As they traveled, Demmie decided that perhaps he should get more information about his world. Sure he had lived her for three years but he never had the need to know everything about everyone here. He grabbed a small book that he had together with a pencil as he looked up at Zoala. “I’m listening.”

  “For starters, let me explain on why we’re going to the free valley. The free valley is the entry point to most of the Gruges. The valley itself is barren and is a big open pit, spanning multiple kilometers. We come from the east, our forest going to the edge of the valley. To our south is the Human Gruge. They can’t reach the valley without going through our forest.”

  “The Human Gruge on the other hand as access to the sea and therefor is in direct contact to the Mer Gurge, the ones that live in the water. Seeing as they’re half fish, you won’t see them here during this war.”

  “To the west of the humans are mountains in which a part of the Dwarven Gruge lives. They call themselves Southern Mountaineers. They cut off the humans from the Artifact Gruge. We and the Artifact Gruge both have open access to the Free Valley.”

  “The Skeleton Gurge and the Zombie Gruge both need to access the valley through narrow passages. That brings us to the mountains to the west of the Artifact Gruge as they cut of the artificers and the skeletons. Those mountains are also inhabited by dwarves but they call themselves Trifoly Mountaineers.”

  “The other mountains that form the other wall of the passage that the skeletons use is inhabited by the Northern Mountaineers. This mountains immediately also form a passage for the zombies but further to the north. The other maintains making this possible isn’t inhabited by anyone but some wild wind spirits. They aren’t a gruge and act more like animals.”

  “The land of the zombies is big and go around the inhabitable mountains ending up to our north but their land doesn’t touch us. Between us two is another gruge called the Stalter Gruge. They are… A special species and I’m very certain that they will not help us during the war.”

  “Then… to our east we have Halto Lake and the Trifa Gruge. Lastly the furthest east you can go on our continent, connecting Trifa Gurge with the Human Gurge is the Arachnid Gruge. Even we don’t know a lot about them. So don’t count on them joining our cause either.”

  Demmie had a difficulty keeping up with all this information. There were many gruges and lands to take into consideration. What he noticed for now was that the two countries most likely to be invaded were the Forest Gruge and the Artifact Gruge, the last one already having been taken over. “Wasn’t there a Mage Gruge as well?”

  “Yes but just like the arachnids and the stalters, we will not be seeing them.”

  “Okay then, from the countries that will take part in the war, what are their abilities.”

  “Well, in terms of the Forest Gruge, you already know our generals. You have me, able to talk to animals and to create these magical runestones. You have Wout, the best archer in the world and able to refill every quiver he touches instantly. And there’s Barta the minotaur.”

  Demmie nodded slowly as he stopped her from going to the other gruges. “But what about the satyrs? They have magical abilities as well right?”

  “Yes but we have very limited abilities. We can control plants to a certain degree when playing with our fluit but that’s about it. Where we are going, there aren’t a lot of plants. As I said, the Free Valley is barren and nothing grows there so controlling plants will be a limited practice.”

  “Okay… continue.”

  “The human Gruge has a similar thing to our minotaur. One of their generals is bigger than normal and stronger. It is said to be that his strength matches our minotaurs strength. They also have a human able to fly and lastly the best swordfighter in the world. Humans don’t have any magic on themselves but can still use my runestones or other external magic methods.”

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “The Artifact Gruge is more straight forwards. One person can turn into an iron fire breathing bull, another into an ice spewing iron bear and lastly an energy blasting metal lion. They can change for however long they want.”

  “The Dwarven Gruge has less combat focused abilities. A dwarf is able to put magic into weapons and armor, another has the ability to detect certain minerals underneath the ground and the last one can see perfectly in the dark.”

  That information made Demmie look up at her. “Seriously? Hardly useful in a fight.”

  “Yeah well, those are the facts. Then you have the Skeleton Gruge. One general is always around fourteen meters tall and very strong, another can throw small fireballs and the other one can make infinite throwing knifes.”

  “The Zombie Gruge doesn’t work with generals and instead works with one singular leader. This person can grow in size, as big as the skeleton giant. He can summon a battle hammer able to change sizes and lastly has some kind of telepathic hivemind with his subjects.”

  “Lastly you have the Stalter Gruge. One can summon up to five regular wolves, another able to breathe underwater and the last one can summon illusions to a singular target.”

  “Hmmm… water breathing you say? Sounds a bit useless in this occasion.” Demmie continued to write to make sure he had everything, rereading everything he wrote. “Couple of questions. What is a Trifa?”

  “Do you not have those… in your world? Well, obviously not otherwise you wouldn’t have asked me. Well… Trifa’s are black creatures with only one arms attached to their chest who are able to teleport. They can take up to one other creature with them at all times. Their teleport range is around a kilometer per minute. Water stops them from teleporting.”

  “Wait… how does that work? How can they drink if it completely stops their ability?”

  “I meant that they can only teleport in an open space. If it’s raining then the water is considered as not open space.”

  While they had been talking and ever since they left the original camp, they had traveled for almost an entire day. Every once in a while they stopped to eat but now it was getting dark. Zoala stood up in the cart. “It’s better that we stop right now. It’s getting dark! We’ll set up camp here!”

  Demmie got up as well, standing next to her as he tried to not talk too loud to her. “So… wanna do that thing we talked about?”

  She sighed, looking up at him as she then grabbed a dagger. “Not really but I guess that I don’t really have a choice. How do you want to die?”

  This routine of traveling continued, going all the way towards the edge of the forest going into the valley. Once they arrived at the valley, it seemed to be empty. The sun was setting once more so they couldn’t see much for now. Zoala and a commander came to the edge of the forest, trying to see anything.

  Demmie now around the age of thirty came with them. He wasn’t so focused on the skeletons that might be hiding somewhere and instead knelt down. It was as if there was an invisible forcefield dividing the forest from the valley as the grass and bushes just stop at a certain point.

  Zoala turned to her commander, tapping her finger on her thigh. “It’s logical that they’re not here yet. I would say to let a couple of guys as scouts to make sure we don’t get ambushed. Set up the camp and send someone to go tell Berk that we arrived and that it’s empty for now.”

  The commander nodded, turning around to relay the commands to the others, leaving Zoala with Demmie. She turned to him as she then sat down, keeping an eye on the pass through which the skeletons were supposed to go through. “So… I was told that you offered your military expertise to Berk. Have you yourself ever been in a war or have you only witnessed it?”

  “Well… I remember fighting in two wars, both of which were very different. Thing is that later I just didn’t care for it. I just come back after dying so… I didn’t really see the point you know?”

  “Wouldn’t it have been better then to not kill you and let you fight in the war? Lehtern said he found you as a child so if you get too young then you can’t fight either.”

  He would nod as he got up again, turning to look at the people working on the camp. “Hence why I went down to thirty and not to something like twenty. Ten lives I spared out. Not only that, it’ll take multiple days before the others arrive, meaning every day that the skeletons don’t arrive is another time I can come back.”

  “I guess that you’re right. Anyway, I’m going to go out in the forest on my own to try and find some animals. Perhaps I can persuade them into joining the war.”

  “I thought that you talked to them, not control them.”

  “Correct, hence why I said persuade.”