• Chapter 4: Getting acquainted

    Alexander watched Marianne with a bit of awe now. He didn't think she had it in her, or that was to say, he hadn't heard her stand up for herself since she had met him. Instead she had simply tagged along up through that point and gone wherever he told her to.

    As the commander was deciding their fate, Marianne had stopped trembling with anger, and had inched closer to Alex inch by inch. It was almost as she hated the elves, or had some level of disdain for them.

    Commander Kainos had sent away Captain Sal and his guard. Sal had waved them a goodbye after he bowed to Kainos of course. Alex had to wonder why he had such respect for Kainos, in fact, it seemed like most of the men in the room did. Sure, he looked as tough as a 4 foot tall elf could, but what did these elves know that they did not?

    "Come on." Captain Gallan said, waving them onward. "I'm taking you to meet the squad." he added with haste as he bolted out the door. Alex and Marianne followed, though Marianne definitely seemed reluctant to do so.

    For now, my only option is to go along with these elves to survive. Alex thought to himself, his stomach rumbling. "Hey, when do you elves normally eat? We haven't had anything since we awoke." Alex asked, trying to catch up with the elf who was bolting off ahead of them.

    "Oh? hungry are ya? Well, after you meet the squad I'll take you both to the mess hall and see how much you Skyfallers eat, then I will wake a tailor to get your measurements, I want your combat gear fitted by morning." Gallan said making his way round one of the many large corridors that made this place such a maze. Much like Captain Sal before him, he seemed to simply know where he was going.

    How do the elves know where they are going? How do they not get lost with so many turns to take? Alex wondered trying to conceptualize the idea. He had tried to remember how to get back to where they had met the King, but after the 11th turn he gave up. More questions asked than answered in his mind, which was not a good start.

    One turn after another lead to the barracks of the Hunting Corp. Much like everything else they had seen since they entered the castle, there were no windows, so it was most likely underground. Unlike the halls which were pure white and lined with ornately designed columns, the barracks was boarded up with wood. It looked very quickly put together, as if a lot of time wasn't put into building this room as opposed to the others. There were beds stacked up to the roof with ladders. Hooks that looked like they were nailed in quickly lined the walls where weapons were hung.

    The walls were literally covered in an array of weapons, the likes of which Alex had never seen. Some were simple like swords and staves, but all of them had things that made them... odd... The swords were never shaped like the swords Alex could remember like Broadswords, Katanas, or Scimitars. Instead they had wierd crescent moon shapes, or they were far too straight for normal blades with no curve or tip. Alex had to wonder what each one of them was for.

    However these weren't the only weapons on the walls. Crossbows, spears with many different shaped spearheads, shields with shapes he had never seen, bows with odd curves, and one particular object that was hanging closely to every bed that Alex had trouble understanding. It was a curious looking device that looked much like the cylinder on a revolver with a hole in the middle for ones forearm. In each of its 16 cylinders it held a spear with a rope attached.

    I wonder what those are for... Alex thought as Gallan rounded up everyone in the room.

    "Alright gather around Wolf Squad." Gallan said waving his arms to get everyone within viewing range.

    Alex looked up and noticed the beds that were up towards the ceiling, which was much higher than the rest of the halls. Up in the rafters where the tallest beds could be seen, Alex could see several pairs of glowing yellow eyes looking down on them. One elf rolled sleepily to the side of his bed, opened his eyes, saw the two of them towering over Gallan, and jumped back slamming into the wall.

    "The ******** are those Cap!?" the startled elf roared, pointing at them angrily. He was smaller, and clearly greener than the other elves in the room who kept a calm, but observant demeanor, as if they were ready to pounce on them at any second.

    Alex and Marianne looked at each other with smiles as if they were both thinking the same thing. He was scared of them, in fact, it seemed like most of them were on edge being around them. Though, it had seemed before that none of the other elves were all too on edge, what about these elves made them so jumpy?

    "Quiet down idiot, these two are in the service of the King." Gallan said resting his hands behind his back. "Now listen up maggots, this here gangly one with the square head and beady eyes is Alexandros." he said pointing at Alex who was immidiately taken aback.

    Beady eyes? Do I have beady eyes? he thought putting his hands on his face. I don't have beady eyes you ******** midget! he thought, shooting Gallan a ferocious glare.

    "The one with the big eyes, blonde, and huge tits in Marianne." he said pointing at Marie who immediately turned an embarrassed bright red in the face as all eyes were on her. It was true, her breasts were so big that they pushed the brown sack she was wearing several inches away from her chest making a huge gap.

    "They are wolves now, and they hunt with us. So I want each of you to get lots of rest and eat hardy tonight, we move out in the morning to Ent territory." Gallan stated looking around the room for any complaints.

    "Weren't we hunting drakes? Ents don't bring in much gold... dangerous too with it being spring and all, better to hunt Ents in winter." a voice came from an elf, whose only visible features in the poorly lit room were his glowing yellow eyes. "The drakes are breeding right now, so they aren't worried about losing a few in the mating frenzy, we can easily pick off a few lone ones without having to lose anyone." the voice came dark, and mysterious. The rest of the room seemed to mutter in agreement.

    "I understand your point Kaiden, but these are the commanders orders and we are seeing them through, so get ready for the trip. All of you!" Gallan ordered and the room grunted in displeasure. "And Vorxis I swear if I catch you using your Longarm inside the barracks one more time I will string you from the roof!" Gallan yelled and the younger elf from before dropped his 'Longarm' on the bed then quickly put it back on the wall beside his bed.

    Ah so thats what those things are... Alex thought as he ran his eyes over the strange devices one more time. The only logical purpose he could think to use something like that would be to climb something, but then why did it have 16 spears? Too many questions and too few answers came this night as they were then dragged along by Gallan back into the maze of halls.

    "The mess hall is this way, they don't serve anything that tastes good but I'll have em round you up something to keep you moving." Gallan said as after a few turns they had made it to a very large dining room.

    The room itself was very rich for something that the common soldiery used. White pillars lined the room like in the hallways, the ceiling was very high even for Alex and Marie. The tables were all covered in fine china and silverware. Along one side of the room far from the tables was a serving area. Behind it were elves who seemed to be cleaning up when they saw Alex and Marie enter, and like most of the other elves, began to gawk.

    "Sit here I'll be right back." Gallan said pointing to a table. Alex sat down at the six seated table in a chair that was clearly too small for him. Marie sat on the opposite end of him on the complete other side of the table. Gallan had walked towards the kitchen and was talking to the cooks when Alex turned back to Marie who was simply staring down at the table quietly.

    Alowly Alex leaned across the table, hoping he wasn't in hearing distance of Gallan. "Hey, are you ok?" Alex whispered to Marie in a caring voice.

    Marie looked up for a moment with a slight frown and shrugged as if to say, 'Alright I guess.' before looking back towards the table. There was an awkward silence afterwards that lasted for quite a while as Gallan talked to the cooks.

    This was probably the best Alex could hope for. She probably hated him for putting her in this position she was in, at the service of a mad king who was simply going to throw them into the fire to see how they burned? This was not at all good for either of them, but Alex had a feeling they would survive.

    Moments later Gallan came back with two bowls that looked awfully like some kind of brown soup. "Eat up!" Gallan said placing one in front of Alex and the other in front of Marie. "It's called Spine Boar Soup, but it might as well be called Dirt Soup because thats about as good as it tastes." he added sitting down at the table across from Marie.

    Alex took the spoon and pushed the soup around. It looked like some kind of broth with chunks of meat in it. Grabbing a meat chunk Alex spooned it into his mouth. At first, his face was cringing as if expecting the worst, however, as he began to mull it over in his mouth, he realized it was delicious and began to eat from his bowl ravenously. Finishing the bowl in seconds he gasped for air. "Man that was good!" Alex sighed in relief as he leaned back in chair.

    Marie looked almost completely shocked, and had yet to touch her soup yet. Slowly raising a spoonful to her mouth she cringed as she did the same exact motions Alex had. In an instant, her soup was gone as well.

    Gallan had been watching, his eyes wide with horror as the two humans devoured the food. "Well damn... were gonna have to feed you like we feed the Nemeans..." Gallan chuckled as he rose from his seat. "Well, since you finished so fast that just means we can go see the tailors right now!" he smiled beckoning them to follow.

    Back into the corridors they went, turn after turn until again they arrived at a little door. This one was different. Unlike the others which had been large open hallways leading into the room, this one had an actual door. Which, was a problem for the two Not-so-elf-sized humans who had to squeeze through.

    It seemed as they entered that the Tailors were still hard at work and paid them no mind. Spools bobbing and weaving while cloth flew around the room from one pair of hands to another. The room itself was cramped, filled with bits and pieces of cloth, half sewn pants and shirts, balls of yarn, hanging fabrics, leathers, shelves with all sorts of needles and tailoring tools, and all the while 3 elves darted around the room doing... well whatever it was they were doing and in quite a hurry, as if the devil himself was at their heels.

    "Hey!" Gallan yelled and the tailors dropped immediately to look at the group of them.

    One elf with very large glasses and buck teeth came up to greet them. "Yes Captain, how can we help you?" he asked, turning his head sideways at a disturbing angle.

    "These two need to be measured now, and I want a combat outfit made for them, in their respective sizes by morning." he commanded as if talking to lesser elves.

    "Yes sir, right away sir..." the elf replied quickly his eyes darting up and down the two humans in the room. "You two, get rid of sacks, need to take measurements, suit must be body tight." he said, his words were very fast but segmented, like he was darting from thought to thought.

    Both Marie and Alex blushed slightly looking at each other for a moment they reluctantly removed the sacks exposing their bodies. Alex tried with all his might not to stare at Marie, and Marie seemed to be doing the same as they awkwardly looked forward without speaking.

    "Man first, easier, yes." the tailor said grabbing his hand and pulling him to the center of the room. Alex had one hand that was covering his crotch, but the elf removed the hand "Hold still, don't move, measurements be wrong." he said taking out a measuring tape and very thoroughly measuring every inch of him. He, much to Alex's surprise, also decided to measure his groin area which made him extremely uncomfortable and red in the face.

    Turning his head slightly, Alex caught Marie staring at him and then she immediately tried to pretend like she was looking somewhere else. Alex smiled confidently, he didn't know what he looked like before, but he knew he looked pretty good now.

    "Ok, you done, next girl." the Elf said pushing Alex back into the corner and grabbing Marie who was trying to cover herself. Alex immediately put his sack back on in shame, despite thinking he looked pretty good without it. Like Alex, had her arms removed from her body parts and placed at her side. "No move." the Elf said doing the same as before.

    Alex spared no time in glancing her over with an intrigued look as she was facing the other direction. She was a bright red in the face, but said nothing during the whole thing, as if merely bearing the embarrassment. The elf spent little time on her groin, but a great deal of time on her breasts, taking what looked upward of 10 separate measurements. Marie looked frozen in nervous tension as the elfs hands went up and down her breasts, even squeezing them a few times, though not at all sensually. When she was done, she too was pushed into the corner where she immediately put her sack back on as well.

    "Ok, done, we make priority, go now, work to do." the elf said darting back to his work station where he began yelling something at his coworkers.

    "Right then, back to the barracks with us." Gallan said leading them back into the halls.

    Alex tried to remember the way from the tailor to the barracks, this time focusing a bit harder. "Left, Left, Right, Left, Right Right, Left" Alex muttered out loud as they reached the barracks attracting the attention of Gallan.

    "Don't bother." Gallan said waving his hand. "You can't navigate this place without being an Elf, its why we are so comfortable here, nobody but us elves wont get lost. We got the hearing see?" Gallan said flicking his ear a few times. "Elves can feel vibrations with our sense of hearing, a lot like a spider can feel the vibrations of its web, but a lot different... Each room in the citadel has a different constantly vibrating stone that makes different levels of vibrations. We elves can hear or feel, that sensation and it guides us to that room." Gallan explained outside the door to the barracks. "And no if you were wondering our actual hearing isn't very good, in fact, most of these blithering idiots I think are deaf half the time." Gallan added entering the barracks now with them in toe.

    It seemed that most of the others had already fallen asleep when they had returned. Gallan lead them to a couple of elf sized beds and pointed them out. "You can sleep there for now, I will see what we can do to get you a Skyfaller sized bed before we get back from the mission." Gallan said yawning as he walked past.

    Gallan stopped mid step to say "Sleep well, because tomorrow..." he paused to turn back and face them with a dark smile.


    "We hunt trees."