“Oh yes, I missed you so much, Juggy.”
“Indeed she does,” Specca agreed with a raised eyebrow. “Um, is it just me or does it appear that the amount inside that container is still plentiful? Shouldn’t it be closer to being empty by now?”
“Rolian, please,” Daniel insisted as he and Clover stepped closer. “Tell us anything you can remember about where Kroanette was heading. Anything at all about The Sisterhood. We need to know.”
“I don’t know where Kroanette could be,” Rolian said with a shrug. “She was heading this direction after I set her free. That’s how I got here, I followed in hopes I could see her again. As for The Sisterhood, I don’t know what they plan to use their army for. It was for something big, something no other monsters would try around here. Something… really big.”
“It must be big if they have enough to level a centaur kingdom to the ground,” Clover reasoned.
“Something no other monsters around here would try?” Specca repeated.
“Yeah,” Rolian agreed with a few quick nods. “They were going to do something that would be a first in this land, something big they would need a large army for.”
“Who is leading this army?” Alyssa questioned. “Who’s in charge of this Sisterhood?”
“I don’t know,” Rolian sadly answered. “I never saw who was in charge. But I do remember hearing that there were two of them. Two really strong monsters lead The Sisterhood. That’s all I know.”
“So,” Daniel mused. “A big army called The Sisterhood is being led by two monsters and they’re trying to do something that’s never been done before in Koskaysil?”
“That could be any number of horrible things,” Falla nervously pointed out.
“Do you know where they are now?” Clover asked. “Where are all these monsters at?”
“Um…” Rolian murmured before looking down in thought. The group watched as she thought really hard about that question before turning to Clover with a shrug. “I don’t remember the name of the place. It was in a forest though if that helps.”
“A forest,” Alyssa dryly repeated. “That narrows it down.”
“It was kind of far from here,” Rolian continued looking down and appearing to strain herself with remembering.
“We’re going to need more than that, dear,” Doku requested.
“Elves live there,” Rolian said to Clover. “Like you.”
“Elves?” Clover carefully repeated before her eyes widened.
“What was the name of that forest?” Rolian whined with a few hops. “Lime Paradise? Avocado Refuge? Jade Sanctuary? Olive Shelter?”
“Green Haven?” Clover fearfully asked.
“No, that’s not it,” Rolian said shaking her head. Clover blinked then breathed out in relief. After a pause Rolian then looked to her with a few quick nods.
“Wait, yes, that was it. Green Haven.”
“WHAT?” Clover screamed at her. “Those fucking monsters are in Green Haven? They’re in my home forest?”
“Um,” Rolian slowly said. “I don’t know if they’re in your home forest. Where is your home?”
“Green Haven, you idiot! I’m from Green Haven!”
“Oh. Well, yeah. They’re in your home then,” Rolian reasoned with a cringe.
“You’re telling me those fucking whores that destroyed Ruhelia are in my grove now?” Clover demanded as she marched up to the arachne and shook her by the shoulders. Rolian cried while Clover screamed and shook the monster relentlessly, all while Daniel and the girls were staring at the arachne in shock from the news.
“I’m sorry!” Rolian wailed. “I’m really sorry! Please stop shaking me, you’re making me dizzy!”
“Oh dear,” Doku feared. “Those horrible monsters are in Green Haven now?”
“You mean that’s going to happen to Green Haven next?” Luna nervously asked pointing to the scarred countryside before them.
“They’re going to level it to the ground,” Falla worried. “They’re going to wipe the elves out next.”
“No they’re not!” Rolian cried out. “They’re not going to wipe the elves out! They won’t do that!”
Clover stopped shaking the arachne who groaned with her head rolling atop her shoulders.
“What do you mean they won’t?” Clover demanded. “What do you know about it?”
“So dizzy,” Rolian whined. “Stomach feels funny, or at least one of them does.”
“Talk!” Clover yelled shaking her a few more times. “What’s going to happen to my people?”
“The elves are joining The Sisterhood,” Rolian said before lurching slightly. “They didn’t refuse like the centaurs did, they’re joining them.”
“My priestess would never agree to that!” Clover shouted. “My people would never join the likes of those centaur slaughtering fuckers!”
“They don’t have a choice,” Rolian explained before covering her mouth. After a pause she shook her head with a few deep breaths. “They don’t have a choice. If they don’t join The Sisterhood, The Sisterhood will do to them what they did to the centaurs.”
“They’re being forced to join their army,” Specca reasoned. “The Sisterhood is adding elven archers to their ranks under the threat of death should they refuse.”
“They’re slaves,” Alyssa realized. “They turned the elves of Green Haven into slaves of war.”
Clover shoved Rolian back, the arachne then quickly skittering further away while holding her jug closer out of fear, before turning to stare in horror at the sight of what remained of the countryside as she envisioned her grove sharing the same dire fate. She grabbed her twintails and breathed heavily before screaming in both anger and terror from the thought, her cry sounding off across the desolate land as Daniel and the girls saw the elf breaking down very quickly before them.
“No! This isn’t happening! This isn’t fucking happening!” she cried out before thrashing around in distress. Daniel rushed over and held her close, the elf quickly grabbing hold of him and screaming into his chest before they slowly lowered down onto the ground together in their embrace.
“I’m sorry,” Rolian quietly said as she sat down. “I don’t like saying things that make others cry. I’m sorry.”
“No! My people, the priestess, her daughter, they can’t all be taken like that! This isn’t fucking happening!” Clover screamed before breaking down into tears. Daniel held her and gently rubbed her back before looking around to seeing all the girls watching them with distraught reactions.
“Clover, I’m so sorry,” Specca mourned holding a hand over her mouth.
“Her home is going to be wrecked next?” Cindy asked with a frown. “That’s not good. That’s not good at all.”
“Those poor elves,” Doku worried. “This is terrible news to hear.”
“Being forced to serve those bad monsters like that,” Luna whimpered. “That’s horrible. What are we going to do?”
“We’ve got to help them,” Alyssa reasoned. “We have to do something.”
“Against an army?” Falla questioned. “What are we supposed to do against that?”
“We need to do something!” Clover cried out at her. “They can’t do that to my people and get away with it! They can’t treat my people like fucking slaves!”
“We won’t let them, Clover,” Daniel assured as he held her close. “We’ll figure out a way to help them, I promise you.”
“What are we going to do, Dan?” she cried shaking her head. “What are we going to do? Those assholes are using my people, we have to save them! Please, you have to help me! We need to do something!”
Daniel helped the elf back onto her feet, the girl clinging to his chest and watching him with desperation as he surveyed the scarred landscape and contemplated their options. He started brainstorming of any possible way they could save Clover’s forest and people from the same army of monsters that wiped out Ruhelia, something he was having trouble finding a solution for as their resources
for combating a horde of bloodthirsty savages wasn’t much to begin with.
“We can’t fight The Sisterhood,” Specca reasoned. “We’re nowhere near capable of taking on an entire army of monsters all on our own.”
“But we must do something to help those poor elves,” Doku pleaded. “There must be something we can do for them. We can’t just let Clover’s people be taken like this. Perhaps we could reason with this Sisterhood and get them to stop hurting innocent people.”
“Look at that!” Falla argued as she waved to the destroyed countryside. “That’s what happens to those who try to reason or argue with The Sisterhood! These are clearly not monsters we can talk to about peace!”
“She’s right,” Rolian said shaking her head. The group looked to see the arachne coddling her jug with a troubled grimace. “They don’t like anyone that’s nice or doesn’t want to hurt others. They’re all just mean jerks. Every single one of them. They won’t stop if you ask them to, they’ll just hurt you too.”
“Great,” Specca sighed. “So negotiating any sort of truce is obviously off the table. That just leaves brute force, and we’re not exactly a force to be reckoned with ourselves in that field.”
“This isn’t a fight we’re prepared to face,” Alyssa said in frustration. “Triska and Kitten are in no condition to fight, let alone so many monsters all at once. Pip could blast away a good chunk of them and probably most of the elves in the process but I’m not sure she could get them all. Cindy’s strength won’t do much good against a simple torch. And there’s no way my magic is strong enough to take on that many enemies. Not even close.”
“What about Star?” Luna asked. “She’s a good fighter, right? She could help the elves fight back, couldn’t she?”
“She took a vow never to kill again,” Specca reminded her, with Star nodding with a quiet mew. “Asking her to go killing again isn’t going to work for her. And these monsters aren’t going to leave her much choice in a fight. Not to mention that’s an entire army we would be asking her to face for us. Her luck would surely run out long before the battle would be close to ending.”
Star nodded slowly with a meow as she lowered her head while Squeak was rubbing hers and squeaking to herself as she tried to come up with any other options for them. Cindy looked down to Snapper in her arms with a troubled frown while the youngling was chewing on the sand wraith’s arms with tiny snarls. Sitting next to the carriage Rolian was again chugging her brew with large gulps before she set the jug down and hiccupped, her eyes having trouble focusing as she wavered slightly on her abdomen and appeared to drift from the conversation.
“Wait, what about Reiko?” Falla suggested. “Can’t she just fly in there and steal all those bad monsters’ souls? She wiped out an entire colony of swarm on her own, this seems like something she was made to do.”
“Reaping souls by the bundle,” Specca said with a growing smile. “That could work. She could go on a feeding frenzy and help the elves at the same time, not to mention she’s a shapeshifter and can easily sneak about and gain the element of surprise. She could be a one monster army all on her own.”
“Reiko!” Alyssa called out. “Hey, Reiko! Come here for a minute!”
“I’m busy!” Reiko answered from some nearby bushes.
“We need to talk to you, please!” Specca implored.
“Later! Pip and I are in the middle of a battle to the death! And I’m winning!”
“No, I’m winning!” Pip argued.
“No, I’m winning!” Reiko barked back.
“We’ll see about that! Hya!”
“Take this!”
“Take this!”
“Take that!”
“Take this and that!”
“Would you two knock it off?” Alyssa shouted out. “Get over here, we need to talk to Reiko right now!”
“Why should I listen to you?” Reiko snapped.
“Because we have a bunch of evil souls for you to reap,” Falla called over. “Interested?”
A rustling was heard in the bush before Reiko quickly flew over to the campsite and looked around at the group with a drooling smile.
“You called?” she politely asked.
“Aw,” Pip pouted as she slowly flew out of the shrub. “I was winning too. No fair.”
“How would you like to devour an entire army’s worth of souls?” Alyssa proposed with a giddy hop. “Hundreds and hundreds of monsters, all just for you. That would be something you’d like, wouldn’t it?”
“Are you crazy?” Reiko scoffed. “An entire army? Look at me! I’m the size of a fairy and only one spectral cutter has grown back. I’m not ready to take on a whole army all on my own. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“But you killed all the monsters that captured Kroanette on your own,” Falla pointed out.
“And you wiped out Snapper’s entire colony all by yourself,” Alyssa reminded her.
“A group of idiots and sleeping bugs is one thing, but a full militia is another,” Reiko argued. “I may be undead but I’m not immortal. I can’t stay invisible forever and with the little amount of power I have now my shapeshifting options are severely limited. If I was at full strength I might consider it, but as I am now there’s no way I’ll do it.”
“So much for that idea,” Specca sighed. “Well, any other suggestions for how we can defeat an entire army of monsters and save the elves?”
“We’re not fighting The Sisterhood,” Daniel declared shaking his head. The group turned to him as he was gazing out at the ruined landscape while Clover held onto his arm with her eyes never leaving his face. “There’s far too many for us to take on and I would never risk having any of you going into battle against odds as great as this, let alone into battle at all if I could help it. We would need an army of our own to even think of trying to fight them. Even if Kitten has the Hellfire’s Edge, even if Pip is powerful with her magic, even if Star has her vampire blood and reflective aura, even if every single one of you was at your peak and ready to charge into Green Haven and go to war I wouldn’t let you. I will not risk any of you at all, especially in a battle that’s clearly not in our favor.”
“So what do we do then?” Alyssa worried. “Just let The Sisterhood do what they want with Clover’s people?”
“No,” Daniel answered looking back to the girls. “We’re going to save the elves of Green Haven the only way we can. We’re going to get them the hell out of there and take them far away from The Sisterhood’s reach.”
“What about Green Haven?” Clover asked.
“We don’t have the strength to take it back from them,” Daniel gently told her. “Not as we are now. If we can’t save the forest the least we can do is save the elves within it. If we can get your people out of there safely they can take back their home later when they have allies by their side.”
“I guess so,” Clover whimpered looking down. “I just hate the idea of another elven grove being wiped out. I already went through it once before, I don’t know if I can handle seeing more of my people suffering that fate again.”
“We’re not going to let them suffer,” Daniel promised her. “We’re going to help the elves escape The Sisterhood and then we’re going to figure out what to do about this rampaging horde of monsters in our land. We’re not going to let these monsters ruin any more lives.”
“How are we going to save them?” Clover asked. “If it was just a matter of running away they would have done that already. If they can’t escape The Sisterhood how are we going to help them do that?”
“Alyssa, Pip, you two are our experts when it comes to magic,” Daniel reasoned as he stepped closer to the group with Clover. The witch and fairy looked to each other curiously then to Daniel as he eyed each of them with a hand shrewdly held to his chin.
“Tell me, would teleporting every elf out of Green Haven with magic be something you would be able to do?”
“What?” Alyssa and Pip exclaimed with a hop each.
“
Teleporting all of them?” Specca wondered. “All the elves? At the same time?”
“Oh my,” Doku softly said. “Teleporting so many elves with a single spell, can that really be done?”
“Uh uh,” Alyssa quickly argued shaking her head. “Daniel, I can’t do that much. A whole village of elves? That’s way too much for me to move through the ether all at once. That’s crazy.”
“I can move a few people with my magic,” Pip admitted with a shrug. “Maybe more than a few. But a whole lot of people? I don’t know about that.”
“But, Dan,” Clover worried. “There’s over three hundred elves that live in that forest. Do you really think we can do that?”
“Three hundred?” Alyssa yelled. “There’s no way I could move that many with a single spell! That much magic would drain my reserves multiple times over, I’d die from the strain!”
“What if you two combined your magic?” Falla suggested. “What if you tried to cast the spell with Pip helping you?”
“Then we’d die together!” Alyssa shouted at her. “Even with her power it wouldn’t be enough. Do you have any idea how much magic it takes for me to move a simple horse and carriage through a magical gateway? You’re asking me to move three hundred elves from one spot in Eden to another! I can’t do that! I’ve never heard of anyone doing anything like that before!”
“I don’t think I can either,” Pip worried shaking her head. “That’s a lot of elves to move with magic. A whole lot. Way more than just a few. I can’t do that. I can’t.”
“We can’t walk them out of there,” Daniel reasoned. “They can’t run away, they can’t fight this large of a force, so the only way they can escape is through a magic gateway from which they cannot be pursued. It’s the only way we can save the elves of Green Haven from The Sisterhood, it’s their only way out of there. I know this is a lot to ask of you, and that it’s certainly a longshot, but I have to ask on the slightest chance it can be done. Do you two think there’s any way at all we can pull this off?”
“Three hundred elves,” Alyssa fretted as she held her hat. “Daniel, that’s simply too much for me to handle. Apoch and Astreal are dimensional witches, they excel at this sort of magic, and even they wouldn’t likely be able to do such a feat either. Charlotte herself would exhaust all her power moving that many people through the ether, it’s no trivial task by any means.”
Chronicles of Eden - Act XI Page 58
