Chapter 1 A tribe in the forest

Alec awoke with a splitting headache. Slowly he stood up and surveyed his surroundings with a still blurred gaze. It looked like he wasn't alone. All around him he noticed body's. If he didn't hear their breaths he would have guessed that they were dead. As his vision cleared he noticed something off about the bodies around him.

First of all they were small, only about three-fourth the size of an adult human. Secondly their equipment and clothes looked rather tribal. They were composed of a lot of bones and fur strips. And last but not least they looked like goblins. They had a dark greenish skin, big noses, a slightly longer jaw than humans, which created the impression of an overbite, and long pointed ears. These ears weren't like elven ones thought. They were sort of a membrane, like an elephant's or cat's ear.

Just as Alec contemplated whether these creatures would attack him and he should run away they began to stir and wake up. Quickly he searched for a place to escape to, but they were located in a valley bordered by steep 3 meter high cliffs and its only exit was blocked by twenty of these creatures. Overall there were more than one hundred of them all over the valley. As such Alec didn't bother to ready his sword. Even if he could use it properly they would easily overpower him with sheer numbers.

All he could hope for was that they weren't innately hostile towards humans. And it wouldn't help his cause to aggravate them with a readied weapon. As the goblins were finally awake and somewhat clear minded, they quickly noticed him. They quickly grouped together and took a defensive stance. But Alec could clearly see that their eyes and actions held no hostility, only fear and curiosity.

Finally an old goblin that wore something that looked like the skull of an oversized cat as a hat asked. “What are you? An inhabitant of one of the other worlds?” “I am a human. And my name is Alec. From your words and the fact that you too just woke up here I guess that you too don't originate from here, right?”Alec responded. “You are right. We don't come from here. I already begin to miss our swamp. *sigh* We are the goblins of the Qu'Aranat tribe. In the name of our people I, Quaron, welcome you to stay with us in these difficult times.” The old goblin said.

These words quickly washed away the tension and shortly after Alec was swarmed by goblin children, who wanted to investigate these strange creature. From their questions Alec quickly learned that in their original world humans didn't exist. The only sapient race in their home world was their own.

After the children got bored, some adults came over and asked him some questions about his home world, but the more he tried to explain to them the more confusion was apparent on their faces. What confused them the most was the lack of nature in the cities, they couldn't understand why someone would get rid of something like a tree.

The last goblin that wanted to talk with him was a scar riddled old goblin, that, to Alec's surprise, wore a sword on his waist. “Is this steel?” he asked while pointing towards Alec's sword. “Yes, it was very common in my home world. I am surprised you know of it.” Alec said and unsheathed the sword just enough to show the metal. “I have only heard of it in legends. Only very few of our master blacksmiths ever found and worked with it. They said they found it in fallen stars. Look mine is made out of bronze, even thought I was one of the best swordsmen of the surrounding tribes.” He said and showed Alec his own sword.

“You just said that you are good with swords. Could you teach me? I fear my kind isn't very used to living in the wilderness. If I learned I could at least help to protect the tribe.” Alec asked. “Sure. Why not? With your size you should be a big asset to our defence. Ohh I almost forgot! Call me Quarc. I will come and find you tomorrow for your first lesson.” He answered.

With that he left to help his tribesmen, which to Alec's surprise already started to construct simple huts and a barricade with a gate at the valley entrance. The huts were constructed in concentric circles around a central plaza. They build the huts out of branches which they had snapped of trees and ferns. As he looked around he noticed that the goblins didn't fell any trees and collected only as many branches from one tree as they deemed save for the tree. Even the ferns were left behind in a state they most likely would survive.

Alec too quickly set up camp. He constructed his tent between two trees and with the help of some goblins he build himself a primitive bed. At the end of the day the goblins had constructed the barricade and ten huts. They would need about 20 more, so that every family could have their own home, but at least nobody would sleep under the open sky. As they sat together at dawn they shared their supplies with Alec and he too gave them a taste of his own world's food.

The goblins loved the spices in his food, which was quickly completely gone. But the goblins had brought more than enough food, so Alec wasn't worried about his lost. Until deep into the night he sat together with the goblins and spoke with them about their respective worlds and cultures.

The next morning he was awoken shortly after sunrise by Quarc. Together they ate a light meal and then the old goblin led him to a clearing near the barricade. “Take out your sword and place it tip down in front of you.” Quarc said. Alec did as he was told. The pommel of his sword was now on the same height as his sternum.

“Hmm the length looks like a one and a half handed sword to me. The form and size of the pommel too indicate that. But I could be wrong. I don't usually see such huge swords or their wielders. Sadly I don't know an explicit style for such a sword, but I can at least teach you some basics.” Quarc said.

“First of all a proper grip and posture. Place your dominant hand right beneath the guard and your other on the pommel. Like that you create a lever to move the whole blade. For that to work you can't grip it too tightly. In fact you shouldn't grip it at all. Just loosely encase the handle and pommel with your hands.” He explained and corrected any mistakes he spotted.

“Next comes posture. Hold the swords balance point close to your body, but not too close as it would hinder your movements. If you hold it too far away your arms will quickly tire. Your back should be straight and your feet about shoulder width apart and one of your feet should be half or a full step forward. This gives you a secure stance.” He explained and used a wooden sword to push Alec in the right posture.

“Lower your shoulders a bit. That's better. Don't build up tension. You won't need it and it wont help you. Next up are the basic guards. They are the positions of your hands and weapon in relation to your body. Your current guard is the middle guard. It holds a good balance between offence and defence. I will show you the other ones later. For now please note that when you try to hit or parry you normally won't raise or lower your arms too much. You move the blade through the lever and angle you create through your hands. That's is much less tiring than actual lifting the blade and also in most cases faster. Now please follow my lead as I show you the basic techniques you can use in this guard and the advanced that will end in another guard.” He said and swiftly moved into action.

Together with Quarc, Alec trained until evening. They would often interrupt the strenuous training for food and drinks and also a lot of stretching exercises, because Quarc said, that there aren't any inflexible fighters. And indeed the old goblin was as flexible as an olympic acrobat.

For the next two weeks all Alec did was training together with Quarc. At first he was worried that this behaviour would impose on the goblins hospitality, but soon he noticed that he wasn't the only one that trained non-stop. There were about twenty men and women in the tribe that trained all day. All of them were warriors, whose sole purpose was to fight, should it be necessary. At dawn, his only true rest period besides sleeping, he would often talk with them. He learned from them what their duties were.

They would further investigate and, if needed, eradicate any threats the tribes hunters discovered on their hunts. They also had to constantly train and hone their skills when they weren't needed. Their job and their very being was filled with their duties.

He also learned something about how they were transported and their abilities. In their world the tribes had been transported as a whole. Even if a tribe member had been far away at that moment, it had been with its family thereafter.

Their ability was rather enigmatic. It was simply named 'Nature Affinity'. None of the goblins had discovered its uses yet.

After the two weeks of intensive training were over, Alec's usual training regime was reduced and he began to spar with Quarc and also received survival oriented education. After another two weeks of such training Quarc announced that Alec now could be considered a full and valuable member of the tribe. He even jokingly teased Alec with the fact that he had overheard some tribeswomen talk about whether they should marry him to their daughters.

Alec wasn't disgusted by this, the goblins certainly weren't ugly, they had their very own charms, but he had quite some biologic doubts. The goblins looked in fact mostly like smaller humans, not like children though. Their adults were fully developed. The only differences aside from body size were the skin colour and the size and form of ears and noses, which were overall larger and pointier. Their overall look was rather harmonic.

But Alec doubted that most humans would describe them as beautiful as much as he doubted that most goblins would think of humans as beautiful.

His train of thoughts was rudely interrupted by loud yells that came from the barricade. In flowing motions he and Quarc drew their weapons and run towards the yells.

“Quns! We spotted a pack of Quns! There were around twelve of them to the Northeast.” A hunter hastily and loudly reported to the gathering warriors. “Quns?” Alec asked Quarc in a whispering voice. “They are our tribes titular Saints. And they are big ass cats with a pair of very long teeth. Their shoulders are as high as a goblins.” Quarc quickly explained. “Very swift, dangerous creatures and they consider us food and rivals and will actively hunt our hunters and foragers if we don't kill them.”

As one of a warriors duties was to always be ready to move out they immediately gathered their equipment and set out. As they moved through the forested area towards the grasslands, where the Quns had been spotted, Quarc briefed Alec on their usual group battle tactics.

Alec would be placed in the second row of their circle formation, since he had about the same reach as their spear bearers, while Quarc and the other shield-bearers would block the cats way. As the cats tend to circle their prey, if it didn't run away, a circle was the only feasible formation in an open plain.

After marching for three hours they reached the grassland. They quickly and efficiently took a formation close to their battle formation. This allowed them to still march, but also being battle ready at any moment. The goblin noses quickly led them to the Quns.

The big cats were lazily laying atop a formation of rocks that overlooked the surrounding area. When they noticed the approaching group the twelve beasts immediately got up and begun to circle around them. Always lurking for any opening.

“Hey Quarc why didn't we bring any bows?” Alec asked without taking his eyes off of the four cats in front of him. Quarc didn't answer and only deftly kicked a stone towards the closest Qun. Which swiftly avoided it in a big manner. “They fear any projectiles and hear them coming from far away. It was their way to adapt to us. If we had brought bows they would have fled.” Quarc explained with a calm voice.

All of a sudden all the cats charged at the same time. Although Alec was surprised by this, the shield bearers kept their calm and raised their shields and short swords. They created a wall the cats couldn't or weren't willing to jump.

Alec immediately slashed towards a Qun that just barely came to a halt in front of the shields and cleanly hit it in the head. With a sickening squelch the tip of Alec's sword dug into the cats skull and ended its life.

But the fight was far from over. Cautioned by the sudden death of their companion the other Quns distanced themselves from the group and restarted their circling around the group. But quickly their approach changed and instead of walking solo the remaining cats formed a group. Together they feinted numeral charges at the goblins. Until finally they really attacked.

But the hunters had kept their vigilance and quickly after the two groups had clashed all the hunters embarked in a bloody melee. Alec quickly ran towards a huntress that had been pushed down by one of the cats and hacked down towards it. But the cat managed to jump away and was only lightly wounded in its flank.

Alec dispersed his blades momentum by changing its direction and driving it in the ground. If he hadn't done so he would have cleaved at the huntress's shield, which she had held over her face and upper body to save her life from the cat's teeth.

Alec quickly helped her up and she raised her shield just in time to block the Qun that tried to once again charge at them. This time she held her ground and didn't stumble. The stunned Qun that latched onto the shield was quickly dispatched by a slash to its throat from Alec.

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The huntress took a step back to drop the carcass from her shield and together with Alec she rushed forward to close the gap in the formation and help their tribesmen.

With the charge broken, the formation closed and the Quns engaged in melee combat the fight quickly came to a bloody end. The goblins won and luckily nobody died. But there were quiet some seriously wounded. A few broken bones and a couple of tears or bites close to big blood vessels or organs. The warriors routinely treated the open wounds with a clear liquid, which smelled as bad as it burned in wounds, and bandages. The broken bones couldn't be set right right now, so all that could be done was to splint them if necessary.

On their way back Alec's and Quarc's conversations had gained another permanent participant. Quini the female warrior Alec had rescued and cooperated with. Together they had played a major part in the later part of the combat and had killed five Quns together. With that the two of them would easily dominate the kill score board, if someone made one that is.

Quini was a relative young warrior. With her eighteen years she had just absolved the last part of her training half a year ago and this battle had been her first real combat experience.

Maybe it was because of their close age or the same profession, but the two of them found rather many common interests and Quarc, who said he feels too old with two young people around him, left them to their conversation.

“So what did a normal life in your old world look like?” She asked all of a sudden after they had finished their conversation about their training regimes. “Normally it goes something like this. We are born and then for the next five years we live with our parents who teach us the most basics things. Like walking, washing our selves, eating and of course talking. Then we enter school. Until we are 16 or 18 we are taught a lot of differing things. About history, sports, science and literature. After that we learn a job, find a partner and a home and found our own family and raise our children. And finally at one point we die. How is it among your people?” Alec answered.

“For us our parents aren't more important than everyone else. We are raised by the entire tribe until we can take care of ourselves. Theoretically we are free to leave by then, but we barely leave our tribe. With one exception. Most search for a mate in other tribes at one point. When the deed is done everyone returns to their respective clan. There also exist quite some legends about that ritual. For example our Qu'Aranat tribe is said to originate from a goblin that bore the child of a Qun in her body. At least that is what most use as an explanation to our ears.” Quini said with a slightly darker tinted face than usual.

“So you mean that other tribes have a different ear form from yours?” Alec asked while intently inspecting Quini's ears. Which caused the tone of her cheeks to darken further. “Ye.. Yes their ears are much smaller. Also they are harder and less flexible than ours. Theirs look mostly like yours, just a bit bigger and pointy.” She answered.

“I am glad you have the ears you have. They look better than everything I could imagine with your description.” Alec said. For a few minutes their conversation came to a halt, as Quini seemed to have found a new interest towards the ground and intently observed it as they walked. But soon they began to talk again.

After another hour of marching through the forest they finally arrived at the village. The news of the battle spread like wildfire throughout the clan and barely two hours later everyone was enjoying themselves at an impromptu celebratory banquet.

The next morning Alec and Quarc started their training rather late, as like mostly everybody else they too had celebrated late into the night. “Morning Quarc. Could you help me with a little experiment? Could you say some random basic components of your language?” Alec asked. As of late his conversations with the goblins had become a bit contradicting, especially considering the marriage Quarc spoke of once. In the goblins community the concept of marriage didn't exist at all, that he had learned from Quini and reaffirmed with some other goblins.

And like he had suspected all he heard from Quarc was absolute gibberish. Something had been translating for Alec all this time and it only translated the meaning, or something close to that. The closest concept Alec knew to the goblins mating ritual was marriage, as such it had been translated as this. Strangely names like Qun hadn't been translated like this. Was it because he didn't knew something like these creatures? Or was it because it was their actual name?

No matter how long he thought about them and discussed about them with Quarc he didn't find the explicit rules behind these translations. But he learned that he could say something completely different and Quarc would still understand the same all the time, as long as Alec firmly imagined what he wanted to confer. He could even hum to talk. He even managed to change the translations in his mind. Like this he could exchange the word 'goblin' to 'forest elve'. A description he now found way more fitting. They just weren't goblins, who in most cases are described as ugly, mean and fiendish creatures.

After the experiment was concluded they started their usual training. But as they sparred Alec felt like something was different today. It seemed much easier to read Quarc's movements. He always seemed to know beforehand which movements Quarc could do next. And as he focused on this sensation the music in Alec's mind changed. And within an instant he understood. Every tune in his mind represented a movement of Quarc and at the same time they held the meaning of the next possible move. Like in music, where after a note only some others can follow without breaking the harmony, in fights only certain movements can follow after a prior posture or move without breaking the fighters balance and flow.

For example it isn't possible to immediately slash upwards after a downwards slash. One had to stop the swords momentum. Which was slow and exhausting. Something a good swordsmen would avoid.

For a minute Alec was able to easily predict and counter Quarc. But then Quarc simply broke his flow and did something completely unpredicted. Alec was completely taken by surprise and couldn't react in time. He was hit in the chest and staggered backwards.

“Don't rely too much on reading your opponent. Although it is a good sign that you started so fast to learn it, its also at a bad time. I have just started to teach you how to use tactics in combat. Please mark my words. What can be read can be foiled with. For example look at my stance and tell me where my weight lays.” Quarc said and stood front of Alec.

“Your front?” Alec guessed with the melody. “No, my back leg.” Quarc said and kicked Alec in the stomach with his front leg. Once again Alec staggers backwards. “Like I said, if I know that you read my posture all I need to do is show you a false image.” he explained. “You wouldn't be the first one who seemed prodigious against inexperienced warriors, but would be handled like a child by someone who has experience with posture reading enemies. Your ability is good, but always take what you see with a grain of salt. Shall we continue?” With that they resumed their training.

Their daily routine continued like before, but now with a new addition. Quini would join their training rather often. After two weeks Alec now sparred more often against Quini than against Quarc, who would always comment on their errors and tactics.

Summer had come to an end and Autumn greeted them with cold heavy storms. Alec had to move into one of the huts as his tent couldn't withstand the storms. Luckily some had become empty recently as some of the forest elves had moved into the long houses they had constructed.

He now trained together with the other warriors in a long house that had been especially built as something like a dojo. It was a rather happy life, but with each day his worries grew. He had worried about his parents ever since he had been transported into this world, but all this time he had quelled them with the thought that he would die way before finding them. But as he trained and honed his abilities this reasoning grew weaker. Until finally he searched for Quaron and asked whether he could leave to search for them.

“I can understand your reasoning and I would be the last person to stop you, but don't leave with haste. Stay three days longer and I will organize everything you will need on your journey.” He had said. “Why three days? I am sure I could get everything I need in a day.” Alec had replied. “Because you would miss our only regular annual celebration then.” He had said chuckling.

Since a couple of days probably wouldn't make a difference and the weather was beyond horrendous anyway Alec had agreed to Quaron's interjection. With each passed day the anticipation in the community grew even more, but no matter how much he asked around nobody would tell Alec anything about what was to come.

And then the day of the celebration had arrived. Everybody except the children and some adults had gathered together. They would enjoy the festival in a separate location, with less excitement. At least that was what Alec had been told. Quaron rather unceremoniously started the festival with a few words. “We thank the land for its fruits and prey. Let the festivities begin.” He had said.

And all of a sudden the many women of the tribe filled the tables with food. Something the people in the long house that is usually used by the warriors had only been able to smell. Every dish Alec had ever eaten while he had stayed with the tribe was there and then some he had never seen before.

But what surprised him the most were the drinks. Normally all there had been was water, nothing else. Not even milk, as the tribe had lost its herds as they had been transferred.

But now all of a sudden they served a sweet and fragrant drink, which Alec couldn't quite identify. Everybody seemed to enjoy the drink quite a lot thought.

At some point of the festival Alec's memories and mind had started to get blurry. The next clear moment Alec found himself in his bed next to a naked sleeping Quini. The sun shone through the hut's window and just on the face of the contently smiling woman.

Alec suspected the drink as a culprit for what had happened. It most likely contained some sort of highly effective drug. Slowly his brain began to clear up his memories. He had been sitting together with the other warriors for most of the evening. Slowly they had left him pair by pair. He hadn't really cared about this at the time thought, as he had talked or flirted with Quini all the time.

He remembered that he had rather hot in the long house and together he and Quini had left it and then....

A sudden voice interrupted his daydreams 'Integration complete. Title earned. Title: Tribesman of the Qu'Aranat. For further information check your status'. “Oh , right I completely forgot! There was something like that! Status!” He immediately thought. But instead of opening a screen in front of him information flooded his mind.

He knew how much strength every muscle in his body could exert, how far any of his could bent and what was the average of his species. He knew that he was well trained but also that he was far from his limit. To be exact that seemed to have been removed. He noticed that as he imagined himself with more strength and his mental picture of himself had changed. Interestingly his physique didn't change too much but he knew that the density of his biological make up had changed considerably.

Without lingering too long he let the status change back into its original state and focused on his titles. The tribesman title was rather straightforward and was more of an identification or honor than anything else. 'Integrable' on the other hand allowed him to understand and be understood by any cultured sapient species and also suppressed any hostile reactions, at their first encounter with his kind, towards him by these species. Additionally it gave him the possibility to become a part of their communities, including.... to sire children with them.

“It can't be!” He thought. He quickly checked his family status. There were his parents listed there and sure enough also Quini and two unnamed entities. “But I thought they could only get pregnant one month per year! Don't tell me... So that's why they drank that drug en mass!” He exclaimed in his mind to not wake up Quini. “That sly Quaron! That was exactly why he didn't want me to leave! Quarc had already told me that it was custom to leave something behind before one leaves the tribe to journey the world. But no matter what, he didn't want to tell me what one normally leaves behind.” Now he knew and he felt kinda awkward about it. Sure, the tribe will take care of his children, but he still clung a bit to the norms of humans.

“Silly you. You can leave unworried. After all we both and even the tribe decided on this matter. And children don't need their father to be present to be born.” Quini said as she saw his worried expression.

“You already know?” He asked surprised. “Of course I do, Silly. That is because we are different from you humans, as you already know we can only get pregnant for one month in a year, but we can make it count and have full control about the pregnancy. As such only very rarely does somebody of our kind die during childbirth.” She answered confidently. “ That is what makes the legend about the founding of this tribe so very interesting. She had chosen to bear the beasts children.”

For a while they stayed silent. Then Quini asked “Care for another round?”