The Merciless Alpha(erotica)

I was glad to hear that humans were considered humanoid, and I recognized the orcs. I’d seen enough fantasy that I hoped I knew at least something about orcs that could be related here, but I also hoped there wouldn’t be too many misconceptions brought in that way.

“There is so much to learn.” I murmured.

For some reason, the vast amount of information didn’t seem to bother me. Normally, I’d feel completely paralyzed until I learned everything to make sure I was making good and validated decisions. However, it hardly phased me that there was so much I didn’t know. Searching my feelings, there was that calming peace that had come over me every time I’d almost been overwhelmed.

I realized that whatever force manages the system of summons to new worlds must know that just placing even the elite in strange and unknown environments would likely have seriously detrimental effects on the summon’s performance. So it seemed that any time such serious realities seemed to set in, the natural reactions were replaced with peace and calm. I’d had normal adrenaline during each combat I’d taken part in, but in the lulls between the storms was when there was nothing to distract from the overwhelming craziness of what all was going on, and the strangeness threatened to overcome me, that sweet peace smothered the fear and anxiety that reality was trying to create.

Creadean and her maidens took the lead again and we headed out.

Part of me wanted to talk to Tavorwen, Narusil and the other maidens and learn more about my new world, but instead we discussed signs of dangers as we passed by. Marks in bark I’d thought too high, or too large, to indicate animals that were the marks of dire beasts. The largest bears back on earth could be ten feet tall. It seemed dire bears could be upwards of twenty-five feet tall with rumors of thirty-foot tall dire bears existing. Dire snakes could climb into the tops of the trees. Even some dire wolves and dire tigers could leap from trunk to trunk rising far above the floor and moving quickly. Dire elk, deer and moose lived among the trees as well, and we found a hoofprint of a dire moose the size of my chest.

The carnivorous plants had once been held in check, but like weeds they seemed to spring up, and unchecked were spreading through the forest.

“Some of the worst ones for us seem to actually be symbiotes with the trees they latch into, more than parasites.” Flendreir admitted. “Not great news for us, but at least they live down among the roots and on the lower trunks of the trees, while we live in the crowns of the trees and among the canopy.”

I learned leaves to watch for, and signs of dangerous saps or other plant based dangers. I learned that the staggered enormous trees stretching for furrows in every direction killed the wind. Plants moving of their own accord were doing so for a clear reason, it made it more likely to snag a passing animal.

I saw one such plant working on a normal deer, or a very young dire deer. The leaves had clamped on it, with more and more leaves moving in, the thorns gripping it and the more the deer had tried to pull free, the more vines it had pulled to it, with more leaves to latch on. I didn’t get close enough to see what was happening to the deer, but it was unmoving and there were drag marks indicating it was slowly being pulled back to the tree the vine was anchored to.

“One day, we will reclaim our forest and you’ll be able to once again walk in peace among the trees.” Tavorwen declared. “Some of the more beneficial plants we may find a way to integrate into the forest, but much of this forest is in serious need of its caretakers again.”

As the sun set, we set up a small camp. We avoided a campfire, but ate our rations while gathered in the clearing among the roots. There was evidence that Irsivir had already done his hunting and was cleaning up his coat afterward.

“You wanted me to teach you magic?” Narusil suggested, sitting next to me, “Want to try your first spell?”

I might have gotten a little more excited than I should have. I mean, who doesn’t feel cool learning a magic trick, but this was the real deal. An ACTUAL spell.

“Let’s do it.” I declared, perhaps a little giddy.

“Well, we start small.” Narusil cautioned. She looked around and found a couple of small stones.

“The first spell most learn is to make a small item produce light.” She handed me the stone. “Steady light, anchored into a solid object. A simple concept and so a simple spell.”

She handed me one of the stones and held the other one in the palm of her left hand. She wrapped her middle finger around her index finger on her right hand and touched the stone.

“Rakai fa klil.” Narusil quietly stated.

The stone gently began to glow like an lantern in the palm of her hand.

“So there are a few steps to casting any spell but this is one of the easier ones because while some spells can have unfortunate repercussions if cast incorrectly, the light spell is known to fail more gracefully, either creating fluttering light, a flash of light or no light at all.” Narusil began her explanation. “So we don’t have to take serious precautions for the spell recoiling or miscasting.”

I was leaning forward with interest as my matron explained the way this magic worked.

“The physical actions associated with the spell are also simple and static.” Narusil continued.

“So first, you must fix the image of light into your mind. Think of the brightest source of light you can recall. We can work on adjusting the amount of light your spell will produce, but for now you should recall the brightest light you’ve seen, be it a bonfire, or another source of light.” Narusil guided.

I remembered some of the military arrays of lights I’d seen, those should work.

“Now, hold that image in your mind and interlock your fingers thus.” Narusil demonstrated, again wrapping her middle finger around her index finger. “You must imagine the light you see in your mind running down your second finger, and your will running down your target finger. The two must mix in your perception at the end of your fingers as they make contact with your vessel, in this case the stone.”

I wrapped my middle finger around my index and it took me a second to get that mental image working. I hoped I was doing it right. My brain struggled to vividly think about the image of those bright LED lights, and conceptualize the image of the light and conceptualize my will and image both of those concepts flowing through my fingers, mingling at the end, without losing any part of those concepts.

“Now touch your target finger to the stone and utter the words, ‘Rakai fa te klil’. They mean ‘Light fill this vessel’. And as you speak those words, let your mind fill the stone with the idea of your combined light and will from your fingers.” Narusil prodded.

Damn. It was a lot to think about.

I channeled the thoughts, closing my eyes in concentration, trying to keep all those lines of thought steady, and I spoke the words while touching the stone.

“Rakai fa te klil.” I uttered.

It was as if the sun hit my eyelids and several of the elves cried out as if in pain.

I tried to open my eyes but it was as if I was staring directly into those light arrays. My eyes stung with the light. I clapped my casting hand over the stone.

“By Talnir!” Tavorwen breathed, rubbing her eyes. “Such light!”

All the elves were unsurprisingly trying to salvage their eyesight after being blinded by the result of my spell, as light still spilled through the cracks between my fingers and the crease between my hands.

“That was… unexpected… to say the least.” Narusil groaned, rubbing her blinking eyes as she tried to recover her sight. “Most first spells are little… less potent… Gods. I am going to be seeing spots for days….”

“Is that a bad thing?” I murmured.

“No!” Narusil asserted, “No! It is a good thing! It is a sign of aptitude. We just… we need to put that somewhere it won’t be blinding us or drawing unwanted attention.”

“Here, drop it in my pouch.” Creadean offered.

We all closed our eyes as I plopped the stone into her pouch, then saw that that was not enough. Light poured out of the opening of the pouch. But once the pouch containing the stone was placed in a second pouch, and that second pouch was placed into a third pouch, the light could no longer be seen.

Now that that was taken care of, I felt the drain of the spell, simple as it was. It was as if I had just done some physical fitness training, but for my brain. It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle, but it was definitely tiring.

“Ah, there it is.” Narusil smiled. “I was worried you would completely ignore the energy required to cast spells. That would truly put you far, far above almost every mage we know of. But I can see you feel it.”

“It’s a bit of a drain, isn’t it?” I admitted.

“Yes. You get used to it, and it gets to the point that simpler spells like that hardly bother you. The more powerful spells will drain you more, and that is why we have broken spells into tiers. I should have brought more material to show you, but here.” Narusil took the tome hanging from a leather strap at her belt and opened the clasp. “Can you read this?”

The runes, glyphs, and diagrams were all foreign to me and the magic that normally made the written language swim until it came out in English seemed unable to touch this language.

“No.” I admitted.

“I’m not sure if that is a gift or a curse.” Narusil replied. “Being able to freely read the languages of magic would be incredible, but on the other hand, we’ve touched on the imprecision of the translations.”

I shrugged.

“I… I admit, I had thought it would take you much longer to successfully cast a light spell. I believed that it would take you most of the trip to accomplish that so I didn’t bring anything to protect against the next couple of spells recoiling. But we can-” She cut off suddenly, her ears perking up.