Novels2Search
Elswynd
Chapter 6

Chapter 6

A guard on top of the wall yelled. "Halt!"

He was at least 7 feet tall and had small horns on his head. He was wearing a full plate armor and a greatsword hanging from his back which both looked like they had been used a lot.

"Guld who is that human with you!"

"Ohh this is Leon he saved me from a couple of human bandits as I was making my way back to the village."

The guard looks at me appraisingly and mumbles "why would Guld need saving" before clearing his throat

"Well he sure doesn’t look like a Rivertian……" The guard said eyeing me up.

"No worries Schal I'll take responsibility if he were to do something."

"Well, then I guess it’s fine but I will keep my eyes on him just in case."

"Thanks"

"Ok, then you may proceed." As Schal said that the wooden gates of the villages began opening.

Behind the door, there was a stone road and 5 guards could be seen near the gate sitting on wooden stools laughing and sharpening their swords, spears and other weapons. 3 of them seemed to be the same race as Schal as they were also tall and had 2 horns on their heads.

Two of them had some sort of Great axes made out of what looked like to be black steel and one of them had a greatsword that was probably made out of silver. The other 2 guards had furry ears and sharp looking eyes. They were both around 5 foot tall and had longswords and bows on their backs.  All of them seemed to be men. As we passed them on the carriage they waved at Guld but frowned at me.

"Umm Guld why are humans not well liked here ?"

"Well it’s been only about 5 years since the last conflict between the Rivertian nation and the Falloi nation which we are a part of, though our village is far from our capital."

"Oh I see so there is there still some tensions between the nations?"

Gulds tone changed to a more serious low voice "Well our nation’s have really never been on great terms."

"Why is that so?"

The dwarf looked at me while squinting his eyes and raising his left eyebrow. "You sure don’t know anything"

"The Rivertian nation mostly consists of humans and our nation is more diverse though humans are not that common here. The Rivertians treat all most all other races as lower class them themselves so they have enslaved a lot of Rivertians and pretty much run slave trade everywhere where there are any slaves to be sold or owned. They often also take other races as slaves by force."

"So why do the Rivertian humans think they are more superior than other races?" I asked while I looked at the village around us.

Now that we had gotten further inside the village past the wooden walls and watchtowers.

There were all sorts of people here those cat-like people, the ones with horns, bunny people, and a few dwarves. All the houses were primarily made out of wood and stone and looked like they were from the medieval ages except more solid looking. The houses weren’t really close together but not that far away from each other either, except in the middle of the city seemed to be a bit tighter in the spacing between buildings. The village had some grass on the ground and the occasional tree in some houses yards.

 "Well I’m not really in the mood to give you a whole history lecture but in a nutshell, Rivertian humans are being prideful and large in numbers thinking that they are way more civilized and well mannered than other races. Their infrastructure is also better than us, while humans as individuals may not be that strong compared to other races they outnumber as 10 to 1."

And have huge varieties of people with different classes to fill all sorts of jobs.

Meanwhile, they think of us other races with far greater natural physical and magical abilities to be battle hungry brutes who are only good for fighting and hard labor.

We had reached the central area of the village, it had a medium sized marketplace thriving with people. All sorts of goods could be seen, from handcrafted items to tasteful looking fruits of various colors.  I could hear people speaking in a few different languages which I was able to understand with my ability by just wishing to understand their speech. As we passed a few cute looking cat people Wearing leather clothes I could hear them whispering to each other in their language.

When the woman got closer to the carriage her posture changed and she tensed up (Woman 1) "I-is that a h-h-human"

(Woman 2) "Yes……... though he is with Guld we should probably keep our distance from that human man."

Well, that’s a completely understandable way of thinking looking at the fact that humans seemed to have enslaved their people so I won’t let it bother me I thought. It was around midday as the sun above was shining so brightly that even though I was inside the carriage covered by a small cloth roof I still got a little hot. Though it didn’t seem to affect the other people here in any way. There were kids running around and playing with wooden swords near us yelling stuff at each other as their wooden swords made clanking noises when they hit. In the midst of this, there was a man playing a guitar like instrument, while calmly sitting on a rock.

 I decided to take off my bloody bandage cloth as it seemed to cause a little unrest in the villager's eyes. I put the bandage cloth I was wearing In my inventory, now exposing my upper body which still had claw marks and some other scars from the time I fought that demon.  I'm not sure if they will heal completely but it doesn’t really matter as the scars are obviously no longer as big as the inflicted wounds back then. 

Thinking about the demon made chills run through my body. I still remembered its blood hungry eyes when it first laid its gaze on me. My hands were clenched as I thought about the Demon that almost took my life. If it weren’t for that elf I wouldn’t be alive anymore. A bunny woman was passing by our carriage. She was clearly looking at my body and when our gazes met and she saw my face the black haired bunny girl darted away towards the marketplace.

 "Well well well aren’t you the ladies man said Guld as he looked back at me with a mischievous smile exposing his one missing tooth."

I laughed with him.

Then he continued to look at my scars with wide eyes. "What kind of opponent did you receive those scars from?"

"From one that almost took my life…" I said while looking away and gritting my teeth.

With an understanding voice and a slight nod Guld said -Uhh I see..I’m sorry we all do have things we don’t wish to discuss."

-No need to apologize Guld.

The dwarf gave me a  smile as the carriage stopped moving in front of an old house made mostly of stone unlike the other houses in the village. It was a relatively large house that had glass windows and a wooden roof.

"So this is my place..mind helping me move the cargo inside?"

As guld stretched out his arms he answered "Sure."

Guld and I started carrying some big boxes inside his house. As we opened the door a female dwarf with red hair yelled.

"Guld where have you been!" The dwarf crossed her hands

"Aah sorry dear..you know me it sometimes takes longer to get the stuff I need." Said Guld as he and I put the boxes down on the wooden door and he scratched his hairy beard.

Their house was pretty good looking there were a few fur rugs around the floor which looked like they were made out of khodra’s fur. The walls were decorated with a few animals heads and a large spear was hanging above their stone furnace. They even had 2 couches made out of leather and fur both of them seemed well maintained. Guld’s wife was wearing a light fur robe and a golden necklace. She looked like she was in her thirties.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

 While slightly tilting her head and looking guld in the eyes she said "Whos this..umm human you’ve brought along."

She said seemingly not disturbed by my appearance.

-Oh right, Namwo this man is Leon he saved me from some bandits while I was on my way here, and he didn’t have a place to go so I thought he could stay with us for a while.

 And so after a while of chit chat and moving the old dwarves cargo inside Namwo began preparing a meal using the khodra meat provided by me.  As Namwo was preparing the meat I and Guld sat on wooden chairs with comfortable fur patting drinking beer.  As I had been through some shit here so I thought it would be okay to unwind with some bear, and also I wondered if the Elves blood affected my tolerance or anything like that so that’s an excuse I could use for drinking.

 "So I’ve been meaning to ask this Leon but are you perhaps a Space magic user?"

"Yeah"

"Ohh I knew it that’s something right there young lad." He said as took a sip of his beer.

"So it is unusual... then are there perhaps any other spells or items that could work like my inventory meaning you can store a lot of stuff in them?"

"Yea, for example, there are magickal bags which can store quite a lot of stuff though nowhere near as much as space magic."

This time I took a huge sip of my beer which left me with a foam mustache that I wiped away with my forearm. "Hey this is some great beer you have here and I see there are lots of stuff in your house made of leather and fur. Did one of you make all this or did you just buy it all?"

The Dwarf let out a huge grin and said proudly. "Glad you like the beer, I brew it myself."

"As for the leather and fur Namwo is quite good at leatherworking and that sort of stuff. So back in the day when I hunted a few beasts myself, I brought the fur and all other usable remains to Namwo here and she made some nice furniture out of them."

 "That’s quite the handy wife you have there she cooks and she makes comfortable furniture to sit on while drinking, what else could a man want am I right."

We laughed heavily and Namwo refilled our beer while smiling.

"Soooo I must know how did you kill all these beast and animals while leaving their fur pelts in such good condition?"

"That right there sonny is a secret"

He said while winking at me.

"Alrighty then...so if it’s not too much to ask I found a rather nice fur pelt myself and was thinking if maybe your wife could help me with that."

"Well you'll have to ask that from her, but would you mind showing that pelt to this old warrior *burp*"

"Sure"

I laid the Brimfire gylon pelt on the ground before him and his eyes widened a bit as he grabbed it to further inspect it. Looking at it with intrigue in his eyes.

"Well, aren’t you something you managed to kill a Brimfire gylon may I ask you where you killed it at?" Guld said with a glint of worry in his eyes.

"I killed it near a river in the forest?"

"hmm….that’s weird usually these beasts stick to living in the canyon near our village, so we don’t have to deal with them. Unless we go down to the canyon which we usually don’t as there are so many Gyllons and Brimfire gyllons so surviving being down there for long requires a party of four or more experienced fighters not mentioning the underground ruins and other unexplored areas."

The old man said while seeming to be deep in thought.

"Well old man what about we think about that some other time and eat now as your wife seems to be done with preparing the food."

"It seems so indeed *hig*"

And so we started eating the delicious meal Namwo had prepared. There was thick broth to go with the khodra meat which made the meat melt wonderfully in my mouth.  We shared some idle chit-chat as we ate and drank. Guld was already drinking his ninth mug of beer and was somewhat drunk so he became even more joyful and talkative. Meanwhile, I was drinking my seventh mug of beer. The alcohol didn’t seem to have as big of an effect as back when I was drinking in my previous life, but it sure as hell made my mood better. I usually wasn’t really good at talking to new people but for some reason, I really hit it off with Guld.

It was now well over the afternoon and Namwo had accepted my proposal of making a cloak for me out of the Gyllon pelt.

I and Guld continued drinking.

Guld told me that he had a son that had moved away a long time ago to go join the Army and was doing great at the moment tho as a father he still worried about his son that was already 26. I learned from him that it was currently year 363 here and he shared all sorts of stories of himself when he was a young warrior. He also told me that he had lost his leg back in the day and had prosthetic which he showed to me. It seemed to work with some kind of magic as it had glowing runic scriptures which I couldn’t understand.

 I too shared some of my limited stories like the fight with the goblins and my encounter with the Brimfire gyllon. Overall we were having a great time.  When I went outside to take some fresh air I realized there were 2 moons in the sky on blue and the other one crimson red. it was a beautiful sight as no clouds could be seen only the vast night sky filled with stars and the two big moons that shined their moonlight down. I could feel a slight breeze of the wind on my face and my still shirtless body. Somewhere in the distance wolves could be heard howling at the moons, or at least I thought they were wolves.

 I went back inside and we continued chatting for a while but after Gulds fifteenth beer he said that he’s sleepy and went to sleep with Namwo after showing me to my room. The room I was in was alright it had a nice bed obviously with a fur blanket and a pillow that probably had feathers inside of it or something of the sorts. There was also a big table and a nice Fur chair in which you could sit while looking out the large window at the night sky. I had also told them that I had a few familiars so they had provided some small thin fur sleeping blankets for them.

So I summoned Sylviel and the cubs who were happy to sleep inside the same blanket as they almost instantly fell to sleep in each other warmth. Sylviel told me that while they could sleep in the familiar place they still preferred to sleep while they were summoned.

I and Sylviel started talking about magic and stats and the sorts.

I learned a lot of stuff from her, Including that combining spells was possible depending on your attunement and the used spells. And that if said spell combinations were used enough it would develop into a spell with its own chant making the spell a unique spell. Also, she told me of the most used ways to cast magic which were chanting spells, chantless spells, mana manipulation, sigils, rituals and runic and mana engraving.

 "So Sylviel...how do you know all this stuff?"

((((((Meanwhile))))))))

Guld and Nawmo were in their big room laying on the bed and drinking.

While the moonlight illuminated their room causing beautiful red and blue light effect that the couple was already used to after all these years together.

"Guld you forgot you spear home again when you went out and a stranger had to "save you." "

Namwo said playfully

"Well dear you know me and he seems to be one great man reminds me of how I used to be when I was young……"

"Oh Guld" Said Nawmo while kissing Guld on the cheek.

"Yeah I know…. this old dwarves adventure days are over. Guld said as he caressed Namwos hair with his muscular arms."

"Also dear it was nice of you to be willing to make that cloak for Leon how’s the progress going?"

"Well that young man does remind me so much about our son, and the cape still needs some work it will probably be ready by tomorrow also shouldn’t we have given him a shirt?"

"Ohh yeah shit!" They bought laughed together as they were both drunk now that Namwo had also drank and Guld still had kept drinking.

 "So Guld did you get the parts you were looking for your new prosthetic leg?"

"Aah yes I did get most of what I needed and I got some new pelts for you to work with."

 Guld reminiscend the time he had lost his leg.

He was adventuring with group of mercenaries that were tasked with killing a wyrm that had been causing trouble.. It was a cruel fight which led to Guld losing his leg and the lives of some of the mercenaries that Guld wasn’t luckily very familiar with.

After that Guld stopped adventuring and went back to his wife to live a life of peace and quiet of course until they had a child Glanma that inherited his father’s last name Warmane. He was relatively tall for a dwarf being 5.6ft tall and had bronze colored eyes. He too wielded a spear like his father and had inherited her mother’s red hair.  When he turned 20 he decided that he wanted to protect his homeland from the invading Riverians by joining the army.  Guld was proud of his son who had finally become a great warrior.

 "So then dear goodnight." 

"Goodnight love"

and so they went to sleep in the room illuminated with moonlight.

((((((Back to Leon and Sylviel))))))

After I asked that Sylviel turned to look at the beautiful night sky through the window. She was gazing at the stars and moon for a while and then said to me

"There once was a man. He was a strong and kind man one that had a great mind and many familiars with him. I was one of those many familiars, he was my former master. For a long time he took care of me and his countless other familiars and thought us all sorts of things, but one fateful day he made us all undo our contracts with him and a day after that he disappeared after telling us that he wants us to have great lives without him and that he has something important to do. All of us familiars went our own way after that."

"Some of us were hunted down after that and some of us have survived to this day though we rarely keep in contact with each other."

 "I see…"

After that Sylviel went to sleep next to her cubs.

I laid down on the bed relaxed with my hand behind my head. Thinking about the day. After some time I finally fell asleep.

After Leon fell asleep Sylviel got up and left the house turning invisible immediately, and climbed to the roof of the house with ease.

A deep voice once again whispered to her "Anything interesting to report about"

"Naah old man just that we reached the village now"

"Good..good. I've managed to strike up a deal with some people that benefits both sides and I need you to do a few things for me to make this plan work with certainty...

The moonlight up the surrounding area as "Sylviel" and the old man talked.