40 Spiders in the Forest

Inhaling deeply, Sinaan blinked his eyes. It struck him as odd that transference through the mirror smelled like ozone and tasted like water. Slipping his daggers back into the enchanted pockets of his cloak, he leaned down and picked up the mirror off of the ground.

What was it doing out here? He wondered as he turned the mirror over in his hands. The last he saw it, it was on a desk in the Faline brother's tent. Suddenly feeling exposed he pulled one of his knives out again as he turned in a full circle while scanning the area. His eyes widened when he found a body lying on the ground.

Two quick steps and he was kneeling beside the svartalf. It was Gunngrul, face down on the ground dead. Turning him over Sinaan's sharp eyes took in everything. Every bloody stab wound before glancing up at Gunngrul's lifeless eyes. Quickly he scanned the area for whoever killed Gunngrul. That was when he found enough tracks and signs that he could tell that a host of at least five hundred men or more had come to a stop, and then, for some reason, turned around and left. No doubt it was because Gunngrul was dead.

By the time he retraced his steps back to Gunngrul's corpse Forelain, Sulabha, Ra'Shaal, Fjallindae, and Forelain's honor guard of personal maids were standing around Gunngrul's body.

"Well, there will be no more rebellions from him," Sinaan said as he stepped out from behind a tree.

Forelain was kneeling over Gunngrul combing a lock of his silvery-white hair away from his face while Sulabha watched with an expression of pure hate. Forelain though, seemed remorseful. Approaching Forelain, he put a hand on her shoulder before cutting his gaze from Sulabha to Beinbalkr and announcing, "Be on guard. Gunngrul was not alone. There were nearly five hundred men out here in these woods. They must have been doing something out here, Gunngrul is dead, and we don't know the reason, yet."

"Are you sure?" Forelain signed as she stood up alongside Sinaan.

"The tracks lead here and end," Sinaan answered.

"Then Gunngrul's death was the end of the march," Sulabha proposed, "Either that was the point, or…"

"Gunngrul was out here with nearly all of House Faline's soldiers sent on this expedition, and the reason for it is still up ahead," Beinbalkr finished as she hefted an oversized maul named the Tenderizer..

"My thoughts exactly," Sinaan agreed with a nod before walking off in the direction he figured Gunngrul and the men who were either with him or chasing him were heading.

As best as he could figure, the battalion stopped a hundred yards behind where Gunngrul died. It was another twenty-five yards beyond Gunngrul that Sinaan found Hayden Faline and his private guard.

"There was a vicious battle here," Istas mumbled as she sniffed the air, "The smell of blood is everywhere, but more than that, the scent of sex is so pungent it almost overwhelms everything else. Whatever was happening here, it went on for hours."

"Look," Svartsilki said as she pointed towards three sets of four stakes driven into the ground, "Three people were restrained here. The smells are female, and they smell like Sinaan."

"Kin," Gloa mumbled, "Relatives. Most likely your sisters."

"No doubt Hayden and his men were having their way with them before killing them. However, someone must have noticed your sister's absence, came looking, and rescued them. Otherwise, it would be your sister's bodies here on the ground and not Hayden and his men," Deild growled as she subconsciously rubbed her belly, a legacy of the Faline brothers.

"There's a woman over here," Gloa said loudly as she gently picked up the body and carried it over to Forelain and Sinaan. As Gloa put the dead girl down she mumbled, "She feels lighter than usual for a corpse."

They still live! Sinaan thought as he let out a sigh of relief he didn't realize he was holding.

Kneeling over the dead girl and placing a hand on her breast beside the gaping wound in her chest, he traced the jagged edges before moving to examine a Shard of Sin in the girl's forehead before moving to the one on her pubic bone. As he did so, he traced his fingers down her body, she had been quite the beauty when she was alive.

"Sulabha," He said as he returned to the dead girls head and moved her rare, sunburst-golden hair out of her face, "This is one of the assassins. Is there anything you can do for her now?"

Kneeling beside him, Sulabha examined the corpse through a new vale that covered her missing eyes and sewn together eyelids. How she perceived the world was through her magic, and what she saw, well, even he didn't understand it. She tried to explain it as being able to see the water that fills a container, like a water bag or a carafe. Everyone saw the container, however she saw the magic and how it gives people shape. It seemed a lot like infrared vision, but it was still very different.

What Sulabha saw when she placed her hands on the priestess's body, Sinaan couldn't possibly guess, but as she did so she answered, "The shattered Shard of Sin in her chest brought back Ophimaev Druganor's heart and lungs just in time for her heart to be run through. Even if I put her back in her body now, she will die."

"What can we do then?" Sinaan asked as Ra'Shaal and Fjallindae knelt beside Ophimaev's corpse opposite him and Sulabha.

Fjallindae began chanting a spell and her hands began to glow. Placing one hand on Ophimaev's head and the other on her lower belly, she Delved the corpse. When she was done she mumbled, "Ra'Shaal you have to feel this. I never felt anything like it. It's as if the body's abdominal cavity and skull are hollow!"

Leaning down, Ra'Shaal started chanting next, Fjallindae regarded Sinaan and Sulabha as she offered, "Other than guts and brain missing, Ophimaev's body is in perfect health except for the wound in the chest, whatever did that punched right through her heart, killing her instantly."

"Can you heal the damage?" Sulabha asked.

"I can," Fjallindae answered with a nod.

"Good!" Sulabha said then grinned as she continued, "Then once the body is healed we will try another experiment."

Forelain glared at her daughter, though Sulabha didn't see it until Forelain tugged at her shoulder for her attention before signing, "As long as this poor girl is put back inside her body."

Sulabha sighed as she stood up and turned to give Forelain a flat expression as she retorted, "That is the idea."

Ra'Shaal finished her Delving before she sat back on her haunches and shook her head and mumbled, "You're right, that is a strange feeling. It's like probing a void. Magic goes in, and then it just disappears."

Fjallindae gave her sister a lopsided grin and a nod before leaning in again and chanting, almost singing, a Hymn of Healing. Her hands started glowing again, and as everyone watched, the one inch gash in Ophimaev's chest closed up. When Fjallindae's song came to an end sweat beaded her smooth ebony brow and her breathing was labored, as if she had been running for miles.

"It is done," She announced before straightening up and sitting back on her haunches.

Sinaan stood up and backed out of the way and Forelain moved to stand with him and wrapped her arm through his as they waited as Sulahba repositioned herself and summoned her magic. Dark scarlet smoke encircled her and rose up all around like an ominous cloud, then she leaned in and held her hands over the two remaining Shards of Sin embedded in the Soulless's forehead and pubic bone. As her magic swirled around her the Shards lifted out of the body, and once they were out, she brought her hands together. In a small flash of light the two Shards snapped together.

"Roll it over," Sulabha commanded in a thundering voice amplified by the power coursing through her.

Fjallindae and Ra'Shaal nodded, then grabbed shoulders and hips and rolled Ophimaev's body toward them to lay halfway across their laps, exposing the back. Leaving the two Shards now fused together hovering over her left palm, Sulabha reached out with her right hand to hover over a Shard still buried in the middle of Ophimaev's spine. Slowly, it withdrew from the body leaving no scar to show where it had once been, and Sulabha brought her hands together so that the third Shard snapped to the other Shards like magnets drawing each other. They fitted together perfectly so that the shattered seams of the Soul Pearl quickly healed and disappeared.

"These are only the visible anchors left behind tethering a soul to its body," Sulabha explained as she worked. Once the three Shards of Sin were fused together, she placed her free hand close to her belly and heaved as if she were going to vomit. It was quick and only once, but when she pulled her hand away there was a glimmering Soulstone in her hand. Bringing it together with the incomplete Soul Pearl, they started spinning around each other above Sulabha's hands, drawing closer and closer together until in a bright flash of light, they fused together!

"Now, all that remains is removing the assassin's Soulstone from this soulless body," Sulabha said as she placed her free hand on Ophimaev's forehead.

Sulabha's magic swirled around and climbed up her body to her shoulder before rolling down her arm to her hand hovering over the Soulless. Dark crimson magic rolled out from Sulabha's hand like a cloud of smoke and entered the soulless body through the eyes, nostrils, ears, and mouth. So much power entered the corpse it seemed that it should have burst when suddenly the crimson smoke stopped.

"Ah ha! I found you!" Sulabha whispered as the hand hovering over Ophimaev's head tightened into a fist and the cloud of dark crimson power reversed. Rolling out of the soulless body and back into Sulabha, its momentum increased, faster and faster, until at last a darkly glowing orb popped out of Ophimaev's mouth and smacked into Sulabha's hand. Without a second thought, Sulabha tossed it into her mouth and swallowed it.

Fjallindae gagged while Ra'Shaal paled and looked away.

Sulabha smirked, but then focused on her work as she moved Ophimaev Druganor's Soulstone to hover above her souless body. Seconds stretched out into minutes before the Soulstone split into two small pearls. One Sulahba directed to Ophimaev's navel while the other she pressed into the dead girl's forehead. The Soul Pearl gleamed and glinted before sinking into Ophimaev's head, then she repeated the process with the Soul Pearl resting in Ophimaev's navel.

Ophimaev lurched wildly! Gasping for breath she clutched her chest before collapsing back to the ground, her eyes open but lifeless. She was dead.

"Quickly Ra'Shaal," Sulabha said as she sat back on her haunches, "Cast Resurrection before it's too late."

Ra'Shaal moved quickly to do as she was told in a low mumbled prayer. A glowing aura of golden light enveloped her, and then it moved and enveloped Ophimaev. Ra'Shaal's prayer became more powerful as the certainty of her faith, in her ability and her goddess, grew more fervent until the golden aura flashed in a brilliant explosion of light blinding everyone.

Deafening silence hung over the area like a blanket as the explosion of divine light dissipated. It left the early morning light beneath the forest canopy muted and dull. Everyone was holding their breath, and watched Ophimaev. She still lay there completely motionless. Dead. Her whole body arched up into the air, so suddenly that everyone jumped. Only her head and feet were left on the ground as she threw her arms out wide, and then she inhaled and screamed so wretchedly it was as if her soul was being ripped from her body!

Ophimaev screamed until she was out of air then collapsed with a thud. Fjallindae moved first, leaning in to check Ophimaev's vitals as the stunned priestess gasped and sobbed about horrifying nightmares where her soul was stolen and her body had been used to do unimaginable things. Everyone made reassuring noises, but no one confirmed that her nightmare was anything more than that. With a shared look from Forelain everyone nodded and accepted the fact that it would be better for Ophimaev if she was able to forget what had happened as if it really had been a dream.

Fjallindae and Ra'Shaal picked Ophimaev up and helped her stand on unsteady feet while Sulabha moved around the area, stooping down and glaring at every dead male svartalf that had accompanied Hayden. Finally she stopped and gathered her power around her like a swirling crimson-black cloak before sending it out like tendrils to touch every dead soldier she chose before calling out, "Awaken my Shadow Warriors. Rise up. Come to your mistress and serve as my sword and shield!"

Her crimson power seemed to quiver around the bodies, then writhe, and then shadowy arms stabbed up into the air before bending at elbows to place hands on the ground. Ophimaev screamed in terror as nineteen naked, reverse colored, Shadow Soldiers pulled themselves up and out of their own bodies as if they were climbing out of a deep hole. Sulabha's crimson shadow magic rolled down their bodies like black oil leaving them nude and as if they had just come from swimming in a lake. When Ophimaev collapsed Fjallindae and Ra'Shaal caught her and kept her from falling on her face.

"Gather your things," Sulabha commanded her warriors.

"Someone should search Hayden and Gunngrul's bodies for House Faline property," Sinaan suggested, "And then we should leave and try to catch up with my sisters and the army."

"Yes," Forelain sighed in agreement, "I will search Hayden."

"Don't worry, I will have Shadow Warriors search them and then catch up to us," Sulabha offered, then looked at Ophimaev and continued, "I will also have a Shadow carry Ophimaev until she recovers."

Sinaan smirked, Forelain nodded, and Ra'Shaal and Fjallindae gratefully handed Ophimaev over to a Shadow Warrior.

"Good! Let us make haste!" Forelain signed regally, in full command and confidence in her authority.

Beinbalkr selected Svartsilki and Gloa as foward scouts while Istas was to watch the back trail. Sinaan took Aldrnari and scouted out ahead while Svartsilki and Gloa climbed into the trees. Moving more like spiders now instead of humanoids, they leapt from tree to tree quickly, easily, and silently. Like shadows they passed through the forest in search of their brethren.

Aldrnari, though, intrigued Sinaan. She shadowed him like a ghost. Her dark graphite black skin smooth, her expression neutral, while her hazel red, gold, and green eyes were unflinching. She was very beautiful, especially with such unique glossy onyx hair, and yet, her stride was long, and light, and purposeful. She was all business, and death would be dealt out quick and pitilessly from those custom quilting pins tucked into her sash at her waist should anyone confront her or her mistress.

Sinaan smiled, he and Aldrnari would get along splendidly!

——(!)——

The camp was in complete disarray when Aalyn walked in, preceded by her personal guard and followed by her two sisters, Thurdain and Illglan with Aloufina in their wake. Soldiers running this way and that while priestesses stumbled around as if in a daze. The cooks, armorers, blacksmiths, fletchers, and all the other usual laborers and traders, that followed an army and made sure food was prepared and gear and tack was repaired or replaced, were standing around near their supplies. They seemed to be unsure whether they should pack up or not.

Aalyn and her sisters were still naked as they walked up to the nine remaining battalion leaders. They were standing there arguing over who was next in command as Aalyn approached. When they noticed her they snapped to attention.

"Report Rastof!" She snapped in a commanding tone, purposefully ignoring their earlier argument.

Rastof was an elegant woman that carried herself with an air of dignity befitting her station as the heiress of House Annolstad and captain in the Idavollr militia. Her plump, red glossed, mouth was set in a grim expression. Her scarlet eyes were sharp and glistening and only mildly softened by the silvery white lashes that, despite her best effort at appearing harsh and experienced, softened her face giving her an innocent almost naive appearance. She was very far from being either.

"General Abendroth, it is well that you survived. We thought when we didn't find you or your guard…" Rastof left off what she was going to say at a glare from Aalyn from her one remaining eye.

Aalyn's pursed her plump mouth, and instead Rastof decided to report, "House Faline has betrayed us. Hayden and his brothers Gunngrul and Rweble are currently missing in action, however House Faline troops attacked in the early hours of the morning. They stole food and supplies, and killed nearly five hundred of their comrades on this expedition. Twenty-five of which were from House Annolstad, Seventy-three from House Malicide, Forty-one from House Rancorus, Eighty-six from House Ljosbani, Sixteen from House Dokkskirn, thirty-seven from House Svartvaenn, one-hundred and thirteen from House Abendroth, fifty-nine from House Jafnrok, and forty-four from House Aettadrhael. House Faline seems to have gone out of their way to kill as many House Abendroth soldiers as they could, everyone else including most of the those of House Abendroth were found in the tent of a priestess, asleep after having partaken of their services. Lastly, all of those priestesses are now missing as well as a few others that were alone in their tents."

"Very good," Aalyn said with a sharp nod to Rastof for her report before continuing, "You captains will retain command of your battalions. With the attempted coup from Hayden, Gunngrul, and Rweble Faline. The revolt of their troops, and the deaths of our brothers and sisters by their hands. We are nearly a thousand short of the five thousand soldiers we would have had for a our assault and pillaging the Valelands. Normally I would chase down these traitors and slaughter them until they are no more. However, it would inevitably result in the loss of more of our brothers and sisters, and we have another mission. So, Rastof, mobilize the camp. We leave as soon as everything is in order!"

"Yes General!" Rastof answered in a near shout.

"You heard the General! Get moving!" Rastof commanded as she spun on her fellow captains and started barking orders.

The camp quickly started bustling with activity and purpose as Aalyn turned toward her tent. Thurdain and Illglan followed her and the three of them quickly dressed, Aalyn in her stout clothes and armor while Thurdain and Illglan slipped on their priestess's habits. For once in their life they didn't appear happy to have their bodies on full display.

Two hours later Aalyn led her regiment south with Thurdain on her left and Illglan on her right while Rastof followed after them.

——(!)——

Sinaan and Aldrnari caught up to Svartsilki and Gloa in a small clearing. The two svendahl were clearly choosing their paths carefully as they walked. When Sinaan and Aldrnari arrived they turned and made their way over.

"The fog is thick, but there is still clear sign that a large military force camped here last night," Gloa called out as they closed the distance.

"At least five thousand," Svartsilki added with an agreeing nod.

"How can you see anything in this fog," Aldrnari asked as she shook her head in frustration.

Svartsilki and Gloa looked at Aldrnari as six small eyes usually closed and unseen on their foreheads blinked along with their primary eyes. It was Gloa who answered, "Our eyesight is very dim when we only use two eyes. We usually keep our other eyes closed since most other people don't like seeing them, but out here, away from Idavollr and the usual discomfort that surrounds us, we thought we might be able to use all of our senses."

"We beg your pardon, Lord Sinaan," Svartsilki apologized with a bow of her head as they both closed their additional eyes, making the foreheads appear smooth once more.

"There is nothing to apologize for," Sinaan replied with a wave of his hand dismissing the thought of possible annoyance, "I find your eyes, all of your eyes, very attractive, and useful. Do not worry yourself at all over your appearance. I accept you for who you are, and that means all of your eyes, legs, and body. Besides right now we need all of your senses and ability to track and catch up to our brethren."

"Thank you sir," Svartsilki answered with Gloa saying the same only seconds later, "Then if you don't mind my presumptuousness, I believe we found the camp. There are small scattered fire pits as well as very clear markings in the grass where tents were pitched."

"There is also sign of foot traffic as well as svartalf scent everywhere," Gloa added, "Further across the clearing there is also the heavier scent of fires and cooking."

"And the smell of sex is so thick we can almost taste it," Svartsilki said her tone tinged with wry bitterness.

"Really?" Sinaan replied, his eyes widening in surprise as he asked, "Are our scents and the smell of our… unions… usually so pungent to you and other Animals."

"Yes!" Gloa answered, while Svartsilki said, "No!"

They glanced at each other, then Svartsilki continued with a sigh, "Yes we can always smell your scent of sweat and pheromones. They are different but both are easily traceable, and yes we can smell when you have copulated. We can smell you and whoever you have lain with, and the same for females. Sometimes when a female is in estras we can even smell the scent of every man she has ever lain with. It is very overpowering, and so, most of us… Animals… that are particularly sensitive try to reduce our senses as much as we can when around Primes."

"I see," Sinaan mumbled as he scrutinized them, then waved his hand and said, "I am pretty certain that Aalyn continued leading the militia south, but to make sure go scout ahead and see."

Svartsilki and Gloa both nodded before scurrying away, as Gloa hissed in a low voice he wasn't supposed to hear, "Why did you have to say all that? Short and sweet! That is how you answer nobles, short and sweet! Look, now there is no telling how he is going to treat us now…"

Svartsilki's reply was lost to him as they moved out of earshot, but when he turned around Aldrnari's expression said that she agreed with them. Her hazel eyes met his for a minute and he could see her strength, pride, and determination in them before she remembered her station and cast her eyes down with an embarrassed whisper, "Apologies my lord."

Sinaan shook his head. He thought to reach out and lift her chin up so that her steady gaze met his, but her whole body was taut in anticipation of being struck. Instead he commanded, "Lift your head up and look at me."

It took a few seconds before she complied. Once she did so, the steel in her red, gold, and green gaze blazed before he said, "You are a strong woman, and you are loyal. Let me be the judge of what I consider belligerent behavior. Until then, I expect clear, honest, answers from you, and I hope… friendship."

"What do you mean by… friendship," Aldrnari asked, her voice tense with suspicion.

Sinaan gave her a level look before answering, "I am not the Faline brothers, what I said is what I meant."

Aldrnari's gaze didn't falter for several seconds. They stood their eyes locked until she finally nodded and said, "I hope that we may be friends too."

Svartsilki and Gloa returned within seconds of Forelain's arrival with Sulabha, Fjallindae, Ra'Shaal, and the rest of Forelain's guard. Preempting questions, Sinaan explained, "This was where Aalyn's regiment camp was. They have left. Most likely they are only a few hours ahead of us. With our group being smaller I believe we can overtake them before nightfall, but if not, then we will not be far behind when they stop to make camp."

When Sinaan finished and neither Forelain nor any of the other ladies asked any questions, Svartsilki spoke up, "Gloa and I found the tracks of the main army leading south, just as you said Sinaan. However, we also found traces of a much smaller force leading off to the south east."

Turning to Forelain, Sinaan went to one knee and placed his hand to heart and the other where a sword would have been if he had one. Sulabha, Fjallindae, and Ra'Shaal watched expressionlessly, but after a second of shock Aldrnari, then Svartsilki and Gloa, and then all the rest of Forelain's guard knelt with hand to heart before Sinaan asked, "Matron of House Faline, wife, where should we go? One path will catch us up to my sisters and the svartalf militia? The other path might lead us to House Faline's wayward soldiers?"

Forelain Faline smiled broadly as she walked over and placed her hand on Sinaan's shoulder before signing…

——(!)——

The sunset, a fiery red ball hard to see behind the foggy gloom shrouding the Dragon's Spine Mountains as large drums beat. Male and female bears sang in deep harmonic melodies and danced around a large burning pyre to mourn their dead. With the setting sun the gates would be closing soon and then only one guard would be left on duty while the rest joined the celebration. I knew what was happening outside. Coella and Shahad were out there singing and dancing, celebrating being alive, and mourning the loss of their dead.

"What are you thinking?" Huxian asked me from her bed.

After giving birth to six pups, Eferhilda gave Huxian a small round stone hut to stay in and recuperate. A bed of leather skins was quickly spread out, and this is where Huxian and I have been for the greater part of the afternoon and evening. On the bed with Huxian were five of our offspring, each with a string tied around a wrist or ankle to indicate the order of their births.

At the moment, Huxian had the two males on each of her breasts nursing, while I held my eldest daughter. Her name was Rena and she was beautiful. She was so small. Barely larger than my hands. She had my mothers soft, smooth, moonlight white skin. Her legs were a hybridization of humanoid and fox, completely bare of fur but starting at the ankle her foot was long and slim while the balls of her feet and toes were humanoid. She had a long fluffy tail that was pure white, and a single strip of fur that ran up her spine to the nap of her neck. Rena was also born with a full head of pure white hair that already reached her elbows. Her eyebrows and eyelashes were pure white, and then there were her ears. They were long and triangular. A perfect mix of alfari and fox, and covered in fine white fur.

Rena was not unique in the absence of fur on her body either. All six babies were bare skinned in their own way. Balgair, my first born son, had my chestnut skin with Huxian's sandy blonde hair and fur. Lisa, my second daughter, had my mother's moonlight white skin and her midnight black hair with matching fur on her tail. Devoss, my second son and fourth born, had pink skin like his mother, Huxian, and my golden wheat colored hair and fur. Sionnach, my third daughter, skin was a dark gray, almost blue, while her hair and fur was pure white. And Azeria, my fourth daughter and sixth child from Huxian, her skin was a dark chestnut. Even darker than my skin, and her hair and fur was a fiery golden red.

"I was just thinking that Coella and Shahad must be enjoying themselves," I answered.

Huxian looked up from Balgair and Devoss. Her brows were pinched but her mouth was smiling, a little uncertain as she replied, "Do you wish to join them?"

"No," I said with a shake of my head, "I am right where I want to be. In my previous life I died without so much as a girlfriend, much less children. This! What you have done. What we have done. It's amazing!"

"Yes it is," Huxian agreed with a nod, then chuckled as she added, "And maybe next year I will give you six more…" She left it as both a statement of possibility and a question.

"Really?" I asked, my face a study of consternation and interest, "You can get… You would want to get… with children again so soon after a litter this large?"

"Yes," Huxian answered simply as she laughed. Her glacial blue eyes twinkled in the lamp light. She glowed with maternity.

A knock on the door was preceded by three women entering the room. Each one was currently breastfeeding her own children or capable of lactating as need arose.

"I will take Rena," The first woman said as the other women picked up the babies from the bed. Once they had a babe on each breast, the one that took Rena added, "Lord Viridian, the Kunnigr-volva wishes to see you."

"Kunnigr-volva?" I replied questioningly.

"It means wise witch," Huxian explained, "It must be their Wise-woman, Medicine woman, or Wisdom. Different villages will have different names."

"Oh, Eferhilda," I said.

"Yes," The milk maid answered with a stern nod, "She is waiting for your arrival in the dining hall with our chieftain."

"I see," I said as I stood up, but before I left I walked over and put my hand on the strange dokkalfar woman's head.

She had been asleep since we rescued her. Placing my hand on her chest I could feel that she was still breathing. Standing up, I kissed Huxian, and then left.

The dining hall was in as much a state of gaiety as all of the rest of the village. Coella and Shahad were sitting at an exterior table, talking loudly and laughing. Well, Coella was at least, while Shahad's pheromones gave a similar impression of jubilation. They looked up in time to see me and wave as I walked past.

"Lord Viridian!" Chief Fyrsil shouted as I approached. He was all smiles as he waved for me to come sit in a seat beside him. On the other side of the chair I was to take a seat beside Orsa. On her other side sat Eferhilda, her mother and instructor in the ways of shamanism.

Making my way over, I sat down as everyone in the hall cheered. Fyrsil poured me a tankard of honey wine while Orsa fed me from a large plate of food as Chief Fyrsil shouted for everyone to hear, "Praise be to Gaia for lord Viridian's auspicious arrival!"

Eferhilda raised her tankard of mead shout in approval which was then echoed by all those in the dining hall.

Cheering continued until their chieftain waved his hands that he had more to say, "Kunnigr-volva Eferhilda, my beloved wife, received a vision from Gaia telling us to hide until her champion's arrival!"

More cheers thundered all the way out into the pavilion until Chief Fyrsil waved his people to a loudly buzzing semblance of quiet before he continued, "Who would have thought that our salvation would be at the hands of this… tiny… villralfar… prime? I certainly didn't! Nor did I anticipate that he would be a Druid of Annwyn, or the Champion of the goddesses Gaia and Seline! And yet, here he is! A Druid that is more like us than any prime that has come before him! An ally such as he, what can I give him as a reward for coming to our aid? What can I give him… that might bind him to us as an ally?"

The cheering became laughter, then shouting as Chief Fyrsil made his declaration. Before the end the cheers, shouting, and laughter harmonized into a thrum of foot stomping, drum beating, and voices chanting, "Orsa! Orsa! Orsa! Orsa!"

Orsa tore a large piece of cooked meat from a thigh bone with a determined expression, she held it high in the air as everyone cheered, and then she devoured it in a fury. Once she was done eating she offered some of the meat to me. Regrettably, I turned down the meat, to which she growled, "What? Is it not good enough for you, am I not good enough for you, my Lord Druid?"

Of course, this was our marriage ceremony!

"On the contrary," I tried to explain, "I am very honored that your father would count me worthy of receiving his most precious treasure, his daughter, as my wife. However, it is also my practice to not eat anything that can literally beg me not to kill it."

Orsa blinked in confusion as she looked from me to the meat in her hand and tossed it onto the plate in front of her before asking, "For the next seven days you will only eat from my hand. If you will not eat this, then what will you eat?"

"Vegetables, fruit, honey," I answered without any hint of sarcasm, "I will also eat products from Animals such as cheese, butter, and milk."

Orsa stared for a long moment like she saw a puzzle that didn't make sense to her, then blinked her eyes, the confusion was gone, and she grabbed a handful of roasted long beans. Dipping them in honey she offered one to me and I accepted gratefully. Announcements and news of Orsa's marriage to the savior Druid-lord from the Valelands went out from the great dining hall and all of Earthmother's Den cheered and sang. From the nearest bear all the way to those standing guard on the walls.

The celebration extended well into the night until Coella and Shahad finally retreated back to the hut given to Huxian. Moving quietly so as to not wake Huxian or the babies, they found their pallets beside the sleeping dokkalfar Oracle, and slipped under the covers to find some sleep before the swiftly approaching dawn arrived.

Outside, amid all the revelry, a small party of six arrived at the north gate.