War of the Races

Chapter 44- Maidens of the Moon

It was still early in the day, so Sinaan sent orders for the captives to be turned over into our care as the svartalf camp began to prepare for departure. Forelain reclined in her chair while Sinaan, Ra'Shaal, and Fjallindae took turns tending to her needs, or tending to some other preparations beneath the cover of the pavilion tent. As the Faline armsmen disassembled their tents and prepared their gear for departure, they were called by platoons to the pavilion and never returned.

While Matron Forelain's army was sent back to wherever they came from, I led my party over to the captives. Still unable to use her magic, Glenna directed Hlina and Orsa as they examined and healed the captives. There were seven adult female she-wolves including Chenoa, and there were thirteen children ranging in age from infants to seven years of age in alfari-years. They were infants to fourteen years of age in animal years. Nine of the children were females. The other four were male. It was a very small ratio of males to females. Especially once the adult females were included. It would be nearly impossible for this pack to reestablish itself.

The dokkalfar captives were in much worse condition. Once Glenna returned after having taken a census, she informed me of her findings.

"There are nearly three hundred dokkalfar."

I gave a sharp grunt at the number but remained quiet, so Glenna went on, "The vast majority are all female. Only fifty are adults, which means, only fifty of them are above the age of hundred and seventy. The rest are too young to marry, or should have been..."

She paused then to mumble something disgruntled under her breath about indecent men, and yet she completely overlooked the fact that I am eighteen and vastly underage considering I had her, my half-sisters, my grandmother, and all of my other half-siblings by my grandmother as wives, not including my animal concubines.

"I'm not overly worried whether the underage females were married, or not. I can't help what has happened to them in the past, I can only take care of them now that they are my responsibility," I said, which got a sharp look from Glenna. In return, I raised an eyebrow and she submitted with a, "Yes, my husband," letting me know she understood my apathy towards that particular indiscretion.

She was silent for a second and then she continued, "there are quite a large number of them carrying infants, though, or with young children. Their young age didn't apparently keep their men from breeding them."

"How many of the children are male," I asked.

Glenna's eyes fell then to her inspect her breasts, or maybe it was her hands that were holding her breasts, " The only males among the dokkalfar refugees are infants. There are forty-two males, and they are all half-breeds."

"Half-bred with whom," I asked.

"Male Exiles," Glenna answered as she shook her head, "I think you call them humans. We call them the Exiles, but they call themselves the Aesir and the Vanir."

I knew this, of course, I had learned all about the races during my tutelage under Glenna, Frieda, and Hailyn. The Aesir and the Vanir were both considered high-humans, or humans that still lived for centuries versus humans on Midgard that barely lasted eight decades—and might see a century of especially mighty. Another distinction between them was the fact that the Aesir were mostly coastal city dwellers applying their minds and magics towards teknology and creature comforts while the Vanir were rural folk living in small villages and living more agrarian lifestyles.

"It is the same with all of the females thirty years of age and younger," Glenna continued, "It seems that thirty years ago all of their men died in a hunting catastrophe leaving the womenfolk stranded without hunters with winter only months away. Not long afterward the Exiles appeared and offered to help feed the village, but with conditions."