Day ~113~

Sereda had gotten fired up last night, she finally had the opportunity to introduce herself as Ainsworth.  Rea thought that was pretty darn cute.  Needless to say, she was still writing and had barely slept.  It wasn't until a few hours after sunrise that they finally emerged to an applause.  Neither had realized their dome wasn't completely sound proof until now.  Ignoring a few jovial howls Rea handed over a small stack of twenty parchment, "That's all I know, I think."

The wanderer quickly inspected a few, "This'll do, you have my thanks Ainsworth."

After a slight bow the party left, they'd been ready to leave since before sunrise.  Rea and Sereda calmly watched as they disappeared over the horizon, "Ready?"

Sereda nodded.

It really wasn't painful or anything.  Just an odd feeling, suddenly growing or shrinking in strange ways.  Rea was glad becoming a wyvern didn't hurt.  Sereda was finding the fast travel thrilling.  The pair couldn't have been happier with her odd new ability.  Remembering something Corn had told her about some villages north of Tal'ma'tarn Rea made a sharp turn and flew at breakneck speed.  She wasn't in a rush but she sure was having fun.

Corn had mentioned that during this time of year the summer drought can be difficult on the villages.  Mostly because the southern weather is warmer and crops tend to wither.  Sereda highly approved of what Rea wanted to do.  For the entire day farmers and villagers panicked then rejoiced as a massive black wyvern flew overhead leaving giant rainclouds over dry fields.  Rea had been a farmer once, so she was more than happy to spend a day this way.  More than anything she figured her wyvern could use some good reputation, not just *om nom nom* rep.

Realizing just how bizarre her life had become she finally turned towards Kelaseran again.  They spent that night on the beach.  Rea had cut south after remembering swimsuits, she hadn't seen one since coming here and that was irking her.  Sereda gave her a skeptical look when Rea pulled out a thin piece of silvery fabric she had been working on.  Rea flexed her hands and promised it'll fit.  After some slight struggling she managed to get Sereda in the provocative two piece.  She could only silently admire the woman's proportions for a few seconds before tearing the bottom half of it off...

Day ~114~

The cool ocean breeze woke Rea up this morning, she smiled as a few memories of her better days came to mind.  Taking in the crystal clear scent and a lurid view of her wife, Rea went about saying good morning.  Half an hour later they were eating some leftover wyvern and packing up.  Sereda offhandedly mentioned that the next time they visit a beach Rea needs a swimsuit too.  Rea had forgotten...  In hindsight, neither of them would ever forget the amazing view of volcanoes and islands across a southern horizon as it lit up in a pale orange glow.  

Flying through the skies had become pretty fun for Sereda, even if she wasn't the one doing the flying.  Sometimes she had to go steel, Rea liked to speed up and scare the heck out of adventurers once in a while.  A few hero mages were given a wide berth though after the first one nearly fried her tail with lightning.  By noon they could see the forests of Kelaseran.  Not wanting to upset the elves she quickly set down and reverted to ophidian variant form.  After a modest meal they were marching towards Dunwalt's home.

The closer Rea got to these giant cypress trees the more she noticed patrols.  Just like, no, more so than the mushroom forest, there were plenty of patrolling elves.  With a beach to the south, plains to the east, and mountains to the northwest, this small forest was a pretty diverse location to live in.  Rea decided it was best to make themselves noticed and lit up a rather large lantern.  That... may have been a mistake.

A few minutes later nearly twenty elves were pointing their arrows at a surrendering ophidian.  Sereda stood in front of her, already full on steel.  Rea raised both hands and walked around Sereda, "I was just trying to say hi."

An elite hunter stepped forward, "What's your business here?" He was surprisingly courteous.

Rea thought for a moment, "I was looking to buy a staff, but we also wanted to see what Dunwalt's home is like."

The lead hunter dropped his guard, "What is your relation to Grassear?"

Sereda answered for her, "The three of us attended academia together, Dunwalt Grassear was a close friend.  We didn't have many friends there."

The man's gaze had fallen to Rea's right hand as he tensed up the bow again, "Where did you get that ring?"

Rea held up her hand, "It was a gift from some elves on the other side of the mountain..."  All of a sudden there was gasping and hushed whispers.

The lead elven hunter introduced himself as Grell, then motioned for Rea to follow him.  When he said that Sereda was to stay put, Rea gave him her ~fuck you very much~ look.  He got the message when Rea put some mana into her marital tattoo.  Strolling through the forest with nearly twenty guards was an odd feeling.  As they got closer and closer to the elven city, Rea got more and more excited.  Sadly all that awaited was utter disappointment.  Where there should be a majestic nature-like city, only log cabins stood... lots and lots of cypress cabins.  Rea cried out inside, REALITY, OH CRUEL, CRUEL MISTRESS! WHY~~~ WHY~~~

Ignoring the fact that a despondent Rea was now being carried over the bronze giant's shoulder, their escort led on.  The only reason Rea got up was because all of a sudden countless vines were shifting around them to open a path that hadn't been visible from farther away.  Rea looked up... and praised the lord.

Spanning from one massive cypress tree to the next were wooden bridges and ropes.  Long zip lines ran from one uniquely designed wooden tree house to the next.  Some were small, on a single side of a tree, other larger dwellings circled the entire tree and even branched out to others.  Rea was crying tears of joy as she looked at numerous flowing streams along the floor below.  The elf had led them up one such pathway and now she herself was in the real elven city.

Countless little specs of glowy thingys passed by in the fresh breeze, Sereda was almost as star struck as her wife.  Rea got bopped on the head when she lit up a few dozen lanterns and tried to peek in someone's home.  They also had to wait for Rea to catch up after she followed a few children and hopped on a zipline.  Somewhere along her way back she decided to dive into the streams below...  Sereda looked at a severely confuse elven man and uttered an apology on her wife's behalf.

As a soaking ophidian finally caught up she was quickly tossed over Sereda's shoulder.  The remainder of her journey was spent trying to escape until Sereda literally spanked Rea.  The resounding clap and yelp made her escort cringe.  Rea muttered curses as she absently toyed with Sereda's unique hair, she really was fond of the color.

One hour, one escaped ophidian, four laughing children, three embarrassed elves and a jug of honey water later...

Rea was being dragged by her feet, an annoyed wife huffed as they finally arrived at the place.  It was built into the hollowed out insides of a massive fir tree.  By the time they had arrived nearly a dozen important looking, albeit annoyed, elven people were waiting for them.  Rea quickly apologized, when they heard the reason for her absence... well, they weren't too upset.

A prominent level X [Hero-Godsbow] elven woman, Elara, spoke first, "We heard that you've had contact with our sister tribe?"

Rea nodded, "I met two of them about a month ago."

"How?"

"Mmmmm, I got teleported over there.  They gave me this ring then sent me on my merry way."

A vein popped out of the woman's forehead, brushing aside her golden hair she commented, "I meant how you crossed the mountain on foot, did you teleport back somehow?"

Rea chuckled ruefully, "Uhhh, goat ride... shafted, Telur'thal'mir, running dwarven train."

Sereda smacked her forehead and spoke up before someone could yell at Rea, "It very nearly killed her many times.  It wasn't something that could be done again, I assure you."

The woman sighed, "We had hoped another path opened..."

Rea cocked her head, "Dunwalt had said you have some sort of troublesome situation here.  But if you could ever manage to help the dwarves retake Telur'thal'mir.  I'm sure they'd help you make contact."

The elves pondered what she had just told them, "As you have claimed, our situation does continue to worsen as time goes on.  If nothing changes we will lose Kelaseran.  The last missive from Dunwalt claimed that he had met Lark Ainsworth and it seemed as though getting support from human forces, namely parties of powerful adventurers was likely.  As long as we asked for it...."  The speaking elf noticed the dumb smile on her face, "What?

Rea pointed to herself, "Rea Ainsworth, pleasure to meet you."

She could not have produced a more profound reaction from the elves if she tried.  Within minutes they were in a more comfortable meeting place.  Everybody sat on small fluffy pillows while passing around drinks and talking.  Then the conversation got a bit grim when she had to tell them of the current situation in Vestlei.  Times were hard all around.  Aside from that Rea also went on to tell them about the dwarves, the good and the bad.

They listened to everything she had to say intently.  When Rea asked if there were any elven blacksmiths they plainly told her no.  Any elven blacksmith wouldn't be able to operate with the way they live here.  So elven blacksmiths leave for Tal'ma'tarn.  Rea happily munched on a piece of the most delicious salad wrap ever and asked them to have a bunch of their archers or warriors cycle through.  The elves did as told and half an hour later Rea had picked out a dozen of them.  She then asked those dozen to pray to a god of the runes and ask for him to help them in these dire times.  Rea had to laugh when three elves got knocked on their rears.

The other nine looked up at her in shock as she kicked the losers... failures... garbage... unneeded elves out.  Rea proceeded to drop her makeshift anvil and ask for their preferred weapons.  Three bows, and six blades were handed to her.  Rea handed those back and asked for their carving blades, the ones they kept on their lower backs.  All did as told and Rea got to work.  For the next half hour they watched intently as Rea continued to engrave her hammer then pound the blades, one at a time.

Wanting to show off different effects she gave the three bowsman camo, technical ability, and vision.  The six melee swordsman were given strength, awareness, enduring vitality, protection, tech, and Rea's favorite, a thuriaz stroked Thor style for thunder.  One after the other they did as she explained, there was no need to bond, elves were pretty quick on the uptake.  When the awareness user claimed that he could hear heartbeats, he was laughed at.  He then told the elven woman, Elara, who had been previously annoyed with Rea that her heart was beating faster every time she glanced at the bronze woman...

Rea spoke up at that point, "You know, I'm not opposed to threes..."

*POW!*

Clutching her head, she went on to explain what she knew about runesmithing and why they should welcome some runesmiths from Tal'ma'tarn.  No one argued, she had a good point.  The elves then went on to beg her for a favor.  During the next three hours Rea inspected nearly three hundred elves, she then hammered out mannaz awareness runes on one hundred and twenty-three carving blades.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

One of their greatest enemies was a creature that seemed nearly invisible.  It would use incredible levels of stealth and poison them before they ever saw it.  The creatures, sarblos as the elves had called them, were dangerous because they had no way to hunt them down without risking death.  Rea realized they intended to use awareness to hunt down the menaces.  She quickly warned them about the limits of mana exhaustion.  A few elven mages easily explained what would happen under such conditions.  Rea was thankful for that.

While she was busy one of them explained that it wasn't poison in the conventional sense, more like some sort of potent curse.  No antidote would work on it, and with an enemy that is nearly impossible to detect, even when you know it's there... well that sort of deadly creature isn't something Rea would want to face off with.  With that in mind, she packed away an awareness dagger for herself.

It had been a long day so far and the elves were offering them a place to spend the night at this point.  As they were led off, Rea looked back to the smitten elven woman one last time to extend another invitation... Sereda knocked her old cold.  By the time Rea woke up, she was in a comfy hammock staring at a wooden roof.  Rolling out she looked around, an odd feeling seeing the side of a tree as one of your curved walls.  The floors had been sanded and oiled to dark wooden perfection and all furniture was high quality carpentry work.  Rea seriously loved this place.

Waltzing up behind the violent woman who had knocked her out cold, Rea asked, "Why so glum chum?"

Sereda was rubbing her hand, "You should've said something, I didn't realize how hard I've been hitting you."

Rea absently rubbed a bump on her noggin, "Well, you've been getting stronger lately."  Sitting down next to Sereda and gazing at the vast elven city she added, "I'll calm it down on the roguish behavior too."

Sereda laid her head on Rea's lap, "I'm sorry."

Rea looked down at her wife, this was one of the good moments... too bad she had to ruin it.  Summoning a minor dragon Rea asked, "Wanna make it up to me?"

Sereda took one sidelong glance at the beast and snapped it in two.  She then got off Rea's lap and dragged her inside, slamming a circular wooden door behind them.  "You really don't know when to give up do you?"

Rea was still pouting while nursing the injured dragon, "It's okay, she'll love you one day Deny.  Just you wait, everybody loves Deny.  They just need to give you a chance, that's all."  Sereda then demolished Deny with a steel lance... Rea looked up in feigned shock, "you killed my pet!"

Sereda gave her another sad look, "I really am sorry."

Rea realized joking around really wasn't taking the edge off her wife's guilt.  Slipping out of her garb she pulled Sereda in for a few light kisses.  "I'm not mad."

Sereda gazed into Rea's burning blue eyes, "I'm still sorry."

Rea fell back with Sereda on top of her, "you feeling sorry isn't making either of us feel any good.... how long was I out?"

Sereda kissed her a few times, "about an hour."

Rea gasped for breath a minute later, "guess I'll go staff shopping tomorrow..."

Sereda slid her tongue along the inside of Rea's lips, she then turned the angle of her head and pushed Rea down into the pillow as she forced another intimate kiss.  She could feel Rea's body already heating up, a telltale sign of what's to come. "I told them you wanted one, expect a them to hand you a stick, or a robe... they weren't too clear, something mage-like."

Rea smiled from ear to ear as Sereda pulled back, "oh, goodie."

Sereda tore her vest off as Rea slid both hands along the bronze woman's abdomen and up her bust.  "You're giving me bad habits, this isn't how normal people say sorry."

Rea scoffed, "make-up sex is awesome."

Sereda chuckled and leaned back down to kiss Rea again, "that's another problem, you don't know when to shut up."

"Yes I... *ahn* ...shutting up."  Sereda challenged Rea with a stalwart gaze, a death like grip... Rea had to say one last line, "I'm not mad."

Sereda loosened her grip, she couldn't be angry about that last line.  Looking at the giant hammock, she asked, "Think we'll fall out?"

Rea chuckled, "I've had balance training."

"I doubt that'll help."

Fondly remembering a certain farmer Rea easily picked the taller woman up, "you'd be surprised."

Day ~115~

The next morning a young elven woman with green hair walked in on some impressive acrobatics.  She was about to run out when Rea claimed that she should stay for the show.  Sereda got a little rough on the joking ophidian... the elven girl took her joke seriously.  Not really sure what to do they just finished what had already been started.  Twenty minutes later the blushing elf informed them that they had been summoned, and to hang the keep out acorn on the door when they engage in physical activity.

Rea took a glance at Sereda, "sorry..."

"I've given up, let's go."

*Woah* *Bang* *Crash*

Sereda was absently looking up at Rea, "get off."

Rea looked at a twisted hammock, "I can't believe we fell at the last moment..."

The bronze woman stopped and embraced Rea again, "You can't keep doing that."

Rea feigned ignorance, "what?"

"Every time I bring up Elizabeth you change the subject, we usually end up in bed...  I really am trying here."

Rea sighed and surrendered herself to the embrace, "I'm scared Sereda...  The more time we spend talking, the more I feel like I need you.  I ended up under a knife the last time I trusted someone with my heart... I know now that what I felt then wasn't love, I was just a needy child.  But the more time I spend with you, the more places we see together, moments we spend laughing... the deeper my feelings for you become."

Sereda grinned, "I thought you didn't know what love is.  That the meaning of it eludes you, how could you possibly know that wasn't love?"

Rea pinched Sereda on the thigh and gave her a brief, intimate kiss, "I think I get it now.  A farmer explained it to me... she was right."  Seeing the blissful expression on Sereda's face at that moment made her feel like she'd just made a huge mistake, so Rea got up and ran for it... "I am not saying I love you!  Don't misunderstand!  I'm still not sure, we're just friends!"

Sereda ignored the shouting... in one ear, out the other.

A while later they set out for the same meeting place as yesterday.  Sereda had been awake so she knew where to go.  It really wasn't that far from the guest housing.  Entering the same friendly chamber Rea was greeted by just five of the elves from yesterday, including Elara, the elf who has a thing for her wife.  Rea excitedly gazed at the table, three items laid there.  Looking back and forth at the elves then the items the woman finally sighed and said, "a gift from Kelaseran."

Rea has obtained [Protection-Robe]Enchanted Violet Rochon.

Rea has obtained [Accessory-Amulet] Alheil.

Rea has obtained [Weapon-Staff] Thyrsus.

Sereda saw it coming this time and had raised an earthen wall around her wife.  Before her garb hit the ground Rea was already covered.  She had to laugh at how the elven dress meant to show off her legs didn't do much when she wore her leather over knee boots.  She'd have to get a nice pair of slippers sometime.  The staff... Rea wondered if she already had a reputation.  

Enchanted Violet RochonClassificationClothRankRareEffects-

-[Major Charm]

-[Major Confluence]

-[Moderate Elemental Resistance]Description-

“Rochon” is a layered elven dress which is tied up in the front with a long delicate ribbon. The sleeves are long and flowing and while the overall design is conservative when it comes to showing skin the front of the skirt is split, showing the wearer's legs.

AlheilClassificationAccessoryRankUncommonEffects-

-[Minor Elemental Power]

-[Minor Elemental Resistance]Description-

Enchanted elven amulet made of agate, obsidian, and quartz.

ThyrsusClassificationArtifactRankMythicalEffects-

-[Major Charm]

-[Major Elemental Power]

-[Force Pulse]

-[Summon Atronach]Description-

A thyrsus or thyrsos was a staff of giant fennel (ferula communis) covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and always topped with a pine cone.  Oddly enough this one's pine cone was replaced by a priceless magical crystal clear gem. The thyrsus, associated with Dionysus (or Bacchus) and his followers, the Satyrs and Maenads, is a symbol of prosperity, fertility, hedonism, and pleasure in general. It has been suggested that this was specifically a fertility phallus, with the fennel representing the shaft and the pine cone representing the "seed" issuing forth.

With everything on she took one look at Sereda, judging from the woman's gaze it may be necessary to wear an undershirt.  Cool air and thin elven robes don't do much to keep her looking modest.  With the undershirt on Rea quickly set up the mage garb with her awareness dagger.

Having all of her sets fully geared was incredibly exciting.  Not just that, a mythical staff had been given to her.  The elves panicked when she summoned the atronach right there and then... he was a funny little three foot tall stone guy.  Force pulse just sent a wave out from the staff's point, she found that out after lamps above them flickered.  Saying their goodbyes didn't take long.  Rea offered the elven elder, Elara, an indirect kiss and got dragged out of Kelaseran post haste.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PREVIOUS CHAPTERNEXT CHAPTERREVIEWSUPDATES

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~