Chapter 6 For Love and Honor

One morning while picking blueberries, Alaric found a weeping female centaur that lost her son. The boy centaur went to Laurel to look for an apprenticeship to make things from iron. A Kadacian trader selling his wares observed in horror this boy being mauled by dogs. A crowd gathered to cheer the dogs on until the boy died in the village square. The Chief of Laurel cut the boy’s head off and kept the possessions of the boy for himself. He accused the centaurs of sending spies to find out the secrets to Laurel’s superior iron weapons to use against them. He further accused the centaurs of plotting war to safeguard the iron deposits inside their mountain homes. The Kadacian packed his wares and left the village. He felt so guilty not being able to save this young centaur from six dogs and thirty humans. He walked to a known watering hole for centaurs and shared the demise of this boy with them, asking if any of them knew whose son went to the village. One male centaur stepped forward claiming he had sent a son to learn ironwork from the colonists. He enticed the other centaurs into accompanying him to Laurel to retrieve his son and attack the village if they refuse. Bellows echoed through the mountain valleys as centaurs prepared for battle. The Kadacian trader slipped away back home. As quickly as the mother finished her tale, Alaric vanished from her presence.
He turned himself into a falcon and flew to the colony to visit his friend before the centaur herd did. He found the herd galloping in shiny armor carrying a large wooden box to place the youngling in. Alaric changed back into an elf behind a tree and approached the herd. Recognizing the elf healer, the leader welcomed him to join in the reclaiming his son for burial and the impending battle. Alaric insisted on speaking to the colonists first to convince them to hand over the fallen centaur and his possessions. The leader agreed to rest a while before entering the village. Alaric flew to his friend inside his barn. He perched on a fence and squawked his arrival. His friend defended that he had been on the beach hunting for crayfish when the youngling was killed. He fled to Leesville as soon as Alaric the falcon warned of the centaur herd coming to demand the body and belongings of the youngling. He did not believe the chief would comply with the demand anymore than Alaric or the centaurs. Alaric next flew to the village square where a meeting was taking place beside a protective wall with the chief and soldiers in attendance. Alaric could hear the distant rumble of the hooves of the centaur herd coming closer. The chief encouraged the taking of centaur land full of gold, silver, copper, and iron. The territorial centaurs living away from each other would have to be attacked one house at a time. He raised his sword shouting how the centaurs were selfish in refusing to trade their metal ores with the colony and the young centaur deserved his brutal death.
Alaric flung his magic knife at the chief’s hand slicing right through and pinning him to the protective wall. The chief demanded to know whose knife cut him. Alaric approached the meeting declaring that these humans will not conquer the centaurs. Their divide and conquer strategy will not work because the centaurs unite under crisis and share in the booty. They may be territorial with their homes and land, but come together in neutral places to trade and share stories.
“Forget yourself, elf. We did not ask for your counsel.” speaks the chief.
“I urge you for the last time to hand over the young centaur and his belongings so they may bury him in peace.” warned Alaric.
He words unheeded he raised his arms to disappear and the magic knife fell from the chief’s bleeding hand, then disappeared. Dust rising from the herd charging to Laurel made many colonists come out of their homes to view the creatures. They paced into the village two by two claiming to have brought treasures to trade from raiding a distant village. They searched for the apprenticed son as if they did not know a centaur had been killed. Spreading out among the houses asking where the centaur leader’s son was staying, the villagers declared a young centaur never came. A group of centaurs placed themselves near the blacksmith forge and pottery kilns that need constant source of fire. The chief directed his soldiers around the wall to surround the centaur herd and attack them with dogs. The ignorance game worked until the leader saw his son’s head set on a pike and demanded to know what happened to his son. The chief approached the father stating the centaur boy was killed when he attacked a human. He was beheaded for his crime. The herd leader demanded his son’s possessions back with the body so they may bury them in the centaur homeland. The chief refused the demand and ordered his soldiers to release the hounds. The centaurs cut the hounds with one blow and struck anything in their way. The gates closed, the centaurs set fire to the straw rooftops with torches they lit as planned. Many unarmed villagers hid from the creatures and humans battling around the village. Arrows flew in all directions and swords clashed forever while the human soldiers dropped like flies.
Fire sweeping through the houses, the gates reopened allowing the women and child to flee the carnage. Many centaurs and humans lay dead when the victorious centaurs asked again where their fallen youngling was located. They discovered hiding humans who led them to the young centaur’s body tossed away outside the gate. Upon opening the empty box said to be holding treasures, the humans realized the plan to get inside their village without resistance. In the twilight, the centaurs and humans buried the fallen heroes under the black sands of the seashore. The following morning the centaur leader decided not to take any Laurel colonist as slaves for he knew the stream of Rondans remained constant and would declare war to rescue their colonists. They took whatever booty they could carry and returned to the mountains. The herd stopped at Leesville to trade and recites the tale of the battle. The elves eagerly listened as they fed the warriors. Musicians played for the guests as they dosed off to sleep. In the morning, the herd dispersed in all directions back to their lands. Alaric escorted his friend back to find his home burned to the ground and animals taken from his barn. He helped his friend rebuild and buy new animals from traders. Ships from the Ithaca came with more colonists seeking a new life added extra workers to help in the reconstruction. Life continued as usual after the battle. Alaric traveled to many villages offering to sell herbs and healing potions. His mother’s reputation was widely known and her son had little difficulty displaying his talents. He finished building his home for Nix and set more plans of his wedding into place.
Alaric later sends word of his impending wedding and invites all he knows to celebrate with them. Nix and he decided to combine the elf and human traditions and have the High Priest from Brightsburg to conduct the blessings and vows. He announced of sending Kiko with a marriage contract to Brightsburg. Alaric was happy the day of his dreams would soon be here. The next letter from Alaric explained a delay in the wedding date. On the eve of the wedding march, a riot erupted from burdensome taxes the viceroy demanded. Feeling overtaxed, objecting to new taxes, and sensing the viceroy was not delivering all the tribute to the king, the Brightsburg inhabitants attacked soldiers and burned the viceroy’s home. Many ran into the Olin Mountains when a massacre appeared upon the horizon. Nix fled on Kiko all the way to Leesville and begged for help. Eager to marry his love, Alaric met with the Brightsburg viceroy and paid the village’s taxes. He delivered loads of herbs, starfish, roots, and obsidian blades to the viceroy. He believed the King Andros did not possess such treasures. The viceroy posted the taxes paid and Alaric the Good was hailed by Brightsburg as their hero. The upcoming wedding was celebrated and Nix receives her gifts from her village. Now that plans are placed in action, Alaric receives word from Alexis the he must come to the Black Forest. Lanie is missing after a bloody battle in the Black Forest. Alaric wonders if he will ever get around to marrying Nix. He transforms into a falcon and is off like a flash. Nix reads the letter Alaric left behind.
“Alaric the Brave, I write of sad news concerning your niece Lanie. A faerie reported that Andos plotted to kidnap Lanie because she is not betrothed and Lixi forbids one to Andos. We were in her bed chamber (Lanie’s) reading scrolls, when we were interrupted by my pet faerie Abbykins. Word has come that Lanie may be taken by Andos so she must leave for her parents’ home in Itheram. Lanie kisses me farewell and runs to the mermaid caves. Alaric, you must know Lanie is only a child so she must be rescued, my friend. I jumped into my armor in time to see a meteor shower covering the forest. Alaric, goblins and slegna (sprites of the sky) were riding the falling stars. Some hit the sea. Medusa had her claws full of invaders. The pregnant Gilda hid herself, in pixie form, in the murals as the servants battled the goblins in the great hall. The castle is a mess full of broken things Gilda is trying to repair. Well, Daxus and I fought outside in the forest. I met the archslegna with a gold sword and he tossed me into a river bridge. I hurled stones at him and they engulfed him in flames like you taught me. Once he figured out I was immortal by surviving his blows, he clashed swords with me until he fell on top of Medusa. She threw him into a mountain terrace overlooking the forest and set a field of pretty flowers on fire. The archslegna retreated suddenly after a strange call.
I found Daxus on the ground blinded by a poisoned sword. He looks terrible and more depressed without his sight. Gilda mixed a potion so he may see once a year. Then she gave birth to a girl soon afterwards from all the distress. She looks like an elf, except her arms are covered with green feathers. They named her Toralyn after your grandmother who married a sprite. To make a long story short, Daxus gave all the wounded creatures healing herbs and all living and nonliving creatures armbands of valor. Gilda fashioned them in the form of a snake crawling up our arms. The servants squelched all of Medusa’s fires and are busy picking up the destroyed fortress. Faeries leaving for Andos’s heaven are coming back as stone or salt. You must help me rescue Lanie. I love her, Alaric. Your friend, Alexis.”
After reading the letter, Nix practices riding in her parade one more time. She prays to Ishtar that Alaric will not take too long rescuing his niece Lanie. She is with child again, but has yet to tell Alaric since she lost their first one when she was turned into stone inside Maya’s cave. She feeds Kiko before letting it roam free back to Aurora Falls. Meanwhile, in the Black Forest, Gilda prepares a bee potion for the heroes and provides packs of food for the journey to the sky. Their weapons are submerged in holy potions and sharpened. After a day of preparations and plotting how to get in, the heroes leave to retrieve the princess.
Our heroes, Alexis and Alaric, fly up to the sky as bees. They rest upon a cloud and gaze at this new outlook of the surface. They eyed Eartha sound asleep. The earth looks so green and peaceful from this distance. Alas, they had to leave this serenity because Lanie is waiting for rescuing. Andos must be quite happy of the capture of his trophy. He sends lovely weather down to the surface. The busy bees fly to the castle of Andos. They spot goblins and slegna gliding around the castle to patrol the skies. Some carry baskets of grain from the offerings of worshippers honoring the sky god. The archslegna swatted at the bees. Alexis happily stung him. Alexis decided to follow a goblin transporting wine jars and slipped into its pocket. Our heroes hear the guards laughing at Lanie squealing for help when she was changed into a faerie. The heroes flew out of the goblin’s pocket. Alaric saw a hole in a wall where a tiny faerie lives. Faeries in the castle of Andos are like mice to humans on the surface. Thieves of food, faeries are turned into objects if they eat food in a faerie traps. This particular faerie had a mouse head on her wall, a treasure she must have come by from trading with fairies on the surface. Her bed of parakeet feathers was a sure sign of knowledge of the surface. The faerie was gone, but a pot cooking in its fireplace told our heroes that it is nearby. Upon sniffing the contents of the pot, the missing occupant appears to the heroes. The female pixie offers a meal for the bees. She expressed knowledge of faeries from the surface sneaking in the castle and being changed into stone or salt. She shows upon making dirt markings on the floor exactly where Lanie is caged.
Alaric and Alexis told the pixie that the god Daxus would reward her for her assistance, they only have weapons. They plot their escape as they sip the pixie’s soup. At the end, the pixie insists they take her to the Black Forest for her reward. She believes that she will less likely be altered if she is protected by these immortals. The pixie guides the bees through the aged stone wall cracks into a grain storage room. They fly behind jars and baskets on the floor and return to their elf stature. They surprise Lanie swaying on her cage swing in song. Her high pitched voice is incomprehensible to Alexis. Alaric translates that she is happy to see them. A lock spell on the cage door Alaric uses his crystal to break in the bars and grab Lanie. Lanie sat in Alexis’s pocket and the faerie in Alaric’s. The heroes slip out into a bed chamber with a chimney. Lanie and Alexis then flew up the chimney. Alaric creeps down the hallway to confront his new enemy Andos. Our hero silently slithers like a snake toward the great hall in the palace. Sprinting to a banner hanging from a terrace, he could hear great celebration from stars, goblins, slegna, and dancing comets. He views tables holding masses of food and drink. A cloaked hood hiding the reflection of light from the elf’s eyes, he awaits his moment to triumph. He casually transforms an unsuspecting wobbling drunk goblin into dust. Andos interrupts the party to posture for a speech.
He declares that he will kill Alexis if he meets him and Lanie shall marry Andos at first sunlight. Alaric grins at the thought of a cage breaking her strong spirit. Remaining still as a statue he hears Andos further condemning Daxus and Lixi for not allowing a betrothal to Lanie. Just then, Lanie and Alexis are dragged into the great hall by slegna. Alerted of intrusion by the missing prisoner and broken bars, the lovebirds were quickly caught. Andos apparently failed to recognize Alexis, for he did not try to kill him. He declares Alexis as a Daxus spy. He orders a new spell to lock Lanie’s cage shut. The escapees are carried off into separate chambers. Before Alaric could declare his presence, he changes into a bird and follows Alexis into the dungeon. Above goblin guards, and through the keyhole, Alaric the bird transforms in Alexis’s cell. An image of Iris appears in the dark dungeon as Alaric prays to his Iris amulet. She claims to use a handful of grain, as if to feed a certain faerie, to break into the cage. To deceive that there is a prisoner, Iris changes a stone from the dungeon into a faerie. Our heroes thank Iris as she fades into the darkness. Alexis realizes Iris set him free when he waves farewell. Pointing his sword at the door, Alaric speaks a spell to open the charmed door.
“Andun comiton,” speaks Alaric who caught the password from a goblin guard. He explains to Alexis that it means Andos’s comet. Comets are dancers for Andos and loyally serve him.
Alexis hides under Alaric’s cloak. They sneak back to Lanie’s cage where she has returned to a faerie. As recommended by Iris, Alaric snatches a handful of grain and reaches into the gilded cage holding Lanie. Andos had played a trick on the rescuers and had fake faeries planted in different chambers that were really goblins altered by Andos. With the amulet of Iris, Alaric could see their true form. Alaric the Brave switches faeries and carries Lanie to safety, or so he thought. The archslegna bursts in with goblins from hearing Lanie’s squeals of joy. Swords clash until Alaric shouted “Petrious lucin” and “Andun comiton”. A blinding light from his crystal shot out and the door fell over with a loud thud. A trashed chamber was the only evidence the archslegna had of the elves’ presence. The intruders scurry down the hallways to come to a halt at a wall covered with a tapestry. Alexis curses Andos and shushes at the sound of scampering footsteps. They jump into the tapestry and froze stiff until the goblins left the hallway. Changed into butterflies, everyone leaps out of the tapestry and fly up another chimney. Alexis, Lanie, and the pixie fly away to the safety of Leesville. Alaric hopes now he can confront Andos. He slips by guards by altering himself into mirrors, mural characters, and an empty goblet. At last, he reaches the great hall to see Andos punishing the goblins and slegna for letting intruders into the castle. It is now clear to Andos there was another hero. A few missing goblins made more clear it was a powerful wizard. He watches the archslegna answer to Andos about the bright light and door spell only guards knew.
Atop of the terrace, Alaric again looks down at Andos from a hidden spot. Then Alaric the Brave slides down a banner and lights his sword into a flame. Making his presence known to all, he challenges Andos for kidnapping his niece. The sky god drew his lightening bolt sword and stepped down from his throne. Mystery solved. Andos flings lightening bolts at our hero. Alaric dodges them all. At the clashing of swords, they both realize the other’s strength. All around the great hall the enemies fight, flinging different spells at each other and hitting the gaping servants. Soon, drapes on fire, tables overturned, and frozen goblins are viewed when Alaric grows weary. He finds more strength thinking of his niece to continue belting back spells with his sword and crystal. One misguided spell from Andos cuts a chandelier rope to trap Alaric within the circle. A last attempt to separate Alaric from his foe, he tosses stones that create an ivy wall between them. Overwhelmed in anger of taking so long to defeat this immortal elf, Andos swings his sword to cut through the wall. Using god powers, he casts Alaric through the wooden beam roof. Straight to the moon, Alaric soars to crash into the moon goddess’s home. Alaric’s thunderous landing startles all the servants. Broken furniture is repaired by Alaric before a nursemaid arrives to investigate the source of the noise. Alaric willingly follows the nursemaid to the bed chamber of the moon goddess Dora.
Exhausted to the bone, he drinks tea offered by a servant. Dora lying in her cradle is stirred by her nursemaid. Alaric realizes the goddess is a lunas, one who changes forms according to phases of the moon. During the new moon, she is an infant. Alaric introduces himself and explains how he ended up here. The infant goddess coos and gurgles at the latest of her father’s foes being banished. The nursemaid sends a messenger owl to the Dora’s mother Petrie, to help the elf lad. At nightfall, her holiness comes on a flaming shooting star. Alaric explains his peril of getting back to the surface to marry his bride. Petrie inquires about his relationship with her daughter Iris. Alaric describes her as a cherished friend he met at Flax’s wedding. Petrie questions if Alaric is aware how much Iris cherishes him. Alaric claims to know when he sought out the Cup of Hades how much Iris cherishes him. She is always welcome in Alaric’s new home. With that, Petrie agrees to help the hero find his way home. They ride off on the shooting star to Andos’s castle. Petrie enters through a window overlooking the terrace above the great hall. All servants and guards bow to her holiness. Alaric follows right behind her cloak. Atop of the great hall terrace, Petrie announces her presence. She claims this is not a social call. She descends down the terrace to confront Andos as to why he is kidnapping Lanie to marry, when Petrie is his wife. Andos tosses fireballs at her and she dodges them all. Alaric remains on the terrace to avoid misdirected spells. Andos demands that she leave and hurls lightening bolts next. She catches the lightening to the amazement of Alaric. She drops one lightening bolt to her side and the other missile is hurled at the crown of Andos. He avoids the razor sharp light beam by dropping to the floor.
Stammering as he arises, Andos explains the elf’s tale a lie, he loves his wife Petrie. She claims she has other spies giving her information. Andos explains the kidnapping as an excuse to attack Daxus. Petrie waves her hand and a gust of wind knocks Andos over. She next demands to know how and why Alaric entered her realm. Andos did not think he projected Alaric that far. He denies the elf tale of the battle in the great hall and declares Alaric a thief of holy wine. Petrie sighs and states that if she hears one more word about a wedding, she will destroy his castle. As insurance Andos will not cause problems for Alaric’s wedding, Petrie traps him in a mirror like she did for Gilda’s wedding as punishment for his lies. Pleased at Andos’s sudden apologies, our hero rode a meteor to the surface. He reaches the black sand beach by Leesville to see Alexis, Lanie, and the pixie waiting for him. Alaric’s meteor hit’s the beach and a volcano erupts in the distance. The pixie is impressed at Alaric’s homecoming. Oh, the tales he had to tell to the entire village. The heroes are honored in Leesville that evening. Harps, flutes, and drums play into the night. Lanie pledges her love for Alexis the Sky Fox and agrees to a betrothal. As his master became sleepy, the unicorn Kiko carries his master back home to rest before his big day. Alaric only feels relief that he is marrying Nix tomorrow.