Chapter 29

Fire

Walking back down the steep slippery slope was challenging. They all fell and slid several feet at different times, but at one point Antic lost his footing and slid for more than a hundred feet. His chain mail shirt kept the road rash off his back, but his legs got very bruised in his uncontrolled descent. By the time the others made it to him and began casting Cure 1, the sun had set.

It was a warm and windy night and they had to walk in the dark until they came to level ground to set up the tents. None of them liked the location; they were surrounded by trees and didn’t have a clear view in any direction to see nearby predators, but it was too dark to stumble blindly through the forest.

Brun had the fifth watch, and about three in the morning lightning began striking in the distance. He watched as the storm came closer and closer to them. Everyone was exhausted from the long two days of hiking, so he didn’t want to wake them up, but the last lightning was only a mile away. He decided to wake up his brother and get a second opinion. He knew Arden would want to see the spectacular light show anyway.

As they both came out of Arden and Jex’s tent, a lightning bolt struck the river in the center of the valley. They couldn’t see it from where they were, on the back side of half dome, but knew it was too close. They woke up the others. As they were doing that, another bolt hit an old dead pine tree a mile away. The dry soft wood erupted into flames. It was too far away for them to see the orange glow. By the time the regulators were packing up the tents in the dark, the flames began to spread.

They packed up the tents and Torger asked “Which way should we go? I don’t know how to figure out where the next lightning strikes will be.”

Brun said “They started over there,” pointing to the north, “and they’re heading straight for us. The last one was behind us to the south.”

“Then it looks like the storm has passed directly overhead and we’re in the middle of it. Best to head north where it’s already been. We’ll need to stay away from water and tall trees.”

Rome laughed. “We’re surrounded by water and tall trees.”

The comment made Jex and Antic noticeably agitated. Torger glared at Rome. “Let’s go.”

They headed away from Half Dome and walked north. After a mile of being led by Jex (who could see alright with the Bow of the Owl held in front of her), and as the others were banging against rocks and branches, Graul saw an orange glow on the horizon to their south. He had seen fires in the distance several times before, and there was no mistaking it.

“Torger, that fire is where the elves are. I think we should go help.”

“How can we help? We don’t have a water pump and hose.”

“No, but we do have ice magic. We need to at least try to see if it works.”

Torger reluctantly agreed it was the right thing to do. If it came down to a vote, he knew he would lose anyway. He asked “Who has ice one?”

Everyone raised their hands. “Okay. Let’s go.”

The sunlight was trying to break through the trees when they got there. Elves were casting ice spells at the fire, but were making little progress at slowing it.

Rome saw a nearby stream and yelled “Fire brigade!”

Only Torger knew what he meant and he yelled “Bucket line!”

Arden and Graul ran to stand between the stream and the fire, knowing what Rome intended. Torger removed his duffle bag and took out his three water skins. He handed one to Rome, and passed the other two to Arden and Graul. All three of them ran to the fire and poured the water on the ground in front of the flames, then ran back to fill the skins up.

Antic saw the point and he removed his duffle bag and pulled out three more water skins. After the men ran to pour water near the fire again, Brun and Jex finally got the idea and removed all the water skins from the remaining five back packs. They formed an orderly line and soon Graul found himself dumping water on the ground as fast as he could.

But the fire line was too wide and they weren’t making progress fast enough. Torger stepped back and assessed the situation on a larger scale. The main goal was to keep the fire away from the elf village, then put it out if possible. He looked around and saw some of the elves looking helpless. They had run out of mana casting Ice 1, and the others would run out soon too. He saw one nearby who didn’t look totally catatonic in the soon to be loss of his home. Torger called to him, and pointed at the bucket/water skin line.

The elf looked on with curiosity, and after twenty seconds he grasped the concept. He ran around to his kin and they formed two more lines from the stream to the fire. But their water skins were much smaller. Still, it helped the fire from spreading towards the village.

Torger looked around again and saw a large flat patch of tall grasses. He called for Brun to break away from the line. When Brun came over Torger said “We need to clear out this field. The fire is coming this way. I’ll go to the east, you go to the west, and we’ll cast fire one. It will burn up this field, and when the large fire gets here there won’t be any fuel in this area.”

Creating a fire to slow down a fire didn’t make any sense to Brun, but Torger seemed confident he knew what he was talking about. Besides, they were losing the battle anyway.

Brun and Torger each cast Fire 1 about a hundred yards apart, then Torger walked to the middle and cast Fire 1 again. As the flames grew in size, an angry elf ran up to them and yelled “Arrest them! They’re the ones creating the fire!”

Three more elves ran over, arrows knocked to their bows. Torger raised his hands in surrender and tried to explain the purpose to the elves, but they had the same attitude as Napoleon. Things were about to get ugly when Edina walked up. She raised her voice and asked “What is going on here?”

The lead elf responded “I saw these two humans light fires with my own eyes! They’re not helping us, they’re making it worse!”

By then all three fires Torger and Brun had set were getting a little too big. Torger looked at Edina and Brun. “Brun, cast a few ice one spells to keep the flames going but knocked down a little. We need to make sure the whole field is scorched.”

“See. He admits it. He wants these fires to burn.”

Brun began casting Ice 1 spells, once in the middle of each fire. Meanwhile Torger said “Border Elder, we are here to help. I promise. The flames are coming this way, but by burning small fires here, the flames will have to go around this field. It will provide us a safe haven while fighting the fire. You see the bucket lines. Once these fires burn this field, we will still be able to get to the stream and carry water to the far side of it. I know it doesn’t make much sense right now, but it will. For the safety of your village you need to trust me.”

Edina looked at him suspiciously. “You’re right. It doesn’t make sense to me. But our elves are out of mana and tired. We’re passing out mid level mana potions now, but we need to try something different. You humans keep the fire away from our village on this side of the stream, and we elves will keep it away on the other side.”

She walked away, and the other elves gave dirty looks to Torger but they walked away. Torger saw he received a new quest.

New quest from Edina. Protect the Yosemite Valley elf village on the west side of the Tuolumne river.

Expiration: Sunset

Reward: Significant increase to respect and love points.

Bow of the Hawk

Bow of the Eagle

That was one hell of a reward! It was do or die time. Success meant great weapons. Failure meant imprisonment.

“Regulators! Circle up!”

They broke away from the fire and joined him and Brun. “We have the most important quest we’ve received so far. We need to keep the fire away from the elf village on this side of the river. Brun and I have started to make a fire break. But we’re going to need to move a lot of water for a lot of hours. Antic, how’s our supply of stamina potions? This could take all day.”

“We have three low, no mid, and twelve high stamina potions.”

“Hmm. Not good. How are everyone’s levels?”

Brun said “I’m almost drained. I’m at twelve out of fifty. I was on guard duty when the lighting was striking, and didn’t get much sleep last night.”

Rome and Jex were the only ones who hadn’t had a shift that night. Their shifts were supposed to have been after Brun’s. Their stamina was at 22/50, and Antic was at 73/95.

“Rome, Jex, and Antic, take a low potion now. The rest of us will take a high stamina potion.”

After everyone drank their potions, Graul said “That’s great! I just gained five points to my max stamina!”

Torger, Arden, and Brun also had a stamina of 55/55 after drinking the high stamina potion. Arden said “We’ve had these potions the whole time, and we could have all raised our max stamina when we found the crate in Havasu? I wonder if it works for strength too.”

“Maybe, but we don’t have time for that right now. We need to burn this field and form a water line in it.”

The man made small fires were kept low with the use of Ice 1 spells. After an hour, an area the size of a pro baseball stadium had been scorched. The Regulators stood in the middle of the smoke and ashes and watched the main fire burn until it reached the field. As expected, it died at the area that had already been burned, but tried to make its way around into the foothills. As they watched it burn further west, Torger realized it was beginning to burn towards Lagwil’s Sequoia Elves.

But then they saw elves trying to keep it at bay by casting Ice 1 spells at it, just as the Yosemite Elves had done. Torger ran over and for the fourth time explained how to use a bucket line and fire break. These elves were more rational, since the fire wasn’t at their doorstep, and Torger pointed to the burned field they were standing in to help explain how to create a fire break. Then the Regulators demonstrated how to form a bucket line using all twenty-one water skins the seven Regulators had. The elves ran back a half mile and started casting Fire 1 spells, keeping the flames low and away from tree branches with Ice 1.

The Regulators saw the elves had things under control far to the west, and formed a line to keep the fire away using water taken from the stream. The work lasted for over an hour, with Antic covering the most distance, until he, Jex, and Rome were too tired to continue. Torger gave the three of them a high stamina potion, and Jex and Rome raised their stamina to 55/55. Antic, however, raised his stamina from 22/95 to 71/100. But it cost him a max strength point going from 21 to 20. Everyone was displeased with the result. Even with the potions there was still a max strength to stamina ratio.

The new boost in energy kept the Regulators moving the bucket line for another two hours. Finally the fire was out on their side of the river and they all sat down in the warm embers. They looked to the east side of the river and saw the elves weren’t doing as well. The fire was still too close to the village. The small elves just didn’t have the physical strength and stamina to keep the bucket lines going. Everyone was too exhausted to help and looked on with despair for their far away neighbors. Torger’s heart broke and he asked “What’s our supply Antic?”

“Five high stamina potions. But we’re also low on strength too. I mean I’m not, but the rest of you are.”

Torger asked “Who has the lowest max strength?”

They found out Rome had a max of seven, and he had already used one low strength potion during the fire. Brun was next with a max of eleven. Torger handed them both a high strength potion. Their max went to eight and twelve.

Next they found out everyone but Rome had an unused ability point. Antic bought five mana, and everyone else bought one strength point.

“We have five high stamina potions left. Antic you’re out. One of us will have to sit out back here while the others drink the potions and go help the elves. Any volunteers to stay behind?”

All hands went up and Torger was dismayed his friends lacked the nobility to help their… friends? No, acquaintances? No. They wouldn’t help these elves they didn’t know at all. Arden said “Keep my wife out of danger.”

The others agreed that was probably for the best. Jex didn’t like chauvinism, but did appreciate the sentiment of dying chivalry.

Torger, Graul, Arden, Brun, and Rome drank the last of their stamina potions, all gained five max stamina points, and ran to help the elves. Their arrival, with their fresh stamina, bigger muscles and more water skins emboldened the battered elves. When they arrived they saw numerous clay vials thrown all over the ground. Yet these elves were tired and battered. But they did keep two bucket lines going that Torger had taught them. He realized they had probably drank all the mana, strength, and stamina potions they had, yet still the fire was into the village itself.

The humans spent all their mana casting Ice 1 spells to slow the flames, then formed a bucket line of their own. The five men worked relentlessly for another hour, moving much faster than the elves thanks to Rome’s Haste 2 spells he cast on each of them. Haste 2 lasted for ten minutes, and he drank their last seven low mana potions to keep the spells going for the five of them, but eventually they slowed down to normal speed.

They made a lot of progress in that first hour, but when the boost of speed wore off, they were all fatigued. Torger had no more stamina potions, but he gave each of them a low strength potion, lowering the count to 14. The strength boost allowed them to pick up the water skins more easily, but after another half hour they could barely stand. All their Stats icons were red and their stamina was 3/60.

They retreated from the fire and sat down. Torger looked around and saw that they had moved a half mile away from the village in that hour and a half of super intense work. Part of the village had burned, but with the direction of the wind and the blackened ground around the village, the elves should be safe. As they continued to look around, they saw no sign of elves still fighting the fire. Instead, some elves were casting cure spells on other elves laying on the ground, and helping them limp away towards the trees that hadn’t been burned.

Chapter 30

Unity

After sitting and resting for an hour, the men finally had enough energy to walk back to Jex and Antic. What a joy to see them setting up the last tent, with the roc feather mats already rolled out inside each one. The sun was setting and it was mostly dark when they each went into the tents and took off their clothes. They all stunk like smoke, and it was another pleasant surprise to find full water skins with fresh water for each of them. To top it off there was a handful of fresh blackberries on each pillow. They all ate the berries, mostly to clean out the soot from their mouths, and drank the water. As if that weren’t enough, Jex and Antic said they were going to keep watch all night; the others could sleep throughout the night without having to wake up for a shift. The friends truly appreciated each other’s thoughtfulness and selfless giving.

At sunrise Antic woke everyone up. They came out of the tents groggy, but with weapons in hand. They saw a troupe of Yosemite Valley elves walking towards them. Torger stepped forward and said good morning.

“Well done human. We are here to honorably escort you to the council of elders. Come with us please.”

Torger looked at his friends, none of them wearing armor or fully alert. “It’s a little early for us. Let us eat breakfast and break camp, then we will join you.”

“Forgive me, honorable friend, but only you are invited to meet the elders. Your friends must stay here.”

Torger looked at his friends, but before he could ask their opinions Graul told him to check his reputation with the elves. Torger checked and saw he had fifty-five respect points and twenty-eight love points. That was a major boost in reputation, since the day before he had zero in both categories. He decided to trust the stats and join the elves.

He drank the last of the last water skin, leaving his friends to filter the dirty water from the stream. He didn’t like being so rude, but he had to have his wits about him for this important meeting. He put on leather boots, pants, and a fur coat, leaving his steel armor behind.

As they walked he looked at the devastation with fresh eyes. Small wisps of smoke still curled up from the warm ashes all around him. In the distance the valley and mountains looked as pristine as ever, but there were a couple miles of blackened ground. He felt bad for these elves who lived here, even though until then they had done nothing but give him a cold shoulder.

He was led into the village itself. Tall pine and Sequoia trees looked untouched by the fire, and holes were dug under the stumps of most of them. There were wooden walkways spanning from tree to tree in a complex pattern twenty feet off the ground, and a few elves seemed to be patrolling, looking for trouble that was not likely there. Fires scared away all monsters, at least that was a fair assumption.

He was led to a ladder, and climbed up to the walkway. His acrophobia set in and he hugged the tree trunk next to him. An elf escort looked at his fear and said “It is not far my friend. You will feel more secure inside.”

He was led along the walkway and they turned into the trunk of a massive sequoia. Torger had no idea how anyone other than himself would fit inside, but as he entered his body shrunk to be a little over one foot tall. Inside, at that size, was a massive oak table with six chairs. Five old elves sat there, including Edina. Torger was asked by her to sit in the remaining chair.

“Welcome to the council of elders, human. You are the first being who is not an elf to join us.” It was the biggest and strongest looking elf who spoke, and he was also sitting at the head of the table. This reminded Torger a lot of his sitting with the dwarven elders during the annual mayor’s council.

“Thank you, sir. I am appreciative and humbled you would allow me into your sacred assembly.” Nailed it! Good thing he drank the water so his voice wasn’t parched.

“Your polite manners belie your crude methods of conducting business, dwarven mayor.” This time it was the elf sitting directly across from him who had spoken. He had a scowl on his face.

“If I have offended you, please state your accusation and evidence clearly for me.” Torger did not come here at six in the morning to get chewed out, and he would not give them the satisfaction of him cowering in fear. He scanned their faces and saw the two sitting across from him looked on with disdain, while the other three looked at him with favor.

The leader spoke up. “That is a fair response, mayor. If you would be so kind, please state your name clearly and our procedure will begin.”

Torger didn’t see the harm in it, but didn’t like the tone. “My name is Torger.”

“Very well Torger. My name is Yiloding. I am the tribal chief of all the Pomo elves, the same as Romalt is the tribal chief of all the Cucamonga dwarves. But we do not operate with mayors as they do, each village operates with a council of four elders. However, I enjoy the privilege of overruling all but a unanimous vote.” He said this with a smirk, but Torger didn’t detect evil intent in the statement. More of an announcement of who held all the aces.

“First we will address Hatrive’s accusation. He claims you and your friends entered our borders to attain a tyter item on the split hill. How do you respond?”

“I do not know where your borders are. We did go to the top of the split hill. If we entered your territory, it was unintentional. We never came near this village.”

“So you admit to trespassing! That should conclude this council. Fine him and free him.”

“Not so fast Hatrive. Torger, do you not sense the elven borders?”

“Sense them? No. My friends and I just walk until we get surrounded by border guards. They turn us away and we have to guess at where the borders are.”

“Impossible! All magic wielding creatures feel the elven magic they are born with.”

“I will have no more outbursts from you Hatrive! Torger, do not lie to us. You must feel the mild shock when you come too close to our border. It’s what keeps magical creatures from being unnecessarily killed by us.”

“No, chief Yiloding. We feel nothing. Humans are not born with the ability to use magic. We were granted the ability by a tyter device shortly after arriving here.”

No one responded. Hatrive started to turn red holding in his retort. Edina spoke up. “I believe he is telling the truth. Lagwil informed me she was aided by humans who could use magic, but our records of tyter prey have no indication of humans ever using magic in the past.”

“We can’t know what the humans are capable of. I say he’s lying.” This was the angry elf sitting next to Hatrive who glared at Torger before introductions were made.

“I see no way to resolve this issue one way or another. The issue is did the humans knowingly enter elven territory, and if so did they intend harm?” It was Edina who had spoken. “Let’s vote on this now and move on.”

Yiloding called for a vote, and by a margin of three to two it was decided the humans did not knowingly enter elven territory. Next he said “We also have the issue of you starting a fire near our village. Why would you try to burn down the village of a superior force?” Yiloding was giving him an underhand softball question, and Torger was grateful for it.

“You may ask around, and find several witnesses. We did start fires. It is a technique my home country started to combat wild fires. We burn a large area in a controlled manner where the fire is heading towards. This gives the fire fighters a break from the front flames, and controls the direction of the burn. The technique worked yesterday, or you would not have a village to hold this meeting.”

The two elves sitting on the other side of Edina both agreed the humans taught them the technique, and it did lessen the damages. But inflicting destruction went against all the morals of the elves and they would have never thought of it. In their thousands of years of history, they had never considered such an idea as creating fire to combat fire.

To the dismay of Hatrive, that vote was easily made in Torger’s favor. “I’m glad we quickly resolved the questions of criminal behavior. Torger, you were promised that if you protected this village on the west side yesterday, our relations would grow significantly. That reward was granted to you this morning. You were also promised to receive a Bow of the Hawk and a Bow of the Eagle. I would love to present those rewards to you today. However, I have been informed our armory was partially destroyed in the fire. All of our Bows of the Eagle were destroyed, and we only have two Bows of the Hawk left. It is embarrassing to our kind to not honor our promise. What would you like instead?”

“We need stronger arrows, but Lagwil is taking care of that. We also need to clear out a gold mine, but again we have made arrangements with Lagwil. In a month, we will want magic infused to new steel weapons. Perhaps we could come to an agreement in that regard?”

“Perhaps. But I am also told you went beyond your promise to protect our west border, and also helped protect the east border. The account given to me is you and your friends used many potions, because the smoke inhalation significantly lowered your stamina. I would repay you for your potions, and more for your bravery, but we also used all of our potions. You have an uncompleted quest. Kill the trolls in our area, and I will give you something that will show our gratitude.”

Yiloding stood up, and all knelt before him. Torger sat in his seat perplexed, but the chief smiled at him and patted his shoulder as he walked out of the tree trunk.

Torger exited into the sunlight. His stomach rumbled and he was reminded he hadn’t eaten for a day and a half. Edina came out to meet him. “Well spoken, Torger. The dwarves might have been wise to make you a mayor. If you will listen to my advice I will suggest you establish your new dwarf village quickly, then come back to kill the trolls soon. The gift Yiloding has in mind is very impressive.”

Torger was led out of the village and he walked back across the charred ground to his friends. He arrived in time to see Graul and Rome taking down the tents. Graul said “Jex and Arden went hunting, but couldn’t find anything. They came back to get Antic and Brun to help, but I don’t think there will be any animals in the area. Looks like we’ll go hungry until we find berries somewhere.”

They left and walked along the charred remains to the west. They made a lot of progress, almost to the Lake Silverwood elves who were now in the Sequoia Forest. They set up camp and were happy to see the others return at sunset. Antic had a deer hoof sticking out the top of his duffle bag, which made sense because he carried three of the four tents in it. Although the duffle bag reduced space by twenty times and cut weight by ten times the original, it still took his strength and stamina to carry the heavier equipment during their travels.

The deer was almost done cooking when they all heard a low moan. They looked around but by then it was dark outside. They were in a clearing, but still there were trees forty feet away in every direction. Jex picked up her Bow of the Owl and scanned the dark area. After a few seconds of looking around she said “Guys, this isn’t good.”

They looked where she was looking but didn’t see anything at first. But from behind the tree line a black stream shot out and hit Torger in the chest. He fell to the ground, curled up in a ball and full of panic.

Jex shot at the apparition but the arrow went through it, causing no damage. Brun pointed his staff blindly and said “Fire 1.” A ball of fire flew out of the top of his staff, and they all saw the ghost disappear before the spell hit it.

They heard another low moan to their left, and another one behind them. They looked all around, but didn’t see anything. Suddenly a large dog that seemed to be on fire came running at them. Jex shot, and the arrow sank deep, but it kept coming. Antic and Arden readied their spears, and Graul held his sword, feeling half dressed without his shield. Brun and Rome cast their spells at it, Fire 3 and Analyze 2. The fire hit it, but did no damage. Four fireballs shot out of the impact and flew four different directions, hitting four unseen Lesser Liches behind the trees. Rome’s analyze showed

Hellhound. Level 16. Health 160/180 Mana 15/15 Strength 10 Stamina 60 Elemental weakness: Water (Fire and Ice attacks nullified)

He yelled out the information to everyone, just as the canine jumped at Antic. He thrust his spear, and it went through the animal, but it kept biting and fighting for several seconds before it died, unaware of any pain.

While Antic was busy losing his hand to the dog and bleeding, the others were engaged in a battle of magic. In the darkness they cast spells trying to hit shadows that may be targets. Another hellhound charged at them, and Graul and Arden ran to intercept it. Graul couldn’t block with his sword, and the dog bite pierced his bracer. Arden thrust his steel spear into its side, and Graul stabbed it through the heart.

As the dog was dying, a barrage of spells shot out of the trees from behind them. Eight spells hit the four liches in rapid succession. They turned around to see Lagwil and three border guards have both hands raised and released spells from both hands simultaneously, except Lagwil used her gold staff in one hand and an open palm was pointed at a different lich. Eight more spells came from the four elves and the Liches were hit again. But all four liches cast a spell into the ashes and four hellhounds arose from the coals. Lagwil yelled “We’ll take the ghosts, you fight the dogs.”

That sounded like a good plan to them, mostly because they could see the dogs. Antic tried to stop one of them while holding his spear in his left hand, since he didn’t have a right hand anymore. His strength of 20 had become an equal match to the beast’s strength of 10. His spear impaled it, but instead of biting the foul creature spit, which cast Fire 2 into his face. Antic dropped the spear and grabbed his burning eyes. Rome cast Cure 1 at him.

Graul and Antic fought another, and Jex and Brun were keeping the third one occupied, but they were losing. The last beast ran at Torger, who was just recovering from being hit with the fear spell. He crawled up to his knees when he was rammed in the side by one of the creatures. He held out his arm as it tried to bite him, and the teeth tried to pierce the steel bracer, and succeeded a little. Blood dripped down his arm. He reached for his sword and cut it, but the expected fire damage did nothing. Four fireballs circled then flew into the ground. His cut was shallow, and the dog didn’t slow at all. Torger could only keep its mouth on his bracer and its claws away from his face while he waited for help to arrive.

Torger didn’t see it coming, but a minute later Graul stabbed it in the side, into the heart, and it died.

A few minutes later Lagwil returned. Her green dress had scorch marks in it, as did the clothing of the other three elves. Graul asked her what just happened.

“We won, of course, but the battle was intense. This land is destroyed, and is evil. I fear more lesser liches will appear, and in these ashes they can call beasts of the underworld. Liches cannot be exposed to bright light or they will be greatly hurt, but each night they may appear in these burnt lands. We elves can handle magical creatures, but struggle against physically strong ones. Come to the edge of our village where it is safer.”