Chapter 9

A look of supreme surprise and shock showed on the guard’s face. He slid to the floor, his blood pumping out of the stump. “Five aspects and you were able to combine them as one. Ha! Never had a damn chance, good on you.”

Dan looked at the other six who had watched. They immediately turned and fled. Dan turned and walked to the Succubus. “Do you need further help?” He asked, then was shocked when she swiped at him and hissed.

Dan just shrugged and collected the others as they all walked away. The Succubus watched them all closely as they grew further away.

She shook her head as she got up, heading in the general direction Dan and party had gone.

Dan shook his head as they got further down the road. “I tried to help her, and she reacted that way,” Dan said.

“Unfortunately,” Tygan started, “Many don’t like help that much. As a Succubus, she has a more independent nature than most. You’re lucky she even responded.”

“As beat up as she was, you’d think she’d want help,” Dan said.

“As I said, they aren’t often that well, receptive to help. Unless they ask, then forget it,” Tygan said.

They appeared to be nearing a city far larger than they had seen so far. “It appears that we have entered the Elvin territories,” Tygan said, looking back at En’tra. “Might want to hide your face some.”

En’tra nodded as she started to situate herself more. A moment later her face all but disappeared.

Dan sighed all this drama was starting to get on his nerves.

A great distance behind them Gre’ta and Kim’ta were wondering what they had to do to complete their missions.

Gre’ta was glad that she had spoken to the human, though Kim’ta had screwed that up. They were drawing closer to the Elvin lands tact was needed.

The fact that a light elf and a dragon were together was going to draw a lot of attention. With a sigh, she and Kim’ta increased their speed.

Gre’ta thought that once in the city, they might have an advantage. Well, if the party they were chasing got noticed a lot.

Gre’ta also wondered if the appearance of a dragon might panic the people, also. As far as she knew, a dragon hadn’t been in an Elvin city in quite some time.

The closer they got, the more Gre’ta got, she had them stop so that she could contact Queen Ad’ella.

A few moments later she bowed to the visage of her Queen. “Queen Ad’ella, we are approaching the light Elf territories,” Gre’ta said. “I am unsure just how you wish me to continue.”

Ad’ella nodded her head as she took in all that Gre’ta was relaying. “I will send a communiqué to the Light Elf authorities. You are on official dragon clan business, you, therefore, have immunity.”

“I thank you, my Queen, with as touchy as this situation is, we don’t need an incident. Still, I am afraid that it might with no dragon visit in centuries,” Gre’ta said.

“You have the training to hopefully avoid anything that may arise. Just try not to kill or maim any there, even with their longer lifespan, they can get hurt. As I said, try to not lose your temper,” the Queen said.

“I will do my best, my Queen,” Gre’ta said as the visage faded.

“Are things, OK?” Kim’ta asked a moment later.

“It appears that we, or rather, I am on official business of the clan. Hopefully this will help to smooth things over,” Gre’ta said.

Kim’ta nodded as she thought she might want to advise the king. A moment later she opened a visage to the king.

“Sire,” she started.

“What the hell do you want? You have your job. I don’t need a progress report,” the king spit in anger.

“The human and his party are approaching the Light Elf territories. The dragon and I need to not be interfered with if I am to succeed,” Kim’ta said.

This stopped the Elvin king short as a small, almost evil smile lit up his features.

“So they dare to come to our lands. What have you seen of his power, has he more than four attributes? If he does, then you need to destroy him as fast as is possible. He could destroy the world as their kind nearly over five centuries ago,” the king said in near desperation.

“As of yet, I have only seen five, though I am not sure if there is a sixth,” the elf assassin said.

“You have to destroy him, get it done or the first to die will be your family, then you,” the king snapped. “I will have all in authority steer clear, under penalty of death,” the king said, then vanished.

Kim’ta rolled her eyes as soon as the king was gone. She shook her head, it appeared that the king was growing more insane as this went on.

In the Elvin Palace, the Light Elf king was pacing with more frequency. He stopped a moment later as his latest advisor stood nearby.

“What news?” the king asked.

“As your agent advised, they have entered the Elvin outpost city of Gon’da. “We don’t have a heavy troop there though I am sure that we can take a human,” the advisor said with a sneer.

“This is not a normal human, he already has five aspects of magic, one of which is fire. No, we need to proceed very carefully, he could decimate the entire city. I have seen him use a mid-range fire attack. There is no telling if he is higher or not,” the king said.

“Sire, there is none stronger than you, surely you,” the advisor started.

“Do what? If we were to battle in the streets, we could kill everyone,” the king said to the open-mouthed advisor.

“He has already shown mid-range spells. Sire you may be the only one that can defeat him then. What are we to do knowing that the humans don’t care at all for the people, they kill for no reason,” the advisor said slightly shaking.

The Elf king smiled inwardly, the fear of humans was, well, a fear of all the elves. Well, most of them, the dark elves, had no such fear, they just mistrusted all.

Still, the king thought, the Mer-people, the Felychs, the witches (some of them) and the dragons. Those four were still allies and devoted to the humans. Something he hadn’t been able to break.

A small smile came to his features, that had been slowly less of a problem. The poison he’d released was decimating their numbers, soon the light elves would be the strongest.

He was the king, after all, how dare the other races doubt him about how evil the humans were? No, soon those four races would be no more, possibly the dark elves also. He wasn’t sure if the poison had worked on them.

Still, he thought he was far stronger than they were, so their destruction was only a few spells away.

A sigh came from his lips as he thought of all the offensive races being under his rule.

Back in the small light-elf city of Gon’da, Dan and his party were trying to not attract attention. Unfortunately, Dan was more noticeable than any of the others.

This all came to a head when a child was running to its mother and got hit by a passing wagon. It got even worse when Dan stopped to help.

The mother was starting to scream, especially when Tygan pulled her to the side as Dan’s hands started to glow. The mother was screaming that the human was going to kill her child, drawing a huge crowd.

The elf child was screaming with its broken limbs, and blood from its mouth. Dan sighed as he knelt beside the child, putting his hands on it. The whole time, the mother screaming that Dan was killing her child.

“I have to hurry. I can feel her starting to fade,” he said as he started to pour more and more energy into her. At first, it appeared that nothing was happening, then her legs started to straighten.

Dan cursed as he felt the hostility that was growing around him. He’d just got the legs straight and was almost finished with the arms when he was knocked to the side by several large elves.

“Keep your filthy hands off our kind. Your people are the reason, so many have died, let a true healer help.” Dan shook his head as he saw that a great many were staring at him. He quickly disappeared into the crowd, lost from view.

Several healers moved to the child as they stretched their hands over her. They then turned to the leader of the group. “We thought she was badly hurt, there is almost nothing wrong with her. A few bruises on her arms, but that’s it.

The leaders were suddenly unsure of what they had said. They then had the healers go over the child again to make sure. The healers left a few minutes later staring daggers at the leaders.

Everyone there stared with their mouths open, though none more than the mother. Never had it been that a human had healed an Elf.

Among those there was an agent of the Elf king, a look of disgust on his face. He left immediately he had to let the king know what had happened.

Dan and the others moved through the street as quickly as possible. They needed to get away from the crowd before they were attacked.

Tygan got them to a hut far away from where they had been. She motioned them in without a word as she watched up and down the street, then entered herself.

Dan sat and shook his head. “It appears that the king really did a number on the people,” Dan sighed. “The thing is that the compulsion I have been feeling is coming not far from here.”

“Shit,” Tygan said. “We are fairly close to the Kings palace. That Elf has more hatred toward the humans than any other.”

“As far as I know, most of that is well unfounded,” Dan said.

The others nodded as they now knew the truth, though how to convince others was a no-go for now.

Tygan sighed as they got comfortable, she then met with an older Elf female. After a few minutes, the woman wasn’t happy but nodded her ascent.

They had just started to relax when almost all of his companions sat up suddenly. “I feel that they have arrived, though at the moment, they know not where we are,” Ella said.

“I’d really like to keep it that way,” Dan said, a bit concerned.

“Damnit!” Ella and Bell said together. “The light elf may have found us, though at the moment she and the dragon are drawing a crowd. I can feel that this is a hindrance to them as they are looking for us.”

“That might give us a chance to get out of the city,” came the quiet voice of Shae’ten. “None of us have that many spells, not like Dan.”

All of them agreed as they moved out of the hut, moving toward the far side of the city. “We should get out as far as we can,” Tygan advised.

They had just exited the city when the two that were following them stopped to talk to a group of elves. The story they got shocked them.

Gre’ta asked to talk to the girl and her mother. When they appeared, Gre’ta was shocked at the amount of healing that the girl had received.