In the story with these new characters who became elves, you'll eventually see that they feel the need to change their names to reflect their now elven form. So with that in mind, here are the names: B'ellana Torres=B'ellana Seeker=Elrondir
Astra Thessamer=E'eysha Frderigo DHonaire=Gilmuriel Thanks for your cooperation! If you feel up to it, then there is Volume 4!
Elf Death stops and whines in honest confusion as she sees the elves draw various weapons in reaction to the playful warg. Whining in sorrow an confusion at the hostile reaction, the monstrous female wolf lays down in front of the still gagging Astra (who's frantically wiping at her wet face....). All pause in consternation as the wolf whines and looks up soulfully at the elves. "Astra, are you okay?" Fred asks needlessly (but still VERY concerned). The wolf had charged out of the shadows like it was one with them and should have been the end of Astra (so much for our vaunted mystical senses several elves think to themselves in consternation). Having never seen or heard of a warg, they still had a feeling that this large wolf....wasn't acting normal. "I'm all right," Astra said after whipping the last of the wolf's saliva off of her face. "Wha....what's wrong with that thing? I should be dead right now, and.....it's acting like a sad little puppy right now!" Seeker, leaf shaped sword still in hand, approaches Elf Death cautiously. Elf Death, still looking up from her prone position, looks halfway hopeful. Her tail starts to wag and she pants happily as Seeker, first cautiously then more boldly, begins to scratch her behind her ears. "Seems....rather harmless....if a bit on the large side," Torres says, looking at the large wolf oddly. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Terran wolves creatures of the wild. Not domesticated?" She waved her Klingon dagger (Somebody in the Here After seemed to be a comedian... she thinks to herself) at the strange saddle and bridle that Elf Death is still wearing. "That might explain much," Fred thinks aloud, slowly putting his own leaf-like long sword away, carefully. "The things domesticated...though I'm at a loss how such is possible. Wolves from back home aren't the domesticating type." "Whatever domesticated it sure has an....odor to it....though the big girls been looked after well enough," Astra puts in as she looks over the fawning Elf Death. Her nose twitched as her elfin sense of smell relayed yet another set of smells underneath the more....rank one." Unknown to the new elves, the shaman who'd taken Elf Death as his own had been unusually meticulous in grooming her. Elf Death was had been very special to him, and the orc had gone to great lengths grooming the massive wolf. Too bad he hadn't thought to take his own personal hygiene into as much care as he'd lavished on his mount. That played into the reason why Astra was able to smell. "There was something else riding this wolf....and recently," she says, gently sniffing the air. "Several somethings.....one a grown female by the smell of it....and.... sniff...seven infants of some type." Seeker, who'd stint on the now nuked Terra had been in a cybernetic unit, an Avatar. Avatar senses were the best that was technically feasible for such a small package (so were the Avatar's reflexes...but that's a different story). His noise now was smelling what Astra was smelling. He, of all the other elves, knew what species the fainter odor belong to, since he'd spent enough time around humans before the enemy finished that Terra off..... "That the smell of a human," the coppery maned elf says. "I'll be hung if I recognize the other scent, however." No, none of the new elves were familiar with Orcs. Astra and Fred's world never had been blighted by their touch. Torres was just too...new to the realm of magic and what she had though as fantasy races until recently to know. Seeker's Avatar had not come across anything Orcen.....so all were at a loss for the smell of the owner. Elf Death, meanwhile, feels a faint tugging on her heartstrings. Her masters were awake, and in need of nourishment. Whinning, Elf Death gently "wroofed" and made a tossing motion with her massive shaggy head back towards the way she had come. The elves looked at each other. It was obvious that the massive female wolf wanted them to follow. "Well, should we?" Torres asks the others. "I...think that might be a good idea," Fred says. "By what I remember from where I found Astra before we ran into that accursed woods, this spot where we stand should be a river. I don't see ANY signs of it at all. We can ask for directions if nothing else." Torres bites back a quip about how men usually don't ask for directions. The joke was rather weak, and probably wouldn't be funny just at this moment. "I think that we should go," Seeker says. "If nothing else while were on Terra Prime, I'd just love to give the Military a few thousand coordinates of my Enemy's strongholds." Just because Seeker now drew breath and mind was made of organic material didn't mean that he had been diminished in any way as far as memory retention.....or of raw mathematical ability that all AIs were renowned for.....
Astra 4, in the process of breast feeding the young ones, does a double take when the large warg that apparently had been charmed by her infants cooing comes bounding back with company! To her credit, she has enough presence of mind to not drop the child she was feeding. Seeing elves this close up is a shocking enough. However.... However, the shock of seeing the red haired elf who's openly gapping at her seemed to cause her to become less than diplomatic, for a moment. The elf known as Astra has been struck silent in shock of seeing a vision of herself surrounded by seven infants AND endowed with much larger.....breasts than she ever remember having as a human being! "What on Terra happened to you?!" Astra 4 sputters. Analogs she was familiar with....but seeing a version of herself as an elf was a bit of a shock!
"Doppleganger," Astra the elf, elfin voice higher than normal, whispered in fear, grabbing for her sword, only to nearly be bowled over by what the golden haired elfin lady named Torres does next! "STOP!!" Torres bellows in an incredible display of volume that belayed what one would have believed possible for the slender little figure. Torres wasn't like any other elf in the history of elves, however. Nobody before had the ancestry of Klingonese in their heritage. There were cases of many other non-elfin people having been transformed by the malicious Atlantians into elves and such....but never had there been a half human/Klingon before. B'Elanna's Klingon heritage was showing right then and there. Whatever the case, she had noticed and rightly interpreted by the frightened look on the red haired elfin woman's face, along with the whispered word of a creature that was rumored to be death to those it mirrored (if not dispatched immediately) that violence was in the making. It was damn obvious what this other Astra (who was the spitting image of the elf, discounting stature, ears, and breast size). B'Elanna's memories may be artificial in origin, but they told her that this was an analog. The real Torres that she was supposed to mimic had met more than her fair share of them while on the fated Voyager. Nothing in those encounters demanded violence (though they'd rubbed her the wrong way a few times....) Everyone's ears were ringing and more than a few infants were crying at the sudden shout. "She's just an analogous version of yourself," Seeker said calmly to the nervous elfin Astra. "You remember me telling you about how that one version of Terra got nuked? Well, guess what....there are duplicates.....non dangerous duplicates of you on other worlds in other universes. Nothing to worry about, for you are you and they are they. And it's all part of the Grand Design." The elfin Astra visibly thinks this over, and then nods slowly. Fred, meanwhile, is looking between his Astra and the one that was human. Hasty introductions are made, and stories exchanged. "So, even with the Slipgates gone....there are other analogs still showing up," Astra 4 says, shaking her head. The others nod in agreement, amazed at all that seemed to have happened while they'd been playing in the time warped forest of Xythryx. Seeker was especially lost at the news of what his twin had attempted to do with Astra 2 and Fred 2. The traitor still was awaiting a final finding with the Aqualaria and the Military (neither had decided who had jurisdiction around here in this matter). Seeker wanted to have a long.....long and obscene shouting match with his "brother." At least Astra 4 had figured out that he wasn't hostile. "I guess we could call you Astra 6 and your Fred by the name Fred 6," Astra 4 chuckled at the sour looking elves. "Seems that is the trend here." "Well," the elfin Astra said. "After all that has befallen us, with becoming an elf, I find that while I'm still proud of my birth name that......it just doesn't seem to fit any more." "I agree," the elfin Fred chimed in. "And no offense, Astra 4, but I'd rather not have a number after my name, even if it makes sense. I....too feel like my name Fred just isn't right for me any more, given the circumstances." "How about you elves calling yourself by some elven names?" Seeker threw in. "I'm rather fond of the female name of E'eysha. As for a male elf name, I hear that Gilmuriel is a pretty good name, as far as elven names go for males." "Is that acceptable?" Astra 4 asks the her elfin sister and the elfin analog of her husband. "Astra could be E'eysha for now on while Fred can be Gilmuriel for the rest of his life." "I actually like the sound of that," E'eysha smiled holding the hand of her love. "And it isn't like we'll ever be human again with what happened to those.....Crystallics and the impossibility of finding our world again," Gilmuriel smiled back into E'eysha's blue eyes. "Not that I am adverse to being an elf....." Yes, these are analogs of me and Fred, Astra 4 smiled to herself. Later, after Elf Death brings the hungry adventurers some rabbits she had hunted down, E'eysha is cooking the skinned carcasses over a fire that was made to give off little to no smoke (she didn't want to deal with these Orcs her sister had described). "What gets me is that all this," Seeker says, throwing his hands around to encompass the entire forest around them. "Is the product of only a few months. I mean these trees are huge....like something that would grow after years....and only a few short months ago this place was a glowing wasteland....and the Crystallics changed all of it into lush forests and change countless numbers of Phage organisms into the trees and wildlife around here!" "That would account for the faint sense of confusion I get from everything around here," B'Elanna mutters. "Things probably are still having something of an identity crisis or something. But there is something more that bugs me, Astra 4. It has something to do with the fact that....everyone is falling in love around here!" "Including yourself with your Seeker," Astra 4 says drolly while bouncing a giggling tot on her knee. "Well.....I did with him because....he helped me through so much....and died trying to rescue me....in the end destorying himself and Tesla so others would be safe from that monster," B'Elanna said, waving a slender hand. "But I'm at a loss why things seem to keep repeating....why the Fred seem to keep falling in love with other Astras....or Alicias. Even with that one guy....Dragon Fred with Malachi D'Honaire." "It's the nature of the slipgates that brought them here," Astra 4 smiled. "There are probably billions of worlds were nothing happened with Fred...and he is still very much a bachelor and alone. But when Fred the Manfox fell in love with the Shefox Alicia, the slipgates went out and were attracted to other worlds were Fred were falling in love with this, that and the other." "Oh," is all that Torres has to say to that. "I don't know about you, but I think it'd be a great idea to travel together. With those Orc creatures around and that shaman's spell still on Astra 4, things could get ugly." Seeker says. "I'm at a loss as to the actual lay of the land....as well as the others....so perhaps we could all help each other and travel together. Safety in numbers and all that." Astra 4 nods. The Elves had been kind enough to supply her with dagger and a few supplies....but she was of the opinion that this copper maned elf was quiet right....
Gilmuriel says: "Being a native of a - what was the word Astra used - 'analog' of this land, I have a rough idea of where we are. We are in the enchanted forest of Xythryx, where strange things have often occurred. The mere fact of it being created anew from a scorched wasteland by these 'Crystallics' doesn't seem to have changed its nature, since four of us have just escaped from a part of it where time seemed to run much faster than normal. However, whilst I know where we are, what I don't know is where Astra and her husband's new colony is located." "We just picked a spot where the soil seemed fertile," Astra 4 replies. "There is a small stream to provide fresh water, but nothing that really acts as a landmark. No real hills, just flat plain in all directions for some miles, except for a small wooded area nearby to provide us with timber for building. Probe gave us something he called a GPS receiver to take with us, so I can tell you that our settlement is at 45°13' North, 4°46' East. Probe explained to me how the co-ordinate system works, but I won't go into that now as it's a bit complicated to explain. In any case, since we don't know the co-ordinates of where we are now, knowing the settlement's co-ordinates doesn't help us. From my estimates of traveling time and speed, I reckon I've come about forty miles, not necessarily in a straight line, of course. But as to direction, I have no idea. I couldn't see out of the wagon, and then when I was riding on the wolf it was too dark to tell anything other than that we were traveling through dense forest." "I think the best thing we can do, then, is to head out of the forest, so that the chance of our being found will be increased and the chance of running into any more magic will be minimised. If the boundaries of the forest are the same as I was used to, then the nearest border will be some fifteen miles to the southeast. Traveling through the forest, that probably represents getting on for five hours' journey. Of course, there's no guarantee that the forest boundaries will be the same. It sounds as though this Allaria has a far smaller proportion of open country than was the case back home. At least we can see the sun through the trees and can set our course by it. And if we should run into the ones who captured you - and of all the strange stories we've heard this morning, that of their transformation from dwarves to orcs is about the strangest - from what you have said there were few enough of them that the five of us should be able to handle them." Having finished breastfeeding her infants, Astra 4 is now having her own breakfast. She notices towards the end of the meal that E'eysha is giving her a rather surprised look. "What's the matter?" she asks. "I'm sorry," E'eysha replies. "I didn't mean to stare. It's just - well, I've seen male warriors weighing 230 pounds eat less than you do." Astra 4 chuckles. "Don't worry," she says. "I'm not offended. You have to remember that I'm effectively feeding a 240 pound body: 140 pounds of my own and 100 pounds made up of my seven children. It's well over twelve hours since I last ate, so I was ravenously hungry. I just hope I can get used to eating normal-sized meals again when I finish breastfeeding. Otherwise my weight will balloon. Still, I suppose if need be I could get Demifox Synizn to cast an appetite-reducing spell on me. That would be very much a last resort, though; I'd much rather rely on my own willpower. Of course once I stop breastfeeding and producing all this milk, my appetite ought to reduce to normal anyway, but habit can be a powerful thing." Breakfast over, they get ready to move. By now, it is mid-morning. "Exactly how are we going to travel?" Astra 4 asks. "There's not enough room on the wolf's back for all of us, and anyway that might rather overload her. The carry-cots are too heavy for humans or elves to carry over long distances, but if we let the wolf carry them I'm afraid she might run off." "Well, I think you should ride her as you did before," Seeker replies. "We elves can walk alongside. We've got some ropes amongst our supplies, so we should be able to tie all three cots securely to the wolf's back." "All right," says Astra 4. "I must warn you, though, that I don't know how to steer or how to stop her. There must be a way, since her previous rider - the shaman I assume - must have been able to, but I haven't got the knack. So if she decides to bolt, you will just have to follow as best you may." Since her babies are now old enough to stay awake most of the day, they will prevent that happening, being too intrigued by the elves to want the wolf to abandon them. And in any case, Elf Death has taken quite a shine to E'eysha, somehow recognising her as being a "sister" to the mother of her darlings, and is unlikely to desert her. Astra 4 doesn't know any of that, of course. So they set off, with Elf Death happy to walk alongside the elves. "You ought to consider giving the wolf a name," B'Elanna says to Astra 4. "How about Elf Friend?" suggests E'eysha. "The way she licked my face when she found us, that seems appropriate." So that is agreed. "Talking of names," says Seeker, "mine no longer seems appropriate. It doesn't sound elvish, and I no longer have a primary role of reconnaissance and exploration. If B'Elanna is happy with the change, I shall call myself Elrondir." "Yes, that sounds nice. I shall keep my old name - or at least the B'Elanna part of it - I think. That sounds like an elven name. But I shall discard the Torres part." "Can I give you a bit of advice?" Astra 4 asks Gilmuriel a little later, as he walks beside Elf Friend. When he nods, she goes on: "It might be tactful not to make too much of a thing about your having killed twenty dragons, for all the heroism it must have involved. I'm sure that all the ones you killed deserved it, but over recent months a lot of people have had their eyes opened to the fact that dragons are not automatically evil, but that some are kind and noble. And one of your analogs not only married a dragon, but went so far as to become a dragon himself to do so." "I'll be discreet. I must say that the idea of good dragons takes a bit of getting used to. In my Terra, it never occurred to anyone that there was any way of dealing with a dragon other than killing it. I just hope that all the ones I killed truly deserved it. At least none of those I killed bore the name of Malachi." Gilmuriel expects that they will reach the edge of the forest before the end of the day, but that does not happen. Whilst elves have great stamina, their stride is shorter than a human's so that they do not walk quite so fast. Also, even though they breakfasted late, they have to make a stop in mid-afternoon for Astra 4 to feed her babies again; though they are old enough to go through the night without being fed, they still need feeding every six hours or so during the day. It takes her the best part of an hour to feed all seven, so they decide that with only an estimated couple of hours of daylight left they may as well make camp for the night where they are. Elf Friend brings them some more rabbits for their evening meal, and the elves collect some berries. When dusk falls, the elves take turns to keep watch. Astra 4 is excused this duty since she has had no sleep for over 36 hours, and has been yawning for the last hour. The night passes without incident. In the morning, they have breakfast and proceed on their way. Gilmuriel expects them to reach the edge of the forest within a couple of hours, but the day wears on and they there is still no sign of an end to the trees. He becomes increasingly concerned. The benign explanation is that the forest simply extends much further on Terra Prime than on his own world, at least in the direction that he has chosen. The more worrying possibility is that they could be in the grip of some enchantment of the forest.
Meanwhile, at a meeting.... Grailing , Friend of Tarin Gazin, looked around at the people gathered at the table. None of them are exactly what one would expect. He included himself in that assessment of the situation. Try as he may, he can not remember ever seeing such a scene in his entire long lifetime! Not even before those dark days so long ago.... Grailing, a name that he had assumed and all called him for longer than all but him remember, smiles as his mind turns again to the task before him. He had wondering just why his rather....unusual friend had summoned him. Friends though he and Grailing were, he had warned the dwarf to openly make public this relationship. Not that he feared how his fellow elves would react. He had ceased to care on the night his nation was shattered. From then on out, he had roamed the land doing what he knew was correct and proper, and didn't give a damn about the opinion of his own race! His actions over the years had won more than his fair share of both praise for being the ideal in what an elf should be and vilified as being the very thing that would ruin all of elfkind. Rather, he feared that Tarin, already being shunned by his fellow dwarf, would find himself hunted down and killed for having dared befriend Grailing! Grailing knew that not all dwarves would be so vile as to try to kill Tarin for just that....but there were some rather......fanatical members in the dwarven realm that Grailing knew would take offense. But, after coming back from a long meditative retreat, Grailing had found the world....turned upside down! He had come to learn about the blow that a strange group of humans called the Golems had done the Dragons. How a monstrous battle had been fought, and almost all of Terra had been lost, only to be saved by a strange and exotic blend of races. Not al of the unsettling news was good, but there were two items that made Grailing feel like dancing for joy and making a sacrifice for the Elven deities that he'd abandoned so long ago...out of a sense of betrayal for what had befallen the Elven Race. One was the fact that after more than ten thousand years, the population of elfdom was back to levels before the Night of Fire (which all but he acredited to the gods....who had been said to have looked down upon the race of Elf.....and found it wanting)..... The other was that not only was his friend now accepted back into his own Clan and Race (Oh so very important to a dwarf, Grailing thought to himself, remembering.) Not only that, but he'd become the King of his Clan for some new metal working technique! Grailing, more concerned with things of the spirit and such.....nonetheless was happy for that since he knew how much dwarves enjoyed things like that (and if it got his friend back in good with his fellow dwarf...so much the better!) Synizn, demifox mage and friend of Fred 4 and Astra 4, steps forward.......
"Let me first begin by stating while we were able to track down the vile kidnappers we still have yet to locate Astra 4," Synizn says softly, tail drooping before continuing. By now anyone who looks at this small mage knows without a doubt that this is tearing at the demifox's little heart. "Apparently, from what the Empress of the Dwarves, Tarin, and the surviving Orcs....who used to be Dwarves.....seem to denote that....Somebody Blighted the dark hearted Ballok Clan. During the confusion that followed, the would be rapists lost track of their prisoners. At first, I put it down as their wits being dulled with the onset of their new race, but now I'm convinced that such is not the case. Tarin will go into that." Tarin, oddly clean shaven as are the rest of the dwarves, steps forward (Grailing wanted to take his friend to the side and ask him about that....dwarves usually would rather die than part with their beards). He smiles over at a softly glowing human woman (who Grailing admits is really good looking....even by elven standards), and the Empress gives a curt nod. Tarin then clears his throat and begins. "By know all know of the dark betrayal done by Ballok," Tarin says gravely. "I shudder to think what would have befallen my race if Ballok had been able to sway the other Heads of the Clan....now the Council of the Clans.....to his fell desires.... If we had, the Forge would not have stopped at transforming Ballok and his Clan into Orcs." The shock alone of seeing known agents of Ballok transforming into that green skinned filth did wonders beforehand in swaying the dwarven masses to the Edicts of the Empress. The event seemed to get the point across to even the dimmest of dwarven minds, thank the Forge! "Now, whether the Event also give validity to the rumors that Orcs originally came from Dwarven stock....I don't know," Tarin sighed. "All I do know is that for too long Dwarves have been too proud and arrogant to do the Will of the Forge. No more. I and the entirety of the Nation of Dwarf have pledge our hearts and souls to the Forge's Avatar, for she will lead us, and teach us how we should be. Now, as for the terrible crime that was committed by Ballok, I called forth on the only person I know of that can safely navigate the strangely expanded forests of Xythryx. By the old maps, that forest should be fifty miles away, but now it is only miles away....and it's influence seems to be growing outward more and more each day! While, with the death of the Orcen shaman who had been able to shield the kidnappers from magical probes and tracking by scent cost the Orcs the ability to recast that spell - a spell that needed to be renewed every twelve hours - we can not get a good fix either by magic or science!" "I dare not attempt to send anyone into that forest, for nobody from Allaria, before the Enemy bombed her off the face of Terra, ever returned," Fred 4 says darkly, remembering the tales. "I know that from what Synizn tells me the Forest's enchantment is still in effect, so it would be sheer stupidity to attempt going in blindly, for even if we DO find Astra and the children.....I fear that getting free of the Forest is something else, yet again. Probe is flying around with his Rocket Sled, towing Dragon Synizn in his natural form around. Inquirer and the Towed Dragon Array are casting magical spells to locate Astra, while Probe is using sensors on his sled and those of....satellites overhead. So far, readings are muddled." "Aye, they'd be that," Grailing sighed, remembering how that Atlantian Mage's spell had back lashed at the evil mage, warping the entirety of the land into a Gordian Knot. The backlash had killed all but Grailing, and had destroyed all but a few Elfin edifices and trails.....a last testament to an ancient people. "The Forest has taken on a life of It's own, with those fell nuclear devices scorching the land....further destroying the Wards I'd placed upon her borders to prevent her spread. Time to end this sad little game...." The others look at Grailing like he's speaking in Tongues, and all look as to ask what on Earth (or Terra) he's talking about. "No, don't ask," Grailing sighs. "I'll get them free, and then your golem friend Probe can get a bead on them....and get them to safety. Okay, I'm off...." "Governor, we could give you a lift," the Empress, Diana Walker, says as Grailing turns abruptly to leave. She points back at the shuttlecraft that she still needed to return to the Military base (she'd taken it out days ago to transport the Dragons' Reparations to the Dwarves). She would have to get somebody to pick it up soon, but Captain Sterndeck had.....looked the other way as she had used it to take care of this pressing problem. "No...I'll just take my own way, thank you," Grailing chuckled as he faded out like the Chesire Cat....his sly grin the last to fade out. And as Grailing disappears, a fear is still fresh in Gilmuriel's mind.....a possibility. The more worrying possibility is that they could be in the grip of some enchantment of the forest.... Gilmuriel and the other stop dead in their tracks as...a figure appears out of thin air.
Considering that in a real sense I never left this place it's
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3/13/2000 9:17:05 AM
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