Into the Storm Page 3

  The next morning, we were up and at ‘em! Or as up and at ‘em as you can be with your wife, and a giant orc woman laying on top of you.

  Maebe had no reason to, other than that she wanted to, and seeing me grunt in discomfort made her happy.

  “I swear, if the two of you don’t move—I will shapeshift into a dragon right this second and sit on you.”

  “He’s so lively in the morning.” Vrawn smirked to Maebe, then kissed my cheek. “Good morning, handsome.”

  “Good morning.” I smiled at her despite my grumpy façade. “We need to get to the dwarves, ladies, and eating beforehand would be a great idea.”

  We dressed, wearing armor and the like more for show than anything else, then headed downstairs to get our breakfast.

  Most of my friends waited around a table in the rear of the room with plates of food, eating and laughing in a light atmosphere.

  The tavern dining area was middle-sized, roughly twenty yards square, with dark wooden chairs and tables for guests within Sunrise Village.

  “Mornin’ love birds!” Jaken flashed his small tusks at us. He wore his typical platinum-colored armor, it was mithril dyed platinum by his goddess Radiance, and covered his purple skin.

  Jaken, a new dad and one of my best gaming buddies, was the paladin of our group. His black hair looked ruffled, falling over his face and almost covering his bright hazel eyes.

  “You got some egg in your goatee, buddy.” I pointed to his face, and he flinched, whipping a napkin up to wipe at what wasn’t there.

  “Good morning, everyone.” Maebe gave her winningest smile. “How are all of my knights feeling this morning?”

  “Good, my Queen.” Balmur stood his grin firmly in place, his left eye an odd color this morning. “Before you ask like everyone else, my eye is gold from an eye that I fed to it. Heat vision hurts man.”

  The tanned Azer dwarf, fire dwarf for those of us who may not know, had lost his real left eye in the Hells while he had been there under the tender care of a general of War masquerading as a demon lord. A portion of his flaming black and purple beard had been carved away, and the scars covering his body almost as much as his skin did. One of those marks bisected his left eye, where his new eye watched everyone intently. His dwarven features twisted in recognition when he saw me watching him.

  “You gonna kiss me?” His snarled question made the others pause, but all I did was snort, and he laughed too.

  We worried that his time being tortured and mistreated by demons had done something to him. His humor was a little sharper than before, and he fell into a battle rage unlike anything I was capable of, but for the most part, he was coming out of it okay.

  There were some slight signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, but we all kept watch over him to help when we could.

  “Ah, humor, I see.” Maebe smiled at the man and nodded appreciatively. “I truly am beginning to see how all of you interact and have started to grow accustomed to it.”

  “Appy to heab bat, baebe!” Bokaj belted around a mouthful of eggs and bacon.

  Bokaj, our pale-blue skinned and lithely built ice elf ranger bard grinned while chewing. Some of the crumbs from his face fell onto normal clothes, black long sleeve shirt with black pants, and his black boots, but what shook me was what wasn’t there.

  “She’s not small enough to fit inside your hair anymore, where is she?” I growled as I lifted my tails up further and checked behind me.

  “She’s around.” He grinned wider after he swallowed and brushed his black hair out of his sparkling blue eyes. The sides were buzzed, and the top long and artfully coiffed to the side. “Unlike you this morning. Where is your alarm? Weren’t you a Marine? Ass-crack-of-dawn wake up time? Vrawn, you’re a soldier, you should know to have an alarm.”

  “This one’s mine,” Vrawn advised with her hand clamping down on Maebe’s shoulder, then I felt a hand on my shoulder. “As is this one. I usually only wake up when they move, I like my sleep.”

  “We get it, you’re a happy threesome.” James rolled his eyes.

  The irritable dragon elf raised a mug of piping hot tea to his lips and gulped it down, sighing once he stopped.

  His malformed wings settled behind him in the chair, black like the scales along his bare chest, shoulders and parts of his face. He caught me eyeing him and winked, making me turn away.

  “Yohsuke asleep?” Concern heavy in my voice.

  Bokaj nodded, another bite on his fork. “We finished with it ‘bout half an hour after you got hold of me, then he tried to make it comfortable for a bit before laying down. I’m not sure if vampirism sapped his elven sleeping ability or not, but he’s been down since.”

  “AAAAAAAAAAAGH! You little shit!” The familiar loud voice and the sound of scampering, heavily-padded cat paws came toward us from the hallway.

  A nude but slightly covered Muu, his scaled body rippling with muscle as he chased his feline tormentor with a pillow held over his groin.

  “You tail biting asshole!” He hollered while tailing her and gaining ground in bounds around the room.

  “Speaking of, we can see yours!” I snarled, sending a Lightning Bolt crashing into his bare backside, making him howl in pain. “Clothes! Now.”

  Tmont padded toward Bokaj looking proud of herself, I turned so I could watch her pass when the door behind us opened.

  “There they be!” A gravelly voice belted out across the room, making me smile. “Told ye, lad. They be here still.”

  “Thogan, Rowland!” Jaken called happily, standing where he was to wave them over despite the fact that they were on their way already. “What’re you boys doin’ here?”

  “We had a request of ye lads.” The smaller dwarf asked, his black beard braided with ornate decorative beads, and his hair slicked back and tied into a small knot.

  “What’s up, Rowland?” I stepped closer to him and the taller, gravel-skinned dwarf Thogan Swiftaxe. “Let me guess—you both want to come to Djurn Forge?”

  They both nodded, but Thogan spoke, “See, lad.” He folded a cloth rag in his hands and wrung it back and forth as he went to explain himself, “Been a while since I were with me kinfolk an’ I be missin’ em somethin’ fierce.”

  “You don’t have to explain that to us, man!” Jaken had come round the table to stand next to me. “We get it.”

  “I appreciate the understandin’ lads.” Thogan grinned and shook our hands, the rock-like flesh on his palms rasping against the metal grip of mine. “But wee Rowland has a mighty task ahead of him.”

  We glanced over to Rowland, who blushed, his cheeks rosy red as he muttered, “I be meanin’ to ask Vilmas’ clan head fer her hand in matrimony.”

  “Holy shit!” Jaken whistled while clapping the other man on the shoulder happily. “Big step!”

  “Aye, it be indeed, but it be a hard step.” He glanced at me. “Vilmas telled me yer her clan head’s apprentice?”

  “Shellica taught me the majority of what I know about enchanting,” I nodded as I spoke.

  “I were gonna ask if ye would introduce us?” I frowned at him, and he fumbled to explain. “See, someone with whom the clan head is familiar with needs to introduce me to her. It’s the proper way to be about it.”

  “I’d be honored, my friend.” I pulled the smaller man into a bear hug, and he patted my shoulder. “Does Vilmas know?”

  “She knows me intentions be pure, but she does nae know ‘bout this.” Rowland eyed our surroundings. “I’d appreciate yer silence on this, lads. Aye?”

  “Yup!” Muu slapped him on the shoulder. “Who let the walking gravel pit and his hideous handmaiden in here?”

  Rowland and Thogan howled with laughter, and both turned on the dragon-kin fighter with jabs and japes of their own making for him.

  “Teleporting all of you is well within my means, but I need to be sure that she’s back to the city under the mountain before I promise anything to you.” I pulled my raven from my pocket and sent my questi
on directly to Shellica. “Hey, shitty grandma, you in Djurn Forge?”

  The spectral raven lifted from my hand and flew away, the flying spectral image fluttering past Rowland’s gawking face. It returned much faster than I had thought it would, and her response was almost distressing.

  “No, I ride with a contingent of Dawn elves to the place where they are drawn.” She paused for a moment. “We are in a forest, and I think I can hear bears in the area.”

  My eyes widened. “Did we warn the bears that the dawn elves would be coming here?”

  “Willem got a hold of Sam, but I don’t know if he acted on it immediately or not.” James scratched his chest and stood. “Do we need to go run interference?”

  “It’s possible; there are dawn elves on their way here from the high elves, and Shelly is with them.” My stride lengthened with the beginning of my explanation of the situation and ended with the last word as I broke through the door to the dazzling sunlight.

  It had only been a day since the birth of this new race, how had they gotten here so fast?

  The others joined me in the daylight, Balmur muttering, “What do we need to do?”

  “Find them and guide them here,” I ordered the others. “Mae, Vrawn, if the two of you would prepare the townsfolk and guards for this, it would be a great help. James, Balmur, and Bokaj, you guys help me search the woods. Keep constant comms with each other and note directions; if you see anything, you say something.”

  Jaken stepped forward and put a hand to his armored chest. “I’ll go get Willem and Sam to help the transition. Where will you be?”

  “Good man.” I raised the raven toward my face. “Shellica, we’re coming to find you. Watch for me or one of the boys. Balmur, James, and Bokaj will be out looking for all of you. Watch the skies for a dragon.”

  The raven fluttered away, and I looked at my friends. “Time to introduce you all to my dragon form.”

  I focused on the dragons that I had claimed and chose green, then moved away from the others just before I shifted in a glimmer of golden light and energy.

  I knew I was larger now, easily rivaling Ampharia in size, but my scaled body was completely black, with the golden dots of light like the same that decorated my fur. But when I glanced down, the light hit my scales, and an emerald tint caught my gaze. So my animal form would be different, but the green still showed, with the exception of my green and purple metal arm. Good. And not so good. People would know that this was me and not a real dragon.

  Damn.

  NOTIFICATION!

  Dragons are beings of extreme intelligence and vocal renown, capable of speaking multiple tongues, meaning so can you!

  “This is excellent,” I observed out loud, my voice much deeper than normal.

  “You are beautiful,” Maebe spoke in an awed tone. The others seemed gob smacked.

  “Don’t stand there—move!” I ordered, growling subconsciously.

  “I love it when he takes command like that,” Vrawn muttered to Maebe as they rushed away.

  “Oh, he has his moments,” the Fae Queen purred back.

  The raven flew onto my shoulder, and I heard Shellica’s surprised reply, “A dragon?!”

  I chuckled and leapt into the air as the other members of the party took off to their roles.

  It felt so odd to maintain flight with separate appendages like my large wings, but to the dragon, it was natural.

  Druid, a light voice that reminded me of Ampharia’s, the dragon’s instincts that were at my command as a primal warrior, reached out to my mind in a sort of metaphysical nod. You fly well enough for one so unused to our majesty.

  “Thank you?” I raised a ridged eyebrow and scanned the ground below me. Nothing to see as of yet.

  I flew for a few moments when I heard Bokaj reach out with his earring. T’ and I found them. I’m gonna shoot an arrow into the sky.

  I noted the trajectory of an arrow arcing into the sky off to my left and pushed my wings harder. My dragon form was definitely large and strong, but fast it was not.

  Speak for yourself druid, the dragon’s instincts seethed inside my mind. You are still unskilled, and I will not allow you to besmirch my kin so. Just as you soar with lesser wings, fumbling and falling from the sky as a newborn, so too do you fly on newborn wings, now. I will guide you, and you will learn to be as I demand. Is this clear?

  I snorted and rolled my eyes in time for my right wing to snap inward, sending me careening toward the ground in a barrel roll.

  You will learn one way or another, the hissing instinct insisted.

  I hit the ground and several trees, unable to change form until I came to a complete stop, the instinct laughing with contempt in her voice.

  A quarter of my health was gone when I came to my senses in fox-man form with a groan.

  “Hell of a way to greet some weary travelers, lad.” A mildly cultured observation from Shellica made my blood stop pulsing through my body for a moment.

  I opened my eyes and lifted my head to see her squatting down to look at me. Several of her teeth had been replaced and her grin was full at last. Her wrinkled visage was a sight for sore eyes, but she had this way of getting to me in a manner that no one else seemed to.

  Loose strands of her gray hair fluttered in front of her bright green eyes as she offered me a hand up.

  “Good to see you again, shitty granny.”

  “I have missed you too.” She let me fall and cackled as I landed back on the ground with a grunt of frustration.

  I got up and dusted myself off, glancing behind her to find thirty scared-looking people, some of whom recognized me, the others did not.

  “They all came from the high elves?” Bokaj asked as Tmont padded through them, greatly improving morale as she received pats and scratches from the people there.

  “Not all of us,” one of the elves spoke, his gravelly voice familiar, but when I looked at him, he just smiled. “We did not know each other long, but I do wear a new face. It is I, Zell, Questis’ elder brother.”

  I blinked at the shaggy-haired man. Like the others, his hair and body had changed to golden, sun-kissed skin and lighter hair ranging from purple and orange to gray and white on some heads. But he looked younger now and was almost unrecognizable save for the silver of his gaze.

  “It’s good to see you, Zell!” I rushed over to give him a hug that he was not prepared for.

  “Quite.” He attempted a smile but failed miserably somewhere around a lesser frown that showed his perfect teeth. “Some of them came from where we had teleported to, a small village to the south of here that I had grown fond of in my travels as a boy.”

  “You traveled?” Bokaj asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “I did much as a child.” Zell sniffed and went back to being quiet.

  “Well, at any rate, let’s get you all back to the village, yeah?” I nodded to the others and motioned behind me. There were children among the group, those I offered to carry on my back and shoulders if needed as a saber tooth tiger. I padded ahead of the group with my other friends swiftly making their way to us.

  We cleared the forest fifteen minutes later to see Jaken standing with the gates and guards, the doors to the village open to all.

  “Welcome to your new home, everybody!” The paladin called to us as Sam and Willem jogged forward out of the crowd.

  Both human men helped to welcome the villagers to their new abodes, which really had only been tents, but food and water came and went to ensure that everyone was taken care of properly.

  “How come you’re here and Questis isn’t?” I cornered Shellica as she ate her fill of food that Willem’s chef had thrown together rapidly and brought to the tent.

  “Questis had things to run back with his people and wished to have someone care for his brother,” Shellica explained patiently. “Someone he trusts.”

  “Ah, so he asked his girlfriend to take care of his brother then?” She blustered and flushed, throwing a fist my way with a sco
wling snarl. “I knew it!”

  She looked around furiously. “Tell no one Zekiel Erebos, or I swear upon the Mountain I’ll hang your tails from my neck, I will.”

  “You’re already a pain in my ass, Shellica; I don’t need you trying to crawl into me too.” My grin only widened as she rolled her eyes. “An elf and a dwarf—quite the scandal. Don’t worry, I love it.”

  She eyed me funnily, her frown lessening as she glared. “Why?”

  “Shellica, you likely know me better than anyone, but I would like to level with you.” I sat next to her, my gaze off into the distance, watching as the people of Sunrise introduced themselves to the new residents. Children ran, playing with each other while screaming and laughing. Adults spoke in friendly tones. So many people mixing with each other.

  “We’re not from here, my friends and I.”

  She nodded sagely, likely knowing since her god Fainne had known we were coming, what we were. “And while here, I found something so precious that I couldn’t pass it up. Sorry, several somethings.”

  “Aye, the bird, and your friends.” She smiled and patted my leg affectionately with her small hand.

  I watched as Maebe stepped into a ring of children and raised her arms, making snow blast out at them so they would run and giggle from her.

  “And her.” I reached out and took Shellica’s hand with my left. “And you. I’m not goin’ soft on you, but I look at you like a… mother. And with that being said, there are some people I would like to introduce you to.”

  “Well, I already know the Fae Queen Maebe, lad.” That made Maebe pause and turn toward us, so I waved her over. She frowned but left the children with a slight bow and another blast of snow.

  “Shellica Lighthand.” I reached out to Maebe, and she took my right hand without thought. “I would like to formally introduce Queen Maebe, the Empress of all things Dark and Cold, leader of the Unseelie Fae and my lady wife.”

  Maebe reached out with her free hand to touch Shellica’s shoulder, just to the left of her still-dropped jaw. “Hello, lady Shellica, my husband has told me much of you and your ministrations to his education.”

  She stammered for a second before finally managing a meager, “Hello, dearie.”