I was feeling shockingly energized the following morning. Well, I called it morning but I really had no clue. It was about six hours after Kishi settled in for a nap against the boulder. I had visited my inner sanctuary and found everything in order, no one dead, and unchanged. I had sort of thought bonding with Kishi would have done something... Maybe it took a while to change or I was giving the whole bonding thing a more influential role over my subconscious than I had felt it had when it happened.

Either way, I was ready for the day to begin. I wanted out of this damn forest, for one.

We had nothing to eat for breakfast but that didn't affect me either way, and according to Kishi, she could go at least a week without a meal without any ill effects. So after a bit of stretching, we decided that the only course of action was to head west and hope we came to the kobold village. At the very least it should take us out of the forest at some point, then we could work out what way to go to get me back to my people. People I had no doubt were absolutely freaking out right now. Lagdon was probably having a nervous break down. That hobgoblin needed a vacation... or at least a dang hobby.

Using her internal compass, Kishi decided which way was west and we headed out. No doubt we would get turned around a time or two, but we should, eventually, make it out.

On top of being a little more motivated than normal, we also managed to avoid having as many monster encounters as we had the day before. As much as I appreciated the practical training, I much preferred not to have my life in constant danger.

Eventually, out of boredom perhaps, I asked a question that had been taking up space in my mind since I heard about the Specter. I had heard a few opinions on it already, but I was curious as to what Kishi thought.

"Kishi, What do you think the Specter is after, really? I know he- it?- is a monster and there for wants power. But is that it?"

Kishi was silent a moment, nudging me around a puddle. I hoped it did not mean we were approaching the swamp again. It defiantly had not rained in a while, however.

"If I had to pin down a reason, I would say that it seeks to claim the title of land god in Aeros' place." She said, thoughtful. "It is an amalgamation of left over power, abandoned by the dragon. It likely feels entitled to the role that it's creator abandoned."

"And the fact that that job is already filled, that means not a damn thing to it I take it?"

Kishi let out a huff of amusement. "Rather doubtful Mistress. If it is even a third as arrogant and greedy as Aeros than I would bet on it not caring a single bit about you. Well," She added, mulling over a thought. "That is not true. It is a being that steals power and life force from others, after all. And what has more latent power and life energies than a land god? I would say that you appear to be a lovely snack for it."

"Ugh." I said, annoyed. "Figures. I suppose that explains why its minions snatched me up in the first place. Speaking of, we haven't seen any of those stump creatures in a good while."

"No, we have not. Perhaps it thinks we will make our way to it, one way or another."

"Well, that's a cheery thought."

Another worrisome thing I had noticed was just how little a hold I had on the Dark. whether it was the forest itself that resisted my claim, or it was due to the Specter's influence, I did not know. But I didn't like it, at all. I hadn't realized just how connected I was to the lad till that connection had waned. It was life one of my key senses had been diminished. Like if I had had cotton swabs in my ears, or was wearing sunglasses in the dark.

And if my hold was week that meant that the Specter's hold was likely stronger. At the very least, it left the Dark open to invaders seeking to be the land god, including my current enemy. After all, the Dark had not always belonged to Aeros, he had taken it from another. Therefore it could just as easily be taken from me. Probably easier, actually.

It all came back to me needing to get rid of this Specter creature. Sooner rather than later. But there was no way I was confronting it without back up! One, I was not dumb, and two, I would get chewed out if I tried. Lagdon, Brax, and everyone else would never let me hear the end of it and then get so afraid of letting me out of their sight I would never get a moment of peace. I was the land god, damn it! I would not, under any circumstance, want to be treated like an errant child.

I was musing ways to escape house arrest 'for my own good' when a rustling of leaves above our heads had Kishi and I on high alert. We both froze in our tracks and began to scan the canopy. I didn't see anything. No movement, no monsters, not even a breeze.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"What-?" I started to ask, when suddenly there was movement. I jumped back as something fell out of the tree tops, hitting the ground with a barely discernable thump. Kishi's hackles raised and she growled at the same time I raised my dagger, ready to tackle another monster.

"Put that away." Grumbled a voice, taking me off guard. I took a surprised step back, my arm lowering slightly as I took in the slowly rising figure. "What, just like that? Do you always lower your guard so readily before you know what you are looking at is friend or foe?"

Embarrassed, and knowing full well that if Nord found out what I had done I would be stuck doing drills for hours, I lifted the blade once again. It was pretty dumb to have lowered it in the first place.

But Kishi let out a sarcastic puff of air, her hackles lowering and her red eyes narrowing on the intruder. "Reihekiu, I never pegged you as one so foolish as to try and sneak up on me."

I watched as the figure fully straightened out and openly gawked at the creature before me. It, was a she. And she was an elf! She stood taller than me, her caramel colored skin fully out of place in a setting so gloomy, and her eyes such a bright emerald color that they almost glowed as much as my skin. She had long silver hair streaked with grey and littered with twigs. The streaks and the feint hint of crows feet the only indication of age on the woman. She was also dressed in what appeared to be a potato sack, and bare foot.

"I DID sneak up on you." She said, a wide smile breaking through her previous grim expression. "There was no trying about the thing."

Kishi sighed once again, as if she were dealing with a small child rather than a freaking elf that just fell over sixty feet from the tree tops. "Lady Enna, This is the half elf, Reihekiu. She has lived here a few hundred years. Reihekiu, this is Lady Enna, my new mistress." Kishi had taken to calling me that easily enough. There was once a time i would have said not to call me that, but being constantly referred to as a god had sort of deadened me to random terms of authority. Mistress, Lady Enna, Goddess, they were all the same in the end. So long as people didn't start bowing and the like I had made a conscious effort to stop trying to tell them just to call me Enna.

Suddenly the elf lapsed into a seemingly one sided conversation in a language I did not know. She looked a little like she was talking to Kishi, but then would gesture off into nothing and started an angry ramble again. I may not know the language, but the tone suggested that there was a fair number of curse words laced in it. Actually, the fact that I couldn't understand her words brought to mind a seriously confusing point: How did I know any language in this world? I had been able to understand the foxes, goblins, and the kobolds without any issue...

A concerned look to Kishi told me that this was not strange for the half elf woman to do. I guess she was a 'few hundred' years old at least. Maybe elves had age related issues too?

The woman's rant with no one in particular ended as fast as it had started and she suddenly rounded on Kishi, her movement flashing me her elvish ears... and other parts her potato sack was having a hard time covering. "I thought you were dead!" She snapped at the fox, clearly angry. "I found that mess the upstart left at your den and was sure you had perished..."

"I would not have died so easily." Drawled the fox, seemingly offended. Instead of further addressing the issue, Kishi instead turned to me and explained the interloper farther. "Reihekiu was once a very well known weapons smith, back before Aeros took a hiatus. We have encountered one another often enough. She is a little- off- but good people."

The elf snorted, said a few more choice words in what I suspected was elvish, before speaking in a language I could understand again. "There has been no need for my skills in quite some time. I wanted to have a nice, peaceful, retirement. Yet, now there is some young hooligan making a fuss in the forest, stirring up all sorts of trouble. Trust that old lizard to take off without cleaning up his mess."

A peaceful retirement... in the Dark? I rather hate to see what it was this woman thought 'peaceful' was. Still, Kishi had vouched for her, so I could look past her strangeness. After all, I was pretty strange myself.

Then Reihekiu completely changed the subject, confusing me even farther. "by the way," She said, giving me a side eye, as if I were the one in a potato sack. "Is that lumbering oaf, blundering about the Dark, with you?"

"Hu?" I said, ever the expert at interpersonal conversation.

The elf rolled her emerald eyes, arms crossed over her mostly flat chest. "There is a rather hapless, yet absurdly muscle bound, hobgoblin bashing around the forest. He is making more racket that a drunken dwarf, and smashing his way though the trees, lost and frustrated from what I saw."

I blinked in surprise. It had to of been Lagdon... But that did not sound like the poised and normally overly stiff hobgoblin prince I knew. He better not of been hurt by some creature in this place.

"Yes!" I said, pleased that he was looking, even as I was worried about him. "He probably is. Mostly likely it is my friend, Lagdon."

"Odd choice in friends, hobgoblins. But who am I to judge?" Sighed the elf, uselessly flicking a speck of dust off her shoulder and ignoring the filth over the rest of her body. "He is steadily making his way here... but if you like, I can take you to him? Might save some of these very ancient trees, at the very least."

I winced at her disapproval. Lagdon must be in a state to be uprooting ancient trees. "Yes, please. I would apricate that, very much.

"Excellent!" She said, and just marched off into the trees, not even bothering to wait and see if we were following her.

Kishi shook her hear, amused and exasperated. She nudged me along after the elf who I heard say: "Never hurts to have a land god owe you a favor." In a sing song voice, low enough that it figured I was not meant to hear it.