The Dragonriders

Chapter 25

The Centaurs Passion

Tara'li

When we are about to take off the leader finally shows himself. 'Council member, I have thought about your words for a long time. There is a lot of wisdom in them. We will be reconvening to talk about them soon. Hopefully there is time before you go to battle to discuss the outcome of our decision. In the meantime I wish you luck.'

I get on Rashter and strap my legs in. 'I will be going to the Centaurs and then the Emerald Realm on my way to the front line. Hopefully we can arrive before the Orks do to prevent half my army being chopped up before the Demons even drew a sword. Then the hunt is on so Tresh'ta can die before the Dwarves show up, who are working on making their wonderful machinery. All in all, we have no time to spare.'

The leader turns his head to the side. 'Please put some leeway into your battle plans. Though we to are preparing for war, the Dragon Guard can not be armed and armored in the timespan you are talking about. You will be in it alone for quite a while as the Dragon Forges are out. No one knows how to use them any more.'

I raise my hand to send the squad into the air. 'You go about the slow ways of doing things the old ways. Let me do things the way that gets results. Maybe we will see each other between battles, but I'm nog going to wait for to long. The Demons may notice the gathering army and respond to it soon enough. Even now with the Elven armies having taken a defensive position it will get them asking questions. Tresh'ta knows I'm the queen and still tries to get me to falter. I have to be quick to distract them from finding out my plans.'

The leader nods. 'Hopefully until next time, queen Tara'li. May fortune follow you into battle.'

With that Rashter takes to the sky.

Below me the Emerald Forrest lays, however it isn't what we have been looking for. Right at the edge I see more forrest, though this is in darker colors. We keep flying over it until I see a clearing. There I motion to land. As we dismount I look around, bow drawn and an arrow knocked on. I listen carefully and hear some sounds I don't like, however I don't aim my bow yet. Then I hear a whisper in the wind. 'What is an Elf with a crown doing here with the Riders?'

I speak up. 'We are here to talk.'

The whispers in the wind change. I hear them changing direction. 'For someone who comes to talk you are very armed. It seems you came to kill.'

I put my bow away. 'I put my weapons away, now please reveal yourself. Had we come to fight this part of the forest would not be standing any more.'

No answer comes. After a while a shimmer in the air appears some distance from us, revealing a female centaur. She is almost as graceful as an Elf, with a lot of jewelry on her body. A golden and gem encrusted belt is around her waste, below which she is what I think a white horse. She also wears some kind of noble metal bra, three bracelets on every arm and a couple of rings, as well as a rich necklace. She seems to be richer than even the Dwarves, however I see no clothing whatsoever on her entire body. She is clutching a staff of sorts that has not a single straight edge in it. As she walks up I walk to meet her. 'If possible, I'd like to meet with your leader. It is urgent.'

She motions with her staff to follow her. My squad wants to follow me but I motion for them to stay. 'Sha'iva, I'm going to need only you for this. This is a delicate situation and I have to figure out what went so horribly wrong.'

The centaur stops for a moment and turns around with a surprised look when I mention Sha'iva. Then we walk into the thick of the forrest with a lot of trouble. The Centaur seems to have no issue, however Sha'iva and I seem to get stuck in every vine and plant on the way. At one point I'm getting sick of it. 'Hang on a moment, miss centaur.'