Out of the forest came two of the largest creatures Xander had ever seen, both carrying what looked like fallen trees. They were at least a head and a half taller than Patrick but much wider around the shoulders with longer arms but had short legs in comparison. The bipeds had green skin with flat faces, what Xander thought could be a nose was nothing more than two slits, but that paled in comparison with their mouth. Each of the huge things had a lower jaw much wider and jutting than a normal human, with the bottom two canine teeth proudly on display. Xander thought they looked like the trolls out of fairytale books, if they were capable fighters or not Xander did not want to see, if they were scary enough to make Patrick flee, then they must be more than a match for him. Xander took off in the general direction he saw Patrick run, quickly leaving the slow moving creatures behind. Before long Xander caught up with Patrick as he began to tire holding both of the women.
“Enchanter how far behind you are those things” were the first words out of Patrick’s mouth.
“I think they have given up the chase” Xander said as he scanned for enemies before continuing speaking “What happened back there?”
“We saw fighting at the border as we went towards it, Samantha’s horse took an arrow and fell on top of her” Priscilla said as she loaded another bolt. “I went to help her out and got an arrow for my trouble. Patrick lifted us up where we began to go deeper into the forest and now here you are.”
“I think we need to leave this place, I have a cabin that should hold us” Xander said as he scribed a teleportation circle. Xander had all four of them inside it as he poured his aura into it. Nothing happened as realization dawned on Xander something must have happened at the cabin he stayed in before he was found last year by Rangelian bounty hunters.
“It is not working Enchanter, we need another plan” Patrick said pointing out the obvious. “The island you marooned me on had no intelligent life on it, surely that circle is still intact. You did carve it in wood.”
Xander thought about the symbols used for that circle, minutes later they were on an island in the middle of a vast lake, deep within the Rangelian forest surrounded by dark elves.
CHAPTER 21
Rain Water
It had been three days since the iron covered men came with the bone breakers, taking her people hostage and destroying her home. Most elves saw the island on the great lake as an evil place, home of the great water lizards known to eat elves and fish alike. She had been placed in charge, their leader refused to hear a message from the light elves about needing help. The light elves had been their adversaries for longer than anyone could remember, why would they help them. Rain though knew better, she could still hear the fear in the messenger’s voice as she told stories about the bone breakers coming with men in metal skins. How the arrows would not work on them and how their best warriors could not fight off the men, their swords doing little damage. Their warriors were being taken hostage and the men were killed. Rain listened to her and sent warriors to the fire hair house and cleansed it of the mark fire hair used to travel, not wanting him to come back into an ambush. Rain gathered up her mates and all who would listen as she boarded boats leading her to the island. Their Chief stayed behind on the belief that her warriors were better than those of the light elves. Just as Rain took off she could see the men as they came, the bone breakers killing elves nonstop. Many eleves saw the fight becoming one sided and they boarded the last of the boats and followed Rain, but not before one of the bone breakers tore the head off of their chief. The remaining elves looked to her as their leader, and she only had one plan. Hope fire hair would come. Rain looked as the men gathered their prisoners and tried to build boats to bring them out on the water. Many of their ships sank and the men in metal skins went with it to the bottom never to rise again. Those who did not wear their metal skins were set upon by the water lizards, who had been eating nonstop since the battle began. It was only a matter of time before the metal skinned men figured out a way over. For now Rain was content with the fact the island held plenty of food. Rain walked over to the magic circle just as fire hair appeared with three others.
“Are you friend still fire hair or do you come with metal skin men and bone breakers” Rain asked Xander.
“I am still your friend Rain, I came here because I am being pursued and this is the only safe place I can think of” Xander replied.
“We too are under attack fire hair” Rain said as she walked up and gave Xander a deep kiss on the mouth.
“Enchanter, exactly how well do you know these elves” Patrick said as he noticed the elves still had their bows drawn.
“Apparently well enough that he can understand their language and still have his way with them” Samantha said as she held Patrick close, afraid of the elves.
“Rain these are my friends, war has broken out in the world of woman” Xander began. “We are hiding here so we can regroup.”
“I heard your mate had finally caught you, good for her. Do you belong to one of these women” Rain Water said looking at the women.
“None of these women is the one I told you about Rain” Xander said as the elves lowered their bows.
“The elves can understand our speech enchanter?” Patrick asked after seeing that Xander was obviously communicating with them.
“They can Patrick and I can understand theirs” Xander began. “We have tried to speak each other’s language but it is no use, for now I communicate in mind and she communicates in hers. All of the dark elves for the most part can understand me.”
“Then what are you talking about” Samantha said as she looked around at the elves. “I cannot understand any of them and I am nervous about all of their weapons.”
“Rain Water is asking about Aubrey, she wants to know if one of you are her.” Xander said as he pointed to Rain.
“You told the elves of Aubrey, I thought you couldn’t stand to be in her presence.” Patrick said amazed Xander knew the elves enough to talk about personal matters.
“The women here are sympathetic to Aubrey. Although slight by the standards of womankind, the female elves are larger than the male elves. The elves have a matriarchal society, the females are in charge of the government, they are the warriors and the hunters. The males’ job is to take care of the home and the children. Females are allowed to have as many mates as they can take care of. Males are expected to be bonded to a female on the day of their 21st summer. Many males who are unwilling to go through the bonding process or who do not like the females available tend to disappear deep into the forest before their day comes. The females who want that male are expected to give chase for their mate. The male is caught and brought back as the prize of the female who caught him. Each male is expected to have their own living quarters, it is up to the female to build such a dwelling.”
“So they see your living in the forest as you running from the women of Rangel” Samantha said.
“That is correct, I was nearing my 21st summer and as a part of the forest I could have been expected to be bonded also, that is before Rangel caught up with me” Xander said.
“Fire hair, nice to see you again” the elf Xander knew as Running Water said as she gave him a kiss. “Rain Water is now big Chief, men with metal skin take tribe hostage, kill many men and warriors.”
“The metal skin men want to come over here to capture our warriors” Rain Water began, “We need plan to beat men and bonebreakers, pray for Fire Hair and now you here.”
“What are the Bone Breakers?” Xander asked, unsure if he had ever seen such a creature.
“Big strong enemy, hide strong, hard to bring down with arrows or swords. Big bottom teeth coming out of mouth, taller and bigger than big man” Rain Water said as she pointed towards Patrick.
“We have fought the Bone Breakers, they are who we were fleeing.” Xander said as he started to pace. “Right now we need to find a way to defeat the Bone Breakers, plus the men in armor. How many Bone Breakers and men are there?”
“We are looking at two of those big monsters both armed with clubs” Xander began translating to others in his group. “They have 40 well-armed men also who have taken the best the elves have and killed many. Their arrows cannot puncture their armor.”
“Enchanter, if your plan is to fight their attackers, I see no way to beat those monsters.” Patrick said thinking about his encounter with them. “They move fast for someone that size and look like they could soak up many arrows before falling. The men must be well organized to have this many elves scared, I see no way that enemy could be defeated.”
“It wasn’t long ago I was faced with beating an unbeatable enemy” Xander began as he remembered how sure of himself Patrick was during their duel. “We just need the right game plan. Rain, did any of the men have any bows, or pikes?”
“They only carry sword and metal skin, Bone Breaker only have club” Rain replied.
“They do not have any projectile weapons” Xander said as he began to formulate a plan. “They most likely are using their superior armor and the Bone Breakers in a straight up force on force battle. It has worked for them so far so they see no need to change it. Rain did you get any of my belongings out of the cabin? I am assuming it was you who erased my circle.”
“I had your sword brought, will give to you now” Rain said as she motioned to an elf behind her.
“Did you bring a small book with a metal cover when you searched my home?”
“Only bring weapon, words no good against enemy with sword.” Running water said as she handed Xander his sword.
“I have my Father’s sword and his armor. I am as ready as I’ll ever be. I think our attack stands a better chance of working at night” Xander said as he formulated a plan with the group.
When night time started to fall, the plan was simple. Xander along with two elves would quietly row over to shore. Once there, Xander would teleport back to the island to retrieve his weapons. Once he teleports back, he along with the two elves would creep into camp, killing as many as they could without raising an alarm. Once the alarm was sounded, they would then teleport the remaining troops to tactical positions to cause more havoc.
Xander along with Rain Water and one of her mates took a boat out on the lake and brought it to shore. Once there Xander retrieved his weapons and began following Rain Water’s mate, as male elves could see in the dark. After what had to be about two hours Rain Water’s mate paused, then pointed a finger towards what Xander could only see was darkness.
“Mate says men not far away, can see men and smell Bone Breakers along with elves” Rain Water told Xander in a low voice.
“Well tell him to keep his eyes open and alert me to the first sign of trouble. If they as close as you say I would have thought I could hear them by now.” Xander said as he peered into the darkness silently cursing and praising the moonless night.
Xander continued onward as he began to see a small glow, the unmistakable sign of a camp fire. Xander crept closer to camp where he could see most of the men were sleep with only a few sentries. Taking a quick headcount Xander spotted five sentries with at least thirty men sleeping none seemed to be in their armor. The Bone Breakers luckily were also sleeping and he could see the elves were all chained together naked to a post.
“We need to get kin, that not a warriors death. These men need death” said Rain Water.
“Well my earlier plan is scrapped” Xander began. “They are not ready for an attack; probably think that you could not harm them. Wait here and I will return.”
Xander returned with Patrick along with all the warriors Rain had on the island. While the men sleeping would make easy targets, the arrow attack he figured wouldn’t do much to the Bone Breakers, a hypothesis Patrick readily agreed with. The plan would be to put as many arrows as possible in the sleeping targets while Xander and Patrick kept the Bone Breakers busy. When the men seemed to get their wits about, Xander and Patrick were to tread deep into the forest, that would be the signal to tell the elves to break off their attack. They would meet back up on the beach in the morning, hoping their attackers would be too sleep deprived from staying up all night awaiting another attack.
Patrick nodded at Xander as he was the first to take off, skirting the outside of the camp in order to avoid the many arrows that would be aimed at the sleeping men. Xander took off and skirted the camp in the opposite direction, a move that was halted when one of the sentries stood in his way.
Xander brought his weapon up and around in a twisting slash motion, a move meant to carve the other man’s sword in two before making the kill. As Xander’s sword descended he heard an unfamiliar clang, his father’s sword had made contact with the other weapon but it most definitely did not cleave it in two. Xander held up his gauntleted hand into the man’s face and fed his aura into it, releasing white hot fire into his face. As Xander's attacker fell screaming, Xander picked up the other man’s blade and continued onward to help out Patrick. As Xander was running, he could hear the screams of dying men as the elves arrows now found their mark against sleeping opponents. Xander thought that was not the best way to die but these men deserved no favors. Xander closed in on where Patrick was at, and could see him hacking away into one of the Bone breakers who started to stir. Xander could see while Patrick made deep cuts into the beast, it was too muscular for any of them to ever reach his heart. Xander could see the other Bone Breaker stir and began to make its way towards Patrick. Xander lifted up both his weapons and prepared to drive them deep into the back of the other creature when he noticed one sword was misshapen. The sword his foe had certainly withstood Xander’s blade but it definitely wasn’t a proper weapon any more. Xander dropped it and pulled out his morning star and took a swing at the area behind the creature’s knee.
The Bone Breaker stumbled a bit but not fall. Xander took this time to grab Patrick and retreat into the other side of the forest with the Bone Breakers in hot pursuit.
“Lets split up Enchanter” Patrick said out of breath. “We can lead them deep into the forest while the other joins back into the fight.”
“We can’t see anything, it would be suicide” Xander retorted.
“They can’t see anything either” Patrick said as he split off from Xander.
Xander watched as both Bone Breakers, went after Patrick. After waiting a few moments to ensure they would be back, Xander went back into the battle. Xander could see most of the men lay dead where they slept with only the three armored sentries still standing. As Xander came into the clearing he could hear the sentries say something to one another before they ran deep into the forest, apparently losing their will to fight. Xander walked up to the elves and used his sword to begin breaking chains. After the last chain was broke, Xander began teleporting the elves back to the island just in case the slavers had more back up somewhere in the forest. As Xander teleported the last elf, Patrick came running back into the battle ground.
“The creatures chased me for a couple of minutes then suddenly stopped.” Patrick began as he tried to catch his breath. “I was curious as to the reason when they suddenly started walking off in a direction I do not know, but definitely not this way.”
Xander was preparing to teleport himself and Patrick when he heard a man moaning.
“Looks like we have a prisoner Enchanter” Patrick began. I would like to know what those creatures are and why are they taking the elves hostage.”
Xander and Patrick found the moaning man along with three others and teleported them to the island.
“Why are you taking the elves” Xander asked one of the hostages.
“I don’t answer to you” the man said as he spat at Xander. Xander nodded his head as Rain Water and her now freed warriors put at least twenty arrows into the man.
“I hope you will
be more cooperative than your comrade” Patrick began as he looked at the next man. “You may have some code not to reveal secrets to the enemy, but do you expect whoever is the last among you honor such an agreement when all of you are dead and no one can say he talked?”
“It was the dwarf, he said to do it” the next man spoke.
“The dwarf?” Xander asked, thinking the shorter race was just a fairytale meant to scare children.
“The dwarf gave us fancy weapons and many gems” another began. “He said to capture the elves and fight them against Thorn. He said Thorn is fighting three wars. Whenever Thorn is taken over, then we come in and take it all.”
“Who is the dwarf and where do we find him?” Patrick asked the men.
“We do not know, we are only foot soldiers” one of the men replied.
“Why are the Bone breakers fighting for you?” Xander asked.
“The Bone Breakers, we don’t know of any Bone Breakers, do you mean the trolls?” one of the hostages replied.
“Stop trying to be cute, you know damn well what he means.” Patrick said as he pointed to the elves. “If you prefer you can talk to them instead of us.”
The Terror of Thorn: Child of War: Book 2 Page 9