• Chapter 5: Hunting Trees

    Alex and Marie reluctantly slunk into their beds without question. Their legs hung over the sides of the bed, and besides being incredibly uncomfortable, kept hardly nothing warm.

    That night, Alex couldn't sleep, but instead wondered what tomorrow would bring.

    I cannot remember who I am, or why I am here... I am in the service of a psychotic child King... I have been ordered into a group of midget monster hunters... and worst of all... he thought, turning to Marie who had rolled in the direction away from him. I have earned the ire of a the only woman of my species... he frowned, rolling onto his back and looking up at the ceiling of the bunk. Or... is she? he thought. Are their more of us? If so where are they? How big is this place we have fallen to?

    The night was filled with questions and no answers, and morning came quickly.

    Gallan had gotten them up at the crack of dawn by throwing weapons on their chests. Alex was given a sword, though it was more like a dagger to him. Marie was given a bow and quiver though it too, seemed much too small for her. Then Gallan took them to see the tailors before the rest of the squad was up. The tailors had worked through the night to finish their combat uniforms. When they arrived, they were both quite surprised to say the least.

    Alex was fitted with some body tight spandex like material. He luckily had a large "groin shield" to cover his large extremity. However, this was only the first layer to his combat suit. On Alex, he was fitted with something that resembled elongated turtle shells on his shoulders with were connected at the chest by large bandoleers. His wrists were covered with thick leather bracers which seemed pretty tough as he yanked them around. His legs were covered with heavy leather padding, which was also lined with pouches for carrying who knows what.

    Marianne however was not so lucky. When she was fitted into her tight body suit her extremities had no such coverings. Though her embarrassment was quickly alleviated by the fact that she was strapped with heavy leather coverings on her shoulders, wrists, thighs, crotch, and shins. Though she had no heavier armor like Alex did.

    Smiling, Gallan kicked them out the door of the tailoring shop and lead them back to the Barracks where they met the rest of the squad, who had, by this time, woken themselves up and were geared up for combat. While most of them looked ready for battle, the smaller, clearly greener elf, Vorxis, who was stumbling around the room with half his clothes on as they arrived.

    "Vorxis you idiot, get dressed and catch up with the squad, were heading top side now." Gallan shouted. "Alright the rest of you, march!" Gallan roared and the small company of 12 elves and two humans marched out into the ever turning halls of the citadel. It wasn't long before they saw the light of day and Alex took in a breath of fresh air. They had come up in a different place than they had entered. There was no town here, just a gate that guarded the entrance to the hallways underground. Outside the gate was another giant wall with a gate like the one they had entered in. As they approached Gallan waved down the guard who opened the gate which, like before, creaked up slowly.

    As they exited the gates they found themselves looking out onto a massive grassland. Behind them the gates began to close and Marie shot Alex a concerned glance as they set out on their first adventure. As the gates were about to shut Vorxis came screaming "wait!" as he bolted through the gates just a second before they shut. Panting he caught up to them and joined in toe.

    On the other side of the large grassland was a massive forest the likes of which Alex had never seen. From the hill, he could not see its end, like an Ocean of trees that covered the ground. The outer edge of the forest had less trees, but towards the back there were trees much taller than the ones around the side, maybe 10 times taller. Alex wondered what it would be like to stand under those trees and look up. Little did he know, he would get the chance.

    They walked for what seemed like hours, and Alex saw many animals the likes of which he had no memory of or had ever seen before. Though all of them were different than the animals he did remember, he noticed some odd similarities. On the fields were what looked like large boars mixed with porcupines sniffing through the dirt. He was told they were called Spine Boars and that their sharp spines were perfect for building materials as they would never rot, and could produce them indefinitely. Luckily, the elves had many in captivity.

    Night fell as they hit the forests edge and Gallan ordered them to make camp. The rest of the elves set up tents and sleeping bags made of some kind of animal fur. Starting a fire and settling in, the group of elves looked much like hardened warriors. However, Marie hugged the edge of camp, as if preparing to run away at any moment. Alex had yet to get the chance to really talk to her, and he wanted desperately to say something.

    Moving closer to her, he came up behind her and plopped down next to her. "Hey!" he said cheerfully, though he startled her as she had been looking out into the deep forest.

    "Oh... hey." Marie said, glancing him over then looking back into the forest, seeming completely uninterested in his presence.

    Alex rubbed the back of his neck, he had an apologetic look on his face that he couldn't shake as he sat next to her. "I wanted to tell you something..." he started taking a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have dragged you along with me, its possible we could survived in the forest without having to seek the aid of the elves and..." he continued but was cut off by Marie standing up and turning around.

    "It's fine." she said calmly before walking to the edge of the fire and laying down.

    Alex's head dropped with a heavy sigh. What can I do? he thought looking up to the sky. I wonder, will more like us fall from the sky? his thoughts trailed off as Captain Gallan came and sat next to him.

    "Lady troubles?" Gallan asked with a cheerful smile.

    "Yeah, you could say that." Alex sighed, rubbing his neck.

    "Eh don't let it get to you, if it makes you feel any better, you'll probably be dead before you can regret it." Gallan chuckled as if that were some kind of joke to be laughed at.

    "Hey Gallan, they said we fell from the sky, did you see? was it just the two of us?" Alex asked turning to Gallan with a confused look.

    Gallan simply rubbed his chin as he thought for a moment. "No, there were more than two meteors." he said resting his head on his hand. "There were probably around 30 or so that night, though they were very much scattered. Though, this doesn't add up to the prophecy at all..." Gallan muttered at the end trailing off.

    "So there are more of us..." Alex sighed with relief, he couldn't wait to meet them. Maybe they had answers to his questions or knew something he did not. "What do you mean it doesn't add up?" he asked, trying not to seem like he was ignoring him.

    "Well, in the prophecy is very very long and has a part of it for every race in the land. But it says something like, 'the skies will rain fire and there will come the sky fallers of hundreds, of thousands, and they will be like lost sheep in need of herders...' but there were only you two so far, and we can only assume the other meteors landed close to enemy territory. So it may be that... well... this is a silly idea but... it may be that you may just be the first of many to come, and you are here to lead the many that will follow." Gallan said, shrugging and standing up. "But we needn't think of that now, for now, get some rest, tomorrow the fun part begins." he said slapping Alex on the shoulder.

    Alex shook his head. What have I gotten myself into... he thought as he moved back to camp and plopped down next to Marie's feet, who only gave him a glance before rolling over. Yeah she hates me... he thought, groaning as he leaned back in the dirt, his feet towards the fire.

    The night was long, but Alex managed to get some sleep, despite the noises of the forest. These noises included but were not limited to birds of various sizes, howls of wolves, and what he could only describe as dinosaurs with his imagination.

    Alex woke with the sun in his eyes, at roughly a few hours after dawn. The rest of the camp was picking up and getting ready to move out again. Marie was still sleeping, so Alex walked up next to her and shook her shoulder gently to wake her.

    When she woke, she groggily rubbed her eyes before she saw Alex standing over her, and looked away, choosing to get up and walk away.

    You really ******** up didn't you Alexandros Skyfaller... he thought, this was, he realized, the first time he had ever thought of himself as Alexandros Skyfaller. However, he didn't have any other name to go by... did he? Best not to think on that too much... Alex thought with a dark smile as the group began to move at the order of Captain Gallan.

    The forest became thicker and thicker as they went farther in. Patrolling outside their little group he swore he could see shadows following them. Maybe wolves or other predatory creatures hunting them. After a few hours of walking, one of the elves who had run ahead darted back from inside the trees.

    "Entling sir, seems to be alone." he reported to Gallan who nodded.

    They moved along the base of a massive trees roots until they came to a clearing. In the center of the clearing was a single beam of light which shone upon what appeared to be the dead stump of a very large tree.

    "There." the scout said and Gallan nodded, waving his hands to give signals to the rest of the more experienced elves, whom, began to circle the clearing.

    Gallan stood between both Alex and Marie, placing his hands on their shoulders. "Alright humankind listen. That thing over there is an Entling, while their armor is still thick, they will be very slow. We will begin hacking off their armor chunk by chunk, your job is the easiest, go around collecting the wood we chop off and piling it up back here." he said pointing to a small spot behind them. "Once the Entlings armor is weakened it will start moving a lot faster, hopefully now, we can draw its attention away from you so that it won't notice you dodging around its feet. But... that's always iffy at best." Gallan shrugged with a frown that said people had died doing it before.

    Marie and Alex looked at each other with equal terror, they knew this was not going to be fun.

    "Good luck Skyfallers!" Gallen shouted back, shooting his long arm into the trees. The longarm made a strange zapping noise as it shot out, the spear hit a tree, and Gallan swung into the glade like a monkey on a vine. As he did, so did the other elves who had at this time surrounded the glade.

    At first, Alex and Marie slowly wandered over the trees roots to get a better view of the battle. The elves had swung into the glade and were using axes to hack away at the base of the tree truck, where the roots had clung into the ground, once the roots had been severed, the elves used their Longarms and ran in sequence. What happened next nearly made Alex fall backwards in shock.

    The tree trunk moved...

    Wood shot and splintered with explosive force, sending shards of wood flying out like spears. From the trunk, a massive figure stood, probably 30 feet tall, made entirely of wood. Its whole body looked like it were surrounded in shields made of bark. Its legs looked tree trunks all on its own, its arms looked like fallen logs segmented into arms with fingers that looked as wooden claws. Vines and moss covered its body up to its head, which resembled much of a Knights Full Helm made of wood. Inside the 'helmet like' head was a pair of brightly glowing green eyes.

    The Entling roared, and it sounded like the cracking of a tree before it fell over to the axeman, but a thousand times louder.

    The elves swung in with their Longarms and hacked away at the shoulders and knees of the Entling which, moved very slowly trying to defend itself, almost as if incapable of doing so. The elves easily bounced around him with incredible speed, the likes of which Alex had not seen them use before. Dodging in and out they chunked more and more pieces off the lumbering titan. It was then that Alex saw the first piece fall.

    The bark shield on the left arm fell to the ground. Underneath the now exposed left arm, the Entling looked naked. Like a tree without its bark, white and exposed, skinny and nude, a knight without his armor. However, it also seemed that his left arm seemed to be striking out much faster than it had been before, causing the elves to avoid attacking from that side completely.

    Alex pointed to the piece of wood, looking at Marie who nodded. They both jolted into the glade, as they approached the Entling Alex held his hand out to tell Marie to stop. When the Entling hard turned around to attack an elf, Alex waved again and they bolted right between his legs, both of them grabbing an end of the large piece of wood, they took off back to their hiding spot, narrowly being missed by the Entlings leg as it came crashing down next to them.

    Dropping their piece at the hiding spot, they turned back, having noticed that another chunk had been lobbed off his other arm, and another from his back. Turning back to the battle the two of them rushed for the fallen pieces. Alex pointed at the closer one for her to grab, and she nodded, while he ran for the farther more dangerous one. By this time, it seemed like the Entlings bark armor was falling off much easier. The pieces that had already fallen exposed weak points that they could not have previously exploited.

    Marie had run in and grabbed her piece, throwing it over her shoulder she ran back to the hiding spot, well out of the Entlings reach.

    Alex smiled seeing her away safe, but his task was going to be much harder. His piece had fallen on the other side of the Entling who was now looking at him.

    Alex's gaze met the Entling for a second, and the Entling let out a massive roar as he began to charge Alex.

    Alex's pulled out his small sword as he ran from the beast. It seemed to be entirely focused on him now despite being attacked from behind by the elves without resistance. The Entling, now faster with the loss of his armor, was gaining on the fleeing Alex who stumbled a few times trying to look back. It was enraged, and would not stop until Alex was dead.

    Another piece of armor chunked off the massive tree knight, and exposed his chest. In his chest was a glowing green cluster of vines which throbbed, much like a beating heart. The Entling looked now much like a naked Knight only wearing his boots and helm. However, this did not seem to deter him from his quest as he swung wildly at Alex who could only keep running. However, a glancing blow to his legs sent Alex in a spin than made him come crashing down on his back.

    The Entling was bearing over him fist held high in the air as it came crashing down towards Alex. In a moment of panic, rolled to the side then got onto his feet, dodging the attack narrowly and thrusting upwards.

    "ALEXANDROS!!! NO!!!" a panicked voice of Gallan came ringing across as Alex's tiny sword pierced the viney glowing heart of the Entling.

    As the sword pierced the Entlings heart it collapsed with a dusty belch escaping his mouth. It fell to the side of Alex who stood triumphantly over its body.

    The bright smile that was across Alex's face quickly diminished as a furious Gallan swung over to him.

    "You idiot what have you done!" Gallan said punching him in the gut, he assumed he would have punched him in the face but he wasn't tall enough. "Everyone, gather the wood, were leaving NOW! HURRY!" he said flailing his arms as the elves panicked to get all the wood collected.

    Vorxis however, was hanging from a tree by his Longarm on the other side of the glade shouting. "Hey! What happened?"

    It was at this moment that they heard a very large thud. Like a giant mans footstep. The another, then another... as the sound got closer the ground began to tremble beneath their feet. Alex noticed the rocks and vines shake and tremble and looked to Gallan with a confused look. Gallan however, had a face filled with utmost terror.

    "VORXIS! RUUUUUUNNNNNNN!!!!!" Gallan shouted across the glade but Vorxis only gave him a confused look.

    It was at this point, that Alex knew the fear of this world.

    A massive arm, the size of 10 tree trunks came down on Vorxis' head, crushing the massive tree he had been clinging to completely, and spraying his blood all over the glade floor.

    As Alex looked up, he saw what he thought not possible for the second time that day.