by Quil Carter
“Why did you bring me here? Why did you bring Erick here? What… what is this place?”
Teal started slowly turning the pieces of meat and potato as they started to sizzle on the fire.
“I wasn’t the one to bring Erick here. I think it was the two high priests that are always beside him,” Teal explained. “I’ve never met him myself and no one knows Erick is human. I didn’t know until the demigod told me.”
“And how did he become king?” Ben asked. “He was a loser when he was in our world – I’m struggling to figure out how he could’ve managed this.”
“The high priests,” Teal said bitterly. “I think they brought Erick over here to overthrow our King, King Calin. He – he destroyed everything with his priests, his dark accalites, and his army. In the beginning the lords in Alcove’s holds rose up against him and so did their banner-elves but he crushed them like blister flies.” Teal sighed and folded his arms around his chest; his claws digging into his forearms. “Eventually the lords bent their knees to him and those who didn’t have mysteriously vanished, with Erick’s Dashavian and Crithian leaders taking their place.”
Ben stared at him. The hibrid had said so many strange words and odd statements he didn’t know where to start. What was a Dashavian? A Crithian? Ben was at a loss.
Teal handed his skewer to Ben and started rummaging around his bag before pulling out two thick wooden cups. Ben kept staring at him, deciding to let the boy continue rather than ask him to repeat what he had just said in a way that he could actually understand.
“I don’t know why the demigod wanted you, but he came to me and told me it was the prophecies command to bring you to Elron. I have to do what he says; we all have to.”
Teal grabbed one of the leatherskins Ben had been drinking from. He poured him and Ben some dark red peach-smelling juice. “Your world is horrible, by the way.” He shuddered. “So big, busy, noisy, and it smells awful and your machines are scary.”
“I bet it would be if you’re used to trees.” Ben handed Teal back the skewer in exchange for the glass. He didn’t like drinking mostly because it was dangerous to mix painkillers and alcohol, but he also didn’t enjoy being drunk. He smelled the glass and scowled at the strange fruity-smelling liquid.
“It’s not alcoholic,” Teal said, seemingly reading Ben’s mind. “We drink in Elron, or well, mostly everyone does, but I don’t like letting my guard down. Especially when we’re so deep into the woods and close to the Forest of Jare. This is silverwine with stone peach, it’s calming, almost like the desoni extract I gave you.”
Ben tested it out. It tasted alright, fizzy with a strange aftertaste to it but it was something that he could get used to.
“Things are really different here, aren’t they?” Ben said as he swirled the silverwine around in his glass; half of the things that came out of Teal’s mouth made no sense at all.
“I think… it would be better to show you,” Teal said. “I’ve been trying to figure out the easiest way to introduce you to your new home but I haven’t found a solution yet. I’ve been worrying about it for months now. The demigod told me you wouldn’t lose your mind but I have my doubts. Heck, I lost my mind for a while in your world.”
“Tell me the basics,” Ben said. He lifted up his skewer when he noticed the meat had caught fire and picked off a few of the cooked parts to eat. It wasn’t any meat he had ever tasted before but it was rather good; Teal had put some sort of spice on it that gave it a good taste.
And there was something else odd. As Ben chewed he realized his teeth were easily shredding the meat. After he swallowed Ben examined his teeth more closely with his tongue and was surprised, and rather fascinated, to feel that almost all of his teeth were pointed. Even his back molars had jagged ridges. He still had two flat front teeth, but besides that – pointed, all pointed.
“Well, as I said before the demigod turned you into a hibrid,” Teal began then he stopped. He looked like he was debating something in his head. “You should know… there are no humans here.”
Ben started testing out his new teeth by poking them with his fingers. “Just pointy-eared little bastards like you?”
Teal smiled and gave a small chuckle. He nodded. “That’s right, but there are different races as well. Alcove’s native race is hibrid and elf, but there are other races in the other kingdoms and some live here too.”
“How many are there of you?”
“Not nearly as much as your world. My god, there are so many of you. Billions!” Teal shook his head; he looked both amazed and horrified. “I never thought the legends were true but they are! You guys are bloody parasites!”
Ben stopped chewing and gave him a flat look, but he found that he couldn’t really defend his own race; humans were sort of parasites so he was right about that.
“Legends?” he said instead. He didn’t realize how hungry he was until the first bit of food touched his lips. As far as he could remember all he had been given since he arrived was water, broth, and a bit of the apple sauce.
Teal must’ve seen how quickly Ben was eating the skewer because he was already making another one, pulling up chunks of meat and potato from a thick burlap sack he had leaning up against one of the logs.
“We have a book called the Anean Prophecies which has stories about the gods in it and certain holy historical events that took place in Elron. One of the first stories is the Legend of the Humans. The humans used to live in the first age with the other races called elves and demi-elves. Hibrids are descendants of demi-elves.”
Teal went on, “When the sons of Anea were living and guiding their new races, there was one race that still needed a god. The humans. He created a son to guide the humans but he died and some say the humans were to blame; but other legends say he never lived in the first place,” he said, handing Ben another skewer as he finished his first one. “Whether it was because of the god Schrael’s death or the humans who caused his death, the humans became corrupted. They attacked the other races, destroyed, burned, invented things that could kill on a massive scale… and well, generally they were not good.”
“Sounds like how the humans are now,” Ben said. Teal shuddered and nodded, before carrying on.
“Anea gathered his remaining sons: Everon, Karilis, Lelan, Daran, Xalis, and Darsheive and his demigod, Kelakheva, on the holy mountain of Cilandil. They discussed the humans and their problem and Anea banished them to earth – to your old world.”
“Wow,” Ben said, taken aback by all of this information, “and as soon as a human came back to Elron, all of this happened?”
Teal thought for a second; he bit the bottom of his lip. “They had to have brought him here for a reason…”
“Why?”
Down went Teal’s pointed little teeth on his lip; he was obviously nervous. The hibrid looked around even though Ben knew they were alone. He hadn’t heard anything besides a few birds and some squirrels since he had woken up.
Nervously Teal’s hand slipped inside of his tunic. He then pulled something out, something that was clenched in his fist.
“There exists in our world, a powerful jewel… called the Jewel of Elron made by the Elder God Anea. For thousands of years Anea’s demigod carried it with him. Before I – I came to get you – he gave it to me.”
Teal opened up his hand.
Inside was a brilliant green polished stone. Oval-shaped and about the size of a chicken egg. The outside of it had the appearance of a normal gemstone, while the inside seemed to glow with a faint yellow light.
“The demigod told me we had to give the Jewel of Elron to King Calin, who was smuggled to the Garas islands when Erick invaded the Pyre. King Calin has a small piece of the Jewel of Elron in a ring he owns. When that piece of jewel is joined back to the Jewel of Elron, apparently it will become powerful once again – and I guess the king can use that to get rid of Erick and his company.”
“Why can’t you use it to win back Alcove now? If it’s so powerful?
” Ben picked up the Jewel of Elron and ran his finger over the perfectly smooth stone. It seemed warm against his skin, almost like there was a little life inside of it.
“I’ve never gotten it to work,” Teal said with a sigh. “The only time I managed was when I used it to bring you to Elron, but even then… I think it was the demigod.”
Ben handed the jewel back. It looked nice but didn’t seem like a mighty stone wielded by a demigod. But then again nothing like that had ever existed in Ben’s world. He wouldn’t know magic if it came up and smacked him in the face.
“What happens now? We catch a train to Garas and give the jewel to the king?”
Teal laughed lightheartedly. He shook his head and placed the jewel back into his inner tunic pocket.
“We only ride animals here, horses mostly. We don’t have any of those though; we’ll be walking,” Teal said. “I’d like to wait a few more days, until you get your strength back and I can teach you the basics. The demigod said you already know a lot of things.”
“What do you mean?” Ben asked. He was still picking bits of meat off of the wooden skewer; his fingertips now covered in grease.
Teal reached into the knapsack-type canvas bag he seemed to get everything out of.
He pulled out a soft leather pouch and tossed it to Ben, there was the sounds of shifting coins as Ben caught it.
“Tell me what these are,” Teal said, his voice was eager, but the slight mischievous smirk on his face made Ben wary.
He decided to play along though. Ben drew the little leather draw strings and looked into the pouch. He could see small coins: silver ones, gold ones, and copper ones. He picked up one of each and started examining them.
The gold coin had a snarling cat on it, possibly a cougar. The silver one held a large tree, not unlike the oaks surrounding them, and the copper one had two crossed swords.
To Ben’s own surprise, and Teal’s further amusement, he perked up.
He knew what these were called!
The information was right there in his head just waiting for a trigger to set it off.
“This is a covi.” Ben held up the gold coin. “The silver one is a silverling, and the copper one is a kippin or a kip.”
The hibrid grinned wide and clapped his hands together, seemingly just as enchanted with Ben’s knowledge as Ben himself was. “That’s right! Kelakheva said he would make this transition a bit smoother for you. I’m so happy he followed through. This will make things easier for you, and me as well.”
Ben was happy to hear that but he also wondered what other things the demigod had messed with in his head. He looked around trying to see if he could identify anything else around the camp but what remained was rather basic.
Then his eyes fell to the sword.
“Why do you have a sword with you? I guess we don’t have guns here?”
Teal chuckled like this was the most amusing concept to ever be put forth. Ben rolled his eyes at his amusement, and Teal reached down to pick up the sword.
It was an impressive-looking thing. It had a black handle and crossguards, with a silver pommel embedded in the bottom. It didn’t look heavy but when Teal handed it to him Ben was surprised to see it did have a bit of weight to it.
“No, no guns. Swords, daggers, bows and arrows, spears, battleaxes,” Teal said. Knowing that Ben’s arms were weak he picked up the tip of the sword so Ben could get a better look at it. “The forest has many things in it, both native and other. We need protection, especially when we get to the Forest of Jare.”
“What do you mean… and other?” Ben gave him a suspicious look as he lowered the sword.
Teal froze which Ben thought was funny; was the hibrid really not expecting a follow up question to that? It made Ben wonder if Teal thought that all humans were idiots or something.
Teal regained his composure a moment later and poured both of them a glass of silverwine.
“Well, don’t panic but–” Nothing good could be at the end of that sentence…
“–but we might have someone looking for us; someone who may know we have the – the jewel,” Teal said slowly, once again refusing eye contact.
Ben stared. If this was his world, he would have laughed – laughed while loading his gun. He wasn’t afraid of anyone. He was used to pissed off junkies being after him, but in this world – this world was different. Ben was unarmed, useless with a weapon and incredibly weak. He was completely dependent on that hibrid for protection, food, and shelter.
“Who?”
Teal jumped up and started tidying up around the camp, but he seemed to be doing it in rather neurotic fashion, like he was trying to relieve stress. “I was staying in a small town north of here before I came to get you. It’s where I met the demigod,” Teal explained. “I don’t know if he overheard us or what. But Kelakheva warned me before he left that a malkah, a bounty hunter from Dashavia, knew I had the jewel.”
Ben gaped at him. “Does… he know where we are now?”
Teal shook his head. “No, of course not. We’re safe here. We’re almost twenty leagues from that spot,” he said quickly and reassuringly. “But as an extra percaution I still don’t want to camp anywhere near the main road and we’ll be hiding in the woods at the first sign of company.”
“How far away is this road?”
“The Black Road. A half a league, a good hour of rugged walking at least. If anyone was coming this deep into the woods we would know why they’re here. This area used to be rather safe, I spent time here in my youth, but with Erick and his Serpents nowhere is really safe anymore. And a lot of elves have taken residence in the woods as well, including bandits, ferals, and clan elves.”
“Sounds – sounds great,” Ben said grimly, running his hands down his face with a sigh. A part of him wished that Teal had kept this wonderful information to himself. Then again he was the one who kept asking him questions.
The young hibrid didn’t seem capable of defending himself, let alone Ben. But he did have that sword and he had survived this long.
The hibrid as a creature seemed strong at least, there was a perk in that. Ben’s new body seemed weak right now but he could tell that once he recovered from detoxing he would be agile and strong. He could already hear better than he could as a human and as his eyes got used to daylight he could tell his vision was sharper as well.
“So, you’re all ready and willing to teach me how to defend myself, right? So we can kill this bounty hunter?” Ben asked. He reached over and ran a finger over the pommel of the sword. It seemed to have strange black marks on it, almost like it had been in a fire.
“Right away, as soon as you can handle a blade.” Teal seemed to brighten at Ben’s question. “I would rather find you a swords-elf to train you but Malla won’t have any, neither will Alé. Lelan Hold will but I want to get you started before then.”
That wasn’t really good enough, Ben wanted something now. “Do you have a dagger at least? Something I can carry now?”
Teal nodded. “Tomorrow though. Right now I just want you to eat, sleep, and relax. I don’t want to overwhelm your little human head.”
“Little? We invented the Super Nintendo, hibrid.” Ben ripped off the last chunk of meat and smirked when he heard Teal laugh. He wanted to argue getting the dagger now but he was too tired to bother. Teal seemed to have a plan in his head, and with the hibrid’s odd neurotic traits he was starting to show Ben figured it was best not to go against him.
After they had finished eating Ben was pleased when Teal presented him with some proper clothes. He was now the same size as Teal so he fit well into the hibrid’s old travelling clothes.
It was nothing fancy just a brown tunic and trousers, thread bare from travel but they were clean and warm. Ben had asked Teal where his old clothing had ended up but Teal would only tell him that they were put away safe. He was disappointed but he understood. But that being said, they probably could get a lot of coin selling his earth items here. They would be strange a
rtifacts to the Alcovians. He could just see a rich merchant displaying his driver’s license with pride on his mantle.
After Ben was dressed in his travel clothing and thin black cloak, he helped Teal gather wood from around the camp. It seemed almost a shame burning the oak; the meat of the wood was such an odd silver colour it looked like it should be carved into something nice rather than burned.
All of the forest was breathtakingly beautiful. It’s amazing how big things could grow when you weren’t constantly clearcutting everything. Though Teal had told him hibrids were about half a foot shorter than normal elves everything towered over him. He couldn’t even see the ends of the oak trees, they intertwined into each other as they twisted towards the sky. The canopy above them was thick and from the looks of it, housed a lot of wildlife. Ben had seen several large black squirrels (Teal mentioned that that was the meat they had been eating) about the size of house cats, blue birds, ravens and even a big brown toad that had taken residence in a stream Teal had been using for their water.
Later that night found the two of them close to the fire. It was nice to be next to a warm fire, whether it was for warmth or comfort. Teal had put the last of the squirrel he had previously caught onto the skewer and was now roasting it over the flames. Ben never thought he would be eating squirrel but the meat was good. Teal had bathed it in a marinade of butter, garlic, and salt, and had even added an onion and a couple potatoes to roast in the coals. It wasn’t pizza – but it pretty damn tasty.
“Enjoy this, we won’t be able to cook this well when we’re closer to the road,” Teal said, turning his sizzling squirrel over a bed of red coals. “The smell will attract anyone and everyone.”
Ben was busy deliberately putting the squirrel’s head over a flame to make its eyeballs burn out of its skull. He didn’t particularly have a reason why, he just thought it was amusing. “We’ll still be able to have fires though, right?”
Teal nodded, taking a drink of silverwine. “Small ones, as long as we didn’t see any signs of travellers or soldiers that day. I have a substance that will dim the flames.”
