Eli and Lilly moved together through the forest, their bare feet padding against the soft soil. Eli still hadn’t quite adjusted to the feeling of not wearing shoes, but Lilly had insisted that he shouldn’t – claiming that it was important for him to be able to feel the forest floor to help practice his new powers. He brushed aside a particularly large bush and emerged into a clearing with her, his eyes tracing the curve of the lithe dryad’s ass as she moved in front of him.

That’s not the only thing I’m still adjusting to. He thought to himself as he shook his head, mentally reliving the events of the past year. Being with more than one woman at the same time is something that I’m still trying to fully wrap my head around – not sure how I’m going to explain that to Mom and Dad once I get back to Earth. Not to mention the whole ‘magic’ thing.

As if she could hear his thoughts, she turned and winked at him before turning her eyes forward to scan the forest. Even if he couldn’t hear or see them, he knew there was half a dozen other dryads and wood elves doing the same around them, determinedly hunting an unseen foe. Based on the way they’d been stopping more and more frequently, Eli could only guess that they were steadily getting closer.

Earlier that day he’d accompanied Aria, Naz, and Zee to a realm covered with forests, intent on meeting with the small village of mostly wood elves and dryads to negotiate a new trade deal. The fact that this realm was so sparsely populated made it a fertile ground for valuable potion ingredients which could only be grown in the deep wilderness – something that Aria had intended to secure a supply of for her home world of Eyilean.

When they’d arrived, the village was in disarray. The previous night they’d been attacked by skeletal remains of forest creatures which had been reanimated through some unknown, dark magic. They’d managed to fend them off at the expense of many lives, but were fearful of future attacks and were desperately trying to reinforce their village.

Immediately, it was like a switch had flipped in their minds. Using her years of military experience, Zee began instructing them on where to place watch towers, walls, and barricades to maximize their effectiveness. Naz interrogated some of the elves who had fought back the skeletons, using her vast experience as a warrior to identify potential weak spots. With the local leadership killed in the battle, Aria quickly assumed command and began giving orders before reopening the portal back to Eyilean to call for additional supplies and troops.

Eli and Lilly didn’t have to look far to figure out how they could contribute. A small group of wood elves and dryads were gearing up to delve deep into the forest and figure out the source of the skeletons, as well as find the elves who had run off into the forest during the chaos of the attack. When they offered to help them the group initially had accepted Lilly’s help but declined Eli’s, citing the fact that he was neither wood elf nor dryad and therefore would slow them down in their natural habitat. He savored the look in their eyes as he transformed into his newly acquired form, the result of his bonding with Lilly.

When he shifted, his skin turned green and his clothes disappeared, replaced with strategically placed vines and leaves. Drawing a small amount of mana from the enchanted mana battery-ring he wore, he called upon his life magic and commanded the vines around him to form a crude approximation of a chair, which he sat on while he grinned.

They quickly agreed to both their help, despite Eli’s insistence that his new form be called a “Dude-rad” as opposed to a ‘dactyl’ – the more traditional name for a male dryad. They’d set out after that, following the footsteps and broken branches which had been left behind by the army of undead animals.

Before bonding with Lilly, Eli was never a big fan of hiking. Sure, he’d go for the occasional run through the park and enjoy the scenery, but the idea of walking deep into untamed wilderness wasn’t really one that appealed to him. As he stopped next to Lilly and closed his eyes for a moment, he let the sounds and smells of the forest wash over him and realized he enjoyed it. He could feel the forest around him thrumming with life like a heartbeat, and it made him feel alive.

“Good, isn’t it?” Lilly said in Elvish, breaking him out of his trance.

“Yeah.” He replied in Elvish, opening his eyes and running one hand along her back affectionately before pulling her into an embrace. “How come you never told me being in the forest felt like this?"

“Could you explain it to someone who hadn’t felt it before?” She countered.

“No.” He replied, seeing her point.

“Then you know exactly why.” She said, grinning and kissing him softly.

He returned the kiss for a moment before they were interrupted by a blue bird landing nearby and chirping loudly at them. It watched them inquisitively, displaying none of the usual fear associated with such a small creature. Lilly smiled at it and held out her hand, waiting patiently for a moment before it hopped onto her finger.

“Wow.” Eli said, shaking his head. “I’ll never get used to that.”

“She recognizes you as a fellow creature of the forest.” She said, referring to the bird before turning to him. “Now, this is a perfect opportunity to practice what Talaedra and I have been trying to teach you. I want you to speak to her.”

Taking a deep breath, he held out the palm of his hand for a moment before the small bird hopped in. Closing his eyes, he focused and spoke the words of power as he visualized his intent.
“Alara morinamin.” He said softly.

A light golden glow surrounded his hand for a moment, then dissipated. Eli concentrated hard on his goal – finding the source of the skeletons in the forest. In return, a series of unrelated images flooded his mind – broken branches, another bird, bugs in the ground. Frustrated, he redoubled his efforts, only to be rewarded with more unrelated images.

“You’re doing it again.” Lilly said softly, her arm wrapping around his waist. “You can’t command her to tell you. Imagine she’s a friend, and you’re asking her a question.”

Unbidden, the image of Freya popped into his mind. In her avian phoenix form, she looked a good deal like the little blue bird in his palm – albeit much larger. A pang of longing hit him, but he refused to let it consume him. I hope she’s doing okay. He thought to himself as he shook his head, willing away the intrusive thoughts from his mind.

He tried again, mentally envisioning the destruction he’d seen back at the wood elven camp, followed by the path they’d taken to this point, tracking the undead animals footsteps in the soft soil. For his renewed efforts, he was rewarded with useful information – the sight of a reanimated bear ambling out of a cave in the darkness of the previous night. The cave looked like a natural formation in the side of a valley wall, and was surrounded by several other similar caves.

He opened his eyes and watched as the bird hopped happily in his hand and flew away. Turning back to Lilly, he grinned. “I saw something!”

She smiled like a teacher who just watched the proverbial lightbulb go off in a student’s mind. “What did you see?”

“I saw an undead bear coming out of a cave. It was surrounded by a bunch of other caves, in the side of a valley wall.”

She nodded. “I suspected that’s where we were going, given where the tracks were leading us. I know it’s hard to make out from the canopy of the trees, but we are actually in a valley right now. There’s a cliff face a few miles from here, in that direction.” She said, pointing.

“Woah. How did you know that?” He asked.

“I asked a hawk when you weren’t looking.” She responded with a casual shrug.

“Really?”

She giggled in response before hitting him playfully. “No doofus, I looked at the map before we left the village. Besides, if I’d used my magic you definitely would have noticed. Thanks to us bonding, whenever I use my magic my entire body glows gold instead of the regular green. It’s practically a giant flashing neon light!”

Another one of the side effects of bonding. He thought to himself as he cracked up with laughter and shook his head. “Come on now, you weren’t complaining when you started being able to learn new spells faster, or cast more powerfully.”

Her smile turned genuine, and she leaned and kissed him again. “No, I wasn’t.” She said happily after she broke the kiss. “I love being your woman Eli, and you’ll never catch me truly complaining about the gifts you’ve given me.”

“Good, because I plan on giving you a lot more gifts in the future, if you catch my drift.” He said with a wink. “Now, let’s get going and track down this…well, whatever it is.”

Lilly led the way as they started walking again, travelling in the direction of the caves. As they walked, they spoke about their plans for the next few days – agreeing to go hiking in a forest in Eyilean together while Aria performed her royal courtly duties. Afterwards, the 3 of them would soak in the hot tub, followed by long nights of lovemaking. To Eli, it sounded like heaven.

“Don’t forget, you also promised Talaedra that you’d keep up your magic lessons.” Lilly reminded him as they spied a group of deer grazing in the distance. “You’re getting pretty good at using your vines offensively, and your healing powers are coming along nicely. You’re a quick study.”

Suddenly, the group of deer froze. Their heads swivelled as they looked around furtively before bolting. Eli watched them run for a moment before looking at Lilly, noticing she’d crouched down. Her eyes darted side to side, as if they were searching for danger.

An overwhelming feeling of wrongness washed over him. Where the forest only seconds before had felt alive and vibrant, it now felt deathly and sick. The sounds of birdsong and rustling leaves stopped, and it seemed like the entire forest held its breath. The sound of a breaking twig behind him caused them both to twirl on their heels, readying themselves for battle.

In front of them there were the forms of 4 gigantic skeletal wolves. Each of them was easily the size of a horse, standing about 5 feet tall and 8 feet long. Each skeleton looked to be missing several bones, but to both of their dismay still possessed both sharp claws and fangs – more than enough to do serious damage.

“Dire wolves.” Lilly hissed quietly.

The lead wolf leapt towards Eli, snapping its claws as it sailed through the air. In a practiced motion Eli juked to the side while he drew the orcish war hammer slung across his back. The wolf missed him and began to rotate midair to face him. The moment it landed he swung his hammer, hitting it and shattering its ribs with a sickening crack.

The wolf didn’t flinch or slow. Instead, it leapt forward again – this time joined by a second attack from one of the other wolves. Mentally cursing, he remembered Naz mentioning that the only way to make sure an animated skeleton stayed down was to sever the head from the body, or to crush the body entirely.

“Mellonamin coimasen!” Lilly cried from behind him.

Vines surged from the ground around them, wrapping around the two wolves which were attacking Eli. He lurched towards the closest one while it struggled against its bonds, raising his hammer above his head before swinging it down in an almighty overhand chop. The hammer cracked through the wolf’s skull like it was made of glass, sending bone shards in every direction. Whatever magic held the skeleton together dissipated, and the remainder of its bones fell to the forest floor.

Lilly cried out behind him, and Eli whirled just in time to see her dodge a lethal-looking bite from one of the two wolves attacking her. The momentary distraction was enough for her to release her hold over the second wolf which had attacked Eli, and he saw it advancing towards him out of the corner of his eye.

“Fuck this noise.” Eli grunted, shaking his head.

Drawing more mana from his battery-ring, he called upon the spatial magic which was now second-nature to him. Pointing at the skeleton of the wolf stalking him, he cried out. “Snámh Objet! Ventilabis Retro!”

A golden glow briefly enveloped Eli’s hand before disappearing as the wolf was lifted into the air before being thrown like a ragdoll towards the other wolves. It crashed into one of them bodily, their ribcages intermingling and getting stuck together as they fell to the ground in a tumble of bones. He took several loping steps towards them and leapt into the air, swinging his hammer through the head of the nearest one and causing it to collapse. He heard Lilly cry out again, followed by a series of popping and cracking noises as vines emerged from the ground once more to wrap around the necks of the 2 remaining wolves, squeezing and pulling until their heads were cleanly separated from their bodies.

There was a brief silence after the bones of the wolves fell to the ground. They both panted slightly from the exertion of the fight, but they were grinning. The golden glow around Lilly’s hands quickly faded, and she locked eyes with him. The feeling of wrongness which had pervaded the scene quickly faded, giving way to the strong heartbeat of the forest once again.

“See what I mean? Glowing like a neon sign.” She said finally.

He shook his head. “Are you hurt?”

“No.” She replied. “You?”

“No. That was some show of power back there by the way.”

“Life magic is more powerful here, where life is prevalent. Which is part of why the presence of undeath here felt so wrong. I know you felt the warning that the forest gave us.”

He nodded, kneeling next to the skeleton to examine it. “So, this is a dire wolf?”

“What’s left of one, yes. In life they are magnificent creatures – strong, loyal, and intelligent. To kill one is looked down upon by most elves.”

“So whatever is raising these things from the dead has a lot to answer for.” Eli said.

“While true, I don’t think whatever killed this one in particular is the same thing that is raising them from the dead.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Look closely at the bones – they’ve been picked clean. See the small ridges along them?” She said, pointing towards a rib bone. “Those are tooth marks. These wolves have been dead a long time, their corpses picked clean by the other animals of the forest. Whatever raised them is a scavenger who happened upon the body by chance.”

Looking closer, he saw what she was pointing at. “How did you know to look for that?”

She shrugged in reply. “It’s the way of nature – the living consume the dead.”

Running his finger along the head of the skeleton, he noticed a mark which looked anything but natural. “What’s this?” He asked.

“It’s the enchantment which powers the reanimation spell. It works similarly to the enchantment on your ring – the pattern is marked on the item and infused with the casters mana. It’s just that in this case the item in question is a skeleton.”

“I had no idea that was possible.” Eli said, shaking his head.

“Death magic is not something commonly practiced.” She replied.

He examined the skeleton of a second body, noting a lack of tooth marks. The bone was whiter and seemed studier than the others as well. There were still bits of flesh and fur hanging off it in places. “This one looks a lot fresher.”

She knelt next to him, running one finger along a rib of the skeleton before nodding. “Yes. This is a more recent kill. One that hasn’t been picked clean.”

“So we’re hunting something that’s both a predator and a scavenger.” He said.

“Yes.” She responded grimly. “Our prey is smart. I think they’re raising long-dead bodies, then using them to attack and kill the living – creating more bodies for them to raise.”

A chill ran through Eli’s spine as he considered the implications. With enough time, their foe could amass a sizeable army of dead creatures – one large enough to roll over any opposition while continuously replenishing their numbers with new corpses. “What kind of spellcaster raises the dead?” He muttered quietly, as much to Lilly as to himself. “And why would they come here of all places?”

“I don’t know.” Lilly replied. “And that’s what scares me about this. We should get going though, if we’re going to reach the caves by nightfall.”

“Right.” Eli said, standing. “Let’s get going.”

The two of them continued to walk towards the caves, albeit more hesitantly now. While they would likely sense the approach of any more undead monsters before they attacked, the dire wolves had clearly left them on edge. The quickly-setting sun left long shadows which seemed to dance around them, and not for the first time Eli wished that he’d learned some sort of vision spell to see in the dark.

Or a fire spell to light the way. He mentally amended. Being able to throw fireballs at my enemies wouldn’t hurt either.

A battle cry pierced the sounds of the forest, vaguely in the same direction as one of the other hunting parties. With a quick glance at each other, Eli nodded and they took off running in the direction of the sound, crashing through the forest as quickly as they could.