NOVEL NEXT Chapter 59: Welcoming Committee
They trotted across the plains at a far easier pace than the breakneck one of before. It had taken them the whole night to travel last time; this time they took almost double that, arriving at the elven forest town as the sun started climbing into the sky. Though he knew time was relatively short, he also didn't see the point in rushing so hard that his Pride was entirely spent. They had even rested for a couple of proper periods – once not too far from the basin when the sun reached its zenith, and the other during the night.
Since the pace was a bit slow for his preference, Dominic had gone ahead with the aid of his wings and Rage. When he was far enough ahead, he had practised his various Abilities while he waited for the rest of the Pride to catch up. Some of the others had joined him from time to time including Sekhmet, Jenkins, a few of the albuhas, Nyx, a few of the amesheks, and the occasional other lioness. Leo had been particularly pleased when a lioness in heat had chosen to join them.
Most of the Pride was present. Dominic didn't want to overwhelm the elves, so had limited the party to those who had earned Challenge Credits. That meant even though Howler and the original albuhas were present, the new ones had been left behind since they hadn't been officially part of the Pride during any of the fights and so couldn't have earned any – unsurprisingly, the vulnerable albuhas who had joined the Pride ahead of the battle hadn't earned any Credits since they hadn't actually fought in it.
The pack of winged coyotes remained in the basin under the command of the one who had apparently been leading them before Howler had come along and defeated him. Dominic had worried that that might be an invitation for a challenge, but Howler had reassured him on that matter. Apparently he had proven himself enough that as long as they returned in a reasonable amount of time, it would be fine – what reasonable was, Howler didn't say.
Separating so soon after a battle wasn't ideal for any of his new allies, but he supposed that if any had second thoughts, it would be better for them to just slip away between now and when he came back than force an uncomfortable confrontation. Dominic himself was warily hopeful about them, though. He was fairly confident that the ullas, trodils, and harashes would stay loyal – they'd already actually fought on his side, and well at that. And they seemed to see the benefits of being part of a large force. The wild dogs were a little more uncertain as they hadn't been happy with the losses, but the indications had been that they would remain with the group. The rest of his allies were another question, though.
Frankly, the two he was most concerned about were the other male lion and the lead scrin female. They were both powerful predators in their own right and intelligent enough to consider trying to take Dominic's place in his absence. Then the question would be, who would win? He doubted that either of them would accept the other as their new leader.
But he reminded himself that the lion hadn't actually showed any rancour after their fight – if anything, he had been almost affectionate. When Dominic had gone to meet all the new lionesses, the big male had stood at his shoulder to show his support. And when Dominic had talked about leaving, the other male hadn't seemed overly interested – certainly he hadn't seemed gleeful or like he was going to take advantage of Dominic's absence as soon as he crested the top of the basin.
Nor had the scrin female, if he was honest, The hyena-headed predator had greeted his announcement with equanimity, merely wanting to know whether they could feast on the pile of bodies that remained if they got hungry. And ultimately, if they ate all the carcasses, it wouldn't be the end of the world – the Cores were useless to any beast there other than Dominic, as far as he was aware, so they shouldn't bother to take them and Dominic could pick them up when he returned.
Dominic sighed and focussed on the journey – by this point, he was eager to see if their armour was ready. And then travel back home, something else he needed to put some thought into – he wasn't sure he wanted to reveal the Place of Power to everyone. But if they were to work together to fight off the dungeon beasts, did they have much choice?
On the other hand, he hadn't really "revealed" it to his Pride either. Nyx obviously knew, and also Sekhmet, that the stone was special. But the others? Maybe he needed only to declare the area directly around it as off limits, maybe let the Kesh even build something around it to stop anyone accidentally wandering close and seeing it – and touching it. Dominic couldn't forget how Selessa had warned that it would kill unauthorised beings who touched it.
As they got closer, Dominic started seeing the movement of the elves as more than just the scurrying of ants. They had obviously been spotted from a distance – Dominic wasn't surprised considering the flatness of the land directly around the elven forest town and the vantage point of the trees. In fact the savannah in general was a hodgepodge of flat plains next to rolling hills, set beside almost mountainous crags, dotted throughout by waterholes. He hadn't seen any rivers yet, though, and had to wonder if the way the planet was reconstituted was responsible for that, or whether there just weren't any rivers nearby. Or perhaps some of the places he'd been travelling through were rivers – just dry ones.
A welcoming committee was standing on the outskirts of Selanthis by the time they arrived. They had made themselves obvious, so Dominic made sure the Pride headed their way.
The five Elders were all there with a small selection of people around them – some obvious guards; others with the look of crafters. Dominic grinned mentally as he spotted what was arrayed in front of the seated Elders – the promised armour and weapons.
Dominic approached the Elders who all stood up at his approach, crossed their arms at the wrist and then pressed the cross against their foreheads with a small bow.
'Honoured Brother, we thank you for fulfilling your promise,' Elder Alwen said gratefully. 'I was notified that our settlement has won the Challenge, and we have already received the settlement rewards.'
'I said we would,' Dominic answered, shaking his mane slightly so it ruffled around his face. 'What rewards did you get?' he asked with interest.
Lystar looked a bit pinched at the question, but Alwen answered it easily enough.
'We were able to enhance our trees. Now, they can offer our settlement extra defensive power, either by weaving branches together to form a wall, or by attacking with their roots. With the aid of our plant mages, we may even be able to achieve even greater protection than the Challenge rewards promise, but we will have to experiment with that. Now, Honoured Brother, let Sylmar and his crafters fit your companions with the armour they have finished so far. Our whole complement of crafters and mages have been working tirelessly to prepare these for you and a number of your Pride members, knowing how little time it would be until they were needed. However, we regret to inform you that the rest of the pieces will take a little more time.'
'How much time?' Dominic asked, a bit anxious. On the one hand, he recognised that getting even some pieces done in less than two days was pretty impressive. On the other, he was feeling the pressure to get home.
'Sylmar assures me that they will all be completed before your deadline of three days,' Alwen assured him. 'We have committed multiple of the potions our Challenge Credits earned us from the System store to ensure they have the mana and energy they will need to go with the absolute minimum of sleep.'
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'Is that safe?' Dominic asked, suddenly concerned for a different reason. He didn't want them overdosing on caffeine or whatever these 'energy' potions were. His concern was only partially for the elves themselves; he also didn't want his Pride trusting their lives to pieces of armour created by people half out of their minds with tiredness.
'Our crafters and mages are well aware of the limits of their bodies,' Sylmar broke in to answer somewhat briskly. 'We have judged this as worthy of the ones who saved our town.' That didn't quite answer Dominic's question, but it was clear it was the only response he would get as Alwen continued. 'Now, are you willing for yourself and around twenty of your Pride to be fitted? We ensured that your armour was one of the first to be completed, though we have managed to complete some other sets too. The sooner we fit them, the quicker we can return to working on the armour for the rest of your Pride.'
'Of course,' Dominic agreed hastily, greeting the elf who moved forwards towards him at Sylmar's nod even as other elves headed towards the rest of Dominic's Pride. He sent a quick message to his Pride members so they knew what was happening and that they should cooperate with the elves. He also asked Sekhmet to help translate if there were any miscommunications.
That done, he turned his attention back to the elf heading towards him. She was carrying a pile of armour taller than she was with surprisingly strong arms.
'Honoured Brother, would you please lower your head?' she asked timidly. Dominic did so without complaint and the elf slipped the main part of the armour over it. The piece got briefly caught on his gorget, but the nimble fingers of the elf soon shifted it so it was layered nicely over it, offering a double line of protection to his most vulnerable areas there. As soon as she had got it settled at the base of his neck, Dominic lifted his head to look at it even as the elf got to work on adjusting the straps.
Like the best of what the weakest of his people had worn into battle before, it was made of treated leather with small, overlapping scales of some sort of off-white bone sewn onto it with sinew. In fact, it rather reminded him of his fur in the way the scales lay, though it didn't have the crown that he did in the middle of his back. The scales along his spine pointed from his neck to his tail, but by the time they got to his flanks, they had changed direction to point downwards.
The first piece of armour lay along his back split apart to accommodate his wings, slipped down over his legs to cover his flanks, joined with a strip that covered his chest, belly, genital area – causing Leo to grumble – and then connected with the top piece with two straps that went past his tail. The armour lay on top of his tail armour, meaning that there were now multiple layers protecting his hindquarters.
The elf moved around Dominic, tightening and loosening straps until the armour almost felt like a second skin.
'Is that comfortable, Honoured Brother?' she checked anxiously. 'Are there any places which are too tight or too loose?'
'How am I supposed to mate with that thing over my sheath and balls?' Leo complained.
'As if you haven't done enough for now! Getting Enhanced Fertility to level two wasn't enough for you?' Dominic needled at him.
'No! Not if we're going to wear this thing for extended periods of time. And you do realise that we can't spray to mark our territory with this either, don't you?'
Dominic sighed.
'We can probably tuck this thing away into our storage space whenever we want – like with the tail armour.'
'And what if the females end up with something covering their hindquarters? If it stops me getting mating with them, I will find a way to kill you for arranging this!' Leo continued to moan dramatically.
'Then we'll find some way of giving them storage devices too. Or perhaps the elves already have something in mind – we don't exactly have hands to take these off or put them back on. Though we might be able to train the kesh to do it for us,' Dominic continued thoughtfully.
'Then we'll be bringing them with us everywhere we go and training them how to detach armour from the hindquarters quickly.'
Realising that the elf was still waiting patiently for him to reply, Dominic quickly apologised.
'I was just…thinking,' He explained. Technically, it was true. 'It all seems pretty good while I'm standing still,' Dominic told her quickly, 'though I don't know if things will change if I move.'
The elf immediately stepped back to give him enough space. 'Then please test it.'
Dominic didn't need any further prompting. He started with small movements, walking, crouching, rearing up, spreading his wings, and then extended the range. By the time he had tested whether he could touch his tail root with his nose, move his wings in all directions, roll onto his side and be back on his feet in a flash, and leap into the air, he was in awe of the crafters' skill. Just flying had got difficult again, with him now being weighed down by the armour. Still, that was his only real complaint.
'How did you make leather so flexible?' he demanded disbelievingly. 'It doesn't catch or pinch anywhere. Apart from the fact that it's a bit heavier and I can hear the wind whistling through the scales when I run, it might as well not be there!'
The elf frowned.
'The scales trap moving air and make a sound? We will need to work out how to fix that,' she promised. 'As for how we make the leather so flexible…' she shrugged and gave Dominic a slightly cheeky grin – her timidness seemed to have worn off somewhere between tightening the straps behind his wings and tightening them under his tail. 'Magic.'
Dominic huffed – he should probably have known that that would be the answer.
'What's your name, anyway?'
The elf quickly coloured and bowed.
'My apologies, Honoured Brother, for my rudeness. I am Selia, daughter of Selianna.'
'And I'm Dominic. It's nice to meet you, Selia.'
'I'm honoured to be your armorer, Honoured Brother Dominic,' she answered with another quick bow. 'Now, shall I put on the next pieces?' she asked, holding up two new bits of scale-plated armour.
'There's more?' Dominic asked in surprise. Selia smiled and just approached to fit one of the pieces of armour to his left foreleg.
'Bracers?' Dominic asked, remembering back to when he had been interested in armour and those who wore it. His question seemed to surprise the elf for a moment.
'Greaves – since these are for your legs,' she explained as she fit the first.
This one was clearly lighter and with smaller scales. The straps were clever, fastening in such a way that most of them were neatly tucked underneath the armour, protected from an attack, but not rubbing against his fur either. Once she'd added the piece, Dominic tested moving the leg, finding that the armour flexed very well with his movements. It was slightly more obvious that he was wearing something in comparison to how the rest of the armour felt like a second skin, but it didn't impede him in any way.
As Selia worked on the other legs and then wrapped another piece around his throat to protect his neck more, Dominic decided to ask the question he and Leo had had earlier.