He nodded and Sam smiled encouragingly at him. “Can you tell us about them, what happened to your people when they invaded this world?”
Koar cocked his head and closed his eyes and his lips moved like he was silently singing something, then he opened his eyes and started, sounding as adept a storyteller as Breem. “In the days before days, when we could walk in the light for a time with the friends of the Dökkálfar, the sky fell in rains of huge demons with magic weapons of pain and fire who sought to take our home from us. The Fire Sky Gods had abandoned us, as we were not worthy of their pity and this new Giant Evil walked the lands in the day just as they did the night.”
He stood and was walking along the perimeter of the shield bubble as we saw the first rays of sunlight filtering through the trees and striking the darkened shield. The man touched where the sunbeam struck the force field, amazement in his eyes that he seemed to be touching something he was afraid of.
Then he turned back to the others in the dome. “We tried to free our friends, but found to our folly, the magic the Giant Evil possessed. They were inelfmane, the way they took the lives of our people from a distance. It was then we realized that they were our punishment for walking in the day which belonged to the Fire Sky Gods.”
He huffed out in exasperation. “So we retreated into our homes in the caverns of the Underneath where the night embraces all. The Giant Evil Walkers searched for us, but they did not know the twisty turns of the Underneath like we do, and even their magic artifacts with the glowing lights could not find us. So we hid.”
He sighed and his voice got heavy with sorrow. “We lived for as long as we could in hiding, living on the mushrooms and lichen in the caves, and the water of life which flows freely in the Underneath. The elderly and sick started dying from empty stomachs.”
Koar puffed up his chest in pride. “We sent the brave to the surface to forage for foodstuffs, and to try to find the friends of the Dökkálfar. Our friends were nowhere our people looked, and we knew that we were alone, that this Giant Evil had wiped them from the face of Alfheimr.”
Then he deflated. “But the Giant Evil Walkers came, they always knew when we traveled up from the Underneath in some way, and they would be waiting. And they laughed as they hunted and killed our brave who ventured out into the night to feed our dying peoples.”
He hissed, showing his teeth again. “They trapped or rounded up those they found, and then they hunted them for sport. Thus the Kalfrea were born, those who volunteered to die that others might live. They would draw away the Giant Evil at night, allowing our scavengers to gather food for the others. And as a people, the Dökkálfar prayed every night to the Fire Sky Gods to forgive us our trespass and again show us favor if we showed penance.”
He smiled fiercely at the deception. “Generation after generation the Kalfrea sacrificed that others might live, for more numbers that can be counted the seasons did turn the lifetimes did pass. In the Final Times, where more Kalfrea were dying than Dökkálfar were being born. We knew that we had cheated our fate for too long and that our final punishment was being met out as we could not scavenge enough to keep our people alive because the Kalfrea were too few.”
He held his hands out as if cupping water. “When all hope had been torn from us, it all changed. The last Kalfrea, the ancient ancestor I am named for, Koar the One, ran from the caves to draw the Giant Evil Walkers away, but none did pursue. We went to their huge settlements, but they were all aflame.”
He smiled and shrugged. “We had finally paid our penance and we were forgiven, and allowed to walk the night under the sky of diamonds once again. The Giant Evil Walkers had left our lands and we saw prosperity after so long. The Gods of the Fire Sky had deemed us worthy to live. And we bow to their wisdom in teaching us what we were without their favor.”
He sighed. “But it was more tolerance than forgiveness, as we learned on the first time the fire in the sky rose to make day from the night. Where our ancestors were allowed to walk under the Fire Sky with great discomfort, we were now forbidden by the Gods to see the day. Our skin bubbles and our eyes burn and lose their sight if we dare to walk Alfheimr when the Fire Sky Gods do.”
I just blinked at the story and realized I was blinking back tears. They were hunted for sport, and they thought it was because they lost the favor of imaginary gods. How many eons had their people lived in fear like that, hiding in a world without natural light?
I glance over at Jani and she seemed appalled at what we had just heard. I could see her quick mind putting it all together as Sam and I had.
Samantha looked to started to ask something, but Nerthus spoke instead, “And you saw a Ragnarok, a Giant Evil Walker this night after so long. And your people were trying to save the other Dökkálfar by stopping him before he could bring his brethren?”
The Dark Elf considered her for a moment as he looked her up and down, “Yes. Where the vermin of the pale demons try to infest the gardens of the Gods, the Giant Evil is many times many, with numbers more than fingers worse. They would be the end of us all if they return in force.”
She snapped out, “We are the Ljósálfar, stop calling us demons!”
Sam cocked an expectant eyebrow and the queen huffed at her then said in a calmer tone, “And we shall afford you the same courtesy.”
Sammy grinned at her like a pleased Fluff Tail rodent.
The man hissed, “Agreed.” He spit in his hand and offered it to her. She looked disgusted but then timidly did the same. He growled as they clasped hands upright, then she wiped her hand on her leg afterward.
Our adorable Asgard moderator looked quite happy at the minor victory and said, “Now Koar, would you please explain the gardens of the Fire Sky Gods to us and your oath?”
Just then, the rest of our group and the Heroes of the Night stepped through the dense forest and saw us. Dite called out, “They're over here!”
Then I almost had to cover my ears when Koar started screeching at the top of his lungs, launching himself at the shield, repeatedly, his eyes locked on Intark. The big man winced at the reaction.
Samantha was standing, placing her hands on the Dark Elf's shoulders, calming him with her words, “It is alright Koar, he will do neither you nor your people any harm. He is a friend.”
He looked back at her as he stopped screeching, his hands pressed against the shield. “He deceives you, they are evil and will...”
“No. He is not like the ones who had hunted your kind.”
Then he was hissing as the Heroes of the Night rushed forward their pikes lowered as they shouted, “My Queen!” Koar stumbled back, knocking Samantha to the ground with him as he pulled back from the thrusting pikes. They bounced off of the shield bubble harmlessly.
Koar looked embarrassed and then frightful when he realized he was on top of Sam, who looked embarrassed herself. He helped her up as Nerthus strode forward. “Stand down. I am in no danger here. Go to the gates before search parties are dispatched. We shall retire to the gates as soon as we are finished here.”
When the men hesitated, she snapped out, “Go!” While Jania swung from one of Intark's biceps to swing herself up to sit on his shoulder, kicking her feet lazily.
Sam's face screwed up cutely as she asked a silly Elf friend, “What are you doing, Jani?”
“The view is better up here. Besides, I want to examine this better, it is unnaturally sharp.”
Intark looked up with a smirk, and the smirk was replaced with surprise. “Hey, give me my knife back, how did you even find it on me?”
She crinkled her nose and kept it out of his reach with a grin. “I figured you wanted me to have it since I haven't ever seen one like it before. You've been holding out on me Inty.”
“By the Tree of Ages, don't call me that.”
The two stopped and turned when they realized all eyes were on them, expectant looks on our faces. Our Elf friend said simply, “Oh.” Then winked at Intark and handed
the blade down to him as the Light Elf warriors jogged off.
Sam again cleared her throat as she sat, and indicated the two leaders should too. When they complied she looked at the Dark Elf. “As you were saying, Koar? The gardens?”
He nodded then squinted an eye at Nerthus in accusation as he said, “We foraged for food and set snares for game, and though we found enough to sustain us, winter fell upon us. We found that we had barely stored away enough to sustain us through the cold days where the fire in the sky stayed low on the horizon. They were lean days, but nothing as bad as we had endured during the Final Times.”
The man smiled hugely, looking quite dashing just then, as he shared, “Then the big thaw came, and we again left the Underneath to resupply our foodstuffs. That was the Day of Forgiveness when the Dökkálfar were finally blessed by the Fire Sky Gods once again, when we found they had brought their gardens to Alfheimr so that our people would live and prosper.”
He looked almost in rapture as he shook his head like he was imagining what it would have been like that day. “Vegetables and fruits and other foodstuffs, all in rows. Grains waving in fields, livestock for the taking behind wooden lines. The Gods had provided for us. So to stay in their favor, we swore we would defend their gardens to the death. And to show our fealty and appreciation for all they did for us, we offered up the bones of the livestock we fed to our people, that they might again put flesh on them to replenish the herds.”
Then he growled and hissed out, “That is when they came. To try to take the gardens from us, the pale... the Ljósálfar. We saw signs of them everywhere at night, so we knew they raided the gardens during the day, but that was the first time we saw some under the diamond sky. They shouted in devil tongues, curses which could not smite us, because we were again of the favored of the Fire Sky Gods.”
He clenched a fist and looked at it. “And so we defended the gardens and drove them out. But they came again and again, with weapons which shone in the light, and we found we could not chase them off so easily as they attacked us each night.”
Koar grinned at us, and his grin faltered when his gaze swept across the All Mother. “But we had learned from a more devious enemy, and we knew to initiate the Kalfrea once again. So for generations more than numbers count, the Kalfrea distracted the... Ljósálfar... while our gatherers snuck out to collect the foodstuffs needed to feed our people.”
He leaned in toward Sam and confided with pride, “Sometimes we Kalfrea would fight all night, affording the gatherers even more time.” Then he sighed. “If only we could protect the gardens during the day too. We find they take so much when we cannot defend the gardens under the Fire Sky.”
The Dark Elf looked at Samantha for her approval of his answer. She looked so very sad as she grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze before she turned to look at Nerthus, who had her eyes closed her head tilted up as she bit her lower lip. Sam reached out to take her hand as well and gave her a look of empathy and compassion.
Then the most innocent of the Three Embers looked at the man and said softly, “Koar, what if I were to tell you that the friends to the Dökkálfar yet lived?” She held a hand toward us and Jania had somehow slipped off of Intark's shoulder without us seeing and was striding through the shield to take her hand.
She continued softly, “And what if I were to tell you that those gardens? They were not placed there by the Fire Sky Gods?”
Dite wiped a tear from my cheek, her hair cycling through colors in concern for me. Had this war that has gone on every night for centuries truly been just because of the inability for two races to communicate? To reunite with each other in a friendship lost after the evils that befell them under occupation?
Sam asked Jania, her eyes pleading, “Please take the others back to the City Tree, we have things to discuss here that should be done in private. Let them know we will return soon. They need to find out if seeking an accord is still needed, they will know at anytime now.”
Jani just sighed and nodded once when her mother didn't countermand our Asgard. Then she surprised Samantha with a peck on her lips, and Sam's eyes went glassy as a wistful smile spread on her lips as she raised her finger to them.
The wicked Elf winked at her girl then turned to the Dark Elf. They studied each other for a moment, then Jani pulled the pin off of her tunic that signified her position and handed it to the man, inclining her head? He returned the nod, a silent acknowledgment between two warriors, then she strode out of the shield bubble and confidently up to us. “You heard my Samantha.”
Chapter 12 – Two Minutes
When we reached the gates of the great outer wall of Allrbus, there was pandemonium. The gates were wide and our people stood outside of them, a shield sparking in the opening with hundreds of Elvish warriors attacking it and yelling out to our people. Sheets of arrows rained down upon them harmlessly as Brunie kept one hand skyward as Essa blocked the gates with her shield.
When we were within earshot, Jania opened her mouth and emitted a high screeching sound that was more shrill than any whistle. She walked right through the shield bubbles of the two Embers, bumping forearms with them, Inatra, and Kara without slowing her stride as she stepped right through the barrier at the gates and into the enraged throng of warriors.
One woman cried out, “Sure Step! You are alive!”
Jania almost roared, “What is the meaning of this chaos?”
The woman, dressed in the armor of the Queen's personal guard knelt in front of her. “When our Queen did not return at first light, we organized search and war parties. But these... these kleshnie would not allow us to pass.” She hissed toward our friends, then added, “They told lies that they were watching the All Mother from here and that warriors were not needed. We believed them to be committing treachery and spiriting She Who Lived through the God Portal to the stars. Or that the Dökkálfar had killed you all.”
Jani used one of Kate's colorful phrases as she ran her hand down her face in exasperation, “Oh, for fuck's sake. They tell the truth. Queen Nerthus is currently communicating with the leader of the Dark Elves and will be along presently.”
One Elf in leather armor pointed at her as he growled out, “She deceives us! The Dökkálfar cannot speak! And all know the traitor has befriended the kleshnie against our Queen's laws. She is with them!”
The man's words had the crowd surging at her, some with weapons drawn. And before Kara, Inatra, Intark, Apollo, Hephaestus and I could charge forward to protect her, she was spinning, slapping, kicking and twisting, disarming four Elves, unbalancing three and riding the Elf who had incited them, down to the ground while standing on his back. When the man oofed as he hit, Jani wound up with her bow drawn and the tip of my vibro-arrow an inch from the left eye of the leader of the Queen's personal guard who froze with her blade half drawn, then raised her hands.
When the man tried to rise, as the guard hissed at Jania, our Elvish friend shoved his neck down with her foot, making him eat dirt. “You dare raise weapons against me, Jania Sure Step, who took the Flower Crown against my better judgment yesterday, just so my mother would listen to a plea for help and I could strike down these archaic laws?”
That caused gasps and frantic murmuring to ripple through the crowd about princesses and crowns. And I had to hand it to the leader of the Queen's personal guard, she maintained her cool, even with the deadly threat just in front of her eye. She pulled slightly back so she could bow her head slightly her hair as light as Jania's own, dipping to frame her delicate Elvish features. “Apologies highness, we were not informed.”
Then the woman gave a sly smile. “You can see how this looks, can you not?”
Jani growled in exasperation again and stepped off the man and shouldered her bow as she called out, “Essa of the Asgard? Can your magic-y wrist-y thingy communicate with Samantha?”
She nodded and said, “You know it is a wrist console, Jani, not to mention that you already procured mine. And that
we do not need them to communicate with her. Our Verr have had us watching the whole discussion out in the forest by the farms.”
Jania rolled her eyes and held a sword out to the guard, blade down by the pommel with two fingers. The guard looked down to where her hand hovered over a now empty scabbard and gasped then took the offered blade back as our overly cute, kleptomaniac Elf-butt said, “No you silly Asgard, I mean so those of us without magic tiny machines in our blood can hear?”
Essa actually blushed a little at that. “Umm... of course. Sorry.”
Intark stepped up to Essa and lovingly placed his hands on her shoulders from behind, as Essa asked, “What do you need?” while Brunhilde handed her wrist console to Essa who accepted it without looking back in their odd synchronicity again.
Jania called back to her without moving her eyes from the crowd, “Can you have her put my mother on please with that kleshnie magic you do with the holo-ish thingies?”
Essa said patiently, “They are holograms, woman, you use them every day. Don't act as if you don't know, we've got your number lady.”
Jani nodded to the assembled warriors and offered as if it were perfectly logical. “Yes, my number is seven and two thirds in case you ever need to know.”
Ok, I snorted at that as Dite giggled while rubbing her hands up and down my arm, her hair all purples and pinks. Just great, all we needed now was a mischievous and amorous Aphrodite just then.
Essa tapped the borrowed wrist console, then made a pinching and dragging motion with her fingers and a hologram of the inside of Samantha's shield bubble bloomed above her sister's wrist. The Elves all gasped as Breem and Kalimish pushed their way through the crowd and up to Jani.
As the image resolved to show the three figures sitting on the forest floor, and the Dark Elf leader came into focus, causing shouts of alarm to ripple through the gathered warriors. Jania, still with her eyes locked on the people around her asked, “Mother? There seems to be a commotion at the gates, can you tell these overbearing oafs that you are ok and not to swarm the forests or kill our guests?”
Alfheim Page 13
