The Green Elven Princess

Eliarra Grental was the daughter of the chieftain of the Grental Tribe of the Greentree Elves. She had been leading a scouting party sent out by her father to ascertain the numbers of Woague that had been increasing in numbers over the last couple of months.

What her scouts and her found was unnerving to say the least. Even though her party consisted of the best scouts in her tribe, they weren’t good enough to avoid the capriciousness of the Fates. The Fates saw to it that they were found out and set upon by a Woague hunting party.

During the initial engagement, she lost three of the six she had with her. After that, it became an all-out run for survival.

They all knew that the information that they had, absolutely needed to make it back to their tribe at all cost. So, the remaining three scouts with Eliarra peeled off from her one by one to circle back and move to slow down the Woague.

Now that it was down to Eliarra, she had been in an all-out run for the last hour. She could feel her lungs and legs burning and she knew that she didn’t have much left. In truth, she was running on pure adrenalin for the last fifteen minutes.

If she could make it to the rope bridge over Antagar’s Gap, she could cast a barrier spell and hold them off long enough for her to warn her tribe.

She sensed the Woague catching up to her and she knew that it was only a matter of time.

Suddenly, she heard the ground rumble, and she felt a new presence among the bushes and boulders she was running through. The sound and presence was in front of her. Were there more Woague coming in from in front? Was she truly and completely lost?

Then, with the sudden wave of doubt washing over her body, her exhaustion caught up to her and her legs just gave out.

She felt the ground shake all around her and she just squeezed her eyes shut because she didn’t want to acknowledge her fate.

Then she heard a voice in the common tongue saying, “Jade, hand her up to me. We need to get her out of here.”

She felt a pair of slight but strong hands grip her from her underarms and lift her, seemingly effortlessly up to another set of larger hands that swung her up onto a… a horse? She, still terrified, didn’t open her eyes to see yet, but she knew the kind of feeling horses give off, but this didn’t feel anything like it. But the man who was holding her now, felt human.

Then a deeper horror hit her. Had she fallen to the Woague her suffering would be horrible yet brief. Humans have been making slaves of her kind for a generation now. She now foresaw her long life stretching out before her having to endure the humilities of being a slave. This was, in her mind, a fate worse than death.

But she didn’t have any strength left to fight. The despair and exhaustion overtook her and she passed out.

Rowen was the first to come upon the woman…woman? Or was it a goblin. Green skin and pointed ears. But an athletic looking body that didn’t look like any goblin that he had ever heard of. Anyway, he was the first to come upon her. She was laying face first on a tuft of long grass, her long green hair splayed out around her head. Her breathing labored from exhaustion. She seemed to be clutching her eyes shut and her body was rigid with terror.

Jade happened upon them next and she stopped next to the green woman and knelt by her side.

Rowen, setting aside this woman’s heritage for the moment said, “Jade, hand her up to me. We need to get her out of here.”

Jade effortlessly picked the woman up by her underarms and handed her up to Rowen who swung her up to sit sideways on his lap.

The rest of Rowen’s party arrived as Jade was handing her up.

Suddenly, the green woman went limp in Rowen’s arms.

Xyarra said, “Now, now Row dear, shame on you, are you adding another woman to your harem? The three of us should be more than enough.”

Rowen turned beet red and said defensively, “No that’s not what I’m doing!”

Dana smirked and said, “And here the three of us just now made peace with each other.”

Kit just turned her head, turning her nose up into the air and went, “Humph!”

Rowen said, “Guys, that’s not what this is all about!”

Xyarra smiled and said, “We know dear. We’re just kidding you, Row.” Her face then turned serious and she said, “We have Eight Woague to deal with now.”

Rowen shook himself and said, “Right. Captain charge the Woague. Bring me a prisoner.”

“Yes…Sir!” and the cavalry troop charged and enveloped the Woague hunting party.

The battle, if you could call it that, was brief. The Woague, at first thought that all they had to do was throw their weight and strength around to intimidate the puny humans.

However, these horses and humans had more weight and strength than any that they experienced before.

Within seconds one Woague laid on his back after running headlong into one of the horses while the other Woague were slaughtered quickly. Most by decapitation from the sabers wielded by the horsemen.

Two of the troopers then got some rope out of their saddlebags and proceeded to tie up the remaining Woague.

While the troop were sorting through the dead, Rowen was looking down at the green woman in his arms.

He turned to Kit and asked, “Is this a goblin?”

“No honey, she’s a Greentree elf.”

“Oh. I’ve never seen a green skinned person before.”

Dana chimed in, “Greentree elves are often confused with goblins. One of the reasons why there aren’t many of them left. Another reason is that humans tend to prize them as slaves. Especially the women.”

Xyarra looked around and said, “They tend to be nomadic. Trying to stay ahead of human slavers and others that would do them harm. There must be a tribe camping near here.”

“Master!” Jade was standing atop a boulder to scan the area. She was now urgently pointing in the direction from which the Greentree Elf came from.

Rowen turned his horse to trot over to where she was. He felt the blood rush away from his head as he saw what was coming over the horizon.

Out of a stand of pine trees came what must have been more than a thousand Woague. All dressed in battle armor and wielding many medieval weapons.

Rowen took a moment to think it over. Now wasn’t the time to find out if his golems were strong enough to take on ten times their number or more in Woague. Even with their rifles.

He turned to the others and said, “I’m open to suggestions here.”

Kit said, “We need to make for the bridge over Antagar’s Gap. There we can hold them off.”

Rowen looked to the others. Both Xyarra and Dana nodded.

“Very well, to Antagar’s Gap! Captain, you, and the troop take up the rear. Just leave the prisoner. Jade, you’re on point as usual.”

“Yes…Sir!”

“Yes, Master!”

The troop and party moved along as fast as they could to make towards the bridge. There weren’t any areas that were open enough for them to do an all-out run, but they still made it to the bridge with alacrity.

Jade waited on the far side of the bridge for the rest to cross.

Rowen, with the green woman still in his arms was the last to cross. He handed the woman over to Xyarra and said, “Please, keep her safe.”

“Of course, dearest.”

He looked across the bridge. He felt the ground rumble as the Woague approached but they weren’t in sight yet.

He looked at the bridge itself. The bridge was about 150 feet long over a thousand foot drop to a river down below. It was a sturdy looking rope bridge that looked like it had been there for some time. He reached out his feelings and felt that there were magical enchantments on the very wood and rope of the bridge. He assumed they were preservation enchantments.

He said to himself, “I knew I should have made dynamite when I had a chance.”

Xyarra said, “Why not test your experimental explosion spell sweetie.”

Rowen closed his eyes and said, “Of course you would know about that. Is it too late to ask you to stay out of my head?”

He opened his eyes to see her giving him a “what do you think” look.

He then shrugged, “That’s what I thought. Oh well, time to take this spell out for a test drive.”

“Sweetie, I suggest that you use the bare minimal power you need to make the spell work. I don’t feel like being vaporized.”

“Me neither.” And he “unpacked” his gauntlets and started to put them on.

As he was tightening up the gauntlet’s straps, he saw the Woague start to appear around the boulders on the opposite side of the gap.

“Captain, use withering fire to keep them at bay while I do something about this bridge.”

“Yes…Sir!” and proceeded to order his troops to take out their rifles and began to order them to fire in volleys.

He then looked down at his gauntlet and focused on the explosion spell. He asked himself, “Minimal amount of energy? How much is that?”

He then turned to Jade and said, “Take the ladies up to those rocks and take cover.”

“Yes, Master!”

Meanwhile the troopers continued to fire upon the Woague as they tried to rally on their side of the bridge.

The 45/70 rifles seemed to be effective against the Woague. But, not effective enough. A group of twenty seemed to rally and made a desperate charge for the bridge.

Rowen focused some power into the spell disk and held out his hand.

A green ball of light, about the size of a golf ball appeared and floated in front of his hand.

He looked at the party of rallied Woague and even though they were halved in number from before from the fire they were near the center of the bridge.

He pointed his hand with the green ball of light and projected it towards the bridge.

The green ball of light streaked towards the bridge and hit it dead center at the same time that the leader of the Woague party reached it.

Then all hell broke loose.

There was a huge explosion vaporizing the bridge and the Woague on it. The shockwave knocked Rowen off of Baldy and he felt himself slam into something hard. Then everything went black.

Rowen awoke with a start.

He looked around and saw that he was laying on a mat of some kind in the middle of what reminded him of an Iroquois long house.

He felt his pillow move and he looked up to see that his head was on the green woman’s lap that he had rescued earlier.

She was looking down at him with a look that he had seen, only recently in the eyes of Kit and Dana. The look of adoration.

He said, “I see that you’re awake now.”

“I would say the same for you.”

“Did I die?”

From the doorway leading into the longhouse, he heard Xyarra say, “No silly. You were injured badly but you didn’t die this time.”

“Right. I guess I need to make another number three stick.”

“Yes, Jade was first to you and she used one of those wonderful healing sticks on you.

He looked around and asked, “So where are we now?”

The green woman said, “You are in my village. The winter village of the Grental Tribe.”

“Right.” And he started to get up.

Dizziness set in and his head fell back into the green woman’s lap.

“Looks like I lost some blood.”

Xyarra said, “Oh, more than some. You really need to make more of those transfusion sticks sweetie.”

“Right. I’ll get on that right away. Do you want fries with that?”

Xyarra looked at him with a puzzled look on her face, “Fries?”

“Right, you left Earth before that became a thing.”

He then closed his eyes and started to concentrate. He said, “Xyarra, please give me a hand here. If you can, help me with focus and syntax.”

“Only if you don’t mind me being in your head, dear?”

“Right, sorry. Please help me and enter my noggin.”

“Of course, dearest.”

It took Rowen several minutes to work out the matrix and syntax of the runes. Xyarra helped him bring back to memory his previous transfusion stick that he used on Dana and she also helped him through a couple of times that he almost passed out.

After a time, he had a clear picture of the stick in his mind’s eye and he brought it forth. The stick shimmered into being in his hand. Then he felt himself slip back into blackness.

He had some chaotic dreams, but he found himself awake again. There was some activity in the longhouse this time. Apparently, there were a group of more Greentree Elves enjoying a meal. Also, sitting around him were Xyarra, Kit and Dana.

He looked upwards and saw that he still had the same pretty pillow.

He started to sit up, but she pushed him back down again and said, “Take your time my lord. You have just now awoken.”

“Right, aren’t you tired of being my pillow?”

“No, I’ll never tire of taking care of the man who saved not only my life but the lives of my tribe. You prevented the Woague legion from overrunning my people.”

He looked over to Xyarra with a “Help me” look in his eyes.

She just shrugged and said telepathically, It would not be wise to upset the daughter of the chief of the tribe that is around us. Granted, we could easily fight our way out of here but…

Right, I know, we’ll have to kill many of them in the process.

Eventually, he was allowed to sit up. However, when he tried to eat, he found himself being hand fed by his former pillow.

“Excuse me, may I please have your name?”

“It’s Eliarra my lord.”

“Well, Eliarra, I feel well enough to feed myself thank you.” He could sense the waves of jealousy coming off of his ladies and it was making him uneasy.

She suddenly looked very sad and she said sadly, “Are you refusing me and our bonding feast?”

“Bonding feast?!” came a chorus from Kit, Dana, and Rowen simultaneously.

He thought to Xyarra, why didn’t you tell me that this is one of their customary marriage or bonding or whatever?

Because sweetie, I have little care or use for mortal rituals and the limitations that come with them.

He then looked at the other two and they both shrugged uneasily.

Xyarra chimed in again, If you don’t like her then you can sell her as a slave when we get to the next human town. She’s worth at least a thousand Shek.

He shot her an angry look and thought to her, You know that I’ll never do that!?

Right sweetie, I just enjoy watching you squirm.

Then there was a beating of drums and one of the male green elves stood up and said, “I wish to thank Lord Rowen and his family for their intervention with the Woague. Not only did he save my beloved daughter, but he also saved all of us from being overrun.”

Each of the elves in the room slapped their hands on their knees three times as what was apparent to Rowen as being applause. It was rhythmic instead of random like most applause, but it seemed to serve the same purpose.

“Now with his bonding with my daughter he and his are now family too.”

Slap, slap, slap.

Rowen was thinking, “how did I get myself into this?”

Libido, “Wasn’t me, wasn’t me!”

Analytical, “ You know that if we refuse, you will most likely cause a diplomatic incident. These people are part of our mandate to protect.”

Meanwhile the chief continued on with his speech, “Finally my dear Eliarra has found a man worthy of her hand.” He held up a drinking bowl and said, “May you have a long and fulfilled life together my daughter and new son.”

Everyone else took a drink. Eliarra held up a drinking bowl and looked at Rowen pleadingly.

He looked to the others.

Kit nodded numbly and Dana nodded too but with a definite air of reluctance to it. Xyarra just looked on like she didn’t care, which he was sure was the case.

He then turned back to Eliarra and opened his mouth to accept the drink.

A look of joy washed over her face and she brought the drink to his lips. It was mead, but very strong mead at that.

There were several other toasts and accolades that Rowen felt like he was being drowned in attention. More attention than he ever had in his life.

Although, he had to admit, part of him found the accolades to be intoxicating. Or was it the mead? He wasn’t sure.

At some point during the dinner, the chief found his way to be sitting across from Rowen. He said, “Now that you’re awake, Lord Rowen, what is your plan for our future?”