by D. Levesque
I say with a sigh, “You aren’t my type even if I was to swing that way, but thanks for the offer. No. My offer is this. If you all turn around and promise to leave us alone, I promise not to kill you all.”
The Pirate loses his smile, and looks at me intently. He looks around suspiciously and asks, “You do see that there are five of us and only one of you?”
“Two,” I say, pointing to Leeha.
The Pirate snorts. “As I said, five of us and one of you. Do you expect us to believe you can kill us all on your own?” he scoffs.
“Last chance,” I tell him quietly.
“Fuck this, kill them both,” the Pirate says, taking his second dagger out and stepping towards us. Not moving, I place my hand on the ground and think, Now.
Suddenly the ground under the five men disappears, and screams erupt from them as they fall into the hole. The area is larger than I thought the Elementals would make it. It’s roughly thirty feet out from me and goes ten feet on either side. I get up quickly and look down, and instantly regret it. The men have fallen into lava, and their bodies have burst into flames. Their cries had cut off quickly, and now I see why.
You have received 1 Heavenly Token.
Heavenly Tokens: 4 of 200.
So getting rid of five people who were probably killers only netted me one token? Then again, I shouldn’t really complain since I honestly have no clue what will get me Heavenly Tokens. And I am not sure I want to know. For this one, I’m pretty sure it was the event of getting rid of a group that got me that Heavenly Token.
Leeha puts a hand on my back, as I am trying not to get sick at the stench of burnt flesh that reaches me. “Alex, you know this won’t be the last time you will need to kill?”
“I know,” I tell her, taking a deep breath. And now the words God said to me earlier come back. It’s all right to kill in self-defense. He knew, didn’t he? He knew that I would need to kill in this world, and he was letting me know that it was all right.
Chapter Eighteen
“The fire is nice,” Leeha says, snuggling against me.
“I agree,” I tell her quietly, kissing the top of her head, “That’s because the company is amazing.” And it’s true. This beautiful blond-haired, blue-eyed Elf has captured my heart.
“I have to agree,” she says, looking up and kissing me on the lips.
We had moved from the pit, as we didn’t want to be near the stench of burning flesh that I had caused. The hole was covered up, though. The Fire Elemental doused the fire from the lava, and then the Earth Elemental covered the hole, bringing back the dirt and rocks it had moved. By the time we had moved on, there was no way to tell anything that horrific had happened there.
We hiked for another four hours before we decided to stop. We had left the road after we veered off to set our trap, and made sure that we weren’t followed by stopping a couple of times and hiding. After the third time, Leeha said we were safe.
Thinking back on the feeling I had with the Elementals, I ask Leeha, “So when you call up your Water Elemental, do you get feelings from it, like emotions?”
“What?” she says, perplexed. “No, as I said, it’s just a tool to focus our power.”
“Hmm,” I say, thinking out loud.
With her in my arms, I hold my left hand out and think Fire. The fire globe appears in my hand and lights up the area. I say to it in English, “Can you lower your light output, so it’s not so bright?” and suddenly the light is muted, and it’s a much darker red. Almost like the embers you would see in a fire after it’s been neglected for hours.
Leeha sits up straight and twists towards me. “What did you do?” she gasps in amazement.
“I asked it in my language if it can lower its light, so it wasn’t so bright,” I tell her with a grin.
“That shouldn’t be possible!” she cries.
“Why not? You said that you used it as a tool for your power, but what if it’s a tool that understands you? Call yours up,” I tell her.
Leeha looks at me intently at first, but finally she holds up her hand, and a globe of Water appears.
“Now, out loud, while looking at it, tell it to make itself smaller,” I say to her.
“Hmm, all right,” she says awkwardly. “Make yourself smaller.” I look at the water and it does nothing. No change.
“Right, so repeat after me, word for word. Make yourself smaller,” I tell Leeha in English.
It takes her about five tries, but she finally gets it. “Make yourself smaller,” Leeha says in a good approximation of English. And suddenly, the globe of Water in her palm shrinks to about half its size.
Leeha squeals in amazement. She tries the command again, “Make yourself smaller,” and it does the same thing, becoming half its size once more. She tries again, but nothing happens.
“I guess there is a limit to what it can do,” she says with a sigh. “By the Gods, how is that possible?” she asks me.
“Don’t look at me,” I tell her with a chuckle. “On my world, magic doesn’t even exist.”
“Can you tell me about your world, Alex?” Leeha says, dispelling her Water globe and leaning back into me.
I think Fire, and my globe disappears as well, and I wrap my arms around her. For the next hour, in the dark with only the fire going, I tell her about my world. At times she turns around and asks me if I am jesting, or tells me I have to be lying, and I keep having to promise her that I’m not. I tell her about planes and automobiles. Explaining cell phones is the hardest. I even tell her about television and movies, and here she honestly thinks I am pulling her leg. Laughing at her outbursts, I swear to her that I am telling her the honest truth.
Eventually, Leeha sits back and says, “While your world sounds amazing, Alex, I am happy you came to this one.”
“I am as well,” I tell her gently, kissing the top of her head.
And that is how we fell asleep. With me leaning against a rock that I had used Earth to form as a sort of chair, and her sitting against me. It’s not cold out, so the fire is really for comfort. Leeha’s breathing changes, and since I am tired as well, I close my eyes and drift off to sleep right behind her.
We are walking through the woods with Leeha in front of me. We have been traveling now for more than a week, spending most nights camping with a small fire, enjoying each other’s company. One night we even found another Macoa and had a nice feast of its meat. Seriously, if I was home on Earth and was able to commercialize the growing of that bird, I would be a fucking billionaire.
I had been teaching, or trying to teach Leeha, English. But I am finding out that English is a fucked up language of double meanings and nonsense words.
“Hello, my name is Leeha. Delighted to make your acquaintance,” she says from in front of me. “That makes no sense, Alex! Why would I want to ‘happy someone their friend!’,” she says, sounding annoyed.
With a sigh, I say, “I know, but my language isn’t exactly easy to learn. Remember, I said that on my world, we have hundreds of languages. Just as I am finding out there are many of them here on Boromour. Well, English is a mixing of a lot of those languages together. So don’t worry about the reasoning behind the words. Only learn the words and what I tell you they mean. You are the one who asked how you would say a formal greeting on my world. Most of the time, we would only say, Hello. Or hi,” I tell her with a chuckle.
Leeha stops and turns around and glares at me. “So all I had to say was hello, and not all the rest?”
“You’re the one who asked for formal,” I tell her with a laugh.
“So, hello, my name is Leeha, would be all right?” she asks me, now sounding unsure.
“Exactly. And I would answer back with, hello Leeha, my name is Alex,” I tell her.
“Gods, your language is useless!” she says, shaking her head, “Except for when it comes to magic, it seems.” Suddenly she stops dead in her tracks.
“We have company,” Leeha says quietly.
“Ho
w do you know?” I ask her quietly, trying not to look around and let whoever is out there know we’re aware of them. I look at Leeha and she is keeping her eyes down and not looking up in the trees, which was my first instinct.
“She knows because she’s smart,” says a male voice to my left. I turn that way but don’t see anyone. “Though, bringing a human here, Leeha? Really?”
Leeha’s hand that had tensed up loosens suddenly. She turns towards the voice and says, “Marken. Get your ass down here.”
“You expect me to come down with a human stand—,” the voice starts.
Suddenly Leeha shoots of a Water arrow, and I see it’s the one with the string attached to it. I hear a yelp of pain, and then Leeha touches the globe of water and it begins to reel in whatever it caught. Abruptly, a body gets pulled out of the treetop until it stops in front of her in midair, as she had done with the Macao, except this time it’s a male Elf. Leeha had stuck the arrow into his wooden shield, which was wrapped around his arm with a leather strap.
“Fucking hell, Leeha! This isn’t funny!” shouts the Elf, who I assume is Marken.
Marken struggles for a bit, but finally he says, defeated, “Fine, I am sorry, Leeha. Can you please put me down now?”
“Much better,” Leeha says with a grin and cancels her Water spell, causing Marken to fall to the ground with a howl of surprise. He ends up hitting the ground, but lands on grass, so it isn’t that bad, from what I can see. He gets up slowly, stretching his back like he is injured, but I am sure it is more his pride than anything else that is hurt.
“Fucking hell, Leeha. I am seriously going to tell Mother about this,” Marken says.
Mother? Marken is Leeha’s brother? Looking closer, I finally see the resemblance. So we must be close to Leeha’s home. And fucking hell, mother? Does that mean I am going to meet her parents?
“She won’t be with the supplies we brought,” she tells Marken with a laugh. She walks up to him and hugs him, and he slowly hugs her back, but then looks at me with anger. “But why are you with a human?”
“Ah, that is because he is my mate,” she tells him, and Marken look at her in astonishment, which quickly changes to suspicion.
“A human? You know how they feel about us. We should kill-” he begins to say, but before he can finish Leeha is on him, and he is on the ground on his back, with her hand on his chest and a water dagger floating above his head, aiming straight at his face.
“Marken, swear nothing will happen to Alex, or I will kill you myself, blood or not,” she growls at him.
“I was joking!” he screams, but I can tell he is nervous as he licks his lips. “I swear nothing will happen to him! But what about Mom?”
Leeha pauses, and now she is the one who looks nervous. She looks over at me and says hesitantly, “It should be fine,” but it comes out as more of a question than a statement. Jesus, what the fuck is her Mom?
Leeha stands up and helps her brother Marken off the ground, even though she was the one who essentially slammed him into it. Once he is standing up, he brushes himself off and looks at me.
“She must really like you,” he says and sighs. “Come on. We are close to the Homestead.” He turns around and heads off into the woods.
“Homestead?” I ask, curious about the term. “Not a village or city?”
Leeha walks over to me as we start to follow her brother. “We Elves don’t have villages or cities. The Homestead is quick to take down and move if we get attacked.”
“Attacked? By what?” I ask her.
“Humans,” she says, and there is anger in her voice. “Slavers, really. Marauders.”
Fucking hell, I need to get powerful enough to change that one day. It pisses me off when people are treated like that. And while I have only met the Elves, I am sure the humans treat the other races just as badly.
After about fifteen minutes of walking, we emerge from the forest into an open area, and I get my first look at an Elven Homestead. Now I see what Leeha meant about being able to take it down quickly. It’s full of what we called yurts on Earth. Or close to it, anyway. These structures aren’t as high, though. Marken heads towards a certain one, and as I look around, all the Elves are staring at me in open shock. Some with fear. As we get closer to the one we are heading towards, Marken yells out, “Mother!” and that is when I notice that he is speaking in Elvish. It didn’t dawn on me ‘til now that earlier he had been speaking to me in Prithgarian. “We have a pig of a human as a visitor.”
The yurt’s curtain, or door, moves aside, and a female Elf steps through, and right away I can see the resemblance to Leeha. This is Leeha, matured. She is just as beautiful as her daughter, and behind her follows a copy of Marken, but again, older. More refined. They are both dressed in leathers that are the color of tanned hides. At seeing me, they both stop in their tracks.
Suddenly, two Fire Swords appear on each side of the female Elf, and they are pointed my way. Oh, so she is a Fire mage? And two swords on each side, so that means she is more powerful than Leeha, who can only do one on each side with her Water Swords.
“Mother, stop!” Leeha screams, stepping in front of me with both arms outstretched.
“He is human!” Leeha’s mother shouts, anger on her face.
“Mother, you need to stop, or trust me, Alex will be able to destroy this whole Homestead,” Leeha shouts at her mother desperately. Wait, what the fuck are you saying, Leeha! I am not looking to destroy your Homestead!
“Not if I destroy him first!” Leeha’s mother says angrily.
Leeha sighs in frustration and turns to me and says, “Alex. Please show her your powers. Use Fire to prove it.”
I look at her oddly, but doing what she says, I call up Fire, and then Fire Sword.
You have used the spell Fire Swords. You have used 10 points of power.
Just as suddenly as Leeha’s mother had brought hers out, I bring out my swords, but there are six large Fire Swords, three on each side, and they are pointing at her. Which, let me tell you, was not what I thought of when I first thought of meeting Leeha’s parents.
Suddenly there are Elves all over the camp carrying bows, with their arrows pointing straight at me—a good dozen of them. I decide to see how much power I can manifest so I call up Fire Sword again. And again, Fire sword, and a third time Fire Sword.
You have used the spell Fire Swords. You have used 10 points of power.
You have used the spell Fire Swords. You have used 10 points of power.
You have used the spell Fire Swords. You have used 10 points of power.
When I am done, pointing at Leeha’s mother are not three, but a total of twelve Fire Swords.
At the stunned looks on Leeha’s parents’ faces and the fact that her mother’s Fire Swords disappear in a blaze of flame, Leeha turns to see what caused that reaction. Upon seeing my twelve Fire Swords, she stares at me in shock and says, “Holy fucking hell!”
Chapter Nineteen
“Alex, what did you just do?” Leeha asks me, perplexed.
“Well, I assumed you wanted me to impress your parents with my power, so when I saw all these other Elves aiming bows at me, I thought I would bring up more Fire Swords,” I tell her, feeling like an idiot for maybe going overboard. I look around and notice all the bows are now pointing down at the ground, and everyone is staring at me in shock. “
“Hmm, Alex,” Leeha says, coming closer to me and whispering. “That shouldn’t even be possible!”
“Oh,” I tell her, smiling awkwardly. “Well, I can stop.”
“Isn’t it kind of too late?” she says with a chuckle. “Though,” she says, turning back to her mother, who has turned pale and is being held up by Leeha’s dad, while her eyes are riveted on me. “It might have stopped my mother from doing something stupid. Shall we go meet them?”
“Hmm, sure?” I tell her hesitantly.
“Oh, and you can cancel your spells,” she says with a smile.
Nodding to her, I th
ink Fire and all the swords disappear in an explosion of sparks. I follow behind Leeha as she walks to her mother. Her parents watch me warily, almost as if getting ready to run. Once she is in front of her mother, Leeha hugs and kisses her. Then she kisses her father, who is dazed and only looking at me.
“Now,” Leeha tells them. “Are we ready to talk like adults?”
Leeha’s mother looks at me and nods slowly. “Yes, I think that would be best.”
Congratulations. Achievement! Impress the Parents.
“What the fuck!” I yell out at the announcement in my head.
You have received 1 Heavenly Token.
Heavenly Tokens: 5 of 200.
Leeha looks at me in shock. She has been around me long enough to hear me say the English word to whatever translates into Elvish for the word fuck.
“What?” she asks me worriedly.
“Hmm, later. Let’s just say I think my God is fucking with me,” I whisper to her. She looks at me oddly but nods and turns back to her parents, who are both looking at us apprehensively.
“Mother, Father, now that we have that out of the way. Allow me to introduce Alex.” Leeha says to her parents. “Alex, this is my mother, Lahana, and my father, Maxil.”
“Leeha, you understand he is human?” Maxil says to Leeha sharply.
“I do,” she tells him with a smile. “But he is different.”
“Different? How?” Lahana asks her daughter nervously.
“Can we go inside, Mother?” Leeha says instead of answering.
Lahana looks at me as if trying to determine if I will bite her. And honestly, I can’t blame her after hearing how they are all treated by humans. I am sure she thinks this is a trap.
“Ma’am, I am not here to harm you or anyone else. I am here with your daughter,” I tell her with a smile, hoping to make her feel better.
