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I am not a short-eared Elf! : Chapter 2
🕑 Added 2024-11-25 03:42:41 +0000 UTC"….So, mind telling me your name?"
The man in front of me simply glared at me and held the unconscious girl closer. He said something but I failed to understand him, just like I did for the last few hours. But it was progress nonetheless as my IAS had more material to work with and provided me with translation.
For the past three hours or so, my only goal has been to make this man speak as much as he was willing to let my IAS work out his language and allow me to communicate with him. Because I really need to find out who they were.
By now, I have already given up hope of getting home. Looking up at the sky and find three moons and what looked like a Gas giant will do that to a person.
But given the way that this Planet? Moon? Disk world? Had an atmospheric composition that was compatible with human life, there might be someplace for me to set up a temporary residence and get my thoughts together. Panicking and losing my shit will not do me any good until I find a secure place to gather intelligence and establish a basic friend or foe response based on the local flora, fauna, and civilization.
Since it was already close to midnight according to my IAS, I should try to get some food for these two. Thanks to the electroactive polymer enhancements to my heart and lungs and many other mechanically active body parts, my stamina is already considered superhuman even without my exo-suit. Combine that with the many neural enhancements made to my brain and nervous system, my optimal time spent sleeping is only 2 hours per 24 hours, a significant advantage compared to the 8 hours per 24 hours that an ordinary human is supposed to take.
This advantage means that I can spend a significantly longer time active compared to a regular soldier, a welcome change while still in my world, and just as advantageous in this unknown world.
I started taking out the meat from the massive leaves of the trees that I used to store them after processing the mutant bear.
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Alaric Frostwind glared at the stranger as the man continued to place the meat that was clearly from some kind of a bear species. If he were to guess, based on the faint fire-type spiritual energy he was sensing, it was most likely a Rage Ursa. A rare and powerful type of spirit beast.
The former royal guard captain hugged his unconscious charge close to himself while spreading his senses out, searching for any traps or any other Elves waiting to ambush them from behind as this stranger distracted them with offers of food and company.
After what happened, he was not foolish enough to trust anyone anymore, especially a deformed elf such as this man.
He kept his eye on the elf who was far too wide and well built than any elf had ever known as the stranger continued his efforts of cooking a meal. The strange clothes of the deformed elf and his size were already disconcerting things for the 300-year-old veteran, but what was distracting him even more and causing him to be so scared and cautious of the man was the lack of spirit energy.
This deformed elf had absolutely no spiritual energy, the energy that was held by every other elf in existence, even fallen elves, such as the infamous necromancer Lysandra Shadowvale had spiritual energy despite becoming a lich, proof that all the elves were touched by the spirits and that they were still contracted with the Spirit Kings. But not this man.
It was as if he was abandoned by the Spirits entirely, with no potential for spiritual arts. A tragedy for any elf and a possible reason for his deformity. If this hypothesis were true, it would also stand to reason that he was abandoned in this forest by his parents due to a lack of spiritual energy and deformity. It would not be the first time that some of the more traditional families in the capital threw away their offspring for things out of their control despite the fact that it was extremely hard for us Elves to reproduce, unlike our foes. It would also explain his ignorance when it came to speaking the Spirit Tongue.
But that did not explain the strange clothing or the strange language he spoke. A made-up language perhaps?
A sudden exclamation from the man startled Alaric from his thoughts and caused him to clutch the girl strongly to himself while reaching for his bow, only to realize that his bow was already lost earlier that day when they were fleeing from the enemy assassins.
If it was the Alaric from a few days ago, he would have undoubtedly laughed in scorn at the 'close-mindedness' of the current Alaric and promptly tried to establish a friendly relationship with this unknown elf, trying to understand this stranger. But the events of the past few days had shown him the consequences of blindly trusting people. So he will not make such a mistake again.
Especially since he was no longer responsible for just his life, but the life of Princess Lirelle as well.
He glared at the stranger as he grinned sheepishly at Alaric while pointing to the cooked meat that he placed on a leaf and placed in front of Alaric.
This was going to be a long night for Alaric.
