I realized as they came closer still; they weren’t just being tentative, they were struggling to walk.

Zeine level 48 Fensalfar Elder

Came forward first. He held his thin green hands up as he approached the wall in a gesture of peace, then slowly removed his hood to reveal a gaunt, ancient green face. Thin strands of wispy white hair lay plastered to his head. Despite his age and exhausted state, his features were undoubtedly that of an elf. Tall and slim, with an almost ethereal quality.

“Hey there!” I shouted down to him.

“We just wish to pass through,” he said in wizened, tired voice. “We have nothing of value other than our lives, and we will perish if we turn back, for we are hunted remorselessly.”

“Turn back? Don’t be daft. You’re more than welcome to come in. Stop for a bite to eat and we’ll have a chat and see what we can arrange.”

Zeine looked instantly mistrustful. His eyes began darting around for signs of a trap. “We require nothing but to pass so we may find somewhere else to settle.”

“Good look with that, mate. There’s not many places south of here that’ll have many of us. But bring your people in and we can discuss it. Far Reach is a bit rough at the moment, but it’s getting there, I promise.

“Far Reach?” he asked.

“Yeah, our home here, like the sign says,” I replied pointing to the big letters on the palisade wall.

“I cannot understand what those patterns mean, I’m sorry.”

“Huh? Well shit. I never thought of that. I turned to Djora. Can you understand what I wrote?”

“It looks like someone with black blood was tortured against the wall. What is it meant to say?”

With a sigh, I told them both as Joel sniggered at me. “It says, Enemies of Destruction and Neutrals Of Kalabri are welcome in the town of Far Reach.”

Zeine nodded, still apprehensive. “I have little choice but to trust your intentions are not nefarious, though we have seen very little kindness over the past few years from others.”

“Well, you’re in luck today, mate.” I grinned as he beckoned his people forward.

It was only then that I realized a problem. “Er we’ll have to have ladders made for future guests, but the best I can do at the minute is to drop a rope for you.”

Zeine gave a tired laugh. “We are elves, even starving, exhausted and injured, scaling your wall will pose no problem.”

As they began to climb that I’d been foolish again. There were only ten of us on the wall, and there were fifty of them all with decent levels.

Sania. I need a group of Wultr, ready to get up here in a heartbeat. We have visitors and while I don’t expect trouble, that doesn’t mean trouble won’t find me.” I said through our bond.

“I’ll arrange it, Clive. Just let me know.”

I was pulled from the conversation with her by Djora jabbering beside me. The elves who below had started to get increasingly nervous, too. Looking behind them frantically, then racing to climb the wall. I looked down the valley path and saw nothing, but my senses weren’t the greatest. Without over thinking it, I shouted of Sania and Grigor through the bond.

“Get fighters up here now!”

“Immediately,” Grigor replied.

“Coming,” Sania added.

I looked to Djora as the elves began to run up the palisade topping it with ease. “What is it?”

“Hycantha,” she said, staring off intently. “Lots of them.”

Moments later, her prediction came true, as hundreds of Hycantha came pouring up the rough path of the valley.

Zeine stood beside me. “I am sorry for the trouble we have brought to your door.”

“Ain’t your fault mate. We built this wall for a reason.”

“We are without a means to defend ourselves. All of our weapons destroyed on our flight from Kalabri. Still, we will do what we can.”

“Great, Zeine. Start by moving your people off the wall and over to one side. Stay out of the way for now.”

Zeine looked confused for a moment, but then his attention was drawn to our side of the wall. His expression turned from defeated to panicked as Wultr, Nystiobek, and Krysan began pouring into the area in great numbers.

“All friendly,” I said to him before addressing the arriving people. “The elves are not the enemy! We have Hycantha incoming. The guards on the wall had already started throwing rocks down at the approaching enemy and I turned back to start pushing out Neuma tendrils. Aiming for their insect bodies rather than humanoid torso’s which appeared to be void of the important organs.

Once they came close enough to crest the wall, we retreated into the waiting masses of our own ferocious army. I directed my jump to land next to Sania and we waited for the wave to flow over the wall.

As they scuttled into a frenzy of beast kin claws, I wondered if they understood regret at all, because they didn’t understand retreat. It took us perhaps ten minutes to kill every last one of them in a brutal slaughter.

Zeine and his people as asked, had remained out of our way. Now, as I took Sania and Grigor to meet them, they all removed their hoods and bowed deeply to us as we approached.

“I do not know what the future hold, but you have saved our lives here today. If we hadn’t encountered your wall, our entire tribe would have perished,” Zeine said.

“I’m glad you found us too,” I said as I looked over the milling green skinned people. Most of them were much younger than Zeine and though they had all clearly been starving for some time and carried the marks and scars of battle, they all had the trademark elvish beauty. The female directly behind Zeine, Rella was stunningly perfect. The green skin and darker hued green and black hair were strange but exotic, and I had a struggle to take my eyes off her. I assumed the man standing next to her, named Solla, was her mate. He watched me with simmering anger and distrust.

“Why do you have the legs and hand of a demon?” he asked.

“Old accident. Don’t worry about that,” I said with a grin for him.

“You are a strange creature.” Zeine added. “I can sense that you carry both dark and light alignments. I have not heard of such a thing before. Surely the opposing forces should tear one another apart. Which of the Gods do you worship?”

“None. And the two alignments are very happy together, thank you very much. Now you lot look like you need a decent meal, so follow me.”

“How can we trust him?” Solla snapped at Zeine.

“How can we not, Solla?”

“You saw how he looked upon Rella. I have deep misgivings about him.”

“Do not worry about that,” Sania said. “I’m his mate. We are soul bound and I can sense his thoughts and feelings. He has no intentions on… Rella? He just has mental illness whereby he can’t stare at attractive women. Added to that, he has never seen a Fensalfar before.”

Despite it being an uncomfortable conversation for me, Solla actually calmed at that. Though, in fairness, I saw him eyeing Sania with more than just respect. I didn’t blame him either. She was hot as hell and intimidating, too.

“Right. Can we please get you lot fed and settled for the night? Then we can talk about where we go from here.”

Zeine nodded acceptance, and after arranging someone to take my place at the wall, I led them down to the town. Rather than take them inside the castle, which I felt would freak them out, I led them to an area where the dwarven workers sat and ate their dinners. It was clear of people at the moment, but there were still embers of a fire burning.

Before long we had the fire roaring, fighting off the cold in the nights air. Plates of breads, meats, and berries were brought out.

“What do you think of the place, then?” I asked Zeine, Solla and Rella. They appeared to be the most prominent members of their tribe.

“It is very unusual to us. There are many dwarves here too. What is the meaning of that? The Dwarves have abandoned Kalabri. Why then are they here?” Solla asked, with a bit of heat in his voice.

“As I understand it. They cannot fight both Destruction and Justice on two different fronts or their forces will be stretched too thin.

They are helping here, so there is somewhere for the surface dwelling neutrals of Kalabri to find refuge. Unless Malatia to the south west accept you into their lands, there isn’t really anywhere else for you to go. Grigor and his pack have moved down from Kalabri after being displaced, too. They have joined with our pack who already lived here. Sania, was actually born right here,” I said, marveling again at the information myself. I was alone in that regard.

“So you would let us remain here?” Rella asked.

“Absolutely, that’s what we’re building for.”

“It will not work! The Fensalfar cannot live in such buildings,” Solla said rudely, as if I’d insulted him personally. Rella gave him a sharp look.

“That’s why we’re talking. Are you always such a prick?”

Solla stuttered to answer, but Zeine spoke over him. “I see you haven’t begun to destroy the trees on the other side of the stream beyond the palisade. We could perhaps build our own homes there?”

“You need your homes in the forest?” I asked.

“Indeed. The energy from the trees and the water nourish us and provide our magical abilities. Stone buildings are empty to us.”

I rubbed at my face again, wondering how this would work. “So you need to be near the stream as well?”

Zeine nodded.

“What do you think Joel? Can we, do it?”

“I’ll be honest Clive, I wouldn’t like to say without a little more information from Bekta. Let me get him and we can thrash it out.”

We waited for five minutes for Joel to return with Bekta before beginning again.

“So here’s the problem, Bekta.” Joel said as they both took a seat. “Our newest potential members have to live among trees and water. Both Clive and I would want them within the walls, otherwise we have a problem with security and defense. What are our options?”

“This is your settlement, Joel, Clive. You are competent enough to do this yourselves. I will offer advice only if I think your solution is so horribly wrong that it is likely to put everything, we have worked so hard for into jeopardy.”

“Is it a problem to extend the walls into the forest?” Joel asked.

“Think about it. Do you think it’s a problem?”

Joel sat silently for a second, pondering over the problem. He finally looked up, coming out of an almost trance like state.

“Clive is right. You guys will have to be within the walls,” he said to the Fensalfar, and the forested space you can have inside the walls will be limited. We are, after all fighting almost everyone around us. But we will extend our first ring of wall to encompass a section of forest for you. Looks like we’re going to have a park early on in our walled town development.”

“You genuinely expect us to have our homes within the walls?” Solla asked in outrage.

I shook my head at him. “Solla. Unless you’ve got something positive or useful to offer, just shut the fuck up and listen. If not, I’ll remove you from this meeting myself. I haven’t got space in my head to listen to your antagonistic whining and complaining.”

I glanced briefly at Zeine and Rella to see if I’d offended them as much as I had the fish mouthing Solla. They didn’t seem to mind my abruptness at all.

Zeine even nodded. “We are the guests of our saviors, Solla. You would be wise to heed the advice given, or allow Rella and me to finish the discussions.

Solla wisely said no more, but sat glaring at the fire. That was fine by me. I went back to the conversation with Joel. “That’s great if you think you can incorporate an area for them, Joel. At least this way we will be able to protect each other,” I said taking in Zeine and Rella. “If you have a different area to live in, then you’ll be far more vulnerable and that would cause us unnecessary vulnerability to if we had to leave our eventual walls to come out and defend you. I don’t know how long you’ll have to remain here, and you can, of course always leave, but this is the best solution, I think.”

“It is unusual,” Zeine smirked, “But I for one will be relieved to have the added protection after what we have suffered through. What say you Rella?”

“I still…” Solla began, but was stopped with a hand signal from Zeine so Rella could speak.

“I agree. And like you father, I find myself optimistic about having some level of safety.”

“Rella! How could you agree to this?” Solla snapped. I couldn’t actually make out if they were a couple or not, but the father thing was an interesting bit of information.

“How could you not, Solla? I fear the hardships we have endured have addled your mind. But it matters not. The vote is against you.” She turned to Joel and me. “One concern I have is our access to water. We would be close to the stream, but not really close enough for a strong union. Would you be willing to let us draw off from the stream to make a pool within our section of forest?”

Joel looked to Bekta, who chuckled in reply. “There is a lot of ground water in these mountains. Fear not, you will have your pool.”

“Then I’m content,” she said with a small smile. “I would relish the opportunity to remain here.”

“As do I,” Zeine said.

“As a temporary stop gap, I will remain. You can turn our homes into a park once we leave,” Solla added sourly.

I found myself with no choice but to laugh at him. “Why do people like you keep popping up in my life? Even though this is a perfect opportunity for everyone involved under the circumstances, you just want to spoil it for no obvious reason. Just cheer the fuck up man,” I said as I shook my head at the taciturn elf.

“Now. Beyond that, we haven’t actually built any walls yet, and accommodation is currently a little tight, but there are a couple of rooms available in the castle.”

“We will sleep in the trees,” Solla snapped. I thought he was being a prick again, but Zeine and Rella nodded.

“There are some beautiful trees here and it will give us the time we need to acclimatize with them and the land before we begin to create our homes.”

“You intend to build in the tree branches?” Joel asked.

“Indeed. Once we’ve introduced ourselves, and the trees grow comfortable with our presence, we will begin making our new homes.”

“Well, just let me know what you need to start building and I’ll arrange it. We’re not short on timber.”

Bekta laughed at me as the faces of the Fensalfar took on unhappy expressions. “We do not use the corpses of murdered trees in our homes,” Solla snapped. I felt like he wanted me to kill him. I really did.

“We will not judge you, for you aren’t Fensalfar and that is not our place,” Zeine quickly added. “For us, the trees are sacred, and they will provide us homes through our love and care.”

“Their wanton murder of trees is still an issue though,” Solla added.

“Here we go again,” I said glaring at Solla. “What d’you eat, mate?”

He looked at me confused. “Well, I already know you eat bread, meat and fucking berries, so I’m finding it hard to understand where you’re coming from.”

“Trees are sacred!” he replied full of indignation.

I waved him away and turned to Joel who’d begun speaking excitedly.

“I saw my friend Remus growing the plants in the Royal Hotel in Falritas. Is that what you do? Grow your homes? And is it something you can teach?”

“If you have an affinity with nature then perhaps,” Rella replied, reaching her hand to touch Joel’s.

She closed her eyes, and after a brief moment they flickered back open again and she looked troubled. “I’m afraid you cannot learn. You are unusually disconnected with the land.”

“Ah, that might because we come from a different planet,” Joel said looking a little disappointed. “It’s a shame. Would have been a great asset for building. I’ve been a little left behind on the whole powers situation.”

“Darkness will have you,” Bekta offered. “In the coming battles, you may be glad of some of the powers he can bestow.”

Joel looked thoughtful. “Definitely something to think about,” he said non-committally. I wondered why he didn’t take the opportunity of Darkness, though now I knew about how the bonds worked. I hoped he didn’t ever do it.