Chapter 6
“Who let the elementals out”
The day is Miresen 9th of Quen’pillar, the sun is warm, the sky is clear and a faint breeze is there to remind you that it’s Autumn….
….You aught to remember this day, because unbeknownst to everyone, this is the day where everything started and a countdown had begun…
The young ranger finally reaches her destination.
The city is made of intricate shaped wood and sturdy stone buildings and a gigantic tree stands high in the middle of this marvelous place, overlooking the whole of Gwardan. Elven folk are everywhere within sight with only but a few exceptions.
As Aura leaves the valley behind and glides over the buildings, she realizes that she might be a rare sight in these parts as well as the rest of the Coast…No one was used to see huge winged birds flying right through their street and this time, Aura catches everyone’s attention and the common folk can’t help but stare. This makes her feel uncomfortable, but as she turns her gaze towards the grand tree and the platforms on top of its branches, both curiosity and awe overshadow her minor insecurities.
Like a kind, soft wind, she flies over the buildings towards the Inn she was supposed to find this Mr. Denwallop, on the north side of the city.
As she hovers, Aura notices a huge road that goes all the way around the whole city dividing it in two ring-like districts.
The inner ring is known as the ‘Korwa Ring’ and the outer as ‘Anorans Ring’ and Aura is set for the latter, on it’s northern side specifically, for a tavern called…
‘The Vined Inn’
A wooden double door of elvish design stands semi-opened in the front. The wall is decorated by hundreds of vines that seem to intertwine and cover almost the whole building, but there’s elegance in their placement.
This was not nature’s work alone, a druidic touch together with elven craftmanship must be the reason for this wondrous decor.
Above the door, there is a sign hanging that says ‘Welcome to the Vined Inn’.
Aura walks in and a tanned skinned elven man with elegant, beize robes approaches. He touches his short, wavy, red hair and he stares at Aura with curiosity and wonder.
In a kind, warm and friendly manner, with his soft, elegant voice says…
‘Welcome to the Vined Inn, Dear!’, as he continues to size Aura from toe to nail, or claw to claw in this case. ‘How could I be of service? We can provide you with drink, food, accommodations AND entertainment, though you shall need to wait a while for the last part. My name is Erogh Kithollal, but you may call me Ero, if you like.’.
Aura proceeds to sit on a comfy table at the far back of the tavern and order some nice food which she proudly paid with her newly earned coin!
After a bite or two, a short figure walks out of a door on the far right from the entrance. The door has a ‘Private Rooms’ sign on top and seems like behind it lie the rooms that can be rented for a night’s rest, or more.
The short figure is of a red-haired gnome in a fine jerkin, with glasses, a few parchments on hand and a polished dark wood lute on his back.
The figure has a dark leather strap with a small pouch bound on it which is filled with sheets and scrolls.
This individual matches perfectly with the description she was given for the receiver of the message she carries! Aura discretely makes her way towards him and he looks like he is in a hurry while exiting the Inn.
Aura kindly interrupts the busy looking gnome’s thought process right outside the Inn and says in an enthusiastic manner: “Hello! My name is Aura! Are you mister Denwallop?’’.
To which the red-haired man replies with a startled-like medium pitch voice: ‘Aa, em, yes, hello! I’m Linus Denwallop! Can I help you?’’…
”You have a letter from Mr…em..no, that’s not it…em..AAAAh!…MA-STER Duasad Keef!’’ says Aura handing him the royally sealed letter.
As the conversation is getting warmer, a horse in full gallop is rushing towards them from the west side of the road! An armored elf is riding this nimble brownish mare and he seems to be in great haste!
The elf has a small red burlap, indicating he is one of the Zhelezo, the guard force of the Menagerie Coast and stops right in front of Linus. Linus immediately shouts at the rider with a more serious intent: ‘’What’s going on?!’’.
The elf responds with almost a whisper ‘’Trouble with the mine! We need backup! Quick!’’ and he extends his hands towards Denwallop as if he expects him to ride with him.
Linus immediately turns to Aura, sizes her up and down, noticing especially her glaive, longbow and wings. His demeanor changes once again and kindly addresses the blue Eisfura:
‘’We need to get to the mine, as fast as possible, you will be there much faster than any of us, travel straight north and once you reach the forest turn only a slight eastwards.
You will find other Zhelezos somewhere along the borders of the mountain and the woods, help them as much as you can!
We shall bring reinforcements but you need to go there as swiftly as possible to help the others! You shall be rewar’’…
….Linus didn’t even get to finish his sentence and Aura responds with excitement: ‘’Okay, got it, see you there Mr Linus!’’– immediately spreads her wings and with an elegant push she is aloft and starts flying west!
Linus and the elf both look at each other with a sense of unspoken approval for the new overexcited ‘addition’ and ride towards the inner ring urgently as the situation demands.
The distance is great, but the flying ranger is almost supernaturally fast. Aura found a wind current and hopped into it elevating her speed even further making her almost doubly as swift as a sprinting racing horse.
It’s been about 4 hours….
…Aura reached the southeastern edge of the forest and the exhaustion is starting to slowly set in. Aura makes a brief stop to rejuvenate her strength and stretch her wings before resuming her journey and a strange sense gives her the chills.
She can’t quite place the source of the feeling, but she feels a strange familiarity with the forest even if she has never been here before.
Aura’s thoughts travel back to her previous venture outside Vol’antim, to another forest all the other way across the Cyrios mountains where curiosity had gotten the better of her and she was turned to a bear for a few months!
What happened there is fuzzy and unclear in her head, but she remembers that weirdly enough, she enjoyed her time as an animal almost as much as spending time with her savior, a wood elf, who helped her become herself again and taught her a thing or two about druidic magic.
The teen ranger makes a subtle connection in her mind though she can’t quite explain it.
What she perceives in this forest, is vaguely similar to what she felt at the other forest too, but as to what this means, no answer is present…at least not yet.
Aura embarked on her mysterious quest once more, shaking the feeling of the forest. Soon, she sees smoke in the distance and with no delay she dashes in its direction.
Shouts and yelling echoes through the edge of the rocky terrain of the mountain!
Aura sees an large entrance into a cavern, like a mine.
Wooden scaffolding surrounds the entirety of its edges. Some kind of a shimmering illusion is emitted from 4 human-sized purple crystals which stand at an equal distance around the entrance.
One of the crystals was smashed by fallen scaffolding and a bunch of zhelezos are struggling to fix it!
A fire trail leading into the forest was visible and a localized fire is threatening the peace of the forest!
A few more zhelezos are desperately trying to contain it with buckets of water!
Aura is almost there, hovering, trying to make sense of the situation until more of the smoldering scaffolding plummets down and traps one zhelezo high up within its debris. Swift as the wind, Aura rushes to help him before this faulty construction fails again and the guard falls to his death!
Aura manages to smash some of the clutter above the zhelezo and grab him just in time before the whole right side of this wooden structure collapses.
She descends and the soldier shouts to the rest in a stern voice like he wasn’t just saved from the bring of a brutal death, “Protect the forest at all costs!!’, ‘Don’t let more of them out!’’.
He then turns to Aura, and as much as he is focused on his orders, Aura can’t help but see that this man is exhausted, his black circles around his eyes revealing he may be dealing with whatever this is for quite some time!
With an austere voice but with a hint of desperation he speaks to the winged warrior ‘’I don’t know who you are but please listen! There’s a few that escaped west, destroy them! Fast or the forest will pay the price! Follow the fire trail, they can’t have gone far!! Please! GO GO GO!’’.
Aura unsheathes her longbow, straightens her quiver and soars upward. The hunt is on. Whatever ‘this’ is, it is destroying the forest and that is something Aura is not at all fine with!
Like a tempest she glides through the huge trees, following a trail of smoldering grass and tree trunks.
The path leads to a small glade and 6 very small burning entities are running around touching trees, burning flowers and destroying nature on their way, while hysterically laughing, as if that is something really funny for them!
Aura notches an arrow ready to eradicate these creatures from above with zero hesitation or tolerance for their erratic behavior and out of nowhere a sound catches everyone’s attention!
A feminine voice yells: “Get them before they destroy more of the woods!”…but this voice is preceded with something much more fierce!
A loud roar echoes through the woods! It sounded like an intense bear roar but with much more intent behind it. A huge bulking brown bear jumps into the fray and stands in its two rear muscular feet and it is holding a massive greataxe! Like this is not enough to scare the little burning spawns a calm male voice yells ‘’Incendio’’ and a searing light-blue flame appears and wounds one them! This flame seemed to burn this entity even though they all already seem to be very much made of fire and stone!
The three warriors start working together against this common foe!
A flurry of arrows, a swing of the massive greataxe combined with the radiant flames are more than enough to purge these small elementals.
Within seconds, the threat is dealt and without uttering a single word, they all rush to contain any fire that was left in their way.
A few minutes later…
…the fire on the trail is extinguished and the warriors dash towards the Zhelezos, but the humanoid bear stops and addresses the caster in elvish ‘’I won’t be following you here, Seth, I’m gonna make sure nothing else escaped, I’ll be back once I’m sure! Thanks for the company! See you in a bit!’’ and proceeds to scout the rest of the area.
The Aarakocra and the elven caster help the Zhelezos and the fire is all extinguished while the threat is seemingly dealt with.
Once things cooled off, Aura has some time to notice the elven figure.
This pale elf has a round metal shield and a very intricate staff shaped like a big snake with two ominous looking rubies for eyes that if you look intensely you almost feel like they are watching you…
A voice interrupts her thoughts ‘’Hey, you!’’, the zhelezo addresses the two of them, ‘’I don’t know where you came from but your timing was godsent! Thank you for helping us! We got it from here! We have food to offer and a place to sleep in case you need it. You more than earned it!…I’m Bernard, head of this shithole of an outpost, thanks for saving me by the way, you are…?’’.
Aura joyfully says ‘’Nice to meet you Mr Bernard, I’m Aura, I was sent by Mr Linus Denwallop, a little red-haired short elf sir that looks a lot older than a child if you ask me!’’
Bernard says, ’’oh…uhmm..that’s…well, you mean a gnome? They are called gnomes, and I doubt that you should EVER phrase it like…umm..that. It could be considered rude by some, though I think you are quite a rarity yourself, I’ve never seen one like your kind. But if Linus sent you, he must have seen something in you.’’ and then turns his gaze to the awkward elf who is gazing to the people around him as they speak with a childlike wonder and possibly signs of confusion.
Bernard says “Speaking of rarities, I’ve never seen an elf so pale…are you alright, son? You need any medical help? We don’t have a lot but there’s a med-’’
The elven figure reluctantly waves his hand and says: ‘’No, no need, I’m more than fine, would you know the nearest settlement, a city called Gwardan?…I’m headed there, probably.’’
Aura then responds ‘’I came from there, we can go together if you like once we help them and Mr Linus arrives!’’
The pale elf looks at her figure in more confusion and says ‘’Yes, that would be most agreeable. I’m Sethurin, by the way. Nice to meet you…‘’ a few seconds of silence later he says again “Soo, what were those things? What are you doing here and why were you sent here?’’…
…Bernard says ‘’Alright, I guess we owe you some explanations and we may actually need your help again, if you’re willing. We don’t have much time, sit here, I’ll go through everything whilst eating, I’m famished’’…and he leads them to a small campfire setup inside the entrance, from the inner side of the illusion which by now, works as intended…
