Note: You can change font size, font face, and turn on dark mode by clicking the "A" icon tab in the Story Info Box.
You can temporarily switch back to a Classic Literotica® experience during our ongoing public Beta testing. Please consider leaving feedback on issues you experience or suggest improvements.
Click here
Celia nodded, moving to his side as she confirmed she understood. He looked to Felyn and Petra, noting the Drow in particular had a wry smirk on her face. He cleared his throat, and the two women looked at him.
"You watch my back. I should be fine with my rifle, but keep your eyes open."
Both the women nodded. Pulling his rifle's charging handle back to ensure he had a round in the chamber over a full magazine, Galen let the bolt go home and flicked the safety off. With a deep breath and a roll of his shoulders to relax, he started marching out to face the knights with three females following.
It took another two minutes for them to ride up to them as the soldier and his companions stopped fifty feet away from the crash site. When they arrived, the cavalry troops immediately spread out into a half-moon formation around the quartet. They had swords at the ready as well as their shields raised as though they expected a ranged threat.
Even their horses were wearing front-heavy armor, he realized. Layers of elaborate padding and plating that could no doubt stop most arrow volleys. Maybe even sword strikes and some magic spells. But why would they think to prepare such things? The only thing they had done was spray their feet with buckshot. It was then that Galen figured it out.
They had come in what they thought to be prepared for any threat he may pose to them with that shotgun blast being their benchmark for protection. The lead pellets weren't able to penetrate their armor, so they assumed that was the extent of his weapon's power.
Unless they were wearing mithril, he was ready to turn their whole world upside down.
"You have a lot of guts, charging our border as you did and standing boldly before us now," called the man at the center of the formation whose armor sported a fanciful bronze trim that likely meant he was an officer.
With a shrug, Galen answered, "You were in our way and we had no time to waste. I hope nobody got hurt when we came through."
The officer's head tilted to the side, Felyn sensing his confusion at the unexpected response. "No... none were hurt. That is...odd to ask after an attack."
"We weren't lookin' to hurt anyone," the soldier explained. "We yelled that we were in an emergency situation. Though the reasons for the emergency died before we could get to them."
The officer went quiet for a moment as he realized the meaning behind the Private's words. Some of the other riders seemed to lower their guard as well. Shoulders sunk and heads shook. Whether they were in the same army or not, the Redding knights seemed to acknowledge the loss.
"While I will offer my sympathies for your comrades," the officer said, his voice becoming more firm in its tone, "you spat fire at my men and ran our border after it had been ordered to be closed by the crown. The laws are clear. You will surrender yourself to us or we will be forced to cut you down where you stand."
"Not happenin'," Galen said simply, firming his grip on his weapon. "If you make one more threat, you're gonna learn the thunder I used to slay the man that killed your King."
The formation of Knights shifted, the officer stiffening up in his saddle. "What do you mean?"
The Private narrowed his eyes. "You know your King, Queen, and oldest prince were killed the night before last, right?"
"Everyone in the territory knows of Fretheim's betrayal," the officer growled.
The soldier grinned hearing the confirmation of what he'd been assured would work by parlaying royals. The new rulers of Redding and Faerssune had fabricated a tale to explain the peace that their cities would soon have with their peoples. Rather than admit the Sun-Kissed assassinated all those in Redding who opposed peace, they chose to pin the deaths upon Lord Fretheim.
The new history of the Battle of Redding was now that the noble attempted a coup to seize control of the city after kidnapping the daughter of the Drow queen. By "sheer luck" the Sun-Kissed were able to break in and save both their princess and the two youngest of the royal family from assassination or enslavement. They joined with a few of Redding's guard to make a dramatic stand in the castle and kill all the traitors who would continue to endless cycle of war between the Human and Drow cities. When Fretheim tried to flee his failed coup, he was hunted down and slain by a brave group of both Human and Dark Elf warriors.
Nobles at the Drow court would likely find it harder to buy the tale, but the people of Redding were not as discerning as they were. The prospect of an end in the bloodshed would be too appealing.
"The noble that tried to take over," Galen explained, "we were part of the team that stopped him before the whole royal family got killed. We ran your border 'cause we gotta get away from the city before the friends of the noble we killed start lookin' to kill us. If you gotta confirm this..."
He risked pulling his left hand off his rifle to reach into his breast pocket. Unbuttoning it, he pulled a folded piece of parchment sealed with half yellow and half red wax. He held it up so the riders could see it clearly.
"I gotta letter from your new ruler, Prince Jackson himself, grantin' us free passage through and out of your territory."
The knights stood silent and shared odd glances with one another as the officer squinted as though to look closely at the seal on the letter of passage in Galen's hand. Felyn could feel the uncertainty in the lead man and his confusion regarding the young one before him. Focusing her gaze upon the slit in his helmet, she pushed her power upon him to try and hasten this lengthy interaction, giving the lieutenant the extra nudge he needed to be sure of the decision he was trying so hard to believe to be right, and to not waste time asking for the document Galen had in his hand.
"What is this beast that has fallen upon the Prairie?"
Felyn mentally sighed with frustration. The war had only been over for a day and facing a group of men that would have been trying to kill her the previous week stretched her patience. Having an axe buried in her belly definitely solidified her disposition against anyone who bore the Redding flag.
"A dangerous one that my people were riding to the ground," Galen growled, likely sharing the Empath's frustration. "Its wings carry a liquid that can erupt in fire. So I'm warnin' ya that you don't want to be near it if it catches fire. If it did right now, we'd all be dead, but I'm not leavin' my people to rot."
The weight of the soldier's warning sparked a bit of worry in the officer. With that spark, Felyn was able to focus and spur it into fear of the unknown.
A low rattle shaking his armor as he shuddered, he shook his head and sheathed his sword. Pulling the reins of his mount, he ordered, "About turn, men. We've no business here."
Some of the knights turned with some confusion to their leader, but with only a momentary glance in the direction of the group before them, followed their orders. Their horses came about and the started into a trot to circle around one another until they all were in a single file. With another bark of the officer, they broke into a gallop back toward the Trench.
Galen let out his breath and turned to the three women behind him with a relaxed smile. For a moment, Felyn met his eyes and felt a flush of heat and the release of tension he experienced. She broke her gaze when he stepped forward and hugged onto Celia, whispering words in her tongue.
"Private Martin!" called the gruff voice of his new friend from his home world.
The four of them looked together to see the "Marine" was standing at the back of the metal beast. He had a pair of spades in his hands and some bodies behind him. The sight made Galen's shoulders drop slightly before he sighed and nodded. Whispering something to Celia, he began trudging back towards the Hercules.
.....................
The castle stood high above the surface of Raska where not even the clouds or the air through which they float could reach. Its marble foundation sat among the mountains, craters, and open plains of cyan sand with nary a soul in sight. The walls of this majesty of architecture were higher than even the tallest of trees, with spires surrounding a central hall against which many Raskan cathedrals would pale.
Each of its ivory building blocks radiated with an aura given off by the millions of lines of glowing, cyan metal etched into them. The windows were a beautiful stained glass of a dozen different colors forming mosaics depicting many legendary events of the world below. What served as the roof of the palace were wide, angled metal sheets that had a rainbow sheen to them dancing in the sunlight which struck Raska's moon just beyond.
Isolated on the airless plains of the natural satellite, this domain was of a beauty that only the divine could craft, for only a deity could dwell within it.
In the main hall, beneath the vast gothic arches supported by columns engraved with murals of mortal achievements, was an eloquent, marble throne. It sat facing a broad, circular window that offered a perfect view of the world below for the creature occupying the seat. Her skin was the same color as the sands covering her domain, her long hair was a dark shade of violet and floating freely about the plush curves of her Humanoid body in the low gravity. A pair of thin, silver antennae sprouted from her forehead and twitched over her closed eyes as her face scowled and twisted with her troubling visions.
Four, fairy-like wings spread from her back as she abruptly rose from her seat. Her eyelids lifted to reveal two dark, sparkling orbs in the place of eyes, mirroring her view of the starry, infinite expanse above her castle. With her singular consciousness coming back to her, she felt every copy of her persona on the world below fall out of her control and take in a temporary individuality until she could next resume control.
I must return.
Her violet hair still floating behind her, she turned left from her throne toward a full-length mirror against the wall. After stretching out her arms from her extended physical rest, she cast her hand into her looking-glass to sprinkle it with her magical, silver dust. The surface of the enchanted piece rippled and without slowing her pace, Necela, the Goddess of Life, stepped into it and let the liquid glass immerse her body completely.
A moment later, a lake found in the heart of a forest shook, its calm surface turning violent as a great beast broke from its depths and launched into the sky. Broad, leathery wings spread out from a massive, black-scaled body of a Dragon with glowing, cyan eyes. With a single beat of its wings powerful enough to nearly level the trees below it, the monster took off westward to a wide expanse of seemingly endless, yellow grassland.
Far in the distance but still within range of the transformed Goddess' vision was a faint glow of foreign magic hovering over the plain. Seeing it now she could tell it was of a kind that she never bothered herself with before, even as it had spewed off-worlders onto her precious Raska in the years past. Her personal justification for such inaction was that it had always vanished before she could properly investigate it.
Not this time.
It had just brought three things to her world and took one back. Such activity forced it to remain open and now she had the chance to get to it before it was closed. After all, She had a promise to keep.
Wings beating as hard as she could make them, she flew beyond the borders of the forest and made the bee-line for the magic as it faded from her sight. Drawing closer to the source, a new anomaly within this cloud of arcane energy revealed itself to the deity's eyes. It was something that she hadn't witnessed before. At least not through the eyes of any of her puppets.
There was a rift within the cloud and within it she could see... infinite. A vast expanse of stars twirling as one around a central axis just as a hurricane would over the ocean. And from this came a signature magic unique from anything she ever felt, something that put a new taste to her senses far more potent that anything natural to her world.
I cannot let it escape.
A beam of magic readied itself within Necela's throat as she charged this rift. It had shrunk from the size of the metal beast of the Other World to half the size of her current form, and there was yet a half-league to go before she could reach it. Still, the Goddess pressed forward, building up her magic within and preparing to unleash it to keep that rift open for just a bit longer.
Just enough for me to touch it...
It was closing fast and now the size of her Draconic head. She flew in as close as she could and opened her massive, fanged maw to unleash a red beam of magic into the rift. She spewed out pure power, enough to expand this hole in reality just long enough for her to reach it. With all her strength as a Goddess of this world, she tore at this energy to seize it as she would the spell of any mage that turned against her. She went so far as to try to peel a piece of magic off this rift and take it into her aura. Or, at the very least, turn it into a physical form to take with her to her home.
The sky above trembled as she unleashed her full strength upon this anomaly. Something pulsed with energy, and an instant later, the anomaly pushed back. A glowing, yellow stream lashed out from the rift. The magic burned against Necela's scales, her senses going wild as she fought to contain it. With a wince of discomfort, she turned this magic about, focusing it in upon itself as she conjured a gem for it to infest. It took only a moment for what was supposed to be a crystal the size of a tear drop to swell to the size of a Human fist.
Then as quickly as it had come, the anomaly faded away. Its only remnant was the gem in Necela's claw blazing with a kind of magic she had never seen or felt before. Merely holding its source had a being of her strength feeling empowered by its aura. Euphoric even.
I have to study it.
Gliding toward the surface, Necela touched down softly upon the yellow plain of the Rocklands and let out beastly grunt of satisfaction. Even as a Goddess she had a preference to keep her feet, or claws in her current form, set upon solid ground. She lifted the gem in her palm and hastily looked it over the best she could in her current form.
The effort quickly proved fruitless as its properties perplexed the Divine Being. Despite knowing every form of magic practiced in her world, what she had now was beyond her current understanding. With an audible grumble of reluctance, she pressed her magic into it while the image of her throne held the front of her thoughts.
With a tiny blink of blue light, the gem disappeared from her hand though the joy brought by its power did not vanish from her heart. The Goddess pondered the why of this as she started into a run and leapt up with wings beating down powerful gusts of air to bring her into the sky. Once she had the altitude, she changed her heading toward the nearest body of water, but then something else caught her attention.
More specifically, someone.
A familiar life-aura was in her sight down below, standing beside the metal corpse of a creature identical to one of the more recent other-world monsters which had come to this part of the continent. She focused intently on the body that drew her gaze. It took a moment to recognize the mortal as one with whom her puppets, the extensions of herself, had been colluding with in recent weeks. She had to think for some moments on his name, to find it among the thousands of memories that were fed to her by those puppets under her control.
Galen Martin, a Private First Class in the Army of the United States of America. Charlie's Company in the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment in the Division of the 101st Airborne...
Necela blinked as what she knew of him came to her conscious mind. With a brief chuckle and a broadening smile, she thought on all the good this Human had done for her in his short time on Raska. At the same time, the question arose of whether or not she should stop for a time to visit her most favored instrument in this part of the world.
A few of her concerns were the time it would detract from her returning to her duties, and another being that he wouldn't recognize her in her current Draconic form. Perhaps her aura would be familiar to him as it had been in the Drow city down below and he would know, but maybe he wouldn't.
She would have to revert to her natural form to be clear, and she did not want to be unnecessarily blatant in her exposure to Raskan mortals. Those who were known to have an audience with her tended to become famous among her worshippers, and her Human here would not enjoy that. Especially given his current quest.
Still, her lovely, mortal friend could do with a reward for his success in the task with which she had burdened him, a mission which had led him through more suffering than she intended.
And on top of this, the crashed beast below is a bit more than an eyesore on my world.
Galen's party was scrambling down below as she circled overhead. The young man sent a green-haired Elf woman to hide beneath the metal monster beside him while a Drow held his flank, her hands flaring with magic. This was not just any Drow, however.
Necela narrowed her eyes upon the Dark Elf with a scrutinizing glower while her senses took in what they could. And what the Goddess felt from her was... her own power. A divine magic that the deity wielded herself was growing within the body of this mortal. The kind that could not be learned or enchanted, only inherited through blood. Her blood.
For a short moment Necela couldn't think of any possible way a dweller of the Underground could have it, unless...
My shard...
She remembered.
The piece of her lodged deep beneath the surface of this world and in a place now controlled by the Dark Elves. They even built a city around it over the ruins of several towns abandoned by the Humans and Dwarves in that cavern. When Necela's puppet found the "pillar" in her search for Galen, she was able to reconnect it with her true self and unleash a wave of her magic upon the Drow.
Once barren fields of stone hidden away in that underground were terraformed into a subterranean tropic. Towns were overrun with plants and flowers that had only existed on the world above them. Soon the creatures and insects necessary to keep balance in such a place would begin to appear. Provided the Drow didn't exterminate the changes right away, their city could offer quite the boon to their underworld empire while giving strength to a deity they didn't even worship.
But in regards to the Elf before her now, the Goddess pondered what she had unleashed upon the unsuspecting population of Faerssune. In the chaos of that magical flood, it was quite possible that there could have been a unique effect on at least one Drow. With how much magic was radiating about the city, there was no way her puppet would have seen it lest it was standing in the person's presence.
Still, it was interesting how this one affected Drow had made her way to the surface with her Earth-soldier and now stood beside him ready for battle.
Making note if this, Necela drew her wings in close and fell into a dive toward the monster that they called a "plane." Before she hit the ground, she spread her wings wide to slow herself enough to land beside the construct while sending out a gust of air that threw both Galen and the Drow off their feet. Yelling started coming out from inside the metal beast, one voice urging them to flee while another shouted words of worry for their safety and fear of the beast looming over them.
