Dragon's Teeth Mountains
As soon as Eliz grabbed Broccoli by the throat, the shit-shooting stopped. Everyone else looked around and saw about four or five Arachnids peeking out from their hiding places and curling their lips upwards as if to mock them.
However, Eliz was still staring menacingly at Broccoli. "Someone start a fire," she said coldly, before bringing Broccoli closer to her face and wiping the stinky mess on her cheek against his body.
"Yuuu!" Broccoli let out a yelp.
"What's wrong? You don't like it? It's only fair that you're covered in shit like us too!" Eliz snapped and turned her gaze to the others. "What are you doing? Make that bonfire!" she growled.
Alobela moved and began to do as Eliz commanded. Grash looked around and grinned, for he was the only one besides Raiana who didn't have any filth on him. Alarr noticed his smirk and frowned, looking down at his originally shiny armor. Luckily, something like that didn't stick well to metal, but the stains remained.
Alarr turned away and looked at Arachape again. He wasn't sure what Eliz was going to do or why she was suddenly angry at the beast, but from the look in her eyes, it looked like she was serious. He was learning not to ask anymore and just wait and see what she would do.
Holm looked worried and stared at Eliz with a strangled Broccoli who bulged his eyes. Elizabeth got angry easily, but he didn't think she was someone who took her anger out on innocent animals. "Lady, what do you want to do?" he finally asked.
"Let's roast some Broccoli," Eliz replied.
Holm frowned. "I know this... isn't pleasant, but don't you think...."
"Holm. It got in my mouth!" Eliz darted her eyes at him.
Holm fell silent, reasonably suppressing the chuckle that was breaking out. He cleared his throat. "Ehm. I see. But still, is it right to take out your frustration on an animal?"
Eliz shook her head and held Broccoli in front of his face. "What animal!? It's just a damn fraud! Besides being a dragon, he's also a Forest Protector! Or maybe I should say SHE is a Forest Protector."
"What?"
"What?"
"This thing?"
"Really?"
"HoHo!"
There were several loud reactions of surprise; for some reason, even the nearby Arachape were making surprised noises.
They all looked at Broccoli, who twisted her elongated body a little and squirmed. Alarr raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"
Eliz snorted. "I'm sure," she replied.
"My lady," Alobela spoke, and Eliz looked at her to see that she was crouched beside a small fire that was already burning. The fire pit was small, and the flames weren't very strong, which made it understandable that Alobela was careful with it. Starting a fire in the forest wasn't a good idea, but a fire this small was easy to control.
Eliz nodded. "Good. Thank you." She walked over to the fire pit and then looked at Broccoli, who still looked innocent.
"Hmph! Are you still pretending? If you don't want me to really roast you, you better talk, Forest Protector," Eliz warned her.
Broccoli turned her head at her. "Yuu..." She let out a sad whine.
Eliz frowned. "You don't think I'll do it, huh? I'm not as soft as you think, bitch," Eliz said, reaching out the hand she was holding Broccoli in and holding it over the flames. Not enough to burn her, but enough to start heating up her butt.
"Yuuu!" Broccoli hissed.
"HoHoHo!" The surrounding Arachape began to make upset noises and beat their chests. Eliz glanced at them briefly. "If those monsters get close, I'll throw you straight into the fire, do you understand?" She warned Broccoli and the gorilla monsters.
The Arachape calmed down again, only confirming to Eliz what she had already thought, that Broccoli was controlling them. "So. What's going to happen?" asked Broccoli again, but she was still stubbornly playing her role.
"Fine. I guess I need to show you that I'm not joking," Eliz began to slowly bring Broccoli closer to the fire. The others watched her worriedly, especially Holm and Raiana, who were quite fond of animals. Alarr was rather curious, Grash seemed to be enjoying himself again, liking that the Kitty was capable of all sorts of things, and Alobela just watched without expression.
Eliz didn't really stop; she didn't threaten idly. So when the top of the flames licked at Broccoli's body, she rolled her eyes. "It burns! No! You win!" Broccoli shouted in a voice that sounded more like a child's than a woman's. Eliz quickly pulled Broccoli out of the flames. "No more games! I wanted to play by your rules, but I won't forgive you for throwing shit at us!"
"It was just a joke! Just a joke!" Broccoli protested, and Eliz's eyes blazed with rage again. "A joke, huh? Let's see how much fun it is for you!" She looked around, then grabbed a stinky mass from the ground combined with dirt and grass. "Try it yourself!" She snapped, then smashed a handful of the nastiness into Broccoli's face.
"Gahhh! That stinks! Help!" Broccoli screamed, but that only earned her a mouthful of filth.
Seeing the two fighting, the others relaxed. Alarr sighed and ran a hand through his hair before shaking his head, pulling a large piece of cloth from his pocket and began cleaning his armor. He turned and looked at the monsters to keep an eye on them. Raiana began to rub her forehead and went to help Holm clean himself up. Alobela stopped, noticing Eliz and Broccoli, and started cleaning herself as well. Grash guffawed as he watched the two, but quickly winced when a piece of dirty cloth landed on his face. "Hey!" He barked, ripping the stinky fabric off his face. He looked over at Alarr, who was standing to the side of him, all too obviously pretending to ignore him. The Arachape stood around for a moment longer before disappearing somewhere.
Eliz felt somewhat better after taking her revenge, so she dropped Broccoli on the ground. The creature rolled over and began to spit, cleaning its face with its front paws. "Pui! Pui!"
Eliz grinned. "Not so funny when it happens to you, right?" she sneered.
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Broccoli looked at her. "I don't like you," she blurted out.
Eliz snorted. "I don't like you either," she shot back.
"You stink."
"You stink too."
"Shit-eater!"
"You're talking about yourself, aren't you?"
The two of them started exchanging swear words like little kids. After a moment, Eliz paused when she noticed the others rolling their eyes or shaking their heads tiredly. Eliz cleared her throat, realizing she was getting a little carried away. "Enough. You better show us the way to the World Tree. Or I'll put you in the fire again." She warned Broccoli. Alobela, who had just put out the fire, stiffened and began preparing it to be lit again.
Broccoli snorted and then began to change. Growing, that is. It was almost like watching a plant grow at an accelerated rate. The broccoli was all covered in leaves and flowers while it grew in height and width. It stopped growing when it was about 120 cm tall, and then shook itself off like a wet dog, and the leaves fell off.
Eliz sort of expected a pretty elf-like woman to appear, maybe with horns and scales, but still pretty. She wasn't far from the truth, but Broccoli was definitely not beautiful.
Eliz couldn't deny that she had her charms and gorgeous eyes, but that was all. Broccoli literally looked like a cross between a humanoid and a dragon, her face was a little elongated, her nose flattened to the point of being almost non-existent, her eyebrows prominently arched, her face green and scaly, and a pair of big beautiful orange eyes. She had a pair of long orange horns sticking out of her head, large blanched orange ears on the sides of her head, her hair was dark green and wildly messy and sticking up in the air, and she wore plain worn clothes that revealed her scaly hands.
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"Hmph!" Broccoli put her hands to her sides and snorted, turning her head to the side in offense. Eliz looked her over, then rubbed her temple. Now that she saw her, she realized something. Broccoli was still a child.
"My lady." Alobela appeared beside her, handing her a water bellows. Eliz nodded and took it from her, then began to clean up while Broccoli stood there tapping her foot impatiently. In truth, she was tense and nervous as everyone was staring at her.
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It took a while for Eliz to cleanse herself of the foul-smelling substance, and she rinsed her mouth many times. When she was done, she turned back to Broccoli and looked her over once more—the dragon child. Now it made sense why their trial had turned out the way it had. Only children could find it funny when they threw excrement at someone.
Eliz felt a little guilty for hurting the child, but only a little. Broccoli was a dragon, after all; it probably didn't hurt her much. Probably.
"Fine. We passed your trial. Show us the way," Eliz said after she stopped staring at the dragon child.
"Passed?! You haven't even started!" Broccoli protested.
"The assignment for the test was to find the Forest Protector." Eliz walked over to her and poked her finger into Broccoli's small chest. "And that's what we did. Or are you telling me you're not a Forest Protector?"
Broccoli pouted her lips. "How do you even know that?"
"I just know," Eliz replied with a shrug.
"No. Tell me!" Broccoli stammered, and Eliz had just about had enough. She grabbed her blanched ear and pulled on it. "Stop acting like a brat. We won, so you better play by the rules you set for yourself!
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Don't pull!" Broccoli was painfully jumping, and when Eliz let go of her, she rubbed her sore ear. "It's not fair. We've barely started." She whined.
Eliz shrugged. "You messed up yourself. You tried my patience too soon. Now get moving." She waved a hand at her and nodded to the others. They formed into formation again and followed the dragon girl. Broccoli walked in front, looking like she was pouting. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do. Eliz was right; they had accomplished the task. It was frustrating for Broccoli; she had so much fun prepared and was looking forward to the pretty lady's expressions. Now she was regretting her prank; Broccoli liked the way the lady petted her, but now she was angry with her.
"Tell me why you're stalking, Draikini," Eliz asked suddenly, and Broccoli jumped, looking back to see everyone staring at her.
"I'm not stalking," Broccoli countered.
"Oh? So he knows you're a dragon, but he doesn't know you're a Forest Protector, and he doesn't know you're a girl. You go around acting like a pet. Sounds like stalking to me," Eliz enumerated, and Broccoli winced in startle. That lady knows too much!
Broccoli began to play with her fingers. "Draikini has to live alone because he's a hermit, and they live alone. I don't like living alone, but I couldn't stay with Draikini if he knew I was like that."
Eliz frowned. What kind of logic is this? If someone lives as a hermit isn't it voluntary? "Why does he have to live alone?" Eliz questioned.
The others seemed to be a bit confused as well. Holm wondered if it had something to do with the elf's special constitution, and oddly enough, it was something that occurred to Grash as well.
"The Elders said Draikini was strange and so he must live separate and alone," Broccoli replied without giving it much more thought.
There was a flash in Eliz's eyes that showed she was annoyed; Alarr also began to frown again more than usual. "Did the Elder Elves say that? That he's weird so let him go live somewhere else? And alone? When did that happen?"
Broccoli nodded. "Hm. Yes. And a long time ago. Draikini was still very young at the time."
"And Sh... World Tree agreed to this?" Eliz asked again.
"The World Tree? I don't know, I guess she didn't mind?" Broccoli was getting confused by the questions. Was there something strange about that?
Eliz rubbed her forehead and sighed. Raiana leaned over to Eliz and asked quietly. "Does it sound like what I think it is?" She asked. Eliz nodded. "I think so too. And if that's the case, those elves are real bastards." Raiana nodded and lowered her eyes; she had dealt with ostracizing herself so she was somewhat sensitive to this.
They walked in silence for a while, noticing as they approached a stone archway that was so overgrown with greenery that it could easily be mistaken for a strangely twisted tree, but up close they could see the grey stone peeking out from under the climbing plants. It looked like the remains of some ancient structure, but there were no other remnants of buildings around.
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"Here," Broccoli said and climbed up to the arch she had placed her hand on. Her hand glowed blue with mana, which flowed into the joints of the arch and seemed to make the whole thing come alive. The air in the middle of the arch began to wave that it looked like wavering hot air. "Now pass through. You will reach the Light Elf Village." Broccoli looked at them with her big orange eyes.
Eliz returned her gaze and nodded. "Don't forget to bring Fraril back later." Eliz reminded her before stepping forward. Raiana, however, held her back and went first. She stepped up to the rippling air before walking through. Everyone blinked as she seemed to disappear behind an invisible curtain. She just disappeared. After a few seconds, she reappeared. "It's okay." She confirmed the safety of the passage.
Eliz looked again at Broccoli who looked a little sad. "I'll see you later. Figure out a way to apologize if you want to make up with us again." She said goodbye before walking through the passage. Broccoli watched after them and then tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. Then she stomped her foot in irritation. "I have nothing to apologize to you for! You stuck poop in my face too!"
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City of the Light Elves
It was like diving into hot water. Quite pleasant, but it only lasted a moment before the heat was replaced by cold. Not frost, but rather a cold like the beginning of spring, when the sun was already shining warmly, but there was a cold wind blowing around, and in places, you could still see snow.
When Eliz opened her eyes, she stared. And she wasn't alone. Everyone was looking around in amazement. Eliz had expected to find themselves in some overgrown village made of growing trees, all green and natural—the image of a classic fantasy elf village.
She wasn't wrong about this place being green. But since when did elves live in skyscrapers? Tall stone buildings rose up to the sky, all covered in plants, and trees grew out of some of the skyscrapers. Moreover, this was not a village but a city that extended into the distance, separated by a flowing river and surrounded by high mountains, so it remained hidden from everyone's view.
"Holy shit..." Eliz said, closing her dropped chin.
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