War of Djinn and Men Part 1.

We continue rushing through the morning, The wolves and Lycans break off to the river in the distance on their own. We only stop for the wolves to catch back up, the lycans walk with me and we say nothing. Timous is absolutely silent while in the cart. I don't hear him write, drink, cough or even stretch. With what he's told me with humans treating his kind so poorly, he's probably preparing himself for something gruesome. As we crest a hill on the road we see an epic site of the island with a mountain as seen earlier. It's not terribly far from the continent I'm on now, maybe a day's sail. I can't describe why, but I feel drawn to the island. Like I want, mabe need to be there. “The sea air smells nice doesn't it son?” Timous speaks up from the cart. “Sure does.” I replied by shifting my site to the city of Petra right in front of us.

From here I feel like it's gonna be a shit town. Like all of California or the people who live in the Twin Cities back home, It enrages me to see what another 2 wall system looks like to this city. Even though it's 3 times the size of Tyre, The worst wood homes with straw roofs and all mud roads are on the outer wall. No protection other than guards and watch towers, The next wall looks like the wood spikes back at Tyre, and all wood homes inside its protection. The inner stone wall surrounds stone structures, some with multiple fireplaces. I know for sure these people in the center are gonna be oblivious to the suffering of others anywhere. They'll all think they are in a mini paradise, while the people on the outskirts probably struggle to survive. Then I realize a few large docks and plenty of ships, I think they are small fishing boats and maybe transports. “Hmmm transports… Good to remember” I think to myself

Sassaba nudges my right calf, I look down at her as she looks up at me probably wondering “what's up?” I nod and we keep moving again. Once we make it down the hill which feels smaller on this side, I look up at the sun to guess what time it is. As I pull the cart with my right arm I hold my hand up with my pointer finger under the sun, and count rough hand widths to the ground. With the hills on that side I assume 3-4.5 hand widths, so moving through the night Conri was right. We made it to the city between 9 and 10:30 am. We made amazing time. Hopefully it's enough, to save some lives of halflings and humans.

As we approach the outskirts of the city people start stacking against the road to see us. I'm not wearing my cloak and I feel it's too late to bother. Now I see a dozen or so guards on the road and what looks like archers getting on the straw roof tops. Conri lets out a low growl. In my mind it’s an exasperation, his way of singing under his breath thinking to himself “These fucking humans.” And I’m at the point with him. “These turds know we are coming. They know who we are, so what the fuck are you doing trying to stack troops on my team?” I think in my head while still on the approach. The archers have bow and arrow at the low ready, the troops seem to just be watching us very intently.

“Stay calm Conri, I won’t let them hurt any of you.” I say with around 50 feet to go before we meet the crowd, he blows air from his nose. Sassaba falls back a bit, she’s much younger than Conri, and her pack mentality tells her to hide in the pack for safety. Timous, who was pretty silent, speaks up.” Calm everyone, easy Sassaba. We’re here with you honey.”

Within 10 feet a tall skinny black man speaks up. “You’re Mark?” I set the cart handles down slowly, and stand up straight looking down at him by maybe 6 inches. In doing so the crowd itself goes wide eyed. “Yes I am, these are my friends. We were asked to evaluate a problem you may be having with halflings.” I answer him. He looks at the lycans and Timous with the wolves. “Will the dogs behave?” Conri lets out a minor growl of irritation. I point to him, “ These are lycans.” The crowd gasps, and troops step back clutching their weapons like pearls. I continue, “In the cart are wolves and my best friend Timous. We are all easy going and polite so long as everyone stays respectful…”

He looks back up to me” I’m Lieutenant Brockson of the governors guard. The captain of the guard is awaiting you… can the lycans enter the cart? I think fewer people will worry this way.” Without skipping a beat the lycans got to the cart, Sassaba looks to Conri and myself as if wondering what to do. Conri stands right up, then climbs in the cart. Sassaba follows, Timous speaks to the lieutenant. “Excuse me lieutenant, there were two leprechauns caught by the guard. May we see them first?” He looks a bit shocked at first then replies to Timous. “They are with the jailer but yes, we can stop there.” Timous, who I’m not watching but I’m sure he tries to smile warmly, says “Thank you sir.”

And with that Brockson turns and waves his hand as we follow. Moving through this city is rough at first.The people here are coughing, smell like they forgot to wipe their ass and try to look into the cart as it moves past them dangerously. Testing my patience for their ignorance and disgust. The gravel road is pretty poorly maintained, You can hear the reverberation from the cart as it bounces continuously from rock to rock. As we transition from the obvious poor sector to the middle class, the cart becomes so much easier to pull and most people look bathed and seem less noisy.

I’m less worried about our hand cart falling apart now on this much smoother paved road. In this sector the people are more like the people of Tyer, well dressed. Smells better in general and some women wear perfumes, and many of them keep their distance. Still a lot of dirty looks, like people are disgusted with us here. We keep moving down the winding road through the city for maybe 15 minutes. Guards shouting “Clear the way!” Or “Stay back.”

The guards come to a stop in the city. Brockton points to the crowd on his left and shouts. “Clear the way, show me the prisoners!” Half of the dozen or so guards start pushing people, I start to maneuver the cart. Until I see in pillories, 2 leprechauns. Covered in spoiled food, and some kind of manure. Each is disheveled and beaten badly, both are in distress and Timous lets out an audible gasp. I look back to him and hold out my hand, he grabs it and hangs on. I let him walk on the same platform as the pillories. He starts inspecting the leprechauns. “Hello there dear. Can you hear me?” She moves slightly and moans. “Hello darling, my name is Timous. Can you tell me your name?” She can barely utter “Help us…” before exploding into tears.

Timous looks back at me with tears in his eyes, “They are not man eaters…” he turns to the boy. “They are in real jeopardy.” He starts choking on his words.” I turn to the lieutenant, “ Sir, we need to free these two now.” Sensing our anger, and urgency he calls out “Jailer! Come at once!” We wait a moment. Timous walks toward me, “They were beaten with black iron, it is poison to fairies, and they are in desperate need for care. Your pack has your gold, they will demand it for their release and take their time…” he wipes tears from his eyes, I turn to the cart. The lycans and wolves are on guard sitting up. I get my pack and hold my hand, I charge my Ki and send it to my hand while thinking “gold”. The gold pouch snaps into my hand, I set it down and do the same thing for water, the bladder snaps into my hand. I quickly turn to give it to Timous for the leprechauns.

A small greasy looking fat man who has obvious sweat stains in his clothes comes out of the cellar door left of the leprechauns with a literal club in his hand over his shoulder. “Lieutenant, is this our guest?” I turn to him and point at the leprechauns “I need these two released now. What’s the price?” He stops and stares at me like I shouldn’t have talked to him. “20 gold each, as they haven’t committed theft or murder.” I hurry to count the coins. One pile of 20, a second plus a pinch of extra coins so we are not screwed around with. He looks at the coins. A moment later he starts fumbling through keys, I grow tired of this game and move towards the prisoners.

I put my hands on the man’s pillory and tear it apart, the crowd backs up in shock. I grab the iron chains around their wrists, and pull them apart. The fat, greasy jailer proclaims “You can’t do that!” As we continue I see the leprechaun's skin under the chain looks like burns, rot and it even looks like hives around the nasty part of his wrists. Timous rushes to support him. “The Iron poisons us fast, they are both septic from it…” the crowd panics, the guards take an alert stance like someone startled them. Conri and Sassaba on my sides, walking up right, holding their arms out. They see how sick the leprechauns are, and obviously want to get them in the cart. Conri takes the man in his arms and walks him to the cart. I move to the woman with Sassaba and Timous.

I begin to destroy the woman’s pillory and restraints. Timous wraps his arms underneath her arm pits to take her weight. Conri again stands by my side waiting to help, as does Sassaba. Her wounds are just as bad as his, but with her skin being pinker, we can see the veins in her arms around the wounds are blackened, and on her chest which is partially exposed from her dress being torn, These veins look blue, normal and healthy. That black iron seems to make a horrific allergic reaction over a short time, and at this point I’m wondering if they can make it through this at all.

As I move her to the cart Timous is carried by sassaba to the cart along with us. “Sassaba dear, to my pack please!” She turns and drops it to him as I lay the girl down in our cart. Looking them over a little, neither look as old as Timous or Aoife. Both are really feverish, and dazed. The crowd gets shocked again, I look over and Timous has his medicine wall unfolded, I’m sure they are all panicked over it. He’s working to make medicine for the two. The fat greasy jailer, who reminds me of something like the greedy sheriff of Nottingham from Robin Hood. Steps over to look at what Timous is doing. “Do you really have time to be alchemy here in the street leprechaun?” His tone is sarcastic and condescending, so I answer him. “There is no one better to heal anyone than him. If it’s interrupting the time you’d like to spend sitting around being useless, then you can just return to that.” Lieutenant Brockson calls out, “That’ll be enough of that jailer. The governor did ask I get you to him post haste though sir.”

Timous responds to the lieutenant “We would be on our way had the prisoners not been so badly abused…” The crowd gets defensive “We have the right to protect ourselves from you demons!” The crowd roars, both the Lycan’s and all the wolves look at the crowd then me. I charge a bit of ki, enough to make a show. Just like when Conri and I fought in the cave, I expelled my Ki in a burst outward. Not enough to move them or hurt them, just shut everyone up. The force of air goes outward like a strong storm's wind, clothes flow hard in the opposite direction and the crowd looks at me.

“We will happily be leaving as soon as we can. I’m sure the guards will watch us intently so you can all go about your day as we try to save their lives…” Slowly a portion of the crowd moves, then a few more, almost half are left. The lieutenant turns his back to the crowd and tries to speak to me “Please sir the governor would not condone magic against his citizens…” Sassaba interrupts him “Next time, we will howl. Break human ears.” He turns and drops his spear looking at her and stepping back. Timous interrupts, “Mark. Feed half of this to each of them while I make some black iron balm.” We slowly trickle the potion down the girl's mouth. Maybe a tablespoon at a time, at most. Then I move onto the male, same thing. A little potion at a time, bit by bit so we don’t choke them or lose any.

Minutes pass after I started feeding them the potion. “Here son. I can’t touch their burns or I’ll suffer the same fate. Apply it thick, but gentle on the worst part and a bit past the burns.” I start on that while Timous breaks down his little medical apothecary wall. The guards look over my shoulder and watch. One of them actually acknowledges Timous directly and politely. “Excuse me sir. But why did the irons burn them so harshly.” Timous sighs as he keeps packing his apothecary. “Wrought Iron is poison to all fairy folk simply by touch. The purer the iron the stronger the burn and poison. Had you put wool over the shackles it may have saved them unless it rained.” The guard looks back at their wrists, for a moment I’m wondering if he’s wishing he did better or if there is a better way to kill fairies.

We get the balm spread on their wrists and wrap the wrists in cloth to preserve the balm. We get Timous back in the cart and follow The lieutenant back through the city to the courtyard of the governors building. We are met by the governor, and an emissary to the king. Both taken back by my appearance I presume. I can tell the difference because the governor is wearing padded armor, yellow and black like his guards. And the Emissary is wearing yellow and blue silks, no armor at all. He has a handkerchief which he holds to his nose and sniffs hard like he's covering the stink of the crowd. When its not to his face he acts disgusted with the lycans, people and leprechauns. Like they stink too much, then it hits me. There are perfumes or essential oils on that rag, rich aristocrats used to do that in my world as a way to disassociate themselves from the masses

The emissary tries to talk with authority. “When the king of these lands and his emissaries send for individuals to come with haste, it does mean with haste!” I look down at him dead expression on my face, I look at my hands and his guards. “Do I look to be under the rule of a king that I don’t know? I’m here to stop a potential slaughter of your men or half breeds. We can continue our talks peacefully and continue working together to stop killing each other… or we have a little fight right here…” The emissary throws his hands up. “Please sir, my brother is the governor Tyer and my sister is married to the captain of his guard! I called you here peacefully! Let us continue our talks as such!”

Timous looking over the side wall to the cart we have says “So be it. Where are the half breeds and why do they scare you?” Both men look at him, again slightly shocked. The emissary responds, “The people here are worried about being so close to so many of them. There is so much history of halflings causing havoc and destruction. So with dozens of them within a day's walk. We just need them to move. But some slavers were here in our city as we sent for you, so we bartered a deal with them as well.” Timous in shock yells out, “How long did the slavers say it would take them to begin?” “Today or tomorrow at the earliest.” The emissary replies. “Son, we need to get moving now, they are in danger.” Timous growls to me, Conri and Sassaba both perk up like they are ready for a fight. The wolves get timid and stay on the floor of the cart.

“Lieutenant, can you take us through the city and in their direction right now?” I ask him, and he replies “yes I can.” The Emissary butts in. “But we haven’t exchanged terms.” “All that can wait. Lieutenant, please clear the way and guide me.” I say as I move to our cart, picking it up and starting to walk. The lieutenant and his 8 man team are jogging to keep up with us. As we move out I can hear the emissary “No terms for moving these halflings? Your brother speaks highly of this group?”

4 troops from our guard rushed ahead of us screaming at the civilians “Move!” “Clear the road!” It works well, I’m able to pick up speed and the troops are moving as fast as they can. This is still nothing to me, and once again the feeling of moving so freely and painlessly is indescribably pleasing. After 8 or so minutes of jogging through the city we break through the wall and Broxson points up the dirt road, breathing heavily he tries yelling to me “Over that ridge…” Sassaba next to me with Timous on her back on the left, Conri and the wolves start running along my right. I slowly lower the cart to the ground and let go. It comes to a hard stop on its own. As we all start making distance between us and the guards, we hit the ridge looking down at a large valley below.

Multiple fires, what looks like carriages pulled in a convoy style, at least 12 of them 4 times bigger than my basic hand buggy. Dozens and dozens of what looks like kids running from men. The men look like they are wearing dishdashas like men in the Middle East, they are dark blues, whites and browns. Which makes sense if they are from the deserts here, 3 of them grab a kid and throw him in a cage. The sight is brutal and sickening, Lieutenant Brockston and his men are right behind us. “Timous, Sassaba, stay here. I'm sending kids this way. Lieutenant you and your men stay back here and if any slavers get up this way call them off. Conri, keep the wolves close to you, force the slavers back from the kids.” Brockston breathing heavily, “What are you going to do?” I force my armor to drop my face shield and make my sword, a Greek kopis, built like a machete. It will take off limbs easily. The lump forms from my right shoulder and travels to my forearm, and out from my hand a beautiful golden kopis.

A few troops gasp, I charge my Ki and send it to my legs. I start sprinting down the road hard toward the battle, and I spot a group of kids surrounded by slavers closest to me. I add more Ki to my legs, crouching as my feet drag through gravel a few feet. As I slow I focus and jump into the sky towards the group, I must be 70 feet in the air clearing what feels like a football field's distance. I slam into the ground 6 feet behind the slavers in front of the kids. The slavers raise swords which appear to be scimitars towards me and charge. I cut one the first sword in half and start slashing the slavers as more charge from all around. Hands, arms and heads start to hit the ground. One man tries to kick me in the thigh, I spin my Kopis around in my hand and it severs his leg mid thigh. With the first dozen or so dead and or bleeding out, I stand tall looking at the group of kids huddled up. They are all so different looking from each other. Skin, scales, fur, tales… They are all halflings for sure. I point up the hill. “ All of you, go up there my friends will protect you.” A few of them look up to see Conri maul a slaver as two wolves cover him, doing the same.” Kids! Run! Gather all the others you can!” Another slaver charges from my rear left with a spear screaming “ Ahhh!” I cut the spear head off while turning. Side step the stick and grab his dishdasha and throw him hard into a rock 4 or so feet away.. he hits with a sickening crunch and crumbles bonelessly to the ground.

A few of the kids encourage the others to start moving “Cmon!” one of the boys says. “Move, let's go!” A girl says. The group scurries off and I start to look for more people, or halflings. I jog back and forth, save one and kill two. Save 3 and kill 5. Save 9 and kill 14. All while looking back and checking that kids are making it up the hill to Timous. The wolves and Conri are doing an amazing job of keeping the half breeds from getting intercepted. Charging large spans of ground to give the kids a large birth to safety. I see Brockston and his men helping, but keeping their distance from the kids, looks like they have a few slavers they killed themselves. An arrow pings my head, I stop and look back to my right. 7 archers are lined up and letting arrows loose. I decide to charge my Kopis with Ki, the arrows pinging off of me and my armor. The Kopis hums and glows a golden light, I raise it in my right hand to my left shoulder. And with the flick of my wrist a beam of Ki bolts out from my blade and hits 2 of them. Left leg and right leg, they reach down to hold their legs and the bolt hits the ground a few feet behind them, a glorious little explosion like a 40 millimeter grenade tears them all apart. “I should remember that…” I think to myself.

I jump to the sky again to see a few dozen more slavers chasing kids across the terrain, when I hit the ground this time I charge a massive amount of Ki and plan to jump to the furthest kids to push them all back this way. I jump in the general direction I saw the kid furthest out. I’m moving so fast the wind is howling past my armor, but I can tell I’m slowing by the sound of it. The jump however is working as I’m clearing the distance, maybe 400 to 500 yards. A slaver gets a bola wrap around the kids legs I’m jumping to, I’m falling short again. But I land with a hard thud maybe 12 feet away from the slaver, my eyes trained on the slaver he looks around to see what had happened. I run up to him in about 11 steps and take his head clean off. His body takes 2 sloppy steps after his head rolls off and falls to the ground.

A teenage halfling boy with a very large mouth removed the bola and looks at me. “This way, there are more of you to save.” The boy stumbles to his feet and we start running back to the next kids. I run hard to keep as many kids safe as I can, the boy can’t keep up but still follows. A group of 5 slavers ahead with 2 small kids, they look like they are struggling to tie the kids up. On my approach I pick up speed, jump off the ground to drop, kick one and grab another with my left hand on his chest. The kick sends the man flying past the third man, he looks back at me and starts running. The one I grabbed, I moved my hand to his thin wrist and whirl his body at his fleeting buddy 8 or so feet off. He hits the runner hard back to back. The boy runs up behind me, I point to the kids “Free them, a few more to go.” 2 more charging me with swords, i take my sword and slit one's throat. The other tries to stab me in the ribs, his sword just grazes my body and makes a sound like metal to stone. I drop my fist holding my sword down on his head. His skull pops open under my strength and a portion of brains follow my fist.

The boy makes a long fingernail and slices through ropes. The kids take to him very quickly. “All of you stay together and keep up.” I run ahead, moving myself slightly left towards the coast line and past the kids. The terrain becomes wavy which I don't remember seeing looking overhead, small 6 foot rolls through the terrain spread out in random intervals. I see 2 men just ahead, they appear to be beating someone. I pick up the speed, jumping off a roll in the terrain. I plung my sword in one’s back, leave it in him and send a punch to the other one’s head. His head tilts and turns his head so his jaw goes to his left collar bone, the right side of his head flattens and blood flows from his eyes, ears and nose after he hits the ground hard.

The kid they were beating has dark skin, but looks more like a demon than a human. I can’t tell if it's a boy or girl but it is clearly scared. I force my helmet to open up. “Hey, easy! I’m here to help…” 7 men from the right start charging at me and screaming. I put my fists up waiting for them to approach me. Suddenly, the earth rolls under their feet and over them. They just got buried alive, I stand still inspecting it. The other children run up from behind to the unidentifiable child. I look at them and go to face them “What was that?” I ask pointing to the newly formed roll in the earth. “That was me protecting these orphans from harm.” An old man replies with 10 or so other children behind him almost 10 feet away. “Are you an ally today or the next to be entombed in terraferm.” He asked me.

The old man is clearly in his 60s at least, the top of his head is bald with thick hair on the sides. A long stringy beard. With fierce eyes, the rags he wears do his wire frame no benefit. The man is literally skin and bones with some dirt on him, very tan but again his voice is fierce. “Tell me now!” He repeats, wiggling his finger tips. I send Ki to my eyes to evaluate him and respond. “ I was called on to move this camp from the city before the slavers became involved.” I hold my left hand out to my sword, the Kopis turns to Liquid Metal and it takes 3 “steps” towards me and disappears into my armor once again. The man looks puzzled by the motion. My eyes show me the earth beneath him is feeding him Ki, as he makes Ki and sends it to the ground from his hands “Myself and my companions that way heard the slavers were on their way and rushed as fast as we could to help protect whoever was here… are you the reason the men were buried?”

The man relaxes and I see his Ki dissipate from his hand, arm and heart. “Please help me find my children…” The man says almost choking. I nod to him and point in the direction of Timous “A dozen or so are that way with my friends. Let’s go that way and start there?” He nods as I think to myself. “He said, ‘My children’? Did he make a couple dozen halflings or is this a good man caring for kids?” We start making our way to Timous, and the children are running toward the old man who he and the other kids are 8 feet to my left. Braxton and his men are nowhere in sight. The kids are scared, happy to see each other and the old man. “Wait kids, whose missing? Did any of you see anyone get taken by the slavers…”

He stops to watch Conri walking on his hinds and Timous riding Sassaba. “The guards are going to let their leadership know we defeated the slave traders who attacked them in return. None of the kids seem hurt and the other two leprechauns should be just fine, 3 of the guards said they would respectfully bring the cart closer to us.” Timous informs the new group.

“Conri you and your sister can move fast, can you spread out a ways and see if any slavers took any kids out of here? Have the wolves do the same for the immediate area, please?” Conri blows air from his snout “Of course.” He replies, looks to the wolves and they all spread out running. “You have seen 2 other leprechauns? They have been missing…” the old man says as the kids huddle together. “Yes they were prisoners in the city. They were hurt but Timous here is a healer and taking care of them.” I let him know. 2 wolves howl at the covered caravan getting my attention, I look and they both start barking and howling spinning in circles. I start to run over to inspect the caravan.

“Let’s see what the hell is going on here.” I jog my way to the carts and can hear all kinds of commotion and rattling. I lift the cover on one of the carts and see kids in cages, all hogtied. I start breaking into the cages and reaching for kids. I use my pointer finger to break the ropes, several other kids join me, Timous and the old man freeing more kids. All seem so terrified, which may seem obvious. But some of them look fierce, and all of them are acting like they just lost mom and dad at the fair. It's so human of them, I stop to watch the whole operation happening. The old man calls out “Golden warrior! Perhaps you'd like to see this…” I look over and see him at the next cart. I start moving over to him and I can hear timous running behind me. The wolves all look confused by the cart, and they aren't really sounding off like for the kids. They seem to be looking for us to help them. I look at the old man, “Lift the canvas back but only enough for your head. Let in no light son…” He says to me, I look at Timous who also looks confused.

I slowly bend my knee to get closer to the bottom of the cart, Timous grabs my arm “Let me see with you son.” I nod at him and pull the canvas back a bit and put my head under as I raise Timous with me, several cages stacked high. In front of me are several badly burned little bodies. “Babies?” I ask out loud. “ No! Dont shine the light! No more light!” One high pitch voice says. “The light burns us!” Another adds. “ We need water sir, or we will die like the one before you…” Timous puts his hands on a cage “ Gremlins! What are you Pixies doing this far out of the mountains?” I look at him shocked. “Captured! For trade and worse.” The high pitch one calls out. “Warm and dry we've been for too long master Leprechaun!” “Please! Pixie to fairy, save my band…” “Of course stay calm friends, I'm coming, Son all the water.” Timous responds and orders. “Get in, I'll go get it.” I set him down and move back out from under the canvas carefully. I look back and 3 guards have moved the cart much closer to us, I run towards them to get supplies.

I take the cart from them, “Thank you but I'll get it from here. I don't know how long we will be here but let your Governor know these people are no threat as long as they aren't threatened. We will find a new land for them provided we leave each other be…” I say to one of the oldest guards. He nods and simply responds. “I'll tell them sir. Thank your Lycanthrope for me… The white one saved us twice…” I smile and nod and start moving faster back to the cart to keep helping everyone.