bravado than rage actually. He was annoyed that everything thought they could come and do whatever they wanted without repercussions. He understood that there was some racial hate between nature and forest elves, but was it truly necessary to kill on sight? A he had always been kind of a pacifist, he couldn’t approve of such a violent approach. Besides, it was a tactical mistake too: Dahani could have been a lot more useful to them captured alive. After all, they had arrived at a totally unknown land a short time ago (less than a day probably), it would be logical to interact with other sentients to discover as much information as they could about the region.

They averted their eyes and gnashed their teeth even stronger than before if that was possible. It was clear they didn’t want to reveal anything. Luke sighed. Torture, physical and mental, were things he knew how to perform. Hell, he didn’t want to know how to use it. Maybe some mind games were in order. He clapped his hands as theatrical as he could and branches from the nearby trees moved to grab the captives suspending them in the air.

“Look, I had nothing against you or your tribe, I just want to be left alone. I don’t support torture so I only have two options: either I kill you or I free you. I believe that both options will invite revenge from your tribe and while I’m confident I could win against your whole group, I find unnecessary fighting bothersome. So, let’s go with a third option, I release one of you that goes back, talks with your leaders and brings either some ransom or someone willing to negotiate. Please note that if I discover any sign of fool play, I WILL kill the two remaining hostages together with anyone that sets a foot inside this forest.” Luke wished for a peace treaty, but he suspected this elves were to arrogant to realize that even if they could kill him, the price wouldn’t be worth it. He considered not killing these three now as a sign of goodwill. However, the elves would probably think it as a sign of weakness. He could only sigh again.

Luke made the branches carry one of the males elves towards the border. Once there, he untied the ropes (why cut them if he could untied them and use them again?) and told him to be fast. If he wasn’t back in two hour, Luke would kill the hostages. The elf shot a look of deep hate and then disappeared into the greenery. Luke stayed there until he couldn’t sense him with Expand Conscience and then returned to where the other elves waited with Dahani. While walking back, he realized that he was acting like a cartoon villain and laughed out loud.

When he arrived, he discovered the elves weren’t mutes, or at least the male wasn’t. It was shouting all kind of obscenities and death sentences to Dahani without much success. The female forest elf just stared with a pondering gaze. It was evident that the leader (or at least the thinker) of this scouting group was her.

“Congratulations! You gave him the ability to speak! Tell me, what’s the secret?” Luke said with a smirk on his face. If the sarcasm wasn’t noticed in the tone or the words, the smirk would reveal it perfectly. This only enraged the male more, increasing the volume of his shouts and the vulgarity of his insults.

“I had nothing to do with it, when you left with the other one he started to shout about how doomed we are when his tribe come back for our heads. It just a stupid soldier bluff nothing else” Dahani responded unfazed. She wasn’t affected at all by the comment directed at her. She was quite confident in her abilities, and even if she wasn’t, she was certain that there existed few things that could overpower Luke in his forest.

“I see. I already release the other. I really hope they come willing to negotiate. It would be… unfortunate if a battle happened.” Luke’s words made a shiver go down the spine of the forest elfess. She realized that they weren’t afraid, and it wasn’t due to ignorance. The nature elfess should know how dangerous they could be and despite that they didn’t show an ounce of fear. Either they were fools or confident in their chances. This didn’t bode well for her tribe if they came with weapon unsheathed.

“They will attack.” The elfess said.

“Oh? This one speaks too? How lucky for us that she decided to honor us with her voice! So, why do you think your tribesmen will attack?” Luke asked. He had thought that an attack was the most possible outcome, but the certainty of the woman surprised him.

“I am Natlat, Princess of the Boron. My father won’t even consider to negotiate if my life was at stake. He would strike swiftly and at full force. If you release me, maybe we could reach an agreement.” Natlat said quickly. She was sure of what her family will do, but she feared for their lives. Even if they could win, would it be as easy as they thought. The forest elves are confident that nothing inside a forest could pose a problem for them, but they might be about to be proven wrong.

“And what’s there for me? I mean, even if I can’t take care of everyone, I won’t be killed easily while in my territory. And if I’m not dead, there always is another day to fight.” Luke said without hesitation. At this point the forest elfess discovered that there was nothing they could offer that would stop the battle for happening. They had lost everything except what they carried when they appeared in this world.

“Wait, I could talk to them. Maybe we could ally ourselves. I’m sure that there must be something we could offer…” She said hurriedly.

“Too late, they’re already here” Luke interrupted.