Elijah held his hand out in a gesture of greeting, introduced himself, then added, “Nice to meet you.” The male elf, who looked a lot like K’hana, though with black hair instead of white, eyed his hand warily, then turned his nose up at the offering. Elijah winced. “Ah, leaving me hanging. This is getting off to a great start.”
“Badu,” said K’hana admonishingly. “Be respectful.”
Badu grunted, then turned his back and headed toward the tunnel that would take him out of the city.
“Ouch. Guess I’m not well-liked, huh? I’ve been there before. Didn’t end well,” Elijah stated.
“What do you mean?” K’hana asked, a little more comfortable around him than she had been when she’d barged into his room. A good sign, as far as Elijah was concerned.
“Oh, it was this whole thing. A goblin tried to stab me in the back. Well, he did actually stab me. But he missed the important bits.”
“What happened to him?”
Elijah massaged the back of his neck. “Nothing good. So, where’s this tower we’re meant to run? And where’s the rest of the crew?” he asked.
“Crew? Ah. Yes. The party,” she said. “You have met Badu.”
“If you call that a meeting, sure. He didn’t seem to like me much,” Elijah stated. Indeed, the elf’s expression had made it abundantly clear how he felt about Elijah. “No clue why. I’ve only ever met one other elf before today, and she didn’t have any issues with me.”
“Another elf? Where? Which tribe?”
“Not sure. She was a little taller than you. Blonde hair. Not nearly as pale.”
“Hm…a forest elf, most likely,” K’hana said. “Or a hybrid. There are many of those.”
“Right. Anyway – what about your friend over there? Why was he so angry with me? Usually, people need to talk to me for at least a few minutes before they start getting annoyed,” Elijah said self-deprecatingly.
“His sister was one of the elves killed by the stag,” K’hana informed him. “He likely thinks you robbed him of a chance of vengeance.”
“Vengeance? On a deer?”
“Indeed. In our culture, guardians are considered much like any sapient race. With that comes respect, but it also comes with accountability.”
“Yet your people hunted them like normal beasts,” Elijah pointed out, letting a little of his anger out. “Doesn’t feel like respect to me.”
“It is not. They were wrong.”
Elijah sighed, running a hand through his curly, blonde hair. It had once again grown much longer than he preferred. “So – what about that team, huh? There’s Badu, right? Can’t say I’m happy about him having my life in his hands, but whatever. What about the rest?”
“Formal introductions are forthcoming,” she said.
And indeed, they were. Once Elijah followed her out of the tunnel and into the neighboring ravine, they met with three other elves. Predictably, one was the surly Badu, whose default expression seemed to be a sneer. According to K’hana, he was a Wind Whisperer, which meant that he specialized in air-based attacks. What form that would take, Elijah didn’t know, but he assumed it would be similar to the blades of wind that accompanied his Calamity spell.
The next elf was even shorter than K’hana. She gave Elijah a respectful bow and said, “My name is Syka. I am a Golemancer.”
“What’s that?” Elijah asked.
As it turned out, Golemancers were Sorceresses who specialized in summoning earthen creatures. Syka demonstrated that by casting a spell that caused a blocky creature to climb out of the ground. It was at least seven feet tall and made entirely of rock.
“Gbartik will be our defender,” Syka said, slapping the creature on a boulder-like leg. Elijah wasn’t sure how that would work, but they all seemed perfectly happy with that arrangement. So, he’d decided to take a wait-and-see sort of attitude. At the end of the day, if it didn’t work, he felt confident that he could do things on his own, even if it turned out to be less than optimal.
The final elf introduced herself as Nimana, and she was a Sand Mage that specialized in impeding enemies. Alone, she was largely incapable of killing anything, but K’hana pointed out that she was a vital member of any team that would make everyone better.
Elijah could understand that, and he looked forward to seeing what she could do.
“And you?” he asked K’hana. Even next to the other elves, who all wore identical clothing and had similar features, she was strikingly beautiful. Yet, there was enough of a cultural distance between them – never mind the intimidatingly alien beauty – that he never even considered trying for anything more than a professional arrangement.
Well, he considered it. Because he obviously had. He’d just dismissed those sorts of feelings.
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“I am a Water Witch,” she said.
“What does that mean?” he asked.
K’hana went on to explain that, in addition to providing the absolutely necessary ability to locate water in a desert, she had the ability to use spells associated with water. She went on to explain that she, as well as Badu were tasked with doing damage. Syka and her golem filled the role of the defender. And Nimana’s job was controlling the battlefield. Meanwhile, Elijah was expected to heal.
It was a good plan, though Elijah knew better than to expect things to work out exactly as they’d arranged. If he’d learned nothing else in his life, it was that plans rarely lasted long in a fight.
Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to take matters into his own hands.
Or claws, as it were.
In any case, as the sun rose, casting the Twilight Clefts in deep shadow, the group set off through the maze of ravines. They moved quickly, but Elijah had no trouble keeping up – much to the chagrin of Badu, who’d set the pace. Fortunately, the other elves weren’t nearly as surly as the Wind Whisperer, and they weren’t shy about asking him questions.
“And these…televisions – they showed plays?” asked Syka, who was riding on her golem’s shoulder. Each step sounded like a miniature earthquake, which meant that any notions of stealth had long since gone out the window.
“Sort of. We also watched sports and the news, though the second one was more performative than informative there in the end,” Elijah explained. “But everyone loved movies.”
“I would like to see one of these…movies,” Syka said.
The other elves agreed. Except Badu, who seemed to take the entire conversation as an affront to his honor. Hopefully, that wouldn’t end up being an issue.
“Have you all been to many towers?” Elijah asked a while later.
“No. On our world, the only people permitted to conquer towers are the rich. Or the elite fighters,” said K’hana. “That is one of the reasons we came here. On Erag, opportunities are very limited.”
“Seems a bit shortsighted. But you don’t have to worry about surges? What about monsters? We had an orc issue back home.”
“Orcs? Here?” asked Nimana, obviously alarmed.
“Not anymore.”
“But you got them all?”
Elijah insisted that they had, saying that he knew exactly how dangerous they were. Then, he asked about the surges again.
“No. On Erag, everything is well controlled. From time to time, a particularly powerful rift opens in the wilderness, and it manages to fester. However, for the most part, everything is kept under control. It will one day be the same here.”
Elijah nodded. That was a good thing, as far as he could see. Certainly, it would stifle growth and progression, but that was better than letting Voxx run rampant, wasn’t it? In any case, he didn’t have to worry about that from his tower. Even if the people of Ironshore hadn’t been committed to running it once a week, his grove drained any excess ethera it produced, meaning that it would never surge.
The elves’ situation wasn’t really all that different from any group that braved the dangers of any frontier. All they wanted was opportunity. So, when the chance to come to Earth was presented to them, they jumped on it.
Elijah could respect that.
Over the next day-and-a-half, the group made their way through the Twilight Clefts, and during that time, Elijah learned two things. First, the elves were very odd. They had a plethora of strange customs, and the cultural differences made for some awkward situations.
Like when Syka eagerly offered him a bag full of live crickets as a snack. He’d refused, saying that he preferred his grove berries. The elves were also incredibly cognizant of their water usage, and they survived off only two or three sips a day. By comparison, Elijah’s consumption was downright decadent, and each time he gulped water from one of his jugs, they gave him looks of incredulity.
Or anger, as was the case with Badu.
The second thing he’d recognized was that he did not care for the canyons at all. Not only were they incredibly confusing to navigate, but with those walls on either side, Elijah had flashbacks of his time in the Primordial Maze which left him feeling claustrophobic and uncomfortable.
So, he was more than a little relieved when they finally left the canyons behind. His relief was doubly noticeable, because, for all that he liked having company, it was exhausting having to be around people for so long. Especially when those people were sand elves.
“Is that it?” asked Elijah, shading his eyes as he looked off into the distance where he saw a steep mesa topped by what looked like an abandoned lighthouse.
“It is,” said K’hana. “We must scale the cliffs. Can you climb?”
“I can manage,” Elijah said.
After another forty-five minutes, they reached the rock face in question. The summit of the plateau was at least a thousand feet up, with nearly sheer sides populated by a few craggy cliffs and scrubby trees.
“So, don’t freak out,” Elijah said. He knew that K’hana had seen his lamellar ape form, but he had no idea if the others knew the extent of his capabilities. So, he thought it best to warn them. Even so, when he shifted, there were a couple of gasps of surprise.
And Badu glared even harder, if such a thing was possible.
“Dude, you really need to lay off the stink eye there,” Elijah growled, his voice the sort of deep rumble a person could feel in their chest. “Getting really old. That’s all I’m saying. Anyone need a ride?”
Badu’s expression darkened, which couldn’t have been a good sign.
Whatever the case, no one took Elijah up on his generous offer, so, using his long arms and ape-like power, he quickly scaled the cliff. At the same time, Syka continued to ride on her golem’s shoulder as it nearly kept pace with Elijah’s ascent. Badu was the next fastest, nimbly gliding from one outcropping to another like an elf-shaped kite. Nimana followed, and though she didn’t use any obvious spells or abilities, her progress was impressive.
Bringing up the rear was K’hana, who clearly had not invested heavily in her physical attributes. Elijah’s instincts told him to help her, but he knew enough about people to recognize just how bad of an idea that was. If she’d wanted assistance, she would have taken him up on his first offer. Trying again would only make her seem weak.
Which she was.
But it was polite to pretend otherwise.
Besides, she probably had other talents. In any case, Elijah was the first to reach the top, and by a wide margin. That gave him the opportunity to meet a recently spawned Voxxian monster, face-to-face.
The reptilian creature looked a bit different than the ones he’d encountered in more verdant territory, which was to say that instead of glistening viridian scales, its hide was leathery, ridged, and incredibly rough. Fortunately, it was not very strong, so when it threw itself at Elijah, he caught the monster by its shoulders, did a pirouette, then tossed it over the cliff.
It sailed through the air for nearly forty yards before it started its descent. And when it hit the ground a couple of seconds later, it splattered across the barren desert. Which was a good thing, because Elijah didn’t want to be forced to go down there and finish it off.
As he knocked the dirt from his massive claws, the others crested the edge of the cliff. He shifted back into his human form as he said, “Who’s ready for a tower run? Should be fun, right?”