Unstable Ground

1677, Zodiac Year of the god Korus.
Kanoro had been riding for days guarding his small caravan. Technically he was in charge with the rank of seargent. He wasn't sure if this assignment was intended as a reward or a punishment.

The odds of an attack against them were low, but they were at war and could not take any chances. The human tribes of East Colassia had been fighting the dark elves and dabeshi intermittently for centuries but now the humans and elves were fully at war, with the various tribes and nations finally putting aside their difference uniting under the banner of the Colassian Confederacy to resist the depredations of elven slavers and dabesh reavers as one.

Kanoro was a son of a fisherman from Musseland, but he was now a soldier. He had never been this far from the sea his whole life. He and his men were delivering weapons and armor to an allied village of Midlander goat and sheep herders in the middle of the savannah.

The caravan had five soldiers counting Kanoro and about 20 other men. The other men were also armed but not especially well trained. They had over a dozen laden carts among them, half with their true cargo, half with supplies for their journey.

They followed a dusty trail, barely distinguishable from the wild savannah around them. They encountered nothing more threatening than a few curious hyenas. As much as they surely would have liked to eat a draft horse, the beasts knew better than to accost a group of humans this large.

A lot of other animals saw them and kept their distance. A few snakes were sunning themselves on the warm dusty trail but they slithered away as the humans approached. They saw many grazing animals withdraw from their presence, but the giraffes were not about to let a caravan of horses and armed humans interrupt them from eating their leaves. The caravan passed mere yards away from a family of three. Kanoro remembered how amazed he was when he saw his first giraffe, now seeing them was routine. There certainly are a lot of giraffes out here. I guess the Midlanders chose a giraffe as their standard for a reason.

Kanoro was hoping to see a herd of elephants. He saw a tamed elephant in town once, but he hoped to see a wild elephant soon, but they only passed what might have been elephant dung.

Finally, the wild savannah animals they passed gave way to a herd of sheep. They raised their banner to reveal their allegiance and show the shepherds they met no harm. Maybe choosing a humble mussel shell as their herald insignia was a mistake. Kanoro’s people called their homelands “the Blessed Inlet” as it represented a long sheltered inlet to the sea rich with seafood to sustain, but now the term “Musselland” has stuck in the mind of every other member of the Confederacy, so he and his people are Mussellanders now and forever. It’s been a long time since I have actually eaten a mussel.

A few of the shepherds’ children waved and cheered. “The fishmen are here! The fishmen are here! They came!”

A shepherd politely guided them to the main village as an increasingly large group of curious passerby began following them. Most of the village homes were made out of sod while a few buildings were made out of mud bricks.
They followed their guide to an open field where a large flag with a gold giraffe on a green field was displayed proudly. The village was nestled against what was either a small lake or a large pond. To Kanoro, every pool of fresh water seemed tiny.

The villagers mostly had a mix of fiery and earthy features. Lots of bronzed, light brown, or tan skin tones. Lots of brown, auburn, or red hair. Among these locals, the Mussellanders’ watery features looked very out of place. Their light blue skin, black or dark green hair stood out. Sekani had strong fiery and watery traits together, what was sometimes called “steamy heritage”. At home his purple skin and hair were considered perfectly normal, but here it really stood out. Sometimes outsiders found it off-putting, other times appealing. Given the looks Sekani was getting from some of the village women, they seemed to find him appealing.

Kanoro conferred with the village elders and the village captain and then turned over his carts of swords, spears, shields, helms and breastplates. They also brought a wagon of arrows. They were told the Midlanders had their own bows.

The village captain, Hasim, seemed quite pleased with what was brought.

“Well met, Mussellanders! This calls for a feast! Let the whole village know tonight we are celebrating, start preparations at once!” Hasim declared imperiously as many of the onlookers cheered. He turned back to the visitors.

“In the meantime we’ll see to getting you and your horses watered. I imagine you folks aren’t used to this much dry air.”
“It’s amazing what you can get used to given time.” Kanoro’s friend, Sekani, said. Kanoro just nodded in agreement.
“Anything beats trail rations. What do you all feast on around here?”
“Alsaeida lamb stew!” piped up a small boy. Kanoro turned to face him.
“Is that anything like the Base Camp Stew I hear the Mereshnari talk about.”

The boy shyly hid his face behind his blue striped geu-puppy toy.

“Maybe, but we aren’t at a base camp, and we aren’t Mereshnari, sir”
“We still have Meresh blood in our veins, so our tastebuds are similar. Alsaeida is a lot like base camp stew but with more onions and herbs. You’ll like it. My name is Mehera, this is my son Gulzar,” said a young woman putting her arm around the boy.

Kanoro knelt to be less threatening to the boy. He stroked the dog shaped ragdoll gently. “And who is your little friend?”

The boy smiled and blushed. “This is Sukalb! He keeps our family safe from elves, dabeshi, and grootslangs” Gulzar said. He directed the toy to make it seem to be licking Kanoro’s hand.
"What are Grootslangs?" Kanoro asked.
"An ancient legend. It is said that long ago grootslangs were beasts so powerful even the dragons and the Nine feared them so the Nine split them into two creatures to dilute them power, elephants and snakes. But some grootslangs were too wily and powerful to be split, and they slumber in their deep caves underground." Mehera explained.
"Oh," Kanoro paused awkardly at the explanation before changing the subject.
“I have never seen a blue striped gue-puppy before…” Kanoro said.
“That’s because Sukalb is special!” Gulzar said proudly.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Alsaeida supposedly meant “happy times” in the old tongue of the ancient Fakhari. They didn’t skimp on the lamb meat, and it was well seasoned. Along with ample loaves of fresh baked flat bread to dip in their bowls, Kanoro certainly view this as a happy time compared to eating trail rations. Kanoro made sure to tell his hosts they gave him a meal fit for a prince.

Gulzar and the other children had taken a liking to Kanoro and were bombarding him with all sorts of questions. His friend Sakani was more interested in flirting with the young women then fielding the questions of excited children so he left Kanoro high and dry.

“Do you really eat shellfish every day?”
“Have you seen a shark before?”
“Is a shark bigger than a lion?”
“Have you fought a lot of elves?”
“What’s the biggest boat you’ve ever been on?”

The villagers played some flutes and drums and the villagers danced with the Mussellanders. Kanoro danced with an attractive shepherdess, but Sekani danced with several attractive shepherdesses. They swapped stories and songs while eating and drinking long into the night.

Kanoro declared they would rest a few days before turning back so as not to overstay their welcomes.

He was inquiring about provisions with one of the villagers when he noticed the village was all moving in an excited buzz. A new man had ridden in rapidly drawing a crowd.

Though they were still far from the Great Colassian Desert, the horse the man rode was of fiery heritage, bred for the harsh desert. A broad stallion with orange hair and a fierce demeanor. If the horse was not enough of a giveaway, The man’s turban and riding clothes, as well as his dark sandy complexion revealed that he was clearly a Mereshnari.

“My name is Nibal” the Mereshnari said. He then pulled out a large pouch and dumped over three dozen dabesh ears onto the ground.

The crowd gaped in silent awe. Kanoro broke the silence first.

“You killed all these dabeshi?!”
“No, I did not. These heyena warriors were killed by elves.” Nibal said sternly.

He pulled out a broken arrow from his cloak and handed it to Kanoro. It was clearly of elf make. The shaft was carefully carved with a rune. Elf archers liked to do this, so they could credit the right archers to the right kills.

Some faces looked happy, some worried, most confused.

“Why should we be concerned if the elves and the dabeshi are killing each other? That is a win-win for us, isn’t it?” asked one of the Midlander men.
“No, it means the dark elves are very near.” Nibal said.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A quick council with Nibal, the Musselanders, and the village leaders determined that they needed to take action. According to Nibal, the tracks indicated a raiding party of roughly two dozen elves plus a few draft animals.

Nibal and Kanoro would lead a party of armed men on horses to track down the elves and kill them before they could threaten the village or any friendly village nearby. Apart from Nibal, no one had a true warhorse, but they could ride to cover the ground and then dismount to fight on foot after they closed the distance.

After three days hard riding, they found their quarry, a single elf woman, was somehow leaving behind the tracks of over two dozen elves. She turned towards his pursuers. Even at this distance, her pearly white teeth glinted in the hot sun.

“Void take you, witch!” Nibal cursed while nocking and firing an arrow. The arrow landed close to the elf but not close enough to make her do more than flinch. The elf muttered an incantation and vanished.

“Find some soft sand and look for footprints! Even invisible she cannot fight all of us!” Sekani said.
“Not many mages can stay invisible in combat, she’s not here to fight us. We’ll never find her if she doesn’t want to be found.” Kanoro said.
“She was just a decoy, to lure us away.” Nibal growled softly.

They rode back to the village as fast as they could.

They found large portions of the village in ruins, with smoldering fires here and there. Haggard villagers were working to smother the flames or gather up scattered livestock.

“The damn elves attacked us! We fought them as best we could, but they were already away with a lot of prisoners before we could rally a true defense” said a sad middle aged man with a bandaged forehead.

“They went that way, yesterday, maybe you can still catch their trail.”

Kanoro looked at his men, already tired and road worn. He nodded grimly and the men nodded back. They had the only horses, tired as they were, they were the captives only chance of rescue from a life of cruel slavery.

They quickly gathered some more rations and water and followed Nibal’s lead as he followed the trail of the elves and captives.
A short distance along the trail, Nibal stopped to investigate something brightly colored in the dust, a blue striped geu-puppy.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Tracking was relatively easy as the slaving party seemed to be heading due east with little variation.

The humans had four more horses than they had riders, but they lost six steeds riding them to the point of exhaustion and beyond.

Patches of sand were getting more prevalent and larger, but their guide, Nibal, ensured the Musselanders that they were not in the true desert. He claimed that they were in the region “where the savannah and the desert met each other to do battle”.

At last, the humans looked down a long gentle slope. They spotted their quarry near small cluster of trees surrounding what might have been a dried-up pond. The dust clouds the riders kicked up must have been visible for quite some distance as the elves had erected some hasty defenses. The elves had no horses but they had several pack mules tied up in their makeshift camp. The elves (or their captives) dug a crude ditch that the elves lined with sharpened sticks.

The human rescue party numbered about thirty men. There were about twenty elves with roughly as many captives, mostly women and children, bound by the wrist with rope and herded into a central location. Even with a three-to-two advantage, Kanoro was not optimistic. Half his men were Midlanders and apart from Captain Hasim, they were mostly teenagers, green as grass. Not that I’m much better with my twenty-two summers, he thought. And all the men are tired…but the elves must be tired too.

“Even with the high ground, we are not going to win an archery contest with elves” Nibal said quietly to Kanoro.
“CHARGE!” Kanoro commanded.

The men charged down the slope. Not every elf was carrying a bow, and those that were carrying bows didn’t seem to be the best marksmen Kahdisteria had to offer. Two men were unhorsed but most of the dark elves’ arrows missed. Nibal took an arrow in the shoulder but barely reacted to it. Most of the elves had spears and swords readied.

As the human soldiers dismounted their exhausted steeds in front of the spikes, and readied for melee, Nibal raised his light lance and urged his steed to leap a relatively narrow portion of the hastily dug ditch. Nibal impaled a surprised elf with his lance getting his lance stuck in his enemy’s torso. Nibal dropped his lance, pulled the arrow out of his shoulder and quaffed a healing potion. He then drew a scimitar raising it high. Nibal shouted something clearly threatening in the Elven tongue which seemed to give all of them pause.

Kanoro wasn’t sure if expending one of the groups’ only two healing potions so early was a good idea, but Nibal’s dramatic display seemed to intimidate the elves effectively at least in the short term. The tired humans cheered and attacked with renewed vigor. After a few minutes Nibal was unhorsed and now fighting on foot. Five humans and five elves had fallen while many on both sides nursed shallow wounds and kept fighting.

Most of the elves were fighting with spear and shield or sword and shield. Their hair and skin mostly predominantly various shades of brown, but one elf stood out as a native to the cold coastal of region of Kahdisteria. He had the similar light blue skin tones of most of the Musselanders, but washed a shade lighter. His hair barely had any color to it, being light grey though he was quite young.

He also stood out because four out of five of the deaths the humans suffered thus far were at his hands as he attacked with great speed and precision.

While parrying the elf in front of him, Kanoro quickly tried to plot a way to swarm this extra-deadly foe with several people at once. His thoughts were interrupted when the ground started rumbling ominously like an incipient earthquake.

Both sides withdrew cautiously regrouping, muttering about enemy mages.

For the first time, Kanoro saw true fear on Nibal’s face.

“Please, Nine…don’t let it be one of them…” the Mereshnari muttered.

The ground erupted and a massive grey skinned snake slithered out of the ground. It slithered towards where two badly wounded horses lay bleeding and prone, neighing in pain. The giant snake monster had two sets of tusk like fangs appear seemingly out of nowhere and it swallowed the horses in two bites each.
The snake monster raised its front half skyward and Kanoro saw it had the floppy ears and distinctive tusks of an elephant and it brayed like only an elephant could, though far louder. The blueish elf covered his ears reflexively.
“A grootslang, Korus save us,” said Nibal.
Kanoro assumed that grootslangs were a fanciful legend to frighten children. Now one of these fanciful legends was right in front of him, and its tail end was sweeping wide scattering the battling humans and elves. Knocking out two Midlanders and an elf. Fortunately missing the cluster of captured slaves who wouldn’t even be able to try to dodge being tied up in a line.

“Maybe we should fight with the humans against the grootsl—urk” one of the elves spoke in the Common tongue clearly wanting to be heard by both sides.

“No!” snarled the faster elf throwing a dagger at the elf speaking and grazing the shoulder of the elf who spoke cutting him off. It wasn’t clear whether he meant to cause only a grazing hit as a warning, or if he was aiming for the heart and missed.

“Ailmar! Your lack of discipline grows ever more intolerable” warned another elf, presumably the ranking officer.

Kanoro, saw an opening, and gesturing at the men nearest him, shouted “let’s get him!” They charged the fast elf named Ailmar, but the Grootslang got in their way rotating its body. It seemed unconcerned with this battle as it turned to swallow the two men and the elf that the monster knocked unconscious with its tail sweep earlier.

“It’ll be going after the prisoners next!” Nibal shouted running towards them. With the chaos dispersing the battle lines, he made it to the slaves causing the one elf acting as guard to back away and meld with his own battle lines. Nibal cut a woman free with his sword than dropped a dagger near her.

“Free the others,” he said to her.
“Nooo!” screamed Ailmar as he leaped towards them slashing at both of the Mereshnari’s legs, bringing him to the ground.

The grootslang made a wide tail sweep at several elves and humans. Most simply tried to dodge, a few daring individuals tried to stab at it as it passed by drawing superficial cuts against the monster, if they even penetrated its thick skin at all. One of the elves got in a fairly deep spear thrust in drawing a sizeable amount of blood.

Kanoro himself scored a very deep cut with his sword but then his sword was stuck in the grootslang and wrenched from his grip as the giant snake monster slithered inadvertently disarming him. He pulled out his short sword frowning. How am I going to use this to fight all of this?

The grootslang sprayed dark fluid from its trunk and spattered Ailmar, Nibal and several of the tied up humans. Those hit cried out in pain but didn’t seem to show major visible injury. Nibal just sneered on the ground as his body had a lot of venom on it, and Ailmar didn’t seem to register the droplets of poison sizzling on him at all.

A glob of poison seemed to burn through a section of rope, now forming two separate rope gangs who ran in opposite directions.

The grootslang cocked its ears then turned towards where Nibal lie prone but conscious and swallowed him whole, causing Ailmar the elf to leap away in alarm.

“He was my kill, monster!” the elf shouted.

“Gods dammit!” Captain Hasim shouted. “Free the prisoners or this will all be for naught.” He ran towards the prisoners with three men in tow as they tried to cut the ropes of the panicked captives.

The Grootslang rotated again. Elephants are supposedly quite intelligent. Kanoro wasn’t sure about grootslangs, but this one seemed to glare at him as if to say “you put the sword in me, human!”

It tried to bite/and gore him but Kanoro rolled away in a nick of time. Meanwhile on the tail end, the grootslang seemed to have found the elf that scored the solid spear hit, and crushed the elf with the full weight of its snake body’s back half.

Kanoro saw that the monster’s shallower wounds were already starting to close.

After trying and failing to bite Kanoro three more times, it sprayed poison at him from his trunk, Kanoro blocked most of the spatter with his shield as did the men and elves nearest to him but the small amount that landed on skin burned like mad and seem to cause his whole body to erupt in pain, not just where he was struck.

The grootslang ate another fallen horse then burrowed back into the ground. The elves and humans paused wearily, but Captain Hasim was taking advantage of the temporary lull in the battle to keep cutting prisoners free. Kanoro picked up a replacement arming sword from a fallen elf near him.

Ailmar nodded at the elf standing next to him before Ailmar charged towards a group of recently freed prisoners. The other elf pulled out a talisman with the upside black heart of the goddess Greymoria and yelled what could only be a curse in Elven while gesturing towards Sekani though nothing seemed to happen.

“A bad luck curse won’t save you! And I’m too strong-willed for such feeble magic to affect me.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Captain Hasim and three other men trying to fend off Ailmar, but in a split-second decision he decided to help his friend Sekani instead.

The theurgist was a good fighter but he couldn’t handle two foes at once. Sekani and Kanoro drew several small wounds on him and brought the theurgist to his knees. Sekani was wounded fairly heavily, but Kanoro handed him the last healing potion and was able to get back to something approaching full strength. Out of the corner of his eye, Kanoro saw that the elf, Ailmar, had not taken down anyone else but he seemed able to fend off four humans at once without much concern.

“I yield, humans.” He spat out with a glob of blood. Then the ground rumbled in a familiar ominous way.

“Or perhaps not” the elf grinned through red stained teeth.

The grootslang, now healed of its former wounds, erupted from the ground again and incidentally landed right on top of Sekani crushing him instantly.

“Bad luck indeed,” the theurgist said before rolling away and running away fueled with adrenaline.

“SEKANI!” Kanoro shouted in dismay before finding his wits and taking after the wounded elf. As fast as elves are, the elf was too wounded to escape him. Kanoro slew the elf as the theurgist clumsily groped for a potion in a bloody shirt pocket. Shortly thereafter, the grootslang ate his corpse, potion and all.

As the three-way between elf, man, and elephant/snake continued, it seemed the grootslang was winning.

“By the Nine, you stupid knife ears! if we don’t fight the grootslang together we’ll all die!” Captain Hasim shouted..

“FINE! We’ll call a truce till this thing is dead.” Ailmar answered. He then ran to where a pair of the dark elves’ pack mules were tied up. He cut them free with his sword than slashed their hind quarters.

“There!” he turned towards the assembled humans with a predator’s grin.

“The monster likes wounded targets with lots of meat! This is where the elephant snake will go next.”

The psychotic elf was right. When the grootslang turned to eat the two crippled pack mules, every man and elf that was still standing struck at once, stabbed at whatever part of the grootslang’s body they could reach.

Either the grootslang had finally ate its fill, or it finally decided it bit off more than it could chew. The grootslang burrowed back into the ground. Both sides gathered up their wounded and scavenged what supplies they could. Everyone waited awkwardly. The ground did not rumble again.

There were seven elf warriors and twelve human soldiers still standing, a few more alive but able to stand. almost all bearing at least some scratches and bruises. Most of the former captives were still alive. Those still on their feet wiping off whatever poison residue remained. The poison’s pain amplifying affect seem to wear off fairly quickly, leaving only a dull ache behind.

The elves gave their most severely wounded comrades a healing potion, but it seemed they were now out of potions too. The last elf to drink a healing potion, while still wounded, was no longer mortally wounded. He was the same elf that dressed down Ailmar earlier. He took charge once again.

“The truce was until the grootslang was slain. The grootslang may be gone but it was not slain. Thus, the truce is still in play, humans, let us begone.”

Ailmar smiled.

“Yes, let’s go, but wait.”

He threw a dagger into the throat of the most severely wounded human groaning on the ground.

“In your group’s condition they couldn’t have possibly carried this man. I have done you all a favor.”

Before the humans could retaliate, Ailmar signaled the remaining elves to follow him. They ran off with their last uninjured pack mule in tow. The humans were in no shape to pursue, and everyone knew it.

The boy, Gulzar, began crying.

“Here” Kanoro said, reaching in his pocket.
“I brought you, Sukalb”