We left when the spring came and melted the snow. Our caravan, or what was left of it, was useless, so we bought horses and went on those. Now, they all wore auric clothing, of my make, except for Mary, who had trained well enough to make herself a shimmery golden shift.

We headed east, east, east. I could tell we were approaching elf territory as the human settlements grew fewer and the animals became bolder and smarter. Soon, I had to personally hunt for meat, instead of just trapping it. Ella was helpful here, as she knew what plants to eat and what not to, so we had a good diet.

When we finally entered the forest, Ella was extremely helpful. In the mottled shadows of the huge evergreen forest, it was difficult to see paths. But Ella could tell, and the paths she led us along never failed. We were walking along one such path when my senses tingled.

I opened my auric viewing and saw, to my surprise, shapes around us, humanoid shapes. Crap. If these were elves they tended to use bows and arrows, which a simple shield would not work against. Instead, I wove a mesh around us, a net that would catch and throw off path any projectiles. Then, I warned the others. "DEFENSIVE POSITIONS," I roared.

They obeyed immediately, as I trained them to. Ella jumped off her horse and drew out a dagger from her saddle pouch. Her boyfriend followed, drawing out an identical dagger, and they stood defensively, holding their weapons in front of them.

Mary gathered spheres of glowing golden auric power in her hands, and set weak wards for herself. Sally crouched like a cat, eyes darting everywhere. Ben drew his sword, but stayed on his horse, with Jenny, while Emily muttered something under her breath. A moment of tension.

The elves seemed to melt out of the trees, their leaf and bark (yet still elegant) clothing blending them in extremely well. Elves always seemed to look young until they were old, and this group all looked young. I could barely tell, though, since all I truly had eyes for were the longbows pointed straight at us. I forced more energy into the shield.

An older elf, with a mane of white hair and the biggest long bow of all of them (overcompensating?) stepped forward. He had not yet drawn an arrow.

"Speak your business here, human." His voice was melodic, as if he always was singing.

"I am escorting [Ella's elven name, it took a while to say] to wherever she goes in the forest. We come in peace and leave in peace, and fight when provoked." I added menace to the last bit.

Apparently it wasn't needed. The elf's eyes grew wide when he heard Ella's name.

"Ella? She's...back?"

And here came a profanity laden exchange between Ella and the elf, which eventually led to us being led directly to the king and queen.

The elf's city was well camouflaged, I admit. Even a human who walked through it would be hard pressed to notice the leaves that fell too well to form a doorway, or the small lights that sat on the wooden sconces on the sides of stumps. The king and the queen lived in a massive tree, which was at least twenty feet wide. They sat on thrones in the main room, wooden thrones, but grand nonetheless, that sat on a tall platform so they could look down on us. Other elves stood or sat to the side of this giant room, in chairs or on the ground, and their bearing told me they were probably nobles.

The king was a somewhat young blonde elf, around age twenty or so if he were human. His blonde hair cascaded over his shoulders, and despite his age, he had a small beard, blonde as well. He wore a simple leaf and bark tunic, comfortable looking but crude. Ella got her stubborn and her angry looks from him, from what I could tell right now. She got her hair from her mother, a beautiful, but somewhat old elf with long, straight brown hair. The queen exuded regality, despite her rather drab leaf and bark dress. Both glared down at us, not just Ella, but the whole party. Finally, the king spoke, a deep voice, filled with emotion.

"You have finally returned to us, my daughter. We may now again start diplomatic relations with the Oerth family, of the north."

Ella told him what he could do with his diplomatic relations, in great detail.

He only raised his eyebrow. "Perhaps our daughter is not yet ready for such a great undertaking. Perhaps she requires some training."

The queen nodded. "I think I shall take her to her apartments, where we may...personally talk about what she needs to do."

Ella told them, with no small amount of cussing, that she had already found a love that she wanted, that she cared not for what they could do to her.

The king, once calm before, now stood up, and fury danced in his aura. The queen, although not so obvious, had anger set in her face and her eyes. The king looked down to Jonathan, and his eyes flared.

"A mere human? What is this? I would expect some other foolish elf girl to run off making googly eyes at some human, but you? You are of the highest noble house! Foolish girl, I shall prove to you that he is not worthy!" The king drew his sword, a slim blade, with a simple handle. The blade was far from simple though. Light played across its surface, which could have been carved from crystal or forged from metal. It was almost hypnotic, and the blade seemed to vibrate with power.

"No!" Ella cried. "You shall not have him! I'll fight instead!"

The king smiled, teacher to student.

"No, the rules do not allow for a family duel except in circumstance of a heinous crime, and this is anything but." His voice said otherwise. "So, unless one of those people," he gestured to us, "wants to fight, your boy here must fight me alone."

Jonathan stepped forward, but Ella nearly tackled him to the ground.

"No!" she cried again. "I'll...there's...he'll fight!" she nearly shrieked, pointing to me.

"You?" The king's liquid gold eyes flew to me, and latched on.

"Will you duel in the boy's place, for Ella's honor?"

Well hell. Why not. "Yes, I will." I declared, as grandly as possible.

"Very well!" He leapt off the platform and landed on the ground in front of me, about ten feet away. The nobles stood up and formed a circle, and, when they drew apart to sit again, I saw that they had indeed drawn a circle in the wooden ground.

"Do you require a weapon?" asked the king.

"No, I'm good." I said, as insolently as possible. His aura flared not.

"You must also realize, since you substitute yourself for the boy, then if I win, you die."

Well, that I didn't know. I'd just need to win then. "I understand." I replied.

And it began. From the beginning, I could tell that this was no amateur, no man I could take down in one hit. I started off throwing small blocks of auric power, hoping for a lucky hit.

No such luck. He noticed them, somehow, before they hit him, and cut apart the cords that bound the energy together with his sword, sending it flying back to me. The upshot, though, was that the energy wasn't consumed, that it was reusable.

Still, he wasn't fazed at all. I needed to get into battle gear. I concentrated. The flimsy looking clothing I wore rippled, spread, until it formed a simple looking steel platebody and steel platelegs. My hands were encased in steel gauntlets, heavy looking, made for punching, with studs on the knuckles. The gear looked heavy, but was light as air to me, being made out of nothing but my aura. And then I went to him, and we fought.

I learned not to attempt to deflect his blade by the cutting edge, first off. The first attempt sliced the tip off of my left gauntlet, which reformed. Instead, I dodged or deflected his attacks by hitting the flat side, then shot my own auric retaliations and launched punches. We started off fighting defensively, sacrificing opportunities to jump back and block a hit.

Eventually, however we understood each other better, and stopped defending to launch all out attacks.

Now, the memory has the blurred quality of something that goes too fast. We were quite equally matched, each punch I lashed out with was dodged, each slash he aimed high was ducked. I only remember the final shot. He feinted low, then drew high to my face, a blow he had tried multiple times. I did something new. I grabbed the mystical blade, felt it cut through my gauntlet, felt it hit skin, and with my other hand, I slammed a massive bolt of power into his chest with a punch, a blow that would have blown a hole through him had I not drawn back at the last second.

As it was, he flew back several feet, and hit the ground with ominous cracking sounds. He wasn't down, though, and began to struggle to get up. I slammed three more bolts of power onto his head and face, to knock him out. The elf grew prone, and stopped struggling.

It was only then I noticed I was exhausted too. The world shook a bit before me, and my vision grew a bit cloudy. Shapes elongated, and the last thing I noticed before fainting was that my auric clothing had vanished, since I drew upon so much energy.

I woke up in a bed, with light shining through a window. The room was in the trunk of a tree, and it was simple, with the bed I was in, a table, and a wooden pump sticking straight out of the wall. The leaf curtain rustled as someone entered it.

An elf girl. She looked quite young, perhaps eight or nine, and wore nothing except for a garland of leaves around her waist, not even covering her genitals. She had medium length black hair that went barely past her shoulders, and her brown eyes roamed over me, amused at my reaction, more specifically, my penis's reaction, to her.

"Ahhh...you are awake, sir. Let me introduce myself. I am [dancing-in-the-moonlight-talks-with-the-deer]'har, and I am here to serve you. All of the 'har in the household are to serve you now, as you have defeated our master. I have brought food."

She had indeed brought food, and, for a moment, I forgot everything but food. The berry infused porridge was gone in no time, as were the small slices of meat (of some bird), and the wooden mug of some berry based ale. It was only then I noticed I was standing naked, still eating out of the wooden platter in her hands. I hope I didn't look embarrassed.

Purposefully ignoring my giant, hard cock, which almost brushed against the girl's flat chest, I asked "What of my opponent? And what of the group I was traveling with."

Dancing smiled. She set the patter down, knelt down, brought her mouth and hands to my cock, and with one hand began to stroke, with the other, she played with the tip of my cock and my balls, switching back and forth. "Sir...you smell so good. I hope you taste good too."

"But what of the others..." I said, my voice weakening just a bare bit.

Her head snapped up to look at me, and amusement was in her eyes. She never stopped stroking me.

"The group you came with has gone out to enjoy the sights of Elvesvard, along with some other human diplomats. The king is recovering from the blows you gave him, but bears no open ill harm toward you, ordering you be paid the greatest respects. You hit him quite hard, sir. I like that in a partner."

Before I could ask exactly what she liked about being hit hard, her mouth went down on me. Her black hair made a curtain over my cock, but I felt her tongue moving, felt the warmth of her breath. I moved even deeper myself, and she accepted it, her brown eyes looking at me, the picture of pure innocence.

I couldn't hold it when I reached the back of her throat, felt her gag. My cum jetted out, striking the back of her throat and flowing into her stomach. She milked me totally dry before she pulled off.

"That tasted good, sir," she said with a smile, "but I think I would like it in this hole better." She peeled her pussy lips apart. "I can only be freed if I serve my time or become pregnant, and my time has a while yet." She grinned, as if sharing a secret joke between us.

She was very, very tight. The string of leaves around her waist wiggled as I thrust into her, hard. She was so very soft, so very tight, and so very wet, and yet, she only bit her bottom lip as I nearly split her open.

She did actually breathlessly scream when I bit her tits and played with her clit, a tiny, almost hidden thing. She orgasmed twice before I did, and they were wet, sloppy things, dripping girl cum all over my cock and onto the wooden ground. I jetted my cum deep inside her when I thrusted in, shooting in an amazing amount. She was muttering something seductively, something about getting her pregnant. I didn't think she could, with her body so small and fragile looking.

Dancer (her new name, according to me) stood up a bit unsteadily, and looked out the window.

"It's time to go meet the king. He wanted to meet you as soon as you woke up, but I don't think he'll be missing an hour or so. And even if he does spank me until I can't sit down for a month, it was worth it." She gestured to her pussy.

I followed her unsteady steps (damn, I must have really split her open) down to the throne room again, which was unoccupied, and into a side room. There, the king lay on the bed, with a weak, but still moving aura. He had been hit hard, but would survive. The queen was mopping his brow with some sort of moss. He turned to me as I went in. "[Dancer's elf name]'har, you may leave now." She did with a bow and a wink for me.

"You have bested me. Thus, by elf etiquette, my house is yours, everything that is mine is yours." He wheezed. "You really did hit me hard, you know that?" His eyes glinted with immaturity.

"A lucky shot, no more." I said.

He laughed, which turned to wheezing. "The Healers didn't expect me to live for the first few days."

And so we had an exchange like that. Our conversation turned to Ella. He was unhappy about that, and so was his queen, but he couldn't do anything now that I had bested him. His name was [Clouds-that-move-and-roll-in-the-dawn], and his wife was [Hawk-that-darts-like-the-falling-star]. I called them Cloud and Hawk.

Our conversation turned to the elf world. He was the official king, but a small bit had broken off, in the south eastern area of the giant forest, and was rebelling against him. I mentioned the 'har. They were either prisoners of war or gifts given, and they acted as servants until a certain time. They were freed if the reached that time, or had a child (for a male, that would mean fathering a child), in which case the child would replace the person. I felt awkward and sorry, but he told me to enjoy the 'har all I wanted; he already had too much.

We were discussing my travels here when Mary and Sally, followed by the rest of the group, barged in. Ella was the only quiet one, holding hands and sharing loving glances with Jonathan.

Jenny and Ben were trying to talk to me about some of the elf's weapons, Emily, her eyes shining, ranted about the huge libraries hidden in the trees, and Mary and Sally, one on either side of me, hugging me, talked about all the kids here, how much fun they could have.

"Slow down," I said with a laugh. The king and queen merely smiled, but they only had eyes for their daughter, but she had no eyes for them.

What happened next was one of the most scarring memories of my long life. Each time one happens, I think there is nothing that could possibly be worse. That is what I thought now. From the window, came an arrow, burning with dark purple energy, an enchanted silver arrow. It thudded into the king's chest. Another immediately followed, and took the queen from the back.

She fell over the king, collapsed over him in a sad, final embrace. I could see that they were still alive for the time being, but their wounds were fatal. Their heads moved closer together...

I wrenched my eyes away from the sad scene. My aura had already formed battle gear. Excellent, I thought with a terrible, scary excuse for a smile. I aimed it at my group, and noticed them visible attempt not to cringe.

"Emily, Ben, Sally. Out the front door, protect the room, tree, whatever, and aid if there's anymore people. Mary, Jonathan. Protect Ella at all costs."

Another arrow arched through the window, again brimming with dark magic. Snarling, I caught it and blasted it with gray auric power, causing it to disintegrate in my hands. I roared, and leapt out the window onto the ground, where I saw a dark clothed (in the bark and leaf clothing of the elves) elf turn and run from a tree higher up, following the invisible paths the elves used. I grimly pointed a finger at him, and carefully aimed.

A bolt of thin, intense, furious auric energy shot out and struck the assassin in the back. He had no chance to scream as he was vaporized, consumed by gray, smokeless auric flames. I turned away, and only then noticed the rest of the coup d'etat.

Elves fought all across the area, in the trees, on the ground, sometimes even hanging in midair. The majority of elves clustered around the large throne room tree, near the door. I saw the nobles from yesterday, wielding ornate swords and spears, attempt to hold off the more professional force that had come to kill Ella. I immediately noticed the elves that were probably not on my side wore darker clothing, with denser leaves.

So I jumped in. The whole battle was a blur, and I was later told I fought like a mad demon, charging into pikes, breaking up archer groups, and generally wreaking havoc. The dark clothed elves control broke under my swift, powerful punches and destructive, almost suicidal charges. Spears and pikes broke on my auric armor, shields shattered under my steel fist.

Admittedly, some of the more powerful arrows (fired at near point-blank range) did penetrate, but I didn't feel them until after the battle.

When it was finally over, the whole clearing was littered with bodies, both of Ella's and of the other side's. I glanced around manically, looking for more foes, for more elves I could impose my revenge upon. There were none. I had finished them all.