Rose 2.21: I always win

Skye

 

     They knew I was coming. I was in that dragon lady's vision, my name at least.
      I'm meant to be here. That's really kinda cool. No, very cool.
      I'm going to succeed. I'm going to end the eons-long feud between the dragons and the elves. Surely, I'm going to succeed.
      I always win. This is going to work!

     Falknir, Lorelei, and I continue on our travels, and soon, Falknir realizes that I don't trust him around my wife. I think he finds this funny. Funny or not, I don't leave him alone with my wife again if I can help it.
     After a few weeks' travel, we arrive back in Dragon Valley. Falknir "sweetly" points out that he could've made the journey in a matter of hours had he not had to go by foot.

     Lorelei informs us that we have arrived at the perfect time. The town is having its monthly meeting, so we make our way to town hall.

     The second we walk in with Falknir, a panic ensues, at least from the elves. It takes the humans in attendance a little more time to find out what's going on, but then they all leave as well. Children cry at seeing what they'd only heard about in their more-scary bedtime stories. Parents pull them away, validating their fears, before they leave with them in their arms.
     The only ones who stay are the three elders that sit at the front table. They look pissed off.
     "How dare you interrupt the town hall meeting with this filth!" the guy in the middle says like he's not afraid. The woman next to him looks at him like he's a bit looney but that she also doesn't disagree with him. The guy on the left merely glares, waiting to hear what I have to say.

     Feeling somewhat official, I reply, "I come with a delegate from the dragons." I can feel Falknir watching me with curiosity.
      I was born for this moment.
      "Their kind isn't welcome here," the dude in the middle says, still sounding irritated.
      Then, the guy on the left speaks up, "And you knew this!" He points directly at Lorelei.
      That's the same guy that performed our marriage ceremony! He seemed almost nice then, well, almost. He was a bit haughty, but I thought it was an elf thing.
     "What do you have to say for yourself?" the guy asks my wife.
     "I..." she begins.

     "Speak up!" the dude in the middle yells, and I start getting angry. None of them look at me. The lady still watches the ass next to her, and the blue guy has a peculiar expression on his face as he looks at my wife like he's also trying to look past her.
      Sounding more confident, which makes me happier, Lorelei answers, "I warned you of this, but you wouldn't listen."
      "So you bring them to us to make your prediction a reality?!" Middle Dude snarls.
      Falknir stays curiously quiet.
      I decide to answer the mean old man's question. "No. We went looking for them to hope to convince them to stop the attack, which, by the way, they were planning. Eingaia sent Falknir as Her representative."
      The woman finally speaks. "You were in the company of Eingaia and lived?"
      Uh, she didn't seem that dangerous to me, but then, she was predisposed to expect something out of the ordinary.

     "Thirty thousand years have passed," Falknir says from behind me. "It is time the dragons retake what is theirs."
      "We thought you were dead," the woman says. "And we have cared for this valley much better than your kind did in your day. It certainly smells better from what I heard as a child."
       The mean old man in the middle says, "And we have no intention of forcing our residents to displace themselves to appease a small number of disgusting, smelly lizards!"
      Falknir smiles a wicked smile back at the man and says, "Then I will be happy to relay your message to Mother... after I show you what happens when you don't abide by a treaty!" He quickly walks out of the building, and an ominous, screeching roar sounds from just on the other side of the outer wall.
      Someone comes running into the room, a guard, and the blue elf guy tells him, "Alert the defenses. It's time." The guard dashes off.
     I'm furious.

      I storm up to the head table, lean against it, and say, "Have you lost your minds?! And here I thought that elders were supposed to be wise!"
       The man merely looks at his hands and calmly says, "Child, do not meddle in affairs which aren't yours."
      "They've become mine! People are going to die just because you refuse to negotiate!"
      The blue man speaks, "He wasn't interested in negotiating either."
      The other guy continues, "There will be only one death tonight, that of a green dragon."

     "And that will solve everything? The rest of them will come prepared to kill."
     "And we will be ready for them, as we have been for centuries."
     I think of something. "You said you thought they were all dead."
     "We didn't want to be unprepared nonetheless," the female elder replies.
     "Well then, what happens when they all die? As I've learned it, this valley is about balance. You cannot have that if only one side controls it."
      She responds, "We've done it this way for millennia, who are you to appear out of nowhere and tell us right from wrong?!" She then stands up and has guards escort me out. They ignore my shouted warnings as the guards push Lorelei and me out the door.
     My wife turns to me, "We have to stop him!"
     "How?" I ask. I assume she means Falknir since the elders inside are apparently too shoved up their own arses to listen to reason.

     The sound of screaming and the smell of smoke permeates the air the closer we get to the town center. "If only there were some way to get him to stop without killing him!" I hopelessly beg my wife as a huge, wooden ballistic missile gets hurled through the air from an enormous crossbow-shaped catapult. Falknir artfully twists around, avoiding it, before launching a counter attack, breathing a line of fire at the machine before the elves can reload it. Most of the soldiers avoid the blast, jumping off the parapets, but one isn't as lucky. The stench of burning flesh reaches me as the man screams as his own, now red-hot, armor scorches his skin.
     "Skye," Lorelei says, pointing to my necklace. I pick it up a little to look down at it. Where at one time the pendant's eye glowed red, now it glows green.
      My eyes meet hers, and I don't feel in control of my own body as I race over to grab a simple bow from the firing range. Lifting out a plain arrow out of the quiver slung on a post nearby, I take aim.
     "Stop this tantrum now," I hear myself snarl before I fire.
     The once-ordinary arrow leaves behind it a silver streak before it hits Falknir in the shoulder, and he falls from the sky.
     I always win, I think, and for the first time in my life, I don't think it vainly but curiously.
     "The well," Lorelei tells me quietly before grabbing my hand. She pulls me behind her, once again aggravated at my slower speed as we run through the woods into the surrounding hills.

     When we get there, we quietly walk into the ruins of the old temple. Ahead of us, Falknir sits holding his side and shoulder in obvious pain.
     "Do not come any closer, or I will attack. Even wounded, you're no match for me. You live because of my own curiosity and out of respect for your wife," he says in a chilling voice.
     "It was my arrow that shot you down," I tell him.
     "I am aware of that," he says as he stares at a magical fire burning from nothing. "And I will be healed when my Mother gets here."
      "So, they're on their way," Lorelei says behind me.
      "Yes. Now, we have a right to attack. They're not abiding by the treaty, and their people will suffer for it."
      "What treaty anyway?" I ask since it's never been explained to me. I think to myself that if I understand the treaty that perhaps I can still find a way to stop the impending catastrophe.
     "Thirty thousand years ago, the dragons and elves made a treaty that stated that the elves could care for Dragon Valley so that the dragons could go out and purge the world of the human scum that invaded from another realm. We thought it wouldn't take us long, and we didn't need to fight two wars: the one against the elves and the one against the humans. So, we gave the valley to the elves, knowing that they would take it, thinking that thirty thousand years would seem very long to them.
     "What we didn't count upon was the surprising stamina and determination of the human race as a whole. They bred like rabbits, and although we decimated the population several times, they found weaknesses in us one-by-one. What used to be hundreds, now is only five. We retreated to the hot springs to wait out what was left of the thirty thousand years. We would honor the treaty.
      "Now, the time has come for us to retake our lost land. That is all we want: to live here where it all began. And we don't want filth that doesn't belong."
      I speak. "It didn't seem to me that Eingaia thought I was filth."
      "As I am, she was curious. Why would the pendant come to you? That necklace was lost very long ago, not even She could find it."
       "What's so special about it? I found it on the ground, not hidden at all," I say.
       "You didn't find it. It found you. Its magic stems from the dawn of time. My Father once wore it around his neck. He took it off and hid it, saying it was part of a plan. Soon after, He died."
      "It leaving him caused his death?" I ask in a mild panic, wishing I'd never put the thing on all of a sudden.
      "I don't know. He seemed accepting of something I found horrifying, and I blamed the pendant. I confess to trying to destroy it one night a few weeks ago, but it stopped me and protected you in addition."
      "But you said a moment ago that I was no match for you. If I have this protection, then I can only conclude that you were wrong," I say.
      "Fine! You wish to attack me?" he snarls as he gets up.
      I take a step back and remember why I came here. "No, actually. Your destruction of the town needed to be stopped is why I attacked earlier. I still think there can be peace."
     Falknir wearily sits back down. "You were there at that meeting. You heard their words and saw their eyes. There cannot be peace."
     Suddenly understanding, I say slowly, "You're right. There can't ever be true peace, but there can be balance." Even though I'd said something similar to the elven elders, I'd never before considered the difference between peace and balance.
     I hear a voice behind me say, "Wise words for one so young."
     Falknir smiles, and I notice a golden glow start filling the ruins.

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I can never get the tattoo locations mod to work properly on a regular basis, so Falknir's cool facial tattoo disappeared on me. Also, yes, I realize that Lorelei must've taken a moment to quickly change clothes while the town burned down around her ears.

Sorry for the long stretch at the end with no pictures.