Elvenshore: 03 - Elf's Bane (5 page)

When Aron and his young family made it across the bridge, the
y put their cart right next to Darnic’s wagon in front of one of the houses. The two families were going to share the house. While his wife was tending to their son, Aron came over to help his father direct traffic.

“I have never been here before, it smells of mildew and there is moss growing in the trees, but other than that it isn’t a bad place,” Aron admitted.

“It kind of grows on you, but I will be just as happy when we are able to go back and rebuild our homes and lives.”

Aron looked at Darnic, “Do you think that they will destroy our homes?”

”They did last time, not a structure was standing when we returned. They had all been crushed and burned. It was fine by me though, the old hut that my father had built was too small and it leaked through the walls. I was more than happy to be able to build a better one,” Darnic smiled as he said it.

“Always looking for the positive,” Aron replied
with a smile.

“In a world full of negatives, one sometimes has to look hard, but
they are there if you look long enough.”

Aron took a serious tone, “What happens to the Elves now? Do we go out and help them or just sit here and hide while they are slaughtered
?”

Darnic
had known that the subject of helping the Elves was going to come up, but he had hoped that it was going to take longer than a few days, “We will have to address that, but not today and not tomorrow, we need to wait until all the clans are safely gathered in then we will have a Meeting of Sticks as the Mother Land has never seen before.”

This seemed to satisfy Aron for the time being, but Darnic knew that it was not the end of the matter.

When every family in the clan had been assigned to a house, Aron and Darnic headed back to theirs. They were surprised that the women had already cleaned it out. The floor was swept and the walls were washed. They had cleaned out the fireplace and put fresh wood next to it.

As soon as Darnic came through the door Sali said, “We need straw to thatch
the roof. You two go and see if you can find some.”

Without saying a word, the two left to find some straw
. They did manage to locate some in a storehouse that clan Lathan had opened just for that purpose. Darnic and Aron spent the rest of the day thatching the roof.  When it was complete they came back into the house. Their wives had set everything up. It was only a one room hut, but they had hung curtains along the back to separate the room for privacy while sleeping. The front room was where the table and chairs stood, that Sali had insisted on bringing along. There were also rugs on the floor to keep the cold from seeping up. A small fire was lit and it gave the room some warmth.

“Just like home,” Darnic said.

“Thank you
for thatching the roof,” Sali replied, “We will need to find some food in a day or two, but this will do for now.”

 
Fritred came calling a few hours later. He had his son Isac Tewl with him. He had a bow and arrow, but instead of having an arrowhead, the tip of the arrow had two barbed spikes about the length of a man’s finger. “Remember this?”he asked Darnic.

Darnic took the arrow and examined it, “Yes I do; we caught a lot of fish with these.
I think it is time to teach the next generation how to fish.”

Fritred
smiled, “my thoughts exactly.”

Aron,
Isac and the two elders went down to the water’s edge.  They could see fish every once in a while swimming next to the shore.

“Don’t shoot the silver backed ones unless you are very hungry or you need them for chum,”
Fritred explained.

“What is chum?” Isac asked.

“I will show you,” Darnic said. He prepared the arrow by putting a cord through the hole in the back of it. He tied the other end of the cord around a small tree. Then he coiled the rest of the cord on the ground at the water’s edge. There he waited, almost completely motionless, until a silver backed fish came along. He slowly drew the bow string back and took aim. With a twang, the arrow let loose. When it hit the fish the fish swam off at full speed, pulling the cord off the coil until the coil was all gone and the cord went taut. Darnic waited until the chord went slack and said, “Finally, he is tired,” he then pulled in the chord until he got to the arrow and the fish. He dragged the fish on shore.

It was a large fish, very boney
, and was thin side to side but from the top fin to the bottom fin, it was very wide. The scales were large. Darnic got out his dagger and cut the fish into chunks, he then threw the chunks into the water. “That is chumming, we feed the fish so that they will come closer to us and we can catch them,” Darnic explained.

The four men took turns fishing the rest of that day.

Fannor woke up in extreme pain
. His left side and arm throbbed and he was having trouble breathing. It didn’t help that he was lying in a wagon and getting bounced back and forth. Each time the wagon would hit a bump, pain would radiate through his body. He looked up to see that Gilead was sitting next to him. 

“Where are we going?” Fannor finally asked.

Gilead looked down and said, “You are awake? I did not think that you would ever regain consciousness, as badly hurt as you were. The healer did all he could for you but worried that you would not survive.”

Fannor asked again, “Where are we going?”

“To the coast. The Chancellor is sending all of the wounded, the old, the women and children back to Elvenshore until this war is over one way or another.”

“Elvenshore! I do not want to go to Elvenshore,” protested Fannor
. Going back would be like admitting that their move to the Far Shore was a failure.

“You are lucky to be alive.
I would guess that in your condition it will not matter where you are. It will take you a long time to heal, and you will never be the same,” Gilead explained.

It was then that Fannor noticed that Gilead
’s arm was in a sling, “Where is the rest of the Cavalry? Who is in command?”

Gilead said
sadly, “There is no Calvary; those few horsemen that survived are now being used as messengers by the army. The rest of us are dead or on our way to Elvenshore.”

“Two hundred men, there were two hundred of us
!” exclaimed Fannor. He had trained those men since they were young, and now they were gone.

“Yes, and
there were only five of the enemy. That did not matter, they destroyed us anyway. Last night we were expecting an attack on Morgus Tier but they contented themselves with destroying Vil Athid instead. Men, women and children; it didn’t matter, they killed them. The survivors are with us now; they are all retreating to the coast.”

“And then to Elvenshore,” Fannor
said sadly.

“We do not even know who rules Elvenshore. It was a near thing with the Minotaur and the Gremlins. They almost defeated all of the armies of the Humans and the Elves. They may be in charge now.”

“We will know the answer to that when we see if the banners of South Fort still fly,” came Gilead’s answer
. “If the Humans are still in charge, we are to ask them for help, and maybe even the Dwarves.”

“I think the Dwar
ves would take much delight in finding out our current predicament. We were not the best of friends at any time during our history,” Fannor replied. Just then the wagon hit a rock and pain shot through his broken bones.

 
Grand Chancellor Lanor stood in front of the map and contemplated. “We need to evacuate Vil Falcress.”

Mauric, h
is counselor said, “It is already happening, they are headed to the swampland in hopes the Humans will take them in.”

“They should be evacuated this direction,” Lanor said
, "We do not want the Humans to be burdened with our problems."

“They have to go through Morgus Tier to get here, but it is expecting an attack at any moment.  Hopefully there is a place for them in the swampland.”

The Chancellor shook his head. He had a heavy heart and blamed himself for all of the death and destruction that the Elves were going through.
“I have let my people get destroyed. I will resign as Chancellor.” He then slowly walked off.

 
Armurous looked out from the watchtower of Morgus Tier as the Vil Falcress burned, off in the distance. His warriors manned the battlements. The town’s non-combatants had been evacuated the day before. He had expected an attack at any time but the Trolls seemed to contend themselves with destroying the outlying towns and villages first. He had five hundred regular troops and two hundred reserve troops, but he still feared what lay ahead as he had seen the powerful Elf Calvary decimated in only a few hours. When he then heard someone coming up the ladder he looked down to see his under commander Bellios step up and onto the watchtower lookout.

“Greetings
, Commander,” Bellios said.

“Did the people ma
ke it out of Vil Falcress?” Armurous asked. He was concerned after what he had seen at Vil Athid.

“They left, but they will still be on the road this night. They are traveling day and night but they w
ill not be at the swamplands before two days is out. I will send a rider in the morning to see how they fare.”

“I mocked the Grand Chancellor in my heart when he sent us here and called up the reserve
. Now I wish that he had done all that days earlier,” Armurous sighed.

“We could not have even imagined in our wildest nightmares the horror of these days. You were right in obeying orders no matter how insane they seemed to you at the time,” Bellios replied.

“There is no more outlying village in front of us, so it will be our turn next,” commented Armurous.
He looked around the town and then at the walls and wondered what it would look like in a few days. Would it still be here or completely destroyed?

“We can prevail if the walls hold,” Bellios replied.

“I hope you are right, but just in case, bring me the Chancellors’ son Soric.”

“Yes
, Commander,” Bellios said and then he headed down the ladder.

Soric was a reservist at Morgus
Tier. When they called the reserve up he was already in the town.

When he reported to Armurous, the Commander looked him in the eye, “I want you to find out what happened to the people of Vil Falcress. Do not come back here to report
, but go straight to the Capital after you complete you orders.”

“Yes
, Sir,” Soric said and then he left to go get a horse.

Armurous came down from the watchtower and went to get some sleep, as he knew he would need all the sleep he could get for the days ahead.

It wasn’t long before he was awakened by one of the watchtower guards, “Sir, Chancellor Lanor was seen riding a horse. When he passed here he was riding at full gallop. He turned at the crossroads and headed for Vil Falcress.”

Armurous
climbed out of bed and ran to the watchtower. Bellios was already up there.

“Is there any use trying to catch up with him?”
 Armurous asked.

“No
, he was moving too fast,” Bellios replied.

Armurous could only shake his head in dismay.

The women of Bon Lathan were more than happy to show all of the other clans how to prepare sea food. When the clans had first arrived in the swampland, with the other survivor of the war with the monsters, all of the clans, including Lathan, had no idea how to cook fish. This time around, they had stayed in the swampland when all of the other clans left, clan Lathan had learned a lot of how to prepare fish in many diverse ways, which fish was good to eat and which fish not to eat. There were also root vegetables that only grew in the swampland to be had and a few animals that could be killed for food.

Clan Lathan didn’t raise cows and sheep, but they did raise small things, like rabbits and chickens. There were not nearly enough of those things to go around and the few cows and sheep that were brought along during the flight of the
clans were not going to last long. There was talk of going to some of the nearby villages to get some of the livestock that was left behind, but no one was organizing it or calling for volunteers.

Already other problems were arising
in the overcrowded conditions. It was all too clear that a Meeting of Sticks was going to be needed.

Never, in the history of the motherland
, had so many clan elders met before. The group was so large that it had to be convened in a clearing just east of Bon Lathan. The elders piled up their walking sticks as they entered the clearing and went to sit down with the other elders of their clans. It was up to clan Lathan to lead the meeting since it was their village where the meeting was taking place.