Path of Dragons 18 - Chapter 31 - Departure (Patreon)

To most outsiders, Callux probably looked very much like any other orc.  He possessed the same heavy brow, the jutting tusks, and the massively muscular figure.  Did it matter that he was only seven or eight years old? 

Not when it came to orcs.

They reached physical maturity far more quickly than humans, which meant that for his species, Callux was probably closer to a teenager than anything else.  Like many teenagers, however, he was far from emotional maturity.  In that aspect, he was little different than a human child of his actual age.

Keeping it all straight was an exercise in discontinuity.

The people of the grove – especially Nara and the other teachers – had gone to great lengths to make him feel welcome, though.  Even the other children had come to accept him, mostly because they liked to take advantage of his enormous size and strength.  Usually, that involved getting into trouble, like venturing into some of the island’s caves that had been deemed off-limits.

They weren’t particularly dangerous in and of themselves, but there was always the possibility that a child could get stuck or lost.  So, they’d been blocked off, usually with giant boulders.  For Callux, moving those was no great feat.

That made him very popular with some of his more adventurous classmates.

Of course, his time in the Hartwood Grove had not been without hardship.  Some of the nastier children had bullied him.  Not physically, but verbally.  They’d always been punished, but the acts had happened nonetheless.

Elijah hoped they hadn’t left his son with scars.

Bullying was a part of childhood, though.  Elijah recognized that it was going to happen no matter what steps adults took to curtail it.  The real lesson lay in teaching Callux how to deal with the emotional fallout, and in healthy ways.

Elijah had never been very good at that himself, so he was grateful that Nara and the others had developed strategies to address the realities of putting a bunch of children together. 

Still, Callux seemed incredibly well-adjusted, especially given his upbringing.  He was happy, a little shy, and very cognizant of how his powerful body interacted the world.  That had created a degree of hesitation before acting, like he knew he had to think things through properly before doing anything.

That was commendable.

But it also highlighted Elijah’s own faults, which tended toward the other direction.  A part of him was glad that Callux hadn’t followed in his footsteps, but he had to admit that a sliver of disappointment remained in his mind.  Like all fathers, he wanted his son to be just like him.

Not a clone.  Never that.  But something.

Elijah wasn’t entirely certain what he really wanted.  But what he did know was that he was content to see Callux happy.

Hopefully, that would continue.

The young orc hitched his pack higher onto his back, stoic resolve mingling with the slightest hint of a smile.  When Elijah had asked his son to come back to Orveth Kaal with him, the child had reacted predictably – with extreme enthusiasm.  He’d also thrown a thousand questions at Elijah, most of which centered on Fungee. 

Elijah had answered them all, at least to the best of his ability, which had only served to further excite his son.  However, when Elijah explained the seriousness of their mission, Callux had adopted his current demeanor, which vacillated between extreme anticipation and determination.

“We should make sure they put a pizza place in the new Vengeance,” Elijah said to himself.

After seeing Lucy, he’d made a point to spend the past few days with Callux, showing him a few of Earth’s great cities.  That had struck the young orc with wonder, largely because he’d never seen a city other than Agmar or Ironshore.  With the latter, he visited infrequently, due to the demands of his education and concerns about how the people of Ironshore might react to his presence.

After all, there were still quite a few people who remembered the orc invasion from Ironshore’s earliest days.  Back then, Elijah had saved the day, but only barely.  Many had lost friends and family during that battle.

No one would do anything to Callux so long as Elijah was around, though.

So, they’d gone on a whirlwind tour that included Seattle, Paris, and New York.  During the last stop, they’d visited a handful of pizza restaurants that all claimed to produce the best pies.  As far as Callux was concerned, they all deserved to make that claim.

Elijah struggled to disagree, especially when his son could devour multiple large pizzas by himself.

The reaction to the orc was mixed.  Paris accepted him more readily, but that was probably because the city was home to quite a few non-humans.  New York was the next most welcoming, and for similar reasons.  The guilds were multi-racial to a fault, and though none of them counted an orc among their members – obviously – there were a few hill goblins and ogres.  That was close enough for most people.

Sadly, Seattle was the least accepting.

Everywhere they went, eyes followed them.  And Elijah knew that if he wasn’t there, Callux stood good chance of being attacked.  It wasn’t until he remembered that war elves traced their lineage back to orcs that Elijah realized the reason.

Fortunately, that didn’t matter to Callux.  He was blissfully unaware of their judgement, and he spent the entire trip in a state of wonder. 

Elijah was happy it was over, though.  Now that he’d taken that short vacation, he was ready to get back to work.  This time, he would take Callux with him.  Partly because Orveth Kaal was the orc’s home, but also because Elijah suspected that just being present would positively affect Callux’s Legacy. 

Elijah also knew that Ok’tarik would want to see him, and he wasn’t going to deprive Callux of that relationship with his father or his heritage.

For his part, Elijah was also excited, mostly because he just wasn’t built for long periods of inactivity.  Perhaps he could have endured it as a tree, but the reality was that politics – especially those on Earth – tended to bore him.  Aside from that brief bit of excitement with Vinnie – and he struggled to consider in those terms – Elijah had mostly ignored the goings-on in Seattle.

The trip with Callux was better.

But in the back of his mind, he was always thinking of what would come next. 

And all that possibility was represented in the gate looming before him.  It stood in the center of the grove, just at the base of the ancestral tree.  The interior of that gate, grown out of twisting roots, vines, and interspersed leaves, shimmered with green light.  Still, it was outshone by the tree behind it. 

Elijah found that reassuring.

He turned around and saw that hundreds of men and women had gathered.  Carmen was among them.  So was Miguel.  Even Hope had chosen to come.  Most of the crowd originated from either Ironshore or the Hartwood Grove, though there were a few from Seattle, Paris, New York, and a couple of other places scattered across the world.

It was the first wave of settlers meant to colonize Orveth Kaal.

Elijah hated that word, but he couldn’t even begin to deny its appropriateness.  Certainly, he insisted that they extract the planet’s resources in a sustainable, responsible manner, but it was colonization all the same.  He needed to come to terms with that reality.

But if they stepped out of line?

There would be hell to pay.

Orveth Kaal was his.  Not officially, but soon.  And he would protect it just as he protected his grove.

Elijah glanced at Nerthus, saying, “I wish you would come with me.”

The spryggent stood nearby, as stoic in truth as Callux pretended to be.  Yet, Elijah could feel his friend’s doubts.  Nerthus wanted to come, and it wasn’t difficult to understand why. 

Silvara was basically paradise for a spryggent.  Going there was tantamount to embarking on a pilgrimage.  Adding an apsara to that? 

Nerthus had struggled mightily with his refusal.

“I cannot,” Nerthus said, his voice cracking a little.  “My place is here.”

“You can take a vacation,” Elijah insisted. “The grove will keep growing without you.”

“And yet, I will not abandon it,” he responded.

It was the same thing he’d said when Elijah had initially invited him.  There was no malice there, though Elijah did detect a bit of shame.  Perhaps Nerthus was afflicted by the spryggent equivalent of agoraphobia.  Or maybe it was just a characteristic of his species.  Regardless, Elijah had chosen not to press.  Instead, he’d simply made sure that Nerthus understood that the invitation would remain in place.  The moment he wanted to visit Orveth Kaal and subsequently Silvara, Elijah would help.  Until then, Nerthus was his own spryggent in charge of his own life. 

Elijah’s eyes flicked to some of the others who’d chosen to come to Orveth Kaal, and he was a little surprised by two omissions and a new entrant.  The first part made the most sense.  Neither Gunnar nor Palikina were there.

From what Elijah had learned, the two had set off together.  He had no idea where they’d gone, but everything suggested they remained on Earth.  Based on how much Gunnar seemed to care for the dragon, he should have guessed something like that would happen.  It still had taken him by surprise.

After all, Palikina could do better.

Either way, he hoped she found happiness, even if it was with someone like Gunnar.  Elijah didn’t hate the man or anything. In fact, he trusted him more than most.  Yet, Palikina was special.  She deserved more.

And if the sniper mistreated Elijah’s friend…

He shifted his thoughts to a happier subject.  Chiefly, that Oscar and his expanded pack had chosen to come to Orveth Kaal.  There were nearly twenty dogs now, seven crows, and even what looked like an oversized wolverine. 

There were some familiar faces in there, though.  Surprisingly, all the old members were still alive, including Escobar.  That shouldn’t have been possible, given their ages.  But it seemed that beasts – or whatever weird hybrid they’d become when they joined Oscar’s pack – were just as long-lived as leveled humans.

And it seemed that Callux very much loved Oscar’s pack.  They loved him right back, and from what Elijah had been told, he was the only person other than Oscar or Nara that the wolverine – named Boogie – would tolerate. 

Callux referred to the ornery animal as his teacher, and if the young orc wasn’t with his peers, he was with the wolverine.  Usually picking fights with bigger animals.

No wonder Callux liked him.  Wolverines were the orcs of the animal kingdom.

Unfortunately, Nara wasn’t coming along.  She was a teacher and the de facto leader of the Hartwood Grove.  So long as Elijah wasn’t there, she took it upon herself to fill the void left by his absence.

She clutched Oscar’s hand, her knuckles whitening. 

It wasn’t as if he never left.  Oscar was still a wild man at heart, and he often set out into the wilderness for months at a time.  He’d gone into many Primal Realms, and he’d visited planets offworld. 

Yet, Nara seemed to think this was different.

Or maybe she was always that nervous.

Either way, Elijah wasn’t about to step in between a husband and wife.  So, he’d already decided to stay out of it. 

“Alright,” he said, turning to face everyone. “You all have your assignments and departure times.  First few are with me.  After that, you’ll cycle through according to your group.  Everyone good?”

They all nodded.

Because of course they did.  Elijah hadn’t had much to do with the organization, except to say that he would be the first one through.  He believed Orveth Kaal to be mostly safe, but there was always a chance that he was mistaken. If that was the case, he intended to be the one to confront the danger.

With that established, he turned, grabbed, Callux’s hand, and stepped through.

The travel time went by much as it always did, which was to say that it was boring.  However, about two-thirds of the way there, Elijah felt something he didn’t expect.  A slight ripple passed through him as he plunged through the void toward Orveth Kaal.  It passed quickly, and on the other side of that feeling, the atmosphere – if it could even be called that – had shifted subtly.

He didn’t know what that meant.  In fact, he probably wouldn’t have even noticed it had he not had so much experience with the void.  But it was definitely something.

Wondering what exactly was going on occupied his mind until he and Callux stepped into the center of the dolmen.  There awaited the Poet, floating a literal cloud of sparkling diamond dust.

He’d cleaned up quite a lot.  His beard was well-trimmed and silky smooth, his hair was tied back into a neat tail, and his scales glittered even more prominently than the diamond dust. 

He had even donned a new robe of patterned blue silk trimmed in lustrous white that reminded Elijah of the moon.

“Ah, my tool has returned,” he said, his voice clear and magnanimous.  “Have you come to do the task I set for you?”

Elijah shrugged. “I came to take what’s mine.”

The Poet smiled broadly, revealing a mouth full of perfect teeth.  “Good.  Pride will be quite necessary if you are to succeed.”