Chapter 5: Are We There Yet?

An early morning had us back on the road soon enough. It was slower going than I’d liked, but at least it gave me time to practice keeping my wings in. A few attempts had seen them pop out again when I stopped focusing on them.

I had finally gotten the hang of it when we caught sight of another traveller. One who was certainly a sight.

She seemed to be some sort of a dark elf, with dark blue-grey skin and white hair slicked back into a pompadour… proving that this world had apparently invented hair gel. A large sword sat on her back, while she was wearing a black sleeveless padded tunic (there was a word for those, but I couldn’t remember it at the moment). I couldn’t see her face very well, as she had it buried in what I presumed was a map unfolded in front of her. I could, however, see her arms.

And had to do a double take at those.

“I didn’t think an elf could be that built,” I muttered, feeling slightly flustered at the idea.

My weakness for muscular girls had been part of why I’d fallen for Kris, after all. Though she was more toned than the beef of this woman.

“Mhm… they don’t tend to, but… there are those who do make potions to help with that,” Aara whispered.

I nodded, supposing magic steroids made sense. Or maybe it was about dysphoria and the elf was actually trans?

Somehow I was getting feminine vibes off of the mysterious elf, though.

“Oh! Hello there,” the dark elf said, pulling down the map to reveal a face that was handsome in a feminine way. And wearing…

“Sunglasses,” I muttered in surprise.

“Hm? No. Nightglasses,” Aara replied. “They’re magic that helps moon elves handle the bright day by turning day to night.”

“Indeed,” the moon elf said with a grin, before striking a pose. “I am the wandering swordswoman Ne’avo, at your service, lovely maidens!”

She was definitely a bit much. Slightly charming in her doofusness, but… a bit much all the same.

“If you two fair ladies should need a guard on your travels, my sword is for sale,” Ne’avo said, striking another pos to show of her muscles.

“Umm…” I began, before Aara slid between us.

“Our budget is a bit tight at the moment. Sorry,” the small hyena girl said, her large mane of hair puffing up a bit in what seemed like some sort of display.

“Ah. Well, I could, perhaps, engage in a little pro bueno labour for two maidens as cute as you,” the moon elf said, leaning back a bit.

And having apparently not realise she’d moved in her posing, causing her to miss the tree that had been behind her earlier. She managed to not quite fall over after waving her arms for balance, but she’d looked comedic enough while doing it that I half suspected falling would have been more dignified. Her attempt to save that with a new pose didn’t help.

Especially not when paired with her having said ‘pro bueno’ instead of ‘pro bono’.

“Sorry, but… we’re planning to take a ship from the harbour. More people would just mean having to pay more money for the trip,” I replied. 

Aara and I waved goodbye before turning to head down the path. After a few minutes of walking there was one thing that was very clear.

“She’s following us, isn’t she?” I asked, without turning around.

Aara nodded. “It is likely best if we just ignore her.”

That made sense to me, so I kept my focus on the path ahead. I felt a little bad for the odd elven woman, but, well, the group only really had room for one member who had no idea what they were doing, and I was already filling that role. Reluctantly.

At least I had the excuse of having been thrown from my peaceful life as a college student in suburban Toronto into this world. She’d grown up here. And had a sword and everything. So, if she hadn’t figured things out by now, was she ever going to?

Aara offered a distraction, by going over the plans a bit further. A name like ‘Chem’ apparently sounded Litanian to her, but the Litanians lived south of here. So, she reasoned, Chem was likely a mercenary working in some country called Ignobia. Apparently a lot of Litanian mercenaries went there, looking to get paid in Dwarven gold.

I couldn’t argue with her reasoning, so I stuck to nodding in agreement. I was about to ask how far this Ignobia place was when the sounds of battle carried over the hills.

Glancing at Aara, we both nodded and hurried forward. Sticking closer to the trees, we soon reached the edge of the jungles around Sowport to discover the town was under siege.

Well, also to discover the town didn’t look very big. I was sure there couldn’t be more than a few hundred people living there. A thousand at most? All tucked behind a wooden palisade that did not seem to be holding up to the assault very well.

The besieging force was also fairly limited. It had clearly been bigger, the bodies of skeleton, zombie, and gobin-y attackers littered about, mixed with some of the defending soldiers who had also fallen. Now it seemed fewer than a hundred attackers remained, along with a handful of troll-giant-whatevers. The defenders were tucked behind the damaged palisade, firing arrows out, but losing ground as the larger attackers hurled large rocks back their way.

More than anything, though, the smells and sounds of the battle were overwhelming. And bringing back memories of my recent pain and humiliation by the Dark Queen.

“Hehehe… yeah… that’s not good,” Aara said nervously, staring at the chaos herself. “I had heard from the birds that raiding parties were spreading south, but I didn’t think they’d be here yet… hehe…”

I nodded, and focused on breathing. I just needed a moment. Just had to ground myself. And come up with a plan… plans were generally good to have. It was probably best to go for one of the ogre-y-things. That would get the enemies attention and then—

“Fear not, I, the great Ne’avo will save the day!” the buff elven woman said, strolling ahead and drawing her sword.

I had to admit, the sword itself was impressive. It was roughly as long as she was tall, and she was a bit taller than I was. The handle was wrapped in some sort of canvas strips for reasons I couldn’t guess, but the blade itself looked pretty high quality.

From what I could guess with no real understanding of swords.

What I did understand was that the smile and wave Ne’avo was giving us indicated she was trying to show off.

“I’m not sure that’s the best idea,” I said as she continued to stroll towards a troll.

“You! Vile troll! You’ve interrupted the travel plans of two lovely maidens! Face my steel!” Ne’avo shouted, pointing her sword at the large foe.

The creature grunted, turning to face her. Both of them charged towards the other, and…

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Ne’avo was sent flying by a stone mallet to the gut, arcing up over the trees and into the jungle. She’d apparently decided to try to parry the strike, and… it had not gone well for her.

I blinked. Now, normally I’d have been worried about someone getting hit that hard in the stomach by a giant club like that, but, well… Ne’avo had let out a cry of ‘Malleted!’ as she flew through the air. So, I could only guess she’d be fine.

When she eventually landed.

The more pressing issue was that the troll was now looking our way, having been alerted to our presence. Aara was letting out a nervous laugh as it slowly trundled over, but I gave a nod and stood up.

“Let’s hope I’ve still got the strength from before,” I whispered to Aara, before charging.

Unlike Ne’avo, however, I dove and rolled when the troll swung its giant mallet, slipping under the blow. That simple move seemed to surprise the troll just long enough for me to slip in further and deliver a full force (if sloppy) punch to its gut.

A punch that sent it flying, slamming into the crowd of skeletons and zombies attacking the town.

While effective at downing the troll, it was also very effective at making the whole attacking force notice me. 

“That was… that was… you just,” Aara mumbled behind me. “The power of a goddess…”

I gave her a nod as a dozen or so skeletons began charging my way. “I have no idea what I’m doing, but it seems to be good enough against this level of enemy.”

The skeletons were simple enough to deal with, bones shattering with every strike I gave. I rushed forward, into the main body of the enemy force. Anything that wasn’t a troll was batted aside easily enough. For the trolls, I did my best to dodge their blows, which was, thankfully, fairly easy. They were such slow moving creatures, after all.

I managed to grab the arm of one of them, and pulled it down into something resembling a pin. I was sure my form was sloppy, but I had the divine strength to make up for it. 

Also, it seemed that two trolls down, along with a few dozen zombies and skeletons, was enough to break the morale of the enemy. They scattered into the jungle while I struggled to keep the troll pinned.

With the attackers retreating, the defenders of Sowport poured out of the palisade, swords, spears, and axes drawn. A larger gnoll hurried over my way, a spear at the ready. 

I shuddered slightly as they drove their spear into the troll’s neck, only to have the great beast dissolve into dust under me.

Blinking, I decided I would ask Aara about that. Especially when the defenders dispatching of the other troll had similar results. Sure, I could have probably asked the defenders, but that would lead to more questions than I wanted to deal with. I was already in an awkward situation thanks to displaying my strength, after all.

“Thank you,” the gnoll said, in a voice that sounded more feminine than I’d expected due to their height and bulky build.

Right. Hyena women were bigger, weren’t they? I remembered something about that from my last trip to the zoo. (It had stood out for gender reasons.)

“N-no worries,” I replied, standing up and wiping some dust off of me. 

Glancing over my shoulder, I was glad to see Aara jogging over.

I figured it was best to let her do most of the talking. Especially as it seemed she knew the gnoll woman, being on a names basis. Aara explained away my strength by claiming I carried dragon blood, which… I guessed made sense? The gnoll woman and other guards seemed to buy it. And, hey, I did have horns. That seemed dragon-y?

The small town proved fascinatingly diverse, humans and gnolls seemed to dominate, with a few half gnolls who looked more like Aara. There were also a couple of elves, dwarves, and some other folks who’s heritage I couldn’t guess. I didn’t know enough about fantasy, I guessed. (I’d only known about gnolls due to having made friends who were furries, after all.)

Or generic fantasy only partially lined up with this world.

We were led to a barracks soon enough, the leader of the militia setting us both up with a small room.

“You’re sure you don’t want to stay?” the man asked, having listened to Aara’s explanation of our goals.

“Unfortunately we really must find this ‘Chem’ man,” she replied.

The man looked disappointed, but didn’t press. “And you really have nothing more to go on than ‘North East’?”

“It was a divine vision,” I offered. “Rather lacking in specifics. Gods are busy and all that.”

“Mhm… that sounds about right. Whole world’s gone sideways thanks to that woman…” the man grumbled. “Well, there aren’t any ships at the moment, but we usually see one going north every week or so. The townsfolk’ll be happy to put in a good word for you both, though we can only spare these beds right now.”

“The room is very appreciated,” I replied.

Aara shared a bit more pleasantries with him before he left. 

Once we were alone I let my wings out with a sigh of relief. I was not looking forward to keeping them tucked in for more of the trip.

---

When I asked, Aara explained that the troll had dissolved as they, and goblins, were the product of a sort of necromancy. Ashes mixed with mud given skeletons of bone, wood, or stone, and then infused with soul crystals to animate them. All very dark magic.

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The stay in Sowport was peaceful enough for the few days we were there. I helped with rebuilding the palisade to pass the time. 

I was glad when a ship arrived, however. The town kind of smelled (medieval waste management…), so it was nice to be away from that. 

Though the ship also proved less than ideal. Hardtack and cramped quarters and a rocking that probably would have given me sea sickness if I still had a normal human body.

Because that was another advantage of this divine form. Apart from being so perfectly comfortable, free of any sources of dysphoria, it also didn’t have the… messier functions of a human body. Which I was very thankful for while stuck in a place without flushing toilets. Or while stuck on a ship that felt like it was trying to run into every wave it could.

At long last, however, we reached the end of our sea journey. The ship was making landfall in one of Ignobia’s great ports. Which I had to admit made for quite the sight. Earthen buildings dominated the approaching city, but, rising above, were gold capped spires that shimmered in the bright sun of this world’s tropics.

It seemed there was beauty to be found in exploring this world.

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