Otherwhere 2: Chapter 8 Alliance Part 3

With the sealing of an alliance, Forrest and Rock rejoined the group, much to the interest of the elves and townspeople. There was no point in trying to hide their differences, as suspected, the elves could see through any glamour the draco tried to project.

“You made the correct decision having us wait while you made the initial contact,” Forrest told Rory. “Your instincts are excellent.”

While an alliance was sealed, there were still myriad details to be worked out. Rory and Astra met with The Leader and others from the town to work them out. Forrest acted as an adviser. Rory realized he was there as mentor/teacher to her and Astra as well as representing the interests of the draco. She was impressed that they were willing to take a back-seat to their human partners in this.

Interestingly enough, the discussions took place in the same room as the celebratory feast, which made things a little bit weird from her perspective. Here she was, negotiating with a guy who had her up against that wall. Politics and bedfellows indeed!

It wasn’t all politics. The group did what they could to learn about each other. Lir took Dee out into the forests to see what kind of woodcraft the human woman had. Growing up bow hunting with her dad helped. Lir pronounced that Dee wasn’t as much of a crashing elephant as most humans were and, grudgingly, conceded that she MIGHT be teachable and was a decent shot with her bow. That was high-praise indeed from the elf woman and the two became closer due to shared interests and similarity of personality.

“Eh, she’ just a kid but she’ not completely hopeless in the woods an’ she makes me laugh,” Lir said of Dee. “An’ she taste good too,” she leered.

At 327 years old, Lir was barely considered an adult by elven standards so this more than a little ironic. They were a long-lived race.

Colin worked with the fighters of the group to learn their style of blade work and to share some of his own. The sparring became spirited, especially with Rory’s ability to heal mishaps. She had to warn them to dial it back as not all injuries were easily healed and each time she did a healing it took quite a bit of energy to do so. The elves were agreeable to her setting up Life-energy collectors throughout the town once they learned how they worked and what they did with the energy created and were enthusiastic in helping replenish the used stores, but it was still wise to avoid serious injury. At barely twenty years old, she sometimes felt like she was everyone’s mother.

Rock left to bring word back to The Settlement. The group waited and learned and made new friends.