The next couple of hours passed with relative quickness, I was shown to a bath where I could finally clean off all the blood and grime of the day, and even given a set of clothes, though admittedly a set of brown linen pants and a brown lenient tunic was not exactly what I expected, I’m not sure why, but I had been hoping for another set of jeans and a t-shirt.

This time did give me my first opportunity to really look at the rangers who had brought me in, Andrea was tall probably a solid six feet in height, a body made of whipcord, the muscle hugged her frame so she was still the kind of slim you expect elves to be, but apparently spending your days roaming a forest pays its dividends in the workout department. Chestnut brown skin and auburn hair tied back into a short ponytail, combined with a glare that could scour stone from the earth made her rather intimidating.

Julius by contrast was about my height, so about five foot six inches tall, with the same chestnut-colored skin as Andrea, honestly I just hadn’t been expecting an elf to be bald. I don’t know if it was shaved or genetic but he had a perfectly smooth skull, and after growing up on lord of the rings where elves have hair down past their shoulders I had to work pretty hard not to stare.

It wasn’t until I was being put into a holding cell for the evening, along with a meal of bread and cheese that I actually worked up the nerve to really begin a conversation with my captors. Figuring I’d look less threatening behind bars, and be a modicum safer from them if I said something truly stupid.

“I’m not really sure how to ask this, but where am I exactly?” My question got a couple of raised eyebrows from Andrea and Julius, the two sharing a glance before Andrea snorted and waved at Julius” I’m not talking to him, you do it if you want, I’m going home.” disappearing out the door of the jail without further ado, I watched her go as Julius shook his head.

Turning to me hands on his hips, Julius pursed his lips before apparently concluding that a little conversation wouldn’t be a problem.” Alyx was it? I think by now you’ve probably figured out that our village is kept safe by being kept hidden so I can’t exactly go telling you the location. Anything else you want to ask? I haven’t spoken to an outsider in a while, what stories do they tell of elves outside of the forest?”

I Blink at Julius with just a little bit of incredulity as I begin to feel the world begin to slip out from under me.” If I’m being honest with you...though I have the feeling you are not going to believe this, I didn’t know elves were real until I was shot by you and your friend.”

Julius did his best to give me a skeptical look. I’d say he did a great job, nine out of ten, full of disbelief. “Right… well clearly my people and I exist.” He says waving a hand at himself. “ Kind of having a hard time believing that you’ve never heard of elves. Honestly, at this point, I’m starting to think someone dumped you into our forest just to get rid of you because you make for a terrible spy.”

“Well for one I’m not a spy, I don’t know what the deal is between you guys and your human neighbors but I have no part in it and want no part in it. Now for real though, are we at least still in North America? I’d like to get back to my life at some point, and while magic and the fact that elves exist is awesome and definitely going to change my world views I have a mortgage to think about and a job to get back to.”

I’m not sure what part of that threw Julius for a loop but he was certainly taken aback, as he took a step back from the bars and crossed his arms as a thoughtful frown crossed his face.

“North America? What kingdom is that? You must be really far from here, while I’m no expert I do know the local kingdoms and a few of the more famous countries from abroad.”Julius gave Alyx a perplexed look as if he hadn’t expected the human man to be able to throw around names of countries that Julius himself had never heard of.

Yep, that was it, that was the world slipping out from under me right there. A queasiness began to grow in my stomach and somehow I found myself at the bars of my cage, white knuckle gripping said bars as I stared intensely at Julius to try and determine if he was just fucking with me. And he really didn’t seem to be.

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“North America, home to the United States of America? Canada? Ok, what about Europe? Africa? South America? Brazil? China? Come on man work with me, Russia? Japan? Australia? “

Julius took another step back and for a moment looked worried that I might try to escape the bars.” Sorry friend, I’ve never heard of any of those places. If it is of any help, you are currently on the continent of Tulimanu.”Julius gave me a concerned look before it turned back into one of professional detachment. “ Not to put too fine a point on things Alyx, but I wouldn’t worry about things like that right now. I know the shrine that my elder is having Andrea and I escort you too, simply put you need to focus on surviving or those other questions of yours aren’t going to matter.”

“Right, If I die tomorrow then where I am doesn’t really matter...thanks.” With a sigh, I release the bars and step back to the center of the cell. The queasy feeling in my stomach hasn’t gone away but it didn’t seem to be getting any worse.

Turning away from me Julius gave a one-handed wave and walked out of the jail cell.” try not to die tomorrow human.”

It wasn’t exactly the most courteous thing in the world but I understood it. Julius was amiable and likable enough, but from his perspective, I may as well be a prisoner of war, one sentenced to a suicide mission.

“Fuck, Mr. and Mrs. fuck may I introduce you to how fucked I am.”

OK, whining about this isn’t going to get me anywhere, lets look at what it is I have to do. I need to clear out some kind of elven shrine, presumably filled with monsters dangerous enough that it might cost elven lives to clear. Elves I should point out, that were able to take me down with little to no issues. On the other hand, I do have superpowers, sort of anyway. Or at the very least two active abilities that I don’t know how to use.

I’ve got nothing but time right now though. Honestly, anything to not think about the fact that I was in crazy coo-coo elfland. So starring down at my right hand I try to bring the skill [body modification] back to the forefront of my thoughts. Ok, so twenty percent of my body is theoretically an entire limb, so lets...make my arm muscles stronger and cover my arm in bone plates for protection.

After about fifteen seconds of me starring at my arm and nothing happening. I tried imagining my skill flowing down into my arm or grasping the skill in my hand, heck I even tried waving my arm about frantically but nothing seemed to be working just yet. I thought back to the fight with the Owlbear when the skill had activated for the first time, I had...wanted to be stronger and the skill just sort of came to life. Was it more about desire than the process itself? Well, it’s certainly possible and it couldn’t hurt to try.

Holding my right hand in front of me I formed it into a fist and focused not on how to activate the skill but what I wanted from it. I wanted my right arm to be stronger, and to be tougher so that when I hit things and got hit I would be safer. I zeroed in on that desire, that need, the want of it.

I felt a warmth, spread out from my heart that I hadn’t felt the first time the skill activated or at least hadn’t been aware enough to notice at the time. That heat flowed up into my shoulder and then down my arm, and I could feel the muscle fibers increasing and my arm literally creaked as the bones ground against each other for a moment. Surprisingly that didn’t hurt, even more, surprising though was the lack of pain, as the bone plates I envisioned parted the skin on my arm like shark fins through water, standing out half an inch down the length of my arm, they covered pretty much everything but the joints and the knuckles. The knuckles instead pushed out a full inch and looked broader and more durable, I couldn’t help but grin.

I mean yes, this was a body dysphoria moment if there ever was one, but I had just covered my arm in bone armor and made it fifty percent stronger! Eagerly I looked around for something to punch, I just had to test this. Of course, I came back to myself as I recalled that I was in a prison cell and that violently punching the wall just to see how much damage you can do would probably look a lot like an escape attempt.

“Well ok, even if most of this kind of sucks so far, that is really cool.”

The remainder of my evening was spent figuring out how to turn my arm back to normal and then how to do similar things, with my other limbs. I wasn’t limited to just increasing strength or durability either, the skill could turn my hands into other shapes, like hooks, spears, or swords. Heh, At one point I even tried out a sword and shield combo but with [body modification] only at twenty percent, I couldn’t really make them large enough to be effective.

While the thought did occur at one point to try shapeshifting into my Owlbear form, I couldn’t help but be worried about getting stuck with an animal level intelligence. With the option to wait for the morning and have an actual person to train me on shapeshifting. It just felt prudent to wait, and I would be lying through my teeth if I said I wasn’t exhausted from the day’s events.

Tired but satisfied, Alyx crawled onto the cot in the corner of his cell and curled up on it to try and sleep till morning, blissfully unaware that his little training session hadn’t gone unnoticed by his elven captors.