The two elves poked around the ruins a little, but Simone wasn't particularly interested. Whatever the purpose of the place, it had been abandoned, and for a very long time, long enough for the forest to pull down the pillars and collapse the building.

  Besides, this place wasn't why the smaller elf had come to the forest.

  “You came to the forest to hunt things like this?” Simone asked the taller elf.

  Mercedes nodded. “They’ve been attacking our people.”

  Simone nodded, and sat down on one of the paving stones. The brown-skinned elf spread out the shawl, and once more Mercedes watched Simone empty out the contents of a pouch and study how the individual items fell.

  Mercedes had heard of such things in the past. While Mercedes herself couldn’t use magic, she had a general knowledge of its application and history. Simone was performing some sort of augury or divination, something the High Elves of Degan had long abandoned, since it was so unreliable and fickle.

  “We should check the other wolves for these stones, too.” Mercedes offered, touching the pouch at her waist.

  “You can if you like, though I don’t think you’ll find anything.” Simone remarked, “because the other wolves didn’t grow.”

  “The beasts are uncanny.” Mercedes replied, a frown appearing on her face. She tucked some hair behind her ear. “No beast is that smart by nature.”

  Simone laughed. “Wolves are naturally smart. They’re pack hunters. They know how to work together to bring down prey.”

  “You’ve hunted them before?” Mercedes asked.

  Simone shook her head. “I’ve stalked them. To be a hunter, you have to learn from hunters.”

  Mercedes’ eyes widened. “Isn’t that dangerous?” She asked, concerned.

  Simone shrugged, and then began putting the things from her pouch back inside.

  “Well, now that you’ve hunted the wolf, will you return to your people?” Simone asked, tugging on the drawstring to her pouch and stowing it away in her pack.

  Mercedes frowned at that, and shook her head at the smaller elf. “They have to be coming from somewhere.” She replied. “And it’s not just wolves that have been attacking my people. Other things, grown to prodigious size.”

  Simone scratched her head, frowned in thought. “What’s ‘prodigious’?”

  Mercedes rolled her eyes and pointed at the corpse of the giant wolf. “Huge.” She replied, and Simone nodded in understanding, but at the same time, wondered why there were so many words to describe the same thing in human language.

  “So you want to find where they’re coming from.” Simone mused thoughtfully, then glanced at the tall blonde elf woman. “And then what?”

  Mercedes rolled her eyes. “I’ll stop them, of course. Whoever is sending those beasts needs to face judgement.” She looked at the smaller elf for a moment, expecting another baffling answer, but Simone simply looked thoughtful for a moment.

  Still irritated, and still feeling the edges of adrenaline in her system from their fight with the wolves, Mercedes pressed on.

  “And you, Simone? What do you wish for?” She asked. Simone’s eyes flashed at her in anger; the smaller elf rose to her feet.

  Mercedes braced herself; whatever Simone did, she’d be ready- Her readiness broke apart as Simone turned away from Mercedes, and went to the fallen corpse of the wolf she’d dispatched with her knife, and picked up the spear. She inspected the weapon carefully, then cleaned off some of the blood from the weapon. She planted the butt of the spear on the stone- for some reason, it stood upright- and clapped her hands together.

  For the briefest moment, and it was so faint Mercedes wasn’t certain she’d actually seen it, the spectral fox Mercedes had seen before seemed to flicker around the shaft of the spear- it happened so quickly, there and gone, Mercedes wasn’t certain she’d actually seen it.

  The spear tipped and fell to the paving stones with a clatter. Simone sighed a little, shoulders slumping, then bent and picked up the spear and started heading towards the forest.

  “...Aren’t we going to burn the bodies?” Mercedes asked. Simone glanced at her, confused.

  “Why?”

  “They’re unnatural.” Mercedes pressed.

  Simone shook her head. “They’re dead.” She replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “And the thing that made it unnatural is in your belt pouch.”

  Mercedes’ hand strayed to the pouch for a moment. “Shouldn’t we dispose of the bodies anyway? Isn’t it dangerous?” She asked.

  Simone shook her head. “Let nature see to nature.” She replied indifferently. “This place is long abandoned, and I haven’t seen sign of the People of the Forest in this area.”

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Mercedes stood in thought, frowning with concentration. Most people in the Old World were cremated, with their ashes collected in urns. Rich people, people with influence would sometimes be interred in mausoleums, and there was a hidden necropolis for the High Elves of the Old World, a city of mausoleums, with each ‘district’ set aside for specific bloodlines.

  There were no graves in nature. Animals died where they fell, exposed to the elements and left to rot. No graves were dug, no fires lit. Let nature see to nature.

  She shouldered her packs and hurried after the smaller elf.

  “How do your people deal with the dead?” She asked Simone curiously.

  Simone’s head whipped around so quickly that Mercedes flinched. There was a look, an expression on Simone’s face- suspicion, mistrust, wariness. The strangely flickering crosses that floated in Simone’s eyes brightened for a moment. What were they?

  The smaller elf’s eyes narrowed. “Why?” She asked guardedly.

  Mercedes weighed her answer. Simone was from a primitive, barbaric tribe that worshipped spirits of all things- spirits and not the Great Mother, the Goddess. It was possible that there were all sorts of superstitious beliefs wrapped around death, which meant that Mercedes had inadvertently committed a faux pas.

  “I’m curious.” Mercedes replied carefully. “My people either cremate the dead, or inter them in crypts.” she replied. “Depending on the area, their passing will either be mourned... or their life will be celebrated at the funeral.” She offered this explanation in the hopes that it would mollify the suspicious savage.

  Simone ran her fingers along the red-and-white painted marks on her arms. There were mineral components to the paints that Simone used; the white was a pulverized limestone chalk, the red was red ochre, a naturally occurring form of iron oxide. The two pigments had been mixed with animal fat that had been carefully boiled to remove impurities. The white emphasised her ties to the spirit world, the red strengthened her ties to the material. As a shaman, she bridged the connection between the world of the spirits and the mundane.

  The People of the Sea, the elves who had left the Plains and took up living on the coastlines had made many breakthroughs- the working of metal, the construction of stone houses, the weaving of fine fabrics and all sorts of different dyes. The People of the Plains traded regularly with the People of the Sea, and although the Plainsmen led deceptively primitive lives, theirs was a rich culture deeply steeped in tradition. There were other dyes, other pigments that could have been used, but the red and white paints were ancient, used since before even the Great Terror.

  Simone opened her mouth, then closed it. She didn’t completely trust the strange elf that behaved more like a human than anything else. Even though Vitalen had assured Simone that she’d immediately recognize someone touched by the Outsiders and know them for what they were, the diminutive elf was still too fresh, too new of a shaman to truly understand what that meant. Mercedes’ earlier question, “What do you wish for?” had also put her on edge.

  “I prefer not to say.” She replied instead.

  Mercedes nodded. “I understand.” She replied, but Simone wondered.

  The two disparate elves, one dressed in leathers and cloth, the other in full plate armor, looked out over a short, narrow valley, a narrow pathway between two chunks of granite. There were a few plants, including a small sapling of a tree that appeared to perch precariously on the edge of the valley cleft, jutting out between several rocks, its tiny red leaves reaching up to the sun.

  “It doesn’t look too welcoming, and it looks like we’ll have to walk single-file at times-” Mercedes pointed, “-but it is passable.” She offered.

  Simone squatted down, an action that made Mercedes wince, as it was unladylike. Women did not squat. The elf doodled in the dirt with a fingertip, but all of her attention was focused on the valley.

  “Are you capable?” Simone asked Mercedes curiously.

  Mercedes tilted her head to the side. “Capable of what?” She asked.

  “Defeating a Protean.” Simone replied simply. The smaller elf added, “I won’t think less of you if you can’t... I haven’t faced one myself alone, and I’m not sure if I can.”

  “I don’t know what a Protean is.” Mercedes replied, finally.

  Simone blew out a long breath. “There’s a story, if you’d hear it.” Simone offered. “But the important thing is that they’re extremely dangerous.”

  Mercedes briefly considered squatting down next to the smaller elf, but rejected it. Instead, she adjusted her pack, adjusted her sword, and then knelt down to Simone’s level.

  “What’s the story? And how dangerous?” Mercedes asked curiously.

  “In the beginning, everything was the same.” Simone replied, still carefully looking out over the short valley. “There were no trees, no grass, no fish or beasts. Eventually, life made its decision, and became those things. The... essence of life, divided itself up and eventually ...” Simone trailed off. “diversified, each to its own way. Some became trees, some chose to become lichen, or dandelions, or cats or deer or bugs- even people- the People, were born from the Essence of Life.” her mouth twisted. “I’m not telling it well. I’ve only heard the story once, and I don’t have the voice for storytelling.” Simone complained briefly.

  “The important thing is that all the animals, all the plants and bugs and things, everything that is alive chose to take on their forms, whether by will or chance or accident or...some other reason not discernable by the minds of men.” Simone explained. “A Protean is a thing from before. It didn’t choose, and so, it can become anything.” Simone pressed her lips together, brows drawing down as the elf frowned. “It is not true life. It’s a mockery, a parody of it.”

  Simone picked up a small granite pebble, turned it over in her hand, ran her thumb across its black-flecked white surface. She set it back down. “Since it cannot become true life, it preys on things that are alive, and assumes their form. Once it’s taken over, it hunts other things,-” She broke off for a moment, and lowered her voice. “-even people.”

  The smaller elf glanced over at Mercedes. “I saw one, once. It took the form of a hunter, albeit imperfectly. Spears and arrows had no effect. Only fire, called with the aid of the Spirits, was able to destroy it. When it caught alight, its true form was revealed, and it dissolved its shape into...” the smaller elf shuddered, “a true monstrosity.” Simone pressed her lips together again as she struggled to keep control of her feelings, the memory of a horrific seething mass of spines, tentacles, teeth and claws exploding in every direction as it struggled to escape the fires that killed it. “Worse, one bite, one scratch, and it can infect you with its curse, transforming you into a Protean, forcing you to hunt down and prey on other living things.” Simone took a deep breath. “They must be eradicated. Scorched from the earth.” Simone gestured at the valley. “There is a Protean in that valley, and it waits for Life to happen by so that it can feed and take its form.”