The rendezvous point was an abandoned village on the border between the Izlandi Kingdom and the Singing Horde. The village had been abandoned many years ago because of the fighting between the two countries. The village wasn’t too far away from the ‘roof of the world’ mountain range, but it would still take me a day to get there from my cave. If I was traveling on foot, that is.

It had been two days since I invented pure flight magic in this world. I still hadn’t used it enough so my wisdom was pretty low and it took a ton of energy to use. Still, the best way to fix that was to use the spell as much as possible, so I was planning to fly most of the way to the abandoned village. I would still be early, but that would give me some time to survey the area. I was confident I could get out of most traps that weren’t set by the Immortals themselves, but the ordinary soldiers might not fare as well.

I finished up my pot of stew, grabbed a bunch of dried meat, and took one last sip from the cold mountain springs. I washed my face with the water and noticed that my hair had gotten quite long. I would usually cut my hair with a sharp blade in this world, but hadn’t felt like it since I’d come to the mountains. I smiled. I liked the wild, hermit look. My face still looked young and elfin, but there was a sagely look in my eyes. I also noticed the despair and frustration that had once been evident on my face, had been replaced with a bit of cautious optimism.

Yesterday, I had taken an important step towards transforming my magic completely. I had spent the entire day inside my cave. Water dripped down from the ceiling, and I drank from the pool it formed next to me. I didn’t eat anything all day, except for a few leftovers from the day before which I’d had for breakfast. I didn’t have the time to go out and forage and hunt, since I had to spend the entire day meditating. I didn’t have a fancy new spell to show for all of my hard work, but the progress I had made towards my new magic was worth staying inside the darkness and starving myself for a day.

I contemplated working on my new magic while flying over to the abandoned village, but decided it wasn’t worth the risk of losing all of my energy mid-flight. Besides, I didn’t want the Immortals to know about my trump card until it was too late for them to do anything about it. This would mean I was gambling that my new magic would work right away, but after what I had learned from the other spells I had invented in the mountains, I felt confident that this new magic would work. I also knew that it would turn the tide of my battle against the Immortals, and I didn’t want them doing something crazy like uniting against me once I revealed what I could now do.

I threw gravel over the smoldering fire, counted off the tally of days to make sure it was time, and walked up to the edge of the cliff again. I looked down at the beautiful view, and admired the sun as it was beginning to creep over the horizon at dawn. I looked down below the cliff but didn’t jump. Instead, I turned around and began scaling the peak of the mountain. Despite the fact that I had been living in a cave inside this mountain for a few weeks, I had never been to the mountaintop.

I didn’t use balance magic to climb the peak. Instead, I hugged the mountain, climbing up from one foothold to the next. I had to use a stone pick and vine harness to help me climb, but I was soon near the top of the mountain. I pulled my body up to the top of the cold, hard stone, and slowly found a place to plant my feet and stand up, wobbling all the while. The wind was raging wildly this high up, but I was able to keep my balance. I smiled as I looked down at the clouds below, and breathed in the thin air. My lungs complained a little, clamoring for a rest, but I had been pushing my body to its limits almost every day in these mountains. I wasn’t about to stop doing that now.

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I jumped off the peak of the mountain. Wind whipped past my face and it took my laughter with it. I stretched out one hand in front of me, and one hand behind, like I was a superhero. I let my childhood fantasies come true as I flew through the sky, staring down at the few peaks that peeked above the clouds.

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Surprisingly, a few people had already made it to the abandoned village. It seemed like others had taken the same precautions against traps and ambushes, sending scouting parties ahead of their main forces. The scouting parties didn’t do a very good job at keeping me out of their defensive perimeter, since I was able to fly right over the crude wooden spikes they had erected, and descended behind the large tents in the center of what had once been the village square.

I tapped on the shoulder of a stern looking demon sentry who was staring down the main village road. The startled demon almost fell onto his own spear when he saw me and I had to grab him by the scruff of his neck to haul him back up again. He let out a strange cry and the other demons scrambled to face me.

The fairies had set up their tent on the other side of the village, but I could hear the activity on their end as they realized something was wrong. That was when I noticed that the demons had sent up a smoke signal from behind the tent right after the first soldier had let out a cry.

Dang, so they were ready after all. Couldn’t blame them for not predicting that a flying elf might drop into the middle of their camp.

The sun hadn’t completely set yet, but the village was surrounded by hills on its western side, which meant the village was already covered in darkness. The sentries on the perimeter had a few torches, but it looked like the scouting parties knew not to reveal how many people had come with them by lighting up their main campsite. Besides, putting up too many lights might attract attention from the enemy’s scouts, too.

A few spears rounded towards my neck although none were being thrust forward. I still held onto the stumbling demon, whose spear had fallen from his hand. The frightened demon had brought up both of his hands in front of his face and was looking away. He looked like he was trying not to get smacked, which made me chuckle. I let the poor demon go and he fell on the ground right beside his spear. The other demons’ spears wavered.

I closed my eyes.

Strange, muffled cries came out from the demons standing around me. I heard spears cluttering onto the floor and a few people even walked right into each other in their confusion. Curses flew everywhere, as did cries for people to stop moving, or to attack the monster.

I opened my eyes slowly. I had to squint a little so my eyes wouldn’t begin to swim. I turned down my light magic. Under the illumination of my spell, I saw the demon scouts rubbing their eyes and trying to search for their spears while blinking rapidly. The only demon who seemed to have gotten out of the spell unscathed was the one I’d grabbed first. His face was covered in dirt, which probably explained why he hadn’t been blinded by the light.

I leaned my head so the light would fall onto the side of my head. I smiled and pointed to my pointy ears. The demon’s eyes went wide in realization, but then he winced in the bright light.