Spire Island Group

A small group of Spire Island elves have struck out toward the Hall of Portals.

The marsh they started in can still be heard in the distance. Endless calls of frogs - brrap brrap, churrup churrup.

"Oh how I wish they'd just shut up for once..." Ebonbreeze muttered. His long ears weren't as flexible as Bluff's, nor as long as Walker's, but they heard quite clearly none the less.

"I like them, they remind me of the parties in the Spire," Walker said cheerfully.

"You would say that," Ebonbreeze grumbled and tried to walk faster. But their pace was steady as it could be, they would reach the Hall come evening at their current walking stride, sooner if they all lept upon their wolf-friends and bolted to the portal. But why do that? The Hall would be there. Just like the Spire.

None of them had been there, but they knew the way already. Once out of the circle of magic dampening that the Spire produced, their maps worked again. Talon, one of the Dare's Valley inhabitants, created numerous maps that she imbued with her own illusion magic. But that magic stopped dead once it entered the sphere of influence that the Spire gave off. To the group's relief, a few hundred strides back, they could read the brightly dancing colors and symbols again.

"We have to go up through the woods," said Scalestep, "We can hunt there, and eat once we find the Portal."

"You want to stay on this side tonight then?" Asked Bluff, who appeared the eldest of the group. "I'm okay with that, I suppose."

Truce happily piped up, "I can't wait to go, just to see that place will be so exciting!" The youngest of them all, barely out of her own adolescence, the pale skinned red-haired girl wasn't nearly as distractable as her attitude seemed to betray. She wanted to see the mapmaker herself, Talon! Her own love of maps and collecting information about the world was what drove this group to even attempt their trip. She convinced her elder cousin Cinderhope to talk to the elders. Hardly anyone would have listened to a teenaged elfess, but with three or four others by her side?

Each had their own reasons for wanting to come along. Ebonbreeze for instance, wanted to see if his power to enhance others would work better away from the Spire.

Walker? He was a fan of writing letters - and wanted to see what other scripts looked like. Scalestep wanted to get some of the exotic materials he'd heard about outside the Hall, to make more clothing and to trade what he was bringing with Dare's Valley folk. As for Tern's Eclipse, he'd heard that there were weaponsmiths and armorers on the other side of the world - he'd never been in a real forge, maybe they had one of those? Caster was with Scalestep in his curiosity about their silks and satins. Where did they get the fiber? What did the animals or plants look like? Cinderhope not only wanted to help her cousin, but also to see some different kinds of prey to hunt and chase. The Island wasn't much for animal life, after all the frogs had entirely claimed that one part of it! They had no predators!

That left Bluff, who offered to come along as a more talented mage and physical healer. Sure, they had some of those abilities themselves, but what if they were ever caught in a place like the Spire? Without magic to use? Sensibly, she brought her equipment of salves, bandages and the like.

For another three hours, measured by placing hands one above the other and measuring from the horizon, they'd covered most of the marsh and half of the lighter forest leading up to the area where they knew the Portal was.

"Did you know," said Truce brightly, "that the original portal here wasn't both ways? It only came from the Hall!"

"We've all heard the stories," said Ebonbreeze. But the others entertained her wish to talk about it.

"If not for Archive's powerful sending, we'd never even have been born here." Truce said with a kind of smile. "I wonder what the portal looks like. It's going to be hard to miss, I think... At least that's what Talon's map says."

"I hope it's easy to spot," Cinderhope said, "I would hate to have come all this way and then do nothing but hunt for something we don't even know what it looks like!" The others chuckled, but also were a bit nervous at that thought. What if they weren't able to find it? Would they turn around and just head back to the Spire?

The thought suddenly repelled Tern's Eclipse, for one. He was hardly what anyone would consider a powerful magic user, but he did have enough to know that he hated living without it. Whenever anyone fell or hurt themself in the Spire, they had to be treated by folks like Bluff - the hard way. His own self-healing would come in handy during hunts, but never - ever - there inside the Spire.

Only Ebonbreeze, perhaps, didn't mind the solitude. He looked at the Spire as a challenge to make his own average powers stronger. Whenever anyone could break through the Spire's influence, Archive and the elders were so happy. Once, he was able to grow a spur in a frog bone after dinner - to the amazement of everyone at the table! Exhausted him, though. The effort was so hard!

So out here, he was half tempted to just grab whatever he could find, and yank the bones from it just to prove his magic ever worked at all.

Some were like him - patient enough but with a long fuse and a heavy temper. Some were impatient, but short-memoried, and didn't care when their magic cut out on them time and time again. None knew if there was a way to counteract the Spire's nullification power - and really, no one was looking.

Walker had heard (he always heard, he was such a gossip) that the Ancient who lived in the Ambience across the huge ocean, had helped build the Spire. He kind of wanted to ask: why? And what happened? Had they meant to make something that nullified powers like this?

And what about the Ambience? Walker spoke in reverent terms of it, as many did. Surely, it was a place of almost eternal light and song - but it was also a somber and powerful place. Amplifying elfin powers the way the Spire took them away.

"Would the Hall just be normal?" He asked absently, and startling the others.

"What?" Asked Caster, "why?"

"Just... nothing. Just wondering what we'll be in for at the Hall."

"Well it's probably just normal," Caster said. "Think about it, Talon made these maps of hers there, so it must be at least normal."

"Like it is here outside the Spire?" Bluff said, "Perhaps, but I imagine it's a little stronger there. We're so close to the Spire, still, I can still feel myself being restrained."

"I'm just glad that the wolves wanted to come along at all, you know they hate that place." Scalestep said, while scratching his two wolves on their shoulders. They were small wolves, certainly nowhere near big enough to be pack leaders. One of them wasn't even in the local pack, the other... A Greater wolf with the distinct red eyes of his elfin ancestor Fang. Cinderhope's one wolf (for she also had two) was a Greater as well, in fact now that Scalestep came to look around him, almost half the wolves in this odd party were Greaters! Plus it didn't hurt that more than half the elves had bonded two!

"The woods are near," announced Ebonbreeze, "we should hunt, and the sun's going down soon. I'll start a fire, if you," he looked at Scalestep and Tern's Eclipse, "would start scaring up some prey."

Truce helped him gather some wood, but then sat twitching a bit.

"What is wrong with you?" He asked. She shrugged.

"I want to find the Portal. I just want to run, I can run very fast you know."

"I do know," he replied, "why don't you go and come right back. I know you can find your way at least."

Truce giggled and sped off. Her magic worked so much better out here than under the Spire! She could feel the blood in her veins quicken, her heart raced, then she was off under the canopy of these strange dry trees! Her magic moved her along like quicksilver, darting between trees and narrowly avoiding rocks. Though she wasn't used to it, she could keep this pace up for a while without tiring. The moment she started to wear, though, she immediately cut herself down to a quarter speed (still faster than just normal elf-running though!) and made her way back to the camp.

"I didn't find it," she panted. She'd been gone fewer than two fingers over the horizon time, but the others weren't back from their hunting yet.

Caster had busied himself finding some plants in the area that he thought might be poisonous. It was a hobby of his, collecting things like that. He didn't have any kind of plant shaping or sensing, he was just quite good at spotting the berry or the mushroom cap that betrayed internal danger. He had picked a couple of these brightly speckled but otherwise mundane mushrooms and brought them back to camp.

"Why those?" Asked Bluff while she groomed her greater wolf Force by the fire.

"There was a brilliant saffron colored caterpillar near them, eating parts of it, look you can see." He held up the side of the one cap, and sure enough there seemed to be a bit worn away by little bug mouth parts. "It's color would tell any bird not to eat it. I would bet that this gives it the toxins."

"Very clever," Bluff said. "Now why do you want to keep it?" She smiled and winked.

"It might come in handy some day," Caster said, tucking it away in a special pouch which he always kept tied shut. It wouldn't do to be fiddling around and forget which pouch was the food, and which the poison!

Meanwhile, Scale and Tern were having only moderate luck finding anything of size to hunt. Tern was using his staff to beat a few bushes here and there, and finally scared a family of large rabbits out into the open. Before Scalestep could really do anything about them with his sword, it was Walker's noose that snared not one but two of the fast little beasts.

"I didn't know you even came to hunt with us," exclaimed Scalestep with a laugh.

"I didn't, I was out just... you know, wandering." Walker grinned and they snapped the necks of the rabbits before bringing them back to the camp. All of the elves knew how to clean a kill, of course, but only Caster and Scale wanted to deal with the skins. They would trade well, these were very pretty pale brown - not quite white, winter had long gone and their fur was this color normally, a beige shade that would get a good deal on the other side of the Hall.

Talk of the Hall and magic and the Spire drifted to snoozing pretty soon. They'd been walking all day after all, and there was literally no need for a guard out here - there were no large predators anywhere on the island save the giant circling birds, but they were always up in the day and never hunted elves anyway.

The wolves had caught their own selections of meat for the night, of course. No one would stop them from doing it, and since they outnumbered the elves they could take down prey larger than a couple rabbits. The Greater wolves among the small pack chuckled among themselves that the elves weren't even able to find the right prey let alone hunt it...

***

Though they were used to it, for all their lives every morning about sunrise when the winds came it was there, the Spire's flute-like properties were far more poignant while they were miles away. The group awoke, the wolves were already howling along with it.

"That's.... the Spire?" Said Bluff, amazed. "I had never thought you'd hear it out here!"

"Archive says that you can hear it even across the bay and on the other island," commented Truce. "It's more spooky out here."

"At least it isn't as loud," said Ebonbreeze. He was named for the Spire's sound, though few knew that fact. Every time the wind hit the thousand-plus stride tall structure's windows, the wind echoed through it to cause an eerie and very loud song.

"They could block the windows in the mornings," said Tern's Eclipse, "but what would the point be in that? Closing and opening them every day?"

"I'll miss it while we're gone," said Caster, "it's been there to wake us all every day."

"Maybe we'll be able to sleep in without it," laughed Scalestep. "Come on, let's find that portal."

Truce told them she'd already looked but hadn't found it, mostly because it was evening and her map could hardly be read - but also of course because she'd been bolting through the woods at her magically enhanced speeds. With the dawn, the forest brightened considerably. The woods were were sparse, at best - but to these elves they'd never known truly heavy woods.

They did find the portal - a structure had been erected over it like an archway, long ago. The original Portal was just hanging there in the air, slightly above the ground. Through its tall rectangular shape can be seen the Hall of Portals - as richly dark as the Spire, but also darkened because it is a view inside a place, not near it.

The group took turns walking around the portal, in amazement. From the other side, there was nothing visible, just an archway made of the same black marble. From the Spire side direction, they could see into the hall as though it were merely a window.

"I bet I know why Archive chose this portal to leave the Hall, when he first got here," Truce said. She stood beside the portal, and looked west. There, glowing darkly in the distance like a pillar, the Spire stood grandly against the hazy morning sky. "That would get anyone interested in a trip."

"Can you feel this?" Bluff said, holding her hands on the Portal's archway. "This is the same marble, but it's not carved like the Spire was. It's shaped!"

Bluff was the only one among them with a truly strong ability to sense where magic was in use, plus, the only one with any Stone shaping ability. The others really just had to take her word for it. How else would something this perfect and elegant get here, if not elfin magical shaping?

As a group, they gathered their wolf bonds and discussed how they would do this. One at a time? As a bunch? Three elves could walk easily shoulder to shoulder through the portal itself, that was no problem. The wolves still balked a little now and again, when thinking on entering the Hall of Portals. But those ancestral memories were very very old indeed, and had never been reinforced to this group. Why would they restrict themselves to stay away from a place, when it was a perfectly good way to get from here to there?

Why, that would be like refusing to step on stones across a stream, because they might be slippery. Of course they'd be slippery. One just had to acknowledge that and move on. Apparently, older wolves and certainly those without the elfin blood that the Greater wolves had, would simply never enter the place to save their lives. Or their bond's lives for that matter.

Scalestep took the initiative, and like his namesake he stepped across the boundary into the Hall. He was shortly followed by Truce and Cinderhope, then the others - and their many many wolves.

***

Inside the Hall of Portals, it was deathly silent. Though there were many scents that betrayed the fact that people did visit here often, there was no bright scent of burning wood (instead an old smoke, a doused fire), there were no voices save what they could hear of their own hearts and feet on the floor.

But the atmosphere was so very different! Somewhat like the highest chambers of the Spire - which all Spire Island elves visited at least once, when they were given their tribe name or when they had an announcement they wanted to be important - the air was somewhat somber but still exciting.

Light came from almost all the Portals. Line upon line, all four walls and then several strips of wide marble that had doors upon them... It was a strange, wonderful place. The elves, small as they were, came only to the bottom third of each portal. Even still, the ceiling seemed so very low in here! The weight of such a huge piece of black marble was what that feeling was.

"Well, we're here," said Scalestep. "Now what?"

"Now, we find Talon and Dare's Valley!" Exclaimed Truce. She was so excited, and it was catching. She walked boldly around the Hall, noting the big fire pit, and the pile of still-existing items that had been left and exchanged many many times over the years. Those who tumbled from the portal here that led to the elfin ancestral home world, Earth, would see this pile of items. Cloth, string and needles, furs, woven baskets, a few sturdy food items like jerky or dried fruits, and...

"Look, the hand prints!" Truce breathed. Her cousin came up, entranced just like the others. The wolves didn't much notice, they were too busy trying to find the exit. Apparently it was just a little too weird in here for them.

The hand prints that Truce had found were pressed into the marble with the ashes from the fire. There were probably a dozen of them, of varying ages and smearing. Some were clearly older than others. Male hands, left and right, females, small and large. Some delicate, some rough. All of them the distinct four-fingered hands that elves had.

"I've heard," said Bluff, "that humans have five fingers. Imagine that?" She looked at her hand, and liked the way it was so simple and small. "How do they count, then?"

The others laughed, and then Caster located a doorway into where Talon kept her maps. They piled in briefly, and Walker found a spare piece of parchment to leave a note on the large desk. 'We have been here, sorry if we disturbed anything'.

Eventually, they found their way out of the large building. While most of them wanted to investigate the other Portals, they did have business in the Valley so they wanted to get that done before any other distractions came up. They again consulted their maps, and found that they would be walking - or more likely riding in this area - for more than three full days east to get to the Valley.

It was more than three days anywhere, from here, really, and that kind of distance was something that not one of the elves, or their wolves, had ever encountered. The whole trip around Spire Island and its companion isle possibly, that was probably a six or eight day journey. But who needed to circle the isles? They were well plotted.

The size of the place they were about to enter onto, came crashing down on this group of two-hands of elves.

They looked out the Hall of Portals wide exit, and saw the great swamp land. Covered in haze, filled with life, wetter than any part of the frogland marshes. Trees everywhere dripped with moss, their low wide canopy so foreign to the Spire's climate. No trees such as this lived anywhere on either of the isles, they'd never seen a wide-boll tree before.

"Those would make perfect homes," commented Walker, "look at how big they are inside!" He was the first, boldly going off the slab of wet marble and nearly dousing himself in the chilled water of the swamp.

"Nothing grows on this building," said Cinderhope blandly, trying to maintain her own calm. Her empathic ability to soothe a group would probably be needed shortly - everyone was starting to freak out. It wasn't that they were afraid, exactly, but they'd never seen such sights, and it was quite overwhelming. But how could she live up to her name - she didn't quite believe what she was seeing either!

It was wise Bluff who said, "let's take a close look at the map, and see where the trail is. There is one, I remember seeing it there last I looked."

The group gathered, while the wolves romped and splashed in the elf-waist-high waters just outside the Hall. They consulted the map, which was much brighter now that they'd left the Spire's influence a quarter-world away. "We're here," Bluff said of the Hall. She briefly concentrated on the map telling her the right directions. And since she was the stronger of the magic users, she got a reply from the map. It brightly spun off a line around the Hall, and then south-east. She looked over her shoulder, peered around the corner of the Hall, and said, "that way."

So they grouped up again, and began to ride. The wolves who were biggest got to share the duties of carrying their elves. Since half those present were so small they were almost unridable - and they often got mocked by the bigger ones - they would walk beside and should the big ones tire, the elves would 'resort' to them.

They plodded off through the wetland, listening for dangers - but not even really knowing what they were hearing half the time. Since they'd never been in such a deep wooded wetland, everything made squelching noises. Every birdcall or chirrup of a frog (there weren't that many frogs, thank the stars!) would echo under the canopy and over the waters. It smelled very strange to them too. The queer decay, the everpresent mosses... Everything was new.

They marched for a day, finding the start to the trail that Bluff wanted them on. It had been walked on frequently but probably not very recently, by its look. So wide-eyed were they, and so talkative about their surroundings, that they were on the second day of travel taken completely by surprise by the group of ragged looking elves and their huge wolves, on the path.

"Usually it's polite to announce your arrival," growled one, with grey-brown hair and a snarl on his scarred face. His companions nodded with his words.

"We - we, well, we're quite new here!" Said Scalestep, as he got down from Thrust's shoulders. Several other wolves surrounded the path, and the others in the Spire group noticed they were surrounded. "We didn't know the custom. We're very sorry."

"Not as sorry as you're going to be," chuckled a red-haired female. Others shifted around on the backs of their wolves, though Tern's Eclipse noticed that only their leader had a spear pointed at them. The others all had their weapons sheathed or up.

"We're headed to the Valley," Truce said, while her cousin began to subtly work her magic. But no sooner had Cinderhope gotten a good grasp on the local group's minds, than three of their huge wolves broke into a startling howl! Her concentration broken, they shook their heads and looked at the group with new anger in their eyes.

"What was that? Can't you send properly?" Asked the haggard guard to the side of their leader. "We only ask you hunt for us and give lord Fang the choice parts. Then you can be on your way."

"So now he's 'lord' Fang, is he?" Said yet another strange voice! Both groups spun to see a tall slender dark-skinned and raven haired woman approaching. "He's getting arrogant again. I think it's going to be time to smack him down again soon."

"You can't even dream of it, little bitch," said the leader of the hunting party. Stuck between these clearly-antagonistic groups, Cinderhope again attempted to soothe the group down.

This time, it worked, since they were still taken by surprise by the appearance of...

"Talon!" Said Walker, and the woman nodded solemnly.

"Yes, and those are Fang's tribesmen. You should have announced yourselves earlier, they do have hunting rights here." She said sternly. She didn't really want to come to blows with the group, apparently. "Phosphor, take your group back to your territory now. We'll settle this. You will have your tithe for Fang."

"Since when are you speaking for us now?" Asked Ebonbreeze, but he shortly shut up with the look that she gave him.

"You'd best listen to her, then," said this Phosphorus, who was at best subdued by the soothing emination of Cinderhope. She could tell he was quite angry. But even the wolves listened when Tern added his own power to the mix. The locals vanished into the swamp lands, but it was long minutes before Talon decided to speak again.

"Well you've heard them, you need to hunt and leave a good kill for the right to travel through here. It's their law, and frankly even the Valley people don't break it openly very often." She said, and walked east along the path.

Moments later, while the others were still a bit in awe or aghast at it all, Scalestep trotted after her. "Hold up," he said, "we're going to the Valley, we've really wanted to meet you."

"You've come at a bad time then," she said, flatly. "Hunt, leave your kill there at the road, and then follow me. You're so ... young. You've never even experienced this sort of ... oh never mind," she said, stopping herself from telling anyone anything of substance. Clearly though, she was distressed about something.

With a toss of his head, Scalestep urged the other wolves who hadn't been ridden to scare something up. It wasn't long before there were two large animal carcasses on the road - and they hadn't been eaten even though it was plain the hunting wolves wanted some of their own kill.

"Wise," Talon said. "Now, come along. We'll want to be clear of this place soon enough."

She let off a loud howl, which the elves and wolves recognized as a 'come and get it' statement. She moved almost unnaturally fast, along the slightly dried path between the wet trees.

"You didn't even feel their eyes on you, did you?" Talon asked. Humbled, the group had to admit they hadn't. "Well you need to open your minds, as well as your ears and eyes. Fang's hunters are ruthless. And I see you've Greater wolves among your pack. That at least will get you a bit of respect around there." She gazed at them oddly, "why are there so many wolves, anyway?"

"Well, some of us have ... well, two?" Walker said.

Talon apparently reached into the mind of one of the Greater wolves, but then frowned. "These wolves are long distant relatives, but their blood is very dilute. They're hardly more than wolves, really. Well, live and learn."

"What else would they be?" Asked Truce, who truth be told, didn't know much about the Greater wolves and their origin. Not many did, at the Spire - the Greater wolves had come now and again to escape ... probably to escape living here?

"Some of them are powerful enough to selfshape, or to do other elfin magics," Talon explained on their way. Though they traveled at a good clip, she never ran out of breath and did not ride a wolf. By nightfall, they had reached what looked like a semi-permanent campsite. "Put your things down here, take a rest. I'll hunt, don't leave."

"We aren't going anywhere," Ebonbreeze said. He watched after her as she vanished into the darkening wide-bolls. "What a bitch," he muttered.

"Don't say that!" Walker said. "There's obviously something going on here we don't know!"

**And please, send, instead of speaking!** Talon broadcast into their minds. Her mind was sharp, powerful, old. Considerably more powerful than they expected. Given that most Spire elves did not concentrate or even rely upon sending to communicate, the group had to keep restraining themselves and talking quietly instead of at normal levels.

Within a few minutes, they heard the approach of Talon again, but when she came through the mire, carrying a huge violet-colored deer over her shoulders, almost everyone stood up and even Bluff let out a gasp of surprise.

"You're - you're--"

**A shapeshifter, yes,** Talon said, dropping the buck on the ground, and shifting away from her bizarre form. Though it was humanoid, upright on two feet, she grew fur, tail and claws for the duration. Beyond that, no one could say what kind of animal might have inspired her shifting shape, it wasn't a wolf, nor a fox nor cat. Just... a predator. The buck was quite big, meaty. Without going on about it, though, they began the work of splitting the skin, gutting and cleaning, and eating. Most of the Spire elves were used to cooked food, but ate this raw as they knew there would be no forgiveness for asking if they could light a fire.

Not with Fang's guards hanging around...

***

"So you're ... always fighting them?" Asked Bluff, and Talon nodded.

"Yes, every few years he has his phases and moods. Though he's much better about it than he used to be. It ... gives us all something to do, now. Whenever his people get tired of it, they just don't put up with being told to wage war on us. But this is not one of those times."

"So, Phosphorus and the others would have... captured us." Caster asked, to another nod.

"I doubt they'd have kept you, of course," Talon said. "Not to offend you, but you're nothing like what they're looking for in a newcomer. They like ones with some fight in them."

"We can bite," Ebonbreeze said, "You'd be surprised."

"Not as deeply as they bite," Talon warned. "Do not let yourself be fooled. They've been hunting these woods - hunting for prey as well as elves - for centuries. They're quite good at it. Almost as good as we are of evading them."

"The Valley is supposed to be a peaceful place though," Walker said, somewhat disappointed. "What happened?"

"Many things change," Talon said. "We've tried to keep up with sending everyone these announcements, but the Spire... It's so hard to really break through and communicate there. I don't much care for it."

"It's an aquired taste," Bluff said, "I've met only a few people who come from the outside and remain for any amount of time."

"And you're very young yourself," Talon said with the first hint of a smile since she'd come along. "Anyway - please... Don't take me as the leader or the decision maker for the Valley. I'm merely the mapmaker, and that's what I like to keep to doing. When you meet Dare, please feel free to chat it up and ask questions."

"Are you being sarcastic?" Asked Tern.

"No, she and the others are ... not going through what I am." Talon clammed up at that point, refusing to say anything further.

They reached Dare's Valley in a number of days, travel made easier by having a path to follow and a guide. Talon eventually began to help them appraise their situation. She agreed that they'd be willing to trade items and cloth, and she was more than happy to help Walker and Truce out with their own projects.

The Valley was as beautiful as it was written and drawn. From the slate waterfall leading to the bay, it was more than five days wide east to west. Tall towering evergreens stood watch over the whole place, and it was in one of the tallest that Talon lived. Her great bird-bond flew around occasionally, apparently having missed her while she was walking home. The birds nearby were bonded only by the bravest of elves. They were huge, with wingspans bigger than five wolves nose to tail. The birds that circled the Spire's lands were only about half this large, and apparently not nearly as intelligent.

The Valley people were generous, happy and bright. Soon enough, within another hand of days, the group had almost forgotten its rough beginings at the Hall. They worked hand in hand with the weavers, clothiers, tanners and such to trade off their goods. But eventually, they knew it was time they moved on. Either back to the Hall and Spire, or ... traveling the continent?

"I'm not sure I want to," said Bluff. "I think this route is good for me, between here and the Hall. Now that we know the cost of travel."

"Don't you want to see more?" Asked Walker. Truce nodded furiously.

"I do, don't you?" She asked and only got a halfway decent response. "We can split up," she suggested.

"We should at least bring these things back to the Spire, before starting another trip," said Tern's Eclipse. "The elders would probably like to hear about the changes made here, anyway."

That sounded like a good plan, so they readied themselves, and the next day prepared to leave. Talon came along, claiming that she had business in the Hall to attend.

The trip went more smoothly, and yet more coldly than they planned. Talon did not go out alone, hunting this time with the wolves and Ebonbreeze instead. When the pack of Fang's guards came, she stiffened visibly.

"He's here," she grunted, and put on an expression of distaste. They watched, as a slender but well-muscled male elf came through the trees. He was clearly a shapeshifter, with furry skin and shaggy ears. His eyes - bright red - matched those of the Greater wolves present.

Even though they were many generations removed from him, the hand of wolves he had relations to put themselves onto the ground in submissive postures that none of the Spire elves had ever seen. They'd watched the pack establish itself and change dominance over the years, but they'd never seen wolves just abjectly submit themselves before.

It appeared to please Fang to no end.

"Well, these are the pale pups, are they?" He said. His voice was low, gravelly, old and tired. But there was a spark in him, a lust that the three women could feel even from across the path. But his attention did not remain on them for very long. "Phosphorus was right, they're just weak outsiders. Not even worth chasing are they Veil?"

The wolf beside him gave a laughing yip, and with a startled expression Tern's Eclipse realized something sinister about that wolf.

**It's a dead elf's soul and mind, in that wolf's body,** Talon quickly sent to him. **Say nothing. Say NOTHING.**

"Will you come willingly this time, Talon, or will you resist again?" Fang asked, mysteriously.

Talon snorted. "I won't willingly do anything but kick you in the face, Fang," she said. Even Fang's attendants got a chuckle out of that. Fang ignored them, but the wolf Veil snapped at one nearby.

"Then you should run to the Hall, and back, I'll be waiting." Fang leaned against the nearest tree, his head cloaked in the shadow it produced, but his muscular body taut and in full view.

**Are you... recognized to him?** Asked Bluff privately of Talon, and the dark skinned elfess' eyes narrowed. She did not reply.

"We'll be going, and you would probably want to head back to your home, Fang," Talon said. "It will be winter at the earliest that I'd be coming by this place again."

"Do you think you can escape it?" Fang said, and everyone saw the glint of light on his fangs - his teeth grown out like a wolf's in a nasty smile. "I don't think you can, not for much longer."

"Die," Talon muttered, and began to walk away.

None dared to look back at the group, as they traveled the last leg to the Hall of Portals. They knew that a couple of the sinister troupe were following, but they never saw hide nor hair of them. The Spire group - and Talon - were relieved to see the black slab of the Hall come into view.

"So you are recognized to him," Bluff said, quietly, as the others entered. Talon looked angrily at the woman, but said nothing more. "You're fighting it? Why?"

"Because he is a bastard, and would just as soon rape me as have me as a willing partner. He'd probably prefer it, in fact, as it's been one of those long-cold-relationships we've always had. He did rape me, once. When I was only a few days here. It was ..." she glanced away, "it was horrible, what he did to us all. What he still does, when he feels like it."

That left Bluff cold, but no longer curious. The group set their things down in front of the portal to the Spire island, and hemmed and hawed.

"We really don't want to go back," Scalestep said, "but we're no good to you here are we?"

"Not unless you learn how to fight on his level, which won't be any time soon, no," Talon said. Then she tilted her head oddly. "What... is that?" She stepped toward one of the portals. "That wasn't there before..."

The others took note immediately. She was standing before a portal that showed a vista, with something a little like the Spire in the distance. But there were things flying about, moving in the air around it, that were clearly not birds.

"What are those things?" Asked Tern, "they look like bats."

"Not bats," Talon said with a hush, "dragons."

***

"It's settled then," Scalestep said, "we'll scout it out, and see what's up there. If it's promising, we'll send for you."

The group bid Talon a farewell, but this time the wolves remained behind with her. Without anyone to protect her, they realized that Fang would simply come in and take her against her will. Why she was fighting the recognition was obvious, but how long she'd been doing so was the question.

As the group passed through the portal and found themselves on a fresh world, they decided to ponder it only later. For now, there were dragons in the sky, and on the ground... and in the waters!

NEXT!

Scalestep