The Chronicles of Valana Volume 2: Elaria's Bane
by AB
Chapter 10
To the place of water through the shifting sands
It was a hot, sticky humid day in the Kingdom of Oghelle, the sun glowed gloriously with only a cloud here or there to remind anyone of the storm that had come by the last day and Orphon lay in bed, on top of Vashka who had his legs bent over him lying on his back. Boys as they were they had found a perfectly good moment, or two, of privacy when Micraal had left to visit some contacts in Oghelle.
Micraal knew Caaran was searching for Orphon with everything he had, for some reason the teenage prince was still very much in his and the King's plans or at least Micraal thought like Aer'andil that it was the King of Oghelle behind all of this. He had found some good evidence of the King having allied himself to The Darkness a few weeks ago and had passed on the information to Aer'andil in the form of a letter. So knowing what he did Micraal spent quite a bit of time creating false leads and twisting everything in a way that he thought ensured Caaran would never be able to find the boy before Orphon could be returned to his father and Caaran could be dealt with. Permanently.
Orphon moaned feeling his dick penetrate Vashka's cherry hole for the first time. It was also the first time he was fucking someone else, boy or girl. Although the more he fooled around and had sex with Vashka the more he sensed that while this was fun and helped in releasing stress and his teenage hormonal levels it did not really make him feel as he thought it would. He would have to try having sex with girls, once he was back in Dara, and decide which he liked best. He thought feeling Vashka's intense internal warmth and moisture.
His fists grabbed on to the sheets supporting his weight while he remained still for Vashka to relax and get accustomed to him. Orphon was not large down there but he wasn't small either. At four inches he was quite proud of what he carried between his legs.
Vashka tried breathing slow and deep, his eyes closed shut feeling a good amount of discomfort down between his legs as Orphon slowly impaled him. His lips were slightly open, his tongue sticking out the right of his mouth, his cheeks flushed red. He held his legs from behind his knees close to his ears. He had felt a quick stab of pain when Orphon entered him which had quickly ebbed away leaving behind an increasing feeling of "fullness" and numbness.
Orphon felt Vashka relax and he shoved a bit more of his teen dick inside the smooth crack and hole. They groaned in unison. Orphon in increasing bliss, Vashka in pain. Orphon felt his elbows shake from the intensity of the feelings and bliss coursing through him. He shoved a bit more and a bit more after that until he felt his crotch touch Vashka's bare pubic bone area.
Orphon moaned softly almost like a kitten mewing. Every fiber of his being begged him to move, to remove his dick from the velvet vice-like grip of Vashka's hole and push it back in, to fuck his friend and temporary lover with everything he had yet there was a fading voice in the back of his head commanding him to lay there still until Vashka was ready. His breathing rugged and shallow he held himself still, his dick pulsing inside Vashka until the boy relaxed and let go of his legs wrapping them around Orphon's waist.
Vashka cupped Orphon's cheeks with his hands and brought their heads close into a passionate, deep, sloppy kiss. Their tongues tangled up just as Orphon pulled back and then instantly pushed back in. They moaned continuously kissing with Orphon picking up the pace.
This latest of their escapades into the sexual realm had begun like most of the previous ones. Orphon had helped Vashka with their crops before helping him take care of the farm animals, what few they had. They had cleaned up by the stream of running, cold water, naked of course, and had gone in the house, again naked of course without Micraal near, to eat lunch. One thing had led to another finding themselves entwined in each other's arms touching, feeling then sucking and finally in their current state of Orphon pounding Vashka's tight fuck-chute with everything he had.
'Oh… " Sloppy kiss, "my… " another sloppy kiss and some tongue action, "gawd! That feels… " Vashka kissed and nibbled on Orphon's neck. "Soooo fucking amazing!" Orphon could feel it, he did not have long before his eventual orgasmic eruption so he slithered his hand between their bodies and found Vashka's deflated noodle. He wrapped his hand around it and started jerking it off in the rhythm of his fucking.
Vashka let out a loud moan and using his legs he started matching Orphon's movements. When Orphon would pull out he'd pull back and when Orphon would shove back in he would shove his hips up trying to burry Orphon's hard nail as deep inside him as he could.
Not a minute later both boys slammed up against each other letting out howling sounds emptying their loads. Orphon inside Vashka and Vashka between their bodies and all over Orphon's jerking hand and fingers.
Orphon collapsed on top of him their breathing rugged and uneven, panting. Their bodies covered in a layer of steaming, sticky sweat.
"That… felt… " Vashka sighed with Orphon having only the strength to nod his head.
"I have been expecting you… my wife of yore… long have I waited to settle this score, Doom of Udala." He said in barely above a whisper. Feldon did not even move as the Dark General materialised behind him.
"The feeling is mutual… husband. I have come to finish what I failed to do all those millennia ago."
"Before we do battle I have questions for you." Feldon replied as calmly as if talking about the weather and not his potential death.
She laughed loudly. "Very well then, I can grant you this final death wish. Ask."
"Why? Why ally yourself with The Darkness? You are the only Elf in my knowledge to have done so. Were you corrupted after your death?"
She laughed again. "To your knowledge indeed. Corrupted? No, I loathed what I was before, I loathed our Elven immortality and the immorality of the pact and the powers it has given us over mortal men."
"Yet you let me leave Udala before it fell to the enemy."
"Oh no my husband, I wanted to kill you then, end your line as I ended your seed inside me. My Master had different plans so I let you live. I still was granted pleasure when I opened Udala's gates to the enemy hordes in the first place. When I slaughtered so many of your people with my blade and taught my Master how to create Adalnial. Now your line is ended and you die with it."
"Here you are mistaken Roda'tenaros. I have a son and a new wife, my lineage stands firm and will inherit Udala once I've restored it to its former glory, all traces of the Darkness gone and eradicated from her fair shores." It was a grave thing for one Elf to call another kin-traitor but that she was and it gave Feldon pleasure to tell her of the existence of his son after calling her that.
"I shall have to find them and kill them then, but first to end your life." She was clearly angry now.
"No, you will not. You do not have the gem with you, the Dark General Elaria's Bane will move to a new host but you Namathlea will die today." Feldon remained completely still.
Namathlea gave a shrill laughter full of malice and sarcasm. "You and who's army? Mortal weapons, even those made from Elves cannot hurt me."
"Yes, I know, so did my dead King Liandras, so does Aer'andil know. So I will fight you differently." Feldon extended his hands holding onto the spear in front of him. He turned it perpendicularly with its rear end touching the broken tower floor. The once painted tiles now broken and faded.
"The Spear of Galorn… a rather interesting spear. Forged by Glothoin's father Galorn it has one ability I think you my dearest will find most...lethal." Feldon felt her charge at him. He grabbed the piece of parchment and looked at it. Written on it was what Aer'andil had described as "The nothing of water". It was as if his mind had exploded into a million fragments only to reassemble itself back to its original state.
Feldon knew not how he now knew this one very long word but he now knew it and there was no time to ponder as to how. Aer'andil had of course explained some things of what it was he would be learning but most of it he had not fully understood.
He spoke two words. The second word had come to him easier than the first. His military life had been all about training with magic and with spears. Spears were his specialty. As an Elven warrior, as a Hunter of Darkness as a guardian and tutor of Aer'andil spears he knew like the back of his hand.
He opened his mouth pivoting around on his knees and spoke those two words loud and clear.
"Teraverishonaridihirnahorivasbirna'arovashbinarivinoridthalinoridavorimarichotiritadorinim." The floor reverberated and shook as the words rolled out of his mouth. The tower's walls and ceiling blew outwards showering the land below with rubble and the Spear of Galorn became water.
Spear-water. What he had called out in the true name of yesterday's magic were the true names of spear and water.
It was too late for Namathlea to change her footing. Her course dictated by her determination to kill Feldon, by her haste and by the momentum her velocity had given her. Feldon thrust the spear at her without her being able to avoid it. It perforated her abdomen. Feldon twisted the spear rising to her feet impaling her on the floor.
"How? This… magic is only… " She coughed black blood.
"My King came to me years ago right after the battle of Zah Dah had ended and told me I would have to learn what no mortal has learned before since the time before Glothoin and the pact. What we found out was I could learn a word and that word I can remember but only he can learn new words… up until now. So I cannot and could not teach him the true name of water but he had time to learn one of three things one has to know to perform this magic, yesterday's magic. He learned nothing. If one knows what water is not, cannot do, cannot be. What water is unable to do, where it cannot go or thrive, one can learn nothing and by knowing nothing one can exclude it and instantly learn everything water can do and all that water is. Or at least this was the guess and gamble the High-King. I think it paid off wouldn't you say?" Feldon answered and thrust the spear deeper through her into the floor. The floor tiles cracked and broke as water gushed out from below Namathlea lay dying.
"It would appear though… I have learned a word my king taught me not entirely on my own so… this is interesting." Feldon told Namathlea in an almost sarcastic tone before his voice changed to sorrow. "I am sorry you felt as you did my wife, rest now." He pulled the spear from her abdomen and pierced first her heart and then her head. Namathlea's eyes lost their glow, her life extinguished. A dark shadow left her body which turned to ash. Her body unable to maintain its consistency without the black magic and dark Spiritum spells binding it together anymore.
"My score is settled, my unborn child, Kingdom and honour avenged. I now live for my son and for my King." He whispered and exited the tower's ruins.
"Hunter." An elven Hunter of Darkness came to him. Feldon wrote a small letter to Aer'andil, describing what had occurred and the success of the gamble. "Make sure this reaches the High-King, give it to him personally. Go through woods, desert, Castles. Whatever you have to make sure the High-King gets this." The Hunter of Darkness saluted him and left.
Feldon walked to the building he and the others were working on restoring Udala and removing the Darkness' taint were staying in. Constantly purified, warded off and watched. The Restored Kingdom of Udala, previously Zah Dah was still very much dangerous to be in. Creatures of Darkness roamed free, especially in the cover of night. Spells, Dark Spiritum and other enchantments, hexes and traps lay about bountiful. There was a long way to restoring it fully, probably thousands of years. Feldon closed the door to his room behind him and lay on his bed. There for the first time after almost ten thousand years he cried letting go of the burden he had been carrying ever since Udala fell to the Darkness.
Sleep overtook him. He like the Elven warriors and Hunters of Darkness assigned in the restoration and purification of Udala took turns working during the day or night. Each meter of land in the city of Udala and the surrounding countryside had to be made safe. For that to happen they worked in teams. One magic user, one speaker, a melee expert a ranged warrior and someone who knows of beasts and creatures. It was a time consuming effort with sacrifice but it was the High-King's command and that's all that Feldon required, let alone the fact it was his Kingdom they were restoring.
Three days later the first of the Elven armies arrived. Gel'anr's and Dol'Adur's.
"We are close to the Shifting Sands!" Gughekren yelled through the sand storm. They had been travelling close to three days in this storm. Three days with no rest, food or water. If it had not been for Aer'andil's use of magic they'd have died hours ago from dehydration.
Aer'andil placed a hand on a pottery bottle they had with them and whispered. "Meno droilin, zeltheri torval." Instantly he saw the all the sand that had accumulated in the bottle removed and whatever moisture there was in the atmosphere around them added as water.
Aer'andil was riding on the back of Gughekren's boar as they had had to slay and eat the one he had been riding on. They had been unable to find food for days.
"What did you say?" Gughekren asked him curiously. His voice barely audible over the noise of the sand storm.
"Add water, remove sand." Aer'andil screamed, holding a cloth over his mouth and nose so as to not breathe in sand. "In Elvish. Are we lost?" Aer'andil could see no further than his nose. His hands wrapped around Gughekren's waist. Gughekren had given up on trying to find a direction in the sand storm, instead he had faith in his boar to not walk them into a quick sand.
"I do not know! I have never before been this far east. We must be in the shifting sands soon if not already. I have never before witnessed a sand storm this bad." Gughekren replied. He did not show it but he was afraid.
"You have not been invited Elf." Aer'andil heard a female voice in the sand storm. It was as if it was coming from a distance.
"I come uninvited. I come to learn all that I can of water and everything there is to know of it." Aer'andil replied in the wind. He knew the owner of the voice would hear him.
"The shifting sands do not open for anyone if not invited."
Aer'andil heard the voice to his right and front. The other ear heard it more distant. "I know how to navigate the Shifting Sands. Let me pass on front and take the reins." He yelled to Gughekren who shifted to the right of the saddle. In normal circumstances he would not allow anyone to touch his boar let alone ride it like this but these were not normal circumstances. Aer'andil passed a leg in front of Gughekren and then the rest of his body.
He took the boar's reins and closed his eyes. Eyesight was useless now, his ears and enhanced Elven hearing would guide them through.
"I have invited myself. I am here for one purpose. To help you rest."
"I wish not to rest. I wish to live on. I have no prophesy for you. Be gone!"
"No, oh ancient one. You have been tricked, you think yourself farseer because you made a pact with the exiled one, you were tricked." Aer'andil dismissed her.
"Tricked? I was not tricked! But I will teach you to be audacious. I will make you a prophesy… if you can pass the Shifting Sands. The traps of ages. My guardians." She answered full of sarcasm.
"Guardians? Don't make me laugh witch, those are your jailors." Aer'andil countered her with a gleeful sarcasm to match hers.
"Jailors? Sand is like liquid, flowing whichever way I desire them to! I am free to venture to the rest of Elaria whenever I want." She tried to dismiss his claim but Aer'andil could hear it in her voice. Doubt.
"And yet, you have not for how long? How long have you been here?" Aer'andil used his Elven hearing and her voice like a beacon. He turned the boar this way and that according to where he could hear her voice clearer, louder.
They had departed from Agteldosh five, almost six days ago and this unnatural sand storm had been pummeling them for three nearly four days now. Twice already the boar had almost stepped inside a quick sand pit., even the boar in its natural habitat, evolved to live in the sand dunes of eastern Elaria was having problems.
"I have not wanted it for… "
"Yes? For how many years have you been jailed in this place of water? You were tricked! You were a farseer before you just did not know it, it did and tricked you in a pact of Darkness."
"I have not wanted to get out of here for almost nine hundred thousand years. Why would I want to? It is a place of arid desert."
Aer'andil continued to bait her, to talk to her for almost six hours until the Shifting Sands cleared, the storm ended and before them lay a valley not of sand but of lush green fields.
A few meters away stood a lone Orkhavoc, she looked old astride her boar. Behind her barely visible in the horizon a large lake. The place of water.
Gughekren could not believe his eyes. Having never gone to the world of humans or Valana he had never seen so much green in his life. Aer'andil walked them to the elder she-Orkhavoc.
"Are you the farseer?" He asked her, his hand on his bow.
"No. I was told a prophesy a hundred years ago. I hail from Retrsolig. A hundred years ago the farseer told me "In a hundred years from now you will see coming from the Shifting Sands a being you will not recognise riding on a boar with an Orkhavoc prince behind him. They are my doom, my end and the restoration of water." She appeared to not like giving me this prophesy." The She-Orkhavoc spoke in a gentle yet firm voice, her eyes blind from age.
"Why do you say this wise and old one?" Aer'andil asked, his hand still near his bow on his shoulder.
"From what she told me after. "End them or the next time a calamity threatens Retrsolig I will tell no one, invite no one and Retrsolig will come to an end. I have come to this spot every day for a hundred years, hoping to prove her prophesy false." She was sad yet hopeful.
"What do you intend to do now that it has come true?" Aer'andil asked cautiously.
"She does not know Orkhavocs. I will not dishonour my clan, my City and my family name by cowering away from danger to save my City. I will not end you or stop you. The lake behind me is the place of water, she resides within. End her and restore water to Elaria." She answered and turned to leave.
"Not the whole of Elaria, only Orkhavoc lands." Gughekren stated.
"Even better. End her. My name is Foreshka I am glad to have met you, I will go and meet my city's fate in my city." Foreshka left.
"We should rest. She will not just let me kill her without a fight I think." Aer'andil told Gughekren who nodded his approval. It was dusk with the sun setting behind them, on the other side of the Shifting Sands.
"I will make camp. Tomorrow we fight the farseer." Gughekren responded. Aer'andil moved his head negatively.
"No, this battle is mine you must stay behind." Aer'andil's voice was not confrontational, only assertive of the fact he knew to be the truth.
"I will not cower away from a battle." Gughekren clenched his fist shaking it at Aer'andil with passion in his tone of voice.
"Hit me with your battleaxe." Aer'andil stated simply.
"What? No, I will kill you." Gughekren shook his head negatively.
"You are pathetic, your father will be ashamed of you and your puny… " Aer'andil baited his friend and ally knowing the young Orkhavoc had a very short temper when insulted like this.
Gughekren roared and attacked him. Just as his battleaxe lowered over his head Aer'andil spoke the true name of wind.
In a blink of an eye he turned into wind, thundering wind.
Gughekren was blown backwards, falling back-first on his boar.
"You cannot hurt me Gughekren and you will not be able to hurt the farseer." Aer'andil told him in an otherworldly voice.
Gughekren stood up and charged at Aer'andil again. Aer'andil spoke and Gughekren was lifted off his feet swinging in the air round and round until he was pounded back down on the grass and ground. It was not done with enough power to kill him or injure him just enough strength to make a point and daze him.
"She will not scar your pride as I now have. She will kill you. I cannot have to guard you or worry about you. I must be able to fight her without worry. I am truly sorry I had to insult you as I did but you needed to understand what I will face tomorrow and why you would not stand a chance." Aer'andil became flesh and bones again, naked as the day he was born.
"I have got to find a way to transform my clothes as well as my body." He whispered to himself then turning his gaze back at Gughekren who just stood there.
"It is not in my nature to not fight my battles." He replied, he seemed distraught.
"I am not asking you to not fight your battles, I am asking you to not fight mine. This is my battle." Aer'andil made it easier for Gughekren to back down without losing the face he was afraid he would lose if he did not fight with him tomorrow.
"You… " Gughekren took a deep breath, it really was against his nature to back down from a fight. "You are correct. I will stay with the boar tomorrow. Someone has to guard her we do not know how honourable the Orkhavocs are here. They might steal her." He reasoned. Aer'andil hid a smile at how Gughekren had rationalised it so that it would sound as if he was not backing down from a fight.
Aer'andil nodded. "Indeed, we need her for the journey back and she is indeed a mighty and loyal boar." He walked to the boar's side and lay down resting his head on her furry flank.
Gughekren passed the rest of the afternoon at examining every s ingle different grass, flower and wheat. It was the first time he was seeing any of it. Aer'andil concentrated on meditating and conversing with his spirit.
Tomorrow he'd fight the second seeress. He had to learn water's true name from her somehow and from how she had spoken to him it was highly unlikely she would just offer him the information. He wondered if Feldon had fought his previous wife and how it had gone.
He hoped his tutor, second in command of the Hunters of Darkness and father of Norion was alive and well.
These and other thoughts like these troubled his mind until sleep overtook him.
Authors deserve your feedback. It's the only payment they get. If you go to the top of the page you will find the author's name. Click that and you can email the author easily.* Please take a few moments, if you liked the story, to say so.
[For those who use webmail, or whose regular email client opens when they want to use webmail instead: Please right click the author's name. A menu will open in which you can copy the email address (it goes directly to your clipboard without having the courtesy of mentioning that to you) to paste into your webmail system (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc). Each browser is subtly different, each Webmail system is different, or we'd give fuller instructions here. We trust you to know how to use your own system. Note: If the email address pastes or arrives with %40 in the middle, replace that weird set of characters with an @ sign.]
* Some browsers may require a right click instead
