Chapter 4
Inside the Haunted Mansion on the outskirts of buttermilk the wolfman and the elf maiden spoke.
“It's good to see an old friend.” She said.
“It's been almost 150 years.” He replied. “What brings you here?”
“I may have stolen some artifacts that didn't belong to me.” She said with a grin. “But I stole from thieves, stagecoach Bandits and Highwaymen. They tracked me while I was wandering. I almost bit it. I just learned this spell, let me show you.” She started moving her arm strangely and conjured a small scale Forest on the table as if it was a hologram. The two sitting at the coffee table could see a small version of the elf princess in the forest. The Wolfman looked closer and suddenly he was standing beside the elf woman. He was watching her as if he were a bird. or ghost.
“This is a memory spell I learned.” she said proudly. The Wolf man could hear her speak inside his mind.
The elf Maiden was quietly wandering through the jungle when she heard a snapping twig behind her. She set off in a run towards a cliff. She approached the top of a waterfall and realised she was cornered high on the hill.
Four massive creatures emerged from the bushes. One was a giant orc dressed in black jagged armour. A few steps behind him walked a giant hog on a leash. The other two creatures were Giants. They were dressed in a patchwork skirt of leathers and hides. Handmade by the giants themselves.
“Ho Hum. Nowhere to run.” Said one giant, who was holding an axe made from a tree trunk and an anvil, sharpened.
“Stro hum. Dee Hum. Smashing you with my club is fun.” Said the other giant.
“Shut up and stop rhyming.” Said the orc to the giant beasts. He had a deep and rough British accent. The giants smiled. “Now you!” He said with a shout, pointing at the elf princess with a rusty, bent and bloodied blade. “You GIVE ME BACK all my loot! I stole that, fair and square.”
The elf looked at the water behind her and decided to risk it. She dodged a vicious swing from the anvil-axe and it dented the rock.
She fell into the water to escape and started to swim for shore. She emerged onto the bank, dodging arrows that started coming from the bushes on top of the cliff. More bandits.
The arrows rained down beside her. She conjured a skeleton horse made from vapour. It was the spectral steed of her first horse, a white horse named Lady.
She summoned her ghostly steed just as a thrown boulder landed on the shore nearby, then an uprooted small tree thrown by a giant crashed and exploded against the tree beside her. The giants were throwing everything they could grab.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
She rode into the forest as the giants splashed into the water at the bottom of the cliffs. They started running after her.
Bandit magicians appeared through portals onto the backs of the giants. They mounted the giants like acrobats, riding their shoulders and using their portals to teleport the giants closer to the elf princess.
The princess jumped over a tree log and landed inside a portal, appearing face to face with the two giants. She dodged them both and ran away. A portal appeared in front of her and a boulder was hurled at her by the giant on the other side. Then the portal closed. A portal appeared again, in front of her, but she dodged it by sprouting spectral wings and abandoning her ghostly horse spell. The horse vanished into pale mist. Her new wings glowed with angelic beauty. She flew high into the treetops to escape and confuse the bandits. This worked, they kept looking on the ground for the elf princess, but she had flown into the sky. A few minutes later she followed a white bird towards the Castle of Flowers.
The elf landed on the outskirts of the castle and walked through a field of beautiful flowers. Her magical wings disappeared into thin air. She walked into the city gates and into a tavern. She sat down at the table and ordered five steaks a salad and a small barrel of ale. The bartender almost kicked her out, but she pulled out a golden statue of an ancient Tiki Totem from her bag as payment and the bartender happily agreed to give her the portions. She spent the next few hours demolishing every plate. She rented a room, crawled into bed and slept with a large belly full of ale and beef. Her energy was drained, she was tired and needed time to recharge after flying for so long. That spell caused some wizards to pass out and fall to the ground. Luckily Freya was an adept magic caster. She looked like a young girl, but she was almost immortal, thanks to her pure royal elven genetics. Her magic had been honed over a thousand years.
Freya then walked through the city, looking for a blacksmith. She spotted the two giants standing by the city gate, and then realised the bandits had arrived. They were blending into the crowd. She noticed a few large men in the crowd look at her with hands on their blade hilts. She walked into an alleyway and used a spell to turn into a lady beetle.
She flitted outside of the castle walls and over the castle's fields to the forest surrounding the castle. She found the road leading out of the castle and hitched a ride on the back of a carriage. Trying her best to not be seen. She put on her travelling cloak, concealing much of her armour. She wandered towards the closest village, The small town of Buttermilk, where her old friend lived.
The illusion faded and the wolf man and Freya were sitting by the fireplace, next to a regular coffee table.
“Sounds like you’ve had some trouble.” He said.
“The bandit faction keeps growing.” Freya said. “They have one hundred and fifty men, and they keep getting more. The Elf Kingdom doesnt want to intervene, I fear some bribes may have tainted our leadership. Their camps are huge, and they have killed 3 of my scouts with traps. Something has to be done, before they are big enough to take a castle. Then what? We have another two hundred years of war. Sieges. Militaries dying. I am nervous.”
“We must plan, stay at my manor and wait for me to return and we will discuss this more.” The Wolf said to her. “I need time to come up with solutions. I have connections to the king, I will make sure this is taken seriously. I will be gone three days at most.”
He then turned into a wolf, knocking everything off the coffee table as it happened, and then he ran out of the door. Freya watched as the door slowly closed. The fireplace was crackling.
She sat in stunned silence.