Eternal Beasts

The Denai

Nikeera paused to make sure the tight bun she had twisted her hair into, was still in place. Then she pulled her hood and mask back over her face. She didn't want the denai that she was about to meet, get distracted. Not that there weren't beautiful women amongst both the Wandering Folk and the Denai, but she had noticed how Seth's sentinels had reacted when she threw back her hood. If the denai men were the same, she'd be talking to empty heads and blank faces as they marveled at her beauty instead of taking her seriously.

Besides, everything that she had and was, was for her Jared. Any foolish enough to try to convince her otherwise will be lucky to walk away from her with his life!

"Steel yourself, Princess," Seth, walking on her right, leaned over to say in a low voice. "I will do the talking first. Only when we've established rapport, broach the subject of the Denai entering the fight on the side of the Light."

"I don't understand your wording there, Seth. Are they not lightlings?" she asked, looking over at him. "Should they naturally pick to fight on our side??"

"Aye. But they'd rather cut you down as Tuatha Fáil than fight beside you. It's contrary, I know, but that's how they're looking at it."

"I see." Nikeera dropped her eyes to again look at the three bonfires that surged wildly in the cooling air as evening approached. "I'll await your signal then."

Being that the Denai encampment contained mostly soldiers, it was laid out in military order, with the tents in organized clusters close to company mess tents and medical facilities, with the service area more centralized with the portable smithy, the leather workers' pavilion, a place to dress game that kept it away from where the soldiers slept, and, surprisingly, a small portable Maker's temple with clerics and priests both beside the conical wizards' tent.

That made Nikeera's eyes narrow behind her mask. Clerics, priests that wore armor and went into battle beside regular infantry units, had obvious value. And, as far as she knew, the Denai were the only ones that used that arrangement, although the nysim of old sent healers into battle beside their soldiers. The Tuatha Fáil and the Lucht Taistil both kept their healers back behind protection, as did the MuulHaden.

Then she was forced to drop her eyes to avoid garnering too much notice as they stepped to the encampment's outer perimeter where a full platoon of soldiers had been stationed.

"Pathfinder Seth and company," Seth announced in westerling, which was more heavily used amongst the Denai than Iesho, the language of the high elves. "We wish for a conference with War Leader Jeremiah."

"We see you, Pathfinder," one of the guards, a woman, said firmly. "And your arrival was anticipated. You have been granted passage through the camp to where the war leader is with his commanders in the map tent."

Nikeera felt Seth nod then they were once again moving forward, passing through the midst of the guard post to approach the inner perimeter. Where they were promptly halted again, Seth forced to once again announce them and request a conference before they were let through, this time gaining an escort.

With her head down, the tuathan princess didn't know how quickly they were passing through the camp. Until they were being challenged again outside of an open walled pavilion.

"Let them through, captain, on my authority," a hard voice said from within before the challenge could be completed. "Seth Forestsong, you old leaf eater. Come in, come in!"

A gesture moved their small party under the pavilion's roof, the interior brightly lit by spell globes.

"Jeremiah Moonshadow, as I live and breathe," Seth replied with more than a little friendly humor in his voice. "Still wearing your tin can armor and playing soldier?"