Chapter 7-on the road

The real Adventure begins here.

THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS A REFRENCE TO SEPTEMBER 11

 

CHAPTER 7

ON THE ROAD

The wagon trundled along the small track cut into the forest now and then it would enter a small clearing where the track would widen and you would have a choice to either turn or continue down the same road. Driving the wagon which was pulled by 2 horses was a thin man and next to him was a woman.

“Bandits ahead” Surine whispered back to us from the driver’s seat “draw your weapons but stay silent and don’t move when we stop only attack if they don’t let us pass” Surine and the female elf Irana sat in front taking turns to drive while the rest of us sat in the back with Kyilpx. I drew my sword along with Ryan and Daniel. Kyilpx drew 2 blades a little longer than daggers from his back as planned Kyilpx stood next to the canvas that was covering the back of the wagon Daniel stood next to him sword drawn I stood behind Daniel and Ryan behind Kyilpx Emily and Amy where already in position they where each on one knee with their bows and an arrow knocked most bandits will send only a maximum of 2 men to check a wagon at first or they will have 2 open while the leader checks. Take out the leader and they will run. If it is just 2 checking the back the shock the others get of two of their men falling the moment they open the back will give those in front a moment to deal with a few in front and with the speed of the elves we could take out a small band of bandits without any of us guys in the back having to do anything (both Amy and Emily had complained about this at great length but agreed that Me and Ryan would be of more use fighting and Daniel was too dangerous with a bow, while we were in the elvan city practicing,  his arrows had rendered two elves with a limp instead of hitting his target a few hundred meters to the left). The wagon trundled along for another minute then suddenly stopped after a few moments we heard a voice.

“I do sincerely apologise traveller” the voice was thick with sarcasm and there was allot of laughter. It wasn’t a small group “but we are going to make the load you drag behind you a little lighter my men will use deadly force if you resist”

“We are merchants not travellers unfortunately you are a little late however others have already taken my and my wife’s gold.” Surine said. After a moment we heard footsteps approaching the back.

“If you don’t mind my men will check anyway” the voice of the bandits said.

“Go ahead” I heard Surine reply. I looked back at Amy behind me she had a determined expression on her face which in a strange way made her even more beautiful. I looked to the front again and then canvas was pulled back. The two men who had been sent to check stood there stunned at the 4 men armed and ready to attack and then we stepped aside and Amy and Emily Released the bows they had drawn back. The two men’s eyes widened a moment before the arrows hit causing them both to die eyes wide after a couple of seconds we heard thumps as other bodies hit the ground out the front Emily and Amy were standing now drawing their swords suddenly Ryan was leaping forward at a few men who had come around the back.

“Lkemkri” I felt Amy brush past me now invisible.

“Lkyexnkri” Emily jumped out past me and punched a man sending him flying. The girls activating there pendants reminded me I had not activated mine yet either

“Hinrkixn” I said and swung my sword out to my right. If I hadn’t been holding a sword I would have ‘coat hangered’ another man coming around to the back of the wagon but instead my sword bit deeply into his neck and he died before he saw his enemy. I saw Ryan fighting with a fury apart from me and the elves Ryan was the best sword fighter even still all he could do was block and parry when fighting two attackers like he was currently. Daniel was fighting only one of the bandits but another was sneaking up behind him.

“Daniel move!” I yelled. He ducked and spun left as the bandit that had snuck up behind him swung his sword which passed just inches above Daniels head. I bounded forward and with a quick thrust with my sword dropped the bandit. I noticed Irana fighting the speed and skill she used was incredible she was obviously one of the few truly talented elves when it came to fighting she was spinning leaping and ducking with amazing grace she seemed to float and each attack seemed to flow from one to the next and each movement looked as if it took down another opponent. Then I realised the weapon she was using was an arrow from her quiver the tip was the only part of the arrow that ever touched her enemy. I watched for a moment longer not even glancing to my right when I flicked my wrist to deflect a blow from a bandit that had to decided to take advantage of my apparently distracted state. Before I shifted my gaze to Surine. I watched Irana stab a bandit then withdraw it and by doing so knocking it in her bow before firing. I followed is flight and saw it take out a bandit heading for Surine. Surine was keeping at bay 3 bandits and even as I watched he took each down with 2 strokes of his blade. I swung my sword in a couple of circles above my head using both my hands as if my blade were helicopter rotors then I brought my sword down swinging it in front of me then I stabbed to my left then right killing two more bandits and suddenly they were retreating. Kyilpx Ran off chasing them into the trees that were on both sides of the road we were travelling down. I watched until he disappeared from view then sat down on the back of the wagon legs over the edge content to wait there with the others until he returned but as Amy sat next to me and the other 3 climbed into the back, the wagon started off.

“Whoa!” Amy said. Griping the edge of the wagon to steady herself. I slid off and Ran to the front Irana saw me and reached a hand down which I grabbed and then before I could jump she simply lifted me of the ground and placed me on the seat next to her

“Hello Matt” she said smiling at me.

“Come to join us have you?” Surine asked “you can be our son while you’re up here” I laughed thinking what an odd Family we would look like Irana must have been thinking the same because a thin but warm smile touched her lips.

“No I was just saying that Kyilpx isn’t here” Surine nodded.

“He went off to chase the bandits they were a large group so they are too dangerous he will scatter or kill most of them. He prefers to kill rather than scatter because if you scatter them they can still cause trouble in that way he is not like most elves we prefer to scatter them we don’t like killing” I nodded understanding. The first few times I had killed I had vomited afterwards it had been the same for the others. Although we were not vomiting anymore we always felt queasy unless it was more gruesome than usual. Just 3 days ago, for example, we had been attacked by a different group of bandits the end result had been particularly gory as Irana had used magic to kill one of the bandits who was using ‘lesser magic’. The bandit had been suddenly lifted in the air and thrown against a tree hard and then the ground had ripped itself up and slammed into him as if it was a hard piece of concrete... it might as well have been, the result was the same. Although me and my friends didn’t understand the difference we knew that our pendants magic was a more powerful form of magic than that of lesser magic and we knew that Irana had used a magic that was different to both our pendants magic and lesser magic I had made a mental note to ask her but had kept on forgetting. I took the chance now.

“Irana what magic do you use?” she smiled at the question looking ahead while she answered.

“Elvan magic” she paused turned her head to look at me then like she was seeing if I made a reaction. Then she turned her head back looking forward and continued “Elvan is magic is allot like greater magic. The same magic of your pendants, all elves have it but some are able to do more than others. The differences between greater magic and elvan magic are few but the two main ones are that with greater magic you can only specialise in one type of magic but the elves with elvan magic can specialize in as many different types of magic as we want as there are no symbols required like there is in greater magic.”

“Is that a particularly good advantage, I mean, can you combine two different magic’s together to achieve something that would otherwise be impossible?” I said.

“yes and no” Irana answered “it is very useful and we do sometimes combine one type of magic with another type but we can only combine our own magic with our own magic of a different type to a very limited amount we can fully combine our magic with someone else’s however which is both an advantage and it’s also one of the disadvantages. Another disadvantage is the other main difference between elvan magic and greater magic... we can do some things that greater magic can do but not all the things that greater magic can do”

“Doesn’t that make it lesser magic?”

“No. lesser magicians cannot do any greater magic. Besides we can also do something’s with elvan magic that greater magicians can’t do” I looked at Irana and noticed something. I wasn’t sure what it was but something was different. She was looking ahead her eyes darting about looking for any signs of trouble. So I could only see the side of her head but from what I could see she looked normal her face was long and angular her jaw was soft but strong her hair fell back behind her shoulders and was tucked behind her rounded ears her skin was pale but healthy... I did a double take backtracking a bit. Rounded ears?

“Irana, I’ve just noticed your ears” I saw a huge grin spread across her face.

“What about them dear?”

“Their rounded like human ears”

“Yes” she turned to me and lowered her voice to a whisper “I’ll admit I’ve been playing a little game with the five of you every now and then making my ears rounded waiting to see when and if you notice... Don’t tell the others” she said turning back to look at the road ahead her ears I noticed were again perfectly pointed.

“Don’t worry I won’t say” I told her. I was about to get down and join the others in the back when another thought occurred to me “are there other cities in the forest?”

“Many” Surine answered “some have made huge clearings so big that after building the city buildings and wall they have a normal sized city in the middle of a forest. Other cities are made in the same general way we elves made our cities” I nodded then got down and joined the others in the back. I crawled up to the back wall and then sat with back to the wood. I grabbed Amy By the shoulders and pulled her back towards me then when she was leaning against me I wrapped an arm around her waist and we turned our eyes to Emily and Ryan who were playing a game Irana had taught us. The game was called Lilsk, it involved two people who would give a piece of information it would either be true or false the catch was that you would be told what the subject was from some cards you held in your hand. The subjects included geographical, music, magic, animals, food, objects, war, and one that was titled self where you had to say something about yourself. If the other person thought what you said was false they would say ‘False’ and if they were right they would get to look through and choose any card from a pack except one. The card they were not allowed to pick was called a woodgy card and could only be held for 10 turns. if a truth had been spoken by the other player and the person that held the woodgy card said ‘False’ they would usually loose five points but they can then play the woodgy card causing the other person to lose ten however you could only use the woodgy card if you had told a truth on you last turn. If the other player also had a woodgy card they would then be able to play their woodgy card. Depending on the rules you were using the person who played the original woodgy would either lose the game or loose twenty points from an original hundred. You held five cards in your hands at all times each with a  subject on them or the word woodgy if you ended up with five woodgy cards you would lose the game unless you had to put one back in the pack because ten turns were over however their wasn’t as many woodgy cards in the deck as there was subject cards. Each card would be shown to the other player then placed on the bottom of the deck. You would then, without looking, pick a card from anywhere in the deck except the bottom restoring the amount of cards you held to five. Every time something was said you had to say if it was true of false and if something false and it was pronounced false the player that said it was false would lose one point. Each player started with one hundred points the winner was the one that didn’t lose all their points. Emily had just said that a kangaroo’s top speed was 40 mph which was false as the actual top speed was 44mph. I felt Amy wriggle slightly and I tilted my head down to see her tilt her head up from where it rested on my chest. We looked at each other for a moment before she reached up with her neck and I leaned over a little more we kissed quickly once then again  but for longer both our lips parting slightly we stopped after a few seconds due to a sudden bang on the roof of the wagon and a few seconds later Kyilpx swung into the back from the roof.

That night we camped in the forest with a very small fire Irana had not let us build an area for a fire where there was any green grass and had found us a patch of dry dead grass for us to build a fire. Surine had shot a Dear earlier proving he had skill with a bow as well as a sword. According to Surine the Dear was injured to such an extent it would have died slowly and painfully and he had asked if the dear minded being eaten once dead apparently the Dear had replied that its body was useless to him once dead and it was a stupid question but  he would rather elves and friends of the elves eat him than birds or worms so Kyilpx cooked the Dear over the fire. It was an interesting thing to come from a place that has no elves except in children’s stories to a world were elves are a reality and although they are not the same they have some startling similarities. As we ate we spoke of our world. Irana was fascinated by everything and wanted us to go into every tiny piece of detail. Surine was interested but didn’t mind if we went into great detail or not. Kyilpx listened but he seemed to only listen because there was nothing else to do. We told them each about our lives and the general life of a person in our world at one point Irana made a remark that there must be no war as we hadn’t said anything about that at which point we told her immediately about the war that was currently happening. She was very interested about guns mainly I think because when we said it would be the weapon she would use in our world she took that to mean it was the closest weapon to the bow rather than it’s the only really effective weapon in our world apart from a knife. However I noticed that all 3 elves listened to us as we explained about the weapons of our world even Kyilpx stopped us once to explain the firing mechanism more though when asked what started the war and the conversation turned to planes he again seemed to lose interest.