The Familiar

Part 7: The Preparation

The army was on its way. At best, they had three weeks to prepare for their arrival. It set Aster on edge knowing that doom was so close. Everything he fought to get to, he was now going to fight to protect.

"Aster. You mentioned meeting the Troll's once, correct?" Adalena once stopped and asked him.

Yes. I have met the trolls. Why?

"Will you go to retrieve them? We will need all the people we can get to help."

He bowed his head respectfully, much to her displeasure. She didn't like being held in such high regard, but Aster still wanted to show the proper respect. He thought she was incredibly brave to set the Gathering into motion, so she deserved every ounce of his admiration.

So he went to the Troll's village like she asked of him. Familiar greetings of "Oogah," followed by strings of Trollish words was the welcome he received. He acknowledged them with nods of his head. He didn't want to risk a mind like with any of them, and it wasn't like they spoke common. So instead, he went straight to Kuja's tent. The Shaman greeted him with open arms and a chipper presence brushing against his mind.

Oogah! Good to see. What brings you here so quick?

Aster sighed. Not in exasperation, but rather he'd been thinking about the Shaman's reaction to having to take his people to war. A Human army approaches the Wildlands. They seek to burn everything. We need your people to help defend it.

Kuja frowned, bowing his head. The point of his tweed hat tipped with the movement. I not happy to go march people to war, but I do this. They want fire? We give them fire of death. Kuja looked back up, his amber eyes wide with fury. He pounded his fist against his little chest, which Aster assumed was a form of saluting.

Will your people be as eager to fight?

Of course they will. This their home as much as Elves'. We not stand down in face of Juju, so we not stand down in face of little Human group.

It's not a little group, Kuja. Even though Gawaine, the dragon, put a considerable dent in their forces, and maybe even slowed them down for now, they're still coming. Except now it will be with a vengeance.

Kuja shook his head. We fight anyways. Protect home and family. We win, because we have cause, people to fight for. You see, Oogah. You see.

Aster found that little speech motivation enough. They had something precious to fight for. The humans did not. This gave them such an advantage, Aster believed, that only the Goddess herself could match by coming to earth in the flesh.

I talk to people now. Go, Oogah. We will come to elf city in week.

Aster nodded, before he ducked out of the Shaman's hut. He was glad the Shaman agreed to fight, even if it seemed obvious that he would.

Adalena greeted him upon his return. "How did it go with the Trolls?"

Good. They are going to arrive at Ti'Serda in a week's time.

"This is good news." Adalena smiled, glancing around. Her gaze caught on a little girl. She was maybe seven, chasing around a humming bird. Aster knew this humming bird was a fellow familiar by the way it's green feathers radiated a soft white glow, and by the fact that every so often, it would land on the girl's shoulder and nuzzle her neck. No actual hummingbird would do that normally.

"I fear what this will do to her and the other children in our care," Adalena said wistfully. He could understand what she meant. Even if the child never saw any actual fighting, she was going to see the affects. Aster had never seen war first hand, but he knee the affects of it were the farthest thing from glamorous.