The elves settled in the camp, and meantime, Raven and Jaal held a meeting in the officers' tent. There were still many aspects to polish and many questions to answer.

"I'm not going to say something as empty as; from now on, you and we will work together for a better future. I will spare myself any meaningless talk and speak the truth, I need the skills of the elves as farmers."

That kind of brutal honesty took Jaal by surprise, but it was a pleasant surprise for him.

In a situation like the present, the simplest thing would be to try to create harmony between the two parties by pointing out common objectives or making empty promises.

On the contrary, Raven had chosen to be totally clear about what he wanted from the elves, giving Jaal the opportunity to raise his concerns and even ask for some concessions.

"Will we be slaves?"

"No... you will be citizens."

"Citizens?"

"I plan to build a city in this place."

"Building a city does not seem to be a difficult task for you, Raven-sama, the complicated part will be..."

"Kobolds, Orcs, Elves and Humans living in the same place? Under normal conditions this would undoubtedly be very problematic, but for us the only thing that matters is usefulness."

In a union forced by some precarious situation, it would be impossible to avoid friction between races, however, since the dominant and most powerful race did not discriminate by appearance or origin, the situation was different.

Who would try to start a fight in the middle of a dragon's nest?

"In that case, can I ask you to let us take over the administration of this new city? In this way my people will not feel like slaves, and it will also help them not to feel so intimidated in front of the orcs."

Raven could not help but show a faint smile to Jaal's request, it was evident that the old elf had a very broad vision of the facts.

The kobolds had no interest beyond sculpting rocks and worshiping their gods, pleasing them was simple.

The orcs were warriors, all they wished to do was fight, so to some extent it was easy to please them.

As for the elves, they are extremely proud and Raven had no idea how to try to please them beyond offering them security.

"Will you be the one to assume the role of mayor?" -Raven did not hesitate to accept the opportunity Jaal was offering to give the elves a sense of freedom. Freedom is always a better incentive for work than the fear.

"I'm too old to take that kind of responsibility. In addition, since this is an important step in changing my people, it is best to leave it in the hands of the youth. The best option is Erabel, young people admire her and old people trust her."

Raven nodded in response. Given Jaal's cunning, there was no reason to question him about his choice.

Finishing these and some other minor details, Raven finally turned the conversation toward obtaining information.

Jaal spoke about the golden elves, the grey elves and the dark elves, as well as about the great forest and black forest.

"Why did humans come to this continent?" -When Jaal's story arrived at the emergence of the Elven Kingdom of Grandeza, Raven raised one of his greatest doubts.

What had led humans to a continent dominated by orcs, lizard men, giants and dragons?

“Water.”

“Water?”

"Yes, I don't know the exact details, but I do know that at some time, on the continent from which humans originally came, fresh water became a much more valuable good than gold."

According to what Jaal had heard centuries ago, on that other continent fresh water became scarce, reaching a point where only two sources of fresh water remained, a mighty river and a large lake from which that river was born.

Inevitably a great war broke out between humans over for those two unique freshwater sources, in the end, two powerful empires rise up as a result of that war, each controlling one of these freshwater sources.

As for the humans who were defeated, they were forced to leave the continent to flee the terrible death represented by the lack of water.

That is how humans came to this continent and settled mainly on the banks of the many rivers and lakes that abounded throughout the north of the continent.

No doubt it was a rather strange event, but this continent had its own mysteries.

Strangely, the waters of all the rivers and lakes of this continent come from the same place.

Humans call this place 'Cradle of Waters', elves call it 'The Ancestral Land', and many of the other races refer to this place simply as 'Dragons Valley'.

Having lived through a bitter conflict for fresh water, it is not surprising that, when humans learned of a place that could well be described as 'sacred', they tried to conquer it. The result of these multiple attempts gave this valley another infamous name, 'The Heroes Graveyard', because of the seven great heroes of the past, more than half of them died trying to take this sacred place from the dragons.

As for the elves, legends say that the golden elves built a great temple there, and that it was precisely they who filled that valley with dragons and powerful defensive spells.

The valley is surrounded by high mountains that are guarded fierce by dragons, and a thick fog covers the place most of the time. Therefore it is said that no man, living or dead, has ever seen the place which blesses the whole continent with its waters.

Although it was intriguing, from what Jaal said, there were only legends and myths about this place, no one today dared even try to approach, it was impossible for Raven to get more information about it.

"To the north are a many islands ruled by wealthy merchants. As I understand it, these islands control the entire trade between this continent and the continent from which humans come."

Jaal continued to offer information about this world to Raven. It was much more information than Raven had obtained from the village elder of Rita.

VRID

I finally have a new pc? No, this chapter is so short, that I have handled it from my smartphone.