Path of Dragons 18 - Chapter 33 - Coming Together (Patreon)

“And then I remembered the move Father showed me, and I won!” Callux finished his story of training in Agmar.  As much as Elijah enjoyed his son’s tale of victory, he was admittedly a little more interested in how orc society had changed. 

They were still just as brutal and warlike as ever, but Ok’tarik had instituted quite a few alterations in how they raised their children.  No longer were they tossed aside to fend for themselves.  Instead, they were enrolled in a training program meant to teach every single one of them how to fight.

It wasn’t quite as impactful as keeping the children with their mothers, but it was a lot better than the roving bands of orcish children roaming the giant city. 

Of course, Callux had established himself as one of the best among his generation, largely because of his advantage in strength.  But the work he’d put in with Miguel and the other trainers had made a difference as well.

The end result was that he could compete with orcs twice his age.

However, physical capability was where the similarities ended.  According to Ok’tarik, who oversaw his son’s training, the other orcs were far more aggressive.  Meanwhile, Callux had adopted a more measured approach toward combat. 

Was that because of his upbringing, which deviated from orcish norms?  Or was it a characteristic of his unique existence, having been touched by the World Tree?  He looked like an orc, and at times, he acted like one.  However, he was still very much a different sort of creature.

Seeing his development was fascinating.

Yet, Elijah couldn’t help but worry for his son’s future.  As a unique being, loneliness was a distinct possibility.  He had been accepted in the Hartwood Grove, but would that always be the case?  Would everyone else treat him according to his actions instead of his ancestry?

Elijah had no idea, and that troubled him.

Thankfully, Callux had a good support system.  Not only did he have two fathers – Elijah and Ok’tarik – but he also had a horde of unrelated aunts and uncles who’d adopted him as their pet project. 

The people from Hartwood Grove doted on him, showering him with sweets and gifts and anything else that could elicit a tusked smile. 

Elijah did not disapprove.

As far as he was concerned, children deserved that kind of treatment.  Adulthood was tough enough without forcing kids into that same mindset.  So long as Callux behaved himself, Elijah was fine with him being spoiled by his extended “family.”

Especially in his absence, which had grown too frequent over the past year.

So far, he’d managed to seed twelve satellite colonies with a splinter of the World Tree, and the results far exceeded anything Elijah could have imagined.  Already, the ambient energy in the atmosphere had almost doubled.  More, though, it felt closer to the grove’s ideal than ever before – a result of Elijah’s influence.

It wasn’t quite an extension of his domain, but he believed it wouldn’t be long before he managed to connect them to both his grove and the World Tree.  What the result of that connection would be, Elijah couldn’t be sure.  But he hoped that it would be good.

In any case, he didn’t respond to Callux’s description of the fight.  Not because he didn’t want to, but because, as a tree, he was incapable of communication.  Instead, he just rustled his leaves a bit, and Callux went on to describe the other events that characterized the last couple of months he’d spent in Agmar.

Elijah paid as much attention as he could, but the bulk of his focus remained on the task.  He could have spent less of his concentration on growing the surrounding enchantment, but he refused to shortchange a single colony.  That was how one ended up with less than optimal results.

Still, because the process had become something akin to rote repetition, Elijah struggled to maintain the necessary focus.  That was where his mind cultivation came in.  Not only did it give him the tools necessary to protect himself from mental intrusion and organize his thoughts to work on multiple things at once, but it also gave him the uncanny ability to maintain focus.

Being a tree helped with that.

Even as he worked, Callux lay on one of his branches, perfectly balanced and eating something that resembled an apple.  When he finished his recitation of events, he just lay there, content and happy.

For his part, Elijah felt a good deal of that same happiness, which made his job that much easier. 

So, with his son resting in his branches, Elijah continued to work.  Eventually, Callux climbed down and returned to the latest temporary camp.  After so much work using Soul of the Wild as a guide, the breadth of its effect had grown quite significantly.  It had reached the point that he could feel the entire landmass, which was more than three miles across and twice as deep. 

Unfortunately, he couldn’t focus on everything at once.  Instead, he used a technique similar to the one that he employed with his locus.  The island was much larger than the current landmass, and he could feel it much more completely.  So, it functioned as great training for his situation.

As he’d worked on one colony after another, Elijah had become a lot more proficient at building the enchantments, and to the point where he’d even iterated on the original design.  Part of him wanted to go back and adjust the oldest versions, but he forced himself to keep moving forward rather than look back at past mistakes.

That resolution allowed him to make significant progress.

In only a couple more years, he would be finished.

And then, he could begin phase two.  Thankfully, all the time gave him plenty of opportunities to plan for the upcoming task.  It was much further from his area of expertise, so he’d even taken to having one Ethereal Physicist or Engineer after another come to teach him.

He knew they felt silly instructing a tree, but he kept it going because he needed all the information he could get.  The basic idea was workable, but Elijah lacked the foundation to put it into practice.

For now.

He would never become a master of ethereal engineering, but he could become proficient enough to get his plan off the ground.  After all, he didn’t need it to work indefinitely.  Just long enough to get the planet out of the abyss.

Or the void.

The distinction remained somewhat blurry for him, largely because it felt like it existed in two places at once.  Which was kind of true, according to the Physicist.  It was also sort of not true, which made the whole idea meaningless to Elijah. 

Regardless, he’d established what he needed to do.  Now, he was just tinkering with the means of doing it.

While building enormous enchantments out of fungi and rock.

And listening to his son recite the events of his day.

Also, worrying about all his friends and family, about Imal and her ongoing chrysalis.  About Earth and Treebie and how all the changes were going to affect Fungee.

In short, Elijah had a lot on his mind.  Thankfully, his cultivation helped him deal with it.  It wasn’t a cure-all, though.  It didn’t magically banish his anxiety.  Instead, it just gave him the means by which he could process all of those frustrations and emotions.

Without it, he would’ve gone insane.

Or worse, loaded up another few leaves with all his trauma, only to reexperience it all at a later date.  The new system was much more efficient, even if it took a little more effort in the moment.

Thus, Elijah occupied himself until, at last, the latest colony formed three connections.  The strongest bond went to Fungee, and it did so almost eagerly.  As if it was rebuilding a lost bridge.  The second was to the distant World Tree, which was faint enough that no one but an experienced Druid could feel it.  And the third was to Earth, barely tickling Elijah’s grove. 

The last one was the most difficult to sense, even for Elijah.  The first few times he’d used Dictate of the World Tree, he’d not even noticed it.  But now?  With all the experience he’d gained over the past year, it was obvious.

Once he’d established those firm connections, Elijah let Shape of Trees slip away.  Doing so still left him with a mild sense of vertigo, but he’d gotten a lot better at the shifting perspective that came with the abandonment of life as a tree.

Thankfully, Callux was in camp and not in his branches.  Once, Elijah had forgotten his son was up there and shifted back into his human form.  That ended with a huge orcish child landing on top of him.

It didn’t hurt, but it certainly was awkward.  Especially because it startled Callux, who’d been dozing up there.  He spent a few moments tearing up before he realized that his panic wasn’t necessary.

Elijah shook himself, then headed toward the exit of the latest chamber.  The camp was only a few hundred yards away, and Elijah covered that ground fairly quickly.  It wasn’t long before he found his way to his tent, where he discovered that Callux was sound asleep. 

“How long has he been out?” Elijah asked one of the guards assigned to keeping the young orc out of trouble.

“Couple of hours.”

Elijah nodded, thanked the man for doing his job, then headed off to the edge of camp where someone had built some shower stalls.  What followed was a long, satisfying shower beneath Blessing of the Grove. 

He’d been in his tree form for close to a month, which meant that he was covered in dust, dirt, and all manner of other particles he didn’t want to think about.  Such was the danger of living as a tree, where animals, bugs, and everything else liked to live. 

By the time he’d finished, he felt better than he’d felt in weeks.  After wrapping a towel around his waist, he stepped out of the shower to find a familiar chihuahua waiting for him.

“What’s up, Escobar?”

The little dog barked, sending tiny puffs of smoke drifting up from his nostrils. 

“Did you grow horns?”

Escobar danced around in a circle, then leaped into the air.  He planted his feet on nothing, scorching the atmosphere, and stood at head-height to Elijah.  That gave him a perfect view of a pair of tiny horns jutting from his forehead just above his brow.

He barked again.

“Nice,” Elijah said, reaching out to pet the dog.  Despite being far more intelligent than any canine had a right to be, Escobar was still a dog.  And he loved getting scratched behind the ears.  “Been a long time since we hung out, huh?”

“Too long,” said Oscar, who squatted nearby.  He’d positioned himself in one of the shadows, making him more difficult to see.  Elijah had sensed him, but he didn’t want to point that out.

The Pack Leader – or whatever his class was now called – had reached the peak of the demigod realm, but like Elijah, he hesitated to advance.  Unlike Elijah, it wasn’t because he wanted to ensure he’d gotten everything out of the demigod realm, but rather, a desire to advance alongside the rest of his pack. 

At present, only the original members of the pack were ready, which was why Oscar had come along into Orveth Kaal.

“How are things?” Elijah asked, still petting the excited chihuahua.  Escobar leaped into his arms and started licking his face.  His tongue was scalding hot, but Elijah didn’t mind.  “You making any progress?”

“Some.  The cells are spread out.”

Upon hearing that Oscar was coming, Elijah had given his friend one of the most important tasks – finding the rest of the cells and working with the Explorers to map them appropriately.

Doing so was one of the key parts of Elijah’s plan, which hinged on using the dragons’ infrastructure to enable him to drag Orveth Kaal through the void and closer to Earth.

“You get them all, you think?” Elijah asked.

Oscar stood up and stepped out of the darkness, revealing his full appearance.  He still looked as wild as ever, with a bushy beard and extremely tanned skin.  However, it was obvious that married life had been good to him.  He lacked some of the edge he’d had when Elijah had first met him.

That wasn’t to say that he wasn’t sharp.  He definitely was.  But looking at him felt less like staring down a wild grizzly bear and more like seeing one from afar.  He was still dangerous, but there was a distance between the man he was and the borderline wild animal he’d once been.

“Most.  But I found something I think you should see.”

“Been kind of busy,” Elijah said.

“Take the time you need to see this.  You will be disappointed if you do not.”

Elijah sighed. “Fine.  We’ll set off in the morning.  You think I should bring Callux?”

“No.”

Then, Oscar turned and fled.

Escobar gave a quick bark at his fleeing pack leader, then snuggled into Elijah’s arms and promptly fell asleep.