*Before…

We talk some while eating and say our goodbyes and shaking hands as we get ready to leave and Kyte is in the prow of the boat with a blaster rifle that looks like red polished wood and brass with plating that has runes and such carved into it instead of a bow and Illisia is standing and she uses the tiller like one of those long handled propellers on a regular boast and they zip out from the hangar really fast like one of those hover skiff’s from Return of the Jedi.

We’re with them and on Bhlaze’s back and we gain altitude and the girls are matching us in the long boat and we’re headed to the northern edge of the rim for The Darklands and we sort of sail once we get to that edge of things and patrol as we head towards Shikari Fortress our next stop and the fortress that is supplied and supported by the Sylvan’s from the Kyu-nari moon.

*And Now…

It’s like nothing I could have dreamed being like this.

Being remade here as me.

Flying with a legit elfin princess on the back of her dragon.

Of course I’m pausing the whole thing of Shaya being this highly trained warrior and an actual knight and able to kick booty on a level that I thought reserved for Hollywood movies.

I mean it’s all cool but The Lover, The Me being with the whole princess thing and doing this right now is something I’m letting fill my heart with joy.

We bank and glide with the others following us in the air-skiff.

Shaya says. “I don’t know how we’ll be received at Shinkari.”

“Why?”

“The Kyu-nari are part of The Sylvan Republic but they’re not ruled by my father or any of my ancestors.”

“Oh...okay.”

“They’re ruled and always have been by Empress Jocelynn.”

“Jocelynn? I thought she was like Japanese?”

I feel the link buzzing as she and Bhlaze are feeling out my references.

“Well you’re right the name is odd and different even for her people...and yours.”

“So have you met her?”

“A few times at the palace before my healing so she only known me as Illian.”

“Sorry.”

“No, that’s sort of part of this trip to get me out there and seen so that the places we got to can of course report back to their moons about me….and now you too.”

“So we’re kind of strangers to them, will they be okay with us?”

“Maybe? The Kyu-nari have a fractious culture with a lot of nobles and other titles plus there’s a whole contingent there that is unhappy with the everlasting rule of The Empress.”

“EVerlasting?”

“She is immortal from all reports and histories and cannot die, she took power or the throne there when she raised rebels to overthrow The C’Thull there and built is herself.”

“Wow...so she’s powerful?”

“One of the most power women in The Republic, Both my parents are very powerful mages and they both have said that she’s more powerful and dangerous.”

“So she is the shit and does what she wants and now after so long of peace others want what is hers.”

“Pretty much and there are those in The Republic highly offended that she takes and keeps consorts and has not married and will never place a man over her.”

“Sounds like a reason to hate her if you’re a dick like Kyte’s brother or whatever the local variety of that is called.”

She shocks the heck out of me when she does that deep japanese like bass growl talk and says. “Hauuuuu….Deekheddo.”

You know like SNL and Samurai Hotel.

I laugh and I laugh and I laugh getting looks from Kyte and Ilissa and even Bhlaze snorts with mirth then laughed out loud.

OH MY FALCOR….. Being close to a dragon actually laughing out loud and not through telepathy has to be one of the most amazing moments really.

It’s literally a wonderous thing to see.

I’m crying that I get to do this, be here, feel this.

She reaches behind me and takes my hands and she squeezes them and pulls me ahead so my arms end up wrapping around her.

We’re like that for at least an hour before we start getting close and I can smell fire on the wind, I can feel fire spells going off?

The scene unfolds as we break the trees and there’s a japanese looking walled settlement down in The Darklands floor and they’re under siege.

Shaya lets go of me and she pulls her two guns and I pull my firebolt blaster and Bhlaze swoops in and swings low and fires a bolt of lightning cooking a troll that was going to throw a boulder from behind and I shoot a Warg in the face and Shaya’s firing her guns unleashing blue-silver bolts of energy. It’s the first time that I’ve seen an ion weapon before.

They’re called a starfire pistol and they look like if elves made a wheellock pistol of blue glass and inlaid silvery symbols and mother of pearl.

She’s firing off left and right really fast like a gunfighter taking goblins in the head as we’re cruising through the ring of them around the settlement and I guess I can add gunfighter to her list of amazing.

Bhlaze knocks loads down too lashing his tail where he can bowling over goblins and mounted ones.

I shoot another two dropping them and making them burn from the fire bolts and I see Ilissa unleash a couple of flash spells before she raises a magic shield bubble around the air skiff as this swarm of smoking black arrows hits it and it came from some woman in robes and strange and super goth style headdress.

She has other women with her and they’re not goblins but they’re sylvans and there’s three of them and they’re armed. The mage woman raises a shield bubble of her own and two of her friends pull bows and start firing at us.

The other shouted something in Goblin and they started firing en mass at Illisa and Kyte’s using her blaster rifle and firing back.

I lose my firebolt blaster to one of the arrows and we going into evasive flying.

My blaster flew apart like a high powered rifle hit it.

All the while the settlement’s wall folks are fighting back as well with their own guns, firebolt rifles that look like sleeker versions of the Japanese age of gunpowder.

And I see warriors jumping off their walls as soon as we showed and this is like a samurai movie with the fighting men...bushi warriors and what literally looks like samurai leading them into battle versus the goblins.

We takes arrows, literally even as evasive as we are I catch one to my shoulder plating and it hurts, the arrow shatters with the power of its own force but it shatters my armor plate there and well the force still rocked me.

If I didn’t have such good armor I’d have lost the arm.

Shaya’s hit too and in the rib area and I feel her pain from the impact doing the same to her but definitely bruising ribs and Bhlaze is grunting as he’s ticked off with the impacts and there’s a snarl as three arrows tear through wing membranes.

That pisses me off enough that I chant and form a fireball pushing power and will into it and fire it at the four assholes streetfighter style.

The armed one not fighting she holds her palm out and does something and all that power gets ripped apart and I made a ribbon of flame light show.

We’re still in the air at another pass and Bhlaze is mad enough he’s fast spitting lighting arcs into anything and everything and Shaya sheathed her guns and she raised her own shields too not the bubbles but three discs that look like five foot wide round war shields of blue light and with dragonic designs.

And she’s not fighting anymore but she’s using them to deflect the incoming attacks.

There’s a battle between Illisa and the mage going on as the witch does those black smoking arrows several more times and Illisa’s shield takes it and she retaliates with these silver light streaks that look like teeny little elf knights on dragonflies with lances? They explode with energy when they hit the shield.

Then Ilissa is just taking more and more fire from the goblins with dozens of firebolts making her shield flicker and start to falter.

Kyte’s blasting away and firing like a mad woman taking as many out as she can.

The Kyu-nari aren’t helping them right now so there’s nothing local there to get hurt and I chant and pull together another fireball and unleash it down on them.

It stays together this time and...as bad as these things are I’ve never grenaded anything before.

It’s bad but needed being done.

Through the link I know...feel these things, goblins, trolls eat people.

I don’t get the stuff about the women I feel from Shaya, but they’re all sorts of bad news.

The witch women with the bows keep up a steady hail of arrows at us and Bhlaze rolls into mid air evasion again still taking a few arrow blows to his main scales. They don’t sink in but Shaya and I can feel their impact like a punch for us would.

Sylvan bows as easily as high powered as a modern earth rifle I’d guess.

I catch swirly glimpses of more mage fighting from the head dressed main witch and Ilissa. Well she’s still doing all of the offense and Ilissa is still concentrating and casting?

Kyte is still firing away with her spell rifle staying smart and using the air skiff for most of her cover as well as Illisa’s shield.

I can see the Kyu-fighters going at things hard and the fighting looks like this Japanese fighting movie with all the real life horror and sounds and smells added to it.

We level out and Bhlaze must be able to track targets flying like this because as soon as we do he’s opening fire again and the first two shots are really accurate.

Shaya is helping him chanting some other spell that’s pushing into his body.

Me?

I work up another fireball and I make it start to spin in my hand as I form it and I cut loose with it towards the third escort the fire snuffer one and I see her reach out at my fireball and when she targets it she misses as I put some good ol’ english on the ball as it were.

I aimed for the ground knowing the main woman has that shield sphere going and I try and jostle them with the explosion.

And that actually worked.

The two archers are still trying for us recovering fats but the one that tried negating my fireball she looks just shocked that this even happened and she and the main caster woman took a step and faltered.

The sphere shield flickered.

Shaya yelled and pointed and Bhlaze breathed out lightning but it was straighter some other attack that was faster like a beam.

He’d have hit the main caster to except for the one that was negating the fireballs moved mystically fast even for an elf and pushed her down and took Bhlaze’s beam attack right through her shoulder making her scream.

The two archers stop firing at us and they start firing at the Kyu-nari forces out fighting on the ground like they’ve decided to do as much damage as they can.

The main caster woman goth-headdress regains control of the shield and she’s getting up and I see her turn towards Ilissa who fires this deeply gold light spell into the earth near where they are at and the ground rumbles and shakes and then it explodes as this humanoid shape of actual earth pulls the exploding earth and dirt into it as it forms and I see Ilissa move her fingers in some way and as it’s finishing the ripped up sod becomes one of those rice hats and pants?

I can feel it? Or Bhlaze can feel it?

Living earth?

Oh geez she summoned an elemental.

It winds back and it starts to hammer goth-headress’s shield sphere and it’s really pounding away at it and I can see the four gather and hold each other then there’s a flash of light and a shreach like some huge evil bird of prey and they teleport away.

Illissa’s elemental turns on the goblins that are there fighting and firing at her and Kyte and we?

We land and we watch as the Kyu-nari fighters are turning the tide of the battle now.

Shaya’s channeling magic into Bhlaze helping him heal faster and by that I mean he regenerates.

Okay I didn’t know this but yeah...apparently Dragons regenerate like Logan in the X-men regenerate as I watch the holes in his wings growing back.

Ilissa soon joins us with the boat and she said something to Kyte to keep her from joining in.

“Is this some sort of honor thing us not joining?”

Shaya nods. “It is. But it’s more than that too. This isn’t an imperially sanctioned settlement.”

“I don’t understand.”

“This is set up by either a group of people to glean from The Darklands because it’s so known for it’s Danger that it sells or it’s here for other things like a forward base for hunting and treasure and gathering things that will sell on Kyu-nari or other markets.”

“So the black market?”

“Pretty much, father can’t stop what goes on down here on the Holy Planet as it’s out of all politics from The Republic and the moons. The Rangers will take any Cthul technology and place it in our care so it doesn’t fall in the wrong hands but that’s it really and well dangerous living creatures.”

“And the fortresses don’t get involved even if it’s their people?”

Shaya shakes her head. “It’s usually frowned on doing but people still do it and most places will come to their aid when attacked hard like this. The Kyu-nari imperials won’t, they’re on orders not to by the Empress.”

“Oh...so bad blood?”

Ilissa says. “Most of the ones here are working for one faction or another that is against her and trying to raise funds to do so.”

“Okay and those women?”

Ilissa says. “Sisters of the Darkest Kiss. They’re local, they’re Forsaken allied witches and casters that see ALL of The Darklands as their nation.”

I nod. “And all the bad stuff here too.”

Shaya nods. “One of our as you’d say home grown terrorists.”

“Allied to Lyam?”

“Sort of, Lyam works with and flirts with both The Forsaken and The C’thul. They tolerate him more than anything.”

Bhlaze adds in. ~Shaitan is A Forsaken creature. A tainted Dragon.~

Ilissa nods. “But They won’t support him Shaitan was once the Dragon of Seth of Forsaken and he hated women.”

I look around. “I’m taking that I missed a lot of history with all of this?”

Shaya nods. “The summoning war lasted a couple of generations after The C’Thul were defeated. It was the evil side of the power vacuum as opposed to the rise of my family and the nobility as the moons were finally free of The C’thul.”

I nod. I know there’s a lot more and a lot of nuance to things here but it’s still sort of getting it.

Home, Earth is bad, just as bad but at the same time...I’m not sure if we’d ever stand a chance if anything here ever came to Earth and stayed.

And if The Forsaken came or The C’thul we’d be done because we couldn’t stop fighting long enough to really fend off those first attacks.

I look and Kyte’s pointing to a skiff boat like Ilissa’s but definitely oriental looking and with it are two samurai women in this armor that looks like fine glazed porcelain in green with golden trimming and a woman in a lovely cloudy-sky hooded-Kimono is with then as they’re coming towards us. I can barely see her face but it is painted but with the hood and the fan it certainly creates and effect.

And there’s riders coming out to us from the settlement on horses.

And all of them are men and they’re looking at the incoming air-skiff and at us and you can see them getting that we’re two groups of women.

Yeah there’s this guy in the middle and he doesn’t look too pleased.