CHAPTER 83: The dathrod and the elves
Elle arrived with the others. She never liked being out of a deal involving me, I suspected she experienced a lot of those situations.
“My apologies. Floréal, please meet my secretary and mediator, Elle.”
It seemed Elle arrived just in time because things were about to get interesting. Elle switched to speaking fluent elvish and greeted Floréal directly. Floréal’s right eyebrow lifted involuntarily. Elle later explained that half elves rarely spoke elvish because elves rejected half-blood elves from their communities and consequently half elves couldn’t speak the elvish language. Due to the rejection, half elves grew up in human colonies, but because of human’s over enthusiastic interest in things elvish meant many half-elves preferred remaining incognito. When I asked why Elle could speak elvish, she explained that the elvish community she grew up with was more accepting and didn’t ostracise her. To Floréal, Elle was something of a contradiction, adding uncertainty to the discussion but when it came to talking to humans like me, far more agreeable.
“I greet you, Elle, mediator of the leader, Shane.”
“Elle, tell them if that dathrod hurts more people I’m held accountable by the kingdom.”
“Mm, I’ll tell them that.”
Floréal looked unsatisfied with Elle’s response, getting me more sour looks from her entourage. Soon Elle returned and asked me the obvious.
“The elves would offer you a dryad seed. Are you interested?”
I didn’t comment. What did a dryad seed mean anyway? Besides, it didn’t put my responsibilities aside.
“Why do they want the dathrod?”
“They said it related to personal reasons, but they didn’t explain further. Apparently, their village knows the dathrod well and can control it.”
“Even with their assurances, I still wouldn’t feel confident in handing it over to them.”
Elle decided to close the discussion with the elves by relating my comment, but she came back soon after a terse discussion. It seemed the elves had more to offer.
“Shane, Floréal has offered to have you go to their village and see for yourself before making your final decision. She is quite insistent on this.”
I sighed in resignation because I felt torn in two. On the one hand I didn’t want to release the toothy bullterrier and on other, I wanted to improve our interspecies relationships especially with beings as rare as elves. Who knew when another opportunity like that would present itself again.
“Very well. I’ll only go if they understand that if I am not fully convinced then I will not hand over the dathrod and I reserve that right.”
In other words, what I was saying was that I didn’t want them to pressure me into giving the dathrod to them in circumstances more suitable for them. Floréal appeared happier about the situation if describing her present placebo attitude as slightly better than the one before.
“You’re not going on your own by the way. We’re coming with you. Call it my part-elf intuition, but I’m not convinced of their sincerity.”
“Mm. I reserve my judgement, but I do want to promote better relationships given the opportunity.”
“Then how about we follow this situation to its natural conclusion?”
“Yes. I agree.”
With the negotiations over, the elves wanted to immediately depart but we still needed to prepare for our trip. According to the pointed eared ones, they intended travelling entirely on foot. When we asked how many days we expected to be away, Floréal refused to tell us, citing security concerns about releasing the whereabouts of her village.
“Really? I mean it’s a big ass forest out there. How would anyone know where to start looking for a village in the middle of all of that?”
When I complained to Elle, she simply shrugged her shoulders. I got the message loud and clear; put up and shut up. If matters couldn’t get worse, apparently, they elves intended blindfolding us for the entire trip. I say ‘they’ because I also roped Hana into the trip. If the looks they gave me were anything to go by, then I felt I was in for a lonely trip, despite their company.
“Why are you roping me into this? Can we stay? I really don’t want to go trudging through the Ironwood Forest chasing after some elves.”
“I need you, Hana.”
“Well, it isn’t as if we can just walk away from each other, and I don’t want to spend my time lying on my face in the dust.”
The fifty paces contract item that tied her to me meant that she followed me whether she wanted to or not, otherwise the slave collar caused her to feint and stay like that until I came within the minimum distance as written on the slave contract. It happened in the past, especially early on in our relationship that we had a few cases of events like that. Unfortunately mostly of my doing due to forgetfulness.
“Come on. We’ll have lots of fun. I’m sure I’ll be a bundle of joy and we’ll just frolic through the forest like the uncaring people we are.”
“Yeah, it’s exactly for that reason that I want to stay.”
A couple of hours later we made the necessary arrangements with the others to take over the running of the camp during our absence. Sebastien stood in for me supported by Karato and Grenfell. That put my mind at ease, and I left the place in good hands. Grenfell offered to keep an eye on Antonella in my absence and seemed happy to offer his services. I think he eyed Antonetta as potential blacksmith material. In his shoes I guessed he couldn’t be fussy. Antonetta looked just as happy. Finding someone willing to pound iron from an early age must have been a boon for the old man. I sighed to myself as the image of a muscular Antonetta with a forging hammer assaulted my mind. I needed a distraction. The thought of being led blindfolded through a forest full of monsters by perfect strangers for days on end fitted the distraction just fine.
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“Alright, let’s do this.”
Before the elves blindfolded us, I placed the dathrod along with its entire cage, into a transfer storage attached to a mustite bar. Without the elves present, I placed the mustite bar with the transfer skill into the creation core for safe keeping and popped that into my pocket dimension. When the elves returned, they realised the caged Dathrod disappeared. Their eyes grew wider in astonishment while trying their utmost to bridle their surprise in typical reserved elvish demeanour. I chuckled to myself, that was the equivalent of the elves saying, 'oh golly!'. I gave them 10 out of 10 for containing their curiosity, because not one of them asked me what happened although they were obviously dying to.
I needed an insurance policy because I didn’t trust the creature. In the past, every time I approached the dathrod, its eyes followed me like a silent threat, sending chills down my spine. It fully understood my part in its capture, and it was intelligent enough to know to who to visit when it wanted revenge. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder if it ever escaped from the elves.
After our farewells to everyone in the camp, the elves put blindfolds over our eyes. Ara warned me not to use air scan in case the elves detected it and took offense. If the two of the Red Sparrows could detect my use of skills, elves would likely be far superior in detection ability. Well, I wasn't one to cry over that but nothing stopped me from developing my passive skills. I could hear, feel, and smell. With all my remaining senses combined, even without sight, Ara could make a good approximation of my position.
As we walked, and with nothing better to do, I contemplated the challenges of my situation. Although Ara could determine to a certain extent direction and distance, the lack of referencing meaningful terrain meant that if I returned on that route and deviated so much as a metre off course at the start, I could end up kilometres away from my intended destination. I really needed to find a better way to travel.
I mean, that was the quintessential dream for every fantasy story. Effortless travel would make travelling a snap. Of course, I gave no thought to the complications that might result. My first concern being the development of the technology. If operating transfer gates once existed in the Adios dungeon then the working theory behind transfer gates already existed. Putting it into practice so that I could use it, would be Ara's challenge.
Then it wasn’t the Elves Ara knew that made the dungeon transfer gates. Either someone else made them or ancient elves, far outside of the historical knowledge I inherited from the elvish bloodstone.
I guessed they put it into the too hard basket. I couldn't blame them. I was about to throw the idea of instantaneous travel out with the bathwater when Ara said,
“I’ll try and see what I can do.”
I smiled to myself, that's all I wanted. My gut feeling said Ara would be successful.
We walked an entire day, taking intermittent breaks to rest. Only when we stopped for the night would they take off our blindfolds.
We brought our own provisions. Backpacks, another convenient innovation I created for us a while ago turned out to be a smashing hit. Once the woodcutters became aware of the usefulness of backpacks, the increased demand meant I needed to make more. Production was slow because although I could make the light metal frames quickly, the rest of it needed to be made from leather. Since I left the leatherwork for the woodcutters to sort out, it slowed the process down because curing and tanning leather took time.
As for the rest of our needs in the Ironwood Forest, our space storage rings took care of anything else we needed including tents. It would be a pipe dream to believe the elves wouldn’t figure my skills out for themselves soon enough. Since they didn’t interact with other humans often, I had no issue whipping out grilled silk rabbit and vegetable stew. Although I noticed our pointy eared friends disappeared from time to time returning with fruits and vegetables of some sort, I doubted they could resist the smell of our food. No doubt they knew where to find forest food making them more capable of surviving in that environment then we ever would, but I bet it tasted like it looked.
For some reason the elf men still glared at me from time to time with some sort of misplaced hostility. I quickly learned that elves didn't forgive easily, perhaps one of the reasons why they didn't get on well with humans who would quickly rub them up the wrong way. That they kept to themselves and didn’t try to improve our relationship became quickly evident. In one way, it improved my relationship with Elle and Hana. We all slept in the same tent, there wasn’t even a discussion of any other arrangement under the circumstances. The only thing Elle said to me in the morning was…
“You’re windy at night.”
I decided to leave the discussion there.
The dull events of that first day set up the pattern for the rest of those five long days we travelled. I’ll give it to those elves, none of us recalled ever stumbling, it was as if we walked on a highway made for blind people. With nothing else to do but focus on putting one foot in front of the other and so much time to think, I mulled over an issue that plagued my mind about the events of the day we met the elves. How was it the elves appeared so quickly after we caught the dathrod? Was it possible they were already in the area, but then for what purpose, were they monitoring us? Given the secretive nature of elves, I wouldn’t be surprised at any of my speculations in the least.
Every night when we camped, I noticed the vegetation in the environment around us started to change. The forest looked increasingly ancient with huge trees, old moss, and lichen laden branches. It seemed that we were getting smaller under the feeling of hugeness and oldness, and humans didn’t belong there, as if the forest removed the welcome mat knowing we were coming.
In all the places I had been in Aryonne, even with all the monsters the didn’t like me, never did I feel as unwelcome as in the Ironwood Forest. That was until we walked into the elvish village. I knew we were there before there before anyone told me. I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, as if a refreshing cool breeze suddenly entered my world, exposing the oppressive air I once breathed.
The blindfolds were permanently removed. Before us, hanging from tree to tree were a network of interconnecting suspended bridges between the elf homes, the houses integrated into the trees as if the trees grew to make houses. The soft light emanating through the foliage’s green hues contrasted with browns from the hard earthen pathway and tree trunks. In between the two a mixture of natural hues filled in the rest. Some elves standing on the bridges silently watched us walk underneath them. Eventually we reached a lift. Entering what looked like a wooden gondola, it quietly lifted into the air on a pulley rope until we reached the level of the bridges.
The gondola lacked any protective railings, as if its builders thought it totally unnecessary. Had I not travelled with elves for the last few days, the lack of protective railings would have stumped me. I realised however that it perfectly described their nature of excluding things they deemed unnecessary. I bet no adult elf would be stupid enough to fall from a gondola for whatever reason, young children learned the same quickly enough and infants were always escorted by adults. I guessed it unlikely we would meet dumb elves, although I would be proven wrong just in just a little while.