Chapter Three

Kexel crept through the shadows cast by the great trees surrounding the valley of the wood elves. He stops and spits on the ground when he comes to the tree that only yesterday had one of its branches cut off to fuel the fire, he whispers to himself, “Stupid shaman, said fire would be mine to control.”, then he looks out towards the wood elves, “Stupid thieving elves take my fire wisp.”. Turning back he sees the rest of his tribe: the shaman in its dirty robe casting spells on the others, his hunter sharpening stone daggers, his thirty warriors they had gathered from their village on the way, and the two he was going to sacrifice to the wisp to make it stronger. He didn’t know if they would be useful during the battle, but if they died instead of him then they would help. Kexel grabbed the tooth hanging from his neck, groping it with closed eyes, “Give me strength Mother, help me cut down my enemies, and forget my dead.”. Kexel turns to the hunter, who looks up and meets his eyes and nods. It was time. Kexel grinsand lifts his heavy club and charges, followed shortly after by his people.

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Igneous flew out of the druid’s hut ahead of Nelly and Corma, he wasn’t sure what a goblin was, but judging by the way Nelly and Corma’s faces went pale it couldn’t be good. He flew up to get a better look and what he saw made him wish he could get sick and what it meant to. In the brook a wood elf lay face down in the water turning it red, he watches others being dragged out of their huts by short green creatures and stabbed with stones, staining the ground red. He looks around for Yasevl and Nevil but can’t find them among the chaos. Igneous grim fascination is broken by Corma calling up to him, “Igneous get down here. NOW!”.

Igneous jumps, startled by the sudden the call, but does as he is told. He floats down in front of Corma, who has a stern and serious expression on her face, “I need you to take Nelly and gather all the other children and to get them somewhere safe.”.

“But Gran I can help!”, Nelly cries in protest, looking up to her grandmother. Corma bends down, her joints cracking, and looks her granddaughter in the face, ”I know you can, but I need you to be safe, more than anything.”, She kisses Nelly on the forehead with tears rolling down her now ashen cheeks, “Please, don’t argue.”.

Nelly’s eyes begin to water, but she quickly wipes them dry with her palms and nods. Corma smiles, but it doesn’t reach her worried eyes. She raises her staff over Nelly and chants words that sound like the wind rushing through tree branches, wind forms at the tip of the staff and circles down to surround Nelly before disappearing. Corma stands back up, her back popping, “That will make you as fast as the wind, use it to keep out of reach of any danger.”.

“What are you going to do Grandma?”, Nelly asks looking up at her grandmother, who never had looked so old, “Come with us, please!”.

Corma shakes her head and points out towards the valley towards a figure in a brown robe, holding a staff similar to Corma’s over his head, shadows forming over it before thrusting the staff forward sending the shadows shooting out, hitting a hut. The hut that was hit begins to turn from its healthy brown and green to sickly black and grey, before beginning to dissolve and falling apart. Corma stiffens, “I am going to go stop that.”, She looks towards Igneous with steel in her eyes and voice, “I am entrusting you with the safety of my granddaughter, the only thing in this world that matters. Don’t let me down.”.

Igneous, sensing the implied threat and pleading, nods, “I will protect her with my life.”.

Corma stares at Igneous, looking deep into his ember eyes, “Go now, and I find you both when I finish what I have to do. GO!”. Yelling that last words, she quickly runs, with the speed of a much younger women, towards the robed figure.

Nelly watches after her grandmother for but a moment, before taking a deep breath and wiping all emotion from her face. With determination she looks to Igneous, “Lets go!”.

Inside Yasevl’s temple grove, Yasevl sits across from Nevil, their hands grasping the others forearm. Eyes closed they focus on their centers, Yasevl finds his, an ever-growing grove of trees with a river flowing through, inside it stands Nevil, a small child, young and spry, but weak and scared. Yasevl speaks to Nevil’s center, “ Nevil, it is time for you to take my blessing, as your father before you and as his did before him.”.

“If you will it, so be it, lord.”, Nevil says with reverence. A strong wind blows through the forest of Yasevl’s center, “You must will it, Nevil, you must want it.”.

A tree in front of Nevil splits open to reveal a hollow trunk dripping with sap. Fear plays across Nevil’s young face, but then he thinks of his late wife, her warm smile, of Nelly, his fierce daughter, and of his people. They trust him and need him. With a deep resolve Nevil steps into the trunk and into the thick sap. As he turns around to face the opening it grows together, leaving him trapped inside the tree. Sap begins to cover his body and covering his eyes making him blind, fills his ears making him deaf, and fills his mouth and nose, making him mute and unable to breath. He begins to panic, he tries to grab at the sap, but his hands won’t budge. He tries to struggle but can’t, as the sap has enclosed his entire body. He begins to pass out when he hears Yasevl’s voice, “Don’t fight it, be it. Become one with the tree, and me. Open your center to me.”.

Nevil trusts Yasevl, he has been looked over his family and people for generations. He focuses not on his body but on the tree surrounding him and imagines his center being the tree’s center. His body the trunk, his feet the roots, and his arms the branches. As it seems like he will pass out and will die, he does it. He is the tree. Ancient, strong, wise. His roots drink from the ground taking in water, his leaves absorb the sun’s rays. HE breaths, but that is not all he feels: birds making nests in his branches, bugs eating pieces of him, worms living among his roots, deer eating the grass surrounding him. Then he feels them die and become one with the ground, and then become one with him. He protects them in life, and in death they become one with him.

Nevil opens his eyes and the tree has opened up for him. He steps out. He is no longer a child, he is a man, but more. His flesh turned to a dark, strong, thick, wood, his blood to sap. He examines his arms and legs, strong and thick like tree branches, his chest wide like the trunk of a great tree, he can see muscles moving below the surface of his wooden body. He smiles and looks up to see his father and grandfather smiling at him. Before he can say anything, they turn and disappear among the trees. Somewhere deep inside he knows they are now a part of him and that one day he would join them. He stands in the grove basking in the light that trickles through from the canopy above. After what feels like eternity, Yasevl whispers to Nevil, “I am proud of you, and now it is time to leave and rejoin your people. Drink and bathe in the river and your blessing will be complete.”.

Without hesitation, and full of trust, Nevil moves his heavy frame toward the river. Stepping in he bends down and takes a large drink from the moving river. He feels the water washing away the sap from inside him. Nevil closes his eyes and lets his body drop into the rushing water and feels the wood being washed from his body. Nevil opens his eyes and he is back in Yasevl’s temple, but in front of him sits not the spindly body of Yasevl, but a man with dark wooden skin, arms and legs like branches, and a chest broad like the trunk of a tree. The face not cracked wood, but an elf’s. The wooden elf opens his eyes to reveal eyes like emeralds. The wooden elf smiles, lets out an unmistakable hissing laugh and speaks: “Ha, Ha! You did it Nevil!”.

Before Nevil can get a word out they both hear the screams and raging of battle. Without a second thought the two jump off the ground and run towards the doorway, and into battle.

Igneous and Nelly rush through the village, hiding behind huts and anything they can, making their way around the village looking for the children. As Nelly rushes forward trying to get to the opening of one of the huts she runs right into one of the goblins. It stands only slightly taller than Nelly, its sickly green skin, marked with scars, is partially covered by untreated hide across its chest and arms, with a simple fur loin cloth to cover its nether. In its black clawed hands it holds a thin stone dagger and in the other a wooden club. It gets knocked to the ground when Nelly runs into it, the two tumble to the ground intertwining into a brown and green jumble of limbs on the ground, the dagger and club sent flying off towards a hut. The goblin growls in frustration and twists around and kicks Nelly in the ribs with its oversized foot, causing her to scream out in pain. Nelly rolls away from the goblin holding her side. Stumbling to its feet the goblin grabs the club that had been knocked from its hand, and stands over Nelly with the club raised over its head. Igneous screams, ”NOOOOO!!”, and rushes towards the goblin, aiming for its face in hopes of distracting it. Before Igneous can reach it the goblin howls in pain, drops the club, and whips around holding its side. Behind it stands a young wood elf boy holding the stone dagger dripping with a black liquid in his trembling hands. The goblin smacks the boy in the face, sending the kid the ground with a yelp. Not wasting the opportunity, Igneous rushes the goblin and latches onto the nape of its neck. The goblin curses and wracks at its neck as it begins to sizzle with heat and pain. The goblin claws at Igneous, leaving scratches in the fiery skin of the little sprite. Fighting through the pain Igneous focuses on pushing as much heat as he can into the goblins skin. His center glows brightly and flame engulfs the goblins neck, the flame connects with the goblin’s greasy black hair and spreads to consume the entirety of the goblins head. The goblin screams and claws at its face, as its skin darkens and melts. After a moment which feels like an eternity the goblin falls to the ground, its head completely burnt. Igneous finally lets go of the goblin when they hit the ground, on instinct Igneous absorbs the fire back into him, but it feels different this time. The fire tastes wrong, slimy, but so much stronger than usual. He feels the goblins energy flow into him as well, its life and death. Igneous feels himself grow larger and stronger, but feels sickened by the whole affair. A shadow passes in the corner of Igneous’ vision, tearing him away from the thoughts of what he had done. Fearing it to be another goblin, Igneous jumps back ready to protect Nelly, but when he looks around all he sees is Nelly still holding her side and the boy kneeling beside her with worry on his face. Igneous flies forward to check on her, but when the boy sees Igneous his eyes fill with fear and he holds up the stone dagger still dripping with the goblins blood, “GET BACK YOU MONSTER! YOU CAN’T HAVE HER!”.

Nelly grabs the boy’s leg, causing him to jump and to drop the dagger, and tells him through pained gasps, “ Don’t…he’s…ahh… with me.”.

The boy looks at Nelly and back at Igneous with mistrust and fear, but steps aside to allow Igneous closer, not before swiping the dagger from the ground, loose dirt sticking to the already drying blood. Igneous rushes to her side but stops himself from reaching out to her in fear of doing to her what he did to the goblin. While trying to think about what to do to help, Nevil runs up alongside a large wooden elf with skin like a tree, “NELLY!”, Nevil says, anxiously dropping to his knees, “Are you okay? What happened?”.

The boy holding the dagger answers, “A goblin attacked her!”, then pointing at Igneous with the dagger, “Then that thing killed it!”.

Whipping his head towards Igneous with confusion and fear on his face, “Igneous is that you?”, looking over Igneous adds, “You look different.”.

Looking down at himself Igneous saw that he indeed did look different. His small body was now twice, if not three times, bigger than before. His heads now headed in dark crimson points, as did his feet. His skin, which was once bright red and orange, was now crimson and burnt orange sprinkled with flickers of black. He lifted his hands to his face and found that his mouth now had fangs and his ears ended in points. He looked like the goblin he had consumed, his sickness returned with the thoughts of what it could mean. Before he could get too deep in thought his brother’s voice broke through the pregnant silence, “No time for that now. We will figure it out later, but now we must take care of the intruders.”.

Igneous looks up to see where it came from, till his sights lands on the tall wooden elf, “Yasevl?”

Yasevl gives a small smile, “There have been a lot of changes.”, he says looking towards Nevil, “But, we’ll get to them later, now we need to get Nelly to safety and deal with the goblins.”.

Igneous looks at Nevil, closer this time, and sees that his once brown skin now has lines of green wrapping around his arms like vines. Just then a gasp comes from beside the group. Looking over Igneous sees a wood elf women holding two crying babies in her arms, followed by a small group of children. Nevil looks up at the woman and when he sees the children gives her a knowing sorrowful smile, “You got all the ones you could?”.

The woman looks from Igneous to Yasevl and back to Nevil with watery eyes, “I tried to get as many as I could, but-“.

Nevil cuts her off with a raised hand, “You did what you could, be proud.”, lifting Nelly in his arms, Nevil walks over to her, “Please, take Nelly and Koren to the temple and wait for us.”.

The woman quickly looks at Yasevl and then back at Nevil, handing the two babies off to one of the older children who looked to be a little younger than Nelly, and takes Nelly gently from Nevil. With the strain of Nelly’s weight on her face she looks at Nevil and says, “Please be careful.”.

Nevil smiles and places a hand on her cheek, “I will. Now go.”.

The woman hesitates for a moment before heading in the direction of the temple on the hill, calling for the children to follow. Koren, still holding the bloody dagger, looks back at Igneous before running to follow. With the children being taken to relative safety, Nevil looks to Yasevl, “What do you wish to do my lord?”

Yasevl looks to ponder this question, worry heavy on his face, finally he looks to Nevil, “You need to go and find the hunters and bring them back.”, gesturing towards Igneous, “We shall deal with them in the meantime.”.

Looking as if he was wishing to argue but thinking better of it Nevil simply nods, grabbing the club the goblin no longer needed and runs in the direction the hunters had left only short while ago. With Nevil running to get the hunters, Yasevl turns to Igneous, “I know we have much to discuss, but we need to deal with these goblins first, agreed?”.

Igneous simply nods rather than saying anything and turns towards the closes sound of battle, followed closely by the thundering footsteps of Yasevl.

Marres runs inside the temple and sets Nelly down as gently as possible but loses her hold on her and the girl falls inches from the ground with a thud, and with a groan Nelly sits up, “I.. need.. to..help..”.

Marres rushes the other children in, having to pull Koren, who wants to stand guard, and then turns to Nelly, “You are hurt and aren’t going anywhere.”

Marres turns her attention back to the other child and tries to keep them calm. With Marres distracted Nelly pulls herself toward the corner of the room. Laying there she wishes she could’ve done more, she thinks of using her healing spell, but knows that it’s nowhere strong enough to fix her, when suddenly a new spell enters her mind. The new spell is similar to her old one, but stronger. Sitting up, teeth gritted through the pain, she places both hands on her side and begins to chant, a golden light filling her hands. Marres and the children all turn to her with awe. When the light recedes, Nelly’s side still hurts, but not nearly as bad as before. Pushing herself up she looks towards the door, planning to go, and notices what everyone missed while she used her new spell. A goblin stands in the doorway, blocking the light, a sinister grin on its face, “Well! That’s interesting.”.

With these words Kexel steps forward.

Igneous and Yasevl are able to scare off most of the goblins, saving the lives of some of the villagers, but not all. Yasevl tells them to go towards the temple. The two brothers follow the direction that the goblins had ran. Towards the open valley. Leaving the village, Igneous and Yasevl come upon a gruesome scene. Goblins battled elves, the elven guards that had been asleep during the attack had made their way to the battle field, stone tipped spears stabbing at goblins, only to be knocked aside by wooden clubs. While this happened, another goblin would sneak up behind and stab the distracted elves with stone daggers. Even though outnumbered the elves still fought with vigor, when one would defeat a foe they would rush to the aid of their comrades and knock the backstabbing goblins away. Corma did what she could to help, casting healing spells on the wounded elves, but would soon be pulled back into a fight with the goblin shaman, who flung dark bolts at the druid, who could only just manage to dodge before shooting back gusts of thin razor wind. Wasting no time Yasevl rushes to the battlefield, grabbing a goblin by the neck as it was about to finish off an elf, flinging it to the across the ground, ripping up dirt as skids to a stop. This gathers the attention of the surrounding goblins, who quickly rush towards the large wood spirit, encircling him and attacking when his back is turned before jumping back out of range of the wooden creatures sweeping arms. Igneous is about to rush to his brothers aid when he notices the rest of the goblins have surrounded the remaining elves, only barely being kept at bay by jabbing spears. Trusting that Yasevl can handle himself, Igneous flights toward the surrounded elves, and begins to fly around the goblins tearing into their backs with his newly acquired claws, leaving blistering skin in his wake. This causes some of the goblins to flee towards the stream, throwing themselves into it. Others swing at the fast-moving fire sprite, he dodges out of the way of a club, but the wind coming off it pushes him back, just in time for another club to connect with his head. The blow knocks Igneous to the ground, and the grass where he lands catches fire. The goblins let out a triumphant laughs and descend on him before he can recover from the shock and the new-found sensation of pain. The goblins begin to wail on the prone sprite with their clubs, each hit earning them a cry of pain from the sprite, which only fuels their resolve. Igneous spasms with each hit, the grass fire having been put out by the continuous strikes of the club, and his own flame grows weaker with each blow. Just as Igneous is sure that it is the end for him, the blows stop, and he hears the goblins scream with pain followed by gurgles. Gathering what little strength he has he lifts himself off the ground and looks toward the noise. The wood elves had rallied and slain the few goblins that hadn’t either rushed to the stream or turned their attention to him. The ones that had been attacking him, hung with limp bodies from the tip of stone spears piercing through their necks, black blood spurting from the wounds. The wood elves push the slain goblins off their spears, look to Igneous and offer him a nod of gratitude, which he returns in kind. The moment quickly ends when they all turn to the sound of roars coming from the tree line. Nevil, followed by the hunters, rush towards the battle, one of the hunters chucks a spear that hits the shaman in the leg, forcing the goblin to its knees. The goblins that had been quenching their pains in the stream surge forward at Igneous and the group of elves he stood with, pulling their focus away from Nevil and the hunters. The goblins swing their clubs, only to be met with thrusted spears, Igneous zipping around and hitting the goblins where he could, but the heat was far less effective this time. Igneous catches a glimpse of Nevil’s group clashing with the group of goblins that had been battling Yasevl, who takes the opening to crush one of the goblins into the ground. The battle is raging on when a loud gruff voice crashes over the battlefield, “SSSTOOOOOOPPP!”.

Elves and goblins alike, spirits and sprites too, all turn towards the voice. Strolling out of the village a large goblin holds up a struggling Nelly the neck, “ALL YOU DIRTY ELVES LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS OR THIS GIRLS DIES!”.

Nevil takes a step forward ready to end the goblins life and save his daughter, when Kexel holds up a thin stone dagger to Nelly’s throat, “ONE MORE STEP AND SHE’S DEAD!”.

Kexel aims the dagger at the struggling elves neck and yells, “ONE MORE STEP AND SHE’S DEAD!”.

He watches the elves fight the urge to rush him, afraid of what will happened to the girl, “Weaklings.”, he says to himself.

When he hears a soft voice behind him say, “ No, brother. You are the weakling.”. Then a hot pain pierces his back and spreads. His hands jerk open dropping the girl and his dagger. He turns to confront his attacker, only to come face to face with the hunter, his sister, with betrayal and confusion in his voice he asks, “Heva? Why?”.

With a face full of contempt she hisses through clench teeth and tusks, “For Mother!”. Then, with the speed of a striking viper, she brings her arm up with all her strength. A dagger pierces the underside of Kexel’s chin, plunging deep into his skull, blood drenches her hand and runs down her arm, but she keeps her hand steady. Heva pulls the dagger down, cutting into his throat, before letting the dagger go and pushing her brother back as the life leaves his eyes. Kexel hits the ground with a thud, his blood pouring out of his wound, pooling around his still body. Heva bends down and rips the tusk necklace from Kexel’s neck, the necklace that states who their leader is, the one he had killed their mother for. She was now the tribe leader and she would not have any more pointless killing. She throws her hand in the air, showing her people that she was in charge now, then yells for a retreat. She dashes for the woods only stopping to help up her shaman. The shaman looks at her in shock then smiles weakly and thanks her, “Thank you, tribe leader.”.

Heva smiles and drags the shaman behind her to follow her people.

The elves look between Nevil and the large goblin, and Yasevl, not sure what to do. Igneous begins to try and sneak around to attack, when he catches Yasevl’s eyes, who gives a small nod. Just has Igneous is about to slip behind the elves near him, the goblin lets out a sharp cry of pain and drops Nelly and the knife. Which Nelly quickly grabs and scrambles away from the yelping goblin. Kexel twirls around and then after a moment drops to the ground his black blood gushing from his neck. A goblin in a leather hood bends down and takes something from Kexel’s cooling body holds it up then yells in a soft, but strong voice, “THIS IS OVER! GOBLINS RETREAT!”. Then suddenly runs toward the woods.

All the goblins quickly look at each other in shock, then quickly sprint towards the woods, the hooded goblin stops to help the shaman to its feet and quickly follows the others. As they disappear into the woods, Nevil yells for the elves to follow them, but is stopped by Yasevl, “It is done, my friend.”, placing a heavy hand on Nevil’s shoulder he turns the elf towards him, “We must deal with our own people now.”.

Nevil looks across the battlefield at the dead and wounded, and nods before his eyes go wide with realization and cries out, “ NELLY!”while rushing to his daughter’s side.

Nevil’s cry pulls Igneous back to the moment and he quickly flies to follow. The two reach Nelly at the same time. Nevil hugs his daughter to his chest and openly cries, “OH! Oh! Nelly are you okay?”.

Nelly pushes her way out of her father’s chest, but keeps him close, and says, “I’m fine Dad.”.

Nevil looks at his daughter and sees that she is tearing up and hugs her closer. After the two sit like this for a short while they separate, and Nelly wipes her eyes free of tears. Nelly looks at her father and then at Igneous, her brows knitted together, and her forehead wrinkled, “You look different.”.

Igneous and Nevil look at each other and back at Nelly, then begin to laugh a hysterical laugh, the sound of needed release after a battle.