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outside of the kitchen or bedroom.
Liera stared at the man contemptuously for a few minutes as she decided whether to answer him or not. Deciding she had to cause it was a part of Olver’s plan to keep his goliath in check. So she started to tell him all about the power of Lich’s, dumbing it down for the muscle bound idiot.
“The form he used is called a Lich. Lich’s are dead necromancers their powers have increased because they are dead now as well and they find it easier to get other undead to do their bidding. They are feared more then any other spell caster among the few who know of them for the bloodlust which both they and the armies they can call up are filled with. They are sent at a target and usually attack wildly until they wear down his or her defense and rip the target to pieces .”
“Normally the armies they call up are quite large and they can roll over entire towns the size of Denos in minutes if working unchecked. You lasted several hours against an army no self respecting Lich would call up normally. It was too small. If they had been free to attack you as they can you would not have lasted minutes. Even with your obvious skill Olver could have just kept increasing the numbers until you were overwhelmed or unable to block all the attacks flying at you.”
Starting to walk away from him, she turned back around and told him briefly. “I almost forgot to tell you. The mage he killed? Attacked Olver not the other way around. Olver just barely survived. He killed him in self defense with a Globe of Light.”
With that Liera walked into the woods to collect firewood making several trips until she was sure she had collected enough to last the night and part of the morning. She built up the fire quietly and sat next to it roasting a twig as she waited for sleep to come to her. Ashton sat at the edge of the clearing back against a tree as he stared up at the moon turning what she had told him over and over in his mind.
The next day Olver was up early cooking breakfast for the group, the other two awoke to the smell of cooking meat. Grinning at their hungry expressions Olver waved them over and handed them each a portion. “I wasn’t sure if either of you were going to wake up before it got all burned.” He said laughing.
They both watched as Olver lost himself in thought across the campfire from them not coming back to them until they were both finished eating.
“Well, how are we traveling? Am I trying to change everybody into something that can run fast or are we taking horses or walking or something?”
“Can you turn us into stuff and then turn us back?” Liera asked.
“That I don’t know but if I can’t turn you back I know someone that can. The only way to know if I can is to try it out.”
“What can you turn us into?”
“I don’t know I was thinking birds of prey of some kind or wolves,they seem to travel fast and we are in something of a hurry I would guess.”
“Can we try to see if you can and then if not we can ask my father for horses?”
“Sure.” He said getting up and walking over to stand between them. Closing his eyes he started to concentrate. Reaching out to the two mentally and physically he attempted to change their forms like he changed his own.
Liera let out a piercing scream and Sir Ashton shifted uncomfortably as their bones started burning. Olver startled from his concentration by the scream stared at the girl who was sitting there blushing. “I’m sorry.” He said miserably.
“I guess you cant change us, we must be too stuck in our forms.”
“Let me try one other way and then we can give it up if it doesn’t work.”
“Alright but it better not hurt this time.” she said with a pained grin.
Olver ignored her as he reached out once more and instead of treating their morphs as he would treat his own he grabbed their essences and forced their bodies to accept the change instead of just letting it change since their skeletons were not made to shift around like his.
He heard the cries of two startled hawks as he opened his eyes and grinned. It had worked! Letting out a great whoop Olver let his form change to a great snowy owl. Shall we go? he asked throwing himself into the air thinking about the difference between the two changes so he wouldn’t forget it as the other two followed him into the air Liera taking the lead as she lead them to the north. It did not hurt you two that time?
Not me Liera said it felt a little weird and I was dizzy for a moment then I was a hawk! Flying is such fun! She exclaimed doing a few loops in front of them.
Olver flew on quietly thinking about this. His form almost begged to change into something it was harder sometimes not to constantly blur from form to form but hold one, especially if that one happened to be the one he was born to. As he understood it human beings were half chaos and half order. Keeping a perfect balance they would not change except with age. Unless the change was forced on their order halves it would try to keep itself as it was causing them deep pain if anyone tried to change it. Unless you did it quickly by overwhelming their order with the power of chaos. That is what made Shape Changers unique an over abundance of chaos and the ability to use their chaos to force change in beings with order in their make up.
After flying in silence through the day they spiraled down into a clearing they could see had a stream in it from the sky. Landing gently as if he was born to flight he watched as the other two crashed into the forest floor, hard enough to make him wince in sympathy he hadn’t thought about landing either they had taken to flight as if born to it he hadn’t considered it might be hard for both of them to stop on the ground. He sat down with the grace of a wolf as he let go of all three forms. As soon as he released his hold on the other two they popped back to human as if they, or the order maybe?, couldn’t get back quick enough.
“Are you two ok? You hit pretty hard. Maybe you should try stopping on a branch first like normal birds do?”
“I am fine.” Liera said still sprawled on the ground where she had crashed. “flight was wonderful, landing… not so much.”
“Like I said try a branch next time its bound to be easier to grip.” Olver said laughing as he got up and walked over to Sir Ashton who hadn’t spoken since they had left the ground. “You ok in there, knight?” he asked looking down at the man, he couldn’t see his face because his visor had fallen down over his eyes.
Looking up at him from where he was sprawled, Sir Ashton pushed his visor out of the way so Olver could see his expression, which was a curious mixture of wonderment and something almost like regret.
“I am very happy you won yesterday and decided not to kill me I would have done almost anything to lose if I had known today I would be flying through the skies.”
“Well Goddess bless I think the boy enjoyed falling…. Or at least he hit his head something fierce.” Olver teased as he grinned down at the knight he knew now would never betray him as long as he lived.
“I vote for hitting his head!” Liera exclaimed in a mock-serious tone. I wonder if we hit it again if his wits would come back.”
“Well I could take him back up again and you could watch how he hit the ground if you want pointers.” Olver teased.
“No!” Liera exclaimed. “not unless you take me too!”
While Ashton almost screamed “Yes!”
Laughing out loud Olver said, “In the morning children I'm sure you need sleep as much as I do after that day of flying.”
Looking disappointed the two picked themselves up off the ground and went to set up camp while Olver sat down on a tree stump and stared up at the full moon wondering what Liza was doing he had been too busy keeping Liera and Sir Ashton as hawks to check in on her their order kept trying to reassert itself and since he didn’t want to make them permanent hawks he couldn’t just shed it to make it easier on himself. While he thought he could change them back if he did he wasn’t sure exactly what the result would be and he didn’t want to risk it.
As the other two went about the task of setting up camp and collecting firewood, Olver checked up on his sister. As soon as he turned his attention to the bond he could feel her frustration, annoyance and growing desire to kill the next person that bothered her.
Worst of all, she thought, Mrs. Kochen was charging some of the richer ones for the use of her time. her gift should be shared for free she felt and if she had wanted to charge to tell people stuff when they asked she would have liked to have gotten something for her time but because she was owned it wasn’t her time even if she was doing chores. Mrs. Kochen claimed she wasn’t charging for the use of Liza’s gift but for her time taken away from chores, she wasn’t getting any as Kochen insisted she could scrub pots and such while she talked, and for refreshments and such the people used while within her house.
When Olver looked through her eyes he saw Mrs. Kochen standing next to her he retreated from her hearing quickly when he touched it and heard the woman screaming in his sister’s ear. “How could you possibly think you had the right to do that?!?!”
“It is my gift I am not going to use it to help some demented Prince win a war I can see he doesn’t have a chance unless I help him and I refuse to.”
“And what the hell makes you think you have an opinion in the matter girl?! You will do as you are told or I will have you beaten to within an inch of your life.” The woman barked at her.
“Is that so?” Olver asked coldly from behind her. “what makes you think I would allow that?” back in the clearing Olver’s two companions looked at each other in shock as his body crumpled to the ground with no warning and started to rush towards him to see if he was ok. Getting there first Liera threw herself down next to him and put her ear to his chest trying to hear his heartbeat.
The knight looked confused but trusted that she knew more about this kind of magic then him. Throwing her the blanket he stood there and waited for her to explain what she was talking about. “We will need to keep watch. He can not defend himself in this state. At least he can’t here.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
She drew her bow from the sheath on her back and stuck several arrows into the ground while she explained the basics of spirit travel… and the dangers.
Looking at her brother Liza saw the question in his eyes and shook her head she could not afford to have her owner murdered when she was the only one home. He looked disappointed but at least he didn’t do something drastic.
Pointing a finger at the nearby table Olver turned it into Mrs. Kochen making the woman scream as she realized this wasn’t the usual run of shade. Cowering in the corner she watched as Olver turned the table- Mrs. Kochen into a deer and turning the salt shaker into a hunter made it shoot the table. With that he let go of both forms and the salt shaker fell to the ground catching Liza’s eye as she bent down to pick it up. Hearing a scream she stood up quickly and looked over at her owner. Following her gaze she saw the arrow was still imbedded into the table. She started laughing as she realized suddenly what her brother had done.
Smiling murderously he waved at his sister and disappeared from the room. Liza looked over at Mrs. Kochen and rolled her eyes the woman had not moved and still stared in horror at the very real arrow still sticking out of the table. Reaching out and pulling the arrow from the table after a couple of tugs as it was imbedded very deep she snapped the thing in half and threw it in the waste heap.
Olver opened his eyes after leaving his sister into a full on war in the clearing between his two guardians and some armed people he didn’t recognize. Jumping up he saw both of his guardians were still alive but both were severely hurt. Liera was doing her best to stay out of the main area of battle and shoot arrows into the mix but every time she had let off an arrow someone fell and their leader had noticed this sending a squad of men to keep her from shooting anymore. Sir Ashton was in the thick of things swinging his sword with what looked like no skill at all but Olver noticed several of the enemy were down dead or wounded from both arrows and sword.
Seeing him stand the people that had ignored his existence before assuming he was sick or something of the kind suddenly realized he was unarmed target easy prey and about half the men split off from the pack running towards him. Changing to an eagle owl Olver jumped into the air and flew up as high as he could.
Down on the ground the enemy leader had noticed his flight and was shouting at his two defenders, “Why don’t you give up you’ll never win there are too many of us and the one you were protecting has just run ---.” The man never finished his sentence for out of the sky fell golden arrows falling like hail as Olver dropped them on the men below him aiming them with his mind and running off to get more.
Groaning as their leader died a few of the men with bows at the back of the battle ran back a little and started loosing volleys of arrows into the suddenly empty sky. When they saw the eagle was gone they yelled in triumph and raced back into the battle swinging their swords with renewed vigor as they rushed forward to take out the last two people.
Liera and Ashton looked around in despair hoping against hope to see Olver flying overhead. They despaired as he didn’t appear for several minutes. From out of the forest came the most musical wolf howl heard on the face of Vyleria since the beginning of time several people in the battle stopped moving listening as the sound went on and on and was soon joined by the voices of more regular wolves. Suddenly a Golden Wolf rushed into the clearing soon followed by an army of normal grey wolves each of the wolves targeted a man even the Golden one who had one to himself and attacked soon there was not an enemy standing in the clearing several wounded were groaning on the ground and the regular wolves were howling for their blood but the one they followed wouldn’t allow them to take the lives of anyone that couldn’t defend himself. The Golden one looked at the two remaining humans standing in the clearing staring in obvious fear at the grey wolves running, sitting or laying around the clearing and grinned changing back to his human form Olver stood there laughing at the expressions on the humans faces for a second then wandered over to the bodies of some of the wolves who had gone down to the steel swords of the men his laugh suddenly gone as he gave them their last release.
“Why does one shed water over the fates of pack brother who have no reason to feel pain any longer?” one of the younger wolves asked confused by his new pack brothers
