Path of Dragons

Book 5: Chapter 1: Prejudice

Elijah only knew peace.

He didn’t know how long it lasted. Nor was he in any condition to question it. Instead, he basked in the quiet. For the longest time, he’d been forced to acclimate to a cascade of stimuli – from his enhanced senses to the input from One with Nature – and he hadn’t realized how much that tidal wave of information had weighed on his shoulders. Now, though – he felt only blissful silence, and to such a degree that he could, at last, relax.

Then, without warning, his senses screamed at him as he reappeared in an entirely different world. He had expected it. Planned for it. But the notion that he’d crossed untold lightyears – perhaps even dimensions – was almost too much for him to bear, at least in the short term. Still, he’d long since grown accustomed to pushing those distractions aside so he could focus on what was important.

Like his surroundings.

He didn’t think the system would immediately throw him to the proverbial – or perhaps literal, considering he didn’t know what sort of world played host to the Trial of Primacy – wolves. So, he opened his eyes as well as his senses and inspected the ruins in which he’d found himself.

The first thing he noticed was that he was inside what had once been a grand structure with eye-catching architecture. Fluted columns ringed the circular chamber, each one bearing elaborately carved capitols, though they were far too worn for Elijah to determine the subjects of those sculptures. The chamber itself was a little more than a hundred yards across, with a cracked dome overhead. It glimmered with a dull shine, but Elijah couldn’t tell what metal had been used in its construction. A large rift – maybe five feet across at its widest point – stretched from the center of the dome all the way to the edge, allowing a shaft of sunlight into the chamber. It was the only source of light.

And then there were the people, none of whom he recognized.

He’d hoped that he would enter the Trial alongside the people from Ironshore. He didn’t trust Robolo or Nia, but they were familiar. That was much better than trying to rely on strangers. Besides, Kurik was with them, and over the years, the dwarven scout certainly had earned Elijah’s trust.

Before he could say anything to the strangers – none of whom were human – a notification appeared before Elijah’s inner eye:

That was all there was to see, and Elijah had to admit that he was a bit disappointed in the lack of information. He’d hoped to learn something about the challenges mentioned in the notification, but given how lacking information had been since Earth had been touched by the World Tree, he couldn’t say he was surprised. Still, there were some helpful nuggets of information there. Like the nature of the challenges, which were meant to mirror the nine realms connected to the World Tree. It wasn’t something he’d heard before, but it bore a passing resemblance to Norse mythology. So, perhaps that was a hint as to what was to come.

Unfortunately, Elijah’s experiences with those stories were limited to watching Marvel movies, so he probably wasn’t the best prepared to make predictions as to what was to come. And besides, it wasn’t as if that commonality was assured. For all he knew, only the terminology was similar. So, he intended to reserve judgement until he had more to go on.

Instead, he turned to inspect the people who’d arrived in the domed chamber with him, and what he saw was a little shocking, largely because only about half were human. The rest represented the other races that had come to Earth in search of opportunities. He saw goblins, elves, a couple of dwarves, and even a few creatures he could only classify as ogres.

Once, Elijah had been told there were only a handful of races in the known multi-verse, but that characterization was a bit misleading. Due to interbreeding, especially with semi-sapient races like orcs, that handful had become nearly infinite with variations. For instance, Elijah had learned that Nerthus’ race – the spryggents – were the result of ancient cross-breeding with elves and dryads, whose progeny had learned to procreate with sentient trees. It was all a bit confusing, and upon learning of so many possibilities, Elijah had decided to simply take things as they came.

But the wide variety of races on display stretched that resolution, especially when a large ogre, accompanied by a goblin that was even taller than Elijah, approached him. He turned to face them, expecting trouble. So, he was a little surprised when the ogre broke into a wide, uneven-toothed grin.

“Hey. You strong. Want to group?” he asked in a deep, gravelly voice that sounded like it came from a walking mountain.

“Uh…”

“Dammit, Grod,” said the unusually large goblin, massaging his brow in annoyance. He wasn’t just taller than the other members of his race that Elijah knew. He was much more muscular, with thick shoulders and a neck that seemed to disappear into his trapezius muscles. A couple of stumpy tusks stuck out from his bottom lip. “You gotta be more subtle than that.” Then, to Elijah, the goblin said, “Name’s Venka. Way I figure it, we got two choices here. We can all go our separate ways and get killed, or we can band together ‘til we find the Nexus Town. What d’ya say? Grod’s strong. I’m a fair Hunter. We probably stand a better chance together than alone.”

Elijah glanced around, though One with Nature told a better story. Since upgrading his Core – and with the bonus from his equipment – the effective radius had widened quite a bit. So, he could feel most of the people in the general area. And what he sensed wasn’t encouraging. Most of the humans had separated from the other races, and they glared at them with undisguised enmity. The non-natives of Earth returned those looks with equal distrust and, in some cases, undiluted hatred.

Clearly, there were some conflicts back on Earth between the natives and the newcomers.

Then, a woman raised her voice, saying, “There’s no reason to battle! We only need to –”

“She’s using a skill!” shouted a short creature with hairy feet. He looked like a blend between a dwarf and an elf.

Elijah had recognized the skill as well, and the ability in question reminded him of Barry back in Seattle. Clearly, she had a similar class. And even if she had tried to exercise her abilities in the hopes of avoiding conflict, nobody liked it when someone played with their minds. So, once the skill was discovered, the results were predictable.

Some people scattered. Others embraced spells and skills. And a few even threw themselves at their perceived enemies. For Elijah’s part, he backed away, ducking a blow from a nearby elf. He didn’t return the favor. Instead, he was intent on extricating himself from the situation. After all, he didn’t have any reason to fight.

Luckily, Venka, Grod, and a few others were thinking the same thing. With a nod from Elijah, they all took off across the chamber toward the only exit, which presented itself as a yawning crack in one of the walls. Elijah led the way, leaping over a pile of rubble, intent on putting as much distance between himself and the battle as he could manage. Behind him, he could hear spells going off, though he didn’t look back to see how things were going.

After a few more steps, he stumbled free of the domed chamber and got an eyeful of his surroundings. The area was dominated by the massive ruins of a city. Even crumbling and covered by dense vegetation, it was impressively sized. Here and there, Elijah saw some of the fanciful architecture that had survived what appeared to be thousands of years of erosion, and he was taken aback at the artistry involved. With only a short inspection, Elijah was reminded of Mayan architecture, though it was far more refined, as if that culture had survived and been allowed to evolve over thousands of years.

It wasn’t a one-to-one comparison. In addition to a clear preference for stepped pyramids, the builders of the city were also fond of huge domes and stone spires. Further muddling Elijahs impressions was the fact that a jungle was well on its way to overtaking the area. That, in turn, had brought many buildings to ruin.

Those thoughts passed through one facet of Elijah’s mind as he ran through the ruins, turning at random until the sounds of the battle faded. Once they’d reached temporary safety, Elijah slowed to a stop. Venka skidded to a halt right behind him, and a few seconds later, a huffing and puffing Grod arrived. Six others – two elves, one portly human man, and a trio of women with feathers instead of hair – followed.

“You run too fast,” Grod muttered. Once before, Elijah had referred to the residents of the Citadel of the Reaver as ogres, and at the time, he’d thought it an accurate label. Grod looked a lot like them, though, at only seven feet tall, he was a bit shorter and slightly less muscular. However, his features were more refined, and his eyes held a note of intelligence that the tower’s creatures had never possessed. “Grod barely keeps up.”

“Sorry,” Elijah said. “Figured it was best to get out of there as quickly as possible.”

“Good idea,” agreed Venka, his eyes methodically darting around as if he was trying to look everywhere at once. “Don’t want to kill anyone unnecessarily. We might need them later.”

The other six looked at the goblin a little warily at that justification. “A hill goblin with restraint,” said one of the elves. “Never thought I’d see that.”

“Mai,” said one of her companions. “We don’t –”

“Well, we’ll take our leave, then,” Mai stated. “I would appreciate it if you ruffians didn’t follow. Otherwise, things will get very nasty.”

Then, without hesitation, the elf – she was taller and possessed an even more refined appearance than someone like K’hana – turned and strode off. The two other elves followed, and so did the stragglers. One of the humans gave Elijah an apologetic shrug before leaving.

“Wow,” Elijah said as they disappeared around a corner. He shook his head. “That…I don’t even know what to say about that.”

Elijah preferred to travel alone, but he had the benefit of a nature attunement, One with Nature, and a host of abilities that let him thrive in the wilderness. Most other people only survived by working together, so it was more than a little surprising that they’d left so readily.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Venka. “Lots of people have prejudices associated with hill goblins. Even more have issues with ogres like Grod.”

“Grod don’t care. Grod friendsly.”

“Sure you are, buddy,” said Venka. “That’s why we stick together, right? Us against the world, I always say.”

Before Elijah could respond, he heard screams coming from the direction the others had gone. He glanced at Venka, who shrugged. But Grod was already stomping through the ruins, yelling, “Grod will save you!”

Elijah had to keep himself from rolling his eyes as he followed.