It had been days since we'd left the old village, and still we were finding destruction. Places that should have been here weren't, clearly abandoned in haste or destroyed. There were few bodies, those having been reclaimed by the forest in most places, but some. Paths were also overgrown, lost amidst the war.

Our directions were... vague, at best, with mostly only the general area we needed to travel towards. Normally we'd have sought information from the villages as we passed, but without their knowledge we only had rough reckoning, and that was limited in use.

“What's that?” Chien asked.

“An iron needle that I've changed a bit, it'll help us when we can't see as well.” There were clouds forming above us, so now was a pretty good time for it at any rate.

“What's it do?” he inquired, leaning close.

“If allowed to move freely it will point North.”

“Huh, that's neat.”

He'd seen me use magnetism before, and the items themselves weren't unknown in this world. Naturally occurring magnets, or those made by magical creatures existed, rare perhaps, but not novel. There might even be some people who understood enough to make basic compasses. Chien might also be numb to the fact that I came up with new things all the time, however not everyone was.

“An iron needle?” said Isha as she drew in. “Like for sewing?”

“You could use it for that...” I said, looking at it, there was no hole for thread, but otherwise it would work.

She picked it up and looked at it for a moment.

“Too small,” she finally declared. “Far too small, and no way to put on sinew or cord. Even the stuff Ida was making wouldn't work, even if there was a hole. Maybe for something else, but not for sewing.”

“Guess I'll just have to keep using it to find North then,” I said, pleased that she wouldn't be asking me for a bunch of them right now. I could've made them, but this wasn't the best place for experimenting, or working iron.

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Our journey continued, and it was oddly peaceful. The sleeping arrangements weren't much to my liking, with Chien staying with Isha and I, preventing anything much from happening at night, but he was a wise enough young man to give us some time alone every now and then. With only the three of us we could move fast, taking game or the like as we wanted, or just asking Isha to make us some food periodically.

My significant other soon began to resent our requests for sustenance, and the fact that she couldn't make many different dishes also grated on all of us. It was another incentive to move quickly and find what we could, but as weeks passed some of our favorite plants became a little less common.

Oddly to me it didn't get colder. I'd always associated the North with being cold. Years and years I'd spent as a resident of the Deep South, watching the weather and declaring that it sucked to live in the northern section of the country. Here however it remained mostly the same. Sure, if we got really close to one of the mountains nearby there was a noticeable drop in temperature, but so long as we stuck to the forests it was pretty much always the same.

The fauna however did change drastically. It seemed mile by mile the trees and plants grew. It was subtle enough to miss at first, but when every tree started looking like it was centuries older than what you were used to you began to take heed. As we took to rest by a small creek it stuck me that some of these here would give the redwoods of Earth a run for their money.

That night we found shelter in a fallen and hollow mammoth of wood, it was dry, clean, and the bugs weren't any worse than they were elsewhere. Overall the location was pretty nice compared to some of the places we'd rested. The worst was when it rained, leaving us with little shelter. Soon the rainy season would be upon us and I'd rather be up into the mountains when that arrived, easier to avoid any flooding.

“Justin!” called Chien around midnight, “Need you here.”

Quickly I made my way to the spot he was using to keep watch, he wasn't alone. There were around a dozen elves with spears, shields of bark and vine, and unhappy looks upon their faces. They weren't in an aggressive stance just yet, but it was clear they didn't want to be here. Rather than the leathers we favored they were dressed in clothes sewn together from some kind of leaf.

“You are trespassing,” their leader declared, stepping forwards. “As we told the other's you cannot seek shelter here.” It was clear from the small shock of white hair on his head that he was the Elder of this group.

“We have spoken to no others,” I began, before a raised hand cut me off.

“Perhaps it is so, and I am not without mercy, but you cannot stay. We will not get involved in the fighting between the men of Atal and the men of Cino.” That bristled, but I understood why, they didn't want war as well.

“That is not our purpose, nor to stay. The fighting is over, we're here to report the results to your Ancient.”

There was a look of understanding in his eyes at my statement, and a deep look of sadness. This one at least had seen enough to know that I was here to report a death, not a positive thing for our species in general. “Oh, I see. Come, we will go to the village.”

“Old one? I thought we must turn them away?” one of the younger elves said, piping in.

“He is a messenger, he may pass.” The Elder looked at me. “Since you appear to be a man of Atal should I assume that he won?”

“Both fell,” I reported, to the stunned look of more than one of the greeting party.

That wasn't a secret at all, and it was my job to spread the news. There was every possibility that it would beat me to one or more of the Ancients that I was going to see, but that didn't matter, what mattered was the ceremony. The word of their deaths was to be spread, with a designated person to tell the Ancients of our people of the loss of one of theirs.

“That... we will speed you along then, this news must be spread,” their Elder said after a full ten seconds of staring at me. “Come, there is no time to waste.”