Into the Storm

by Christopher Johns

  Into the Storm

  Axe Druid Book Five

  Christopher Johns

  Copyright © 2020 by Christopher Johns

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Newsletter

  The wild ride so far

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Afterword

  Author’s Note

  About Christopher Johns

  About Mountaindale Press

  Mountaindale Press Titles

  Appendix

  Acknowledgments

  This long and winding path has been fraught with crazy adventures, wild times, laughs, tears, joy and pain and would never have happened if it weren’t for the real members of Storm Company. Erik, Aaron, Nick, Evan, Jake and Jaken—all of you—this never would have happened without all of my brothers backing me. From the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of everyone whose lives you touched in some way, shape or form, I say thank you.

  To my beloved Queen of the Frozen Void, I wish to express my undying gratitude. You’ve put up with the long hours, sleepless nights and picking up the pieces of what having these stories beat and break me down over and over—and all because you love me. Thank you. I love you too.

  My son, this world is as much yours as it is mine, and I hope that some day, you’ll be as enraptured and lost within these pages as I was. May you ever find your own journeys and adventures, and may your path along the Way be long and winding, but never alone.

  My acknowledgments to those of you who have made it this far in the series only to realize that Storm Company is so much larger than what is portrayed in these pages. It is my absolute honor and with pure adrenaline that I would like to introduce the unsung members of the cast.

  Sean Hall, Eli and David Hall, Ezben Gerardo, Tara Mulkey, Nick Kuhns, Jay Taylor, Lucas Luvith, Dawn Chapman and there are more but we have a book to get to yeah?

  Thank you to Dakota and Danielle and all my friends at Mountaindale Press for believing me and making a dream come true.

  Without all of you, this would have been a pipe dream. Thank you.

  Newsletter

  Don’t miss out on future releases! Sign up for the Mountaindale Press newsletter to stay up to date. And as always, thank you for your support! You are the reason we’re able to bring these stories to life.

  The wild ride so far

  The long of it gets pretty weird, so I’m going to give you the short of it with loads of style.

  Oh, I know folks, I got style.

  Things have been hard for us, my brothers and I, while we searched for minions and generals of War among the drow elves.

  Evil, cunning fucks with shadow magic that rivaled ours. Not Maebe’s though, she had that shit on lock. But back to my buddies and me near the beginning, eh?

  We were captured by a group of bounty hunters called the Braves of the Thorn. Quite the name, right? I’m teasing, it’s awesome, I know. They took us to Lindyburg to face justice for me murdering guards sent to capture and bring back Pharazulla. I hadn’t been willing, and she had used me as a means of escape, her mind control making me attack my friends and Muu’s trainer Zhavron.

  Turns out the Lady Belltree had plans for magic users of the land, and she wanted to kill them all. The Braves, being as cool as they really were, wouldn’t stand for it and helped us hightail it out of there.

  From there, we went to the law of the land and reported her, unlocked water magic in a princess, and marched our way to a dungeon.

  Not the kind with whips and chains, no—nothing quite so fun. This is a place as alive as you and me with the ability to create monsters hell-bent on trying to end whoever steps foot inside.

  Getting through there wasn’t a cakewalk, especially since we had Fainnir, the only living earth mage and a dwarf of the Light Hand Clan from Djurn Forge, tagging along. We tried to guide him into his strength and responsibilities as best as we could, but something about almost being eaten by kobolds and a second chimera that same hour kind of put a brutal stop to that. All of this while I butted heads with my new familiar, Bea—yes, just like the amazing lady of the girls in gold, thank you—who refused to listen for shit. Normally. We’re working on that.

  I called in a favor from the Primordial Earth Elemental, Gorumbal, in order to get us out of there alive, and it wasn’t easy. But I digress. The drow were a pain, but they did help us after a vampire attack that saw Yohsuke turning into one of them. The spider queen Lilith has helped us keep him sane by giving him a Vampire Lord’s blood so that he could have his independence.

  From there, we had to try to kill a different Vampire Lord who harassed and kidnapped patrols of scouts to build an army to attack the drow.

  See, ol’ Lilith and this lady had a bit of a past and, as sisters, it had spilled onto us.

  There was some betrayal, more than a little badass planning on our part, and a major party-crashing by a crew of dwarves from Djurn Forge.

  They got their warrior general, Gerty of the Mugfist Clan, back, and we made off with another one of the elemental champions.

  Our first morning back, some of the craziest magic I’ve ever seen came about.

  Jafrik, a little drow boy we had rescued, saw sunlight for the first time. And as a champion for the Light Elemental Primordial, he was reborn as a dawn elf. Golden skinned and powerful with light magic, he and who knows how many other people who saw the dawn that morning were reborn.

  With that, they were all to come to Sunrise Village. We had no idea how many, or when, but they were coming. Change had come to Sunrise, and with it, a new dawn on that adventure.

  But hey, this story is about us, right? We took on a name as a group, probably a little more out of jealousy aimed at the Braves than I’d like to admit.

  So, Storm Company it would be, and our company of fine fighters had figured out that our fortunes may be found on foreign soil. Possibly on the continent of beasts.

  Well, you’re all caught up since our last adventure. Wait, wait. If I don’t say this, she may kill me, and I would hate to die.

  Maebe and I got hitched in front of all my friends. I’m now King of the Unseelie Fae. Now don’t think I’m going to be expecting any of you to treat me differently because of that. I put my pants on the same as anyone else—with superior control over the shadows and a beautiful Fae goddess who is happier to try and prevent that than anything.

  Sorry, sorry—to the story now, yeah?

  Chapter One

  Covers shifted, snoring in front of me sputtered, then continued. Dust motes fluttered in the thin beams of dusk light filtering through the shuttered window to Vrawn’s room.

  My queen moved behind me, in her new fa
vorite place to rest, and her breath tickled the flesh on the nape of my neck, making me grin. My wife now.

  God, that feels so weird to say. The thought crossed my mind even as her hand meshed with mine, my other arm under Vrawn’s head for support.

  This had become the new norm, and I was damned proud of that.

  I shifted into my fox form and scampered out from between the two of them. Maebe was alert instantly, her head popping up over Vrawn’s large shoulder to watch me with her sparkling green gaze.

  Her awareness brushed against my skin like it had when we first became aware of each other in the Fae realm.

  “Where are you going, my king?” Her cultured voice carried little hint at the stress that we had been going through of late. What with the whole dungeon diving, screwing around with the drow thing and all. But hey, she’s a queen, she has to be tough.

  “Well, we were planning to go see the dwarves in the morning,” I explained again. “So, I was going to take a minute to go and collect a dragon form from Ampharia before we went. Thogan and Xiphyre said that they would be finishing up her order for helping us, so I was going to take it to her.”

  “And why is she not here to collect it herself?” Her confusion was well-founded, honestly.

  “Xiphyre said she grew bored of waiting and that her forest had been left unguarded too long already,” I repeated what I’d been told. “So, she gathered her egg and took off.”

  I scratched the back of my head. “Honestly, that was probably sound. Two eggs would have likely attracted unwanted attention.”

  “Do you require that I come with you?” Her eyebrows raised with the question.

  I smiled at her, crossing the room to stand in front of Vrawn, and Maebe just behind her. “No, dearest, I can handle this. Besides, Vrawn deserves some good sleep for once. You stay here with her, and I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

  “You had better stay safe, Zeke.” Maebe’s tone turned stern, bordering on an order as she held up her left hand. “I will know if you are not.”

  I held up my hand, waggling my finger back at her. Our rings glinted in the dull light, the black metal sporting a line of black stones with smaller bright diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and other colored stones inside that matched each other perfectly. They also bound us together in more than just legality. I could feel her emotions and her thoughts, to a lesser extent, as well as knowing where she was. I didn’t know if there would be greater benefits later on down the road, but it was nice to have now.

  I leaned over Vrawn to give Maebe a kiss that made her groan, then leaned down and gave Vrawn a small peck on the cheek.

  Last time I had woken her up by being loud, she had almost slit my throat in front of my secondary enchanting instructor, Vilmas. The poor lady had tried to calm the hulking orc woman, and thankfully it had worked.

  Vrawn’s snoring stuttered again, her beautiful blue eyes opening blearily to stare up at me with sleepy affection. “Hello.”

  “Hello.” I grinned at her stupidly as I swept the fiery orange mohawk from her face, just behind her slightly pointed ear. Her lips curled up, flashing her dainty tusks as she raised an almost seafoam green hand to caress my face. “I’m going to deliver some items to a dragon, she’s a friend, but Mae is gonna stay here with you and cuddle. I shouldn’t be gone more than an hour.”

  She blinked up at me with sleep still in her eyes then grinned wider. “If you aren’t back in two, she and I are coming after you.”

  Maebe’s light laughter followed me out of the room. I called Kayda to me, and she flitted onto my arm in her parrot-sized form. Her azure feathers were darkened by the falling light, the lighter blue, almost-white feathers that showed her storm roc heritage as one of a kind shone in the dim light.

  Normally I’d wait for dawn, but we had spent the majority of the day resting and recovering from the fight down in the Great Below. All of us sorely needed the rest.

  Her curious pale yellow eyes probed me, her mind touched mine. Maebe, and Vrawn okay alone?

  “Yes, my love.” I patted her head affectionately, scratching just beneath her beak softly. “Those two are crazy strong, they’ll be alright.”

  I used my earring to send a telepathic message to the others. I’m going to take these items to Ampharia in her forest. You lot wanna come?

  Hell no, fool. Yohsuke responded first, his gruff tone very much him. Any word on how long that coffin may take?

  We’re still working on it for you, man. Bokaj grumbled tiredly. Sarah and I are getting pretty wiped over here in her shop, then Xiphyre, Zeke or Vilmas can enchant it to shrink for you, but it takes time.

  Jaken, Muu, James, and Balmur were all in the rogue’s spell, Happy House, so they were all in a separate dimension at the moment and couldn’t respond. The lack of room at the inn was to blame for that, and the thought of sleeping where she couldn’t be easily summoned by the guard hadn’t flown well with Vrawn. She’d all but begged us to sleep in her room. Mae more than me because I was on her shit list at the moment, but hey—I try.

  I checked my inventory for the small black box that Xiphyre gave me earlier in the morning, then closed my eyes to think about where I wanted to Teleport to.

  Then I stopped and took out the raven in my pocket. The little purple and green figure activated with a press of 100 MP and my questions. “Hey Ampharia, I have your items from Thogan, and Xiphyre; are you okay for me to meet you in a moment? If so, where?”

  A spectral copy of the little item flapped its wings and took off into the starlit night. Moments later, a response came with it as it fluttered into my hand.

  “I am in my new den.” Ampharia’s voice sounded tired as she explained, “It is where the tree planted by Mother Nature grows.”

  I nodded to myself, I knew exactly where that was, and if I was counting my intelligence up well enough—I’d make it there without need for an unnecessary stop.

  But why take my word for it, right? Let’s see it all, shall we?

  Name: Zekiel Erebos

  Race: Kitsune (Celestial)

  Level: 42

  Strength: 57

  Dexterity: 52

  Constitution: 50

  Intelligence: 95

  Wisdom: 50

  Charisma: 19

  Unspent Attribute Points: 0

  Ah, much better. Getting up there in the ol’ intel department, folks. Hell yeah. A whole 950 MP at my disposal and that meant I could go farther when teleporting too.

  I closed my eyes and selected the destination I wanted, a sort of visual catalog developing in my mind. The forest where I wanted to go, the tree I’d like to see. A deep breath and the intense sensation of the world dropping away from my body later, and I stood inside the once abandoned village of a group of cultists. It had been torn apart and destroyed by a rebellious minion that had taken over a creature possessed by a greater fiend while we had tried to put an end to it. They mixed, and it was a really bad time for us. It had been so strong that Maebe had to step in and help out. And even then, it was a hard-fought victory that left a lot of us wounded and me with a broken spine.

  That hadn’t been fun to heal, but we survived.

  “Hello, druid.” A bass growl greeted me from next to the tree. My vision at night was excellent, but still, her hulking shadowed figure moving around the wild tree like a leviathan out of the nether made my jaw drop in awe.

  “Hello, fierce guardian of this jungle.” I bowed my head as a joke, but I think she liked the title.

  “You have learned much since we last met.” Her pleasure was obvious, and I wasn’t about to tell her otherwise. “You bring my treasures?”

  I pulled the box with them inside out of my inventory and pressed it toward her. Her great bulky shadow moved toward me, the outline of her head with her antler-like horns lowered toward me until she could manage to get her claw out to lift the lid.

  She snarled and moved away from a large oval-shaped shadow.

  “It is al
most ready to hatch, it just needs more fire energy than is available to me and the enchantment the tiny Fae put on it isn’t strong enough.”

  “Then why don’t you look at your loot, and I’ll do a little magic to help things along?” I made the offer innocently enough, but she could tell there was something off.

  “And what is it you ask in return?” Her large brown iris burned into my own electric-blue gaze. “Nothing is free, and I can sense your bond to the Fae Queen.”

  “My wife, and I’ve acquired a new skill.” I tried to figure out a way to dance around my question, but with her staring me down, I faltered and just barreled into it. “I can acquire the forms of new creatures, and I believe your form is available to me.”

  Her head rose to its full height, eyeing me from so far up that I had to crane my neck almost all the way back. “And you wish to acquire my magnificent form?”

  I sighed and cast Solar Flare above her head so that the light of day covered the area.

  “The whole high and mighty thing looks good on you, sister, but it’s a little more intimidating in the light when the shadows deepen across your features.” I tried my hardest to sound bored as I stared up at her deep-green scaled face. “That’s so much more menacing than before. And now, you can really see the fear on my face.”