by M E Wolf
Everyone sipped their teas while waiting for who was going to talk next. The teapot had gone cold three times since their conversation had begun and the teapot was replaced just as many times. The sun also rose and fell more than a few times while they were talking.
An elf came into the tent with a fresh pot of tea and some freshly baked biscuits. Alexandra recalled that this was at least the tenth time that the sun rose and biscuits brought in within a few minutes of the sunrise. Some fruit was also brought. Smearing some honey on half a sweet smelling biscuit Alexandra took a bite and began to talk after chewing it and chasing the piece of biscuit with a sip of tea.
“I have never heard that about the Dochani before. Well, I actually heard nothing of the Dochani, all has been instinct so far and most of that I do not understand.
“My father never really discussed the intricacies of Dochani culture and history with me and only trained me a bit in the short time that I was with him.
“Hearing from your perspective in life regarding the long-lived or elves as they are long-lived and yourselves being only just over one hundred and fifty years old and you seem to know more than I even though I have had more than five hundred years more than you. It might have to do with my only contact being all the books of the Sevle world.”
Tears came to her eyes as she remembered that those that she knew from there were all gone and she only had a little knowledge of their civilization. She had to make sure that she did not go to that world by accident because she would end up in the middle of space, as far as she knew.
Wiping away her tears she continued to talk, “I have a feeling that when a Dochani mother gives birth to a child and dies from giving birth to her or him, that child will inherit their mother’s skills, abilities and memories, is this true? Are you acquainted with the age that is maturity for a Dochani?” Alexandra directed her question to neither one in particular. She just would like an answer to the dilemma of maturity.
This time Tasheia answered her,
“Well that is a hard question to answer, so I will do my best to answer it for you. We have told you that the adolescence of the Dochani is between the ages of five thousand and seven thousand years old.
“Adolescence lasts for several thousand years after that. Maturity for a Dochani is after ten thousand years but not later than twenty thousand years. As a matter of fact you are in for a very long life, if you do not parish before that.
“Old age for a Dochani is not before one hundred thousand years. You are practically immortal. Regarding inheritance for a last birthing, we are not really sure as our data is too old even for us to figure out whether that would happen or not.”
Alexandra thought about this new information extensively. Living for one hundred thousand years she could not fathom. After all she had only lived for about six hundred and eighty or more years now even though it did not feel like a really long time.
She would have to try to amend her life and bring more control to it if she was going to live even close to that amount of time,
“Both of you have told me so much more than I had ever gotten from others before you and as I said, most of the knowledge I have is from the ancestral passing of knowledge similar to birds. It makes me glad that we can talk this through, even though it seems like we have not been talking that long.
“Relating my entire life to you will be somewhat difficult, but I will do my best to do so as accurately as I can possibly do. At the beginning of my life I knew very little for I was but born yesterday in comparison to what you have said a Dochani lives to.
“Starting out I was as you see me now the moment I stepped from the egg and knew that I was Dochani from the start. Some things I only know when something arises to jog something in memory, memory that is not entirely my own, as though I am being instructed on things as I go.
“I stayed in a village that I watched grow to the size of a city where I hatched from the egg. It was my home and I built a beautiful library and a tower there. Scholars came from all over Sevle to study in my library that had contained more than seventy five thousand books.
“It is sad that it is all gone now. After three hundred and fifty years living in the same house and enjoying the many conversations of scholars and debates with the greatest minds of Sevle, a king, who’s name I cannot remember came to our village and later sent a letter to my friend offering him a position as a carpenter and a mayor of his capital city.
“My friend had accepted the offer and so we set off on a ship towards his kingdom. Halfway to the kingdom a storm started and the waves rocked the ship that we were in.
“I was sick most of the trip and spent a lot of time on the deck leaning over the railing. My friend’s daughter decided to walk along the deck of the ship.
“The ship was picked up by the fierce waves and tossed back into the sea. I went with it just after I saved Kalima, his daughter. I broke my left leg and dazed and not knowing the creatures of the sea was grabbed by the right leg by some sea beast that got a hold of me and pulled me under the water.
“I awoke with torn clothing and a huge and grotesque scar. The larger of the two scars made a jagged path from the top of my left shoulder to between my breasts, from between my breasts to my belly button and finally from my belly button to the top of my left hip.
“The other scar was festering on my right leg just below the knee, but at least I still had my leg. I thought that I was safe. Brought to the other side of the island where countless bandages were changed on me during the most fragile period of my entire life.
“In and out of consciousness I could not truly judge of where I was or what anyone was doing other than changing my bandages and reassuring me that I would make it through this. After this I was rushed into training and trained in the L’art’o tribe culture, language and other cannibalistic traits of the tribe.
“It is obvious by your faces that this perplexes you, but I assure you things do get quite worse. After this they repeatedly attempted to enter my vagina with their filthy members and brutally beat me, it was hard to resist their advances but they are never able to penetrate me.
“They hurt me, but never get inside. Of course after attempting to deflower me they had me smoke this ritualistic pipe that I don’t quite understand. Even now it perplexes me.
“As to the matter I was transported here on this planet and had to swim for many years without sleep feeding only on lily pads to sustain me and that was not the worst of it because I think I turned into a beast and ripped a part the L’art’o tribe, feasting on their flesh.
“I made it to the shore only to be pulled back to the planet Sevle, which is where my journey starting on the ship began and when I found out my dream of being a beast was realized in the fact that there was only one L’art’o left alive.
“When I did return I was tied up and I had a dream that I think was actually real because I arrived back here. A beast was chasing me after I had freed myself from the shackles. It wanted to feed on me and for some reason I could hear its thoughts of devouring me because it would get great power, more so than devouring the world Sevle.
“I am sure that it did after I had left to come here, but of that I have no evidence. I have had no real training, well not much anyway and have mostly read books not related to the Dochani.
“Thus a reason I was ultimately captured and made to make love to the man I loved or forced to have intercourse with him depending on how one looked at it.
“I can still feel him inside me and have to say that no man entered me besides him, as I stopped the amount of vaginal violations that I could have been subjected to by the L’art’o and the nasty soldiers in the City of Bone.
“It is quite possible that I am pregnant as well as you two. A reason I do wish he was Dochani so that we could raise our children together.
“Yes it is his child because I feel his essence within the new form growing within me. It is also because he was the only one to enter me despite the evidence that
some might believe is present of other men that attempted to defile me, and only dirtied everything else on my body.
“I hope that he would have at least one thousand years more of life. Nothing, but bad things happened to me here. Upon entry onto this world I literally ran into SilverFox. SilverFox was hurt bad and worse for us running into each other.
“At first, I healed myself and found myself draining his blood from his body as I was weak and enjoyed the sweet taste of his blood. So, in the end I nearly killed myself healing him with my substance because I could not find the source on this planet.
“Weakened to the point of being slightly comatose for the next six months or more, he and I were captured quickly. It was not till the failed rescue attempt that they started to torture us though for a year or more they only allowed us one hour of sleep at a time. That takes me all the way to having tea with the two of you.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Alexandra felt good getting all of that information out into the open and off her chest. She wondered what type of training they would put her through now that they knew her story. Sipping her tea she waited for one of them to speak.
Katlin sipped her tea, and then spoke, “For one so young, for a Dochani, you have experienced quite a lot however saddening the events of your life seem. It is interesting that you feel that you are pregnant with SilverFox’s child.
“To say the least it must be a Dochani trait to feel your offspring’s first signs so early. We were not sure of our pregnancies until recently, although this is our first child. You seem to be aware of yours the instant but a few moments ago.
“It seems that you will need extensive training from us to be able to counter any situations that may arise to threaten your survival. The actual training does not take long, unfortunately it will take many of our generations as elves for you to fully become a master of what we train you in, the alternative would be to fall under those who would tend to oppress you.
“I do not think that you would be pleased to be put under such conditions as you have been so far in your life. We find that experience is one’s best teacher. Left alone after being taught Elvin techniques is the best way for you to make your training unique to your self.
“Soon you will be fitted for some armour, a bow and some weapons. You will be trained intensely for quite some time and your armour must become a part of you. The time depends on you because it is possible to outgrow your trainers being a Dochani.
“We have never met a Dochani before you and those elves that have are not with us anymore. Most soldiers by the time they enter into the military wear their armour as though it was cloth. You must be like that, only then will you have mastered your training in wearing armour.
“We do not have that skill as yet because we were only trained with light armour, but for you it will be different. In the morning you will be fitted for your armour, for now get some sleep. If you have anything more to say before we retire, say it.”
Katlin ended what she was saying with a sip from her tea. Alexandra admitted to herself that she did in fact need some sleep after not getting much over the last two years. She was not sure what to say so walked over to the blankets on the ground, wrapped her self up in them without removing her robe and fell fast asleep.
CHAPTER TWELVE
She awoke the next morning in a deep sweat. During her sleep she had many dreams and nightmares that both tantalized and frightened her. Among those nightmares was the one with the beast. Alexandra remembered seeing one of those beasts in the books that she had read. It was in a rare book written by a Dochani named Kenjin, that name meant something to her but she did not know why.
In the book it was called a Fenshian or devourer of worlds. One dream she remembered, she was sitting with SilverFox and their son who had the appearance of twenty, although she knew that he was more than three hundred years old. What did that dream mean? Now, reality was that she was here in a tent vacant if not for her presence. Today would be the day they fitted her with weapons and armour and she hoped that the armour would fit.
Alexandra wondered how armour and weapons would feel since she had only used the bulky ones that Jentus had her use in training before. Her movements would be limited in heavy restrictive armour and would it not weigh her down? How could she move in it? Would they chafe her skin the same as the ones that Jentus had her wear before?
At the moment all that she had to wear was the white cotton robe that Katlin and Tasheia had given her to wear. Looking around the tent Alexandra noticed fresh biscuits and a bowl of fruit on the table that her and the two elves talked around through the better part of the last few weeks. A teapot that Alexandra opened the lid and saw and sampled the tea from finger to lips realizing that it was full with the sweet tea that they drank the other few nights and a few cups were also on the table.
Next to the table was a bathtub that had steam rising from the surface of the water and foaming lavender smelling bubble bath suds in it. Getting rid of the sweat and grime from her sleep would revive her, at least most of her. Something that she would revel in was to sit and soak in the tub for most of the day.
She would have to settle for a few hours at least in the hot tub since today would relatively be a very busy day for her. Looking around her and taking a peek outside through the tent flap she made sure that no one was around to see her lithe body when she got out of the robe, shivered and then got into the tub.
Alexandra’s flesh and bones were warmed from the hot water in the tub. It felt good to have the water’s silky fingers seep into every pore of her body making her feel as though she was being messaged by delicate, but powerful hands of a masseuse. Not long was it that the water turned dark and cold as she languished the feel of the water and spread coarse lye soap over her body making her skin a reddish hue.
Taking the small brush and some baking soda she brushed her teeth spitting it out into a cup that she got from one of the edges of the tub as she rinsed her mouth with the salted water from another cup next to her. Not wanting to get into the same sweaty robe that she had discarded only moments ago, she looked around to see if any clothing had been set aside for her to wear and just as she was about to get out of the tub and into the dirty robe, three elves entered. Two of them were female, but the other one was male.
Alexandra slid down as far as she could go below the water in the tub without drowning herself and still hide her nakedness. It appeared to her as though the three were each carrying something. Alexandra was not sure what they were carrying, but they placed all of it on the bench near the table and just before they left, one of them turned toward her and spoke,
“This is your armour it is designed in layers for comfort and maneuverability. The cloth layer goes on first. It actually has more than one layer to it and is like normal clothing. There is a soft-leather layer that comes after all of the cloth and it is sturdy, but movable and is light leather made from deerskin and is very versatile.
“Next is a light Elvin chain mail that has been enchanted and is very lightweight. The last layers of armour are various dragon scale plates that give added protection against attacks.
“A dragon scale helmet was designed with protection and visibility in mind. Meet outside by the red tent to the north of this tent for weapons and an introduction to your first trainer.” After Alexandra was sure that the three of them were gone, she got out of the tub and dried herself off.
Walking towards the bench where the armour was set on it she went to where the cloth was and began to put it on. Among the items of cloth were small-clothes or undergarments, a t-shirt, light cotton pants that fit tight to her skin, a long sleeved shirt that fit as tight as the pants, a wool sweater, a pair of tight fitting wool pants, a pair of cotton socks and a pair of wool socks.
Putting all of these on she began to feel more comfortable than she had ever been in her life thus far. Deerskin leather was the next layer in the construction of her armour. Among the items of leather were a leather short-slee
ved shirt, a pair of leather pants, a pair of leather gloves and a sturdy pair of leather boots reinforced with dragon scales. Putting these on was a bit more difficult then the cloth due to the tight fit over the cloth.
Even though the cloth was beneath the leather, you could not tell that it was there because Alexandra did not look any bigger than she would have just standing there without clothing on at all. After a few moments what she wore seemed to adjust itself to her size and it was now comfortable to wear. Like the leather and cloth, the Elvin chainmail was dyed black and gave off no reflection. Among the pieces were a chainmail coif, a long sleeved light chainmail shirt that came down to mid-thigh and was slit in the front and back to allow for riding a horse, a pair of chainmail pants that had attached chainmail socks and a pair of chainmail gloves.
She was starting to look like a knight and she liked her new look. Dragon scale was black like the rest of the armour and looked like glass even though it did not reflect the light. Among the pieces of the dragon scale were pauldrons for the shoulders, a helmet, vambraces for the arms, leg plates or greaves for the legs, bracers for the wrists, a gorget for the neck, a breastplate and backplate for the chest and back and a pair of gauntlets.
Alexandra figured that the armour all together would be very restrictive, but the scales were interwoven in such a way that it was as if she was a dragon and the scales only felt like her own flesh when it came to movement. Setting the helmet and gauntlets on the table she picked up the teapot and poured some tea into one of the cups. Sat down at the table and delicately sipped her tea while eating a lightly buttered biscuit. Putting on her gauntlets and then her helmet, she left the tent and walked to the north towards the red tent.
