Chapter 111: Elven Intro

Chapter 111: Elven Intro

"...All I'm saying, be very cautious." - Moon Unit repeats - "Keep weapons handy, spells on the fingertips and eyes all around. There were a lot of sore tempers over me leaving, and some of them are right bastards who won't think twice about harming any of you to get at me."

"So, to sum it up." - Lily-Anne pitches in - "You and Alyssa go first, assess the situation groundside, make preparations. In case you two deem it safe enough for us to descend, Bridgit and Alyssa will transport us down by magic. Airship remains up in the air at all points, lest someone overly enthusiastic climbs aboard, right?"

"Yes, that's about it." - Moon Unit agrees somewhat sullenly - "I wish I could offer you a better welcome to my homeland, but..."

She outlined the situation in Evergreens prior to that, as an explanation for why such caution is a necessity. And, apparently, it is because of the struggle that occurred around the three seats and four siblings. Apparently, the assumption was that Moon Unit and her siblings would fight it out for the privilege of taking the seat, so assorted clans had scrambled to offer support to whom they deemed most preferable, and everyone made plans for the all too likely situation of seat number exceeding sibling number in the aftermath. Which would mean one or two Counsel seats up for grabs. The situation had came to head when one of the more ruthless clans had attempted to kidnap Moon Unit to break the stalemate over the inheritance. She came out victorious, having killed two out of three would-be kidnappers, which inflamed the already tense situation to a fever pitch. Since the attempt failed, another clan attempted to persecute the would-be kidnappers "on Moon Unit's behalf". So Moon Unit's decision to bow out of the dispute and leave the Evergreens altogether had knocked the ground out from under both. And as elves are wont to do in confusing situations, both clans had responded with copious violence, dragging in others in their frenzy.

In the end, nine out of twenty four Counsel members were killed in the resulting skirmishes, four clans had ceased to exist in their entirety, eleven more became destitute and depopulated, including the original culprits, and eight rose to new prominence in the resulting power vacuum. As the previous head of conclave was among the perished, elder Tamaya assumed control and it is largely to her diplomatic efforts the situation simmered down to the current uneasy status quo. Some of the previously powerful clans had never accepted their fall from power and would be likely to lash out on one they perceive as "the root of it all". Namely, Moon Unit. Hence our initial sojourn. Moon Unit has to be there, because if I go down there alone, the likely outcome would be me gaining a couple hundred arrows in short order, followed by elves doing something needlessly rash in a panic. The variant with Moon Unit going alone is not in consideration. Period.

Furthermore, in order to avoid causing panic anyways, the airship is parked off a ways. Clearly visible, but well out of reach. Which means we're going to do a bit of a hike to get to the village proper. Thankfully, I have no stamina to worry about, and Moon Unit would actually enjoy the walk through the ancestral woods, dangers from her people or no. It's actually pretty nice, to be honest. Forest has this, well... smell, I guess? No, not just it. There is more than just olfactory stimulation to it, but... yeah, well. The forestiest forest that ever forested.

"Well, so far, so good." - I offer conversationally, as I trail after Moon Unit - "But I'm pretty sure we've been seen already, no?"

"Well, the airship certainly was." - she agrees - "Which means there are all sorts of people moving towards us. Or away from us, in some cases."

"Away?" - I puzzle - "I'm reasonably sure Dweezil warned everyone not to be too alarmed, no?"

"Sure, but treeborn are hardly the only ones to prowl the woods, you know." - she retorts - "There are all sorts of folks who are out there for one reason or another and had no prior warning at all. Some of them are even here for reasons they would rather not explain themselves about. Poachers, for example. Cagey lot, they know full well my brethren would offer them no mercy if caught."

"...Good gods." - Moon Unit offers after a few moments - "I... thought you meant you're going to be violent to their sorry lot, not that you would literally slurp out brains." She groans and splashes more water on her face, shaking it off then - "Why are you doing this, anyway? Do you need to actually eat brains every now and then or?"

"Um... No? But if I get to eat a fresh brain, I can get some of their recent memories and thoughts that were on their minds last." - I explain - "For obvious reasons, eating still living brains works best for that, though a few minutes of dead is fine too. Further on, matter degrades too much for me to discern anything."

She has a considerate expression on her face now. "Oh. Well... that's vastly different from what I was thinking. Just to verify, it's not something you need to do, just a, uh... extra way to get some extra intelligence out of freshly defeated?" - she asks cautiously.

"No needs or urges to do that, no. Don't worry." - I riposte - "The only eating I want to involve you in would be eating you out."

She chuckles and grimaces. "Sometimes, you just don't seem to read the mood, dear." - she tosses back wryly - "Very well, let's go... I suppose you want to, uh... investigate the rest of bodies?"

I shrug. "Burned ones are no good, and I already scavenged the other one. Nothing really worthwhile, they were doing it because their clan chief ordered them to." - I explain as I proffer my arm to Moon Unit - "Let's hope there won't be more delays of the sort. Because if we are waylaid again, I just might forego pretenses and just go with biting into skulls from the get-go."

I blame the overall cavalier mood for what happened next. This whole talk about eating heads and Moon Unit being, albeit reluctantly, accepting of it, well... Add to this a sudden rustle from the side and slightly ahead, someone fumbling their stealth from, as far as I could tell, a shock at hearing what was said. My time dilation was already on trigger tip so to speak, so it kicked in the very same moment I perceived someone else, doubly so given how uncomfortably close he was. Good stealth, to dodge my attention this well. Weak nerves, though, to flinch on just hearing something unsettling. In short, with the combo of me being on a hair-trigger and the guy failing the stealth check...

I headbit him. In classic xenomorph fashion. Complete with horribly abrupt sound effects. The hiss, the bite, the crunch and the horrified scream trailing off into gurgling.

"...Dear, I'm sorry. Sometimes, the universe just seems to conspire to bring out the monster in me." - I apologize after a moment.

Moon Unit's slightly hysterical giggle is not as reassuring as I would like.NewW novels updates at novelhall.com